Singer Audrey Hobert played five songs at the Tiny Desk

Audrey Hobert plays a lot of comedy into her live show. In concert she has stood on a tall ladder hidden inside a taller trench coat, bounced on a mini trampoline, and dribbled basketballs. Knowing she takes her cues from Steve Martin, who is a musician as well as a comedian, makes all of that sit better.

At the Tiny Desk on 13 August 2026 none of it was available, and the songs held up anyway. Hobert arrived with a debut album last year, Who's the Clown?, already carrying a distinct writing voice: a knack for putting words to the embarrassing thoughts most people leave unspoken, then singing them over a hard beat.

Her background is in screenwriting, and it shows in what she reaches for. Sex and the city and the Friends-inspired Phoebe both borrow their frames from television. The first of those is funny and also a fairly exposed piece of writing about desire, which is roughly the trick she keeps pulling.

Before the last song she made a small prediction. Artists early on sometimes get one hit, she said, and she would classify this one as a hit, adding that it is only a hit with time. Sue me had entered the Billboard Hot 100 that week.

The full set was Shooting star, Thirst Trap, Phoebe, Sex and the city and Sue me. She played guitar and sang, backed by Ricky Gourmet on guitar, Hayley Briasco on guitar and banjo, Lana Drincic on keys, Steven Brickman on saxophone, keys and bass, Andrew Pham on bass and Cameron Allen on drums.

We have also covered her Tiny Desk appearance as a debut and what it meant for the first anniversary of her album. More is on the pop hub.