Nikki Glaser is wasting no time preparing for her next big gig. After crushing at Tom Brady’s live Netflix roast this spring, the workhorse comedian was tapped to host the 2025 Golden Globes, airing Sunday, January 5, on CBS. With the gig just a few weeks away, Glaser tells Vanity Fair that she’s “fully in the thick” of prepping for her big night. “It’s probably been about two and a half or three weeks of writing jokes and doing those onstage, running all over LA, doing three or four sets a night,” she says over Zoom. “I was on the road this weekend in New Hampshire, in Vermont, and did my monologue there. I’m in New York right now, was out last night at the Comedy Cellar. Going to go out again tonight, run it two or three times.”
All that prep time makes Glaser a far cry from last year’s host, Jo Koy—who, after failing to capture the room or the nation, blamed his relatively short amount of prep time (just 10 days) for his poor performance. But Glaser, who was announced as Globes host in late August, doesn’t have such an excuse. And she doesn’t intend on needing one either. “I feel nothing but complete assurance and confidence in me being able to do this,” she says. “There’s been some jobs I’ve gotten before that I’m like, I hope I can do this, this is a lot of pressure. This, I’m just like, Yeah, they picked the right person. No one’s going to work harder than me at this.’”
Glaser is aware she’s talking a big game, but feels she’s putting in the work necessary to be proud of her performance—no matter what happens. “I will not be able to say, ‘I could have worked harder,’” she says. “And as long as I’m able to say that, I’m fine with the outcome. If it goes poorly, there’s nothing I could have done differently because I considered every variable. I worked my fucking ass off on this.”
Below, Glaser opens up about her Globes prep process, being both a host and nominee, and her favorite movie of the year.
Vanity Fair: What have you learned from testing your Globes material out on the road?
Nikki Glaser: I’m learning no one’s seen Emilia Pérez and doesn’t know anything about it, even though it’s nominated more than anything. I know everyone’s seen Wicked. No one’s seen Conclave. People aren’t as aware of The Bear as I would’ve hoped.
I’m learning that a lot of this stuff, you have to tell them what it is first. I know the people in the room are going to know what all these things are. But for me to joke about Nightbitch or A Complete Unknown to people in Vermont and to people who are just tourists here in New York—they don’t know what those things are. They aren’t part of the Academy. They aren’t as savvy. People are just consuming things in a different way. If I reference The Rizzler or the Hawk Tuah Crypto scandal, everyone’s on board. What we’re learning is a Hawk Tuah reference lights up the room in a way that a Wicked reference doesn’t, even.
I feel like you’re the perfect woman to reach people who know The Rizzler, but also have maybe seen Emilia Pérez.
I want people to see Emilia Pérez! I want people to enjoy this evening without having seen it. So it is my job to educate them about what these things are, and to maybe even maybe make them want to see it.
I think I am the perfect person to do this, because I’m learning a lot in the process. I’m having to watch all these things that I probably wouldn’t have consumed before, either. So I’m coming from both sides of it now, being like, “Oh, damn. This is a really good movie that I probably would’ve missed had I not been asked to host and been forced to watch this.”
More people need to see Conclave. It’s my favorite movie ever. I can’t believe I maybe would’ve slept on this movie. I don’t think I would’ve been interested in a movie about picking the next pope. I didn’t think there was anything that could make me enthusiastic about the Catholic Church. I told my boyfriend who was raised Catholic and only hears me say really shitty things about the Catholic Church—like, “I think I’m on board.”
The Golden Globes hosting gig has been kind of rough the last couple of years. Jerrod Carmichael was polarizing. Last year, Jo Koy was flop city. Are you thinking about other hosts?
