Nikki Glaser’s Post-Roast Cleanse

Nikki Glaser opened up about the comedic process when it comes to penning jokes for a roast – and what makes her feel better once it’s done – nearly three months after she garnered attention for her performance at The Greatest Roast of All Time: Tom Brady.

The Cincinnati, Ohio-born actress/comic, 40, appeared Monday on the podcast Fresh Air on NPR with host Terry Gross and spoke about the roast, in which she made jokes about the NFL legend’s divorce from Gisele Bündchen.

After Gross marveled at the strange phenomenon of a roast, which can be ‘really funny’ and ‘sometimes a little cruel,’ Glaser agreed that it was a bizarre aspect of entertainment devising insults toward the guest of honor and others on the dais.

‘I can’t believe the places my mind will go to,’ Glaser said on the podcast. ‘I really do have to do kind of a cleanse after I write for a roast because my mind is in just such a bad place where I’m just constantly thinking the worst thing about someone looking at pictures of them, thinking, what is something I can think about them that is going to haunt them the rest of their life cause I’m gonna reveal it to everyone.’

The Emmy-nominated entertainer said that ‘it’s a disgusting place to write from, but that’s the job.’

Glaser, who has been seen in movies such as I Feel Pretty, Trainwreck and Punching Henry, mused on the general concept of roasts and uncomfortable aspects that come with it.

‘I don’t know – I understand why people love it because it’s just saying things that you would never be able to say and the person’s sitting right there, and so it feels like it’s OK because they’re laughing along with it,’ Glaser said. ‘So it makes us all feel better about what we’re laughing about – but it is insane.’

Glaser said she didn’t understand ‘why anyone signs up’ to be roasted, but she’s ‘grateful that they do.

‘In terms of Tom Brady, I was like, I can’t believe he’s going to do this,’ she said. ‘And because he said yes to it, it’s kind of like, unless you tell me things are off-limits, I’m going to go there. I have license. I have your consent.’

Asked if she made contact with Brady in the wake of her set, Glaser responded, ‘No – I wouldn’t even know how to do that.’

Glaser said, ‘I did see him in the hallway afterwards and just wanted to tell him how great I thought his set was at the end of a really long night, when everyone was tired, he killed, and … he was so impressive.

‘So I just wanted to say good job. And he said, really great job, and said, good luck with everything, which just told me, like, we’ll never meet again.’

Brady, 46, is father to son Jack, 16, with his ex-girlfriend, actress Bridget Moynahan, 53; and son Benjamin, 14, and daughter Vivian, 11, with ex-wife Bündchen, 44.

Brady spoke with The Pivot Podcast on May 14 about his ‘bittersweet’ experience being the guest of honor at the comedic event, admitting some of the barbs upset his children.

‘I loved when the jokes were about me, I thought they were so fun,’ Brady said. ‘I didn’t like the way that affected my kids.

‘So it’s the hardest part about, like, the bittersweet aspect of when you do something that you think is one way, and then all of a sudden you realize I wouldn’t do that again because of the way that affected, actually, the people that I care about most in the world.’

Bün
dchen was upset by some of the jokes made at the event, an insider told People in May, and had been ‘deeply disappointed by the disrespectful portrayal of her family on Sunday evening’s roast show,’ the insider told the publication.

The source added that Bündchen’s ‘priority is to support her children who were affected by the irresponsible content that was broadcasted.’

Some of the jokes told by the comedians such as Glaser and Kevin Hart, as well as his ex-teammates Drew Bledsoe and Julian Edelman, referenced their split as well as her subsequent relationship with jiu-jitsu expert Joaquim Valente.

The source noted that Bündchen at the time of the roast had ‘been tirelessly dedicated to aiding those in need in’ her native Brazil amid massive flooding.

Bündchen ‘was concerned about family affected by the devastating floods, so to hear her life being joked about was very disappointing,’ the source said. 

Following the Brady event, Glaser revealed a joke she omitted from her set, which alluded to a controversy in which Brady kissed his son Jack in the 2018 Facebook Watch documentary Tom vs Time.

Glaser said May 6 on The Howard Stern Show that she and the other comedians who took the dais at the event agreed to leave Brady’s three children and out of their sets at the wild show.

‘We all collectively just decided not to involve his kids too much in anything,’ she said, ‘because they didn’t ask for that.’

Glaser told Stern, 70, of the joke she left out: ‘I couldn’t say, “Tom, hopefully we make out the afterparty – you can pretend I’m your son,”‘ getting a chuckle out of the radio icon.

Glaser said that the joke was a ‘reference to him kissing his son’ in the 2018 doc.

She shared her own perspective on the situation, saying she doesn’t think the NFL icon had done any wrong.

‘Which, my dad kissed me on the lips as a kid and throughout my adulthood so I really related to that and never judged in any way,’ Glaser said. ‘Other than, I thought it was a cute moment that we all took too seriously.’

Glaser continued, ‘But yeah, there was things like that – we all just agreed, “Let’s not throw the kids under the bus” – even though I just did it here.’ 

Glaser said that time constraints also led to material not being used in her set, as well as material that was not up-to-par, off-the-mark or similar to what others were doing.

‘Or it was just not as strong as others or it hit something that someone else was maybe touching,’ Glaser said. ‘Or that you’ll see some of them are just soft.’

Glaser told Stern another joke that she cut from the show: ‘Thank you all for being here tonight and taking some time away from cheating on your wives – hey, it’s not their fault – it’s their wives’ fault for aging naturally.’ 

Glaser said another topic she stayed away from dealt with football players suffering concussions and dealing with CTE (Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy), but she initially had a joke written on the topic.

She said one of the jokes was, ‘First, I’d like to say that the proceeds from tonight’s show … are going toward CTE research – and the NFL’s coordinated effort to cover it up – people don’t know but it costs millions to murder those doctors who know the truth!’

Glaser said the remark was initially intended to be ‘some kind of commentary about CTE and how these guys really f***ing damaging their bodies and their brains all for the sake of men hugging each other in a Buffalo Wild Wings – “Like, I hope it was worth it fellas.”‘

Glaser did land a stinging joke on Brady in the roast, referencing his split from Moynahan in 2006 amid her pregnancy with Jack.

She said, ‘But seriously, Tom, you’re the best to ever play for too long – you retired, then you came back and then you retired again – I get it, it’s hard to walk away from something that’s not your pregnant girlfriend, it’s tough. Hey, to be fair, he didn’t know she was pregnant, he just thought she was getting fat!’