Nikki Glaser Wants to Kill as Host of the Globes. Is She Overthinking It?

“We come collectively tonight with a standard objective.”

To the comic Nikki Glaser, this was an amazing premise in the hunt for a greater punchline.

Over Zoom, three days after nominations for the Golden Globes have been introduced final month, she invited concepts from her employees of 10 writers for the opening monologue that she’s going to ship because the host on Sunday. She and the writers have been additionally collectively for a standard objective, discovering one thing funnier than: “To get out of right here earlier than Dax Shepard requested you to do his podcast.”

Glaser, 40, seated cross-legged in black pants on her sofa in West Hollywood, appreciated the joke however thought it was too wordy. And possibly, she stated, it might be harsher. One author, Sean O’Connor, prompt: “Getting out with out having a dialog with Jesse Eisenberg.”

She smiled and stated they may assume extra out of the field.

“Go away earlier than Harrison Ford snaps at you.”

“Getting Ted Sarandos’s private quantity.”

“See if they’ll parlay a Golden Globes win into an look on ‘Scorching Ones.’”

Glaser thought-about every punchline politely, patiently responding to each one. She described this because the honeymoon interval: Each joke appeared enjoyable and new. She instructed the group they have been on tempo to make an amazing set. When she turned an concept down, she tended to do it with reward. (“Actually good concept however …”) The writers’ room slogan might have been: Making imply jokes properly.

Using excessive after her acclaimed efficiency on the Tom Brady roast was streamed stay on Netflix in Might, Glaser is transitioning from star comedian to go of a comedy operation. “Nikki World,” one author known as it.

As she defined, “I used to really feel like I want a hand in each joke I inform, however I now know that a part of my expertise is curating and realizing what works with my supply.”

I spent near a month in Nikki World, observing how her workforce develops and hones an awards present monologue. Later, she spelled out to me how she anticipated the month earlier than the ceremony to go: She would do the set in golf equipment each evening a number of instances, shed just a few tears, get bored together with her jokes, worsen at delivering them, after which just a few days earlier than the Globes, have a panic assault. “I do know myself,” she stated. That prediction wasn’t solely borne out (no tears), however she was shut.

What remained constant all through was Glaser’s cussed dedication to excessive requirements in getting laughs. “We now have 5 actually good jokes,” she instructed her employees earlier than a slight deepening of her voice and the acquainted pivot of a veteran comedian: “Intention to beat all of them.”

Glaser’s lodestars are Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, who collectively hosted the Golden Globes 4 instances. When in a rut, she binges Fey’s sitcom “30 Rock.”

“Final evening Chris and I bought in an enormous combat after which watched Tina and Amy’s monologues once more,” she instructed her employees, referring to her producer and boyfriend, Chris Convy, who has been at her aspect all through the method. Their combat was over whether or not extra folks would get a reference to “Name Her Daddy” or to Eisenberg.

Glaser suggested her writers to check these monologues and took a second to marvel at Fey’s beginning her 2015 Globes gig by saying: “Welcome, you bunch of despicable, spoiled, minimally proficient brats.”

“That’s the tone I like the place there’s an everyman facet,” she instructed her writers. Smiling, she mirrored extra: “I couldn’t go that onerous.”

Which may shock some. That is the comic whose Tom Brady roast set was so pointed that it made a quarterback who had taken punishing hits for many years say these photographs harm sufficient that he wouldn’t do it once more. However Glaser, a self-aware veteran of golf equipment, podcasts and late-night discuss reveals, is extremely alert not simply to the room but in addition to her place in it. She wouldn’t make the error Jo Koy did internet hosting final 12 months’s Globes when he didn’t take his writers’ recommendation to start out with a self-deprecating introduction, then blamed them for bombing. He acted as if he was performing for his followers versus the celeb crowd and the broader tv viewers.

Glaser stated Fey bought away with that “minimally proficient” insult as a result of it was her third internet hosting project and he or she had been a tv star for 15 years, a showrunner for many of them. She was speaking to friends. Glaser isn’t there — but.

The impediment course of awards present monologues entails navigating two very totally different audiences: the folks watching at house and the celebs within the room. Some comics deal with one or the opposite, however Glaser stated it was vital to “break up the distinction.”

She instructed a joke about Diddy that killed at a membership however warned the gang it won’t work on the Globes. Somebody yelled: “Do it!”

“You promise you’ll nonetheless be hollering in your sofa when it dies within the room? I don’t assume you’ll,” she responded, explaining her ideas by telephone the subsequent day. “I don’t know if I’m savvy sufficient to observe a joke that bombs on TV and nonetheless go: That’s nonetheless a superb joke. It’s virtually extra vital that it will get amusing within the room than the substance of the joke itself. I want that weren’t true, however it’s.”

