Golden Globes Host Nikki Glaser On Balancing Savagery From Tom Brady Roast With Desire To Headline Future Globes

As I watched Nikki Glaser lay waste to the cardboard cutouts of Hollywood’s biggest stars rubber-banded to seats at the Beverly Hilton at yesterday’s rehearsal of a killer Golden Globes monologue, the feeling was like watching a superbly conditioned athlete you just know is going to rise to the moment.

The recent track record for hosts of the Globes goes like this. Since Ricky Gervais hung up his thorny crown, and the Globes became a pariah for its small and shadowy voting body, there have been a couple hosts mostly distinguished by the fact they said yes to a generous paycheck, and only after bigger names said no way. The long running HFPA joke that you knew it was Globes night when you couldn’t find a waiter at your Hollywood restaurant took a dark turn when Oscar winner Brendan Fraser revealed a former HFPA president had groped him, and the LA Times exposed a shocking lack of diversity among a shadowy group of 65 or so freeloading U.S.-based freelancers whose overseas bylines were unmemorable compared to the power their Globes votes held in a stepping stone toward Oscar. HFPA lost its lucrative TV deal, and most of the brain trust was ousted and reconstituted as a for-profit entity with a diverse voting body of journalists whose bylines matter. Owners Jay Penske (owner of Deadline and parent company PMC) and Todd Boehly cleaned up a mess and brought a flatlining event back to life. They continue to bounce voters who cannot shake that old sense of entitlement, or who leverage their votes for personal gain.  

The mission has been to put all that in the rear view mirror, and firmly reestablish the Globes as that meaningful momentum-builder toward Oscar and Emmy. From what I observed yesterday, Glaser is poised to be a big part of that. Comedy fans watched her grow up in the celebrity roast circuit. And then came Netflix’s Tom Brady Roast, where even Glaser fans – and every comic and jock on the dais – were stunned and blown away as she registered more devastating hits than Brady probably received on the football field. She sacked him repeatedly, and everyone else within her gaze.

Glaser quickly became the hottest comic this side of Nate Bargatze after his first Saturday Night Live hosting gig put his career on a fast track.

Because Glaser took the long road to tonight’s big moment, it’s likely she won’t lose confidence in the middle of the gig the way last year’s host Jo Koy seemed to, as his monologue bombed badly. Glaser honed tonight’s material in over 75 stops at comedy clubs. She wants to be topical and timely, and dropped some things that lost relevance. But this week she declared she will bypass the hot button story of the moment, the trading of lawsuits alleged sexual harassment and image smearing by Blake Lively and her It Ends With Us co-star and director Justin Baldoni. That scandal – part of a growing penchant for negative stories that originate in Europe and then backwash up on these shores through social media — is reminiscent of what John Waters holds dear as his favorite reviewer quote on one of his movies – “like a septic tank explosion it has to be seen to be believed.” Since Glaser hopes to be Globes host for years to come, her decision seems wide. When you lift the lid off a full cesspool, it seems best to let it air out a bit. The stench here is too fresh, and certainly not a proud moment for Hollywood stars and publicists, most of whom play a square game. Here, Glaser answers a few questions from Deadline on how she’ll play her game.

DEADLINE: The list of turndowns for hosts has been high in the last few years. Why you, and why now?

NIKKI GLASER: The Tom Brady Roast just moved me up in the world of like, oh, this girl’s capable of handling things that other people really, like you said, turn down because it’s a live performance with a high level of difficulty. It really got me on some important people’s radars. And I also wanted it. I don’t even think that I had to tell them I wanted it, but it is funny to me that they ask you, do you want to host the Golden Globes? I’m like, who turns this down? And it turns out a lot of people turn down these hosting gigs. They’re not easy. You can get really bad press that can be hard to recover from. I really have nothing to lose. Most of my money’s made from touring, and that is going really great. It’s not like I need some studio to like me or put me in things. I’m only going to gain from this. And I know that I have a system in place now, with the roasts that I’ve done, where I can nail this. I’m not messing around. I’ve run my set a million times at different clubs. I have a writing team that has been just next level. I just knew this wouldn’t be a question of, will she do a good job? I knew once they asked me, I could call them and tell them, you’ve made the right call. I’m going to work so hard for you.

