The Ben Mulroney Show - Ben talks with Russell Peters about where he's at in his life

Episode Date: December 6, 2024

Guest Russell Peters If you enjoyed the podcast, tell a friend! For more of the Ben Mulroney Show, subscribe to the podcast! https://globalnews.ca/national/program/the-ben-mulroney-show Follow Ben on Twitter/X at https://x.com/BenMulroney Enjoy

Hey everybody, it's Ben Mulrooney and welcome to the podcast. I had a chance to sit down with legendary comedian Russell Peters to talk about the state of today's comedy and where he is in his life right now. So good, welcome to the Ben Mulrooney Show. I've got so much to talk to you about because it's been so long and the last time I talked to you we were on TV. First of all, how have you been? I've been good. Busy as hell, but I'm good.

Yeah. Are you back on the the road tell me about the tour it started in Vancouver on November 1st and it's wrapping up in Toronto on December 14th what's it called what can someone expect

this is the relax it's not that serious tour and you can expect to come to the show and just relax This is the Relax. It's not that serious tour. And you can expect to come to the show and just relax. Leave all your hang-ups at the door and laugh. That's what it's all about. It's literally, you know, the last tour, Act Your Age, was a great one. I had a theme with it. You know, I had an act that covered a lot of things that were part of the, that are very good.

And that's out now on Patreon. You can watch that special. It's available only at Patreon right now. But this act, the Relax Tour, is living up to its name, you know? It's just literally like hanging out with a friend who happens to have a microphone and is talking a bunch of crap for over an hour.

And that's what this one is. It feels, Russell, like the name is parallels and mirrors sort of the pendulum of society swinging back from where we took everything so seriously for i think far too long and now we're sort of coming back to a place where yeah there you know what some stuff's just funny. Sometimes you just have to laugh. And sometimes being offended can be funny. Like I'm seeing more and more of that out there is, is that at any, on any level what you're trying to achieve here? Yeah, I mean, if you come to my show and take anything I say too seriously,

you should not leave your house because I'm clearly talking out the side of my neck. No, but, you know, I was watching in this, you know, in this election campaign, especially in the States, it was like the rise of the anti-woke comedian, and the importance of those people in, the importance of those people for some voters and resonating with them, the Andrew Schultz's of the world um the the theo vaughn's of the world like they you know you guys as stand-up comics are you've been you study interpersonal dynamics you study society so that you can you can you can give it back to us through your lens through your interpretation so you know you guys are experts in this sort of thing and it seems like more and more comedians are rising to the challenge of really coming to blows with with the I don't know, the overly serious parts of society. Yeah, I mean, you know, you got politicians who don't have to live up to political correctness anymore.

So why should the rest of us who are not politicians have to live by that code? Yeah, you were never afraid. You were never afraid to. Because it's always been about intent for me if your intention is to hurt somebody's feelings or offend somebody you will do that yeah um but it's never been my intention it's not my job my job is to i'm a comedian i'm the jester i'm here to make you laugh that's all i want to see and i will say whatever outrageous i have to to make you laugh if that's what i got to do. But just a couple of years ago, Russell, that what you're saying there, the counter argument to that from the other side would be, oh, he's punching down. Remember that expression? He's punching down. I don't even know what that

means. But again, it takes intent out of it. It's a boxing metaphor. When you're a bigger guy fighting a small person, you have to punch down, which means it's a lot easier to get more power when you're doing that, you know? No, yes, but what I believe it was, it was designed to handcuff the comedian. Yeah, I mean, they're going to say whatever they want to say to stifle you, you know what I mean? And listen, nine times out of ten nowadays when you're online and you see people make comments or say something negative to you and you click on their page, they have zero posts and very few followers and you realize you're arguing with a robot. It doesn't make any sense. Yeah. Hey, how much of your life and where you are today informs your act?

Oh, a great percent, at least 80% of it. Yeah. Absolutely. or act oh a great percent of at least 80 of it yeah absolutely in what way does it inform it in the content or or the perspective or both a bit of both but mostly the content yeah it does definitely give me perspective though i mean as you know you know i've known you a long time i known you before you had kids you know and you think about who you were then versus who you are now as a father a husband you know you're a completely different person you change and that's not that you wanted to change you have to change if you don't change you're gonna your kids are gonna be um lonely yeah but speaking of lonely how's what's life on the road like when you have a family to go back to um i'll be honest with you i love being on the road yeah yeah it's the only time i get to relax

it's the only time i get to uh sit down and do nothing until showtime when i'm at home a lot is expected from me from a lot of different people you got my wife you got my my daughter my son you got my stepdaughters you got the dogs you got the gardener you got everybody asking you questions and you're just like shut up i want to go on the road so nobody can bother me. When people ask me, like I'm going to New Zealand in March for shows. And I booked my flight. Yes, there was a direct flight from LA to Auckland. But why would I take that?

