Phoebe Robinson on Focusing on Her Intuition and Not Knocking the Hustle
By Tim Chan
LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – Phoebe Robinson is gearing up for a busy summer, and the actress and comedian says the more she’s got on her schedule, the better.
“I’m always like, ‘Overload your plate, be stressed and figure it out,’” she told Variety at the New York launch of her new “Shave Thoughts” campaign with Schick. The “Two Broke Girls” creator teamed up with the shaving brand on a series of short comedy videos promoting the Schick Intuition f.a.b. Razor .
Robinson says the idea of following your “intuition” was something that attracted her to the partnership with Schick, as she begins work on a number of projects under a new overall deal with ABC Studios . Under the pact, the writer, stand-up comedian and actress will develop, write and act in new projects across multiple platforms for the studio.
“I moved to New York from Cleveland at 17 because I thought, ‘I need to live in the big city,’ and my whole life changed,” she says. “With [her podcast] ‘ Two Dope Queens, ’ Jess [Williams, her co-creator] and I just started the show because we enjoyed hanging out with each other, and we liked having comics on that really made us belly laugh; we had no idea it would turn into this.”
The lesson, Robinson reveals, is simple: “Not to quote Oprah,” she says, “but you really will live your best life if you follow your gut.”
Robinson is tight-lipped about her projects with ABC for now, but she’s traveling the country this summer on her “ Sorry, Harriet Tubman ” stand-up tour, which kicked off with a week-long residency in Fort Worth, TX ( see dates and tickets here ). “Jessica and I always joked during the ‘Two Dope Queens’ podcast about all the historical Black figures we were letting down because we were talking about hot dudes and stuff,” Robinson says about the inspiration behind the tour. “We decided that Harriet Tubman would be the most disappointed, so I thought I’d run with that.”
While her set will focus on stories about dating, life in New York, life as a black woman in Hollywood, and other “gender stuff,” the comedian says her main goal is for fans to come together to have a good laugh. “I don’t take myself too seriously,” she says, “and I do a lot of ignorant things, so I just want people to have fun and leave feeling good about themselves.”
For Robinson, who’s also the co-author of two best-selling books, ” Everything’s Trash, But It’s Okay ” and ” You Can’t Touch My Hair, ” it’s all about riding the momentum created by a wave of fellow female actors, authors and producers.
“We’re in a moment where you can create the stories and opportunities you wish you had growing up,” she says, citing people like Ali Wong, Lena Waithe, Ilana Glazer and Abbi Jacobson (Robinson worked with the latter two as a consultant on season three of “Broad City” ). “And we can now tell our stories online or on TV or in film. I think it’s a really exciting time.”
As for the Schick campaign: “I get my best material while I’m in the shower,” she quips, “so now I can get super smooth and get some new jokes out of it too.”
