Comedian Rajiv Satyal sits down with renowned author/speaker Dr. Deepak Chopra to ask him a series of questions – some [...].

Deepak Chopra

I drove a mile up the street to interview the biggest comedian in the world.  I sat down with Russell Peters at his mansion in our shared town of Studio City, California, to ask him my famous (well, after this) litany of questions in Episode 118 of The TanGent Show.  As with all of mine, I did not edit, so what you’ll hear is a raw, real conversation between two comics and a peek into Russell’s daily life when he’s actually not touring the planet.  Despite the fun interruptions and a bit of an ADD start, the result is a remarkably free-flowing chat that simultaneously showcases Russell’s legendary wit and features his seldom-seen serious side.  Russell initially claims he wants to keep it to 30 minutes but we went for almost two hours (like both of our first times).  We actually continued chatting after the outro so the official podcast is 1 hr 25 min.  (I’ll release the rest, where we reviewed Rolling Stone’s 50 Greatest Hip-Hop Songs of All Time, in the future.)  Russell reveals his love for The Police and rap (ironically made by people who don’t like the police), describes the merits of being punched in the face, resents the recent attention to bullying (which happened for the second straight episode), reveals what motivates him in a year where he’s going to make $20 million, shares what frustrates him about his career, approves of both my bald head as well as the new name of this podcast, and comes full circle in how to beat the bullies (with a tangent about boxing, which involves, appropriately, being punched in the face).  I do let fly with my loud laugh a number of times - but can you blame me?  And despite (because of?) our different humor styles, you’ll be entertained by the continual punch-counterpunch between an established global star and a rising one.  Since he helped launch my career, I’ve always said that without Russell, there’s no Rajiv.  Well, without Rajiv, there’s no 1.5-hr Russell interview.  Enjoy.

Russell Peters

Actor, writer, and Daily Show correspondent Aasif Mandvi took a break from filming his HBO series The Brink to sit a  href=http://rajivsatyal.com/ep-128-aasif-mandvi/[...]/a.

Aasif Mandvi

You know her as Divya from USA’s globally-syndicated hit, Royal Pains. I know her as a girl I tried to a  href=http://rajivsatyal.com/ep37-reshma-shetty-part-iii/[...]/a.

Reshma Shetty Part I/II

You know her as Divya from USA’s globally-syndicated hit, Royal Pains. I know her as a girl I tried to a  href=http://rajivsatyal.com/ep-37-reshma-shetty-part-iii/[...]/a.

Reshma Shetty Part II/II

He’s a better version of me. At least when it comes to standup. Seriously, whenever I see Fahim Anwar crush a  href=http://rajivsatyal.com/ep-28-fahim-anwar-part-iii/[...]/a.

Fahim Anwar Part I/II

He’s a better version of me. At least when it comes to standup. Seriously, whenever I see Fahim Anwar crush a  href=http://rajivsatyal.com/ep-28-fahim-anwar-part-iiii/[...]/a.

Fahim Anwar Part II/II

Before he was an international superstar following his smash hit, Meet The Patels, he was that fun guy you’d see a  href=http://rajivsatyal.com/ep-16-ravi-patel/[...]/a.

Ravi Patel Part I/II

Azhar Usman and I co-created Make Chai Not War, a Hindu-Muslim comedy showcase that has toured the world. In 2012, a  href=http://rajivsatyal.com/ep-47-hari-kondabolu-part-iii/[...]/a.

Hari Kondabolu Part I/II

Azhar Usman and I co-created Make Chai Not War, a Hindu-Muslim comedy showcase that has toured the world. In 2012, a  href=http://rajivsatyal.com/ep-47-hari-kondabolu-part-iiii/[...]/a.

Hari Kondabolu Part II/II

“SHE’S coming over here?!” So spoke my then-roommate Hasan Minhaj, as Janina Gavankar made her way over to appear on a  href=http://rajivsatyal.com/ep-7-janina-gavankar-part-iiii/[...]/a.

Janina Gavankar Part II/II

“SHE’S coming over here?!” So spoke my then-roommate Hasan Minhaj, as Janina Gavankar made her way over to appear on a  href=http://rajivsatyal.com/ep-7-janina-gavankar/[...]/a.

Janina Gavankar Part I/II

Arjun Gupta

Azhar Usman

Rajiv Joseph Part I/II

Rajiv Joseph Part II/II

~”You must now live in the post-world of your having said what you said.”  Think about that for a sec.  An example of various aphorisms dropped by my guest, Comedian Prashanth Venkataramanujam.  The man with a 25-letter name knows more than his fair share of dollar words, which he peppers into our conversation - with as much skill as I drop in puns - as we cover how we met (he and my next podcast guest, Asif Ali, both opened for me in Chicago years ago), how he got started in comedy in the Second City (he and his friends started doing standup in each other’s basements), why he hates Nickelback haters (what have you done with your life?), why Eminem is the greatest rapper ever (so what if you can DJ a party off of purely jay-z tracks?), what it’s like to have a really, really close-knit group of friends back home, and what a miracle truly is.  Enjoy.

Prashanth Venkataramanujam

Charles Fleischer

Eddie Brill, the long-time booker for The Late Show with David Letterman, had me over to his East Village apartment, where I was wowed not only by the plethora of photographs of him with everybody from Barack Obama to Paul McCartney but also by his captivating, on-going commentary on such a wide variety of topics.  Aspiring and established comics alike should take note of this particular episode, as Brill shares what he looked for as he booked Letterman and still searches for as he books the Great American Comedy Festival in Johnny Carson’s hometown.  Eddie provides us with food for thought as he shares his thoughts on food.  We discuss whether comedy is a meritocracy - after we define that word.  And this podcast episode itself closes the loop (after a near-record number of tangents).  How so?  Well, Eddie and I met as I took one of his renowned (and global) comedy workshops.  And here I got to tell him about the comedy workshops we did this year in India as part of our US State Department-sponsored tour.  Brill-iant.  Enjoy.

Rajiv Satyal – Funny Indian Comedian

Rajiv Satyal – Funny Indian Comedian

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