Quote · The Daily
Robby Hoffman Will Always Feel Poor, No Matter How Rich She Gets
Where this was said
The Stage as Womb: Comedy as Calling, Not Choice
At 27:56 · chapter starts 27:40
Garcia-Navarro references a 2014 TEDx talk in which Hoffman said 'comedy chooses you' and 'the stage is where I'd like to live.' Hoffman's response is immediate and visceral: in small talk, dinner parties, one-on-one settings, she is deeply uncomfortable. But when the lights go dark and the spotlight hits her, she feels like she's in a womb. [1] — Robby Hoffman "Robby Hoffman is deeply socially anxious in small settings, but when the lights go dark and the spotlight hits, she feels like she's in a w…" 27:40 She compares herself to a Jackson Pollock — an artist who needs a massive canvas, who can't work in small, polite formats. The theatres she performs in now are her natural habitat. She then revisits the moment standup made it clear she had to choose: she had planned to marry well, get a stable job, live middle-class, maybe have a condo. She was gay now, the accounting job was going, and pursuing art looked like the poorest possible option for someone trying not to be poor. But she felt it was a calling — and you don't ignore a calling.
Robby Hoffman is deeply socially anxious in small settings, but when the lights go dark and the spotlight hits, she feels like she's in a womb. She's convinced comedy chose her — and says you can usually tell when someone chose comedy without it choosing them back.
