Moontower Comedy is bringing a towering name in international stand-up to downtown Austin: Rafi Bastos, the 6-foot-7 Jewish-Brazilian comedian, is set to take the stage at the State Theatre on Thursday, January 28, 2027. The show marks a rare Texas stop for a performer who has spent years building a following that stretches from Brazilian television to American comedy clubs.
CultureMap Austin lists the event as “Moontower Comedy Presents Rafi Bastos.” Mato lists it for January 28, 2027. Attendees are advised to check with the venue ahead of time to confirm the show is proceeding as scheduled, since events can be subject to change due to weather or other concerns.
From Brazilian TV Screens to the Comedy Cellar
Bastos has built a reputation as a trailblazer of comedy and media in Brazil, having worked as a television producer, journalist, show host and stand-up comedian before becoming one of the first comedians credited with pioneering American-style stand-up in that country, according to DC Improv. His shows are performed in English, and the same listing notes that he posts stand-up clips in English online.
Those clips are mostly filmed at the Comedy Cellar in New York, per a listing from improv.com, which describes his English-language material as largely captured at the prestigious Greenwich Village club. The venue's bio also credits him with three Netflix specials — A Arte do Insulto, Péssima Influencia and Ultimato — along with a 2013 Shorty Award for Best Comedian and a YouTube channel that has racked up more than 370 million views.
A Growing International Footprint
Bastos has described himself, through promotional materials from blcomedy.com, as the first Brazilian comedian to become a regular at major global comedy clubs including the Comedy Cellar, Laugh Factory and the Hollywood Improv, as well as the first Brazilian comic to headline Just for Laughs in Montreal. The same source lists him as co-founder and owner of Comedians, which it characterizes as the largest comedy club in South America, and notes that in 2011 he was considered by The New York Times to be the Most Influential Man on Twitter, at a time when he had 7 million followers on the platform.
Bastos's reach outside Brazil has shown up elsewhere on tour listings. Creative Loafing listed a Rafi Bastos event for March 29, 2024, at 7:30 p.m., and an Australian venue, the Factory Theatre, noted that one of his shows was upgraded from The Comedy Store to a larger room due to popular demand. For Austin audiences catching him for the first time, CultureMap Austin's listing frames him with a rapidly growing social media presence and — in its own colorful description — an accent like Dracula, underscoring the larger-than-life persona that has followed him from Brazilian television into comedy clubs across the globe.
