Rooting for roaring comedy If life is just a stage, then we are all running around ad-libbing, with absolutely no clue what the plot is. Maybe that’s why we don't know whether it’s a comedy or tragedy — Bill Watterson Jokes apart Russell Peters, one of the world’s finest comedy superstars, is all set to tickle the funny bones of his audience across India as he performs live on his 20th anniversary tour. A home-coming of sorts for this artiste whose mother’s family, going back to his great grandmother, was born in Calcutta, Peters brings Indian enthusiasm into his Canadian upbringing while he performs live on stage and keeps his dedicated audience engrossed with his wry and hang-it-all humour. Peters’ comedy focuses largely on his Canadian upbringing and racial stereotypes, as he often parodies his parents and South Asian culture. Much of his material explores the cultural divides between different ethnicities and upbringings in a way that includes many impressions. He has been nominated for various prestigious honours including four Gemini Awards. He has been featured in such shows as Montreal’s Just for Laughs (Juste Pour Rire) Comedy Festival, the Winnipeg Comedy Festival, and the Edinburgh Festival. In February this year, Peters became one of only a handful of comedians to ever headline and sell-out the world famous Madison Square Garden. This show is produced by DNA Entertainment in association with The Telegraph. Event: Russell Peters’ 20th Anniversary Comedy Tour, Live When: October 23; 8 pm Where: Science City Auditorium

art

Till October 22 at Artists Circle, 46 Circus Avenue, #2283 3176; 2 pm - 7 pm: Inspiration — a show by senior artists. Participants: Adimoolam, Anita Roychowdhury, Bijon Chowdhury, Ganesh Haloi, Gautam Mukherjee, Laxma Goud, Palaniappan, Paritosh Sen, Prakash Karmakar, R.B. Bhaskaran, Sekhar Roy, Shipra Bhattacharya, Subroto Chowdhury, Subrata Gangopadhyay, Suhas Roy and Surya Prakash. Till October 23 at Akar Prakar, P 238 Hindustan Park, #2464 2617; 2 pm - 7 pm: 3 Masters Briefly — an exhibition of the works by Francis Newton Souza, Jagdish Swaminathan and Meera Mukherjee. Till October 25 at Chemould Art Gallery, 12F Park Street, #2229 8641; 2 pm - 7 pm: A group show of the works by Arya Chandra Chowdhury, Mehtab Molla, Rajib Deyashi, Rumka Jana and Durbananda Jana. Till October 26 at Birla Academy of Art & Culture; 4 pm - 8 pm: Autumn Mystique, featuring works by Amlan Dutta, Anita Gurbaxani, Dilip Maity, Montasir Ahamed Mullick, N. Roy, Ramratan Das, Sudipta Karmakar, Taraknath Mukherjee and Vani Chawla. Till October 30 (except Sunday) at Aakriti Art Gallery, 1st floor, Orbit Enclave, 12/3A Hungerford Street, #2289 3027; 12 noon - 7 pm: GenNext III, the annual show of Aakriti Art Gallery featuring an exhibition of paintings, sculptures, prints, textiles, video and photographs by contemporary artists below 40 years of age, including foreign participants from different continents. Till October 31 at Gallery K2, Supra Court, 35 Lansdowne Terrace, #2465 1444; 11 am - 7 pm: Contemporary Art on Display — works by Partho Pratim Deb, Paresh Maity, S. Pranam Singh, Subrata Gangopadhyay, Shilajit Ghosh, Nabendu Roy, Sudipto Karmakar, Saumya Kanti Mukhopadhyay and others. Till October 31 (except Sunday) at Ganges Art Gallery, 33A Jatin Das Road, #2465 3212; 11 am - 7 pm: Art Fair 2008 — a collection of affordable art. Featuring works by Manoj Dutta, Munindra Rajbongshi, Chandana Hore, Parag Adhikari, Anup Giri and Madhuri Jalan. Till November 1 (except Monday) at Bose Pacia, Stephens Court, 18 Park Street, #4001 0148; 11 am - 7 pm: Bose Pacia, Calcutta presents latest works of Rao Kodanda (Baroda) and Basist Kumar (Santiniketan). Till November 10 (except Tuesday) at The Halo Heritage Art Gallery, 26 Ritchie Road, #2419 0133; 2 pm - 8 pm: Durga, the Icon — an exhibition of paintings and sculptures. Painters: Atin Basak, Atanu Bhattacharya, Abeshbivore Mitra, Diptish Ghosh Dastidar, Debnath Biswas, Debasis Barui, Eleena Banik, Gargi Das, Jonaki Pal, Manoj Sen, Manash Saha, Parag Roy, Partha Das Gupta, Prabal Roy, Rajesh Deb, Suhas Roy, Sunil Das, Samir Aich, Subrata Gangopadhyay, Soumitra Kar, Shekherbaran Karmakar, Subrata Sen and Srikanta Paul. Sculptors: Akhil Chandra Das, Bipin Goswami, Bimal Kundu, Gopinath Roy, Nantu Behari Das, Ranajit Kumar Raut, Shyamal Roy, Sandip Chakraborty, Swapan Bala and Uma Siddhanta. Show curated by Debasish Chanda. Till November 10 (except Sunday) at Tejas Gallery, 11 Mayfair Road, #4007 6042; 1 pm - 7.30 pm: Devi-II — Twenty-five artists’ impressions of Goddess Durga. Till November 15 at Masters Collection Art Gallery, G7 Malayalay Apts, 3 Woodburn Park Road, #3058 4060/62; 11 am - 7 pm (weekdays) : Larger Perspective, a show of large format contemporary artworks by Aloke Paul, Anup Giri, Avijit Dutta, Dewashish Das, Dhananjoy Ghosh, Dipak Kundu, Durbanand Jana, Jagannath Paul, Kanchanmala Ghosh, Milendu Mondal, Mithun Dutta, Parag Adhikary, Rnadip Das, Sachin Jaltare, Samir Paul, Samir Sarkar, Shubendu Porel, Subrata Das, Sukanta Das and Swapan Palley. Till November 23 at Gallery Kolkata, 41 Shakespeare Sarani, Duckback House, 2nd floor, #2287 3377; 11 am - 7 pm: An exhibition of creative art furniture, installation and sculptures. Till November 28 at Idiyas Gallery, 15 Dover Road, #6550 8418; 10.30 am - 6.30 pm: The Voices of the Canvas — an exhibition of the works of 20 well-known artists.

