Hop For Pop
Press Kit
Stand-up · Brazil · Portuguese & English
Fábio Rabin
A trained actor whose parents joked they would sell him if he did not start earning. He found stand-up in 2008, when Brazil barely had a scene, and helped build one.
From
Brazil
Works in
Stand-up in Portuguese and English · Acting · TV & radio
Known for
Pânico na TV · MTV Brasil · Tô Viajando
Started
2008
Interview
Instagram interview · @thecomicsunseen
“Learn from your mistakes, never quit and do it for love not for money. Money will come if you win against yourself”
Fábio Rabin — Hop For Pop
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Biography
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Fábio Rabin is one of the pioneers of stand-up comedy in Brazil. He came to performing through theatre: curious and a little lost in his twenties, he took acting classes on the advice of his sister, an actress, and his dream became to make a living as an actor. Brazil’s small film industry made that hard, and by the time he finished acting school his parents were telling him he had better start making money or they would sell him. He embraced comedy.
When he started, in 2008, stand-up was a new art form in Brazil and few people knew what it was. A comic friend gave him a book by Judy Carter, which he studied like a bible. What won him over was the nerve of comics who brought new material every month, when as an actor he was used to rehearsing a play for five months. He became a fixture on Pânico na TV and MTV Brasil, has three DVDs and an Amazon Prime special, Tá Embaçado, won two APCA awards for Best Comedy Program, and in 2018 took the prize for Best Stand-Up Show in Brazil with Tô Viajando. Almost all of his specials are free on YouTube.
He has performed at the Laugh Factory in Hollywood, the Comedy Store and Gotham, and tours in both Portuguese and English; after almost 20 years in Portuguese, he says, working in another language opens his brain to new kinds of jokes. With his wife Camila, formerly a bassist in a punk rock band, he hosted The Rabins on Rádio Rock, until jokes about the station’s main sponsor got it cancelled, and made The Rabins House, a renovation series that dragged on for five years and, by his account, drew more views than Property Brothers on far less money.
The part other press kits leave out
What you should know before you book him
Fábio Rabin brings an actor’s training and nearly two decades of stand-up to the stage. He believes in truth and surprise, writes his material, riffs between the jokes, and takes responsibility for every room.
A scene-builder
He started in 2008, when stand-up in Brazil meant a handful of people and a Seinfeld rerun on cable. He is widely credited as one of the pioneers who built the country’s scene.
An actor’s instincts
His first laugh came in his first acting class. The lesson he took from it: if you are truthful and surprise people, they laugh. From Judy Carter’s book he learned that a joke is more about attitude and feeling than words.
Writes, then riffs
He writes his jokes, admitting he does not love writing but has to, and riffs in between them. He says riffing is what keeps a show alive.
Owns the bad nights
When shows went badly, because of rooms not set up for comedy or his own inexperience, he always blamed himself, in order to work out how to get laughs with bad sound, no lights and a thin crowd. That, he says, prepares you for anything, including corporate shows and other languages.
Knows when to cut
If he believes in a joke, he keeps trying it; if it is not working, it goes in the bin. Experience has taught him to tell a good joke from a medium one, and to spot the bad joke that is so bad it could work.
Irreverent, with consequences
He lost a radio show after joking about its main sponsor, and says he is barred from the island of Fernando de Noronha over a bit that audiences still talk about fifteen years later.
For press · cleared for use with attribution
Quotable
01
“I think I love the stage.”02
“They said : it’s better you start making some money or we are going to sell you… Then I embraced comedy.”03
“Stand Up Comedy was more like a new form of art here. Just a few people knew how to do it or even what it was.”04
“I remember a comic friend of mine gave me the book of Jude Carter and I started to study. That for me was a bible!”05
“How brave are these actors, because in the past we used to rehearse a play for five months before the debut. And those guys every month come on stage with something new! That’s crazy! I want to do it!”06
“The laugh gave me pleasure and relief. And I learned that if you are truthful and surprise people they’re gonna laugh!”07
“But finding a good joke is always a pleasure. And I love to riff too. I think that makes your show alive!”08
“Those rooms taught me that dreams can be true!”09
“And I also learned that if you do comedy in another language your brain opens to new ideas of jokes cause after almost 20 years doing comedy in Portuguese it’s always refreshing to think differently.”10
“That material people talk about even today, fifteen years later. And for that material I am forbidden to go there… :(”11
“Jude Carter taught me that the joke is more about the attitude and feelings rather than just words. If you are believing in what you are saying, the pause will come naturally.”12
“But I always blamed myself. Not to punish me but to think how I could have a different result and make people laugh even with a bad sound, no lights and just a few people in the audience.”13
“Once you know how to do it, you are ready for anything.”14
“If I believe on the joke I try a lot.”15
“The show was going well but I told some jokes about the master sponsor and the show was canceled.”16
“And the Rabins house was the hardest project I ever did.”17
“For us it was horrible but for the show amazing! Because we had a true conflict.”18
“I think comedy is alive and more than ever these days comedy is necessary.”
Attribution: Fábio Rabin, in conversation with Hop For Pop. Read the interview.
Career
Selected credits
Specials
- Tô Viajando (“I’m Tripping”) — 2018; Best Stand-Up Show in Brazil
- Tá Embaçado — Prime Video
- Queimando o Filme — early show, on the birth of his daughter and a trip to Fernando de Noronha
- Three stand-up DVDs; almost all specials free on YouTube
Television & radio
- Pânico na TV
- MTV Brasil
- The Rabins House — home-renovation series
- The Rabins — Rádio Rock, with his wife Camila
Awards & stages
- Two APCA awards for Best Comedy Program
- Laugh Factory Hollywood · The Comedy Store · Gotham
Influences
Dave Chappelle, Jerry Seinfeld, Chris Rock and Jim Gaffigan, and always Jim Carrey and Robin Williams. Among newer comics he rates Matt Rife and Ismo, and in Brazil Rafi Bastos, Thiago Ventura, Rodrigo Marques, Dih Lopes, Mauricio Meirelles and Bruna Louise.
This kit was produced by Hop For Pop. The interview and quotes are drawn from Meet Fábio Rabin, published on Instagram by The Comics Unseen. Fábio Rabin and their representatives are free to use any part of this document — the biography, the quotes — for booking, press and promotion, with credit to Hop For Pop for the interview material.
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Read the full Instagram interview. Follow Hop For Pop on Instagram at @hopforpop and @thecomicsunseen.