Golden Globes Host Nikki Glaser Is Testing Her Monologue at L.A. Stand-Up Gigs

After skewering Tom Brady during his Netflix roast last May, who will comedian Nikki Glaser take to task when she hosts the 2025 Golden Globes on Sunday? There are hundreds, if not thousands, of people who may know the answer before the show even airs.

That’s because Glaser has been practicing her Golden Globes opener at her stand-up shows out on the road and will continue to do so at comedy clubs around Los Angeles this weekend.

“I have I think nine shows between now and Sunday, because I want to keep testing out jokes and I want to keep getting the monologue in the [most] perfect place it can be,” Glaser told The Hollywood Reporter at Thursday’s red carpet rollout for the Globes at The Beverly Hilton. “Not every host does that. I’m lucky enough to be a comedian who can go and find these rehearsal spaces in front of a live audience, and I trust my audience members to not leak jokes or tell anyone. And we have enough jokes that even if they do, I’ll be okay.”

Those upcoming shows include sets at The Comedy Store, Hollywood Improv and The Ice House Pasadena. These are on top of the various other stand-up shows where Glaser has already tested out her Globes material in recent months.

“It’s been a really collaborative process,” Glaser said of workshopping her Golden Globes monologue with the help of live audiences. “I go on stage and I just say, ‘Hey guys, do you mind if I run my set?’ And everyone’s so excited. They feel like they’re part of this interesting, kind of secretive process, because they are.”

The comedian revealed that she tells her test crowds, “If you laugh at a joke and then you hear that same joke on Sunday night when you watch the Globes, you can literally be like, ‘I told her to do that joke,’ because you did.”

Sunday’s show marks Glaser’s first time hosting the Golden Globes. Glenn Weiss and Ricky Kirshner of White Cherry Entertainment (WCE) return as showrunners for the second year in a row.

“Having done many, many award shows and working with many hosts, Nikki is determined and Nikki is really putting in the homework,” Weiss told The Hollywood Reporter. “And that is what is gonna make this night really successful right from the get-go. She has tried out the material. She’s doing four or five shows a night right now testing to make sure everything is responded [to] properly. So, kudos to her in doing the homework, but that’s part of the overall experience of having her [booked] a few months out and being able to polish this. It brings us to a really strong place.”

Glaser was announced as host in August 2024 following her standout performance during the Brady roast; she is also nominated herself this year for her HBO special Someday You’ll Die. Back in September, during Emmys weekend, THR asked Glaser about her initial reaction to being asked to host the show, known as Hollywood’s party of the year.

“I thought, ‘They made a good decision,’” Glaser told THR at the time. “Because I know what to do to make it great. I know the amount of work that goes into it. I take it very seriously.” She adds now, just days before the show, “I stand by that. I really do. And not for any other reason than when I hire someone to do something I just want them to appreciate it and treat it with a lot of care and work hard, and that is exactly what I’ve done. So I think that I made good on that promise.”

While Glaser is counting on her test audiences to keep her Golden Globes jokes a secret until Sunday, she revealed to THR that there’s one star who can count on her calling them out during the show.

“I can’t not talk to Timothée Chalamet, because he is just such a moment,” Glaser said. “I loved him in A Complete Unknown so much. I want to give him his flowers for that performance and I don’t know if I’ll be able to talk to him at the afterparty, so being on stage might be my only chance to be like, ‘Dude, you were so good in that.’ So if the only way for me to say that is to tell a joke, I will then tell a joke, because I have to let him know. That’ll be fun.” 

The Golden Globes air live Sunday on CBS and stream on Paramount+ at 5 p.m. PT/8 p.m. ET. Golden Globes producer Dick Clark Productions is owned by Penske Media Eldridge, a joint venture between Penske Media Corporation and Eldridge that also owns The Hollywood Reporter.