A Chat With Windsor Terrace's Hoff Matthews, Creator of the Web Series '#Throwback'

WINDSOR TERRACE, BROOKLYN — Hoff Matthews, 28, has been a Windsor Terrace resident for five years — almost the entirety of his seven-year stand-up comedy career. On the side, he's been serving as co-host of the popular comedy show HP5000. All that, on top of running two blogs: On the first, Priced Out, he contemplates the many works of Richard Price; and on the second, #1s, he runs weekly reviews of America's No. 1 movies, TV shows and books. (Check it out for Matthews' wild takes on Suicide Squad — "Don't get me wrong, it is dumb and a mess" — and The Bachelorette S12E11 — "Seemed pretty stupid.")

Matthews' latest project, a web series called #Throwback, takes a satirical look at working in social media. Each episode is set on a specific date in 2015, and deals with whatever was trending at the time.

We recently talked to Matthews about the series, as well as his awesome Richard Price blog and his favorite places to perform comedy in New York. Full interview below.

Patch: Your new web series deals with ideas of social media and time in interesting ways. How did you come up with the concept?

Patch: You've been a Windsor Terrace resident for over 5 years. Where are a few of your favorite spots in the neighborhood?

Matthews: There are a lot of good ones! Double Windsor is a great neighborhood bar. I see a lot of movies at the Pavilion; people dump on it but it gets the job done. Bene's has got really good pizza.

Patch: You've been a stand-up comic for years. Where are some of your favorite places to perform?

Matthews: Captains of Industry at Industry City distillery in Sunset Park is great. There are a bunch of good weekly shows at Bunga's Den, Amazingtown and Sh*t Lit.

Patch: #Throwback features some amazing actors. What was it like collaborating with the cast?

Matthews: It was fun! We're all friends, so it was actually a lot like making videos with my school friends growing up. Just hanging out, kind of messing around while still trying to keep things disciplined enough that you get done what you need to get done. And I'm really happy with everybody's performances; I've had people who have watched the series say to me, "Wow, he/she is really good in that role" about everyone in the cast at one point or another.

Patch: What are some of your favorite recent TV shows/web series?

Matthews: As a Richard Price fan, I've really been enjoying The Night Of. Silicon Valley is great, and definitely very tonally close to what I was going for with #Throwback. I'm not caught up on Rick and Morty or It's Always Sunny but I like those a lot. Web series-wise, I was just introduced to Don't Hug Me I'm Scared, which is very impressive.

Patch: Priced Out, your blog about novelist/screenwriter Richard Price, is the definite catalog of Price's work. How did you get started with that website?

Matthews: It started just through me exploring his work as a fan, reading his books and then watching the movies he wrote or co-wrote. A lot of artists, as you get further into their body of work, you start to lose interest in them and realize you only really liked their best-known stuff, but that never really happened with him for me. So the blog was a way of getting into his stuff more thoroughly and sharing it with other people.

Patch: You recently interviewed Richard Price. What was that experience like?

Matthews: It was great! He invited me to his place, was really candid in the interview, showed me his book collection. There's an anxiety to meeting someone you look up to like that because if it doesn't go well it's going to kind of ruin their work for you, to some extent. So I was really happy with how it turned out, and really grateful to him for making the time for me.

Photo by Mindy Tucker