The New Yorker Radio Hour - Nikki Glaser at the Top of Her Game

Episode Date: April 22, 2025

In the past few years, the comedian Nikki Glaser has breathed new life into the well-worn comedic form of the roast. Last year, she performed a roast of the football legend Tom Brady for a Netflix special, to much acclaim—with Conan O’Brien opining that “no one is going to do a better roast set than that.” Glaser has been on a hot streak since then, hosting the Golden Globes in January and touring the country with a new show. But rising to the top of the comedy world, Glaser tells David Remnick, hasn’t settled her insecurities, or her impostor syndrome. “It just never goes away— that feeling of not being worthy, or being thought of as less than,” Glaser says. It’s why, as Remnick notes, she insists on leading her set with a joke right out of the gate. “Part of it is I just know that people think women aren’t as funny, so I have to prove it right away . . . and then, ‘Can we all just relax and you can trust me?’ ”New episodes of The New Yorker Radio Hour drop every Tuesday and Friday. Follow the show wherever you get your podcasts. New Yorker Radio Hour listeners, we want to hear from you.  We have a few questions about the show and how you listen to it. The survey takes about twenty minutes, and your feedback will help us make our podcast better.  Take the survey here.

This is The New Yorker Radio Hour, a co-production of WNYC Studios and The New Yorker. This is The New Yorker Radio Hour. I'm David Remnick. Now, a comedy roast is a pretty strange ritual. A celebrated person submits to public humiliation voluntarily. Old wounds are poked out, foibles are mocked, scandals are re-aired, usually with great obscenity. The celebrity just sits there showing what a fantastic sport they are. But the discomfort is obvious. The roaster can't pull a punch if the thing is going to work.

Over the past few years, Nikki Glazer has breathed some new life into this old ritual. In fact, she really owns the roast form these days. I probably needn't tell you about Glazer's roast of the quarterback Tom Brady. It's a phenomenon, and if you haven't seen it, it awaits you happily on Netflix. Nikki Glazer has been on a hot streak ever since, hosting the Golds, Globes earlier this year and touring the country with a new show. So I knew your work just a little bit here and there.

You'd be on this show and that show. And one night, I just, I was fried. And so I went on Netflix looking for something to watch. And there's this Tom Brady roast. And I thought, you know, this seems particularly mindless. Let's do this. Exactly. And then there you were.

And I kind of barely knew you. And you killed it. I hadn't seen anything like that since, I don't know, Prince playing while my guitar gently weeps on an award show 20 years ago. Oh, I know what you're talking about, rock and roll Hall of Fame with Danny Harrison and Tom Petty. You got it. What a comparison. That's so nice. Overnight sensation.

What goes into being an overnight sensation? I mean, like 22 years of. of doing it all the time. Of work. And honestly, of just not really ever thinking it was going to happen, just really, just one foot in front of the other. Just I was not really in a place of like, when is this going to happen for me? When are people going to notice? I really come from a place of like, I probably don't deserve to get noticed.

I'll just keep working and tricking people along the way is kind of what I thought. Like, people seem to just like kind of fall for my BS, I guess. and then this came about. And I actually, I did advocate for myself to get the Tom Brady roast. I knew it was going to be a huge deal. I didn't know how huge, but I knew I had it in me to, like, put the work in. You say you advocated to get that gig. Yeah, I did.

How does that work? Well, I heard it was happening. And then I just texted the guy who I assumed was going to be in charge of it, the Robbie Pra, who is head of comedy at Netflix. He had scouted me for the Just for Last Festival in, like, 2007, so I had known him since we were both kind of starting out in the business. And I just texted him and I said, I really want to do this roast. And I think I'd be great at it. And he said, you know, actually I'm going to talk to Tom about it today. And Tom Brady had control over

who gets to be a roaster? I think he was, he's an executive producer on it. And so I think, yeah, he was going to have a say in it. And did you have to perform in front of him or did he watch tapes? I think he watched tape. I think he was very well versed in roast in roast. getting into it. You know, that guy watches tape. What was he thinking saying yes to it? I think he was just going for the next challenge, the next thing that other people go, I could never do that. Because most people know, like, has there been another one since? You think that was the end of roast? I don't think it's the end, but I think it's a really hard spot to fill. I think that a lot, people aren't brave enough to do it. So talk to me a little bit

about what goes into the preparation for something like that. I think there's still, a mythology that comedians like singer-songwriters sit at home in the kitchen table and they sketch out one joke after another. But it's a lot more complicated and a lot more collaborative than that, isn't it? So you start writing jokes and then you start getting jokes sent in from the people that are on your team. And by the way, everyone does this. No one admits that they do it. Why? Because you get talked about on podcasts and different things where people say, say, oh, well, she had writer. You don't get all the glory.

