“I can go longer! Sorry, I’m giving such long-winded answers,” Nikki Glaser tells me when we hit the 40 minutes allotted for our phone interview. The subject of our conversation? Not her twice Emmy-nominated Max special Someday You’ll Die, not the song she wrote and recorded for the special, and not the viral zingers she delivered in Netflix’s The Roast of Tom Brady, either. (The internet unanimously anointed Glaser the funniest—and most brutal—of all the roasters.) “I could talk about Taylor Swift all day,” she adds. And that’s actually the purpose of our call: to understand how, at such an intensely busy period in her career, Glaser has found the time and unwavering enthusiasm to attend 17 of Taylor Swift’s Eras concerts. By the end of the tour, the tally will hit 22.
In the end, the answer is pretty simple: “It makes me feel so good. I don’t drink anymore, and I try not to do drugs—and honestly, this is just like a really good drug,” she says. “I’m kind of addicted.” Fans have spotted her, time and time again, installed not in the celebrity-heavy VIP tents but in the ticketed seats, wearing bedazzled getups and singing her heart out like no one is watching. It’s pure passion, with a capital P.
“I get a little bit sad at the idea that it’s going to run out at some point, and I’ll probably have to replace it with something else,” she reflects at one point in the call. “But it‘s not really hurting anyone, so I just lean into it. The more I embrace it, the less I’m embarrassed by it. At this point in my life, I’m not embarrassed by it at all, or I wouldn’t be talking to you about it.”
Without further ado, Glaser on Swift: