Russell Peters: Hong Kong is ‘the perfect storm’ for his kind of comedy

“I love Hong Kong,” says comedian Russell Peters. “The energy of the city is off the hook. The people there have such a huge sense of the world. They’re smart, educated and there are people from all over the world living there. It’s a perfect storm for what I do.”

You can see his point. The wildly popular Canadian funnyman, who has visited our shores several times before and performs in Macau for the first time at Studio City on February 26 as part of his “Almost Famous World Tour”, is famous for humorously highlighting the idiosyncrasies of various cultural groups, making our hyper-diverse community ideal grist to his mill.

Although some critics have been quick to condemn his use of culturally specific quirks as the mainspring of his act, Peters’ largely inoffensive, often affectionate characterisations of particular communities’ behaviour has mostly been well received by the ethnic groups he talks about. Indeed, he attracts perhaps the most diverse audience of any comedian in terms of both age and race, and most seem to particularly enjoy having their own ethnicity lampooned.

SEE ALSO: Our profile from his 2013 visit to Hong Kong

“I think that there’s something universal about what I talk about – family, race, culture, even sex,” says Peters. “I also try to make sure that I have some first-hand knowledge of the place where I’m performing. A lot of what my fans are responding to is the fact that I’ve taken the time to get to know their individual cultures and idiosyncrasies.

“People will complain if I don’t make fun of their community. Sometimes it’s from a really small group, like, ‘I was disappointed that you didn’t talk about eastern Latvians in your act tonight’.”

The danger for a comedian famous for pointing out stereotypes, of course, is that he ends up getting stereotyped himself, as the guy who talks about races and cultures. Like every comedian, people want him to do his greatest hits.

“Sometimes I do feel that way, but when I go too far away from race and culture my fans get upset,” he says. “At the same time, critics have been fairly critical of my focus on race and culture. At the end of the day, I’d rather make my fans happy rather than do-nothing critics.”

Critical approval might sometimes be elusive, but that hasn’t stopped Peters becoming one of the biggest stand-ups on the planet, and the first popular stand-up of Indian extraction anywhere. Forbes magazine has ranked him the third highest-paid stand-up in the world, estimating his earnings as high as US$21 million a year, and he’s performed everywhere from Madison Square Garden to Sydney Opera House, breaking comedy gig attendance records in Canada, the UK and Australia. Smaller shows, though, can still be just as rewarding, he says.