I don't have a lot of shame in saying that I have help because I know everyone does it. But the problem is people on the outside that don't know that everyone has it, they look at me, they can just excuse my talent. And since when is it not a talent to be able to say, here's what I want and, oh, actually make that better. Here's where I want to redo that. And every script you have seen a movie of besides Mike White, you know, on White Lotus. And maybe this season could have used to live. I will not say that.

I love it. And then I look at like late night hosts, and I'm like, we never steal anything from their glory, and they have a whole writer's room. We don't take anything from them. So you and writers that you select write endless amounts of jokes, many, many, many more minutes than seven minutes. Yes. And then how is it worked out? How do you go to clubs? You see what works, what doesn't work.

Well, yeah, you just read them. You read jokes all day. you try to make them better, and then you put a set together, and then you start going out. And you, you know, I think the first time I ran the Tom Brady Roast set, I was doing a corporate gig in Sedona or something. And I just, you know, my act for corporate gigs is not always the best. They're kind of confused at some of the themes I'm talking about. It's just not what they expect because they know me from Roasts or they know me from late-night appearances where it's a little bit cleaner or, you know, not so absurd. And so I was like, oh, yeah, I'll just, I'll bring them in on the process.

Because it's really a cool thing for audiences to see the beginning of this thing where I go, okay, I'm doing the Tom Brady roast. Can I try out some jokes? And then you start reading off jokes. You see what hits and you go, okay, let's try that again. And the audience doesn't lie. If you go to the comedy cellar and you're working out stuff, what might or may not be in a roast. Yeah.

What works in the comedy cellar is going to work on the roast? Oh, yeah, yeah. But what struck me, the New York Times did a piece where they followed you around for, I think, a few weeks. the degree to which it was so organized this process and how long it took and how careful and in a way unfunny. I mean, so serious. It was like a piece about the jet propulsion lab or something. Yeah, yeah. It was that exact and that because it's live.

You know, the first three rows I did, it's a live performance, but it goes through an edit. All the laughs can get beefed up after. What did you know would kill and what were you worried about? Well, roast of Tom Brady, not worried at all because, like, they were live. So there was no margin of error. There was no one that I was like, this might not work. Like, you can't have those. The other, the three roasts I did where you could edit, yeah, I put in some B plus jokes that sometimes are A's.

Golden Globes and Tom Brady roast, it's live. So you can't have those, oh, it might, this could be cool if it works. And that's not to say that they all did work, but. I was really sure of all of those. How do you pace it out? I noticed that in the Golden Globes, the opening joke is incredibly short, which was... It was, welcome to the Golden Globes, Ozempic's biggest night. Yeah.

Yeah. Which, yes. You know, for the Ozempic's biggest night, I just knew it was like, welcome to the Golden Globes. Da-da-da-da-da. Like, I just knew that's the cadence I wanted, the rhythm. And I knew that I wanted a joke immediately. I don't want them to have to wait for it. That's something that I talked to, I was doing a podcast with Lori Kilmartin and Jackie Cation to amazing stand-up comedians.

And I was talking about how I just never understand when comedians go out on stage and don't have a really quick joke right away to win over the audience. They kind of like dawdle a little bit. Any late-night set you've seen of mine, you can go back and look any set. I have a laugh right away. Like I don't waste any time. And it's not because I'm like, that's what the audience deserves. It's because I don't want them to be like, what are we doing here? And they said they go, well, that's being a female comic because as, and I don't play

that card often, but I will play that on that one. How come? When a man gets on stage, you're like, that looks like a comedian to me. I'm going to give him a little bit more leeway to make me laugh. Okay, I bet he's going to make me laugh. So I'll sit and listen to him not make me laugh to, I trust the laugh is coming. Well, it just never goes away. That feeling of not being worthy or being thought of as less than.

And it's wrapped up in also another underlying lack of self-worth that I have that permeates everything I do. But I think part of it is I just know that people think women aren't as funny. So I have to prove it right away and be like, see? And then like, can we all just relax and you can trust me? Kind of thing. So this leap in success seems to have done only a modest amount to alleviate. problems with self-worth and anxiety.

It's done nothing. It's done nothing. No. I would say nothing. I'm trying to let it in. There's moments where I get, you know, compliments from people I really admire and they say it in a way that I'm like,

oh, that's the way you say it when you mean it. They're not just being nice, and they'll break through a little bit, and I'll go, okay, yeah, I'll take that in. Like, this person wouldn't lie to me. I just don't, I don't really bask in things. And it's not because I like to be tortured. I just, I don't know.

