A little over five years ago, the comedy world flourished with African-American and Latino comedians, but now South Asian comics are at the top of their game, and some gut-busting Canadians have something to do with it.
The newest South Asian funnyman on the rise is Montreal native Sam Khullar, best known as Sugar Sammy. He’s one of the hottest young comedians on the international circuit — having already performed in America, Canada, the U.K., Australia, South Africa, Ireland, Holland, Dubai, Germany, Hong Kong, Thailand, the Philippines, and the Caribbean within the past year. Sugar Sammy has toured across Canada promoting his CD, Down With the Brown, and returns to his hometown for his HBO special.
The big turn in the success of South Asian comedians began with homegrown talent Russell Peters from Brampton, Ont. He strolled into the spotlight when CTV aired his 2003 Comedy Now! stand-up special, and soon, fans were uploading segments of the special onto YouTube and it spread like wildfire, launching Peters into international stardom. In April 2005, Russell was the first South Asian to headline and sell out the Apollo Theatre in New York City. Also, he was the first comic to sell out Toronto’s Air Canada Centre in June 2007 and recently, he crashed online sales outlets, selling one ticket every two seconds for his tour in Dubai. The four-time Gemini-nominated comedian has already signed a deal with Fox to produce his own sitcom based on his immigrant family.
Other notable South Asian-Canadian comedians are Shaun Majumder and Sabrina Jalees. Majumder is a Gemini Award-winning comedian originally from Newfoundland, starred in the short-lived Fox series Unhitched, and more famously, the hit film Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle.
Breaking racial, age and gender barriers, Jalees took the Toronto Yuk Yuk’s stage for the first time at 16 (the youngest stand-up ever added to their professional roster), and later she broke Mike Myers’ record for being the youngest comic hired by Second City. Her comedy has been featured on MuchMusic’s Video On Trial and CBC Newsworld’s The Hour.
Following the success of his fellow South Asian-Canadian comedians, Sammy has quickly become a standout — performing in four languages (English, French, Punjabi and Hindi) all around the world. In his new special, Sammy brings the house down with jokes from all across the multicultural melting pot and his Indian ancestry.
So what are you waiting for? Get down with the brown — everyone else is.
Sugar Sammy: Live in Concert premières Sunday, June 14 at 10 p.m. ET/MT, HBO Canada.
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