DEADLINE: How far back does this desire go? As a young person, did you watch the Oscars, or the Globes, and say, maybe someday?

GLASER: Yeah, it was an event to watch the Oscars in my family. We printed out ballots, guessed who was going to win each category. It was a whole event. And never in my wildest dreams did I think that I was going to host some of these shows. I didn’t even think I was going to become a standup comedian when I was a young girl. It just wasn’t a thing that was on my radar. I just thought women became actresses or models or singers. I just didn’t see women as comedians. I just didn’t see examples of the type of woman that I felt I was in those roles, and so I just never considered it.

I guess over the long career I’ve had doing this, it wasn’t until after the Tom Brady Roast…that was the first time that I was like, oh, I could probably host an award show. Not that I wouldn’t have wanted to before. I just don’t really dream of things that don’t seem within the realm of possibility because I don’t like to suffer disappointment in myself. So I don’t really have these lofty goals. I kind of just look right in front of me, at what seems to be on the table. And to me, after the Tom Brady Roast, I knew those things would be on the table. I knew that I was capable of doing them. I don’t know that I would’ve been felt that way before. Also, I just don’t think I had that name recognition that would’ve been deserving of it before. I barely have it now, but it’s definitely a lot more than I had before the Brady Roast.

DEADLINE: How did the Brady Roast impact your confidence, and the necessary attitude that, I know exactly how to crush this, get out of my way.

GLASER: It has been very helpful in the way of feeling, I know what process works now and how I prepared to kill that hard. It was way more work than I’d ever put into anything in my life. I have tried to repeat that cycle of work, this many months in advance. I got the gig with enough time and lead up to work on it, hire the right people to be around me, get a right amount of rest, do as many reps as I can. I really found out a lot about training, in reading about Tom Brady, and learning about how he approached Super Bowls.

DEADLINE: What did Brady’s meticulous game prep teach you?

GLASER: I learned a lot about how I need to approach these big moments. I think that before that Roast, I was approaching with the same kind of seriousness because I wanted to kill so hard. I didn’t know how to work efficiently and to train efficiently, I would run myself ragged. I would end up having a mental breakdown before them. I’d put so much pressure on myself and I would do every single set possible because I just thought, oh, it’s the amount of reps. And I would have no rest. Tom Brady inspired me to be gentler to myself and that it was being flexible with things and allowing myself rest and not just beating myself up this time around. I realized, I know the process. But after the Roast, I will say the pressure to always perform that way felt immense and it felt like, okay, every interview I do, I have to be as sharp as I was in the Brady Roast. People are going to expect me to have that level of jokes, that speed in decision making. For months after the Roast, I just didn’t want to do anything. I didn’t want to appear on any TV shows. I did, but I felt this extreme amount of pressure that that’s what people wanted me to show up as.

DEADLINE: I find there’s a whole internal ordeal in preparing yourself to rise to the occasion, but I’ve learned over time it’s probably a recipe for failure to expect yourself to play on that level all the time. I don’t think it’s possible, honestly.

GLASER: I don’t think people really understood the work that went into [the Roast]. And I fell into quite a depression and kind of an existential crisis of thinking I had tricked people into thinking I’m funnier than I am because they didn’t see the work and I should have let them see the work. I should let them know how hard it was so that they don’t expect it, because you’re supposed to always make these things look so easy. That’s part of your job, to hide that part. But then you start to show the cracks and then you show up on other things and people go, we liked you better on the Roast. You can be paired to that for the rest of your life. And I think I’ve just in the past month I have realized that people don’t expect that all the time. That people are smart enough to know that when I show, I don’t always have to show up that practiced, that ready, that manicured. I’ve let myself have little bit of space with not being always perfect. But for something like the Golden Globes, I  absolutely can bring that kind of perfection to it and people expect that from me.

