QCA Dance: Robert James Hoffman III
Perhaps best known for being the Urban Ninja, Robert James Hoffman III is a dancer, comedian, and actor who starred in She's The Man (a romantic comedy inspired by Billy Shakesqueer's gender-bending crush-fest Twelfth Night), in the endlessly-spoofed You Got Served for which he also won an American Choreographer Award, and in Step It Up 2.
Before you get your hopes up, Robert is straight (but single and prefers boxer briefs... yow!). However, a lot of his comedy uses gay humor and characters— perhaps he's comfortable with his sexuality or aware of his gay fans. Dancing and theater in general have always had a large gay following and he capitalizes on that by playing with preconceptions of homosexuality without demeaning it.
On his site, Hoffman gives advice to aspiring dancers, though it applies to all artists in general: "There is one way and only one way to make it as a dancer, train harder than anyone else. If there isn't any good training in your area, find it... it takes time to get your body that versatile and controlled. However, being trained technically is not necessarily the answer. If you can discipline yourself, then first seek out your biggest inspirations whether it be music videos, movies, instructional tapes, b-boy event tapes, old swing dance footage, some guy you saw dancing on the street... whatever it is, seize it and juice it for all it's creative influence on you. Next, commit all your time to practicing, or working with that person, or perfecting the moves, or going to the clubs where the people get down... when you train hard, you gotta train HARD. You don't stop when you get it. You do it better. You don't stop when you get the trick; you evolve the trick into a better trick. You dance until you throw up. Nothing less. That is how you build super endurance. There is no excuse. It is up to you. Do you wanna make money DANCING for the rest of your life? Well so do alot of other people. All you have to ask yourself is: Are you willing to practice harder and longer than them?"
Below are some of Robert's gayer comedy videos:
Soulmate: RJH dabbles in homosexuality... er, or narcissism... or, um, masturbation? There's lots of flirting, excitement, and a nice shower scene near the end.
The YES Dance: A hilarious live stand-up performance featuring Hoffman as James Precious from The House of Precious.
See Hoffman's other gay videos and the Urban Ninja after the jump...
Dancer Face: Once again, James Precious from the House of Precious talks about the founding of his organization, Dancer Face.
Here's the video that started it all... Urban Ninja Part 1...
... and the newly released Urban Ninja Part 2
And as a bonus for you guys who made it this far, here's Touching Another Dude Softly (TADS) in which Robert sees just how far he can go with other guys. Turns out, all guys like a little bromance, even if they don't reciprocate.
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Reader Comments
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Awww. If only he was ten years younger and gay. I am in-love with him.
I love TADS!! I think he is Bi-Curious, but hey he likes to experiment on things. LOL!! I loved him on "Step it up 2", he is hot!!
i love how QC attributes this self-proclaimed heterosexual's gay characters and humor to him being comfortable with his sexuality or aware of his gay fans.
perhaps he's demeaning gay people by acting like a disgusting stereotype - much like self-proclaimed heterosexual nick swardson does endlessly.
great, so now QC is going the way of the advcoate and OUT and nearly every other gay lifestyle source by prominently featuring self-proclaimed heteros at every turn. what a way to wash the Queer out of QC.
i imagine there's 1,000 actual homosexuals out there who are equally, if not more, talented and who don't mock gay people incessantly with their limited ideas of how gay men act.
yet...you pick THIS guy?
LOL!! And oh so cute!!!
Chill out, brad h. Robert is funny, not to mention my soul-mate (astrologically speaking anyways). Humor is humor and if it is funny it’s funny.
Are you comfortable being gay and laughing at the ignorance of stereotypes? I am. I know I don’t belong to the gay stereotype and instead of holding a grudge and bitter feelings against everyone that believes we are that way, I instead laugh at their ignorance and share that laugh with everyone else regardless of their own sexual orientation that knows we aren't that way. A disgusting stereotype... yeah right, get over yourself. Who are you trying to impress here. Who are you trying to make feel better. Its because of people like yourself that there exists another stereotype of bitter little gay men that turn old and grumpy and hold that anger against the world.
I think QC is doing just fine with the material they are posting every day. I don't think they are washing off any of their queerness, I feel as gay as ever everytime I come here and enjoy their content fully.
more of the QCArts posts please! totally loved both clips and was stoked to hear sigur ros (featuring the lovely gay Jonsi) played during the first clip
The YES Dance is hilarious!
And for all the critics: Who spends more time mocking gay men than GAY MEN? Let's face it: Stereotypes exist for a reason. If the shoe fits, it damn well better be Prada!
HOFF has mad skills...he is interminably cute and very adept at dancing! He clearly just hasn't found his niche and needs a great breakout role to get his name out there...Step Up 2 BLEW CHUNKS and unfortunately Hoff is not as great an actor as he is a dancer and so I felt his performance with that of Evigan (the female lead) just weren't up to par.
Bobby...I love you...you are an inspiration!
STEVEDENVER, exactly what I was going to say (and what I always believed): Stereotypes exist for a reason: because there is some truth to them. All stereotypes, so let's not pretend that gays do not recognize effeminate behaviour as not coming from many gay men.
Try getting that through the PC POLICE!