DRAMA

October 22 at Madhusudan Mancha; 7 pm: Rangakarmee will stage Rudali. Design & direction: Usha Ganguli. October 24 at Girish Mancha; 6.30 pm: Nandikar presents its latest production, Ajnatobaas. Story: Sukanta Gangopadhyay. Music concept: Swatilekha Sengupta. Music composition: Mayukh-Mainak. Cast: Sohini Sengupta, Sumana Mukherjee, Swatilekha Sengupta, Sumanta Gangopadhyay, Swajan Srijan Mukherjee and Rudraprasad Sengupta. Directorial adviser: Rudraprasad Sengupta. Direction: Sumanta Gangopadhyay. October 25 at Academy of Fine Arts; 3 pm: Rangakarmee will stage Sri Ganesh Mahima. Design & direction: Partho Bandyopadhyay. October 25 at Madhusudan Mancha; 6.30 pm: Sundaram will stage Alokanander Putra-kanya. Drama, direction & acting: Manoj Mitra.

PERFORMING ARTS

Till October 25; 6.30 pm & October 26; 9.30 am & 6.30 pm at Kala Mandir: Indo Occidental Symbiosis and Juhu Cultural Association (Mumbai) present Pujor Adhunik Gaaner Anurodher Asar. Participants (Oct. 22): Manomoy Bhattacharya and Sreeradha Bandyopadhyay. Oct. 23: Indrani Sen and Rupankar. Oct. 24: Anusua Chowdhury and Raghab Chatterjee. Oct. 25: Shubhamita and Srikanto Acharya. Oct. 26, 9.30 am: Haimanti Shukla; at 6.30 pm: Pandit Ajoy Chakraborty. Till October 22 at Bharatiyam, IB 201 Salt Lake; 4.30 pm - 8.30 pm: A cultural festival on Orissa hosted by Government of Orissa and EZCC. Featuring folk and classical dances, theatre, handloom, handicrafts, cuisine and tourist attractions. Details at #2335 6796. October 24 at G.D. Birla Sabhagar; 7 pm: Sangeet Ashram presents a vocal recital by Pandit Kaivalya Kumar Gaurav, with Samar Saha (tabla) and Jyoti Goho (harmonium).

PHOTOGRAPHS

Till October 29 at 46 Satish Mukherjee Road (near Rashbehari crossing); 2 pm - 8 pm: The Seagull Foundation for the Arts and Tasveer present Heresies: A Retrospective of Pedro Meyer, comprising five decades of photographic work of one of the most innovative artists of the world.

VIDEO RELEASE

October 22 at The Floatel, Strand Road; 6.45pm: BIG Music & Video will release home video of Kailashe Kelenkari in the presence of Sandip Ray, Sabyasachi Chakrabarty, Bibhu Bhattacharya and Parambrata Chatterjee.

TALK

October 22 at Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture, Shivananda Hall; 5.30 pm: Sitanath Goswami will speak in Sanskrit on Bhagavad-Gita. October 22 at Ramakrishna Vedanta Math, 19B Raja Rajkrishna Street; 7 pm: Swami Buddhatmananda will speak in Bengali on Bani O Bichar.

FILM SHOW

Till October 27 at Gorky Sadan; 6 pm: Eisenstein Cine Club presents a session of shorts and documentaries of New Themes Driven by Values - Powered by Intellects along with a live performance by the visiting goodwill delegation of students and teachers from Russia State Academy of Theatre, Moscow. Today: Musing Surrounding: Ekti Nakshatra Ashe (dir: Tanmoy Dutta Gupta); Janmadin (dir: Arup Bhattacharya); A Certain Liberation, My Migrant Soul (dir: Yasmine Kabir).

EXHIBITION

Till October 23 at 85 Lansdowne, 85B sarat Bose Road, #2486 2136; 11 am - 7.30 pm: An exhibition of creative designs for the wardrobe and home. Till October 27 at Soumya’s Creation, 57/9 Ballygunge Circular Road; 10.30 am - 7 pm: An exhibition of unstitched salwar kurtas and durries. Till October 30 at Artisana, 13 Chowringhee Terrace; 11 am - 7.30 pm: An exhibition of terracotta lamps and planters, tassar collection (sarees, men’s kurtas, dupattas, and southern weaves) for men and women. Till October 30 at Starmark, Lord Sinha Road and South City Mall; 10.30 am - 8.30pm: Lights — an exhibition of diyas, candles, decorations and gifts for Diwali. Till October 31 (except Sunday & public holidays) at Studio 21, 17L Dover Terrace, #2486 6735; Monday: 3 pm - 7 pm; Tuesday - Saturday: 11am - 7 pm: The New Idyllic — Indigenous art from Madhya Pradesh.All those who wish events to be included in this column should write not less than a week ahead to: Time out, The Telegraph, 6, Prafulla Sarkar Street, Calcutta-700 001; Fax: 2234-8244

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All those who wish events to be included in this column should write not less than a week ahead to:

Time out, The Telegraph, 6, Prafulla Sarkar Street, Calcutta-700 001;
Fax: 2234-8244