DEADLINE: I watched you guest on Jimmy Kimmel and I was remembering his co-hosting run on The Man Show, with girls bouncing on trampolines and beer guzzling. This guy evolved into a terrific Oscar host. Looking back at your resume, you took a turn on The Masked Singer, and Dancing with the Stars. When you’re doing all that stuff, are you kind of just rolling with every opportunity or was there a plan that led to this?

GLASER: I would just say yes to things that seemed fun. That was Dancing With the Stars and the Masked Singer. I love singing. So that was just like, okay, yeah, that’s a no brainer, 100 percent. I don’t care what people think. I’m going to be dressed as a snowflake, anyway. No one’s going to know it’s me until I take off that head, and that’s for five minutes. I’ll be Nikki Glaser on the show. It doesn’t matter. It’s just fun. And then Dancing With the Stars, I only said yes to that because it terrified me so deeply. I’d never danced before and everything in me said, don’t do this. You’re going to be embarrassed. And whenever I have that voice, where I’m scared to do something because of how I’ll be embarrassed, I have to fight it.

I wish I was one of these people that was a master career plan. I’ll do this, and then it will lead to that. I hosted the MTV Unscripted Awards three or four years ago. I felt like I killed it. And nothing really came from that. I don’t think anyone saw it. But I knew privately I would do everything in my power to make it the best and that I would do a good job at it. But I just didn’t think that I had the name recognition where anyone would come calling until the Roast. And they did, way sooner than I even thought they would.

I am right now starting to think in a more calculated way because of how much the possibilities have opened up. But before then, I really didn’t dream that big. I just wanted to be a comedian respected by my peers. I wanted to work with people I love and I wanted to make a really good living doing comedy. And I a hundred percent achieved that. I never thought I could be, or I did always know I could be the successful, but that’s all I wanted. Just to be good at standup and to keep making specials and have people keep paying me to make those specials. I never really thought I’d reach a household name level. I wouldn’t have even dreamed of that because it just seems too lofty and I just don’t want to be disappointed in myself.

So I just took things as they go, if something sounds fun. I would do Dancing With the Stars again, tomorrow. I don’t think I’m ever going to get too big to do something that sounds like a fun challenge. I like this business because it’s fun. I like having fun. It’s not just about money for me, it’s not just about fame or calculating what’s the best move for me to look cool. When I have made decisions based on that kind of stuff, I’ve always regretted it and always felt like a fraud. I just don’t see what the point of doing any of this is if I’m not having fun. And we all can say that all day, but it’s really hard to live by that code of, only do things that seem fun. But I truly am having fun with this Golden Globes process, even though it’s the scariest thing I’ve ever done.

DEADLINE: Enough to maybe look ahead a year from now at an encore?

GLASER: I love it and I can’t wait to do it year after year. Usually gigs I have that are this type pressure, I’m like, God, I hope the Roast gets canceled. I don’t want to do this again. I truly feel that way. I hope they don’t have another Roast. I hope they can’t book another person because I don’t want to go through this. It is like giving birth. The preparation is hell and the payoff is good, but it’s also a lot more work on the backend. You become more famous and people expect more of you. But this time around I can honestly say I’ve had a really good time.

DEADLINE: Your material at the Brady Roast was savage and unsparingly hilarious. You’ll be looking out at all these stars who’ll actually be in the seats where you rehearse to their photos. Some are cuddly, but others seem pretty serious. How do you decide who can take or not, maybe take off the top layer of skin but not ruin their night out?

