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<p>« The Honey Shot | Main| The Honey Shot » Thursday May 08 2008  Character Sketches: Ruhbin Mehta By: Neil Padover</p>
<p>Thursday, May 8, 2008 at 7:57AM There's no shortage of talented performers putting on great comedy shows every night of the week in New York City. The trouble it seems comes in filling all those seats in the house. Ruhbin Mehta has played plenty of small rooms. He knows what it's like to do his act for a sparse audience, to keep morale high among crowds of four, five, six people. For Ruhbin, a show is a show and it's just another reason to get up in front of someone who is willing to listen. For the native Canadian, there's a special aura that comes with doing a New York room even if it's barely populated. It certainly helps with crowdwork. "When you're playing to a crowd of five you get to talk to every person individually," he says.</p>

<p>When Ruhbin, who's been doing stand up for four years now, takes the stage, he seems ready to have a conversation with the audience, like old friends teasing each other over dinner. When I went to see him perform at The Laugh Factory back in March he immediately launched into a playful rant about every segment of the audience (the group from Texas, Mexican tourists, the drunk girl, two kids named Matt). And they ate it up, mostly because it seemed so natural. The ability to relate jokes and stories without so much as breaking a sweat is something Mehta has aspired to ever since watching Bill Cosby at a young age. "So much work goes into just a ten second bit and Cosby could just make it seem effortless," he tells me.</p>
<p>Growing up on Cosby, Seinfeld, Ray Romano and others of that ilk, Ruhbin maintains that these legends were, for him, the greatest motivator to go out and make people laugh. These days, he admires a new crop of comics. Mehta gets excited as he rattles off a laundry list of his favorites: Todd Barry, Ted Alexandro, Dan Naturman. "Naturman's jokes are so sharp. I like good joke writers. Russ Meneve is fantastic." Perhaps the comic who resonated with Mehta on an even more personal level was Russell Peters. "[Peters] was the first Indian comic I ever saw. I was like 'Wow. An Indian is doing comedy.' The only thing I ever saw Indians do before was play a cab driver in a movie or Apu on The Simpsons."</p>

<p>Identity has been an issue that Mehta has dealt with on and off stage since moving to New York in the summer of 2005. "I always think of myself as more Canadian than I do Indian. I definitely feel more Indian in the U.S." It shows, as a great deal of his material has to do with the culture clash his Indian parents faced and being a minority in a post 9/11 world. He tackles race in a way that seems to level the playing field, admitting in one bit that, "Ultimately we're all the same. Every group has another group that they hate." He goes to explain the intricate differences between archrivals Pakistan and India until Mehta brilliantly mixes up the stereotypes and is unable to remember which country he is actually from himself.</p>

<p>Mehta's style of observational humor may seem traditional but his methods are anything but. "I don't write that much," he tells me. "An idea pops into my head, I make a mental note and develop the idea on stage. I'm always keeping my mind open to different ideas." When I ask if he has a photographic memory he laughs and remarks humbly, "If I think something is good I can just keep it in my head." If a joke is a keeper it makes it to a folded green piece of paper, which lives inside Mehta's wallet.</p>

<p>Four years later and the sheet is still filling up. As for TV and industry exposure, Mehta is reluctant right now. "Some guys get picked up too early and they end up not being able to back up the hype on stage." So for now, he is doing what he loves around New York, getting up on stage seven nights a week, and trying to improve every single time he performs.</p>

<p>The Apiary | 2 Comments in EXCLUSIVELY at The Apiary Reader Comments (2)</p>
<p>hey ruben</p>

<p>congrats on the write up</p>

<p>(hockey still sucks)</p>

<p>seriously enjoy this moment May 11, 2008 | mo diggs I recently saw him rock a very small crowd in the back of Charley O's. He was good! May 12, 2008 | soce Post a New Comment</p>
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