‘Everything’s Trash’ Creator and Star Phoebe Robinson on Her Fictionalized Life: ‘There’s No One Way to Adult’

variety.com:

Selome Hailu Phoebe Robinson, the stand-up comedian who with Jessica Williams co-hosted the podcast-turned-HBO series “2 Dope Queens,” is ready to bring her audio skills back to the screen.Robinson is the creator and star of the upcoming Freeform comedy “Everything’s Trash,” which is adapted from her 2018 essay collection “Everything’s Trash, but It’s Okay.” She and showrunner Jonathan Groff leaned into the humor of “Sooo Many White Guys,” her solo spinoff of “2 Dope Queens,” while developing “Everything’s Trash,” in which Robinson plays a fictionalized version of herself that she affectionately refers to as TV Phoebe.Groff “had listened to some episodes of ‘Sooo Many White Guys’ and really liked the rapport that I had with my producer, Joanna [Solotaroff],” Robinson says. “We wanted to replicate that, because we felt that TV Phoebe’s superpower, and my superpower, is being an empath — highlighting what’s special about someone and then zeroing in on that.” In “Everything’s Trash,” the other side of the host-producer relationship is Malika (Toccarra Cash).

When Phoebe is drowning in the consequences of, say, a nip slip on Instagram Live, Malika is always on the next train over, ready to provide an open ear and tough love in equal measure.

That counseling helps Phoebe process her anguish, and by the time she and Malika are back in the studio to record, there’s a more polished version of the story to share with listeners.

The juxtaposition between Phoebe’s self-consciousness off air and the brash humor of her podcast is where “Everything’s Trash” really shines.“There is a performance element of podcasting,” Robinson says. “When you see her off the mic, you see a side that’s less jokey-jokey-jokey.