Today we’d like to introduce you to Robyn Gilleran.
Hi Robyn, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
My name is Robyn Gilleran, and I’m an actor, lifestyle model and stand-up comedian based in the Detroit area. My journey into entertainment has definitely not been a straight line.
I wanted to study theater in college, but my parents, who apparently wanted me to be able to afford groceries, didn’t think that was a sustainable career choice. So I was encouraged to pursue engineering instead. By my junior year, I had made an important discovery: engineers were not my people. I switched my major to English and Film and finally started moving toward the world I had always wanted to be part of. For years, I worked behind the scenes in production as a production assistant, production manager and producer. Often times I was able to be part of a production as on camera talent and that was SO much fun for me. I loved the industry, but eventually realized I didn’t actually want to be behind the camera. I wanted more opportunities to be in front of it.
Oddly enough, it was becoming pregnant with my second son that finally pushed me to make the leap. I was working for a company that wasn’t particularly supportive of working moms. I tried to go part-time and they weren’t interested in supporting that idea, so I left. I started acting and never looked back.
That “second son” is now 17, so apparently this plan has lasted a while.
Acting in Michigan can be feast or famine, so there were definitely stretches where I had a little more free time than I would have liked. Meanwhile, my husband Jason, who is a full-time urologist, because apparently one career wasn’t enough for him, started doing stand-up comedy as a hobby.
I loved going to his open mics and shows, and eventually I started thinking, “I think I can do that.”
So I signed up for a comedy class at Mark Ridley’s Comedy Castle, one of Detroit’s legendary comedy clubs. The class teaches you how to develop and hone a five-minute set and at the end you perform it on the iconic Comedy Castle stage.
I did my five minutes and was completely hooked.
What began as my husband’s hobby somehow became a second career for both of us. We now perform both separately and together, traveling around the country and getting the opportunity to perform on incredible stages including Zanies in Chicago and Jimmy Kimmel’s Comedy Club in Las Vegas.
There are definitely a lot of layers to the comedy business that aren’t particularly funny. The booking, promotion, travel, rejection emails, and occasionally screaming into the void can be taxing, but I absolutely love performing.
One of my favorite things about stand-up is that for an hour or two people get to forget whatever is happening in their lives. They come into a room, shut out the chaos, and laugh.
And the fact that I get to do that while traveling around the country with my husband makes this strange, unexpected second act of my career pretty special.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Despite what social media may suggest, my journey has definitely not been a smooth road, but I’m not sure anyone in entertainment gets a smooth road, even when it looks that way from the outside.
One of the biggest struggles for me has been learning how to handle rejection. Acting and comedy both involve putting yourself out there constantly and then hearing “no” or, even more commonly, hearing absolutely nothing. You can audition for something you feel perfect for or send a booking email you spent way too much time crafting and then hear…crickets. Who knew there were so many crickets in comedy?
There’s a lot of rejection in the entertainment industry, and I’ve learned that it’s important not to get too high with the exciting news or too low with the disappointing news. That sounds simple and easy. It’s not.
Living in Michigan has also presented its own challenges. There are wonderful opportunities here, but it’s obviously not Los Angeles or New York, so I’ve had to create a lot of my own opportunities and be willing to travel. Comedy especially involves a lot of time on the road, late nights, long drives, promoting shows, and performing for crowds that can vary wildly from one night to the next.
There’s also the challenge of starting something new later in life. I didn’t begin stand-up in my 20s. I had already built a career, raised a family and lived a whole lot of life before I walked onto a comedy stage. At first, I wondered if that put me at a disadvantage. Now I think it’s one of my biggest strengths because I actually have a lot to talk about.
Working with your spouse can be its own adventure, too. My husband and I genuinely love performing together, but traveling, producing shows and building a comedy career as a married couple definitely gives us plenty of additional material. Luckily, almost every marital disagreement can eventually become a joke.
I’ve also learned not to compare my journey to someone else’s. My path in this business is my own. I’ve worked hard to make connections, find good agents, figure out who books the rooms where I want to work and then actually get myself in front of those people. A lot of this career happens offstage.
One of the biggest challenges in comedy right now is simply filling the seats. People often wait until the last minute to buy tickets, and sometimes you think you have a draw in a city and it just doesn’t pan out. That can be humbling. It’s one of the reasons we especially love performing here in Michigan, where we have roots, friends, family and connections that have grown over many years. We love getting the opportunity to perform all over the country, but Michigan will always be home.
