Consequence’s 2024 Annual Report marches on as we name the illustrious Nikki Glaser our Comedian of the Year. Read on for the full profile, watch a selection of the interview above or via YouTube, and listen to the full conversation on a special episode of the Consequence UNCUT: Annual Report podcast, available exclusively on Amazon Music.
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There might be more than one Nikki Glaser — there has to be. This year alone, the all-star comedian dropped the gut-busting and wonderfully morbid (and Grammy and Emmy-nominated) stand-up special Someday You’ll Die, stole the show at The Roast of Tom Brady, hosted the reality series Lovers and Liars, has spent the NFL season hilariously breaking down Thursday Night Football with “Late Hits,” and basically never stopped touring. Plus, in just a few weeks, she’ll host the 81st Golden Globe Awards. I’m exhausted just listing it all out, and yet Glaser got through it all and still fit in 20-some Taylor Swift concerts. Christ.
“I was just having a conversation with someone about being successful and, like, ‘How did you get to this place?,'” she tells Consequence over Zoom, sitting in her podcast studio (oh yeah, while working on all of those other projects, she also kept up a weekly podcast). “I’m like, ‘Because I just agreed to things I didn’t think I could do — and then I couldn’t back out of them.’ Honestly, I think that my entire career is just saying yes to things that terrify me and thinking maybe there’s a chance I could do it.”
If the past 12 months have been any indication, there’s more than a decent chance she can indeed “do it.” From creating the theme song for her special, the eponymously titled “Someday You’ll Die,” after finding out she didn’t have the budget to license a Metric or Maggie Rogers tune (because creating an original song from the ground-up is the easiest solution there, right?), to cramming a career’s worth of zingers into a show-stopping, eight-minute roast set, Glaser doesn’t just get it done, she gets it all done.
It’s a frantic energy that manifests both in her career trajectory and her work on stage. Her trademark sense of humor boasts fast-paced wordplay, quick comedic turns, and beats barely long enough to fit your laughter into. But for as much as that might seem like a result of her restless creative genius, it also, more honestly, comes from daily bouts with imposter syndrome.
“I do not like silence in comedy. I don’t like long pauses. I don’t take sips of water. I don’t look at my notes,” she explains. “It’s not because I’m so prepared and I have so much to say; it’s because I’m terrified of you figuring out I’m not good. So, I have to constantly convince you.”
Whenever Glaser agrees to a crazy new job — say, hosting the freakin’ Golden Globes — months of panic and self-doubt inevitably follow.
“I really attribute it to just having this burst of confidence for yourself months ahead. So you go, ‘Oh yeah, I can do that.’ And then you deeply regret it the entire time until you do it,” she says. “It happens almost every time, where I have this massive panic that I’m going to be the worst ever — and I’m certain of it. There’s no telling me, ‘Nikki, this happens every time.’ ‘No, this time is different. This is really bad.'”
As one might expect, such pressure only grows as bigger and bigger opportunities come knocking at her door. It’s a snowball effect that can be as exciting as it is scary and discombobulating (and it’s even been something of a theme for this year’s newest stars). Luckily, Glaser has found avenues to channel her nerves into productive, hilarious work.
Firstly (and perhaps most obviously), she talks about it on stage. If the title of her recent HBO special didn’t tip you off, Glaser carves up the darkest of her thoughts with razor-sharp wit. With jokes about insecurities and suicidal thoughts, she doesn’t hide her struggles behind the smoke and mirrors of her stage show. Really, her struggles are the stage show. “I still struggle [with depression] and I still have low self esteem and all of the things that make for a great comedian,” she jokes.
“The way to be the best comedian that I want to be is to be the most authentic and the most unfiltered,” Glaser continues. “I would say that I’m even more true to myself and the things I think on stage because no one’s there to tell me, ‘Nikki, stop! That’s so dark! Nikki, don’t say that about yourself!’ You just have to sit there and take it. And so, I think that I’m more free to really say the things that disappoint me about the world and about myself… I’m just continually trying to do what I wish all my favorite artists were doing, because I am chronically in pain comparing myself to people. And so the idea that anyone might compare themselves to me and feel bad about themselves, I can’t have that even for a second.”
Nikki Glaser’s Someday You’ll Die, photo by Jennifer Clasen/HBO
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