Episode 1589 - Robby Hoffman

Summary

WTF with Marc Maron Podcast Episode 1589 - Robby Hoffman Release Date: November 7, 2024

Summary

In Episode 1589 of the "WTF with Marc Maron" podcast, host Marc Maron engages in a deeply personal and revealing conversation with comedian Robby Hoffman. The episode delves into themes of political turmoil, personal trauma, identity, and the journey of finding one's voice in the world of comedy. Below is a comprehensive breakdown of the key discussions, insights, and conclusions from their interaction.

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1. Opening Rant on Political Climate (00:01 - 06:09)

Marc Maron begins the episode with an unfiltered and impassioned monologue about the current political landscape in the United States. He expresses profound fear and frustration regarding the rise of authoritarianism and the potential dismantling of democratic values. Marc reflects on the trauma of the past four years under a presidency he perceives as threatening to core societal values such as tolerance, equal opportunity, and individual freedoms.

Notable Quote:

"I'm not sure America is going to look... it's not going to be good. I don't know what America is going to look like culturally."
— Marc Maron at 05:50

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2. Introducing Robby Hoffman (06:09 - 15:23)

Transitioning from his rant, Marc introduces Robby Hoffman, a comedian and writer with a unique background. He shares how encountering Robby in everyday settings, despite their apparent differences, highlights the potential for connection over shared experiences and values. Marc emphasizes the importance of maintaining humanity and connection amid societal chaos.

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3. Coping with Political Anxiety (15:23 - 33:01)

Marc and Robby delve into coping mechanisms for dealing with the pervasive anxiety stemming from political instability. Marc discusses the psychological impact of living under constant threat of policy changes that could negatively affect marginalized communities. He encourages listeners to seek support, maintain connections with like-minded individuals, and avoid self-destructive behaviors.

Notable Quote:

"You don't have to give them that. You don't have to give them that... Don’t hurt yourself, get around other people, get around like-minded people."
— Marc Maron at 06:09

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4. Robby Hoffman's Personal Journey (33:01 - 55:19)

Robby Hoffman shares her upbringing in a large, traditional Jewish family and her experiences growing up in a conservative environment. She recounts the challenges of coming out as a lesbian in a predominantly religious community and the emotional turmoil that followed her outing in high school. Robby discusses her struggle with identity, her relationship with her family, and how comedy became a refuge and a means of self-expression.

Notable Quote:

"I always had to think about it. Kind of like being a dyke when I was like very masculine... I’m trying to figure it out."
— Robby Hoffman at 20:22

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5. Transition into Comedy and Career Development (55:19 - 74:00)

The conversation shifts to Robby's foray into the world of comedy. She narrates her initial steps, including writing her first script and navigating the comedy scene in Montreal and Toronto. Robby describes the mentorship and support she received from established comedians and how she balanced her day job with her passion for stand-up. Marc highlights the importance of persistence and authenticity in building a comedic career.

Notable Quote:

"When I was working for money enough to survive... it's the biggest luxury of my life."
— Robby Hoffman at 62:17

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6. Building an Audience and Embracing Authenticity (74:00 - 85:00)

Robby discusses her approach to building an audience through consistent performance and word-of-mouth rather than heavily relying on social media. She emphasizes the value of staying true to oneself and allowing one's unique voice to resonate with audiences. Marc and Robby explore the balance between professional aspirations and personal fulfillment in the entertainment industry.

Notable Quote:

"I feel grateful that I have so many avenues to put... I don't have to lose an idea. I get to do it right."
— Robby Hoffman at 73:35

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7. Personal Relationships and Family Dynamics (85:00 - 95:00)

The dialogue turns to Robby's personal relationships, including her romantic life and interactions with her family. She shares anecdotes about her family's reactions to her career and personal choices, illustrating the complexities of maintaining familial bonds amidst cultural and generational differences. Robby reflects on the support and challenges posed by her loved ones as she pursues her passion.

Notable Quote:

"I want that loudness. I want the wide stage."
— Robby Hoffman at 75:04

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8. Conclusion and Final Thoughts (95:00 - End)

As the episode draws to a close, Robby shares updates on her upcoming projects and expresses gratitude for the opportunity to connect with Marc and the audience. The conversation reinforces the themes of resilience, the power of humor in the face of adversity, and the ongoing quest for personal and professional authenticity.

Notable Quote:

"I have something coming out. I got a big part in an FX thing coming out in the new year. Then I just got something else that I can't talk about."
— Robby Hoffman at 79:23

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Key Takeaways

• Resilience in Turbulent Times: Both Marc and Robby highlight the importance of finding strength and maintaining connections during periods of societal instability.

• Authenticity in Comedy: Robby’s journey underscores the value of embracing one's true self in the comedic landscape, allowing her unique identity to shape her material and performances.

• Navigating Identity and Family: The episode provides a candid look at the challenges of reconciling personal identity with family expectations and cultural norms.

• Pursuit of Passion: Robby’s transition from traditional jobs to a career in comedy exemplifies the courage to follow one’s passion despite obstacles and uncertainties.

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Notable Moments and Quotes:

• Political Frustration:

  "Is he going to deport millions of people? Is he going to make it impossible for women to get the healthcare that they need?"
  — Marc Maron at 04:45

• Coping Advice:

  "Don't hurt yourself, get around other people, get around like-minded people."
  — Marc Maron at 06:09

• Robby on Identity Struggles:

  "I didn't even know what I sounded like anymore."
  — Robby Hoffman at 30:34

• Embracing Authenticity:

  "So standing in there and I feel like some people say you sound like you're from Montreal."
  — Robby Hoffman at 18:58

• Career Transition:

  "The biggest luxury is always felt like, wow, I'm... I get to do what I love for a living."
  — Robby Hoffman at 64:54

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Closing Thoughts

Episode 1589 of "WTF with Marc Maron" offers an intimate glimpse into Robby Hoffman's life, illuminating her struggles, triumphs, and the pivotal role comedy plays in her journey. Through their heartfelt exchange, Marc and Robby emphasize themes of resilience, authenticity, and the enduring human spirit in the face of personal and societal challenges.

For more insights and conversations with inspiring guests, consider subscribing to WTF+ for full show archives and exclusive bonus material.

Transcript

[Marc Maron]

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[Robbie Hoffman]

You know, I woke up this morning.

[Marc Maron]

And I had to go to work. I had to be, you know, I had to be in my car at 5:45 and on set by 6:30, 7:00 and an amazing thing happened. The same thing that happened to me and to you and to all of us happened to everybody. And I got on set and there were a lot of like minded people. I would say almost all of them. I don't know, I don't really know what people believe politically. A lot of people don't flout it or wear the hat or double down on saying horrible things. A lot of people just voted whatever the fuck their heart told them. Whatever I think of that, that's my business. But the point being, I was among people doing a job and showing up and just being professional, but also just checking in, checking in with each other, got a few laughs, got some tension release in terms of making a joke, feeling the waters out and just engaging in the work. But being around other people was a fucking, it's just a godsend. It's invaluable. And I think if you're isolated or you're despairing, look, I get it. But the bottom line is, and I've said this before, culturally and politically, we've been annihilated. And that has an effect. It's not just trauma, but it's a lot of trauma. But it's also not understanding why people believe the way they believe. It's not a matter of like, why doesn't everyone believe like me, but why can people believe in a movement that is so awful to people and is so driven by hurting others and payback and just not giving a fuck. I don't want to break all that down, but all that is annihilating. And I guess if I can say anything that may be helpful is that if you're of a certain sensitivity or you were brought up a certain way or you're fragile, sometimes the only way to react to this type of trauma and this type of all consuming terror is to take yourself out of it one way or another. And I mean that full spectrum of that, if you're not used to using drugs or you don't use drugs anymore, you might want to get fucked up. You might want to get fucked up for the rest of it. If you're already on the edge of self harm, you might want to take yourself out. But you don't have to give them that. You don't have to give them that. These fuckers that are going to take away an America of tolerance and fairness, equanimity, you don't have to give them that. You don't have to give them. You, you can keep you. And I think people underestimate the amount of. If you are of a certain type of person, this is. It can shatter your entire being because your brain will tell you you don't know how to exist in this world. But we can't give them that. You know, don't hurt yourself, get around other people, get around like minded people. I guess, you know, there is work ahead. But you know, for right now, in this interim, before, you know, the real shit show commences, you know, kind of try to pull out a little bit and understand there's plenty to be afraid of and there's plenty of unknowns and we're not heading into anything that's good and we're going to have to live on fucking scraps of good news if they even come. I don't really know the horror that's ahead, but I, I do know that you owe it to yourself not to surrender or harm yourself. So look, I'm going to do a regular show here, okay? I'm going to do a regular show here. I'm going to talk to a comedian, Robbie Hoffman. It's a great conversation. She's an interesting person, she's funny, she comes from a very interesting background. She's a writer, comedian. And you know, I'd seen her around and I didn't know what to make of her. And then I watched her comedy, I was like, oh my God, there's this, this person's a unique person. I'm going to talk to her because that's what I do here. And I think that that's what we have to do, is that, you know, this is what this show is about. It's what I've been doing. And it's just, you know, it's just the entire show, I mean, it's going to be essential for those of us who still listen, is that it's predicated on two people who on the surface have lots of differences but also can connect over their similarities. You know, just to have a talk, get to know each other. I mean, that's about the extent of the optimism I'm capable of right now, that people can still connect with each other and stay in touch with humanity. I mean, we got to, I mean, that's what happened on the set this morning. Everybody was in the same boat. Everyone was, you know, shattered, in shock, fresh wound. But you know, we had some laughs, we had some food, we made some, made a movie, making a movie. Everyone did their job. Everyone felt safe in the moment and connected. That's going to be important because the instinct is they're going to want us to shut up. They're going to want us to just stop yelling, stop talking, stop sharing beliefs or opinions. Just keep your head down. Sadly, that's easier to do with a phone. But we can't live there, so hopefully we'll be able to navigate this. Let's try to stay here. It's going to be hard, but again, there's a lot of us still. So I'll be back on tour starting in January. Sacramento. I'll be at the Crest Theater on. You know what? I'm not. I don't need to do these dates right now, but I do need to do some ads. So this might be good to hear right now. This might be the time. This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. This Week of all weeks is a good time to think about what you're grateful for. And whether you admit it or not, the person who should be at the top of your gratitude list is yourself. You hear me? Sometimes it's hard to remind ourselves that we're out there every day trying our best to make sense of everything. And after all we've been through, that is not easy. If you're having trouble giving yourself some thanks, which also means giving yourself some mental relaxation and self care, a therapist can help you out. Sometimes I just need someone to remind me to breathe or to just pay attention to where I am. And a therapist provides a professional touch. If you're thinking of starting therapy, give BetterHelp a try. It's entirely online and it's designed to be convenient, flexible and suited to your schedule. Just fill out a brief questionnaire to get matched with a licensed therapist and switch therapists anytime for no additional charge. Let the gratitude flow with BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com wtftoday to get 10% off your first month. That's betterhelp.com WTF. Look, if I was too somber or too on the level or just know that I'M I'm acting out of complete fear and I'm just, I'm just dealing. And look it, I'm angry. I didn't sit there, I didn't sit it there. I wasn't sitting here at the top of this just like this. It all, fuck it. All these, I mean, you fucking kidding me? These fucks that voted for him, all this, they're going to destroy the fucking government. It's over. Democracy is fucking over. And now we got to deal with whatever fucking horrendous thing that this chaotic fucking shit clown dumps on us and his minions and his armies and who the fuck knows? But fuck it all. If you didn't get enough of that. I mean, it's in me and it's. I don't know, I've never really lived in an authoritarian country and, you know, it's an experience we all get to have now. Not one of the good ones anyway. Look, I don't know what to tell you. I'm barely keeping it together and I've got to go shoot a scene of me dying of cancer.

