Malle: That makes sense.
Glaser: I don’t want to make anyone feel uncomfortable or feel like they were called out. You know, I watch these monologues and I see the host say, like, “Timothée Chalamet is here,” and then everyone applauds and you just see Timothée in the shot being like, what’s coming down the pike? There are so many factors to consider that I’m not used to with regular standup, where it only matters if the audience laughs or not. It’s not based on one person’s reaction who the camera’s going to go to afterwards.
Malle: I would think that the Tom Brady roast would prepare you well for that.
Glaser: It did, just in terms of the high stakes and the live aspect of it. We’re there to celebrate people, but that’s after my monologue. My monologue is a comedy moment, so it’s just going to be pretty rapid-fire. Right now, it’s just about writing hundreds of jokes and sifting through them and trying to find the best ones in the best order, which is a ton of work.
Emma Specter: Do you generally have an internal sense of whether a joke is too edgy, or is it more based on audience reaction?
Malle: Or do you have one person who will read your jokes and be like, “It’s too mean,” like your mom or someone?
Glaser: I think it’s the audience, which is why I’m trying them out. I think because I’ve been doing it so long and have performed in front of crowds for so many years, I just have a good sense of what people like and what they don’t like, and I’m really sensitive to how sensitive celebrities are. Everyone else just wants me to go in there and go for blood, because I think most of us kind of resent the elite Hollywood people who think they’re better than us and are so smug. Even though we worship them, people really want me to let them have it, and it’s easy for people to say—they don’t have to deal with the backlash. They’re like, “Just do it, Nikki, just go hard, full-throttle,” and I’m like, “Yeah, well, that’s bad advice.” Ricky Gervais, when he hosted and roasted everyone, that was his last time, and he knew it was his last time. He kept saying, “I don’t care. I’m not doing this again,” so that’s fitting for that. But I can’t come out there and go “I don’t care.” [But] I do care. Like, this is my first time. I’d like to do this again and again, and a lot of those celebrities have probably never heard of me, these A-listers, and even if they have, they’re like, who are you to make fun of me? So it’s delicate.