I just don't feel like, Well, I think part of it is I don't want to take it in because when it goes away inevitably, I don't want to be sad. You say inevitably. I mean, it doesn't. There's no one who's been immune to success being kind of pulled away from you. Like, you're only on top for so long. It's going to descend. And I just want to be okay when it descends.

But you're surrounded by comedians who have had, sure, they've had ups and downs. Yeah. like Tina Faye, Amy Polar. Yeah. And, you know, from year to year, it might vary. But these are long careers that are developing. Yeah, yeah. You're scared to admit that that might possibly be you?

I mean. Because here's the thing, Nikki. It seems like that's exactly what's happening. I mean, that's, it's unreal. I'm starting to let that in that, like, okay, I might be reaching a level where it's not going to go away. And it's always going to be there. And it might go up and down like you're saying. but it's immense pressure and I almost am tired of hearing myself say it,

but I just have imposter syndrome. I just, you know, there's, I don't know how to beat it, but I just constantly feel like I've tricked someone or someone's going to realize that I'm not as talented as I am or as people think that I am. I'm tempted to begin the question by saying join the club. And I think it's an enormous human club. But also, is there anybody that you talk to in your world specifically who sets things right for you, makes you feel a little bit better about what the possibilities are?

I mean. And I think you've said elsewhere that you sometimes or constantly wish you were someone else. Yeah, a lot of times. I mean, today I'm in a great mood and I love my life and I'm happy with like. But it's day to day. It's day. It's hour to hour. Like, it really is.

I wish I wasn't like this, but I can be so content. This isn't a bit. This is cool. This is annoying. Like, I don't like talking about all of this because it seems like I'm just trying to garner sympathy or something or that it's, I'm trying to be like relatable. Oh, it's the famous girl that doesn't think she deserves it. Like, we've all seen that of like, no, I don't know. I'm just like you.

Like, it's not a bit. Because there are sometimes where I'm like, well, you nailed that. Like the Golden Globes I nailed, the Tom Brady roast I nailed. Can I watch those back? Absolutely not. because in my mind they went great, but, you know, the clips I have seen are come across when I just quickly go, oh, God, there's things that I go, why did you say it like that? Like, why did you look like that? There's a million things that I would correct.

But, and yes, there are people in my life that make me feel amazing about where I'm at and ground me and all those things. I'm talking with comedian Nikki Glazer and we'll continue in a moment on the New York Radio Hour. Stick around. So in an earlier part of your life, and I hate this phrase, but you would take the edge off.

Yeah. By drinking. Oh, yeah. You quit drinking. Uh-huh. How do you relieve things now? I say, I text my friends and my boyfriend and my, and I say, I really say crazy things.

I think drinking or whatever I would do to self-soothe that anxiety or that self-hatred to make that voice go away. It's not there anymore. I don't have that. So I just let that voice rage. And I just say crazy stuff about myself. And I just, like, bully myself. Like, you know, a lot of sometimes my self-hatred has to do with my looks because it's not really about my looks, but it's just something I can focus on. And so I will, like, Photoshop things to prove to my friends.

Like, I am ugly. Look how much I look. like this person I'll do like side by sides. And just recently you put some photographs out. How did that happen? Oh, yeah. That, okay, this is. Explain what I'm talking about.

Yes, okay. So I did the Tonight Show on last Monday. And by the way, I was so depressed that early morning. And then I just started wrapping my head around. You have to be on Jimmy Fallon. And then my mood starts lifting because I just have to turn into, it's not even a character. It just, I have no room to be depressed anymore. I can't go out on Jimmy Fallon sad or.

Yeah. You just can't do it. It's like, so it went away on its own. So I did Jimmy Fallon, and I saw one of the pictures where I'm like walking, like, I'm walking out and I'm like, ah, like my face is like, eh. And I was like, where have I seen that face? And I was like, oh, my God, that's the same face I made when I walked out on the first Tonight Show I ever did.

There's like a picture of me like. What year is that? 2009, January 2009. And then cut to March 2025. And I was like, oh, let me just do side by sides and put out this Instagram post of like me and Jimmy at the desk, me and Jay Leno at the desk, me and Jim, you know. And just, it was more a thing of, like, how adorable was, look at this young girl and look where I am now.

It wasn't about, like, look where I've been. It was also to be like, hey, I've been around a while. Like, isn't this funny? Like, I was on this night show. You had no clue who I was until last May. And I've been around this long. It was just, and it was just like, all right, I'll just put this out. And I didn't read, I don't read comments.

