David Remnick: 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 at, foibles are mocked, scandals 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 Glaser 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 Glaser'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 Glaser has been on a hot streak ever since hosting the Golden Globes earlier this year and touring the country with a new show.

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. I thought, you know, this seems particularly mindless. Let's do this.

Nikki Glaser: [chuckles] Exactly.

David Remnick: And then there you were. I kind of barely knew you, and you killed it.

Nikki Glaser: Thanks.

David Remnick: Killed it. I hadn't seen anything like that since, I don't know, Prince playing While my Guitar Gently Weeps on an awards show 20 years ago.

Nikki Glaser: Oh, I know what you're talking about. Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with Dhani Harrison and Tom Petty?

David Remnick: That's it. You got it.

Nikki Glaser: [laughs] What a comparison. That's so nice.

David Remnick: So, overnight sensation. What goes into being an overnight sensation?

Nikki Glaser: I mean, like 22 years of doing it all the time--

David Remnick: Of work.

Nikki Glaser: Of work, and of honestly just not really ever thinking it was going to happen. Really, just one foot in front of the other. 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 kind of fall for my BS, I guess, and then this came about. Actually, I did advocate for myself to get the Tom Brady roast. I knew it was going to be a huge deal. Didn't know how huge, but I knew I had it in me to put the work in.

David Remnick: You say you advocated to get that gig?

Nikki Glaser: Yes, I did.

David Remnick: How does that work?

Nikki Glaser: Well, I heard it was happening, and then I just texted the guy who I assumed was going to be in charge of it, Robbie Praw, who was head of comedy at Netflix. He had scouted me for the Just for Laughs Festival in like 2007, so I had known him since we were both kind of starting out in the business. 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."

David Remnick: Tom Brady had control over who gets to be a roaster?

Nikki Glaser: I think, yes. I think he was an executive producer on it, and so I think, yes, he was going to have a say in it.

David Remnick: Did you have to perform in front of him, or did he watch tapes?

Nikki Glaser: I think he watched tapes. I think he was very well versed in roasts getting into it, you know? That guy watches tape.

David Remnick: What was he thinking saying yes to it?

Nikki Glaser: 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?

David Remnick: [chuckles] You think that was the end of roasts?

Nikki Glaser: 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.

David Remnick: 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 at 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?

Nikki Glaser: So, you start writing jokes, and then you start getting jokes sent in from the people that are on your team. By the way, everyone does this. No one admits that they do it.

David Remnick: Why?

Nikki Glaser: Because you get talked about on podcasts and different things where people say, "Oh, well, she had writers," you know? 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-- Actually, make that better. Here's where I want to redo that." Every script you have seen a movie of, besides Mike White on White Lotus--

David Remnick: And maybe this season could have used a little--

Nikki Glaser: [laughs] I will not say that. I love it. Then I look at 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.

David Remnick: So, you and writers that you select write endless amounts of jokes. Many, many, many more minutes than seven minutes.

Nikki Glaser: Yes.

David Remnick: And then how is it worked out? How do you-- You go to clubs, you see what works, what doesn't work?

Nikki Glaser: Well, yes, 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. 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, yes, 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?" Then you start reading off jokes, you see what hits, and you go, "Okay, let's try that again."

David Remnick: And the audience doesn't lie. If you go to the Comedy Cellar and you're working out stuff for what might or may not be in a roast, what works in the Comedy Cellar is going to work on the roast.

Nikki Glaser: Oh, yes.

David Remnick: 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, it was so serious. It was like a piece about the Jet Propulsion Lab or something.

Nikki Glaser: Yes, it was that exact, because it's live. The first three roasts I did, it's a live performance, but it goes through an edit. All the laughs can get beefed up after [crosstalk]--

David Remnick: What did you know would kill, and what were you worried about?

Nikki Glaser: Well, roast of Tom Brady, not worried at all, because 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 three roasts I did where you could edit, yes, I put in some B-plus jokes that sometimes are A's. The Golden Globes and Tom Brady roast, it's live, so you can't have those, "It might-- This could be cool if it works." That's not to say that they all did work, but I was really sure of all of those.