[Unknown]

Yeah.

[Marc Maron]

So Robbie Hoffman is an interesting character. Her life is very interesting. Very Jewish, very lesbian, very unique. You can find her tour dates on her social media pages [e-mail] and this is me talking to Robbie Hoffman. A very unique character. This person, Robbie Hoffman.

[Robbie Hoffman]

Life is busy, people. And if you're like me, no matter how busy you get, you've got to.

[Marc Maron]

Get your fitness in. Peloton has a variety of chall and.

[Robbie Hoffman]

Programs that fit into your schedule.

[Marc Maron]

Whether you're a new parent or traveling for the holiday or training for something.

[Robbie Hoffman]

Big or just busy like everyone else. From four week strength building classes to.

[Marc Maron]

Running, cycling and everything in between, Peloton.

[Robbie Hoffman]

Can adapt to any goal and need.

[Marc Maron]

During your busiest times. Find your push. Find your power with [e-mail] what's our vibe?

[Unknown]

Because I come in hot. I have no chill is the issue. And you're the most chill.

[Marc Maron]

I'm not chill at all.

[Robbie Hoffman]

I, you know, I just, I immediately mesh with whatever's coming at me.

[Marc Maron]

I.

[Robbie Hoffman]

No one has ever called me chill.

[Unknown]

Well, here's why you're chill. You're not chill stage Persona. But you've been at this and famous for so long that you're used to people coming at you. I realized just the other day, kind of at the store actually not to get too industry already, but I come in, I'm not able to. I rub people the wrong way because I'm not able to relax. I have like still a kid, like curiosity. I'm still so excited. This is a big deal for me and my friend Jamie Loftus. She did a set up in the belly room and she spoke about how her father. She just recently lost her father. Very funny set albeit. But she said that her father told her to just be cool about everything that let life happen to you. Just whatever happens to you. Don't let on that kind of thing. Never let it on. Let life happen to you. And I realize it made me sad because grow up without a father. Maybe I would have learned this, you know, because now I come in hot. I'm always like if I'm excited. Like the first time I was excited to see you.

Yeah.

I told you. I said 10 years ago. You talked to me at just the laughs. I was trying to get the picture up. But the. I have it now. But the p. But my phone wasn't where it was like just disastrous. Only people I respect. I'm disastrous in front of. It's kind of like how guys talk about how they approach girls. It's horrible for them. They're totally normal with their friends.

Yeah.

All that stuff as soon as they have to talk to. I'm like this with a few select with you. Tim Dillon. As many times as I see him, been to his house, I'm the same way. Just because I find him so funny. It's just. It's disastrous. I was trying to get this picture of you and it rubs you. It comes in too hot.

Yeah.

[Robbie Hoffman]

I don't think that. I don't. I have dealt with a lot of people coming in hot and I don't think that, you know, having a father, not having a father. Your father might have taught you a different lesson. You might. You know, my father was a kind of like a bulldozing kind of bipolar asshole.

[Unknown]

Yeah.

[Robbie Hoffman]

So I didn't learn anything. I just have a natural at the core. I'll adapt to what's coming at me and then I'll find a medium.

[Unknown]

Good. Yeah, well, you're a professional.

[Robbie Hoffman]

I don't know if I'm. It's just the way I am. I don't like. And I didn't. You know, it's weird because I would see you around and you met me 10 years ago.

[Unknown]

Yeah. I have a picture. You want to see the picture? Finally. Because this is full circle for me. I'm autistic beyond. I got to close the link.

[Marc Maron]

Are you autistic?

[Unknown]

Yeah. Oh, yeah. Something's. I mean, something's off?

Yeah.

[Robbie Hoffman]

You haven't. You've never been diagnosed.

[Unknown]

Look at this.

Hold on.

[Robbie Hoffman]

You're like a different person.

[Unknown]

You're like a different person.

[Robbie Hoffman]

Am I? I think I look.

[Unknown]

You got a mustache now you have a beard.

[Robbie Hoffman]

Well, no, this is for a role.

[Unknown]

I got Dike here. Over time, there's no question.

[Robbie Hoffman]

Well, I mean, Dike here, but I. But, you know, you've sort of.

[Marc Maron]

This is.

[Robbie Hoffman]

The weird thing is like. But you locked in on a look. You made a decision. This is not like some standard daiki look.

[Unknown]

It's weird because it happened. I didn't lock in. I don't even know when this started happening, but I used to have a teacher in high school. We had this teacher. More regev. Hebrew teacher. Crazy.

Yeah.

And she. Through all the years in the hallways, you could see like all the class photos, all the graduating classes, the teachers included. She always had this bouffant.

Yeah.

And I'm like, ma, look at this lady. It's like 70s here. She's got the bouffant.

Right.

When the 2000, she's got the buffon. I became somebody who had the same hairstyle forever. But I.

[Robbie Hoffman]

There's a consistency to it.

[Marc Maron]

It's not a business decision.

[Robbie Hoffman]

You just. You decided at some point.

[Unknown]

It just happened. And then it was easy because when.

[Robbie Hoffman]

I used to see you around the store, I didn't know you, and I had to watch your comedy recently because, you know, I. People like you, they think you're funny and. But I would see you walk around, I'm like, is she doing a bit?

[Unknown]

No, I. You know what? It was the weirdest thing. It's like, this is where it landed. There's not so many places to go as a lesbian, like, either. I shave my head, which I think about every single year.

[Marc Maron]

Shave it?

[Unknown]

Yeah. Do it. Do I buzz it?

[Robbie Hoffman]

Why?

[Unknown]

But then I think, I don't know if I have the right head shape for that. You have to have a good head. I don't know, the picture.

[Robbie Hoffman]

You're doing this sort of half spiky thing.

[Unknown]

No, the picture I had, like, more like, you know, the front was. I don't know, it's just. It's only recently in time that people have been gave a shit what queer people look like. Don't even look at me. Like, I don't know what I'm doing. I'm trying to, you know, I'm wearing men's clothes that are small. I shop at, you know, like, I'm trying Uniqlo, you know, if You're a dyke and you like men's clothes and you want small sizes. Uniqlo, which is a Japanese company.

Yeah.

They make very petite. They go all the way from XXS to xxxl.

Yeah.

So they got the run of the gamut.

[Robbie Hoffman]

But at what point did you realize like that, you know, your queer identity was going to be, you know, up front?

[Unknown]

I didn't realize at all. I never even thought I was up front. You know what it's like you actually. It's really interesting that you said that your dad. Maybe there are. I grew up without. My father is really like.

[Robbie Hoffman]

Is he around?

[Unknown]

No, I don't. I'm estranged from my father. But he's. He's a religious guy, you know, Ultra orthodox, Jewish, religious guy. But he wore cowboy boots. He was flashy in the ways that he could be. I think I inherited some of that flash, you know, growing up with my mom.

[Robbie Hoffman]

Find it finding a way to work within, you know, your established being.

[Unknown]

Exactly.

[Robbie Hoffman]

To have a little originality.

[Unknown]

A little. He always wore cowboy boots.

[Robbie Hoffman]

Well, what does that come from? I don't. Is that something that happens in the ultra orthodox?

[Unknown]

No, there's nobody with flare. Really. The idea is homogeny.

Yeah.

You know. And what was his background? Well, he grew up in San Diego. He grew up not religious, became religious.

[Robbie Hoffman]

Right.

[Unknown]

So he kept some of his flair. And now as I get older, you saw the car. It's like I used to really be angry. I don't have a father, this and that. There's no relationship. But I realized as I aged, I'm more like him than I. I am my mother anyways, because she's very Canadian, docile, sweet as can be. And he's aggressive and boisterous, funny. And even the car. I have this 2007 Porsche Cayman, which needs a million things. Catalytic converters, always out. I drive with an engine light on. I mean, it just is what it is. But my father always liked Porsche. It's not like I'm a car person. I just remember.

[Marc Maron]

And then there's also the Jewish Porsche.

[Robbie Hoffman]

Thing, which is crazy.

[Unknown]

What is that?

[Robbie Hoffman]

Porsche was a German company that was around during Hitler and, you know, may have done some work.

[Unknown]

Yeah, Volkswagen, Mercedes, we love German.

[Robbie Hoffman]

Sure.

[Unknown]

This is our, you know, this is our Freudian.

[Robbie Hoffman]

What do you make of that?

[Unknown]

It's. It's sexual.

[Marc Maron]

It's.

[Unknown]

It, you know, it's something. It's like we're them. They. I don't know what it is, but this helps me keep a relationship alive with my father in the ways that I am him, it's almost like I do get a relationship with him.

[Marc Maron]

But is it begrudgingly?

[Robbie Hoffman]

I mean, you don't look at him.

[Unknown]

No, I enjoy. I pick the things of him that I now really enjoy.

[Robbie Hoffman]

You have to do that. And so you did have a relationship at one point. You know the guy?

[Unknown]

Yes, yes. And he was really funny. I knew him when I was a little, you know, and over the years, he visited when he could and things, and he was always just. Yeah, he was, like you said, front. What did you describe front? Upfront.

[Robbie Hoffman]

Yeah, well, I mean. But so how does that happen? So was he like a hippie Jew from San Diego?

[Unknown]

Yeah, I think he was. You know, I don't know too much about the background, but he.

[Robbie Hoffman]

Where'd he meet your mother?

[Unknown]

He met my. They both were becoming religious, and they both met at these seminaries in New York.

[Marc Maron]

The Jewish seminaries?

[Robbie Hoffman]

Yeah, yeah, the yeshivas.

[Unknown]

Yeah, exactly. So he, you know, he. He actually. He went to Berkeley for what, I think, politics. He was supposed to work for Bush 1 or something like this. And then he heard some rabbi speak. This is the folklore of my family. There's no way to verify any of this, by the way. I don't even know how these stories. But anyway, he heard some rabbis speak, he moved to New York. He never came back. He had 10 kids with my mother.

