Robby Hoffman: Growing Up Poor Never Leaves You | The Interview

The comedian Robby Hoffman seems to be everywhere these days, including her scene-stealing role in “Hacks” as a former Hasidic Jew from Crown Heights, Brooklyn, who becomes a Hollywood assistant and her part in the HBO comedy “Rooster” as the blunt, protective roommate of a student having an affair with a professor.

Hoffman’s life experiences are a source of much of her unfiltered comedy, including her most recent Netflix special, “Wake Up,” and her current tour. They also inform how she looks at the world now, how she handles her growing fame and how she relates to her wife, the reality TV star Gabby Windey.

[00:00] Introducing Robbie Hoffman

[02:29] What’s weird about being famous and having money?

[04:38] How poverty still affects her

[07:43] Earliest memories of Crown Heights

[08:48] “My father was abusive to my mother.”

[10:42] “My whole family, everybody was funny.”

[13:32] Is being comfortable a rich thing?

[16:52] Becoming more secular

[20:17] Trying to fit in at high school

[24:34] Being outed at 17

[29:17] “Comedy chooses you.”

[34:00] Backlash from the pitbull and celiac communities

[36:33] Antisemitism and anti-Mexican sentiment

[40:10] “Hacks” and criticism over a Yiddish line

[42:12] Navigating new fame and criticism

[44:55] Gabby Windey and building a relationship

[49:34] “Classism affects everybody.”

“The Interview” features conversations with the world’s most fascinating people. Each week, co-hosts David Marchese and Lulu Garcia-Navarro talk to compelling, influential figures in culture, politics, business, sports and beyond — illuminating who they are, why they do what they do and how they impact the rest of us.

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