Glaser faces a showbiz paradox: She should ingratiate herself with the celebs in entrance of her, however the motive she was chosen for the job was that she had brutalized the celebs in entrance of her. “Nobody goes to do a greater roast set than that,” Conan O’Brien stated on his podcast after the Tom Brady occasion.

“I carried out a system for the roast,” Glaser defined, and that course of, Convy stated, is her blueprint. She meets day by day with an inside circle of writers (O’Connor, Convy, Mike Gibbons and Brian Frange) to go over the set and three or 4 instances every week with a bigger group of writers. Add a author’s assistant and publicists, and you’ve got a corporation with the dimensions of a late-night present. “Anybody not doing that’s leaving success on the ground,” she stated. “I’m joyful to pay my whole paycheck to do this.”

Her objective now could be larger than killing. It’s to set the stage for future tasks collectively, together with awards reveals. “I need the vacation season to remind me of Golden Globe prep,” she stated. “I need the scent of holly and pine to remind me of writing.”

FIVE DAYS LATER, Convy was sitting at the back of the Comedy Cellar in Manhattan, watching Glaser take a look at new jokes about “Depraved.” Coming from doing press with hair styled and make-up on, she seemed way more put collectively than your typical joke slinger. She held her telephone in a single hand as she went by means of the set at a fast tempo. “‘Depraved’ proved that we love musicals concerning the origin story of a villain who wears a number of make-up,” she stated, including: “‘Joker 2’ proved that we additionally hate those self same sorts of musicals.”

A smattering of snickers. Convy typed on his telephone: “Joker 2: Lukewarm.”

Afterward, Glaser sat down with Convy and two writers, and her tone instantly shifted from performative allure to brass-tacks post-gaming. “The Zendaya joke wants extra,” she stated, taking a look at her telephone to remind her of jokes, sighing that the opening nonetheless wasn’t there. An Ozempic joke was higher than the response it acquired, Glaser insisted, blaming the way in which she stumbled over a earlier line.

Glaser suggests a brand new technique to go at “Depraved” and the “Joker” sequel earlier than concluding, “It’s not humorous. It’s simply intelligent.”

Her emphasis is on pruning each little bit of extra. Frange, the author, had instructed the employees to overwrite premises since you shouldn’t assume audiences know the main points of, say, the “Depraved” press tour. And O’Connor stated the writers had instructed Glaser that she was well-known sufficient that folks would need to hear her communicate at size on topics, like Chris Rock does. However Glaser’s intuition is the alternative: To go fast and spare, permit jokes to go over heads so long as there’s a promise of one other one coming quickly after.

Whereas rewatching Fey and Poehler made her think about extra shout-outs to stars on the ceremony, she apprehensive that applause breaks would sluggish her up. “It wastes time,” she concluded. Transitions are a pet peeve. “I don’t tolerate any data that doesn’t have a punchline connected,” she defined.

This emphasis applies to tangling with the gang. “I don’t need to pause and say, ‘Are you able to imagine I went there?’” she stated with vocal fry to her writers. Then she said bluntly: “This must be a assured machine.”

Ever alert to the large image, Convy stored the postgame shifting, asking about what was lacking. “The place are we on ‘Anora’?” he requested the desk, referring to one of many nominated films.

Wanting down at her telephone, Glaser stated: “We’re ‘Anora’-ing it.” Convy turned to me and stated, “I need that joke off the document.”

ONE WEEK BEFORE THE CEREMONY, Glaser sounded assured, drained and a bit of pissed off. She carried out the monologue each evening in December besides Christmas and one different day because of illness. “I can’t look ahead to this to be over,” she stated wearily.

The honeymoon was over. Requested if the present set beats the jokes on the writers’ room assembly in early December, she stated they have been 70 % higher.

The bit about “the frequent objective” was gone, then put again in with a wry punchline concerning the objective being to get Kamala Harris elected president. However that stepped on one other line, so it was reduce once more. “The jokes are sturdy,” she stated, “however I’m feeling fatigue making an attempt to revive some areas that aren’t clicking.”

Foremost among the many bothersome spots have been the “Depraved” jokes. The “Depraved” and “Joker 2” strains had by some means made their manner again in, however in a wholly new kind. There have been two punchline choices: one succinct, the opposite verbose. There was a joke about Jeff Goldblum, a star of “Depraved,” not being a superb singer that she appreciated however that simply couldn’t get amusing. Glaser discovered this so maddening that she had stopped a present on the Ice Home in Pasadena, Calif., and requested the gang in the event that they knew him (applause) and in the event that they agreed he was a foul singer (extra applause). She conceded defeat.

