Russell Peters: Almost Famous (2016 TV Special) User Reviews (11)

The same old Russel peters

[karam-22496 · 6/10 · 10 October 2016]

I will make this review short and sweet. Remember the genuine laughs you had when watching a Russel peters special for the first time? You won't have them again. If this will be your first Russel peters special then i confidently say go ahead with it as not many have explored his range/style in comedy. For the rest of you, his material fails to progress as opposed to great comedians (george Carlin, Jerry Seinfeld, bill hicks etc). His focus is mainly STILL race, even though he was able to come out with some new jokes yet they still seem expected or repetitive after a while. The shows' area of strength remains the part were he interacts with live audience, making of fun of them in a light fashioned way highlighting how natural of a comedian he is .

Overall, the show was okay given the same source of material he always used but never worthy of mentioning in the same list of great specials.

So fun!

[taisbaumannv · 8/10 · 13 December 2017]

Russel is known for his accent, and comedy about countries around the world. He showed alot of that in this special, and I was crying of laughter!

Still funny but feels like déjà-vu.

[deloudelouvain · 7/10 · 26 June 2020]

I have to agree with the other reviewers that this feels a bit repetitive. I had high hopes for this show as I like Russell Peters and to be honest I hoped he would try something different, just another subject than the usual different races jokes but he didn't. So it just feels like a déjà-vu. I loved his first show Outsourced from 2006, that was simply his best. The second show I watched from him, Notorious from 2013 was good as well but you already had that feeling his material is kinda the same but it was still good. I don't say Almost Famous didn't get me laughing (those extremely negative scores are ridiculous by the way), but I was just hoping for another approach, just to see if he had it in him. But I still had fun, his interaction with the audience is always good, and so is his improvisation, but like said before it's a bit of a déjà-vu. If you never saw anything from Russell Peters I recommend you watch his first show, that still remains his best.

Disappointing!

[Yafiii · 15 October 2016]

Russel Peters has always used race as his primary choice of material and this time it is no exception. However, he usually focuses on outside (non north America) world to make fun of, specially Indians and over the years, Asian, African, and many other countries and continents. However, this time his focus was more on America and he has fall short. Except for the daughter and sleeping joke, nothing quite stands out and those too seemed very predictable.

The stand up seemed very incoherent and non-cooperative audience members at times didn't help much; although talking to audience members is one of his strongest suits. I expected more out of this routine as it has been 3 years since his last outing. Either he needs to add more to his source material or reignite it somehow. It is still a good stand up but simply not up to his own high standards. To sum it all up in one word: disappointing!

Boring, Repetitive

[captainrachel · 3/10 · 9 June 2017]

I truly enjoyed some of Peters' earlier stand-up shows. He has several jokes that will live on for years to come. But, having said that, this performance left a lot to be desired. I made it about halfway through before I realized I wasn't laughing, just sort of zoning in and out while staring at the TV. It was then that I also realized the audience wasn't really laughing either. There was scattered laughter and chuckles here and there, but I'm thinking, "If I'd paid for a ticket, driven, parked, stood in line and sat in a seat, I'd expect to be rolling on the floor".... NOT just politely chuckling.

The jokes were transparent. I could often guess the punch line. Really, it was a bunch of incoherent stories that set up an opportunity for him to use the accents and impersonations he's know for. I've read other reviews and some people pointed out the "funniest" jokes.... and they weren't all that great. Nowhere near his earlier stuff.

Disappointed! Watch his earlier routines. Don't waste your time.

Almost Funny

[nairspecht-57189 · 5/10 · 11 October 2016]

Working with the race topic wasn't the issue. The issue was his execution of the material and half a**ed stories with attention deficient follow-ups. Two spotlight materials were about a castle bed and differences in sleep..., other ones were not so engaging and strongly structured. He used to convince people even if what he says is laced with absurdity, this time around that isn't reflected and also what happened to his care-free observations and insights from cultural involvement (...maybe the peter joke). Range of topics is also an issue, it is time to evolve but this isn't attempted maybe its the love for laziness or LA might have changed him.

Not almost it was all bad

[shweta-yadav2092 · 1/10 · 28 May 2021]

I wasted my 15 mins. Feel bad for the audience. His jokes were cringeworthy, not funny at all. There was no story at all.

Please do not watch.

Misses the mark

[ModuloN · 1/10 · 3 December 2018]

Peters starts off with insult humor about the audience members. I've always found this type of humor cheap, since in this setting it's clearly punching down. He makes fun of Chinese people for being small or not being able to drive. I don't mind poking fun at racial stereotypes, it's just that these jokes are played out. It's the same stuff kids said during lunch at middle school. Why would I pay to see it during a special?

A lot of the set ups don't really make sense. He tries to suggest a psychiatrist isn't a real doctor by mocking psychologists. Does he not realizing the two professions are completely different? He later declares that surgeons are real doctors, but orthopedists aren't. But the majority of orthopedists are essentially joint surgeons, who tend to perform the most surgeries out of the all the surgical fields, since joints are highly prone to injury relative to other body parts. So the insult falls flat.

Lazy humor with poorly crafted set-ups. Don't bother.

no doubt

[minkelleq · 1/10 · 23 June 2017]

There's no doubt in my mind that absolutely gets genuine laughs. Not laughs at his jokes, but laughs nonetheless. I am disgusted in myself for actually watching this trash, and even more disgusted that this hack has the freaking audacity to make statements about the ratings being sabotaged by the alt-right, and that they're not a reflection of the quality of the show.

Man, you stink. There's no vendetta.

watched his best (or worst) on Netflix

[chrischurch-84989 · 1/10 · 31 December 2017]

The guy has some tired jokes, that draw a laugh, but otherwise he is plain unfunny. He attempts to engage the audience which is very hit and miss, some of it cringeworthy and embarrassing, for Russell himself. Its not like anyone would see this guy twice, i lasted 15 mins watching him and tired of him very quickly ,so im not sure an hour would be possible let alone half an hour It seems he just can't evolve, then again there are 7 billion people out there so he will always get fresh new suckers,ummm i mean audiences

A fair enough comedy show...

[paul_haakonsen · 5/10 · 15 November 2023]

I stumbled upon the 2016 stand-up comedy special "Russell Peters: Almost Famous" by random chance whilst perusing the Netflix catalogue of stand-up comedy shows. And not being familiar with Russell Peters, I opted to give him the benefit of the doubt and see what he had to offer.

Starting out the show with making fun of people in the audience was a strange way to start a show, and sort of set a somewhat awkward atmosphere right from the very beginning. I would assume that you would have more respect for people showing up to watch your comedy act and actually pay money to do so, but then again, who am I to say what is right and wrong?

He is good at immitating stereotypical Indians, which certainly brought a smile to my lips. The material and contents of his show was good, and there were some good and genuine laughs throughout the course of the 73 minutes that the show ran for. Russell Peters is definitely good at setting up the jokes and delivering the punchlines.

All in all, a fair enough stand-up comedy show, but I just don't understand the heckling of the audience part.

My rating of "Russell Peters: Almost Famous" lands on a five out of ten stars.