Isabela Rocha
Comedian Bruna Louise, 39, broke the audience record for a solo stand-up show in Belo Horizonte, one of the main cities for the artistic genre in Brazil, this July. The first Brazilian woman to have a show of this type on Netflix, she boosts the industry and women with jokes about everyday life, sexuality and improvisations with the audience.
“I’ve loved to joke since I was a child. My family is all women, an Italian family. My grandmother would swear at me and tell everyone to go fuck themselves every five minutes. There was a unique atmosphere among us women, which was very funny,” says the comedian.
In addition to her mother, Louise has two aunts who only had daughters. Her only lasting marriage was with her lesbian aunt, whom she affectionately calls “dyke”. With them, the comedian said she learned to fend for herself, go after what she wants and be ambitious with her career. At the moment, she prioritizes herself above any relationship.
“It’s very difficult for a woman who has a career to have a relationship because the guy feels second nature, out of place, intimidated. The bigger my apartment is, the fewer men I have sex with. When I rented my penthouse, which has high ceilings, I said ‘no dick will ever go up there again’.”
In three days and seven sessions, the Curitiba native performed for 10,750 people at the BeFly Minascentro theater in July, according to the event’s production team. No comedian had ever attracted more than 10,000 spectators in the city alone, according to the producers. She has a full schedule until December 22. She will tour 12 Brazilian states and nine Portuguese cities.
Comedian Dani Calabresa, who has been working with Louise since 2015, celebrates her colleague’s success in the industry. “Bruna has a spontaneous, straightforward sense of humor that reflects her personality. Her evolution has been like an Uber rocket. She is a very well-rounded professional and is certainly among the top comedians in the country.”
Producer Bruno Berg, a partner in the production company that produced the sessions that led her to the record, has been following Louise since 2019. The first show that BH Comedy Club produced for her was a session for 350 people. According to Berg, the stand-up industry is not in the best moment, but he says that the comedian is one of the fastest growing in Brazil.
“Bruna took a leap while others maintained their audiences. Female humor has been the target of very strong attacks on the internet. I joke that the more people talk badly, the more Bruna grows,” he says.
Some people criticize the excessive use of swear words in her vocabulary. To this, she has two responses: “The first is ‘oh, go fuck yourself’. The second is that, man, if I had the time and technology, I would count the swear words in a stand-up video of a man and in a stand-up video of mine. I guarantee you that I don’t swear more than men. It’s just sexism.”
She is also criticized for talking too much about sex, but insists that she talks neither less nor more than any other man: “Sexuality coming from a woman is always more shocking. Now I have the microphone in my hand saying, ‘yeah, your dick is soft’ and being funny. For them, it’s a big scare.”
Even so, his audience is very diverse, with men and women, straight and LGBTQIA+, young and old, he says.
The Curitiba native was the first Brazilian woman to have a stand-up show on Netflix. To celebrate the release of “Demolition” in 2022, she projected an image of herself, accompanied by the hashtag #FogoNoPatriarcado, on buildings on Consolação Street, one of São Paulo’s main streets.
Louise started acting at the age of 15. She wanted to be an actress, but she was always one of the funny kids at school. She used humor to keep up with the boys, joking around before being teased, and she liked to make people laugh. In her 13-year-old mind, that was how she earned the respect of her classmates.
“I joke that I was a terrible actress, because I would do drama and people would laugh. One of my favorite teachers when I was in high school was the chemistry teacher. He would always make jokes with me so I would quickly respond with a joke. It was like a fight, but he would make fun of me so he could hear me making fun back,” she says.
At the age of 25, a classmate challenged her to write and perform a ten-minute stand-up routine. It took her a few months to build up the courage. She started out playing two characters: a teacher who didn’t like children and a funk singer from Rio who was missing an arm. “Stand-up is very scary for people who come from theater backgrounds because it involves immense freedom and an abyss. I felt this need to be almost hidden in a character.”
Until one Thursday, a cold and crampy night when she was supposed to perform at a bar, the Curitiba native decided not to go to the bathroom to change her clothes. She adapted her jokes to present herself as herself. Today, she does comedy that she considers more personal, telling stories about hardships and everyday situations. She says that comedians see the world in a different way, seeing the jokes in life’s misfortunes, a way of dealing with everyday life.
Performing on stage means facing frustration every nine seconds, the average time between jokes, says Louise. But going to therapy and having friends who are comedians helps keep her head on straight. “Regardless of what’s going on in my life, I have to go on stage and make people laugh. That’s hard. One very sad thing was my grandmother’s death. I had a show that day. I arrived at the theater devastated and left feeling good. The audience was good for me.”
At the beginning of her career, the comedian was known for her friendship with influencer Kéfera Buchmann, with whom she posted videos. The two ended up drifting apart. Rumors of a fight between them took over the networks at the time. This Monday (19), Buchmann spoke about the controversy during the YouTube program “De frente com Blogueirinha”, stating that the comedian from Curitiba insinuated in messages that she was in love with her and had “mixed things up”.
In response, the comedian told Sheet: “Whoever wants to know, I’ll talk on stage”. This Wednesday (21), she posted a video on her social media during a show, in which she comments on the case: “I never thought I would become news because of gossip. It was everywhere. I’ve already achieved so much in my work, I’m so proud of my achievements, and what becomes news? Me confusing things. Society loves to reinforce the rivalry between two women”.
About to turn 40, Louise believes she still has a lot of room to grow in her career. She wants to bring stand-up to more and more people, accompanied by other female comedians. She puts on a show called “Juntas” every month in the city of São Paulo, where she invites other women in the industry to perform with her.
“There are a lot of good women today, but guys have a hard time accepting them. Partly it’s my vanity, but I say that if I have a great career, producers and contractors will stop turning their noses up at women.”
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Source: Folha
I am Frederick Tuttle, who works in 247 News Agency as an author and mostly cover entertainment news. I have worked in this industry for 10 years and have gained a lot of experience. I am a very hard worker and always strive to get the best out of my work. I am also very passionate about my work and always try to keep up with the latest news and trends.