Earlier than we spoke, she had been on a 30-minute name devoted to pitching “Depraved” bits. She had a brand new opening joke she was pleased with, a fast one about Ozempic. However as the published grew nearer and elements have been trimmed, points aside from whether or not a line was humorous cropped up. Did she have too many jokes about being sexy? (Perhaps.) Was the perspective on a few of the riskier jokes clear sufficient? She had simply rewatched a Steve Martin Oscar monologue and was impressed with how he had shoehorned so many names in. Did she have to put extra stars in?

“As soon as we strip away my little jokes, like, am I doing a superb job of setting the stage for what an vital evening that is?” she requested. “And are we actually honoring these folks and celebrating what this evening is all about?”

LATE IN THE AFTERNOON ON NEW YEAR’S DAY, after acting at 4 golf equipment the evening earlier than, Glaser sounded totally different than I had heard earlier than. She had been reducing chunks of the set and now there have been “move points.” The set wasn’t “singing,” she instructed me by telephone. The identical day, the author Sean O’Connor, who accompanies her to her units, instructed me that New 12 months’s Eve crowds get drunker and worse because it will get nearer to midnight.

Glaser was talking quicker and with extra doubt than she had allowed beforehand, alternating between anxiousness and defensive bluster. She was nonetheless questioning the perspective of some jokes. She was nonetheless going forwards and backwards concerning the sexual jokes, counting the variety of references to her being sexy, feeling there have been too many, however now pondering she’s good at them, so it’s the fitting quantity. And the “Depraved” jokes have been nonetheless fluid. Glaser was including to issues to obsess over. “Do we have now too many jokes about pedophiles?” she questioned.

This wasn’t precisely the panic assault she had predicted. However Glaser stated she had carried out the jokes at golf equipment so typically (91 instances earlier than the ceremony) that she might now not inform in the event that they have been humorous. How might she? She knew each shock coming. She likened her relationship together with her materials to a wedding the place she’s not gaga anymore. The jokes have been dependable, certain, however a political one which at all times kills just lately bombed. That rattled her. “Perhaps it bums folks out,” she stated, sounding confused.

Then she stated possibly it was simply that the gig appeared like such an enormous deal, then virtually as if making an attempt to repair that, she contradicted herself, saying it wasn’t.

She had watched awards present monologues that had been forgotten, she stated, then added that she had standup dates lined up for subsequent 12 months, virtually as if she had labored previous the catastrophizing section into the moving-on one. Glaser then stated one thing that took me unexpectedly: “There’s no manner I’m going to bomb. There’s simply no manner.”

Her set had killed so many instances. She had put within the hours of labor. And from the primary writers’ assembly to the comedy golf equipment to each interview, Glaser had projected full confidence. However now she was permitting doubt to creep in. She imagined what would occur if she bombed. What if onerous work didn’t repay? Glaser stated she believes in manifesting so was uncomfortable with this line of thought. She doesn’t like to think about failure. Days away from her debut at a significant awards present, she sounded extra weak human than assured machine. In some unspecified time in the future, speaking to her stopped feeling like an interview and extra like eavesdropping as Glaser let her inside voice spiral.

“The worst factor that would occur is that if I faint or have some type of stroke,” she stated. “These are my greatest worries, however the materials is there. There’s nothing within the set that I really feel is so offensive that it could tarnish any type of alternatives or relationships with folks. To not say that I’m not going there or doing stuff that received’t make some headlines, however it’s simply, I simply really feel, I simply really feel assured.”

Confidence is a humorous factor. It might probably change not solely evening to nighttime, however second to second. When Glaser bought in bother with hers, she returned to Fey and Poehler. When she watched their monologues, she observed the dedication, even to the silliest, most tossed-off-seeming concept. She stated she thought her jokes have been pretty much as good as those of their monologues. “What’s missing proper now that they’d was the consolation, the arrogance within the efficiency,” she stated.

What reassures her, she stated, is similar disaster that occurred earlier than the roast. She grew uninterested in her personal jokes. Simply doing it for actual, the efficiency, saved her. “You need to faux it at first a bit of bit,” she stated of her enthusiasm for acquainted punchlines.

Glaser in contrast the sensation of the efficiency, the ultimate time you inform acquainted jokes, to the final time you discuss to a boyfriend after a breakup. “Regardless that you could be uninterested in them, you get one thing again in that final goodbye since you are so within the second,” she stated, including with a hopeful lilt in her voice. “It’ll really feel new once more.”