Robby Hoffman pretended to be a courier to advance her comedy career

When Robby Hoffman decided to pursue her comedy dreams, she knew she didn't want to sacrifice financial stability. The Canadian comedian would work at the accounting firm KPMG during the day, while performing stand-up and writing a TV comedy script in her spare time.

But when Hoffman wanted to get her script to HBO Canada, she found a way to get her literal foot in the door. She pretended to be a courier sent to the office to deliver a script — which was hers — to the president of the company.

"Whoever's at the front desk is like, 'We don't have a president.' I said, 'I don't know, I'm just a courier, they asked me to get this to HBO,'" Hoffman says in an interview with Q's Tom Power. "And that's how I got my first option deal from HBO Canada for $1,000."

That same script circulated around the comedy world, and it landed Hoffman an agent. However, her agent kept coming to her with TV writing room jobs that would only last one or two weeks.

"I said, 'You only can bring me something long-term…. I'm not leaving my stable job for two weeks,'" Hoffman recalls.

The agent finally brought her a six-month contract as a writing assistant on the children's TV show Odd Squad. Hoffman ended up staying at the show for three-and-a-half years and won a Daytime Emmy for her writing on the show. She then moved on to writing rooms for other shows, such as Workin' Moms and Baroness Von Sketch.

During her time writing for television, Hoffman continued to perform stand-up comedy across Canada and in the U.S. She sold out Just For Laughs shows and appeared at the Netflix is a Joke Festival.

"I would hear advice like, it takes 10 years to find your voice," she says. "I had the opposite. I first had the voice and then the material came, versus some people start with the material and they find themselves and their voice."

Hoffman's stand-up routines often poke fun at her family and upbringing. She grew up as a Hasidic Jew, first in Brooklyn, later relocating to Montreal with her mom and nine siblings. Eventually, she came out as queer and left the Hasidic world.

Hoffman's comedic voice and backstory became well-known enough that it reached the creators of the TV show Hacks. In their fourth season, they wrote a character specifically for her: Randi, an ex-Hasidic lesbian who is the eager secretary to two talent agents.

"You do a version of you, because it's not quite you," Hoffman says of playing Randi. "To be mostly me with a twist, I have to be Twilight Zone me."

Hoffman's acting earned her an Emmy nomination for outstanding guest actress in a comedy series. She also sold another Just For Laughs show this summer within minutes of the tickets going on sale. 

But even with all her success, Hoffman's mindset about her career hasn't changed much since she worked as an accountant.

"I still always like security," she says. "To this day, when you talk about my career, it's always going. It's because of that need for stability. I've made it, God willing, somewhat stable."

The full interview with Robby Hoffman is available on our YouTube channel and on our podcast, Q with Tom Power. Listen and follow wherever you get your podcasts.

Interview with Robby Hoffman produced by Sarah Melton.