Comedian Nikki Glaser bringing ‘not safe for TV’ material to Lexington stage

If you are packing theaters across the country with fans and laughs like Nikki Glaser is, the whole tour could be one giant highlight.

But the seasoned stand-up comic said the type of show people will experience when she performs at the Lexington Opera House on Feb. 25 during “The Good Girl Tour” may be her favorite time to present her newest material.

“There’s always a sweet spot in the tour where the show is the best it could possibly be,” Glaser said. “The past few weeks have been a blast.”

Glaser is the type of performer who may have several sub-crowds within the crowd who have different reasons for seeing her perform live.

Glaser a veteran of Comedy Central

There is the performer who regularly cuts celebrities to shreds on any number of recent Comedy Central Roasts. There’s the TV host whose style of comedy on relationships and sex is perfectly suited to provide comedic relief on the HBO Max reality dating series “FBOY Island.” There’s the popular podcast and radio guest who went from recurring appearances on “The Howard Stern Show” and “The Joe Rogan Experience” to hosting Comedy Central’s first live daily morning show “You Up With Nikki Glaser” for Sirius XM from 2018 to 2020.

“It’s tough because I worry that people will be disappointed. ‘I only see her roast ... and she didn’t even roast us,’” Glaser admits. “My stand-up is something totally different and it’s something I do best, I would argue.”

Glaser, 38, a St. Louis native, started doing stand-up when she was 18 and has put in 20 years worth of sets and less than ideal gigs and sleeping arrangements to hone her writing and delivery.

“My dream was hanging out with 50-year-old comedians when I was 20,” she said. “It is hard, but you should enjoy how hard it is. You should enjoy the sleeping on couches. You should enjoy driving all night for $50 dollars.”

From early on, Glaser gravitated toward talking about sex in candid, comedic detail because she was genuinely interested in it and generally told she shouldn’t talk about it. It eventually led to Netflix comedy specials like 2019’s aptly titled “Bangin’” and last year’s hour-long HBO special “Good Clean Filth.”

”Suddenly, I get to talk about it and everyone laughs and I get rewarded,” she said. “I still like talking about things that people say I can’t do.”

New tour, new “very taboo” material

Glaser said in addition to her candor about sex and relationships, she developed a quick, blink-and-you’ll-miss-them joke style reminiscent of some of her comic heroes like Kevin Nealon, David Spade and Sarah Silverman. But she said it was when she finally combined the sexcapades and the sucker-punchlines with being honest with the audience about her own insecurities and anxiety (she said at one point she suffered from anorexia and bulimia) that finally felt comfortable on stage.

“That came from just doing work on myself ... In order to stay alive, I had to get help,” she said. “It’s almost the more famous you get, the more you have to lay it out there on the line.”

Speaking of fame, Glaser said the material she is touring with and plans to bring to Lexington touches on things outside of sex, like hypocrisy in Hollywood, aging and addiction issues. That being said, she also promised to tackle “very taboo subjects I don’t think you can print.”

“It’s not safe for TV yet,” she said.

All joking aside, Glaser takes stand-up comedy seriously as a truly unique performance art form. She looks forward to providing a bit of levity to a live audience while continuing to grow as a writer and performer to the point where she is not just considered a great female comic and is simply one of the best currently doing it.

“It truly is the best escape,” she said. “I really do think comedy is such a great escape from our mental anguish and I can’t wait to provide an hour-and-a-half of that.”

Nikki Glaser “The Good Girl Tour”

When: Feb. 25, 7 and 9:30 p.m.

Where: Lexington Opera House, 401 W. Short St.

Tickets: $45.75 to $151.75

Contact: 859-233-4567, lexingtonoperahouse.com