[Robbie Hoffman]

10 kids?

[Unknown]

Yeah.

[Robbie Hoffman]

Do you know them all?

[Unknown]

Yeah, of course. Of course.

[Robbie Hoffman]

How old do they know what's the oldest?

[Unknown]

Well, we're all the oldest. Like 42 and the oldest. We're 10 kids in 12 years. We're all about a year apart.

[Robbie Hoffman]

That's crazy.

[Unknown]

I'm close to some, I'm not with others.

[Robbie Hoffman]

So they were Hasidic?

[Unknown]

Yeah.

[Robbie Hoffman]

And that was part of the duty, make more Jews.

[Unknown]

Well, the duty is, you know, you're fucking without contraception.

[Robbie Hoffman]

Well, I get that, but I mean, isn't part of the agenda to sort of repopulate?

[Unknown]

Well, you know, that is what happens when you're not using.

[Robbie Hoffman]

Yeah, but I mean, it's not like you're just being lazy. You want more kids. They all have a lot of kids.

[Unknown]

Yeah, we had a lot of kids.

[Robbie Hoffman]

And so you grew up in, like, one of these kind of cloistered Hasidic situations.

[Unknown]

Yeah, but then my mother's Canadian. We got out, we moved to Canada, and that's. She left. We left the community.

[Robbie Hoffman]

With 10 kids.

[Unknown]

With 10 kids.

[Robbie Hoffman]

That must have been crazy.

[Unknown]

It's crazy.

[Robbie Hoffman]

You know, we talked about Loser Torsky for a Minute.

[Unknown]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Marc Maron]

Cause I've talked to Jews about.

[Unknown]

He grew up even crazier than me, if you can imagine. I mean, to you, seems like you got out younger. Yeah, of course. No, he got out. He had a kid or something.

[Robbie Hoffman]

Well, he was about to get married. He had a wife, I think. I don't remember if he had a kid, but, like, he was a grown person making a decision.

[Marc Maron]

You at least were saved in a way.

[Unknown]

Exactly. People, like, had you. I'm like, my mother took us, all 10 of you, all 10 of us, to Canada. To Canada. Where?

[Robbie Hoffman]

Montreal.

[Unknown]

That's how I met you. Because I was starting to find comedy then. And I got four minute spots just for laughs. And I came about four hours early because, again, I have no chill. I was so excited to be there. And I was sitting on this open patio that they had at the Hyatt there where they hosted all the comics that came in for the Montreal fast. I know.

[Marc Maron]

In back.

[Unknown]

And the only other person was you. And then I looked in the background of that picture. I think Nick Brazal.

Yeah.

Who's like a booker there or something, is also in the background of the picture. But nobody was on the balcony. I saw you just sitting by myself out there. Yeah. I was immediately like, yeah, but I didn't want it. But you could tell I wanted to talk.

Yeah.

And you talked to me for two or three hours. We had. We were both there, like, retardedly early. I don't know why.

[Marc Maron]

We spoke for two or three hours.

[Unknown]

You were. Stop it. You were ungenerous. I could ask, whatever.

Yeah.

I was noticed.

[Robbie Hoffman]

Was it helpful?

[Unknown]

Not help. It was helpful in a way that we had a conversation.

Yeah.

You weren't like, do this, do that. It was just.

[Robbie Hoffman]

I wouldn't have done that.

[Unknown]

But then years later, I started making my own way.

Yeah.

And so I see you at the store. I come up hot. I met. You know, which is where. It's a code. We don't really do that. It's not like. I do that all the time with lots of comics. You. I did it with. I did it with Sebastian, who was just a doll, as you can imagine. And Tim, who I'm friends with. Same thing, but lots of other. Whitney. There's so many people I go up to and it either hits or I rub them the wrong way.

[Robbie Hoffman]

I just had no sense of, like. Cause my memory's not great and you look totally different. And I'm trying to piece it together. It's 10 years ago.

[Unknown]

No.

[Robbie Hoffman]

And why would you remember me because you're so Jewy.

[Unknown]

Well, it happens.

[Robbie Hoffman]

That's. And I'm sure that's why I talked.

[Unknown]

To you, because we vape in here.

[Robbie Hoffman]

Yeah, I don't care. So there's like, you know, there's something like. Because I didn't know what you were doing on stage until, like a few weeks ago, I go, my gonna watch this weirdo.

[Unknown]

Did you watch me?

[Robbie Hoffman]

Yeah. And I was like, oh, my God. She's like, legacy. She's like, you know, purely, you know, Jewish humorist.

[Unknown]

But you know what? In many.

[Robbie Hoffman]

That's not. It's not.

[Marc Maron]

I'm not.

[Robbie Hoffman]

That's not a put down.

[Unknown]

And by the way. And by the way, it is what it's like, I think, like, I skip. Like, I relate to people, like my friend's grandparents or whatever. I feel like I grew up, like. Like, when you do hear it, like, I shared a room, the million siblings. There was bunk beds. You know, the bunk. The top bunk was always, like, caving in. You could smash to death. You know, we grew up, you know, with multiple generations in the house. My great Uncle Eddie was downstairs. It was like, all old people. It was also. That's why it's like. It sounds like, oh, this comedy died. And now it's like, been reincarnated in me for some fucking reason.

[Robbie Hoffman]

Well, but what it is is because there's nobody that generationally has that proximity to that sort of Yiddish lilt of conversation. That was in your house.

[Unknown]

That was in my house.

[Robbie Hoffman]

So like most people, certainly your generation, but even mine, I can affect that because I had grandparents that were once removed from that. But to actually, to realize that it still exists generationally in certain communities. So it's really a way of talking and a way of delivering that you've heightened and it's just your natural way of being. But it's not a reinvention. It's just sort of like, haven't seen that in a while because culturally it doesn't exist anymore comedically. Back in the day, you had guys on stage in the Borscht Belt that were doing. Myron Cohen was doing half his act in Yiddish. Lenny Bruce was Yiddish. So it's a tone of comedy which was the. The backbone of American comedy for fucking decades.

[Unknown]

Yeah, yeah. No. You know, and I tried to change it. It's funny, I have some siblings who don't. Who speak really Anglicized or something like this. And I have other siblings that my girlfriend Gabby can't understand because it's so thick. My brother Snare. I don't. I can understand a bit now. But we did. And my mother does. And my mother writes plays in Yiddish and does a lot in Yiddish still. But, but um, I tried to, like I remember in high school, my, my best friend sat me down.

Yeah.

Shout out to Shani.

Yeah.

And she was like, you're bringing down the group. Because I went to. Still a religious. No, sorry. A conservative Jewish high school. So pretty Jewish.

Yeah.

But it was cool.

Yeah.

You know what I mean? And she looser. It was much looser than how I grew up. So. And she was like, you're bringing down the group. And I would say, you know, like the color orange. I said orange. Now I say orange. And I switched so much that I started going crazy and not knowing what my voice was.

[Robbie Hoffman]

Too Jewy. Buzz kill you.

[Unknown]

Yeah. Like I would always have to think about it. Kind of like being a dyke when I was like very masculine.

Yeah.

But I was presenting as female, as feminine as possible. I will always be conscious how I'm sitting, how I'm doing stuff.

Yeah.

Like, is this too masculine? I would put my hands in a certain way. I would sit cross legged. Not like this. Like it's the same thing with my voice.

Yeah.

To a point that I didn't know how to move.

Yeah.

And I didn't know what I sounded like anymore. And now it's always an amalgamation. Like now I feel like some people say you sound like you're from Montreal. Sound like here, you sound like there. So you know, it's landed here. But there's certainly in my family of my siblings, there's like a volume. But some people have it way more and some people have it less. My sister who's worked in the corporate world now for like over 15 years, she's really has a nice. You know what I mean? Very business, like professional and that sort of thing.

[Robbie Hoffman]

So. But, but, so, but your delivery. But like the way you do comedy, you come in hot immediately and the jokes are solid, but you're definitely doing a thing.

[Unknown]

Well, here's the thing in comedy, I'm almost. I get to be the most me.

Yeah.

I don't have to. I can go extreme. I can be almost an exaggeration of who I am. Whatever the thoughts are. The deep. I can go I thousand percent in life. You've tone it down a little and happens naturally for me now.

Yeah.

I'm just not a thousand percent me. I have the filters. I don't have enough filters. I don't have enough filters. I still go up to people like you. I wish I had a father. Was like, play it cool. I don't. I still would like to play cool and do these things. It's just. But I'm still, you know. But the more heated I get, the less I think about how I'm being, the more it comes out, if that makes sense.

[Robbie Hoffman]

And the more funny.

[Unknown]

Yeah. The less guardrails there is about, like, how I have to be.

[Robbie Hoffman]

Well, that's what's, like. That's what's interesting about comedy, you know? And for me, too, like, I tell people, like, what should I do? I said, well, you can do whatever the fuck you want.

[Unknown]

Yeah.

[Robbie Hoffman]

You know, when you're starting out, it's harder now because everybody's recording everything. But when you're starting out, just figure out how to make that your fucking territory up there.

[Unknown]

Well, that was the thing I had first, you know, when I first started, and it was kind of, you know, I had probably started a year and a half in Montreal before I moved to Toronto, and that's where I really, you know, that was my real stopping.

[Robbie Hoffman]

Before you get there, though, like, what is going on? So your mother takes you all there. There's 10 of you. What, you integrate into the Jewish community in Montreal?

[Unknown]

Yeah, so we integrate. We're still the most Jewish.

Yeah.

So I go to this conservative private school that we get on the mother.

[Robbie Hoffman]

Ultra Orthodox.

[Unknown]

She's not ultra. But we're kosher to kitchen.

[Robbie Hoffman]

She wearing a wig?

[Unknown]

No.

Okay.

But she's not wearing pants.

Yeah.

And. But she wasn't married, too, so she wasn't wearing a wig.

[Robbie Hoffman]

Right, okay.

[Unknown]

Right.

[Robbie Hoffman]

Okay.

[Unknown]

But. But I don't know if she would have. Yeah, but we were still, like, glad kosher. We were still, like. I was the religious kid at school. Even though it was a Jewish conservative school, I was still the most fanatic.

[Robbie Hoffman]

And were you religious?

[Unknown]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Robbie Hoffman]

So, like, as. As somebody who grows up in that, what. What does that require of a woman?

[Unknown]

It's so funny because Gabby thinks my girlfriend thinks I'm the most religious person still. Well, because I have a mezuzah on the door. I'm not an animal. I mean, like, there's certain things that I, you know, I don't have to.

[Robbie Hoffman]

Like, I don't even have one.

[Unknown]

No. But, you know, it's like, I don't.

[Robbie Hoffman]

Need to, like, feel bad about it.

