Rising Comedy Star Robby Hoffman on Her New John Mulaney-Directed Netflix Special

“Did you ever have Minute Maid frozen concentrate orange juice? It’s concentrate in a can. You have to add water… That’s what my stand-up special is. I sell you the can.”

Robby Hoffman is talking about her first Netflix stand-up comedy special, Wake Up — which, to build on her description, is a can of the funniest whoop-ass delivered onstage this year.

An ex-Hasidic lesbian, who was born seventh in a family of 10 children in Brooklyn — and who, after her parents divorced, grew up poor in her mother’s native Montreal — Hoffman’s star ascended quickly this year after joining the cast of the HBO Max series, Hacks, and killing during an appearance on Everybody’s Live With John Mulaney.

Her performance on Mulaney’s Netflix talk show got the attention of the streamer and its host — and Hoffman, in short order, was offered her own special, which Mulaney signed on to direct. The result, Wake Up, premieres on Dec. 14.

Onstage, Hoffman — in her trademark tight bun, wire-rim glasses and lupine smile — presents as feral as she mines her childhood and identity like Larry David’s little sister. “For me, to complain is to enjoy,” she says of the often dark, concentrated kvetching she delivers. In reality, she says, “I’m having a great time. I feel like I’m flying in that special. I feel like maybe somebody who’s done drugs — when they describe a trip or whatever they go on. I’m too nervous to go on it myself, but God bless.”

A self-taught comedian, who originally set out to become an accountant, Hoffman says that she did not grow up with comic heroes. “Had I been more aware of the history of comedy, I think I would have had too much of a rule book or an idea in my head as to what stand-up should be instead of just doing it,” she explains. Besides, she adds. “Nobody’s funnier than my sister Chaya or my brother Shmuel. No one.”

“I didn’t know about stand-up structurally. I had some ideas. I heard that you talk about stuff, and that’s what I did,” she explains. “All these older guys were on the scene, and they would say, ‘It takes 10 years to find your voice.’ But people were always telling me, ‘Your voice is refreshing.’ And I realized that it didn’t matter what I talked about. As soon as it came through the almost Instagram-like filter of Robby Hoffman, it came out fresh.”

On a Zoom call, Hoffman talked with Billboard about the fast-tracking of her special, her hard-knock youth, queer pronouns — and her wife, unscripted television personality Gabby Windey, who has appeared on The Bachelor, The Bachelorette and Dancing with the Stars and won the third season of Peacock’s The Traitors.

How long was Wake Up in development?

Not long at all. I was on Mulaney’s show in May, and after the show we had a little bit of a soiree. Nothing major. They had little treats on the tables — that sort of thing. I’m picking at the treats, and a guy comes up to me. I’m solo. He introduces himself and says, “I’m Ted.” I go, “Ted who?” He goes [Netflix CEO] Ted Sarandos.” I’m like, “If your name is Ted Sarandos, you can’t just go up to somebody in a corner. I’m not equipped!” I’m like, “Okay, well now I just have to stand here and talk to you.”

So, I was getting percolations, and they asked me, “Robby, do you have an hour?” I said, “I could do three. I’m always writing and always thinking. As long as I can see and hear the world around me, that’s all I need. They’re like my crayons.” And maybe Mulaney got wind of that and called me. People won’t believe that he came to me. But that is the story. He came to me and asked if he could direct it. I said, “That’s going to be a yes, dog.” He’s just a doll.

He just finished fourth on our “Best Comedians of the 21^st Century So Far” list.

Okay, so you’re going to need an update if I’m not on that list. Mulaney and me. We’re kind of like giving the Eminem–Dido collab. It’s not anything anyone expected. People were like what? Dido and Eminem? But it f—king worked. In the comedy world, people wouldn’t put us together, but listen to the song, watch the special. It works!

The special was recorded in October. That didn’t give you a lot of time to prepare it for airing.

For somebody’s inaugural special, you’re not expecting to come in and own the place. Maybe they’ll release it next year. Maybe if they have a slow week, they’ll put it out. But after we shot the special, Robbie Praw, who runs comedy at Netflix, comes up to me and says he stayed for the whole thing, which I guess he doesn’t do often. It was nice of him to let me know that. I read between the lines! He said he stayed through the whole thing, and it’s going out for the holidays. I was like, “You’re giving me a holiday spot?” So that means we have weeks to get it ready.

How did learning that feel in the context of your career so far?

You know, I’ve been a very word-of-mouth. I’ve never been the overnight success. I’ve been slow and steady. I’m never selling gimmicks. I’m just selling good. It’s like, when I watch talk show hosts, and they’re reading the prompter the entire time… I’m like, you would think that what we would want from a talk show host is that they know how to talk. So, I want to do good stand-up, and in addition to feeling the swell of the people. Now I feel a bit of the industry and it’s not something I expected. But it’s been such a delight.

