Rafinha Bastos Pioneered Stand up Comedy in Brazil | Joe Rogan

Boom? Good? Okay, we had some technical difficulty. So let's try it again. So anyway brother, welcome. Thanks for coming here. Thanks. So what we were saying before, we actually said this already, but let's say it again, because the people didn't hear it. You were one of the pioneers of standup comedy in Brazil. Yeah. Yeah. It was, uh, I started with like four or five guys. We started doing like 16, 17 years ago and, uh, nobody knew about standup. It was something that I found out when I came here to live and play basketball. I had a scholarship to play basketball and I watched Jim Gaffigan. Oh, wow. And Brian Regan. Yeah, I know those guys. And I thought it was so weird because those guys were like, that's, I was questioning is his, uh, does he call, is his name Brian Regan? Does he, is actually him because we used to have characters and impersonators. So it was a kind of weird, but at the same time it was interesting because I'm not a guy who does characters and I do observations and I write, I was a journalist. I'm a heavy green journalism. So it was interesting for me to see those guys doing comedy. And I thought we could do the same in my country. It's so crazy that it took that long for it to get to Brazil. Yeah. You would think that because everything else, I mean, you guys have movies and, you know, uh, I mean, city of God, you have action movies, you always, you have so much that's so similar. The fact that standup comedy made it there is so unusual. It took, uh, it took a long time and it was, I don't know why, but the image of a comedian speaking like with a blazer of like a suit or something was very American, you know? And those jokes didn't actually come out. They connect that much with us like, Oh, I have those pockets. And it was something that we have bigger problems than, Oh, I just have a pocket. And what am I going to put in my pen? It was like, it was, it was something that I could, we couldn't connect that much. But when we, when we saw there was a lot of people doing other stuff and there was like this huge role that we could actually explore, that was when it became interesting for us. So comedy in Brazil, there would basically be like, uh, like say if I was a Brazilian comedian, I would come up with a fake name and I would do a character, a wig, a wig, certain outfit, outfit, like a very over the top screaming. And, uh, and that's still, uh, this still exists in Brazil. This is like a popular for the people stand up. I'm not saying that it's for everyone. Now I have my Netflix special. We, it's becoming huge because, uh, we have some other options right now with internet, everything changed. The game changed completely. So we have, uh, what is good has his own space right now. It's not only what the TV wants you to watch it. So the game changed a little for all of us. So how did you start out? Did you start out by going to music clubs or? It was, I actually started in a BDSM club, a pseudo masochist club. I remember that there was like pictures of Cox in the back and like vagina is like huge vaginas and we had, and we had that show and it was, it wasn't good, but it was an experience for all of us to go on stage and try to, to, to show them our opinions and our jokes and some irony and sarcasm. We wish, which was something that people wasn't watching. Uh, but then it becomes, it becomes something huge. And we got chances to go to TV and everything else, but at first it was difficult because people could not understand is he a character is he playing a part? So that's why I had, and I still have a lot of problems with the law because like I did a rape joke, which I'm not proud of. I'm saying it's not something Oh, I'm so over the, I love it. The line. But, uh, he was like, does he, does this guy wants people to be raped? What is, what is he thinking? What is, because with all those jokes was taken out of context and put it on newspapers and kind of killed, uh, he kind of killed my desire to the comedy over that as well. Really? Yeah. It was, it was difficult man because he was like journalists, uh, uh, journalists in the audience waiting for me to say some shit out of context and then guide like fucking like billions of clicks on their websites because of joke I did. Yeah. That's how the controversy was starting over that. I don't know if it's the same thing here. So they knew that this was a new thing. Yeah. They, and then so they would come to see it and then what were they criticizing it before this? He was, he was huge. Everybody loved it at first, but when we went, when, when, when, man, when we started to have money and a TV shows and we kind of, uh, ran away out of the underground, I was doing shows at midnight, like packing a tree, 300 C theater and me night in Brazil, that was my thing underground in San Paulo in the middle of nowhere. But then people off this guy's talent. Let me give him a chance. So they put me on TV and I don't know where I was on TV doing the same thing. Wow. So the, the, the country was not that prepared for what I was doing at the time. What kind of laws do you have in Brazil in terms of like the language that you're allowed to use on television? Uh, you know, I'm not saying there's like a government censorship about what you can say, what you cannot say, but, uh, sponsors and, and even TV stations and the media is very sensitive about everything because it's still a poor country. It's still a Brazil, still a third world country. So we are, we are like, we have a lot of people that don't understand the, the, oh, this is comedy. What's, what's, what's comedy? So it was my duty to explain a little bit. What was, what was stand up and kind of an open road for all of us. That's how I felt. So you, and you said three other three or four guys. So who are these other guys? They're still doing comedy in Brazil. Yeah, they still doing, they still here. What are their names? Uh, Marcelo Mansfield, uh, the new losing chili or scar feel you. There was a small group of guys that we started doing it. Brazilian Portuguese is such a beautiful language. I love it. I love it. It's like a song. It's like it's, well, I've been doing jujitsu for 23 years. So it's like, to me, that sound is like, it's such a cool sound. What does, what does Brazil say in, in jujitsu? Is that a word or something that they still repeating that you know? Well, I mean, you know, Poha, which is come. Yeah. Is that fuck or come? But sometimes sometimes you say it like, damn, but it's come. It's come. Come. But so that's funny. Cause like, that's like the word shit. Like shit could be like, you could look at something and go shit. That's good. But shit can also be bad. Yeah. You know, like, well, fuck too. Like fuck could be good or fuck could be bad. Like you could stub your tongue and go fuck, or you could, you could see a girl with a beautiful body and go fuck. Yeah. But Poha is the same thing. That's so crazy. But it's come. It's good. It's like a big, but you're getting a choke. Poha. Yeah, I got it. I got it. It's the same thing. Exactly.