Alain Frei

Alain Frei (born Alain Rüetschli; 4 October 1983) is a Swiss comedian, Kabarettist and actor. He was named after the French film actor Alain Delon and grew up in the Swiss canton of Solothurn, where his family owned a tile-laying business, so he first trained as a tile layer. During his military service in the Swiss Army he was trained as a signals soldier. In 2004 he came to Germany, lived for a long time in Köln, and around 2023 moved to Solingen. From 2006 to 2009 he completed acting training at the Freie Schauspielschule in Hamburg and afterwards discovered his comedic talent, spending a year in touring theatre.

In 2010 he gathered his first experiences on stand-up stages, with his first appearance at the Quatsch Comedy Club. He gained wider recognition in 2011 at the RTL Comedy Grand Prix, and in the same year joined the comedy group RebellComedy, a multicultural troupe in which he is regarded as a kind of "Quotendeutscher". He has since appeared both with his ensemble and solo on programmes including NightWash, the Quatsch Comedy Club, Nuhr ab 18, the StandUpMigranten and nuhr im Ersten. He debuted his first solo programme Neutral war gestern in 2013, followed two years later by Alle Menschen sind anders...gleich!.

From March 2020 to spring 2022 he released the weekly podcast "Vitamin X" with Marvin Endres and his RebellComedy colleague Salim Samatou. In March 2021 he started the podcast "Gut abgehangen" together with the comedian Maxi Gstettenbauer, which he ended with episode 205 on 2 September 2025. In his stand-up he plays with the cliche of the German-speaking Swiss and is considered the "funny Swiss who comes from a distant exotic country", with favourite themes including the peculiarities of the Swiss, social networks and everyday racism. He cites US-American stand-up comedy, particularly Dave Chappelle and Louis CK, as influences.