Just talking to you over these last minutes, your comedy persona seems very different from your offstage personality.

Right. It’s so funny, because people think I’m angry or whatever. Like I said, to complain is to enjoy. I could be on a yacht — God willing somebody invites me at some point — and I’d be, “It’s a little shaky. There’s a draft.” Nothing wrong. It just means I’m in the moment, I’m presently living and enjoying and feeling my surroundings. The special is me enjoying flying. Just going balls to the wall. And just – it’s so horrible.

What’s horrible?

But it’s also so amazing. Life. I never would have chosen this video game. You know when you open a driving video game. You can race through the city of Monaco, or you can go through Tokyo, or you can go through a park. If they showed me the world, I’d be like, “It seems distressful. Let’s go for the park.” It’s like we’re in the craziest level. Somebody clicked “Earth,” and we’re like here now and it’s super intense. So, how about we both enjoy an hour of just laughing.

You seem almost feral onstage.

Yeah, I grew up without a father. And my mother was there, but to the extent that one can be with 10 kids. I always read about that girl raised by wild dogs, and I felt like that. People go, “What were your early inspirations.? I felt like that girl. First of all, I saw a picture of her, and I’m like, “She kind of looks like me.” I feel in a way that I did grow up feral. And the good news about that is – well, it was very embarrassing for a long time to be poor and not put together and all that stuff. But I feel like that [experience] was able to be distilled into a precious metal that’s been made all the more shiny now that I’m here.

Like that Porsche you drive up in at the beginning of your special. Is that yours?

You better believe. That is my grail car — my dream car. It’s a Porsche 911, ‘96, black, tan interior. The first car I bought, and I tell people, please buy used everything. Everything I buy is typically preowned. That’s something I used to be very embarrassed, ashamed, when we were shopping at Salvation Army and Value Village. I never had new clothes, and it wasn’t cool then. And now I’ve embraced it. Now I’m like, “Why would you buy retail?”

Why is the 911 your grail car?

My father wasn’t in my life, but he always wanted a Porsche. And I always wanted a relationship with my father. The few times I saw him I thought he was so cool and funny, I have a lot of my father in me, even though I don’t get to have a relationship with him. As I grew up, I realized I do have a relationship with him in the ways that I am like him. He worked in sales and was able to buy an old Porsche. He had it momentarily before he had to sell it, and he took at picture of him sitting in it and sent it to my mother as if to lure her back. Like, she’s got 10 kids on welfare and instead of sending child support, you bought this $10,000 old car?

I respect the game. But every time I get in the car and look in the rearview, I see his eyes in mine. I enjoy the ride for us, with us. That is one of the few things left of my relationship with my father.

So, you don’t see him?

No, we have no relationship.

Did your upbringing lead to becoming a comedian?

Yeah. As soon as I heard of comedy I was like oh, okay. Life was so abysmal sometimes that it literally made me laugh. For breakfast every day, we had Cheerios or Rice Krispies. I have nine siblings, so you were either a Cheerios person or a Rice Krispies person. I was a Cheerios kid. I had Cheerios every morning. One day I’m eating my Cheerios, and I’m like, “Ma, they’re stale”. She’s like, “No they’re not.” I’m like, “They’re stale. I have these every day. I know what Cheerios taste like.”

She brings out the box. She’s like, “No. See. I bought Cheerios fresh.” And the box is all mangled. I’m like, “Ma, the box looks f–ked.” She says, “Okay, you got me.” She bought the cheaper store brand Oaty O’s and put them in the $6.99 Cheerios box. It was so sad and heartbreaking — and so funny. All of the time. Even my breakfast.

Before you got into comedy, you were going to become an accountant?

Yes, I was in accounting school. It’s like, all I dreamt about was money. We didn’t have dreams. We weren’t encouraged. If anything, we were discouraged. My mother would say, “School is not for everyone.” She didn’t want to encourage anything pricy ever. She was onto it being a scam years ago. It doesn’t mean she didn’t believe in us. My mother thought we were super clever, but she was just like [college is] a scam. So, we didn’t dream in that sense, but I did dream of getting out.

So, when I got into school, I was like, “What’s the least amount of school for the most amount of payoff?” They said, “Well, in accounting they’ll give you a job this summer. You can work an internship.” I was like, “F–k, let’s go!”

