Comedian and activist Ilana Glazer may be best known for portraying the iconic Ilana Wexler on the 2010s TV comedy Broad City, a cultural touchstone for many Millennials. But since the show ended, among other acting, writing, producing, and directing projects for TV and film, she has been focusing on standup.
Glazer is bringing her signature, dank blend of comedy to The Vets in Providence on Tuesday, Aug. 18 at 7 p.m. Afternoon host Mareva Lindo spoke with her about standup, motherhood, what it’s like to be entering middle age, and what’s giving her hope these days. You can hear a longer, web-exclusive version of their conversation by clicking the “listen” button above.
Interview highlights
On what draws her to standup
Ilana Glazer: It's been really heartening. I feel so energized by these shows, … I think in as active as I am in community organizing and human rights advocacy, I too get totally saddened, totally terrorized, and start to believe these narratives of divisiveness. And then, I can't tell you how efficiently that's debunked when you're in person with people. You know, whether it be your faith group or your school community or your neighborhood, or in my case, it's standup. And I'm just like, what a bogus lie that we're so divided. … My audiences right now are very Millennial, little Gen Z, a good mix of Gen X, some Boomers too, but it's like it's a diverse audience and … we're all laughing at farts, and we're all laughing at sex, giggling, and we're all getting older and it hurts, and it just it feels good to laugh about it and be together in it from each of our different perspectives. And it's just been giving me a lot of life and a lot of faith this year.
On what to expect this tour: Poking fun at politics, gentle parenting, and wanting to have sex with her therapist
Glazer: I'm continuing to talk about politics, but not like “politics.” Myself personally, I don't even want to be in that realm. … I need to just laugh at it right now, just make fun of it, and move on. Motherhood, it's like when I did my last hour, I was covering my baby into becoming a toddler. Now she's five years old, and I'm like, I'm already out of my depth emotionally. My child is already more emotionally intelligent than I am, and I'm wading through some murky waters. Here, she's resolving conflicts with friends. I haven't resolved a conflict with a friend in my life. … I'm also talking about gentle parenting, this new method that Millennials have when they parent, which is to treat your child like a full person and not scream at them or hit them. That's gentle parenting. … And of course, I do a lot of therapy, and I'm starting to talk about it on stage, which is also new for me. And I talk about wanting to have sex with my therapist. I think if you don't want to have sex with your therapist, you're not doing the work, is the thing. And if they're not talking about it, neither are they.
On optimism and hope about the state of the world
Glazer: A big part of why I am an optimist and continue to be one is genuinely standup comedy, going and looking at people's faces, laughing together. Honestly, even if a joke bombs, just having an alive experience with people where it's like, oh, that wasn't for them, they didn't like that one, but we're having an experience and we have mutual respect. … And also just in my personal life as a mom and as a partner, I have faith in humanity just because of my interpersonal experiences. But also as an organizer, as a community organizer, and as an advocate, I am in this work with people who are doing the work, and I see this whole river flowing of human rights work. All this whole river of, whether it be elected officials, faith leaders, community organizers, parents, teachers, activists, there is like a whole movement that I didn't know about growing up because I didn't have access to this, and being in the work myself I see the change happening. … I really see Millennials, as we fill the middle-aged generation – and there's so much funny shit with that, where it's just like, literally, I get injured in my sleep, Mareva. I'm like injured. My knee hurts from sleeping. Oh boy, it's only getting worse from here, dawg. But what's so heartening about becoming, you know, filling that space in the United States at least is that we're ready to take on these responsibilities, and there are players here who are ready to fill those roles. … Part of why I am involved politically is so that I can have hope in my personal day-to-day life. The antidote to this anxiety is getting involved in doing something at any level.
Ilana Glazer will be at The Vets in Providence Tuesday, Aug. 18, at 7 p.m. Details at thevetsri.com/events/detail/ilana-glazer-26.
