Danilo Gentili - Jornal THE GUARDIAN

Brazil's stand-up comics lead social revolution against powerful elites

Danilo Gentili, a highly controversial but also wildly popular Brazilian comedian, is blazing a trail for stand-up comedy in South America’s largest nation.

One evening last October, Danilo Gentili took to a stage in Brazil's capital, Brasilia, and turned his satirical sights on the woman who weeks later would be elected Brazil's first female president, Dilma Rousseff. He cracked a joke about how the former Marxist guerrilla was tortured during the country's repressive 21-year military dictatorship.

"Vote for Dilma because she was tortured?" he quipped. "Fuck that. Did I ask her to be?"

"Seriously," he went on, drawing nervous giggles from the packed audience. "A president has to be smart. If she was caught and tortured, it's because she was an idiot." It was the edgiest moment in an 80-minute monologue – attempting to poke fun at a woman who had been brutally tortured by the dictatorship. But Gentili, 32, a highly controversial but also wildly popular comedian who is blazing a trail for stand-up comedy in South America's largest nation, is a man who enjoys living on the edge.

And in a country with a reputation for deference to celebrity and authority, he and the hundreds of fellow stand-ups filling bars and clubs across Brazil represent an increasingly influential break with the past.

Brazil has a rich history of political satire and humour in literature, theatre, art and on television. But never before has it enjoyed such a vibrant stand-up scene, with artists who feel so free to speak their minds. Gentili, for example, the son of a typewriter repair man from the industrial outskirts of São Paulo, has more than two million followers on Twitter. His business partner and fellow comedian Rafinha Bastos was recently named the world's most influential Twitterer, ahead of Barack Obama, Lady Gaga and Oprah Winfrey.

Last week Bastos had more than 3.1 million followers. Next year, the rise of Brazil's stand-up scene will be cemented by the launch of the US Comedy Central channel here. The local content will be led by a stand-up show hosted by Gentili. "They realised that there is the public, there is the market and there are now enough comedians to sustain the genre," he said of the channel's arrival in Brazil.

Less than 30 years ago, under the military regime, Gentili's public swipes at politicians would have got him arrested or expelled. "Or dead," he says drily. But the new, self-confident Brazil, one of the world's fastest-emerging economic powers, is a different place. And a new generation is falling in love with stand-up performers. "It could never have happened [during the dictatorship," said Gentili. "Probably in the first two minutes of the show the army would have moved into the theatre and there would have been no more show."

More recently, he believes, such jokes would have meant career suicide in a country where comedians have traditionally made their livings from television shows controlled by a powerful elite. "There is still resistance [from] people who think certain things shouldn't be joked about," Said Nigel Goodman, a Rio-born comedian. "[But] today we have career options that don't involve mainstream television."

The 25-year-old gave up a career in law to dedicate himself to stand-up and performs frequently in cities such as Rio, São Paulo, Belo Horizonte and Curitiba. "Stand-up is a totally independent movement," said Gentili, who counts Ricky Gervais and the Monty Python team among his comedy heroes.

"We earn money this way. If people get on TV they'll earn more money, even better. But if they don't, fuck it. This will keep happening. So they don't owe allegiance to anyone." Brazil's social media boom also provides the country's stand-up artists with a considerable degree of protection; politicians might dislike their jokes – but they challenge them at their peril. Many trace the origins of Brazil's stand-up movement to São Paulo's Bar Beverly Hills, where a legion of young comedians cut their teeth during open-mic sessions that began in 2004.

"It's like a postgrad course in humour," said 29-year-old comedian and actor Robson Nunes, one of the organisers. "To get good you have to pass through the Beverly Hills stage. If a joke doesn't work, the audience is cruel." It was at the Beverly Hills club that Gentili hatched a plan to open Brazil's first club dedicated entirely to stand-up.

"From the very first show there… we said: 'Damn, there needs to be a comedy club in Brazil'," said Gentili, who last year realised his dream, opening the Comedians Comedy Club, a swanky 300-seater bar at the heart of São Paulo's answer to Soho, Rua Augusta.

Brazil's stand-up boom is no longer restricted to south-eastern metropolises such as Rio and São Paulo. Recife, Belo Horizonte and Porto Alegre have their own local scenes, while the Amazon region is also producing talented artists, among them Murilo Couto who hails from the riverside city of Belém in the north. "We've had comedians from Recife, Belém and Roraima state [in the Amazon], a Portuguese comedian, they come from all over," said Nunes, an Afro-Brazilian who addresses issues of race and identity in his shows.

Nor is it all about politics. "Everyone has their own line," said ), a 31-year-old comedian from Campinas. "Some comedians talk about relationships, others politics, others football. That's the fun in stand-up. It's natural."

Gentili, too, isn't just tied to talking about corrupt politicians and their peccadilloes. His next live show and DVD explores the comic side of daily life in Brazil.

But don't expect it to be any less controversial. "Anywhere in the world people understand that the role of the comedian is to crack jokes. One day they'll understand it in Brazil, too, I hope," he said.

Push – forçar (a barra)

Blaze a trail – abrindo o caminho

Turn on - canalizou centralizou para cima de Dilma

Sights - pontos de vista

Crack a joke – contar piada

Quipped – deu um sorrisinho, gracejar

Drawing – arrancando 

Edgiest – edge – extremo, mais extremo

to poke fun at - ridicularizar

live on the edge viver no limite

speak their minds - dizer o q vem a mente (deles)

speak my mind – dizer o que vem à minha mente

outskirts – arredor e região

cement – consolidado

swipes – alfinetadas ataque verbal

drily – diz secamente, sem titubear, sem papas na língua

allegiance – obediência submissão

at their peril – por conta própria, pondo suas contas em risco

trace to – rastro , reconhecem a origem

cut their teeth - adquirir experiência

swanky |fancy - sofisticado

hail from – vem da ... (cidade) - origem

nor is it all about – nem tudo é sobre política...

peccadilloes – minor sins – pecados, falhas de segunda importância

Caffeine