After roasting Tom Brady, Nikki Glaser is just getting warmed up - The Boston Globe (2024)

“There’s certain times in your career where you’re like, ‘Oh, I just like leveled up,’” she says. “And it feels like that. But it’s been awesome.”

Glaser brings her latest tour, “Alive and Unwell,” to the Cape Cod Melody Tent for a sold-out show July 12, part of a packed summer of comedy that includes John Cleese screening “Monty Python and The Holy Grail” at the Chevalier Theatre in Medford, the AAPI Comedy Festival at the Rozzie Square Theater, and the returns of Boston expats Kenice Mobley, Sam Jay, Don Gavin, Joe List, and Robert Kelly.

The timing of the Tom Brady roast couldn’t have been better for Glaser. In addition to the tour, which takes her to the end of the year, she has just released her new HBO special, “Someday You’ll Die,” and is currently hosting “Lovers and Liars,” a dating reality show on The CW.

“I’m glad it didn’t happen till now, because I’m ready to follow this up,” she says. “I felt satisfied so far with my career and the amount of attention. I was really OK with never leveling up, but it has happened. And there’s a part of me that just wants to keep the ball in the air.”

At the roast, Glaser touched on seven-time Super Bowl champ Brady’s divorce from model Gisele Bündchen. “You have seven rings,” she said to Brady. “Well, eight now that Gisele gave hers back.” And it got worse. “You’re the best to ever play, for too long,” said Glaser. “You retired, then you came back, and then you retired again. I mean, I get it. It’s hard to walk away from something that’s not your pregnant girlfriend.” That joke referred to actor Bridget Moynahan, who was pregnant when the pair split.

Those jokes sound harsh in print, but they appeared to go over well in the room. And once Glaser heard rumblings that others onstage might joke about former Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez, who died by suicide in prison after being convicted of murder, it shifted the boundaries. “That means that the rest of my set just has to change because now if I have an Aaron Hernandez joke, all these other jokes are way too soft,” she says.

“If we’re making fun of a murder suicide tragically inspired by [brain damage from concussions], which is the result of the game that we’re celebrating here today, oh my God, what other things can I make fun of?” she says, explaining her thinking. “That kind of thing is very exciting to me because it is the elephant in the room. Threading that needle is the expertise that I am really proud of myself for exhibiting that night.”

There were jokes Glaser left out, like some gags about Brady kissing his children on the lips, which was a story that made the rounds in social media last year. “I’m not gonna joke about him kissing his kids,” she says. “If I was his kid, that would suck to have those jokes, and then go to middle school.”

Glaser’s stand-up is a balance of frank talk about sex and attempts to address darker subjects with a lighter touch. She has perfected that formula on “Someday You’ll Die,” on subjects ranging from euthanasia to having children.

She has never wanted kids herself, she says, but at 39, she knows that, biologically, that choice will be made for her sooner rather than later. Sometimes she questions whether she’d want to feel the love that comes with having a child. “Is this a human life worth living, to not feel that great love?” she says on the special. “And then I think about, you know, you don’t get to feel every feeling in life that’s good. Like, I also have no plans on doing heroin. I hear that feeling’s pretty great.”

She has thoughts about her own death, she says in the special, of how she doesn’t want to drag on through illness. In America, you can’t legally end your own life, but you can put down a dog “if its hip kind of hurts.” She would choose euthanasia over suicide if she could, she says, but “guns are easier to get in this country than compassion.”

Despite the heaviness of the subject matter, Glaser never comes across as overly confessional. She’s trying to get a laugh. “It’s a challenge to be personal and revealing and talk about things that are really embarrassing or shameful and have them not come across as pitiful or sad or too sincere,” she says. “I mean, it’s a comedy show.”

And despite her skill at roasts and the taboos she talks about in her stand-up, Glaser says she hates the idea of anyone being uncomfortable at her shows. “I want everyone to be so comfortable at my shows,” she says. “I tell people before a live show, if you have anxiety, here’s what to do. Don’t worry, I’m not gonna roast you, you can relax. Like, if you laugh at a joke doesn’t mean you agree with it. Everyone calm down.”

NIKKI GLASER: THE ALIVE AND UNWELL TOUR

At Cape Cod Melody Tent, Hyannis. July 12 at 8 p.m. melodytent.org

Nick A. Zaino III can be reached at nick@nickzaino.com.

Nick A. Zaino III can be reached at nick@nickzaino.com.