I don't read any of my Google alerts. I don't. I'm possibly calling bullshit. shit on that. I think you do. It sounds like you do read comments. I don't. I'll, here's, I will, I will, I'm being 100% honest with you. I do, and you can check with my, my social media manager knows. Sometimes I will post something. And I'll just be in the mood, because it's just something lighthearted that they can't really go after. So I'll just, I'll read the first comments that pop up, because it just went up and I'm like, I'm on it. And I'll see it. And then I'll stop immediately a second, something upsets

to me. But that is maybe once every three months I will do that. Otherwise, zero. And so, You know, sometimes you can't help it. You're on Reddit and you see your own name. And you go, and then, but I don't, I don't click on the comments. I just don't. But then I was, I don't even know how I saw it, but it was some, some posts. I'll look at my tagged photos or something because I need to just write, thanks for coming to the show. And there was one that was like, Nikki Glazer used to be ugly, like fat and ugly.

And she had this glow up and she's, this is her new ozempic body, which I'm like, you're conflating. I don't take OZemphic body. But this crap is all over the web. It's all over. But I didn't know. I thought I saw it was going like kind of mid-viral of like, oh, Nikki Glazer, she changed through the years. I didn't know it was like she was fat and ugly and now she's not. And then people are commenting, this is what money will buy you.

And I'm like, yeah, that's what I tell you. Come see my show. I tell you everything I do. I'm not claiming that this is like, oh, I'm just loving my life now. Like, people are commenting shitty things about me that I'm like, yeah, I said that first. You don't get to say that. And so it was really – I go, oh, they are being mean. You've talked about not making political work too often.

And you were recently quoted saying this. Oh, God. You just are scared that you're going to get doxed and death threats or who knows where this leads, like, detained. Yes. Honestly, that's not even like a joke. It's like a real fear. You said that. I said it.

And I wonder what you make of Elon Musk talking about the need to legalize comedy at CPAC. in February. I mean, I don't think anything of it. I don't believe anything. And I will say for that quote, I feel like taken out of context, I seem alarmist. You've had that experience?

Taken out of context? No, no, no, no. Getting docks and death threats. No, but I, you know, I've seen it happen. We see it to happen to other people. I don't think I'm going to be detained for talking about my vagina on stage or something.

But there, you look at other countries where things have gone haywire and people have lost their freedom of speech. And if you speak out about the leader and if you don't hang his portrait in your house... You end up like Lenny Bruce. You... Worse, you just disappear. It's not... I'm not saying it's happening right now.

I'm not saying it's happening anytime soon. But it's within the scope of possibilities. And so, yeah, I mean, like, at this point, I've been... been, I'm not like one of the most outspoken people against our president, but I have definitely, you know, if you're paying attention, you know how I feel. And that sometimes scares me to be like, well, how do, what's going to be my defense? And my defense is that he's so hot. I really think he's, I mean, I might not agree with what he does, but he's really, like, I'm really attracted to him. Yeah. I want to go on record to saying that. I think he's one of the hottest men that's ever lived.

And, you know, like, you just hope. that things don't get worse. I think, I mean, right now I feel very safe. I'm not, like, worrying for my life. I was just talking about, you know, that quote was from the Mark Twain Prize at the Kennedy Center. It was in the air that night,

and I think people are making fun of me for being like, Nikki Glazer thinks she's going to be detained. I don't. It's just, it's happened before in the history of the world, a lot. Nick, you don't do political material all that much, but some years ago, I think it was eight years ago

at the Rob Low Roast, You offered some pretty searing political commentary when it came to Anne Coulter. Let's listen to a clip. Oh, do we have to? Yeah. And without furor ado, Anne Coulter. Oh, Anne. What's it like to be like a real life super villain, you know?

Like, I'd ask you how you sleep at night, but I'd assume just upside down in a robe of 101 Dalmatians. Anne Coulter has written 11 billion. books, 12, if you count mine conf. Yes. And's been called things like a racist, anti-Semitic, homophobic, a white supremacist, and that's just while getting plowed by Bill Maher. I don't remember that joke.

I put it in there. Yeah. That's, that was hard to listen to. Why? You seem like you feel bad about it now? No, I don't feel bad. I just, I would have chosen different jokes in different delivery. I feel bad about the delivery. And I feel bad like I didn't go harder. Like I would have just liked to just really say it bluntly.