[Unknown]

Yeah. There's things that I can come bring one, but I have one. You know, there's things that, you know, I. Listen, I don't have to Do Shabbat candles if. No, but occasionally I'll have like a dike seder or something. You know, I picked it, but you know. Yeah, I'm very informed by that because even when I go to. I like traditions, you know, I'm not somebody who, like, I. You know, most of Judaism, we really don't know about God. The idea is like, no, I've been.

[Robbie Hoffman]

Talking about that recently. It's like we were never taught how to use God.

[Unknown]

No, we were like, maybe it is, maybe it isn't. This is what it is.

[Marc Maron]

It's an ongoing conversation.

[Unknown]

Yeah, it's like. So maybe it's energies now. I think it's like, I don't know. I think it's miraculous that a plant grows and it's not plugged into a wall and that water doesn't get that, you know.

[Robbie Hoffman]

But I mean, you were. But as Orthodox, you brought up with a God.

[Unknown]

More like rules. Like, we almost didn't talk about God so much.

[Robbie Hoffman]

Exactly.

[Unknown]

It was almost like, well, there's kind of what you have to do. And I did a lot of things you have to do. I mean, I was kosher till 19. I broke my kosherness on an egg McMuffin.

[Robbie Hoffman]

Was it a ritual? Were you like, I'm doing it.

[Unknown]

What happened was I had exams. I was in school.

[Robbie Hoffman]

In college.

[Unknown]

Yeah. It's called cjep Dawson College in Montreal. It's after high school. You only. You graduate high school, grade 11.

Yeah.

Then you go to CJP, which is pre college.

Yeah.

For like two years. And then you do university, which is three years, not a four year program.

[Robbie Hoffman]

Okay.

[Unknown]

So I'm in this two year, you know, pre college thing that is only mandatory in Quebec. Nobody else, I think, in the world has it. But anyway, I'm there. And it was very segregated.

[Robbie Hoffman]

The school between what?

[Unknown]

Basically all the schools. All the schools. There's like four SIEGFs in Montreal or something. And all of the schools have to go to them for two years. So they're massive schools.

Yeah.

But it was divided. There was a Jew calf. Really 3e. You ate.

[Robbie Hoffman]

That was a norm, or was it? This is where Jews were.

[Unknown]

Yeah. Jew came from a Jewish school.

Yeah.

You ate there.

[Robbie Hoffman]

You had to eat there.

[Unknown]

There was an Italian calf.

[Robbie Hoffman]

They put them there.

[Unknown]

Not put. But that was the way it was. It felt like prison.

[Robbie Hoffman]

It was a community thing.

[Unknown]

It felt like prison there, but it wasn't a rule.

[Robbie Hoffman]

You had to eat there, but the Jews ate there.

[Unknown]

Yeah. And you kind of couldn't, you know. There was. Conrad's was only for black kids. And if you were there, like, you could have a friend there. But you would kind of like at the entrance of the cafeteria, you would say like, bye.

[Robbie Hoffman]

Yeah, I gotta go with the juice.

[Unknown]

Because I was dating an Italian girl who. Who was in the Italian caf, and we didn't hang out in the Italian Cafe or the. She would want to come and have lunch with me in Jew Calf. I'd be like, I don't think that's a good idea.

[Robbie Hoffman]

But there wasn't a. Like a queer calf.

[Unknown]

No. Oh, gays, Forget it.

[Robbie Hoffman]

Yeah, but it was okay to be out, though.

[Unknown]

Gays were in the hallways a lot, just sitting along the lockers.

Yeah.

If that makes sense. But anyway, so we just had exams. I maybe had an 8:00 to 10:00 exam.

Yeah.

Nailed it.

Yeah.

I'm exhausted, right? It's like 10am And I remember it's. First of all, it's Pesach. It's Passover.

All right?

Okay. So you're not even supposed to be here. This is where all the non religious Jews are suddenly keeping kosher for Passover, right. All of my conservative Jewish friends are like, oh, we're not eating bread. Meanwhile, they eat trace. They eat whatever the fuck they want all the time. They're telling me. And there was an Alexis Neon, which was the mall across the street, and There was a McDonald's in there.

Yeah.

And I was like, breakfast is still open. Because I saw Big Daddy. We loved the movie Big Daddy. And it was all McDonald's breakfast. And even as a kid after school, I'd be walking home, all the non Jewish kids had like McDonald's Happy Meals. I'm like, I want to be happy. Like, why can't I be happy? You know, I just. You smelling. All I wanted was a nugget.

Yeah.

Like, if I could get a nugget. And then McDonald's breakfast became this other big thing. I'm like, big Daddy, you gotta make breakfast.

Yeah.

And I realized it was served till 11 or something.

Yeah.

And I'm like, I'm doing it. I don't know what. There was no kosher food around me. I just finished this exam. I got no lunch on me. There's nothing kosher around me. I go and I get the egg McMuffin, which I heard about with the bacon.

Oh, you want full.

The latkes.

[Robbie Hoffman]

Full boar.

[Unknown]

Yeah. The hash browns.

[Robbie Hoffman]

The latkes. Yeah, McDonald's latkes.

[Unknown]

And then I bring it back to the Gap and I eat it. And I remember my friend Ron, who's suddenly keeping kosher ridiculous for the day. He goes, I can't believe you're going to eat this on pacifier. I said, how dare you? How many times have I gone out with everybody, ordered a fucking garden salad, no dressing, because I'm kosher. I don't say fuck all about what you guys eat. And I literally had an Egg McMuffin every day for, like, a month. And I ended up working at McDonald's legitimately. I'm the only one who can prove that. And I ate there twice a day the entire time. We ate. We worked there, My friend. Shenanigans.

[Robbie Hoffman]

Did you feel like working at McDonald's was some sort of act of rebellion?

[Unknown]

You know What? They paid $11 an hour, which is way more than the seven an hour you could get. Like, McDonald's had a shortage of workers, so they were giving $11 an hour, which at the time was insane.

[Marc Maron]

Yeah, but what was.

[Robbie Hoffman]

What was the feeling, though? I mean, you know, after a lifetime of honoring these codes and rules, no feelings.

[Unknown]

You know what? I guess. I guess I'm just like, more people have something to say about it than me. I'm like, well, you know what I mean? It's like, I remember the first, like, when I started getting, like, dollar pizza or whatever that wasn't kosher. I had more of a feeling about it, maybe a little guilt. But once I was like. And then once you're gay, like, people go, oh, do you care that you're, you know, do you care about marrying Jewish? I go, what are we talking about? What are we. What are we doing here? I'm scissoring. Like, what are you talking about? Like, it's over. We're not procreating. And plus, I feel like my mother procreated enough for all of us. We don't have to do nothing.

[Marc Maron]

So when.

[Robbie Hoffman]

When did you. Like, when was the first conversations you had with your mother about being gay?

[Unknown]

Oh, yeah. So I was outed horribly.

[Robbie Hoffman]

How old?

[Unknown]

I was like, 17. 18.

Yeah.

And I was still at this college dating this freaking Italian girl who was, you know, really pressuring me. She wanted to hold my hand in public and all this shit. And I remember we were leaving school and we were, like, gonna take the subway. You know, the metro and the platform. She was like, hold my hand. And this was the subway stop that a whole school got out at. So I'm like, there's no fucking way. What am I, fucking gay? And she was like, if you don't hold my hand. I'm getting on the train without you. I waved the fuck to her. I was like, goodbye. Not doing that. And then I started going out. We had a campus bar. Wasn't on campus, but it was like the place. Yeah. It was called Mad Hatters in Montreal. And we were, you know, it was kind of place where kids would go out, we would put our money together, buy a pitcher. And I was getting a little tipsy.

Yeah.

You know, early in, like, you know.

Sure.

And we go to the bathroom and she pulls me to the stall. We're making out in the stall. People are yelling for the bathroom. Because it's like, there's like two stalls and it's a. You know, so we fling out of it, you know, our embrace kind of separating as the door opens. And this bitch that I went to school with, Jewish school with, saw me, which was my worst nightmare.

Yeah.

And so I'm like, paranoid, whatever. So.

[Robbie Hoffman]

But I'm pretty cool.

[Unknown]

Literally, it felt like. It felt like that movie I walked to. Remember. I don't know if you've seen Shane west and Mandy Moore, but where. Like the whole cafeteria, like, you know, saw a nude of you or something.

[Robbie Hoffman]

Right, right.

[Unknown]

And it felt like I was walking in and I was getting messages on msn and.

[Robbie Hoffman]

Well, so what, did she put it out into the world somehow or just.

[Unknown]

Yeah, it spread like wildfire.

[Robbie Hoffman]

This is before Instagram and shit.

[Unknown]

Yeah, yeah, just before. And it was like, but it's still the Jewish community. There was. So it spread like wildfire. And I just remember, like, literally being at this point, I'm 17, 18, I live on my own.

Yeah.

I grew up really poor. It was either like, oh, I could maybe pay my mom rent or get my own spot. At one point, I almost moved out with my brother Menachem into a studio with like a curtain in between us. But I was like, eh, what if he masturbates? I started thinking about that.

Yeah.

[Marc Maron]

How old is.

[Unknown]

And then I was like, he was a year old. He was like 18, I was 17. So I was like, menachem, we could get our own place. And he was like, really down with it. And I was doing most of the groundwork, like, looking at these places in Montreal, but it quickly became clear that we couldn't afford a one bedroom.

[Marc Maron]

Is he still religious, that one?

[Unknown]

No.

All right.

And then, yeah, it spread. And what happened? And my friends told me, you know, I thought at that point, social life was way more important than my family, because this will go back at this point. Social life was all I had. Like, my friends, college time, you know what I mean? I'm living on my own. A lot of my friends are living at home or they are. They have dorms or something like this.

Yeah.

And I thought my life was falling apart. I was like, I'm really lucky to be alive here because I thought I was, like, losing. Like, I was just. I had no money. I couldn't do school anymore. I'm like, I don't even think I could afford this anymore.

[Robbie Hoffman]

So you were depressed, you mean?

[Unknown]

Yeah. And I thought I was, like, my.

[Robbie Hoffman]

Life was over because you were going to die. You're going to kill yourself.

[Unknown]

I guess so. Like, I just, like, wasn't sure how to even, like, navigate one foot forward because all my friends. My friends were telling me things like, you know, I can't be friends with you. Like, even though it was progressive, but.

[Robbie Hoffman]

For religious reasons or just being.

[Unknown]

Yeah. We were still in a conservative, traditional Jewish community. That was the thing. It wasn't like, you know, it wasn't orthodox, but it was still traditional in a way. Like an American traditional, you know?

[Robbie Hoffman]

So was it God's law kind of thing?

[Unknown]

No, it was kind of like. That's weird. She lied. It's like, I didn't lie. I wasn't even gay to myself yet.

Yeah.

Like, why do I have to tell you everything? I don't even know everything. Like, people expect they need to know everything. It's like I'm figuring. I don't know.

[Robbie Hoffman]

I'm figuring it out.