David Remnick: How do you pace it out? I noticed that in the Golden Globes monologue, the opening joke is incredibly short, which was--

Nikki Glaser: Yes. It was, "Welcome to the Golden Globes, Ozempic's biggest night."

David Remnick: [laughs]

Nikki Glaser: Yes, which-- You know, for the Ozempic's biggest night, I just knew it was like, "Welcome to the Golden Globes, da-da-da-da-da-da." 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 Laurie Kilmartin and Jackie Kashian, two amazing standup 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. 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--" And I don't play that card often, but I will play that on that one--

David Remnick: How come?

Nikki Glaser: Because 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. I bet he's going to make me laugh, so I'll sit and listen to him not make me laugh. I trust a laugh is coming."

David Remnick: At this late day?

Nikki Glaser: Well, it just never goes away, that feeling of not being worthy or being thought of as less than. It's wrapped up in also other underlying lack of self-worth that I have that permeates everything I do, but I think a 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? You can trust me," kind of thing.

David Remnick: This leap in success seems to have done only a modest amount to alleviate problems with self-worth and anxiety.

Nikki Glaser: It's done nothing.

David Remnick: It's done nothing?

Nikki Glaser: No, I would say nothing. I'm trying to let it in-- There's moments where I get 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." They'll break through a little bit, and I'll go, "Okay, yes, I'll take that in. Like, this person wouldn't lie to me." I just don't really bask in things, and it's not because I like to be tortured. 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, and I'm just [crosstalk]--

David Remnick: You say inevitably?

Nikki Glaser: I mean, it doesn't-- There's no one who's been immune to success being kind of pulled away from you. You're only on top for so long. It's going to descend, and I just want to be okay when it descends.

David Remnick: But you're surrounded by comedians who, sure, they've had ups and downs, but-- you know, somebody like Tina Fey, Amy Poehler. From year to year, it might vary, but these are long careers that are developing.

Nikki Glaser: Yes.

David Remnick: You're scared to admit that that might possibly be you?

Nikki Glaser: Um, I mean--

David Remnick: Because here's the thing, Nikki, it seems like that's exactly what's happening.

Nikki Glaser: I mean, that's-- 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. 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 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.

David Remnick: I'm tempted to begin the question by saying, join the club. 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 think you've said elsewhere that you sometimes or constantly wish you were someone else?

Nikki Glaser: Yes, a lot of times. I mean, today I'm in a great mood, and I love my life, and I'm happy with like--

David Remnick: But it's day to day.

Nikki Glaser: It's hour to hour. It really is. I wish I wasn't like this, but I can be so content [crosstalk]--

David Remnick: And this isn't a bit, this is core.

Nikki Glaser: No, I am-- This is annoying. I don't like talking about all of this because it seems like I'm just trying to garner sympathy or something, or that I'm trying to be relatable-- Oh, it's the famous girl that doesn't think she deserves it, we've all seen that. Like, "No, I don't know. I'm just like you." It's not a bit, because there are some times 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 there are clips I have seen or come across when I just quickly go, "Oh, God." There's things that I go, "Why did you say it like that? 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.

David Remnick: I'm talking with comedian Nikki Glaser, and we'll continue in a moment on The New Yorker Radio Hour. Stick around.

[music]

David Remnick: In an earlier part of your life, and I hate this phrase, but you would take the edge off by drinking?

Nikki Glaser: Oh, yes.

David Remnick: You quit drinking?

Nikki Glaser: Yes.

David Remnick: How do you relieve things now?

Nikki Glaser: I text my friends and my boyfriend and 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 bully myself. Like, you know, 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 [crosstalk]--

David Remnick: Well, just recently, you put some photographs out. How did that happen?

Nikki Glaser: Oh, yes, that--

David Remnick: Explain what I'm talking about.

Nikki Glaser: Yes. Okay, so I did The Tonight Show 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." 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--

David Remnick: Glum.

Nikki Glaser: Yes, you just can't do it, so it went away on its own. I did Jimmy Fallon, and I saw one of the pictures where I'm walking out, and I'm like, "Aah--" My face is like, "Aah." 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 a picture of me like--

David Remnick: What year is that?