That's only, you know, 18 hour flight. What I did was I took Emirates. So it's 16 hours to Dubai, 14 hour layover and 16 hours to Auckland. I'm like, that sounds good. Yeah. You know why? Nobody can get me for two days, two and a half days.

When I travel, I do not get the Wi-Fi, even if it's free. I don't want to be connected. Yeah. Absolutely. Unlike you, I'm sitting in the back of the bus.

That's by choice on your part, pal. You're not coming from my family you're not coming from a mom worked at kmart and a dad worked on a chicken plant is there anything today uh on the comedy landscape the topics that you talk about that you can't believe you're talking about right now i mean me just just me talking about being a father is something i can't believe i'm talking about right now. You know, me being a husband for a second time, I can't believe I'm talking about that. You know, the world we're living is I can't believe we're talking about me being on a

54 year old man. Now I can't believe I'm talking about that because, you know, you find pictures and videos of your parents when they were our age and you go, how old were they at that age? Because they were much older than they were. Yeah, yeah. But right now you're in Moncton. Do you care when you say you like being on the road?

Do you care whether you are on the road in Moncton or Auckland, New Zealand or in Dubai? No, it's all good with me. And the laughs translate everywhere. Yeah, the laughs translate. I mean, you're here to do your job. You're not really here to hang out. And that works out well for me because then far less is required from me.

You were one of the first comics with a Netflix special. I've seen you host the first. The first, thank you. The first. Apologies. Blessings and apologies. So you were the first. The first, thank you. Not one of them. I was the first. Apologies. Blessings and apologies. So you were the first to jump into the streaming arena. I've seen you.

You've had sitcoms. You've hosted the Junos. You've jumped into a lot of arenas that a typical stand-up comic wouldn't or couldn't. Now you're on Patreon. What's the next place for a comic to go? Where do you go next? I mean, if I knew that, then I could have jumped ahead

a few spaces, but you've got to go with it as it's coming. Right now it's Patreon and who knows what the next thing is. Maybe in the future I start my own network and I'm on my own network. Who knows what the future holds, but it's up. It's up to you to miss any. Did you miss any opportunities?

I'm sure we've missed lots of opportunities and I'm sure I've screwed up opportunities. You know, when you have a loose lips, you can you can certainly. Yeah, I want to tell the listeners that they don't know that we've known each other a very long time. And one of the first times that we sort of collided professionally, I butchered your name at the launch of the Junos. And it was not my fault. My producer stuck a name in my head that didn't belong there. And of course, I said that name. And ever since then, every single time we see each other for the first time, you'll say my full name.

To remind me that you know my name and I didn't know yours. It is Benedict Martin Paul Malaruni. I don't even know your middle name, Russell. What's your middle name? It's Dominic. Russell Dominic Peters. Russell? Does it have a family connection?

My godmother's husband's name was Dominic. He was Italian. Dominic d'Estasi. I like that. I like that. That's good. What's been the impact thus far on the, how do I say this? Tell me about where we go in Canada. We talked about the American election. What do you think a comedian's role is going to be in the upcoming Canadian election? You know, I don't know what's going on in this country, to be honest with you, because I've been living in the United States for 19 years now, so we don't get any Canadian politics at all. All I see is what I see online and Instagram and whatnot, and all I see is people complaining. And I mean, that doesn't tell you anything, because people

most of the time complain rather than give information. You being from a political family, what do you think is going to happen? Oh, I think the conservatives are going to win the next election. What's true to the liberals? Yeah, I could see his party. I could see his party certainly falling to second place. Some people say even third or maybe fourth place, which has never been done before. I see him sticking around. I see him fighting this out. I see him going down with the carbon tax ship. And I see him allowing somebody else to rebuild his party once he leaves.

