I don't believe it.
Not too many people in the US have heard of Russell Peters, but he actually managed to sell out the 7,100 seat NOKIA Theatre in the new L.A. LIVE complex next to the Staples Center.
Two DJs - Starting from Scratch (who was from Canada) and Revolution (who was from LA) - played while the crowd filtered in. The opening act was Angelo Tsarouchas. He was pretty good, but the made the usual fat-guy jokes given his own enormous girth.
Russell showed up eventually, and did a solid almost-two-hour set. The crowd was diverse, very diverse, and Russell managed to offend not only every ethnic group in attendance, but he also went after people with handicaps and every other group out there in the world. How did I know he was funny? Even Rosanne, as empathetic a soul as there is, laughed out loud (she did well to get us such great seats).
It wasn't quite as razor-sharp as the earlier material I had seen on YouTube, but still good. I was especially impressed by the improvisational bits that come from his interaction with the crowd.
There were a couple of celebrities in attendance. Tony Kanal was there. There was also this other bald, goateed guy that I had seen on Comedy Central. If I remember his name I'll add it, but a girl got mad at her mother because she didn't save the picture taken of the two of them with her cell phone camera (the mother panicked with the security guards started hassling her).
Not bad at all. Let's see if this helps jumpstart Russell's career in the US. And no, a sitcom development deal with FOX is not a step in the right direction.
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