Then KPMG gave me a laptop, and I was like, “For keeps? I’ll work for you forever.” Because every kid had a laptop at school except for me. I was printing out my slides at the library and writing next to them. Now I was in with the other kids. I felt like I was making it. When people ask me, “You’ve had such a year. Does it feel like you made it?” Getting my laptop was as big a deal as getting my Netflix special. I know it seems – but it’s relative.

I really thought accounting was my ticket. We had a supply room at the office where I could take whatever highlighters I wanted, and by the way, I took plenty. It’s just fun to have stationery. I don’t know if I needed it, but you know what, if the Wite-Out is free, I’m grabbing the Wite-Out. There’s a Wite-Out tape. It’s fun! I’m never going to spend on that but if it’s free, give me one. I want to use it. I’ll write just to use it.

One of the parts I love best about your special is your bit on pronouns.

Being in this community — they/them and the whole thing — not that I’m in the community. I was forced into it — you’ll hear in the special — whether I want to be or not. Being who I am, I was just disappointed that I was born into another very annoying community. I’m already Jewish. I was already born annoying. Now, I have to be part of the most annoying — at least a little annoying — people on the planet again? I’m not actually taking a stance. I’m just saying it’s annoying. They botched the rollout. They said it would be seamless. It’s obviously not seamless.

They botched the rollout!

They botched the rollout. They went with the plural. I understand that they/them can be used singularly. If somebody is in front of you at the 7-Eleven, you go, “They were here first.” But generally, it isn’t seamless, and it continues to not be easy. And we need to own that.

You won an Emmy for your work on Odd Squad. I’m trying to square your comedy with writing for a kids’ series.

I know. It’s giving, like, Bob Saget [vibes]. Bob Saget was on Full House, but he was also a really dark comedian. Again, I know it sounds crazy to have a standard of “good,” but that is where it’s at. I don’t really care what I do as long as it’s good. When this kids’ show approached me, they had a writer’s assistant job open, When I read the scripts, they were good. There was no sexual innuendo, and there was no profanity, but the storytelling was good. It was PBS, which is HBO for kids without money, and the storytelling was full of art and it was fat free.

It was also a chance for me to be in a writers’ room and learn how to structurally write for TV. We did 80 11-minute episodes a season. I learned, “Get rid of that, get rid of that — don’t be precious about stuff.” I learned how to be on a set, and I was promoted at every level to get to write and make lines on the fly with the actors. Yes, it was kids, but it was good story. Good is good.

Since it’s the holidays, what’s your take?  

I’m really festive since marrying Gabby. I’ll be doing my third Christmas, and I’ve leaned in. I am done with Hanukkah. What a scam that was. We’re into Christmas, and I’m big-time about it. If I’m at a Goodwill or the Salvation Army, I’ll buy a little fucking light-up globe. I love my light up globe. I fuck with all of it. I even watched that movie A Christmas Story. Gabby bought me a BB gun.

Oh yeah, the kid wants a Red Ryder.

I saw the movie and I’m like, “I’ve got to get a BB gun.” I love that BB gun. I also get melancholic at Christmas time. When I think of Christmas music I feel the more subversive — you know, John Lennon, “Happy Xmas (War Is Over).” When you’re young and you hear that song, you think it’s happy. And then it’s like, “No, what have we done? We’re at war.” We’re killing people. There’s also something melancholic about the recap of the year. It’s cozy, it’s sexy, it’s romantic and it’s also devastating and heartbreaking. It’s all of that.

I’m a very optimistic and positive person. Not the most uplifting. It’s like in the special, I say, “I’m funny, I’m not fun.”

Gabby was great on Traitors. Did you help her strategize at all?

No, I was just pep talk. I was like, “Babe, I don’t give a f–k what it is — you’ve got this. F–k that bitch. F–k that bitch.” I’m so gung ho. I’m a hundred percent Gabby. So if she’s calling me and she’s crying because she was cold, and they made her do this or this, I said, “F—k that. They suck.” I’m team Gab beyond.

Since this is Billboard what other music do you like to listen to?

I can tell you what I’m listening to now. I like Ethel Cain a lot right now. And I’m all deep in the new Bieber — Swag, Swag II. It’s phenomenal. I’m just bopping to this music. By the way, I also listen still to Eminem, Linkin Park — and The Cranberries have always been [a favorite]. They’re on the soundtrack to my special. The Cranberries were one of the first bands my family ever heard, because we grew up religious, so music was kind of touch and go in the early years. Years later, I read an interview that said she has five brothers. And I’m like, “I have five brothers.” And I remember thinking, “What if she’s seventh born?” I’m seventh born of ten.

Then I find out that Dolores O’Riordan — that line [from “Zombie”] “in your head” has been in my head all this time — has an older sister. She’s the seventh child. Bro, we do totally different things, but I saw myself in her.