If you came of age in the 2010s, there is a decent chance “Broad City” made you feel a little more seen — or at least a little less weird.
Now, co-creator and comedian Ilana Glazer is touring a new stand-up show about getting older, becoming a parent and trying to stay sane in a world that she says has “gone crackers.” She’ll perform at the Knight Theater in Charlotte on May 28.
Glazer spoke with WFAE’s Nick de la Canal.
Nick de la Canal: I wanted to start with “Broad City” because I think for a lot of millennials, that show captured a very specific era of young adulthood: broke, anxious, chaotic, stoned, but still optimistic. But now your audience is getting older. What is it like performing for people who are, in a way, growing up with you?
Ilana Glazer: I mean, it's a privilege. I'm talking about the world today and how it really, I mean, brother, has it gone crackers? Is it just me?
De la Canal: I don’t think you're the only one who thinks that.
Glazer: It's gone crackers. And it's like, I really feel like it's a story coming from a handful of people in power. When I go out into the world and I do stand-up all around the country, all around the world at this point, people are way more on the same page.
For me, I feel so hopeful about taking the world back into the hands of the people, making this world for working people, for families, for communities, because of a general consensus that five guys shouldn’t own everything.
So it's a privilege to me. I feel like when we're in a time when our reality is being systematically fractured by a handful of guys who hold the algorithm, it's like, I actually go out and get to see that people that I've been sharing thought space with for like 15 years now, we're still on the same page.
De la Canal: A lot of your new material gets into what you're talking about — billionaires, politics, climate anxiety. These are really big existential things. Why are you drawn to make jokes about them?
Glazer: I think I have an anxiety about not sharing reality. Even at a young age, growing up in the suburbs of New York on Long Island, and always being drawn to the city, I felt like I wasn't sharing reality with the people I was in community with. And when I got to New York City, I felt like a similar mentality.
And what I need to do for myself is make sure I'm sharing reality. It's not me who's crazy, right? The world's crazy. And then I need to laugh about it.
Laughing about it, for me, helps me cope with the sadness of all the loss in the wake of the destruction, I suppose. But I also find it helps me confront it and build a better world, because I can laugh it off, process it through without it taking too much from me, and then look forward and say, how am I going to make this world better for people who are kids now?
De la Canal: You also gave an interview to The New York Times recently with a quote that kind of made me laugh. You said, “I'm still horny. I like weed. I love people. I love to dance,” which feels like a very reassuring life update. But you're also now a mother. How has that changed you, or has it?
Glazer: The way that it's changed me is that it's peeled so many layers of the onion back to see the most potent, rich person I've always been, but perhaps had layers on top that were meant to be protective.
That quote was in the context of being a mom for the past five years, and I really had this idea growing up that when you become a parent, you change and you turn into this edited version of yourself. But I actually feel like I was more edited before, and now I feel much more secure in embracing who I already am.
And that person is horny, likes to get high, likes to dance, likes to be real, messes up, you know? Maybe sometimes is tired, but like, it's OK. It feels much more OK these days.
De la Canal: So you performed in Charlotte back in 2018, and that was during the “Broad City” era. And Charlotte is one of those Southern cities, I think, that doesn’t always fit the stereotype people imagine. Do crowds here surprise you?
Glazer: The last time I performed in Charlotte, I think, was 2023, in fact. I think I was at the Knight Theater too. This last time I performed in Charlotte, it was so much fun. I was so surprised to be embraced in the way that I was.
And I feel actually excited this time to go with a little bit more security and not question marks of, what are they going to think of me? I had so much fun performing for you guys. You guys were picking up what I was putting down. I was just so, so much fun.
I love performing in Southern cities. I feel most fish out of water there. And there’s like an energy to being kind of the odd one out. It’s fun.
De la Canal: And yet I do think that you draw the other people who feel that way into the theater. So it's sort of that sense of community.
Glazer: Yeah! Oh, thank you. I appreciate that.
De la Canal: I think that “Broad City” meant a lot to people because, underneath the chaos, that show was really about friendship and surviving adulthood. What do you hope people leave your shows with now?
Glazer: I definitely hope that there's a feeling of friendship and community at the live shows and knowing that you are not alone. The world is crazy, but we are going to get through this. I explicitly say, 'We are going to get through this, and we are going to build a better world.'
I hope that people feel a sense of shared reality with their local community and get the feeling that their neighbors have their back because they can laugh at the same things and have a shared sense of values.
A lot of people think my comedy is political, but I don't see it that way. I see it more like values-based. I think it's common sense to wish the best for your neighbor and hope that your fellow Americans have their basic needs met. That's really it.
And I really hope that everybody who comes to one of my shows this tour can get that sense, that their neighbors wish the best for them, and there's more people who think this way than perhaps social media tells them every day.
De la Canal: Ilana Glazer will perform at the Knight Theater on May 28 as part of her new stand-up tour.