Nikki Glaser: 2009. January 2009, and then cut to March 2025, I was like, "Oh, let me just do side by sides and put out this Instagram post of me and Jimmy at the desk, me and Jay Leno at the desk," you know? 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." Isn't this funny? Like, I was on The Tonight Show. You had no clue who I was until last May, and I've been around this long. It was just like, all right, I'll just put this out. And I don't read comments, I don't read any of my Google alerts, I don't [crosstalk]--

David Remnick: I'm possibly calling bullshit on that. I think you do. It sounds like you do read comments.

Nikki Glaser: I don't. I'm being 100% honest with you, 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 read the first comments that pop up, because it just went up and I'm on it. I'll see it, and then I'll stop immediately the second something upsets me. But that is maybe once every three months, I will do that. Otherwise, zero.

You know, sometimes you can't help it. You're on Reddit and you see your own name, and you go, "Well--" But 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 post-- 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 Glaser used to be ugly. Like fat and ugly. And look, she had this glow-up, and this is her new Ozempic body," which I'm like, "You're conflating. I don't think Ozempic [crosstalk]--"

David Remnick: But this crap is all over the web.

Nikki Glaser: It's all over there, but I didn't know-- I saw it was going like kind of mid-viral of like, "Oh, Nikki Glaser, 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 commenting, "This is what money will buy you," and I'm like, "Yes, that's what I tell you. Come see my show, I'll tell you everything I do." I'm not claiming that this is like, "Oh, I'm just loving my life now." People are commenting shitty things about me that I'm like, "Yes, I said that first. You don't get to say that," and so it was really-- I go, "Oh, they are being mean."

David Remnick: You've talked about not making political work too often, and you were recently quoted saying this--

Nikki Glaser: Oh, God.

David Remnick: You just are scared that you're going to get doxxed, and death threats, or who knows where this leads? Like, detained?

Nikki Glaser: Yes.

David Remnick: Honestly, that's not even like a joke. It's like a real fear. You said that.

Nikki Glaser: I said it.

David Remnick: I wonder what you make of Elon Musk talking about the need to legalize comedy at CPAC in February.

Nikki Glaser: I mean, I don't think anything of it. I don't believe anything. I will say for that quote, I feel like taken out of context, I seem alarmist [crosstalk]--

David Remnick: Have you ever had that experience?

Nikki Glaser: Taken out of context?

David Remnick: No, getting doxed and death threats.

Nikki Glaser: No, but we see it 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--

David Remnick: You end up like Lenny Bruce.

Nikki Glaser: Worse, you just disappear. 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-- Yes. I mean, at this point, 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, what's going to be my defense?" And my defense is that he's so hot. I really think he's--

David Remnick: [laughs]

Nikki Glaser: I mean, I might not agree with what he does, but he's really--

David Remnick: Is he?

Nikki Glaser: I'm really attracted to him, yes.

David Remnick: All right. I hear you.

Nikki Glaser: I want to go on record as saying that I think he's one of the hottest men that's ever lived, and you know, you just hope that things don't get worse. I think 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 Glaser 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.

David Remnick: Nikki, you don't do political material all that much, but some years ago, I think it was eight years ago at the Rob Lowe roast, you offered some pretty searing political commentary when it came to Ann Coulter. Let's listen to a clip.

Nikki Glaser: Oh, do we have to?

David Remnick: Yes.

[playing an audio clip of Nikki Glaser at the Rob Lowe roast]

Nikki Glaser: And without Führer ado, Ann Coulter.

[laughter]

Oh, Ann, what's it like to be like a real-life supervillain? You know, I'd ask you how you sleep at night, but I assume just upside down in a robe of 101 Dalmatians.

[laughter]

Ann Coulter has written 11 books-- 12 if you count Mein Kampf.

[laughter]

Yes. Ann's been called things like a racist, anti-Semitic, homophobic, a white supremacist, and that's just while getting plowed by Bill Maher.

[laughter]

[end of audio clip]

Nikki Glaser: [chuckles] I don't remember that joke.

