An Evening in Paris - no Detroit!

For the first time in the nearly-2 years that we have been in this city; we went out for a night event in downtown. Detroit downtown is very notorious for the unsavory crowd that it hosts. There are dark tales out there of numerous shootings, muggings and what not. Till about 6 months ago, the Mr. would not even venture to step into the downtown, even during daytime, even if he was paid a million dollars. Of late, the air that comes from that part seems to be nice. We keep hearing of how "good" things are getting, how friendly the surroundings are being made, how the burnt out buildings are being replaced by something that is close to normal.

It was when my parents came here and we had no choice but to tour them the city we lived in - that we visited the downtown for the 1st time. It was not that bad - but then it was mid afternoon on a warm summer day too. A month or so later, my company arranged for a tour-de-detroit one warm fall evening - it was this tour that gave us a bit more confidence about the sanity of the place.

When the Mr.'s buddy gave news that Russel Peters was going to be in town and the show was in downtown - I guess our fears no longer mattered. We were "introduced" to this stand-up comedian by a friend of ours who played one of Russel's videos for us. We laughed till our sides split and became instant fans of this Canadian born Indian 'racial' comedian. Majority of his comedy is based on the different races in the world. If you are not too touchy, it is wonderful. He makes fun of just almost all the races in the world - particularly Indians.

So, there we were - the first to arrive at 7 PM - in Music Hall for the "live" comedy show. Till about 7:50, there was hardly any crowd in the hall. We began to wonder if it was a good decision - this sudden braveness! We did not want to be caught alone in the huge hall - just with a few unwanted characters. But within the next 15 minutes, the entire hall was filled - mostly with "ABCDs". We were probably the only Indians ( born and bought up in India and been here just for a couple or more years). Gosh! I never knew Detroit hosted this big a crowd of Indians.

Needless to say, the show was fantabulous. My stomach and throat ached badly that night and the next morning to - from all the laughing (in case you were wondering about something else). The drive back was also not scary - as the downtown was crowded with folks.