Robby Hoffman Talks Lubavitcher Comedy
Robby Hoffman
As told to Anna Fuerstenberg
Before interviewing this fascinating comedienne I went online to see some of her early work. Her Biblical stories and arguments are hilarious. She later told me that she had grown up in the Lubavitcher community both in New York in Crown Heights and in Montreal near the Yeshiva. She still had a lot of family living here. Though much of her current work is out of Toronto and the U.S., she still has a lot of love for this city.
When asked what inspires her, she said anything can be funny whether it is the holocaust or an apricot; it just depends on what she is feeling at the moment. When asked if she spoke Yiddish, she replied that Yiddish was only used by her mother in moments of rage. She remembers being called “a piece of meat with eyes” — not an endearing memory of the language nor her mother.
Hoffman spoke about how she is constant motion between collaborating on sitcoms to writing solo material for her shows, and how one modality feeds the other. She spoke about pitching an idea in room of writers and having the idea pinball around the room, from writer to writer while it picked up momentum, and quality.
She also said that being Jewish does inform everything in her work and she is happy to be doing it on a large scale in Montreal where she got her start.
Robby Hoffman will be performing as part of Just For Laughs in the Ethnic Show. The Ethnic Show runs with different comedians on July 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 23, 24, 25. For tickets click HERE. She will also be performing the Early Evening Show with Robby Hoffman as part of the Off-JFL/Zoofest on July 22 and 26. info HERE.
