‘Liking This Woman Is a Part of My Identity Now’: Comedian Nikki Glaser on Attending 22 Taylor Swift Eras Concerts

Do you feel seen by these themes?

I always felt that Taylor was always in a good mood during performances. Of course she can’t always are, but she never shows that in her performances. It is probably because of her performances that she is happy again. I always felt a little disconnected from her because when I’m depressed I have to pretend a little bit. And I felt like, why can’t my art take me out of my life like Taylor Swift?

But then “I Can Do It With a Broken Heart” came out, and I thought, Oh, she has to fake it sometimes too. Those songs really touched me. I feel like everyone has such a connection with Taylor Swift, where she went through something specific that they went through too, and that just happens to be for me.

Do you have a favorite era?

I’m always in the era she’s in. The department of tortured poets really helped me through the preparation Tom Brady’s roastwhen I felt really isolated and alone and unsure of myself, and basically all I did was think about roast jokes. It was the greatest gift because it was a distraction. It reminded me that I care about other things and that my life is full no matter what happens with this roast. It really kept me sane during that really stressful time in my life. And then, even after the roast, even though it went the way I wanted it to, that was a really tumultuous time for me, just dealing with that level of attention and feeling like I can’t deliver on it now. And I just felt like I was looking at that album so much.

You wrote and performed a single for the end credits of your second HBO special, One day you will die. Has Taylor influenced your own sound?

I think without a doubt, when I first started doing stand-up, I sounded exactly like my favorite stand-up, which was Sarah Silverman. I was obsessed with Sarah Silverman in a way that I am now with Taylor Swift. So when I wrote my first jokes, I thought, what would Sarah Silverman write?