[Unknown]

I haven't even said I'm gay yet.

Yeah.

I'm kind of hoping this passes. This girl's crazy. I'm kind of hoping this goes away.

Yeah.

I think it's a phase. I'm like, robbie, it's probably a phase. You're not gay. What are you crazy? You already grew up with this mother.

[Robbie Hoffman]

Single mom, of that funny moment about the train.

[Marc Maron]

It's like, what am I gay?

[Unknown]

Yeah, no, you're gay. I'm not actually gay. And I really just didn't want another thing. Growing up so poor, being on my own. My mother was hearing impaired and crazy. We were on welfare. I was on subsidy at the school. I didn't want another thing. Like, as soon as gay happened to me, I'm like, no, no, no.

[Robbie Hoffman]

So you already stigmatized for the. Being poor and having poor was horrible.

[Unknown]

Poor was the worst thing I've ever been through.

[Robbie Hoffman]

And then your whole life was like that upon arriving in Canada?

[Unknown]

Oh, yeah. Yeah, we were. It was just horrendous. And I went to a rich school. You know, I went to a Jewish private school on subsidy. It would let, like, you know, maybe there was like, five or six kids in the whole class of 200 or 150 that, you know, were welfare cases.

[Marc Maron]

Yeah.

[Unknown]

And that was. That highlighted how poor I was, I guess, as an early child. You're in the community, everybody's kind of poor, you know.

Yeah.

When you're. When you're yelling with a neighbor's family or something, you're like, you know, classic insults we have. It's like, well, you're fat, you're ugly. Well, you're poor. You're poor, too.

Yeah.

Like, we all had, like, you know, we went right for the, you know, the gutters. And then.

[Robbie Hoffman]

So what happened after you were outed? I mean, how did that come together?

[Unknown]

So I lost all my friends.

[Robbie Hoffman]

Totally.

[Unknown]

Yeah. There was a couple friends shout out to Allie in Malay. My friend Malay messaged me. She was like, hey, dawg, hear what's happening. Love you no matter what. Same. My friend Allie, like, hey, if you want to talk, don't. But I had other friends saying, I'm hearing sketchy things about you. I don't know what's true. And they've all come around since, but it was. It was really devastating.

[Robbie Hoffman]

And how'd you handle it?

[Unknown]

I can't even almost remember. I just thought through.

Yeah.

I just literally got through.

[Robbie Hoffman]

But did you feel like walking down the halls, you were getting looks and all that shit.

[Unknown]

Oh, it was horrible.

[Robbie Hoffman]

Oh, Christ.

[Unknown]

Yeah. No, I didn't go into the juke half. I didn't.

[Robbie Hoffman]

Just stayed in the hallway.

[Unknown]

Yeah. Like, I just went to class and literally went home. And I probably lost so much weight. Like, I didn't eat a lot.

Yeah.

And I was really.

[Robbie Hoffman]

What happened to the Italian girl?

[Unknown]

Yeah, she was. I can't remember even how I navigated that with her.

[Robbie Hoffman]

Isn't that strange? Like, all that stuff is so blur.

[Unknown]

Yeah. So then when I told my mother, so when I was outed, I knew that one of my siblings might find out and tell my mother.

Yeah.

So I felt like. And I had gone to my mother's for, like, Friday. I used to do homework in the kitchen table there or whatever, eat her free food or whatever. And I said, hey, Ma. I just, like, barged in, and I was like, hey, Ma, I got a girlfriend. She's blonde. And she was like, does she want to come for Shabbos? I'm like, nobody wants to fucking come here. So she took it My family took it great. I mean, my sister Kai was like, what, you don't think we've all made out with girls? My sister Kai's like, smoking a cigarette. She's like, changing a tampon in front of me. She's got her foot up on the ledge. She's like, you don't think just because you make out with girls. I'm like, no, I think it's actually more than that. I have a girlfriend. She's like, we've all had girlfriends. I'm like, what's going on? So my family was great. It was the social shit at that age that was the hardest.

[Robbie Hoffman]

Well, that's interesting, though, that your mother somehow maintained progressive sensibility, or was it just.

[Unknown]

Well, now she's juiced for Jesus, so she's totally off. No, my mother's addicted to cults. Like, people fall in love with people, she falls in love with the community, basically. If you're at the end of an escalator, one way to get my mother is just stand at the end of an escalator, any subway station. If she comes up, she will grab your pamphlet, she will read it. She's considering it. Yeah. She is truly going to consider.

[Robbie Hoffman]

I think that is.

[Unknown]

She just likes. She just. She's always searching for more. She's vulnerable. You know, When I ask her, she goes, if you're asking if I had any friends growing up, the answer is no. I'm like, mom, what is going on? But she. Yeah, just community, in a sense of. My mother always feels like she's sinning, I guess, but she's never sinned.

[Robbie Hoffman]

Did she grow up Jewish?

[Unknown]

Yeah, she's Jewish. But I think also she has a daddy thing. That religion is very Daddy like. My mother grew up a daddy's girl. My grandfather, my Zedi, her father who saved us, quote, unquote, from New York. They were very, very, very close.

Yeah.

Okay. Then she leaves his house, she marries my father. She's under the rule of my father. She has no autonomy, basically.

Yeah.

In her family, she's, like, just, you know, bearing kids, and he. What he says goes and whatever. And then she divorces my father.

[Robbie Hoffman]

What was. What was the What. What drove that?

[Unknown]

Very abusive. They had a horrible abusive.

[Robbie Hoffman]

And once you have Canada, that's when it ended with him for you.

[Unknown]

Yeah. Well, there was, like, you know, he would try and visit, but it was very difficult. He made me visit once a year, and then that went to once every two years. And we really. And then her father dies and she comes back to Canada. To her father, and he's great, and we grew up with him. And then he dies. And then she's unsure of herself without a man over her. So Jesus becomes her new daddy.

Yeah.

[Robbie Hoffman]

Everybody's dead.

[Unknown]

The father. So she. She needs that.

Yeah.

And maybe I try and explain her that maybe I don't need that because I grew up mostly with a single mom.

Yeah.

So.

[Robbie Hoffman]

So I. It's sort of fortuitous that you were kind of able to get out from under, you know, being a real kind of, you know, insulated religious fanatic, just by coincidence.

[Unknown]

Yeah.

[Robbie Hoffman]

You know.

[Unknown]

Yeah.

[Robbie Hoffman]

And like, it seems like that being outed, you know, kind of forced your hand. But did. Did sort of. I assume that, like, you coming to grips or accepting yourself somehow coincided with comedy.

[Unknown]

Yeah. I kind of heard about comedy in Montreal in college. Yeah. Probably around this. This whole time. Maybe a little bit later. Maybe university.

Yeah.

I mean, I guess I had heard of it and I knew my brothers knew something about it, but I didn't really know it or what it was, but they had the festival again in Montreal, so that was also true. That was also a great coincidence because it was huge. And as soon as I heard of it, I thought, oh, I could do that.

[Robbie Hoffman]

You went and watched?

[Unknown]

Yeah. So I don't know if we got tickets. It was very expensive. But I knew of the festival. I watched stuff, like online or torrented. But also I did it immediately. As soon as I found out to do it. As soon as I heard about it, I just looked up, like, comedy. I was like, where's the best place to bomb?

Yeah.

And I started doing it almost not knowing what it was, which was also great because I had no stakes. I had no. I really didn't know that it could be a big thing or a not thing or a job or anything. And I just.

[Robbie Hoffman]

And you had no. You weren't watching it?

[Unknown]

No, I didn't know. No, no, I. But my family was funny. We were fine. I had to say. And it's funny that you said early on, you were talking about people who. Comics who start and whatever, and can't they use that or find their voice? The first thing older comics in Montreal always tell me, like, it takes 10 years to find you, you know.

[Marc Maron]

Sure.

[Unknown]

Like 10 years, you know.

Yeah, yeah, I know that one.

And, you know, 10 years to find your voice and this and that. The first comment I always got was, my voice. I have such a strong voice. The content kind of came off. I had it opposite to everyone.

Yeah.

Because basically it was like My voice was the strongest thing right away. Anything I said, even if it was something political or in the zeitgeist or people were talking about it on stage. If I said it, it sounded nude different. It was a different perspective.

[Robbie Hoffman]

Well, yeah. And also, you weren't cluttered with, you know, heroes.

[Unknown]

Yeah.

[Robbie Hoffman]

You're coming into it, like, clean slate somehow.

[Unknown]

Yeah.

[Robbie Hoffman]

You weren't like, you know, that guy's funny or that woman's funny, and I want to be like her.

[Marc Maron]

You were.

[Unknown]

I was going back and, like, as I was falling in love with comedy, I was also watching it. Like, I watched Eddie Murphy. I was like, somebody should do something. Like, as if, you know. But I'm 25 years late.

[Robbie Hoffman]

Well, I mean, when I got into comedy, I always loved comedy, but I always. I never saw it as some sort of. I never saw myself as an entertainer. I just knew that I had things to say and I had a way of saying it and that I wanted to say it, and I wanted to have the freedom to say whatever the fuck I wanted.

[Unknown]

Yeah.

[Robbie Hoffman]

And the only context was, well, it's gotta be funny.

[Unknown]

Yeah.

[Robbie Hoffman]

So, like, it was my way of finding myself, my voice, that was all.

[Unknown]

Yeah.

[Robbie Hoffman]

I never thought, like, I really want to entertain people.

[Unknown]

Yeah. No, I think I want. I was always, like, a class clown type. Like, there were, like, hints of this happening, but I guess I didn't know of it as a thing at the time. I was working as an auditor, as an accountant. I got a good job from university. Yeah, they gave you an internship? And they gave me a laptop for keeps, which got me in. I was like, for keeps?

Yeah.

I'm like, yeah, I'm gonna work here.

[Robbie Hoffman]

I was like, I can have this.

[Unknown]

Yeah. Like, it was just an internship.

Yeah.

And I was like, yeah, it's a good job.

[Robbie Hoffman]

Free computer.

[Unknown]

This is good benefits. This is good benefits.

[Robbie Hoffman]

So when you're first going on, are you just like. Are you doing what you do? You're just sort of like. You're just going up there and just like, going, yeah, you're writing jokes.

[Unknown]

Yeah. I was like, stuff about my family. And my mother was a very big inspiration. And growing up poor, I was starting to own more. I was so ashamed to be poor. And I hid it for so long. I was somebody who tried not to look poor or be poor. And, I don't know, I started owning it a little bit more. And it was a way to, like, bring less shame to the way things I could not control.

[Robbie Hoffman]

And what about the gay thing?

[Unknown]

The gay idea? I Was already. Like, I looked gay. Like, it's enough. Like, it was clear.

[Robbie Hoffman]

People knew.

[Unknown]

Yeah. Like, it was. Like, I didn't have to. Like, that is even more recent, that stuff. Because now there's a lot of, like, queer stuff and gender stuff that I'm in a place where I can comment about that.