David Remnick: I put it in there.

Nikki Glaser: Yes, that was hard to listen to.

David Remnick: Why? You seem like you feel bad about it now.

Nikki Glaser: No, I don't feel bad. I just would have chosen different jokes and different delivery. I feel bad about the delivery-- [laughs] And I feel bad I didn't go harder. I would have just liked to just really say it bluntly like, "You're a terrible person." You know, saying like, "What's it like to be a real-life super villain?" I wish I wouldn't have really laughed in between. I can tell that I was nervous that she was 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.

David Remnick: You saw that they canceled the gig of the comedian at the White House Correspondents' Dinner?

Nikki Glaser: I saw that, yes.

David Remnick: Jesus. Would you take that gig?

Nikki Glaser: No.

David Remnick: Why?

Nikki Glaser: You bomb, no matter what. Even when it's a good room, it's a bad room.

David Remnick: It's a horrible room. Always a horrible room.

Nikki Glaser: Yes. Even in past years when it felt safer, it's just not-- Yes, it's a bad room, and also, you're just-- 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 don't like headlines. I would rather just-- I just don't want to stir up stuff. I mean, my parents would be so proud if I did a gig like that.

David Remnick: Why? For political reasons?

Nikki Glaser: Yes.

David Remnick: What are their politics?

Nikki Glaser: I mean, they're very liberal. They're almost too liberal.

David Remnick: What do you mean?

Nikki Glaser: It's like you just can't-- They're watching Fox News to hate it, you know?

David Remnick: They're hate-watching.

Nikki Glaser: They're hate-watching. It's knocked years of their lives off of them, the stress that this president has caused them, but yes, 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.

David Remnick: When is that? When are you safe? When are you feeling happy?

Nikki Glaser: 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 [crosstalk]--

David Remnick: Why do you live in St. Louis, away from LA, away from New York?

Nikki Glaser: Because I went back for COVID. I was living in New York 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." I love them. They're really cool, they're funny, they're like my friends now. And so I lived with my parents for a year, and then I was like--

David Remnick: Whoa, whoa, you lived with your parents for a year?

Nikki Glaser: When I was 36, yes.

David Remnick: How did that go?

Nikki Glaser: It was awesome. I didn't want to go. They kind of were like, "Listen, you've got to move on." I mean, I was [crosstalk]--

David Remnick: They threw you out of the house?

Nikki Glaser: They kind of did. They were like, "This is fun, we're all having a good time, but you've got grow up." We all knew it. I mean, I had been out of their house for years at that point, and I had a huge career. Like, I was touring theaters from my parents' house, so it was really-- But, you know, there's a failure to launch kind of thing going on with me. I am a little bit stunted--

David Remnick: Yes, but you can't do that. You can't pull that off anymore. You are launched into outer space at this point.

Nikki Glaser: Yes, 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. That's my happy time, is being with my family, that's why I live in St. Louis. I just was there, and then I would fly to New York or LA for TV stuff, and no one seemed to notice I didn't live there. And I was at a point in my career where, if they are not willing to buy me a Southwest ticket, the gig is not worth it. 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, I don't really want the gig." It's nice to just be with my family while they're still kicking.

David Remnick: Nikki, finally, how do you view your future?

Nikki Glaser: I really want to work on-- My goal for myself is just, I want more self-acceptance, because I'm not going to get smarter, I'm not going to get more talented-- 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 be accepting of-- And I am accepting of most things, but I want to do ayahuasca, I want to do mushroom trips, I want to do some spiritual journeys.

David Remnick: You want to do ayahuasca? You know how much vomiting is involved in the ayahuasca process?

Nikki Glaser: Do you know how bulimic I was in college? [chuckles] I can handle it.

David Remnick: [laughs] Nikki Glaser, thank you so much.

Nikki Glaser: Thank you so much. This was so fun.

David Remnick: It's always good to end with a bulimia joke.

Nikki Glaser: Right?

David Remnick: Nikki Glaser is, of course, on tour. 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 today. I'm David Remnick. Thanks for listening. See you next time.

[music]

 

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