Robby Hoffman just lately raised hackles, she tells us, through the use of the phrase “faggot” on Netflix. She makes use of it once more right here. A lesbian comedian, the New Yorker acts like a jock – boastful, dogmatic, aggressive. However there’s a pressure of nerd in there too, as she trains her certitude on this or that query of vanishing real-world import: toilet bins; the origin of dominoes. It’s an intriguing combine that has gained Hoffman traction within the US and comparisons to Larry David. I discovered her compelling to a sure level: there are some alternative routines, however the persona begins to really feel pressured.
After a gap 10 minutes from her downbeat podcast sidekick Rachel Kaly, Hoffman opens by addressing her identification, and her imperviousness to offensive name-calling. This isn’t a performer whose sense of her personal superiority can be simply undermined. There’s a pleasant part right here subverting the cliche of “emotional” ladies, and one other marvelling on the home inadequacies of males. One dismayed gag deplores her mom’s bathroom habits. However the standout riff trains its fireplace on arriviste queer individuals, whose tenuous declare on the time period Hoffman ruthlessly mocks in contrast to her personal lifelong, hard-knocks toil at lesbianism’s coalface.
Her angle to the viewers (“you make me sick!”) is equally dismissive. Which may very well be effective in small doses – and the irony is obvious in Hoffman’s martinet posturing. However the issue together with her shtick – delivered in a chewy Brooklyn accent – is that the gig devolves into hard-to-love materials about how “homosexual” most males are (“dudes like some girly-ass shit!”) and cynical jokes decreasing us all to the carnal circumstances of our personal conception.
Whether or not or not you discover the concept humorous {that a} thirtysomething queer New Yorker ought to be peddling this faux-boorish materials, in follow it begins to really feel two-dimensional and false. But when the closing levels seem to be a misstep, there’s enjoyable available earlier on with a comic book who definitely isn’t afraid to make a powerful impression.
