ROBBY HOFFMAN ⚝⚝⚝
SOHO THEATRE, LONDON
There is something deeply, awfully, indescribably wrong with the world. You know it, I know it and Robby Hoffman knows it. And whereas we maybe cannot quite put our fingers on it Robby Hoffman has certainly put her fingers on it or in it. We may not have found the words for it, but Robby Hoffman has. A lot of them are crude and a few of them are very funny.
Introduced by her Too Far podcast partner Rachel Kaly, who wonders aloud what the hell Hoffman might say on this occasion, it soon becomes clear that there is little that will be taboo. Or that at least Hoffman is prepared to pull right up to a taboo and very pointedly jab at it. When Hoffman ponders whether it’s possible if there could be a positive way of describing pedophilia the collectively held breath hangs palpably in the air. No, there isn’t. But she will make the audience stand and overlook the corpses at the bottom of that precipice. She performs an abrasive autopsy of discomfort.
A large part of her uncomfortable humour focuses on what it means to be gay or to be straight. Hoffman’s crowd work is merciless when it comes to the messy contradictions of sexuality. Asking a hapless straight man in the audience what he likes about his female partner’s choice of dress and her nail colours, she cannot help but point out that his dutiful appreciation of their texture, tones and style is ‘pretty gay’. In response to her mother’s horror that her show is so sexually focused she gives a gynaecologically indisputable attestation of the sexually based origins of all humanity. Including the sticky parts.
Some of the more mundane observations are still acute. The relationship between the unpredictable spontaneity of toenail clippings versus the narrowly specific requirements of a pedal bin are recognized by everyone in the audience. Hoffman flits easily between the particular and the universal. LIke a slick knife with a salted blade. Never quite letting her audience ease back into their seats.
In a relatively short show, about 50 mins after Kaly’s intro, Hoffman covers a lot of ground. It’s held together by her acid style, her refusal not to go there, and her NYC Jewish indefatigability when looking straight into the dark clouds. Certainly not for everyone, it was extremely well received by an audience who seemed to know what to expect. Running for just a week, til Sat 16th March it also includes the opportunity to see Hoffman and Kaly perform their podcast Too Far, Live!
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Queerguru Contributing Editor ANDREW HEBDEN is a MEDIA and cultural STUDIES graduate spending his career between London, Beijing, and NYC as an expert in media and social trends. As part of the expanding minimalist FIRE movement, he recently returned to the UK and lives in Soho. He devotes as much time as possible to the movies, theatre, and the gym. His favorite thing is to try something (anything) new every day”
