The Man In Trouble

Comedian Tim Robinson can’t resist playing characters who make him wince.

- By Kathryn Vanarendonk

Six minutes into my conversation with comedian Tim Robinson, creator, writer, and performer of the Netflix sketch show I Think You Should Leave, my 4-year-old charges into my office and bellows, “I need to go potty!” I’d been trying to seem relaxed, having been thoroughly warned—by a publicist, by other journalists, by his own colleagues—that Robinson does not enjoy press and has a history of “sinking into nothing” during interviews. He was polite and tense when I introduced myself; when he sees my daughter, a huge grin spreads across his face. She demands to show Robinson a stuffed animal. “I’d love to see it!” he says. He looks thrilled at the prospect of hanging out with my kid, rather than grimly staring down the barrel of questions like “So how do you define your comedic sensibility?”

Robinson’s work is a shrine to the glories of interruption. His most indelible characters on