I performed at a Portuguese comedy show

Well, this was really special. It went down on October 20th at this place called Cervetoria Craft Beer Pub. I gotta tell ya how this all happened first tho. After the very first show I did in Lisbon I had a chance to talk with a bunch of other comedians. The dude that headlined the show that night was Hugo Rosa. He’s been a comedian here in Portugal for a long ass time. Like almost a decade or something. He’s been on Got Talent Portugal. He has a comedy group that does Improv shows. He hosts Portuguese comedy nights. He’s been around the scene.

We got to chatting after the show and he was such an amazing dude. Gave me advice and really constructive criticism. I fucking love constructive criticism. It’s so hard to do well, and when you meet people that get it - it’s awesome. It was great to hear a professional offer encouraging words. Mind you at the time I didn’t think this was going to be an ongoing thing. The fact I’m still getting in front of mics is still kinda weird but whatever. I’m doing this shit now. But somewhere in the discussion, he mentioned he’ll be doing some shows in the fall and offered me 5 minutes on stage. I was like - fuck yeah dude.

Months and months go by. I do some other shows. I damn near broke my ankle playing basketball. I end up in the hospital a couple of times (unrelated to damn near breaking my ankle). Friend’s and family are all going through devastating personal issues. I’m still trying to be funny in the middle of it all. Good times yo. I get the word from Hugo that the show is happening and I still have the state time if I want it. You’re damn fuckin right I do. Where’s this mic at? Here’s the deal though. This is not a show with an international demographic. This is a Portuguese comedy show. Run by Portuguese people. With Portuguese comedians. For a Portuguese audience. I don’t speak any fuckin Portuguese. So I’m essentially a novelty act and nobody knows what the hell is going to happen.—

So the night shows up and it’s at this place that I’ve been to a bunch of times. Nice spot with a lot of good beer. That was kind of comforting for some reason. Having some familiarity with the place. I was one of two people going up as the open mic acts. Then there were two other experienced Portuguese comedians with Hugo as the emcee. I was the third one to go up, so I had to chance to watch a couple of the others perform. And guess what? I was completely fucking clueless the entire time. I mean I understood some words and phrases, but I really have no way of picking up references or cultural humor. I just kinda sat there smiling like an idiot clapping when everyone else clapped.

After a break, it was my time to kick off the second half. Hugo went up and let the crowd know that some English comedy was coming up next. Yeah - nobody had any clue they were going to get some English comedy dropped on them that night. Surprise! Most Portuguese people understand some level of English. It’s one of the few European countries that doesn’t dub over the media in TV and movies. Everything is subtitled. Even in the theatres. So they’re fairly used to consuming English language content. Knowing all that I wasn’t so worried about people being able to understand me. Now, thinking I’m funny? That worried the fuck out of me.

This is the first show that I’ve repeated any jokes. It was nice to see if they’re still funny with a new audience. I brought back a bunch of the Portuguese jokes I used in my first show. I added some new stuff in there as well. I talked a bit about the two major sports clubs in Lisbon. There’s a club called Benfica that’s been dominating soccer for many years. Sporting is the second major club and they’re not quite as successful. I tried to joke a bit about that. It did not go well. I thought it was hilarious. Soccer is serious business in this country and shitting on people’s teams is, as it turns out, not a really great idea. I can’t wait to do it again. I made a joke about how Cristiano Ronaldo could be walking down Avenida da Liberdade kicking little kids in the face and people here would want to call fouls on the kids. Or something like that. Ya know - a nice topical joke given Ronaldo’s latest headlines. I was not expecting a good reaction and it turned out okay.

The first half of my set went fairly well. People were invested in what I was saying and I got the room making noise here and there. It felt really good given I was an unexpected intrusion into their experience. The American guy shows up and makes everyone listen to English and throws jokes about their culture in their faces. It could have gone really, really bad. The second half though really sputtered out. I brought back the going to the hospital story that I did at the first Shitty Comedy Night. I thought it would be interesting to share my experience as an American of Portuguese descent dealing with life. I didn’t keep the story tight though. It went on longer than I had hoped, and I didn’t tell it very well. There aren’t really many jokes within there even though I had a slightly different punchline this time around.

Overall though I’m really happy I had the opportunity to do that. Hugo gave me some advice and kind words after the show. I couldn’t thank him enough for the chance to go up there and do something so different. The crowd was really warm and the other comedians were incredibly nice to me. It was a really great evening. I’m having fun.