‘Broad City’ star Ilana Glazer is done with being herself

Stand-up comedian, actor, writer, and director Ilana Glazer is an absolute queenpin of comedy. Known for her in-your-face humor that holds nothing back, audiences can never be certain what the “Broad City” star is going to say next.

Glazer’s career began in the mid 2000’s with some dabbling in New York City’s local improv and stand-up scene. However, things really took off for her in 2009, after Glazer and her partner-in-comedy Abbi Jacobson began self-producing the “Broad City” web series.

The autobiographical web series quickly drew significant attention from major media publications, and also caught the eye of the infamously hilarious Amy Poehler. With their clout established, “Broad City” went from a DIY internet venture to a full-fledged Comedy Central television series, drawing acclaim from fans and critics alike.

In addition to “Broad City,” Glazer has also appeared in such films as “Rough Night” and “The Night Before,” as well as television series including “The Afterparty” and “Bojack Horseman.” In 2020, Glazer made big waves with her debut stand-up special “The Planet is Burning” on Amazon Prime.

Now, Glazer is returning to the stand-up scene with her “Ilana Glazer Live!” tour, stopping at The Masonic in San Francisco’s on Feb. 1. Glazer took some to chat with us about current life updates, her journey from “Broad City” and all the revelations that followed. While she may be a mom now, Glazer wants to assure fans that she’s still a mess, though one thing she might be done spilling is her secrets…

Q: What can our Bay Area audience expect from your show at the Masonic?

A: I’m going to be talking a lot about my experience as a parent. While I may be a Mom, I’m still a stoner. I’m still philosophizing about the Olsen twins. I still get into wacky situations. I’m still the same goofball knucklehead.

Q: A lot of your film and TV characters, Ilana Wexler especially, seem to be exaggerated caricatures of your real-life persona. Does that make it easier for you to morph between the mediums of on-stage comic and on-screen character?

A: It really is trippy to switch between different versions of myself, especially because “Broad City” took off the way that it did. At the time, it felt like it was based on us, so that was very confusing for me. However, the repetition and consistency of making 50 episodes is where so much growth happened. We became showrunners, executive producers, directors, writers and editors, and suddenly, we were completely different people than the ones we based our characters on. But also, in the differences, you see what part of you remains, and what is truly you.

The more distance I have now, the more comfortable I am with how impersonal it all is. On this tour, I’ve had the most fun I’ve ever had doing stand-up. I’ve been in the comedy scene for 17 years, and this is the most pleasure I’ve ever taken in my performance. I’m crafting an hour for my audiences, without connecting it to what I think, what it means or who I am, which is very different and more fun from when I tried to make it mean everything to my personal experience.

Q: Your comedy has always been very intimate and personal. Do you ever struggle to put yourself out there in that way, and how do you get over that fear?

A: I do. The world we live in is designed to make us fall in line, rather than be our true self. But you don’t have to put your whole self out there. That’s not good for you, and it’s not good for the audience. For a long time, I thought I had to pour my heart out. I thought I had to unzip my jacket and spill out all the contents that were inside, but I eventually realized it’s just not as deep as I thought it was.

Q: Your comedy isn’t just personal, it’s also pretty raunchy. Are you at all nervous about your daughter seeing your work one day?

A: I do think about it, but I’m going to be thoughtful each step of the way, so that by the time my kiddo is old enough to watch my work, she’s going to be like, “This is glitz!” She’s going to know that only she gets the me that I offer to her, and the me that I offer to the world is not my most authentic self. It’s my performer self, but it’s not me at home as her mom. I definitely worry about her feeling like she has to share me in some way, but I know that being conscious of this is the most that I can do. It’ll also, hopefully, be part of her in some way.

Q: You’ve done a lot of work for queer representation, so it was surprising, not only to see that you got married and had a kid, but that you did so with a man. How do you sleep at night, knowing that you single handedly set the queer community back at least 50 years?

A: I’m confident today in my identity as a queer non-binary woman, but forget my identity, it takes a very special, patient person to be with me. Being with a man, I do sometimes find myself needing to be like, “I’m queer! I’m queer! I’m queer!” but I feel so lucky to be with my husband. If he came in the body of another form, I would’ve been with him in that one, but that’s not how it works. Our spirits and our bodies are one in this life. A lot of people want a lot of different things from me, and I get it! It’s fair, but I’m okay with disappointing people’s expectations of me.

Q: San Francisco has very strong “Broad City” and overall Ilana Glazer vibes. It’s wild, weird and wacky. Do you have any ideas for what an S.F. based episode of “Broad City” would look like,?

A: It would be about trying to go to Burma Superstar and encountering many obstacles in the way, one of them being tripping on shrooms, which would ultimately distract from that final destination. That’s a personal experience from which I would draw for this episode. Another obstacle would be getting in one of those driverless cars and losing our minds at how eerie that is. Then it would end outside the offices of Big Tech, having to grapple with the humanity of billionaire CEOs.