Russell Peters is an international comedy star who regularly sells out arenas all over the world. He is wrapping up his fourth sold-out, worldwide tour, Almost Famous, which celebrates his 25 years in the business and will bring him to the NYCB Theatre at Westbury for a two-night show on Thursday, Feb. 14 and Friday, Feb. 15 at 8 p.m.
Peters’ stand-up performances feature observational comedy, using humor to highlight racial, ethnic, class and cultural stereotypes. He often refers to his own experiences growing up in an Anglo-Indian family, and impersonates the accents of various ethnic groups to poke fun at them.
Peters is widely known for his punchline, “Somebody gonna get a hurt real bad.” It ends a joke he tells about his childhood with a traditional Indian father, who used corporal punishment on his sons. Another punchline he uses is “Be a man! Do the right thing,” which relates to a story of a Chinese man trying to get him to pay more for an item at a shop.
Peters’ previous tour, Notorious, became the highest attended comedy tour ever in Australia, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Lebanon, South Africa, Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong and his home country of Canada. Among the many venues Peters has sold out are Madison Square Garden, Radio City Music Hall, LA’s Nokia Theatre, the Sydney Opera House and back-to-back nights at London’s famed O-2 Arena.
Peters was the first comic to sell out Canada’s Air Canada center, which he has now done seven times and in November 2012, he became the first stand-up comic to perform at Brooklyn’s Barclays Centre with over 13,000 fans in attendance. As a result, he is a regular on the Forbes List of top ten highest earning comics, ranking as high as number three in 2013. His comedy has generated over 120 million views on YouTube.
Peters has transitioned into both small and big screens, having recently been a judge for NBC’s reboot of “Last Comic Standing,” and lending his voice to the animated feature, “Ribbit,” and to numerous episodes of the iconic animated Fox television show “Family Guy” and “Bob’s Burgers.” He was also awarded a Gemini Award, Canada’s version of the Emmy, for hosting the country’s Juno Awards Show.
Peters’ other notable film roles include the recent Jon Favreau directed indie hit “Chef,” the 2011 sci-fi movie “Source Code,” alongside Jake Gyllenhaal, the Canadian ice hockey hit “Breakaway,” where he also served as executive producer, and the Eva Mendes indie, “Girl in Progress,” alongside Mendes and Patricia Arquette.
Peters has appeared on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno,” “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,” “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” “Lopez Tonight,” “The Late, Late Show with Craig Ferguson,” “The Queen Latifah Show” and “Def Comedy Jam.”
For tickets to the shows, go to www.thetheatreatwestbury.com.
The NYCB Theatre at Westbury is located at 960 Brush Hollow Road in Westbury.