GLASER: I don’t think any of them really want to, or can take it. The ones that can, the Martin shorts, the Steve Martins, you can play with them. Meryl Streep even I think I’ve seen her in crowd shots at award shows, and she seems to have a sense of humor about herself. Ayo Edebiri from The Bear, or anyone who’s comedy adjacent I know they’ll be looking at me, rooting for me, knowing the pain of what I’m going through, performing for all these people with sticks up their asses. I did  a women’s luncheon for The Hollywood Reporter a couple weeks ago and Nicole Kidman was there and Selena Gomez, Kathy Bates, Kerry Washington. And I made some really I crazy jokes for 8:00 AM. I made a job about Nicole Kidman that didn’t really involve her, but I said her name and that to me was a little bit of a litmus test. I heard that she was laughing during it and they all had tears screaming down their faces. And so that was a really good sign to me. If I can do that with Selena Gomez and Nicole Kidman and Jennifer Lawrence in this morning breakfast gala luncheon thing, I will be okay with them in this room.

Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo, we saw them take the Wicked press stuff so seriously, and then on the backend after they got teased for maybe taking it too seriously. They’ve had a sense of humor about it. I think they’re primed to have a sense of humor about themselves more than we expect. But at the same time, I do feel like there are some people that if I want to go make a joke and the joke is so good, but I’m nervous about are they going to mean mug me?

DEADLINE: How have you handled that?

GLASER: Well, I’ll just ask their permission. It hasn’t gotten to that yet. But if a joke emerges that I feel might polarize the room, if I know that they will laugh and we can guarantee a cutaway where they are engaged in it and they’re signed on for the joke, then I can get away with anything for the rest of the show. If you make Cynthia Erivo laugh at herself and she’s really game and on my side, not only does everyone love her for that and think, oh my God, she’s so down to earth, she can make fun of herself, laugh at herself, it endears you to her, and to me. A goal of mine is to not just avoid those people but actually find a way to work with them and to collaborate with them where they look good and I look good. And we can both laugh at ourselves because I think that’s what the viewers at home want. So much about celebrities is that they think they’re better than everyone.

I don’t think it behooves celebrities from a publicity standpoint to act cooler than me and mean mug me after a joke. I’m not going to do any joke that I would ever think would elicit that reaction. So if they give that reaction, they’re assholes and it won’t look good on them and it probably won’t look good on me either because we look to them to see how we feel about me. But I am not avoiding people. I’m actually going to seek them out because I think that it will mean so much more when I get a Harrison Ford to laugh or even play with me. A mean mug from Harrison Ford is comedic, right? So that’s something I’m anticipating. How can I get Harrison Ford to just stare me down?

DEADLINE: Kind of like having Clint Eastwood tell you to get off his lawn?

GLASER: Yes, yes. We’ve seen Harrison Ford have that comedic moment with Conan where he won’t break a smile and he’s in on the joke and we all know that. So I’m looking for people to play with and I think to make a joke where I throw myself under the bus, they can laugh at me, but they can also, I give them a little bit of room to laugh at themselves. That doesn’t make them look stupid, and that is not my intent.

DEADLINE: So no going full Ricky Gervais, or the lack of punch pulling that made the Tom Brady Roast so memorable?

GLASER: Ricky was well known by the industry by the time he want at it that hard. It was his last time doing the Globes when he did the monologue that we really quote the most. It was his third time, he knew he wasn’t doing it again and this was his Jerry Maguire fuck you moment. I’m on my way in. And even if it wasn’t about me kind of wanting this job to last and wanting to make nice with Hollywood, it’s I don’t really have a right to take everyone down. If I was an A-lister, sure I can punch the people that are in the same boat as me, but I’m not. They worked really hard to get there. They are on a different level than me. So me coming out there, I might be somebody to people at home and comedy fans, but to a billionaire like Selena Gomez and a pop star icon like Ariana, I am a fucking nobody. So I can’t stand up there all high and mighty and belittle them or talk shit about them. It’s not what I’d want to do, and it would not strike the right tone. It would set me up for failure. So it is having to pick the right jokes that say things I want to say that aren’t quite ruthless, but are still saying something and aren’t being mean. Because they’re not signing up to be roasted. They’re not getting paid $25 million like Tom Brady did to be told the things he got told. He got paid to sit there and take that kind of abuse, and he also knew what he was signing up for.

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