When Robby Hoffman talks about Vancouver, she doesn’t start with venues or ticket sales. She starts with family.
“My little sister lives there,” she says, laughing. Touring comedians often describe cities in terms of crowds and stages, but for Hoffman, Vancouver carries a built-in sense of home. “It starts with my little sister. Then we end up in Vancouver and we love it — and the audience happens to be phenomenal.”
That mix of personal warmth and professional drive defines Hoffman’s relationship with stand-up. She arrives in Vancouver with an entirely new hour of material, something that is a work in progress that audiences will experience while it is still evolving. She prefers it that way. Canadian crowds, she says, have always embraced being part of that creative process. “They get to see it while it’s cooking.”
Hoffman didn’t grow up obsessing over stand-up comedy. As a kid in Montreal, she watched plenty of television and movies, but she didn’t initially understand that many of the entertainers she admired had roots in stand-up. Discovering that connection later reframed the art form for her. Once she stepped on stage herself, the recognition was instant.
“The first time I did stand-up, it just clicked,” she says. Her debut took place in a cramped, smoke-filled apartment show that left her physically dizzy halfway through her set. She remembers sitting down mid-performance just to recover. But even that chaotic start couldn’t overshadow the feeling she carried walking home. “I remember leaving and feeling like I was in love.”
That early certainty evolved into a work ethic that now spans stand-up, television writing, and acting. Hoffman treats each discipline with the same seriousness. She invests heavily in writing, often balancing solo stand-up development with the collaborative energy of writers’ rooms. The difference, she explains, is creative control. On stage, instinct rules.
“In stand-up, if I think it’s funny, I bring it right to the audience,” she says. “That’s it.” The audience becomes the testing ground, whether it’s a handful of people at a small show or a packed theatre. That direct feedback loop is what keeps the work alive.
Her comedy resists spectacle in favour of precision and emotional honesty. She describes it as humour grounded in heart, an approach shaped as much by storytelling as by punchlines. Influences range widely, from fearless stand-ups she admires to the films and books she absorbed growing up. Only later did she realize how deeply those early cultural experiences informed her voice.
Despite performing in increasingly large and prestigious spaces, Hoffman still carries vivid memories of the rituals that sustained her early career. In Montreal, she rewarded herself with McDonald’s before weekly open mics. In Los Angeles, after marathon nights of performances, she would end the evening at the Beverly Hills Hotel, ordering a single beer and sitting with live piano music as a reminder of what she was working toward. For under ten dollars, she says, she could “feel like a billion dollars.”
That sense of perspective remains central to her outlook. Success hasn’t dulled her appreciation for the everyday reality of doing the work she loves. “I can’t get over that every day I don’t have to wake up with an alarm clock sending me to work,” she says. “That just feels amazing.”
Vancouver audiences will encounter a comedian in motion – someone actively shaping new material in real time. The performance promises the energy of experimentation paired with the confidence of a seasoned performer. For Hoffman, the excitement lies not just in delivering polished jokes, but in sharing the process itself.
With family in the crowd and fresh material on stage, Vancouver becomes more than a tour stop. It’s a space where personal and professional threads intersect, creating the kind of live experience Hoffman has been chasing since that first dizzy, unforgettable set.
Tickets to see Robby Hoffman in Vancouver can be found HERE.