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Phoebe Robinson is officially over girl-bossing—and honestly, fair enough. The comedian, actress and writer has been non-stop grinding since 2008, building a standout stand-up career, becoming a New York Times bestselling author and creating her own production company, Tiny Reparations and the Penguin Random House imprint Tiny Reparations Books.
She's starred in films like Ibiza and What Men Want; co-created and starred in the HBO hit 2 Dope Queens, as well as the Freeform series Everything's Trash. She's dominated the podcasting world with Sooo Many White Guys and Black Frasier and even moderated Michelle Obama's book tour. Somehow, in her "downtime," she's trained for and ran nearly every major marathon in the country, including the New York City Marathon. How she's had time for it all remains a complete mystery.
Most recently, she dropped her newest comedy special on YouTube, I Don't Wanna Work Anymore—an hour-long roast of girl-boss culture, modern womanhood, her current sexual frustrations and her occasional fantasy of marrying older and richer. Basically, all the things we wish we could say out loud.
Time Out New York recently caught up with Phoebe to talk favorite NYC spots, creating her special, how girl-bossing has misled us, Manhattan vs. Brooklyn stand-up crowds, whether a "runner's high" is real and plenty more.
On 'girl-bossing' and hustle culture
"I think overall, it's not what we were led to believe it was. There's this sort of allegiance to hustle culture, working around the clock, just achieving more and more that has led us to an over consumption, over prioritization of success at the cost of everything else. It's not that ambition is bad, but there is a notion that if you're ambitious, it will solve all your problems—and that just isn't true."
On how she came up with the special
"I was on a flight and I texted my best friend, 'You know, if I could just marry a 75-year-old man I would be so happy and I wouldn't have to be on this flight.' My friend was like 'Phoebe, that's so old!' But I would be in the will! I wouldn't be working! And I was like, 'Oh. This could be something.'"
On her go-to NYC restaurants
"There's a place I love to order from that has the best pho, it's called Mama Pho and it's delicious. Whenever it's cold out I'll order it, get on my couch and just let the steam go into my nostrils. Craft is always good; Blue Ribbon Sushi on the Lower East Side has the most insane fried chicken—that's such a cliché but the food is so good. And I always love a good Momofuku moment."
On her favorite neighborhood
"I like Manhattan, but I've been in Brooklyn since I was 17 turning 18, so I'm fully a Brooklyn girl at this point. The trains aren't as good and it takes me a little longer to get everywhere, but it's nice and quiet."
On Manhattan vs. Brooklyn audiences
"I think 'socially conscious' is what the Brooklyn vibe is. They want to make sure you're not being offensive, so they get a little hyper-defensive. Especially when you do an indie room in Brooklyn where there are no drink minimums, the audiences are different if they're not already inebriated. In Manhattan you get all kinds of out-of-towners. I was doing New York Comedy Club a couple weeks ago and a bunch of German people were there. It was so fun—Germans, Brits, it's such a hodgepodge.
On running the NYC Marathon
"Of all the marathons I've run it's the hardest because it has the most rolling hills. You finish in Central Park, so you're finishing on an incline, which sucks so much. You're like, 'I want this to be over, why am I still going up?' But of all the marathons, New York has the best energy. It's just so unbelievable."
On the reality of a "runner's high"
"For me, it's less a 'runner's high' and more like you have a bottomless well of confidence and an 'I can do it' [feeling] that just comes out. I don't know if I've ever had this 'high' or like 'oh my god.' I think it's eluded me as well.