Yeah.

[Robbie Hoffman]

But then. No need to.

[Unknown]

But then it's like, yeah, she's gay.

Yeah.

It's like, my mother hated that I switched my name to Robby, you know, when I started comedy. But when I was doing. When I was an accountant, I went by my birth name, Rivka. And I didn't want the firm to think I wasn't, like, Die Hard for them, which I literally was. Shout out to KPMG gave me an internship and then a job. But, like, you had to, like, live for this company.

Yeah.

Like, basically I was getting like.

[Robbie Hoffman]

So you were Rivka the accountant.

[Unknown]

Yeah, so I was Rivka. And I was a Jewish accounting firm. No. And I specifically didn't go like, there was a Jewish partner at another big accounting firm at Ernst Young who was like, hey, we stick with each other. And I was like, I kind of don't want this vibe anymore.

Yeah.

And I went where they had, like, a lot of French people, actually. Montreal, still.

[Robbie Hoffman]

But you speak French.

[Unknown]

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, it's mandatory there. I had to, like, work in Friends and shit.

Yeah.

But I, you know, used Robby because I wanted. I wanted to keep the R initial. I wanted to feel like me. I wanted it almost to be familial. And my mom's brother's name was Robby.

Yeah.

My Uncle Rob never heard a bad thing about him. My whole life he lived in Vermont. We thought he was like Ned Flounders. He would come to New York and Montreal. He'd be like, who wants to play ball? And we'd be like, who's this faggot? Like, we just were so mean to him. But he was the greatest guy. And over the years, we got to acknowledge, like, this was just a good dude.

Yeah.

And so I went with Robbie.

Yeah.

Because I never heard anything bad about my Uncle Rob. And shout out to Uncle Rob, my Aunt Sheila. They're wonderful people. And it felt like still home. It felt like a name I knew and then I could keep separate. But then I was. I was. It was going. Cause I said, I'm doing this comedy thing. Six months doesn't work. I have the best job.

Yeah.

Easy as hell. I don't know what I'm doing at Work. But you just pretend.

Yeah.

And they keep you around like there's nothing to do.

[Robbie Hoffman]

So wait, so what happens? After six months, I was.

[Unknown]

There was a little write up of me in the local paper.

[Robbie Hoffman]

That was enough.

[Unknown]

So that was some. And they got. The partners got the paper every morning in their office.

Yeah.

So a partner came to me. I thought I was in big trouble.

Yeah.

It's like, you know, this is you. Like, it was Robbie Riff Goffman.

Yeah.

Because I was like, moonlining. I had two suits from Jacob, which was shout out to Jacob from Montreal, which was. And I would wear my suits and then I would go to the bathroom, I would change into jeans and like, a T shirt, and I go do comedy.

[Marc Maron]

Where?

[Unknown]

In the works? Yeah, the works. I did the open mic there. Any mic that I could basically do, I was doing.

Yeah.

[Robbie Hoffman]

And what the. What the partner say.

[Unknown]

And he actually really, like, didn't want to me do the Christmas party. He thought it was great that I was doing that.

[Robbie Hoffman]

Did you do the Christmas party?

[Unknown]

I think I left the company before that. But they all did come to see me do four minutes of just relapse because I promoted that. Like, hey, guys, I'm in the festival. I was very grandiose, which I recently had a conversation with my friend about how I was always braggadocious or grandiose or I would exaggerate. But it's like when you don't have parents who believe in you or tell you anything.

Yeah.

Like, I was, in fact, encouraged. I couldn't do anything.

[Robbie Hoffman]

And also, you, like, you're like the youngest kid.

[Unknown]

Yeah. But it's also like, I believe I was like, I'm gonna give myself what my parent. I'm gonna become the father. I didn't have the mother. I'm gonna like. You got this, Rob, you are doing just floss.

[Robbie Hoffman]

Fuck.

[Unknown]

Yeah.

Yeah.

I don't care that it's four minutes. Look at you.

Yeah.

And I would promote that shit. But it's annoying to people because they're like. But other people have parents and stuff, so they learn to. Oh, they were believed in. But I was never really believed in. My mother was very, like, fine about us doing anything. She was encouraging and really, you know, respected all her kids and thought we were clever. But there was no idea that you could. I remember her telling my brothers, like.

[Robbie Hoffman]

School'S not for everyone, but so do you find. But was it a battle against a sort of insecurity or you just second nature? Like, I'm here. Fuck off.

[Unknown]

I just didn't Even think about it. I really believed in myself. I didn't think about it.

[Robbie Hoffman]

I was like, that's kind of a gift.

[Unknown]

Yeah. I just didn't. I was just like going in.

[Robbie Hoffman]

So what's the first gig you get? When do you start working?

[Unknown]

I started working pretty. I mean, I started doing mics and shows. I did that. The head of just Flops really liked me early and I got those four spots. Bruce. Shout out to Bruce. Bruce likes me. It was a guy, Andy, at the time. And then I moved to Toronto. What would happen? There was a lot of politics in the comedy works, which was the main club.

[Robbie Hoffman]

What was that guy's name? Jimmy.

[Unknown]

Yeah. There was like a lot of politics. Like I would win the best of open mic all the time, but I wouldn't get to do the weekend. Like, they would keep like people down. Like they were funny and like they.

[Robbie Hoffman]

Had that kind of power.

[Unknown]

They would keep these guys like, who are like. I'm like. But I literally like the crowd vote. It's a crowd based vote.

[Robbie Hoffman]

Like with the gatekeepers though, those club owners, at that time, it seemed like it should have been over.

[Unknown]

It was the bookers too. It wasn't just the club owner because the club owner really liked me and he would say, I want you on the weekend. But then the booker would never put me on. So I moved to Toronto and everybody, they embraced me.

Yeah.

And I grew up in Montreal thinking Toronto sucks. It sucks. They have a rivalry versus Toronto. They're not insecure. They don't. They don't. Montreal's a great party town. We like to go there. Like, they're not thinking the same way. And I grew up thinking it would be terrible. Wonderful. I got a bike. I rode around everywhere doing shows.

[Robbie Hoffman]

I like Toronto.

[Unknown]

Love it.

What the.

[Robbie Hoffman]

What are those clubs there?

[Unknown]

The comedy bar.

[Marc Maron]

Oh, yeah, Excellent with.

[Robbie Hoffman]

It's got like three rooms in it, right?

[Unknown]

Yeah, it's great. And they have a new one. But it's just the whole scene in general was fucking awesome.

[Robbie Hoffman]

So that's where you really kind of came into your own.

[Unknown]

Built the. Really started building material, doing that. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Robbie Hoffman]

And then do you start touring?

[Unknown]

Yeah. You know what? Even now I barely say that I'm touring. I put a few dates together and I guess that's a tour. But yeah, I guess I was. You know what, it's funny that you asked that because early memories I have. I was taking. I didn't have a car or a license. I got my license way late. So I take the bus. Like if You. I was working Montreal or Toronto. Like, you could go to Ottawa. Two hours away. You could go to, like, Waterloo, all these weird towns that are nearby for one nighters. Yeah. Or like, literally, I would go for, like, if it was a really good mic.

Yeah.

Like, not even like. Like, I would go if it was just 10 minutes of a spot at a club or something. So. But I thought it was a big deal, like, oh, I'm playing this place.

Yeah.

So. But I remember being on the bus, being on the Greyhound.

Yeah.

And I'm listening to you. Yeah, I think I, you know, I listened to you with. I think you had Obama on, which was really cool. Melissa Etheridge episode was unbelievable.

[Robbie Hoffman]

Wasn't she great?

[Unknown]

She was. That episode was unbelievable. And at first I'm like, ah, you're gay. You're gonna listen to the gay? I was like, all right, I'll throw it on. And she's spectacular. It was phenomenal.

Yeah.

[Marc Maron]

It's so funny. I saw her on the plane with.

[Robbie Hoffman]

Her whole family, you know, her wife and everybody. It was like, really, like. It was just sort of like, you know, she.

[Unknown]

She's Sikes on flights. It's brutal.

[Robbie Hoffman]

But there was a. It was. It was cute to see her in that context.

[Unknown]

Yeah. I was still. Day job. I'm still working.

[Marc Maron]

Okay.

[Unknown]

I moved from accounting. Then I got a sales job.

Yeah.

I was still, like, working. Crazy.

[Robbie Hoffman]

When do you start making money in show business?

[Unknown]

Then I got my first job. I left for a kids show, Odd Squad, as a writer's assistant.

[Robbie Hoffman]

Because I was in Canada.

[Unknown]

Yeah. I was in Toronto, and it was half in la. So I started coming to LA because it was a PBS show that shot in Canada.

[Marc Maron]

Okay.

[Unknown]

And so I knew it.

[Robbie Hoffman]

What was the angle?

[Unknown]

It was like Law and Order for.

[Marc Maron]

Kids at the school.

[Unknown]

No, they were real kids. They were agents. Okay.

Yeah.

And they solved odd crimes.

[Robbie Hoffman]

So how many writers were in the room?

[Unknown]

Nobody. It was basically that. The head writer, Tim, who's amazing. Mark, who's amazing. This is another area I think I got very lucky in. Yeah, me too. When me, like, me too is happening. I'm only working for the greatest white dudes I've ever met.

Yeah.

Unfortunately.

Yeah.

Okay. And if you count one of them's Italian. I don't know what you. But basically, I look like a deck. Like, I'm like, spared from all. Like, these guys are promoting me at every. So I feel that. You know what I mean? It's not a discount. It's just more of a funny note that, like, I'M working for these two guys. They're promoting me at every turn. We're writing all the episodes. I'm a writer's assistant, but they're giving me scripts.

Yeah.

And the show grows. It balloons huge. I win an Emmy for it. Daytime Emmy.

[Robbie Hoffman]

And you learn how to do it.

[Unknown]

We learn. That was my film school.

Yeah.

I never been to. I didn't even know the scripts. It was like. It was literally like script writing school. Because, yes, we couldn't swear and there was no, you know, sexual innuendo.

[Marc Maron]

Structure jokes.

[Unknown]

Structure jokes. Trimming the fat. Tight, tight, tight. And we did 80 scripts a season.

[Robbie Hoffman]

What? 80 scripts for 22 minutes.

[Unknown]

Each was 11 minutes. Okay, so 11, 11, 22.

[Robbie Hoffman]

Yeah. Tell a whole story in 11 minutes.

[Unknown]

But you tell a whole story. Yeah, with a B. And so it was like boot camp. And not only am I reading all these scripts, I'm handing in a script every month. Like, it was. And I made like $200 a month. I left my, like, finance, accounting, sales type work.

Yeah.

And I make almost no money, but I'm working. It's the first time that I'm not late to work. Like when I was. When I was. I worked in.

[Robbie Hoffman]

Are you directing too? Are you dealing with the kids?

