Comedian has more than a million followers on Instagram and has worked with brands such as Budweiser, Nestl, Star+ and Smirnoff
Carioca from the West Zone of Rio de Janeiro, Yuri Maral carries smiles and fills theaters wherever he goes. With more than a million followers on Instagram, the 29-year-old comedian uses comedy as his tool for dealing with issues such as racism, religious intolerance and social criticism.
The humor and tone, always accurate and with impeccable timing, come from a lot of study and courses, of course, but also from birth. According to him, the family he has is surrounded almost 100% of the time by jokes, which makes him consider himself the least funny there. The claim is that your fans are sure not to agree.
Yuri’s intelligence and jokes earned him a special on Netflix, called “Ledo Engano”, and also made him the first comedian to do solo stand-up at the So Paulo Municipal Theater.
Yuri’s performance on the same stage where the 1922 Modern Art Week took place became a documentary, published on the comedian’s YouTube account with more than 300,000 subscribers, called Nem se minha vida depended on it, directed by Jennifer Dias, actress and Yuri’s fiancee.
Today, as one of the main names in comedy, Yuri also reaps fruit in the advertising world and has worked with brands such as Budweiser, Smirnoff, Nestl, Star+, Piraqu and many others.
What’s your history with humour? When did you decide to make this your career?
I come from a very funny family, so humor has always been very present as a way of dealing with everything, both the good and the bad. Any conversation, any meeting with the family, we can’t go more than 2 minutes without making a joke. sort of an addiction, a resource, a defense mechanism. People are making fun of me all the time and maybe I’m the funniest in the family. I decided that I was going to do this as I grew up, a teenager and all, when I started to get acquainted with improvised things at school, in plays, and there came a time when I was in college and the opportunity arose to take a course in Theater and TV. I took the test with comedy and it went a lot, everyone liked it and I started the course. Everything I did was kind of comedy-oriented and people really embraced the idea. Stand up came into my life as soon as I graduated, in 2016, when I took another course with Fbio Rabin and started doing shows.
What was your first video that went viral?
It was a part of a skit that I did alone, in Quem Chega L, from Domingo do Fausto in 2017. I did a little participation there with my character Michelzinho de Oxssi, who is a candombl person, extroverted and who makes jokes with people from candombl, talking about macumba. I did this presentation at Fausto on Sunday and on the same day they posted the video on an Umbanda page and the next day the video had half a million views. Oh, it grew. Now, with a clean face, it was a video I made talking about reverse racism, in 2017 to 2018.
When was the moment you realized you were famous?
In fact, never. I know I’m not anonymous, but I don’t consider myself famous. I never catch myself thinking about it. I wouldn’t be able to answer. Of course it’s very cool, every day I go out, a good number of people stop me, take a picture, exchange ideas, but I don’t consider myself famous. And not modesty, not humility, that I don’t really consider myself famous (laughs).
What was the first advertising job you did?
I’ll say the first one I remember. As I used to talk a lot about Campo Grande, where I came from, the West Zone of Rio de Janeiro and, close to where I live, there is a Guaracamp factory and I remember that I made some joke about it and it came to them. They contacted me to make a video, at the end of 2017, for me to quote them and such. If I’m not mistaken, this was the first.
You are a person who has a very clear position, both on social networks and in the jokes you make. Has this already influenced your relationship with brands?
All the time! Not just with the brands, but in comedies and places that stop hiring me or that, when they do, try to ask me not to make fun of the president. This happened recently, I even posted a tweet about it and I told them to call someone else. They know me, you know? I might not, but the fact that I have the ban bothers me. Even today it happens a lot and although people think that brands are embracing those who take a stand, progressive, etc, it’s not at all. Whoever owns a business doesn’t think that way, quite the opposite. This happens all the time with racial issues, political issues and working with advertising is always very complicated.
You are a comedian, actor, influencer… How do you divide your time for all the roles and still record the commercials?
You have to separate, there’s no way. In this, my ADHD harms me, but there’s no way because doing shows, acting and advertising forces me to separate. I wake up, see what I need to shoot advertising, take a little time out of the day and go upstairs. Of course, sometimes there is an unforeseen event, you need to redo something, but we adapt, but a rush due to dates and deadlines.
How is your way of doing the advertisements?
When I have the freedom to create, I joke all the time in a way that doesn’t feel like advertising. a normal video, my video. I did one recently for Stanley and they wanted me to insert it into my stand up. Oh beautiful, huh? Oh where I dominate. I did, it turned out nice. When I have that freedom, I like to do it in a very spontaneous way and in a way that people see and talk, he got me. It was advertising and I didn’t even notice.
@oyurimarcal I’M COMPLETELY STANLEYZED! And I will convert everyone to become a Stanley Brasil fan too! *publicity
som original – Yuri Maral
What do you consider when starting a partnership with a brand/company?
I think I’m still not at that level of being able to choose no, I like money (laughs), but I take two things into consideration: the creative freedom that may be little, but I can put a little bit of my DNA and that I have something with the brand. I’m saying that, but it may be that in the future I do something that has nothing to do with me, but if it happens, know that it was only for the money (laughs). But today, I take these two things into consideration, freedom is something that I use or that someone in my environment uses, that I identify with the product at some point, that I like.
Do you participate in the creation of the campaign? Script, production, etc.
I do participate. I always try to put at least a little bit of myself in there. Sometimes the thing is already closed and you are there just to reproduce, but that is difficult to happen. Usually brands even ask for my face, for my audience to identify themselves. I do participate.
Do you have a brand you would like to campaign for? If yes, which one?
There are a few, but I’ll name the main one: Nike. I won’t even pretend not to, and there are many reasons. It’s a brand that I use a lot and it has a kind of childhood, football thing. I use them a lot, all my sneakers are theirs. My third very special reason, who made me fall in love with the brand was my brother, who passed away nine years ago. He walked from head to toe in Nike, wore all the Nike sets everywhere he went. It was going to be a tribute to him.
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#BebaComModerao https://t.co/o4gImYdh3a— Budweiser Brazil (@Budweiser_Br) August 12, 2020
Of all the advertising work you’ve done, which one has impressed you the most?
There are a few, but I’ll name one that I never stopped making. Sometimes there’s a little hiatus, but I always come back and every week, literally, I get here at home: Budweiser. And this has been years since 2018/2019. I never stopped advertising for them, we have an almost lifelong bond. very nice, I’m very little dog of them.