I mean, that sounds fair. You would definitely know way better than I would. And which party did your dad run? Oh, it doesn't't exist anymore it was the it was the progressive conservative party oh i remember them pc i remember them yeah it was a pc party and they merged with the canadian alliance to become the new conservative party which pierre polliet is now uh the leader of but if you told me five years ago this is where we'd be as a country if you told me five years ago this is where i would be professionally i would be doing radio and have my own show with my own name on it. I wouldn't have believed you. Where do you think you're going to be in five years? Let's see if I'll be 59 years old. I'll be closer to getting my social security check. Yeah. Who knows where I'll be in five

years? I don't know where I'm going to be in five months. Never mind five years. In five minutes, I still won't know where I'll be. Are any of your kids, did they get the funny gene? Okay, so they're both funny in their own way. My daughter's a watcher. She's very introverted, but she watches and sees everything, and she'll make little comments now and then to me, which are very sharp and very funny my son who's five and a half has totally the entertainment bug he loves to dance

and he's a very good looking child and he loves to dance and perform and make people laugh he says things you know i have this thing that i do i'll let you know inside story about me if i'm we're hanging out it doesn't matter who i'm with i do with my family most of the time because that's when i get ignored the most i'll say something i'll be like oh um i'll say ben hey how's your family and you won't answer you'll you'll have been distracted by something i'm like hey ben how's your family you won't answer and then i'll go they're great thanks for asking my wife really misses you and everything you know i'll do that and i do it all the time with my family i'll ask a question. Nobody will answer me.

And I'll be like, hey, we'll drive with my son. Like, baby, are you having a good time? And he's looking out the window. And I go, daddy, I'm having a great time. You're the best daddy in the whole world. So the other day, I don't think they're paying attention to this stuff. The other day, my son goes to me. I go, baby, we got to go now.

Daddy, can I wear shorts and a T-shirt? And I go, hmm, let me go outside. Go in the backyard. I go, yeah, you can. But we're bringing a sweatshirt just in case it gets cold. And he goes, thanks, Daddy. You're the best daddy in the whole world. And I started laughing.

I was like, I was like literally in tears laughing. And he goes, did I make you laugh? And I go, yeah, you did. Am I funny? Yeah, you are very funny, actually. You're creative enough to be able to take these stories and turn them into i don't know a kid's programming or um a mockumentary series about a stand-up comic and his kids like this your brain would be able to take these stories that you're telling and turn them into content that the world would love i i see myself as the real life iteration of larry david

but so many so many comics look up to you i know hassan minaj says you're the first and the best uh who are you impressed with these days there's a lot of great comics on nowadays like literally a lot like guys just coming with solid solid material. I'm like, wow. You know, some great joke writers. Again, there's also flooded with people that should not be anywhere near a microphone. And they are getting work because it's so easy to become a trending topic nowadays.

Yeah. But there's so many good comics. Jesselman talked about how comedy is supposed to be dangerous like we make a ton of money it's never been more profitable to be a stand up comic and if you aren't flirting with danger if you aren't flirting with the line that could get you in trouble then you're not doing your job

do you subscribe to that? absolutely comedians are like I said to you once before comedians are the last truth tellers on this planet and nobody likes the truth the truth is like poetry and nobody likes poetry I mean, you know, comedians are, like I said to you once before, comedians are the last truth tellers on this planet. And nobody likes the truth. The truth is like poetry and nobody likes poetry. Is the sitcom dead?

Which one? Well, just generally speaking, there's not that many out there. Oh, you mean, oh, in general, is the sitcom dead? I mean, I think, I think it, I wouldn't say it's dead, but it's on life support. Yeah. With the right doctor, it could be revived, but I mean, that's, but the industry is not giving money anymore. And that the reason people do these things is to make money. And they just want it. It's, it's much like everything else.

The prices are going up and, and, and the, and, and your pay is not. Lastly, Russell, I got to ask because I've been to your shows where it's almost like you throw out your entire set and you just do crowd work and you've done that before right i think i saw you throw you didn't do any material you just kept going back between five different people in the front row and just going and playing off of them and so my guess is you have you give yourself license to do that if you think you've got funny stuff in front of you, you're going to do that.

Absolutely. I mean, there's, you know, it's, um, the problem with being a comedian or it's a good problem and a bad problem is that if a funny line presents itself to me, even if it's at the wrong moment, my brain goes, do it, just do it. You know what I mean? Like, like your brain, your brain voice in my head is really dangerous. It says, uh brain goes, do it. Just do it. You know what I mean? I always have that voice in my head. Your brain. I have that voice in my head. It's really dangerous. It says, hey, say that thing. Just say that thing. You know that thing

that you shouldn't say? Say it. Go see what happens. That's my brain all the time. And then you could be in the middle of an argument with your wife and my brain would be like, say this now. And I'm like, do it. And I do it, but I mumble it. What did you say? Nothing. I just had to say it but i mumble it what did you say nothing i just had to say it whether you heard it or not i needed to say it thanks to russell peters for the interview

and thanks to you for listening to the ben mulroney show