During a career that has taken him from open mic nights in Lisbon to the bright lights of New York City and now a major world tour, André De Freitas has plenty to laugh about. Our contributor, Vaughan Willmore, met with the talented comedian to find out more about his journey from bullied Portuguese schoolboy to global star.
We’re speaking on FaceTime, with André at his home in New York City. In 24 hours, he’ll be heading to Australia for the start of his Public Display of Affection world tour. He has a busy few months ahead, yet he’s relaxed, charming and looking forward to taking his new material out on the road.
It’s a tour that takes in the Melbourne International Comedy Festival and includes dates in Portugal, the UK, Italy, the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland and beyond. André’s comedy is personal, observational and shaped by his life experiences. “It’s a little different to when I was touring before,” he tells me. “I’m 31 now and at a different stage of my life, and that shows in the new material.”
André’s story starts, as many do, at school. He was small for his age, quite reserved and prone to being bullied. He found that making people laugh came naturally to him and was a great way of winning people over and defusing potentially difficult situations. As a lover of the beach and surfing, he initially thought he might build a career connected to that world. That all changed the evening he performed his first open mic in Lisbon. He was hooked and knew comedy was his calling.
It’s difficult to overstate how hard it is to make a living as a professional comedian. In André’s case, there were two and a half years of open mic performances before he secured his first paid gig. Given the nature of the profession and André’s talent, I suspect that was good progress. “I kept the 20 euros from my first paid show,” he says proudly, “and I framed it.”
Now André is touring the world, doing what he loves most. He’s already performed in more than 30 countries across Europe, the United States, Australia and the Middle East. His comedy has attracted millions of views online. In 2023, he debuted his first solo hour, What If, at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, where it won multiple five-star reviews and helped cement his reputation as a smart, observant and personable comedian. The complete What If special was released on YouTube in June 2025.
On Instagram, he has more than 150,000 followers. He’s the co-creator and star of Comedy Therapy, a live show and podcast that blends humour with candid conversations about mental health. It was a box-office success, reaching number three in the podcast charts.
“Made in Portugal, distributed worldwide” is the strapline on André’s Linktree page. It captures his outlook. Performing in English for an international audience was always the intention. He has a loyal and growing following in Portugal and references his Portuguese heritage in his shows, but it’s far from the whole story.
It’s part of André’s appeal that he frequently taps into cultural touchpoints that transcend borders. He speaks from experience, too, having lived in London for five years before moving to New York City. Making it big in the United States has long been his ambition, and he is well on the way to achieving that goal, performing regularly at the Comedy Cellar and other high-profile venues.
Where do you get your ideas from? It’s a question comedians are often asked. In an interesting twist, André told me where and when his ideas sometimes come to him. “I often get ideas when I’m lying in bed, just about to fall asleep.” It could be a gift and a curse. Fortunately, he’s learned how to balance work with leisure and enjoy his downtime. He’s never lost that love of the beach and in his spare time, he likes to surf and spend time by the ocean with his friends. That may well trace back to his childhood and family holidays here in the Algarve.
In terms of the tour, André has 25 dates scheduled in Australia, after which he heads to the UK and Ireland before taking in mainland Europe. He’s back in Portugal early June for dates in Porto on 8 June, Coimbra on 9 June and Lisbon on 16 June. His website (below) provides full details and information on how to buy tickets. There’s no dates scheduled for the Algarve yet, but that could change and hopefully will.
It was a pleasure to speak with André. Everyone at Tomorrow wishes him the very best for his Public Display of Affection tour and beyond. Hopefully, we will see him back in the Algarve very soon!
theandredefreitas.com
linktr.ee/andredefreitas
www.instagram.com/andrecomedy
