And he says, “Hey, I’m down on my luck.” And I go, “I see that.” And then he says, “Wait a minute, are you Russell Peters?” And I’m like, “Wait, how do you know who I am? How do you know who anybody is?”
He starts talking to me about how his mom’s Guyanese and his dad’s German or something. And he says, “I’m embarrassed. I was the little chubby kid on Mighty Ducks.” I was like, “What?” And he says, “I was in Heavyweights.” I was like, “That was you?”
He was all gaunt and completely just a shell of a man. But I could see in his eyes he wasn’t gone. You could see he wanted to get out of that world, but he didn’t know how.
I gave him 100 bucks that day. That’s what I had in my pocket. I said, “If I give you this, are you going to buy drugs?” And he goes, “Not with all of it.” I’m like, “Well, at least you’re honest.”
That was maybe five, six years ago. I never thought about it again. Then, a few months ago, I got a message on my Instagram: “I don’t know if you’ll remember this, but I was the guy outside of the deli you gave 100 bucks [to]. And I really appreciate it. And I’ve been sober now for three years.”
I looked at his [Instagram] page, and you could see he gained his weight back and he looked really good.
He went on… “I’ve been doing stand-up now and I’m really focused.” I go, “Of course, I remember you.”
He went, “I see you’re playing at Oxnard. I’d love to come see the show.” And I said, “Why don’t you come and do some time on my show?”