More than anything, I think the biggest lesson has been to just keep going. This business can be frustrating, unpredictable and humbling, but every time I get onstage or land a role I’m excited about, I remember why I do it.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
Hard G Comedy is the comedy brand my husband Jason and I have built together. We perform as a husband-and-wife comedy team, but what we offer goes well beyond traditional comedy club shows.
We produce and perform at private events, corporate events, fundraisers, clubs, theaters and even smaller house-party-style events. Because we own our own small stage, sound and production equipment, we’re able to be flexible with the size and type of event. That might mean an intimate comedy night in someone’s home or a much larger event for a company, organization or conference.
One thing that sets us apart is that we bring very different backgrounds to the stage. Jason is a full-time urologist in addition to being a comedian, and he is also an experienced public speaker who presents at medical conferences. I come from acting, modeling, comedy and years of leadership in the social selling industry. Before retiring from that business, I built and led an organization of up to 600 people, which gave me a tremendous amount of experience in training, leadership, motivation and speaking to large groups.
That combination gives us the ability to tailor what we do to the room. Sometimes people want a straight comedy show. Sometimes they want a host, speaker or entertainer who can keep an event moving and connect with an audience. Sometimes they want something more customized. We can do all of that.
I’ve also started producing and traveling with a show called Robyn & “Friends,” which I jokingly describe as “Robyn performs with people she pays to like her.” It’s a tongue-in-cheek play on all the “and friends” shows you see around the country, but there’s a little truth behind the joke. Comedy can be a surprisingly difficult business in which to make real friendships, so I like poking fun at that reality. I’m especially grateful that I get to do so much of this with Jason because, if all else fails, at least I brought my own friend.
The Robyn & “Friends” shows also give me the opportunity to work with comedians I genuinely enjoy, introduce audiences to performers they may not have seen before, and create a show that feels a little different in every city. One of the things we really value is being able to create opportunities for other comedians while building something of our own.
What I’m most proud of is that we’ve created something that is genuinely ours. Hard G Comedy started almost accidentally, with Jason doing stand-up as a hobby and me deciding to take a comedy class. Now we get to travel, perform together, produce our own shows and create events for other people.
At the end of the day, whether it’s 30 people in someone’s living room or hundreds of people at a corporate event, the goal is the same: make people laugh, give them a great experience and make the event feel memorable.
We’d love to hear about how you think about risk taking?
I think almost everything we do in entertainment involves risk.
Putting yourself out there is a risk. Asking for opportunities is a risk. Auditioning is a risk. Sending the email, making the call, trying something new, investing your own time and money, traveling to a city where you don’t know anyone and hoping people actually show up…there’s risk in all of it.
Even getting on stage is a form of risk. Posting anything on social media is a risk. Comedy requires you to be vulnerable in a very public way. You’re taking your ideas, your experiences and often the most personal parts of your life and asking a room full of strangers, “Do you think this is funny?” Sometimes they do. Sometimes they really, really don’t.
I’ve taken plenty of risks over the years, but I don’t always think of them as dramatic, all-or-nothing decisions. A lot of them are smaller choices that add up including leaving a secure job to pursue acting, starting stand-up later in life, buying equipment, investing in shows, traveling for opportunities, producing our own events, and continuing to ask for rooms that may say no.
One of the hardest parts is that there’s rarely a guarantee. You can spend money promoting a show, travel hours to perform, and still have no idea who is going to walk through the door. You can work incredibly hard on an audition and never hear back. You can put together something you’re proud of and discover that the audience just isn’t there yet.
But I’ve also learned that avoiding risk doesn’t really protect you from disappointment. It can just protect you from opportunity. They say if you don’t ask the answer is always no and that’s true. Sometimes they say yes!
For me, risk-taking has become less about being fearless and more about being willing to be uncomfortable. I still get nervous. I still question things. I still wonder whether people are going to come, whether something will work, or whether I’m wasting my time and money.
Then I usually do it anyway.
I’ve also gotten better at remembering that no single show, joke, audition or opportunity defines me. If something doesn’t work, it doesn’t mean the whole journey isn’t working. In the bigger picture, I want to have fun, keep growing, and be able to say I actually took the chances instead of wondering what might have happened if I had.
I think that willingness to keep putting yourself out there is one of the biggest requirements of this business. You have to be willing to hear no, look foolish sometimes, spend money on yourself before anyone else believes in you, and keep showing up.
The payoff isn’t always immediate, but almost every opportunity I’ve had came from taking some kind of chance first.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.hardgcomedy.com and www.robyngilleran.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/robyngilleran and https://www.instagram.com/hardgcomedy
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/robyn.gilleran.2025
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robyngilleran
- TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@robyngilleran
