Many folks may know Ilana Glazer for her role in the show Broad City, but she actually started her stand-up career well before the show was created.
Glazer joined KERA's Ron Corning and Miranda Suarez ahead of her show in Dallas this week, to talk about how her comedy has shifted since becoming a mom and the lasting cultural impact of Broad City.
These interview highlights have been edited for length and clarity. To listen to the full conversation, click the listen button above.
Do you prepare differently for different cities?
I think the container of my preparing is the same of just channeling the people and walking around a little bit before, just to get the energy and the rhythm. In my last tour, I was walking around, talking a lot to myself — which I still kind of do — but in every city, I like to go and grab some coffee, take a walk and take in the people.
What I also try to remember is create some space for remembering the last time I was in that city. The last time I was Dallas, I remember the show was kind of rowdy, and I was feeling very excited as a New York Jew, feeling like I'm really fitting in here in Texas, I'm really blending in. So, it looks the same, but it feels different in every city.
Touring as a stand-up comedian started after Broad City, right?
When I started in comedy 20 years ago, I was just getting up every night in New York City doing stand-up, improv, and sketch. I was just making comedy in all those different mediums. When Broad City hit, we did a Broad City tour that was so wacky, it was crazy. But I put stand-up on pause from seasons one through three and when season four began, Abby was illustrating some books and I was like, 'what am I gonna do?'
I missed stand-up and I really started focusing on stand-up, the craft, the business. Stand-up is just, incredible, it's so much fun. It feels so powerful. It gives me so much faith in people. This will be my sixth time touring the country, doing stand-up comedy, but it really feels like it's my second tour. It takes a long time to get the hang of it, or it's taken me a long to get the hang of it. I feel like I get it this time. So, I had done it and I took a pause, but I really have been honing in on it in the last 10 years.
What does the difference feel like between a show like Broad City, where the reaction to the comedy is after it's been taped, and stand-up, where the reaction is so immediate?
It feels like psychedelic tripping. It feels intimate. I've done so much work, I do so much therapy, which you'll hear about in this stand-up hour. But I'm still horny for life. Despite this whole structure that we've been thrust [into], I'm still horny for life. When I walked down the street, I'm looking into the eyes of every person I pass. Sometimes I'll throw in a 'God bless you.'
So through therapy, I do a lot of work, especially since Broad City, which was so personal — our names were Abby and Ilana. We are Abby and Ilana. We show ran and we head wrote and the stories were so much from our lives. We were putting out so much, so quickly, I think I confused myself about who was the character, who was a creative version of myself and my personal self.
With stand-up, it feels a lot more personal. I've done all this work to make sure it's a professional, crafted version of myself I'm offering. But what hits me in that immediacy is so personal. It's like this ocean of a hug. It's such a privilege. I take the responsibility of that privilege to deliver a healthy joy very seriously, even though it's very silly.
Do you feel like Broad City is a well curated time capsule that will inform other generations about what life was like at that time?
I do. Comedy is tragedy. It's the deep, serious, somber truths that as a 39-year-old, I'm able to hold in a new way. I take Broad City very seriously, even though the pranks and the shenanigans are so silly and these girls are so kooky. I haven't even watched the series in full, but I see clips and I'm like, 'who is that?!' It's absolutely a time capsule to me, for women being and feeling free.
The whole story is about the world trying to keep its boot on our necks, you know? For the state of women, the destruction and systemic violence and systemic stealing of our autonomy, to be in this world now and watch Broad City and see the freedom these young women were expressing in a new way that we hadn't seen on TV, it is tragic. And how funny it is and how silly it is and how horny they are and how high they are — it's so funny to, in contrast with that tragedy, be like, 'sorry, this is just absurdly funny.'
But anyway, we do not see enough examples of women being free, women telling their own stories, queer women, non-binary women, gay women telling their stories and also those identity politics not being the center of stories.
You talk about getting high and you also talk a lot about motherhood in your stand-up. There's this whole archive of you that will someday be available for your daughter's viewing. Is this something that you're psyched about?
I am so proud of who I am and especially who I've worked to become since Broad City, before Broad City and during Broad City. I didn't have the space to do this therapy three times a week that you'll hear about in my hour. But first of all, I've been told that Broad City and my stand-up specials are works that teenagers can watch with their parents to break the ice for both generations to talk about sex and drugs. What I love to do is show the pleasurable experience of sex and drugs. Because if you know what the pleasurable experience is, then you can protect yourself from dangerous experiences. The pleasurable examples are what allow for healthy modeling.
Then for my daughter, she knows me in a way that no one will ever know me. When I speak about a professionally crafted version of myself, I work really thoughtfully to create that. That's what I find really exciting about human-made art, is having containers of sympathy and empathy that help us talk about hard things with the people we love.
Is there a thread or a joke or a punchline, that you're finding is landing everywhere right now?
My framework currently is, 'this world has gone crackers, but I'm still horny for life.' And I'm so horny for life because I am loving being a mom. I've never been happier in my life or known myself more, but this world is nuts. We're seeing systems fail, you know?
I'm really sorting out myself, and in this hour, how it's just kind of bogus and manufactured. When you're on the ground with people, people are chilling. People are connecting. It is so easy to connect and it actually takes so much effort, money, time, and organizing to divide people. I'm horny for life. I love it. I love living life and I love people.
Miranda Suarez and Ron Corning are the hosts of KERA's forthcoming talk show, NTX Now. Got a tip? Email Miranda at msuarez@kera.org Ron at rcorning@kera.org.
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