Like, you're a terrible person. Like, what I think, you know, saying like what's it like to be a real life super villain? I wish I wouldn't have really, like, laughed in between. I can tell that I was, like, nervous that she was, like, not going to like me. But I probably would have done the same thing now because it's hard to tell these things to people who you're looking at and who you actually feel that way about. You saw that they canceled the gig of the comedian at the White House Correspondence Center? Oh, that, yeah. Jesus, would you take that gig?

No. Why? It's, um, you bomb no matter what. It's a bad room. It's a bad room. It's a horrible room. Yeah, even, you know, in, and, uh, past years when it was felt safer. It's just not, yeah, it's a bad room.

And so, and also you're just, I don't, you know, I don't want to alienate people and I don't want to make enemies. And I don't like having headlines written about me where it's like, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I don't like headlines. I would rather like just, you know, I like good, I don't want to, yeah, I just don't want to stir up stuff. I mean, my parents would be so proud if I did a gig like that. Why? Because they.

For political reasons? Yeah. What are their politics? I mean, they're, they're almost, you know, they're, there's very liberal. They're almost too liberal. What do you mean? It's like, it's like, you just can't, they're watching Fox News to hate it. You know, like they're, they're, they're, they're, they're, they're, they're, they're, they're, they're, they're, they're, they're, they're, it's knocked years of their lives off of them.

the stress that this president has caused them. But yeah, they would be very proud if I did that. But they also like when I'm safe and happy. So I think that they actually wouldn't want me to because they want me to be safe. When is that? When are you safe? When are you feeling happy? When I'm watching White Lotus, when I'm done with work, when I get to be around my family,

when we get to go out for dinner. Like, I live in St. Louis, so I'm... Why do you live in St. Louis, away from L.A., away from New York? Because I went back for COVID. I was living in New York during when the pandemic started. I went back to just hang out with my parents to wait for it to blow over. It didn't. I just was scared and single and just was like, I want to be with my mommy and daddy.

And I love them. They're really cool. They're funny. They're my friends now. And so I lived with my parents for a year. And then I was like a year when I was 36. How'd that go? It was awesome.

I didn't want to go. They kind of were like, listen, you got to move on. I mean, I was, I was. They threw you out of that house. They kind of did. They were like, this isn't, this is fun. We're all having a good time, but you got to grow up. And we all knew it.

I mean, I had been out of their house for years at that point. And I was, I had a huge career. Like, I was touring theaters from my parents' house. So it's, and it was really. But I am, you know, I have, there's a failure to launch kind of thing going on with me. I am a little bit stunted. Yeah, but you can't do that. You can't pull that off anymore.

You are launched into outer space at this point. But I still, I mean, if I'm home alone in St. Louis, if my boyfriend's not there, I sleep at my parents' house every single time. I don't like being alone. I like hanging out with them. We watch TV late. Like, that's my happy time as being with my family. So that's why I live in St. Louis. I just was there.

And then I would go to fly to New York or L.A. for TV stuff. And no one seemed to notice I didn't live there. Right. And I was at a point in my career where if they are not willing to buy me a Southwest ticket, the gig's not worth it. You know, like, people can – I'm not asking to stay at the nicest places or for first class. So I'm just like, well, if you're not willing to fly me out and put me up, like, I don't really want the gig. So it's nice to just be with my family while they're still kicking. Nikki, finally, how do you view your future?

I really want to work on – my goal for myself is to just – I want more self-acceptance because I'm not going to get smarter. I'm not going to get more talented. Like all these things I'm waiting to happen. Like, I wish I was this person. I wish I was as funny as that person or as smart or as detail-oriented or organized or beautiful. The beauty thing I can work on, there's money to be poured into that. But I think I just want to get, I want to be accepting of, and I am accepting of most things.

But I want to do like ayahuasca. I want to do like mushroom trips. Like I want to do some spiritual journeys. You know how much vomiting is involved in the ayahuasca process? Do you know how bulimic I was in college? I can handle it. Thank you so much. Thank you so much.

This is so fun. It's always good to end with a bulimic. Right. Nikki Glazer is, of course, on tour. And if you missed her hosting the Golden Globe Awards this year, she'll be hosting them again next year. That's the New Yorker Radio Hour for tonight. I'm David Remnick. Thanks for listening. See you next time.

The New Yorker Radio Hour is a co-production of WNYC Studios and The New Yorker. Our theme music was composed and performed by Merrill Garbus of Tune Yards, with additional music by Jared Paul. This episode was produced by Max Bolton, Adam Howard, David Krasnow, Jeffrey Masters, Louis Mitchell, Jared Paul, and Ursula Summer. With guidance from Emily Boutin and assistance from Michael May, David Gable, Alex Barish, Victor Gwan, and Alejandra Deccett. And we had additional help this week from Jake Loomis.

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