Nikki Glaser Talks Comedy, COVID, and Commitment

By Bryan VanCampen

Stand-up comedian, actress, podcaster (“ e Nikki Glaser Podcast”) and radio and television show host Nikki Glaser brings “ e Good Girl Tour” to the State eater on ursday, March 9 at 7 p.m. She spoke to the Ithaca Times about COVID, why comedy should be like working out at the gym and what she does with her weekly night o from stand-up.

IT: How did COVID a ect your business?

NG: It a ected it a lot. Like, stand-up went away for probably four or ve months until people started doing outdoor shows. is is something I’ve done every single night of my life, practically, at least four times a week at the very minimum, since I was 18. So it was quite an awakening of, “Oh, I always thought this thing would be there for me, this form of expression. And I realized when it was taken away, it was quite a crutch, and it was almost like an addiction, going up every day. I compare it to going to the gym for people who are addicted to working out. Like, if the gym closed, you would go, “What am I going to do?” You do home workouts, and so I was doing Zoom shows, which are just not fun, and I felt really rattled and really depressed and anxious. And that’s when I kind of realized that stand-up wasn’t just me doing it to get better, or me doing it because I have to for work. It was me being able to express myself and get feelings out, every day practically. So I adjusted by making my podcast daily at the time, and I also got a karaoke machine, so I could just sing every day and perform in my living room.

IT: [laughs]

NG: ere were just things I was doing, like “I have to exorcise these feelings in some way.” So those were adjustments I made, and then stand-up came back, slowly, and I’m right back to where I was, kind of compulsively doing it and trying to be the best. It’s very much like athleticism. You’re only as good as how o en you’re training and how smart you’re training, and if you are only performing once a week or every weekend a couple of times, you won’t see the same gains as if you’re doing it every night, so I’m still doing it every night, practically. I take one night a week o at this point. But that’s what you have to do when you’re on tour and you’re working towards, hopefully, a new special. You just need to do it all the time.

IT: What do you do on your day o ?

NG: I watch “ e Last of Us” with my boyfriend. [laughs] I go to dinner, and I try to spend quality time with my boyfriend, which is new for me, because even though we’ve been together for ten years, o and on, [for] any comic, I think it’s a struggle to have a relationship with someone who’s not a comedian, because the hours are strange, and socializing is such a part of it. And it’s a compulsion, and I go to three clubs a night, so I’m just driving around; it’s hard to take someone with you to that, because I’m just in and out, just run in and do a set, run out! ere’s no part of it that’s like, “Invite friends! Let’s all hang out!” It’s like a marathon. It would be like someone coming to watch me work out. I don’t want company, I just want to get it done and go home.

IT: You had that work ethic right from the start?

NG: Yeah, because I was obsessed from the start: “ is feels so good, it’s so much fun, I have a whole new batch of friends.” And in the beginning you don’t have that many opportunities to go onstage. It’s like, once a week there’s an open mic. Or maybe then it gets to be, you nd more of them. And then it’s like three or four times a week. You’re just doing three minutes on stage, and now I’m doing 15 minutes at least, and up to three sets a night. So it’s like you end up talking for 45 minutes every night, and you’re running around town, so it’s a lot more intense now. But that’s what I always tell comics who are starting out. ey’re always like, “What? How? What should I do?” And the advice every comic always gives is, “Get on stage as much as possible.” And I always say, if you have to give that advice to someone, they’re not cut out for it, because it shouldn’t be hard to do this every night. It’s the best feeling in the world to get laughs, and it becomes an addictive feeling for sure. It’s like the biggest hit of dopamine you could possibly have. I think heroin might trump it, but…

IT: When you say something you made up and get laughs, that’s better than anything. NG: Oh, wow. You get it. at’s the thing: I liked acting as well, and I still do, but it always feels like there’s some part of it, you can go, “Well, it’s not completely me, but…” And this is so like, “You LIKE me!” You write it, you perform it — it’s a control freak’s dream, doing stand-up.

Nikki Glaser

“The Good Girl Tour”

March 9, 7 p.m.

State Theater

107 West State Street stateo thaca.org or (607) 277-8283