Sugar Sammy, the Montreal comedic talent, is taking his multi-cultural humour to Paris for awhile. Sammy Khullar, the Indian kid, grew up in one of the most ethnically diverse neighbourhoods in Canada, known as Cote des Neiges. He thrived in the schoolyard by mimicking all his pals, from the Haitians, to the Italians and Greeks, to the Jewish and French kids, Sugar Sammy is making a fortune now, making fun of all of us!
“Because it’s Montreal baby.”
At a packed outdoor show last night, as part of the annual Just for Laughs festival, Sugar Sammy brought hundreds into Montreal’s Place des Festivals. He gave the crowd one last version of his bilingual,”You’re Going to Rire Show” that’s all about what makes Montreal, Quebec and Canada, so funny and so wonderful!
Making jokes about the language laws of Quebec, that are so restrictive of English, and pointing out the often trilingual mash-up of languages people actually communicate in, as well as tossing up the stereotypes we’ve come to know, Sugar Sammy had the laughter echoing off the downtown buildings.
“Sugar Sammy Live in Dubai” aired in 14 countries
While he’s toured the province of Quebec from Chicoutimi to Chibougamau, he’s also a bit of a global sensation. He’s appeared on stages around the world with an ability to make people laugh in English, French, Punjabi and Hindi.
In early 2013, Comedy Central India invited him to tour the country with dates in Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore. Among his many TV credits is a one-hour TV special on Showtime Arabia; “Sugar Sammy Live in Dubai”, which aired in 14 countries.
He’s just finished a great run in Montreal doing his at first controversial, bilingual show. “Everyone’s saying — ‘Why a bilingual show?’ Sammy said, “Because it’s Montreal baby.” While many of the old guard said it would never work, the French won’t laugh at the English jokes and the English won’t laugh at the French, Sugar Sammy has had the last laugh:
“You’re Gonna Rire”, the show started in February of 2012, and along with his French one-man show, En Français SVP, he’s performed them 420 times, selling more than 371,000 tickets and grossing a staggering $17.4 million.
He’s a killer combination of handsome and funny, and he’s part of the new Quebec that grew up under Bill 101. The law, enacted by the separatist Parti Quebecois in 1977, obliged immigrant parents to send their children to French school, not English as was so often the case before. In the meantime, the majority of English parents made sure their children were in French immersion programs, and now the city of Montreal exists in a fluid bilingualism, in the only officially French-speaking province in Canada.
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