SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
When you find success with a project, it can be daunting to try something new. But the comedian Ilana Glazer welcomes that kind of risk. Glazer co-created "Broad City" with Abbi Jacobson, and it was a huge hit. But the two decided to end the show two seasons before their contract ran out. Glazer told NPR's Rachel Martin that part of knowing what to do next is knowing when something should end. And that gamble to move on has paid off for Glazer. Earlier this year, Glazer cowrote and costarred in the movie "Babes." And this Friday, they have a new standup special coming out on Hulu called "Human Magic." Glazer spoke to Rachel Martin on Wild Card, the interview show where guests choose the questions they answer from a deck of cards. And a note, Glazer talks about sex and drug use in this conversation.
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RACHEL MARTIN: First three cards - one, two or three.
ILANA GLAZER: I'm going to go with three.
MARTIN: Three - what was your form of rebelling as a teenager?
GLAZER: Oh, my goodness. This - you cracked right in, Rachel Martin.
MARTIN: (Laughter) I did?
GLAZER: You cracked right in. You know why? - because...
MARTIN: (Inaudible) what?
GLAZER: I mean, this is just playing three strings on a guitar for me. This is a whole chord, which is that I didn't quite rebel very much as a child or a teenager. I was very good and was focused on, I guess, goodness and achieving, and my rebellion came - honestly, like, I was not secure in it until, like, the past few years, my rebelling, like, literally against my parents. L-O-L, I'm 37 years old.
MARTIN: Wow.
GLAZER: But of course, I had some rebellion. And I guess it finally came in the form of having sex and smoking weed (laughter) in my, like, senior year of high school. It was like...
MARTIN: I mean, that's pretty, you know, by-the-book, definitional...
GLAZER: Yeah, standard...
MARTIN: ...Of rebelling as a teenager. Yeah, yeah.
GLAZER: ...I would honestly say patriotic.
MARTIN: (Laugher).
GLAZER: So, you know, like, finally, it came - as well as myself. But it was a late - I'm a late bloomer. And then I feel like, really, becoming a parent, I'm like, oh, I don't care. You know what I mean? I don't care about being accepted. Like, as long as I'm focused on fulfilling my needs of myself and my family and my child, then the rest of it - you know, I can be unlikable or not fulfilling the, you know, supportive role or appearance of supportive role that I was hoping to fill before or actually filling, you know? I have found the limits of how limited parenting makes the rest of your life really helpful. It has forced me...
MARTIN: Yeah, yeah.
GLAZER: ...To draw lines that I never wanted to draw before. I wanted to be everything for everybody.
MARTIN: Yeah.
GLAZER: And it's, like, so important to my health and my kid's health, but also, like, who you put out into the world. It's really important for the - it's actually - serves the world at large to give it the healthiest kid I can. So it's been, like, such a helpful reorganization.
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MARTIN: OK, we got three more cards. We're going to keep going - one, two or three.
GLAZER: No. 1, please.
MARTIN: How comfortable are you with being alone?
GLAZER: I'm going to buck the binary with this answer and say...
MARTIN: Buck it, Ilana.
GLAZER: I'm going to say increasingly.
MARTIN: Yeah.
GLAZER: Ooh, is your mind blown by all my therapy, Rachel Martin?
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GLAZER: But that is the accurate answer - increasingly. Hoo (ph), but it's tough. I really feed off people. I love people. I love intellectual intercourse. I love connecting and engaging. But I'm increasingly comfortable alone. And also, like, having such a high-needs, tiny individual needing me so often, it's, like, much more contrasted as a relief to be a little alone.
MARTIN: Yeah. Yeah. But I am someone who very - I, like, crave alone time.
GLAZER: Cool.
MARTIN: And so yeah, then - yeah, it's complicated.
GLAZER: Are you tall?
MARTIN: I don't know. Am I?
GLAZER: How tall are you?
MARTIN: Five - I mean, I think I'm 5'7". My husband insists that I'm 5'6" and three-quarters.
GLAZER: Oh, copy that. You know, I don't know if it's changed, but in the early 2000s in those toxic days, I was a teenager at that time. And the toxic messaging I got, for some reason, I know that modeling, you have to be 5'7". So it's like, you're model height, babe, OK?
MARTIN: Wait, how does it - is this just random interstitial, or does this...
GLAZER: I don't know. I just feel like - like, craving alone time and being, like, walking, like, so tall...
MARTIN: And being a model?
GLAZER: ...Being a model and, like, gliding through the streets of D.C.
MARTIN: Yeah, that's what I do.
GLAZER: Like, popping your collar and, like, not wanting the bottom half of your face to you seen - I'm just like, yeah, she likes to be alone. I'm, like, short, and I'm like, hey, everybody. Anybody want to hear a joke? You know, I don't know.
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GLAZER: I just wanted to - I just want to picture it. I'm trying to picture it (ph).
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MARTIN: One, two or three.
GLAZER: Three.
MARTIN: Are you good at knowing when something should end?
GLAZER: Yes.
MARTIN: Yeah?
GLAZER: Yeah. Yeah, I am.
MARTIN: Have you always been that way?
GLAZER: Yes. Yes, I have. "Broad City" - I was, like, a big - you know, we had signed our contract of seven seasons. And then, you know, we both came to it, and - Abbi and I. But - and it was - Comedy Central was like, huh? But I was like - you know, and we were, like, ambivalent and unsure. But, like, it just - I think that's - yeah, that's something I would say is elegant about me, knowing when things are at their end.
MARTIN: Yeah. That's a admirable quality because it's not the same for everybody, and especially if you have - if you've got something good going on, and there are people telling you it's good, just keep going.
GLAZER: Yeah.
MARTIN: It's good. And to be able to have something internally that tells you, nah, I think I'm going to stop now.
GLAZER: Yeah. And, like, being able to trust that I am generative beyond this moment, whether it's a creative project or anything, you know, but that I am secure, that I will keep generating new layers and, like, do without thinking. That was something that - the experience of pregnancy was so incredible. I'm such an overthinker and a planner. Creating a person without thinking about it was - I was like, I'm not even thinking about this, and my body knows what to do. And, like, you know, we get a scrape, and the skin grows back. And it's just like...
MARTIN: Yeah.
GLAZER: ...Just trusting in - I don't know. I was a drummer for many years. I miss it. And I love...
MARTIN: You were?
GLAZER: Yes, and I just loved percussion. For a time, I was like, I'm going to be an orchestra percussionist. Can you imagine me, like, on a timpani, like, (vocalizing)?
MARTIN: Yes.
GLAZER: And it's like, I think it's, like, a rhythm thing. You know what I mean?
MARTIN: Yeah.
GLAZER: It's like a larger scale rhythm thing of, like, this is over.
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MARTIN: Ilana Glazer - you can see their new standup special out December 20 on Hulu. It's called "Human Magic." It is indeed magical, as are you, Ilana. Thank you so much for doing this.
GLAZER: Thank you, Rachel. This was such a pleasure. Thank you so much for having me.
DETROW: You can hear more of that conversation with Ilana Glazer by following the Wild Card podcast. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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