[Unknown]

Oh, yeah, I'm dealing with the kids. I mean, I'm not directing. They're like, all around my desk. Like, I remember Brendan, he was like 12 at the time. This kid is like, hey, we're seeing a movie on the weekend, my birthday. I'm like, brendan, I'm not friends with a child. Yeah, I'm not going. Why did you accept my friend request? I am not friends with kids. What am I, fucking Drake? I'm not doing it. You know, but it was like, these kids would come and pitch you ideas, and it was just tremendous. It was such a fun time. And I realized that when I was like, in accounting or I was working recruitment, at one point, I would come in, like, late at 10. Like, I had such a drudge going into work every morning. I wake up, dread. And also it's like dark out in Canada. It's freezing, and you're going and getting on the subway. And I would roll in at 10. I remember my boss, he was like, rob, you know, it's 10:00. We start work at 8:30. I'm like, well, are you gonna fire me or not? Because if you're not gonna fire me, then it's already 10 o'clock. I got a lot of emails.

Yeah, yeah.

To catch up on. So it's like I was like, I didn't give a shit. When I was working for money enough to survive. Still, definitely livable wage and benefits and everything. I'm in Toronto and doing standup at night. I was there early.

Yeah.

I would always watch my boss come in. Hey, Tim, he was the greatest guy.

Yeah.

Mark. I just was always on top of my shit. I left late, I hung out. I just loved the whole pace of it, the whole getting scripts out. The 80s were coming to me. When are we getting these changes? When are we getting these changes, you know? Cause their whole shit is fucked up.

[Marc Maron]

Yeah.

[Unknown]

Yeah.

And I'm learning all the departments going into Art department. Can you make it look like a duck? Sometimes you ask Art Department for a duck, they give you. We got a brown duck. I'm like, no. You know what a duck looks like? It's white, it's got an orange beak. Like, they're always, like, futzing around like, that's not gonna read a duck.

Yeah.

It's a kid's show. Like. So I'm learning all the departments, and then we start doing, like. The show is getting huge. It's the biggest live action show, I think, since Sesame street, that PBS had. So, you know, they're shooting, like, main thing, and then they're doing splinter units. And my boss is trusting me. He's like, go set on the splinter unit. Give them alts and stuff.

Yeah.

So I was working side by side with the director.

[Robbie Hoffman]

Giving kids lines.

[Unknown]

Yeah, Giving kids lines. Could do it like this. Could do it like this. But it's really fun with kids, you know, and they have their own shit and they're wild and these kids are brilliant. Like, shout out to kid actors. I know they've come a long way and a lot of the regulations. But the kids we had, it was unusual show in the way that most kids on a set. They're the only kid.

Yeah.

Our show was all kids.

Yeah.

We got 50 other kids.

[Robbie Hoffman]

How long did you do that for?

[Unknown]

Three and a half years.

[Robbie Hoffman]

And then you move here?

[Unknown]

Yeah, then. Yeah. No, then I moved to New York. I was doing Gethard.

[Marc Maron]

Oh, yeah, Chris.

[Unknown]

Yeah.

Which was a whole different thing.

[Robbie Hoffman]

A different kind of.

[Unknown]

From kids to total weird. And then I started, like, really doing and selling my own work and that sort of thing and working on other shows, but, like, starting development, starting to write. I mean, the first script I ever wrote, truthfully, was when I started Stand up.

Yeah.

I assumed that standups had shows because the ones that I heard of to look up Were like, Seinfeld, Ellen. And I just didn't even know. I thought, oh, well, Seinfeld does a show. Yeah. And I wrote a script. Like, I had an idea for you and I wrote it. Yeah. And I wrote it in like a week. But then I looked up the fucked up formatting it's in.

Yeah.

I'm like, how does a script. And it was in that final draft, it was like $400. I'm like, are they out of their mind?

Yeah. Yeah.

So who's got the money? So I painstakingly, in Word, did all the spacing like that, printed it in PDF and I trapezed that around.

Yeah.

[Robbie Hoffman]

Was it. Did it get any attention?

[Unknown]

So it got a lot of attention. I went basically. So I printed out PDF, I found the exact font that that scripts are written in. Corial12. I'm like, oh, my God, the font's in Word.

Yeah.

I put it in PDF, I print it. Okay. I from all the accounting job, I take all the vanilla envelopes. They have good supplies and shit.

Sure. Yeah.

We had a supply room. I was getting highlighters, I was getting my shit. I just traipsed it around. Wherever in Canada they had tv, we had HBO Canada at the time. We had the Movie Network. There was some Canadian offices in Toronto, and I just drove them around. I remember I got to HBO Canada, I was. Or whoever owned it. It was like a huge building. And I went to the secure whoever saying I was like, the president asked to read this.

Yeah.

And they're like, we don't have a president. Like, which office? Like, and I didn't know, like, which. I didn't know anything. I thought they owned the whole building.

Yeah.

And I'm like, I don't know. I'm just a courier. I have my bike out. I'm just a courier, told to drop it off. And I got an option from that.

[Robbie Hoffman]

Oh.

[Unknown]

So they read it. Yeah. I got a deal for $1,000. I called my friend Ron, who was in first year law school.

Yeah.

I said, ron, they asked me if I have a lawyer, if I have rep. I took a meeting with them. I said, yeah, I got a lawyer. And so Ronnie reads it and he's like, I'm in first year. I'm doing the same classes. We're doing core classes. I haven't started law specific classes. We're all doing econ 101. Like, we're all doing the same. I'm like, ron, you gotta get an hour. Do I sign this? He says, it sounds like $1,000, they own you forever. I'm like, great, let's do it.

[Robbie Hoffman]

And that was what it was. Yeah, that was the deal.

[Unknown]

I got a thousand, an option. So the option was like. I thought it was like, first of all, it was a thousand dollars. It was amazing at the time, but that was like their option to sell. I started learning the business more. That means that I, you know.

[Robbie Hoffman]

And what happened with it?

[Unknown]

Nothing happened with it. It never went. But it got me a lot of recognition, got me an agent, it got me some buzz around Toronto and that's how I got the odd squad job as a writer's assistant. They're like, there's this kid that.

Yeah.

[Robbie Hoffman]

And then how do you get hooked up with Chris? Catherine?

[Unknown]

I submitted a blind packet. There was a. There was a request for packets and I just submitted a packet.

And he liked you.

And he said he read like 3,000 packets.

Yeah.

And he was like, there's some dude in Toronto and it was me. And he was, fuck, yeah. Because he said he had to hire women. Like, you know, their DEI was. Was not good there. It was all white guys from ucb.

Yeah.

And he's like, fuck.

[Robbie Hoffman]

Everything worked out.

[Unknown]

And how long did you write for him? I did like two seasons.

And you're.

[Robbie Hoffman]

And that puts you in New York and you're doing all the alt shows or what?

[Unknown]

Yes, I'm getting. I'm really moving in New York now and then I move back to la. I'm getting work again, like, you know, moving on to shows, writing my own stuff and. Yeah, that's how I start really, I guess my full time from having a day job to into the business, working TV and stand up.

Yeah.

Was Odd Squad that. I never looked after that. I went from job to job to job.

[Robbie Hoffman]

Like, what other shows you write for?

[Unknown]

Like working moms. Yeah, lots of, lots of things. So lots of independent shit too.

[Robbie Hoffman]

So was that sort of. That was what you were making a living doing? Writing?

[Unknown]

Yes, writing.

[Robbie Hoffman]

And the comedy was.

[Unknown]

Stand up was still. I've been slow and steady wins the race.

Yeah.

Like, it's been the weirdest thing. Like even this, like this meeting with you. I'm trying. I'm probably talking a mile a minute because I'm still so excited to be with you. And I've already told you I have no chill, so I don't have to pretend to have it right. But it's. It feels like one step in a million mile journey. Like, like, literally, like it feels like that saying, so I've been slow and steady, but I think to me the biggest luxury is always felt like, wow, I'm. I never get over like, even when I was working, like, yeah, third Odd Squad is like, I get to do what I love for a living. Like waking up without that dread. It's the biggest luxury of my life. And I'm so thankful that I get to enjoy what I do. It's. It's almost unheard of and it's becoming less and less possible for many, many people. And it's becoming more possible for some. But I do find like, you know, there's a lot of people where I come from and everything like that. You know, it's just not an option.

[Robbie Hoffman]

Well, how did the special come along? Didn't I watch the special?

[Unknown]

Oh, the Crave.

Yeah.

That was after get third I had. They said, well, you know, Crave in Canada wants to do an hour special with you just for. Produced by the Just for Laughs company. And there was this idea like, oh, we're going to hold out for Netflix or this and that. It's like I'm like 25k. We don't hold out for nothing.

Yeah.

A dollar today is worth more than a dollar tomorrow. This is my finance background coming in.

[Robbie Hoffman]

Yeah.

[Unknown]

Say yes to the money in your hand right now. So we did. I had six weeks and I had one. Take that. What you see, then I got my period that morning.

Yeah.

And I remember eating a steak and rolls. I was trying to fill it. I'm like, I gotta get as much iron or I don't even know what.

[Robbie Hoffman]

Did you know whether or not you had the time?

[Unknown]

Oh, I did an hour and 20. We cut. We. I did almost like the original set, I think was an hour and a half. They sent me 120.

[Robbie Hoffman]

How much of it? Like, but you weren't out on the road doing an hour 20.

[Unknown]

I didn't even have. I only could get 10 minute spots. I still wasn't doing. I wasn't like quite headlining yet. Sometimes I would headline and that would be a 20 minute spot. But the only time I ran it was the night before at a bar with 12 people.

[Robbie Hoffman]

That's crazy.

[Unknown]

Yeah. That was the only time I ran it. And I have never. And some of it on the special is brand new that I added two jokes the night before.

Sure.

That I said I'm gonna let me just add. But I had so much material and I just did what I wanted to do and I was so nervous that I had to just lean into being nervous. And I just knew you're gonna be Nervous. This is what it is. It's like when something sucks.

[Robbie Hoffman]

It's funny.

[Unknown]

Yeah. And it was one take. I remember there was another guy.

[Marc Maron]

One show.

[Unknown]

It was one show.

[Marc Maron]

Usually you get two.

[Unknown]

Yeah, usually you get two. The other guy got two. Yeah, but he was more established than me.

[Robbie Hoffman]

Who was the other guy?

[Unknown]

All right.

[Robbie Hoffman]

And so what happens then? So you do you have desire? It seems like between writing and doing the standup. Do you want to tour?

[Unknown]

Well, here's the whole thing. People always ask me, what do you like more? Writing, stand up. To me it's. They're different hats, you know, it's like I feel grateful that I have so many avenues to put. So, like, let's say you have an idea. Sometimes it's just a tweet. Sometimes you have an idea. It's a bit.

Yeah.

