#1243 - Rafinha Bastos

Joe Rogan (0:12)

Boom, good, okay, we had some technical difficulties. So let's try it again.

So anyway, brother, welcome. Thanks for coming here.

Rafinha Bastos (0:18)

Thanks, thanks for having me.

Joe Rogan (0:19)

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 stand-up comedy in Brazil.

Rafinha Bastos (0:27)

Yeah, yeah, it was, I started with like four or five guys. We started doing it like 16, 17 years ago, and nobody knew about stand-up. 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.

And Brian Regan.

Joe Rogan (0:49)

Ah, I know those guys.

Rafinha Bastos (0:50)

And I thought it was so weird, because those guys were like, that's, I was questioning, is his, does he call, is his name Brian Regan, does he, is actually him? Because we used to have characters and impersonators.

So it was 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 have a degree in journalism, so it was interesting for me to see those guys doing comedy, and I thought we could do the same in my country.

Joe Rogan (1:21)

It's so crazy that it took that long for it to get to Brazil.

Rafinha Bastos (1:25)

Yeah.

Joe Rogan (1:25)

You would think that, because everything else, I mean, you guys have movies, and, you know, I mean, City of God, you have action movies, you have all these, you have so much that's so similar, the fact that stand-up comedy made it there is so unusual.

Rafinha Bastos (1:38)

It took a long time, and it was, I don't know why, but the image of a comedian speaking, like, with a blazer, or like a suit or something, was very American, you know? And those jokes didn't actually 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, where am I going to put my pen? It was like, it was something that we couldn't connect that much, but 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.

Joe Rogan (2:16)

So comedy in Brazil, there would basically be like, like say if I was a Brazilian comedian, I would come up with a fake name, and I would do a character.

Rafinha Bastos (2:25)

A wig, probably.

Joe Rogan (2:26)

A wig, a certain outfit.

Rafinha Bastos (2:28)

Outfit, like very over the top, screaming, and that 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, it's becoming huge because we have some other options right now. With internet, everything changed, the game changed completely. So we have what is good has its 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.

Joe Rogan (3:03)

So how did you start out? Did you start out by going to music clubs or?

Rafinha Bastos (3:08)

It was, I actually started in a BDSM club.

I remember that there was like pictures of cocks in the bathroom and like vaginas, like huge vaginas.

And we had that show, and it wasn't good, but it was an experience for all of us to go on stage and try to show them our opinions and our jokes and some irony and sarcasm, which was something that people wasn't watching. But then 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 I did a rape joke, which I'm not proud of. I'm saying, it's not something, oh, I'm so over the line. But he was like, does this guy wants people to be raped? What is he thinking? Because all those jokes was taken out of context and put it on newspapers, and kind of killed my desire to do comedy over that, as well.

Joe Rogan (4:28)

Really?

Rafinha Bastos (4:29)

Yeah, it was difficult, man, because he was like journalists in the audience waiting for me to say some shit, to put out of context, and then got like fucking billions of clicks on their websites because of a joke I did.