a real american hero: how else can i say it, i don't speak no other languages. i recently watched a stand up routine by indian comedian russell peters. i can't find out why his last name is "peters," aside from the possibility of a mixed heritage. deep down, i hope the reason for his misleading surname has to do with taking a stage name so that he could break into the entertainment industry. although with his brand of humor, i doubt that's a choice he would have made. maybe he's adopted, who knows.

anyways, peters is hilarious. i'm apparently late to the russell peters bandwagon but arriving late is better than never arriving at all. peters uses an array of accents, impersonations, and under the breath one-liners to explore the world of asian-americans. what's odd here is that to me, indian is not asian (aside from the convenient political grouping) and peters is not american -- he's actually canadian. but whatever, russell peters can still be the litmus test for how asian-americans are encroaching into popular american culture -- or rather, how we aren't.

we're living, right this moment, in the golden era of asian-american comedians. yes, it's true. look at john cho and kal penn, the colored faces of harold and kumar. crapalicious movie, one giant leap (forward) for asian-kind. then recall the winner of the first "last comic standing," dat phan. and of course, still going strong, the grand old dame of asian-american comedy, margaret cho. let's not forget to throw william hung in this category, since he clearly qualifies as asian and comedy, even if it's slightly unintentional. this is it, we are on the verge of an asian-american comedic breakthrough.

or are we?

if i were an asian-american comedian and most of my material focused on re-creating my parents' accents and relating the cultural differences and struggles of my people in a humorous way, i would be thinking to myself, "is this really going to work? can i ever make it big?"

if you're a comedian of color (brown, yellow, black, red, jewish), you're damned if you do, damned if you don't. you may want to avoid the ethnic jokes but chances are, you will need them to get noticed. this is the way it's been. stand up comedians generally mock themselves. and are ethnic comedians going to pass up the comedic goldmine that is their reflection in the mirror? no way. however, by reaching out into your ethnic bag of tricks for a few laughs, you get pigeon-holed into a niche. asian-american comedian. you've heard one small penis joke, you've heard them all. right?

when will america be ready to take asian-americans seriously as "normal" comedians and not just a nice diversity day? the answer is, probably never. i mean, who are the biggest black comedians -- a(very) successful minority comedian group -- out there today? chris rock and dave chappelle. what do they do? make fun of black people. make fun of black people relating to other people. make fun of black people. but they pull in a huge (white) audience.

in an article i read, chappelle hints that he left for his infamous trip to who knows where because he felt like his expanding fan-base was starting to laugh at him, and not with him. he was bothered by the fact that his work was edging possibly toward exploitative vaudeville instead of raucous social commentary. so dave left to find some answers and to reconcile what his comedy was being perceived as versus what he wanted it to be.

i don't think asian-american comedians can even dream of this existential comedic crisis yet. they're still just trying to make people laugh period, whether that's at them, with them, or against them. just make'em laugh, who cares if you have to ching ching chong your way through the act? just do it, break those color barriers. in the end however, what good is having asian-american comedians if they're perceived as nothing more than a novelty act? is the solution to wait until america itself is more "beige" as russell peters calls it? wait until enough people in the audience can relate by sheer similarity of color and experience?

my other question is: are asian accents funny to other people? i mean, if you have no clue what an indian accent is or what peters is referencing in his act, is that funny? i mean, i have no clue what it's like to be (or to be around) a redneck and i don't find jeff foxworthy to be particularly funny. i assume it's because i can't relate. is this the same thing with ethnic humor? then again, i really have no connection to either the black or jewish worlds and i laugh at their brands of comedy. maybe the solution is that once you have enough asian-americans showing the world why asian-americans are funny, we will actually be funny.

long story short. i laugh and revel in asian-american comedy but i wonder where it can go. where is the audience? are asian-american comedians doomed to tour the country performing only for audiences that are tailor-made to enjoy them? comedy isn't about making your people laugh, it's about making everyone laugh. not an easy feat at all.