So it's for Stan. Some idea. It's a script. Sometimes I have idea. It's a feature. Somebody's having ideas for kids. It's animated. It's some.

Yeah.

And I have. Now I feel more confident in all these areas. I don't have to lose an idea. I get to do it right. I get to put it somewhere. So for me, what do I like more? Stand up writing?

[Robbie Hoffman]

Because I didn't ask you that. I just asked.

[Unknown]

If I do stand up, then I. Yeah, in the room.

Yeah.

I feel 10 times sharper the next day in the writer's room.

[Robbie Hoffman]

Well, I think it just. What I'm asking is, is that how are you building an audience? Do you go out and do it?

[Unknown]

Yeah, I'm doing it. But it's also very word of mouth. Like, I'm not 100% just billing Robbie Hoffman shows. I'm still on bills with other people, but I'm doing it all the time. So I guess indirectly I'm building on system. I'm not somebody. I don't post online. I don't. I'm not.

[Robbie Hoffman]

But do you go out? Do you open for people or any of that?

[Unknown]

Or are you going out? I barely got some. I got a couple opens. I don't know. No, I wasn't really asked to open. So a few people that I opened for, I opened for Rebecca Kohler, I opened for Dulce Sloan. There's a few people that I like was opening for that were, you know, coming up too. But no, I never had like a big. Oh, but I was always killing to say it. Like, not to be, but whatever.

[Robbie Hoffman]

But your drive is not to be. Like, you know, I want to be like a touring comic. I Want to be like a theater act.

[Unknown]

I'd love to do arenas and theaters.

[Robbie Hoffman]

Arenas, big.

[Unknown]

Yeah, I want to do arenas.

Yeah.

I'm in the mood.

[Robbie Hoffman]

Okay.

[Unknown]

I'm very much in the mood.

Okay.

I want that loudness. I want the wide stage.

[Robbie Hoffman]

Do you have a booking agent?

[Unknown]

Yeah, of course. So now we're doing like, I just did my first little theater tour. I brought it home to Toronto, but it's all been like, slow and steady wins the race. So, yes, I'm building an audience, but I just, like, just. I don't even know how. Almost unintentionally, just by doing it all the time.

Yeah.

I'm not really thinking so much of what you have to do. I'm just doing it. So the same thing with the online. I'm not on TikTok, except I am on TikTok. People throw me on TikTok. And so that brings people.

Yeah.

You know, I'm just. That's just not what I do now. I have friends who make a lot of money with clips and stuff like that, and that's their business and I respect them for it. It's just not my. I do stand up writing and acting.

Yeah.

[Robbie Hoffman]

How's your mom feel about everything?

[Unknown]

She's very proud and she's, she's wonderful. She clips things and she, you know, she's, you know, she'll be like, shalom. Had the TV on. And I said, it says Robbie. I said, Robby. And then he put it in. It was Robbie Hoffman, that's my daughter. And he put it on for me and she. And, and, and she put on for. He put on for her my Netflix set.

[Robbie Hoffman]

Which, like, what'd you do for them?

[Unknown]

I did 15 minutes for Netflix.

Yeah.

You know, because it's the kind of thing, like late night, we're always getting like, calls. They're like, oh, you know, like, could you like the guy at Fallon, the guy at Seth Myers? And I love, you know, I love Seth Myers. Yeah. Could you do a set or whatever cleaner like this and do this? And I'm like, I'm always meaning to get it on tape and sometimes it never quite happens. And I'm like, I don't know if it's going to happen.

[Robbie Hoffman]

It doesn't have the impact.

[Unknown]

And if it did have the impact, I would make. But I'm like. And then Netflix calls. No. I'm like, great. This is my. This makes sense for me. This is my first American set.

[Robbie Hoffman]

It was on a showcase, a showcasing.

[Unknown]

It was Netflix. Netflix Verified. I am first up on the second episode. And it was really good.

Oh, good.

It was really fun. People had older people there. People had, like, you know, because first time on Netflix, we were in New York. Just so fun. And people had their family there, different things. And I had my friend Natalie from town, like, Natalie, will you come?

Yeah.

And they're like people in the green room. So it's just Natalie. I bring my family.

Yeah.

Well, my family's fucking, like, now. I let my family go crazy.

[Robbie Hoffman]

How many at a time?

[Unknown]

Well, it's like my brother Shmuley came to my first. Just the last thing, when I'm doing four minutes. You're there? Sure. Yeah. And he's like, oh, Jeff Ross, can you get a picture with me? I'm not even there yet. First of all, my brother Levy called me. He goes, can I get 16 tickets?

Yeah.

[Marc Maron]

Right.

[Unknown]

16 days. I want to bring my team at work. I'm like, 16 tickets is an insane amount of tickets to ask. I'm opening before the opener. When they're filling the seats. I'm doing four minutes.

Yeah.

It's ridiculous. No. So I said, noticing, but my brother comes. He goes, he has a million pictures probably from that year. Just pointing with everyone now. I brought my little sister Devorah to. I think I saw you at the Largo. It was like, Jacqueline's release party or something.

Oh, yeah.

And Jacqueline was so great on your podcast, too. Jacqueline. But. And I told myself, said, you want to come to something Hollywood?

Yeah.

Nothing good happens to people. She's a social worker. She's working Crazy.

Yeah.

I go. You get to take pictures with three. Save them. Whoever. Three people you like. You go right the. Up to them.

Yeah.

She goes up to the guy from Brett Goldstein.

Oh, yeah, yeah.

[Robbie Hoffman]

Ted Lasso.

[Unknown]

Ted Lasso thinks she's so hot.

Yeah.

Boom.

Yeah.

You know Chris Rock? I'm like, yeah, right. I wish it wasn't so big.

Yeah.

Click.

Yeah.

I let them. It's just like, what do I. I'd rather my sister be happy than these people. I don't give a Right. Like, let her have. Be excited. Yeah. Somebody's famous here. Because then she calls home. Do you know who I saw? Do you know? It's like, that's the joy.

Yeah. Well, good.

So I've come around on it. Used to embarrass me, but now I let them have fun.

[Robbie Hoffman]

So now you're just doing standup? Mostly.

[Unknown]

I do a ton of standup. I'm acting. I have something coming out. I got a big part in an FX thing coming out in the new year. Then I just got something else that I can't talk about.

Yeah.

It feels very nice to say I can't talk about. It's also like a little bit of a. And writing is going, you know, God willing. Right. And a ton of standup.

[Robbie Hoffman]

All right.

[Unknown]

And I got my podcast, Too Far Pod. Too far. Yeah. It's coming back November. We're not very consistent with it. So it's me and my buddy Rachel. She's, you know, the angle is just nothing. We're just talking.

Yeah.

But she's very afraid I'm going to get her canceled and all this stuff. So I don't know if we're coming back together if I'll do it. Patreon.

Yeah.

There's nothing I say that's so crazy, but makes her nervous, you know, to certain people. I can make people nervous.

[Robbie Hoffman]

Well, I didn't feel nervous. It was good talking to you.

[Unknown]

I was very over the top, though.

When?

The whole time.

[Robbie Hoffman]

Well, is there another frequency you want to do?

[Unknown]

There is another frequency, but it'll take you after, like. So we've gone through this. You'll see. I'll calm down over time now.

Yeah.

[Robbie Hoffman]

Well, how's your relationship going?

[Unknown]

Unbelievable. Madly in love.

Yeah.

You got to be madly in love, guys.

[Robbie Hoffman]

I saw press on that seems like a very exciting thing.

[Unknown]

It's just we love to hang out and chill and. You know what? I'm not, you know, the first, the only time my father has mentioned me being gay, I got an email from him that he heard I was gay or whatever. And he said promiscuous behavior not befitting a daughter of Israel. And I felt like promiscuous. Like I'm if anything a serial monogamous. I've only been, you know, I'm really not that slutty. I'm not that promiscuous. I'm with one person type of person. I'm never online dating and I don't do one night stands. But not befitting a daughter of Israel. I'll give you that. Like, I'm like, okay, I'll take it.

[Robbie Hoffman]

They should name your next special then.

[Unknown]

Yeah, exactly.

[Robbie Hoffman]

Nice talking to you.

[Unknown]

Thank you.

[Marc Maron]

There you go. I love her. Don't you love her? All her stuff is on her Instagram page [e-mail]. hang out for a minute, folks. Folks, this episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Fiscally responsible financial geniuses, monetary magicians. These are things people say about drivers who switch their car insurance to Progressive and save hundreds because Progressive offers discounts for paying in full, owning a home and more. Plus you can count on their great customer service to help you when you need it. So your dollar goes a long way. Visit progressive.com to see if you could save on car insurance. That's progressive.com and here's some legal info. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. Potential savings will vary. Not available in all states or situations.

[Robbie Hoffman]

Hey listen.

[Marc Maron]

For full Marin listeners, we posted a collection of great behind the scenes movie stories from some amazing past WTF guests, including Mel Brooks, my co star in this film, Michael Keaton, Mike Myers and this story from Nick Cave about his concept for Gladiator 2.

[Robbie Hoffman]

When you did something like that, what.

[Marc Maron]

Did you bring to that? I mean, how did you. What was the story for the. For the second Gladiator?

[Nick Cave]

Well, that's where it all went wrong. You know, very briefly it was Russell Crow wake because he I'm like, hey Russell, didn't you die in Gladiator 1? He's going, yeah, you sought that out. All right, so he goes to purgatory.

[Unknown]

Yeah.

[Nick Cave]

And is sent down by the gods who are dying in heaven because there's this one God, there's this Christ character down on earth who is gaining popularity. And, and so the, the many gods are dying and so they send Gladiator back to kill Christ and all his followers. And so this was always already getting in. I wanted to call it Christ Killer. And, and in the end you find out that the main guy was his son. So he has to kill his son and he's tricked by the gods and all of this sort of stuff. So it ends with this. He becomes this eternal warrior and it ends with this 20 minute war sequence that follows all the wars of history right up to Vietnam and that sort of stuff. And it was, it was wild to.

[Marc Maron]

Get bonus episodes twice a week. Sign up for the full Marin and just go to the link in the episode description or go to wtfpod.com and click on WTF plus once again. This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. What comes to mind when you hear the word gratitude? Maybe it's a daily practice you have, or maybe it feels hard to be grateful right now. Yes, don't forget to give yourself some thanks by investing in your well being. BetterHelp is the largest online therapy provider in the world, connecting you to qualified professionals via phone, video or message chat. Let the gratitude flow. Visit betterhelp.com to learn more and save 10% off your first month. That's better help. H E L p.com and a reminder before we go, this podcast is hosted by Acast. And I don't. I don't think we're going to do any guitar. No guitar today. Just. Here. I'll give you something else, you fucks. Fuck this shit. Fucking fuckers. Fuck. Fuck it. God fucking damn. Are you fucking kidding me? Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Boomer lives. Monkey Lafonda. Cat Angels everywhere.