November 11, 2026
Provided image/Disney/Hulu
Ilana Glazer brings her standup tour to Miller Theater at Ensemble Arts Philly on Wednesday at 7 p.m.
Two days after the Democrats made their largest midterm gains in half a century, turning a blue wave into a "blue tsunami," Ilana Glazer was riding through a wave of her own. Smiling serenely from the back of a car via Zoom, the comedian tried to articulate the swell of emotions.
"I am feeling relaxed and joyful in a way that I've honestly never felt before," she said. "Because as the person that I moved through the world as, I didn't (realize) how dangerous this country could be for its own citizens until 2016. And since then, I've learned the reality. Coming to understand that reality means the relief and joy is greater than it could have been before not knowing it, you know?"
Glazer, who brings her standup to Ensemble Arts Philly on Wednesday night, has never been shy about her political leanings. Her progressivism bleeds into her work through characters like Eden, an unlikely single expectant mother in "Babes," and Ilana Wexler, the boundaryless stoner of "Broad City," which Glazer co-created with Wayne native Abbi Jacobson. When she's not acting, writing or producing, the 39-year-old hosts liberal lawmakers (and some comedy pals) on her podcast "It's Open." The freshly elected U.S. senator from Texas, James Talarico, appeared last December.
This ethos places Glazer, a Jewish non-binary democratic socialist, in direct opposition to the recent spate of male comics who align with President Donald Trump and call women in athleisure "whores." While the so-called manosphere has dominated comedy lately — right-wing standup Joe Rogan routinely tops the podcast charts — Glazer believes the tide is turning there, too.
"I think that the hatred and disrespect for women, Black people, Arab people, Muslims, Jews, trans people and queer people has so quickly been exposed as not comedy and weak-minded," she said. "... Nina Simone said that an artist's role is to reflect the times, and those alt-right podcasters, they did reflect the 10 years that Trump tested authoritarianism in the United States. And they are actually reflecting the failure of it now. And I believe they will continue to reflect that failure."
Glazer's current set isn't all politics, even if she plans to tape it in Washington, D.C. later this month. Over the course of an hour, she jokes about emails (which "make us all such dorks"), shopping for groceries without the influence of marijuana ("a revelation") and discussing the sexual feelings she has for her therapist in session ("If you're not talking about this, like, are they really earning their copay?"). She's particularly excited to perform in Philadelphia after years of visiting the suburbs with Jacobson and her scientist husband David Rooklin, who grew up in Media. The couple also spends time with their daughter and Rooklin's parents on the Jersey Shore. Glazer, a born and bred New Yorker, prefers to keep the town to herself, but she did make a point to say her family goes "down the shore."
"I cannot wait to razz the Philly audience about their strong-legged Pennsylvania Dutch community," she said. "And then Philly Jews crack me up. They crack me up. It's different from Long Island Jews. They're more normal, and I kind of covet their normal ... Jewry? No, their assimilation. I covet their assimilation, whereas Long Island Jews were not exactly able to assimilate. We created our own thing that is, like, part Carmela Soprano, part Long Island Medium. Philly Jews are cute and suburban, and I love them."
Seven years after "Broad City" ended its run on Comedy Central, it's impossible not to imagine what Glazer's character, frequently deployed through GIFs and screen caps as a symbol of loud and gleeful progressivism, would be doing now. That Ilana would probably be a therapist as the show intended, Glazer said, but one that offers ketamine treatments. She might be a mom or married, though maybe in a "middle-aged millennial polycule." How would she and Abbi's extremely close friendship manifest today? As Glazer pondered the possibilities, Rooklin shouted an answer off-camera.
"My husband pitched spend every holiday together," the comedian said with a laugh. "It's in. They'd spend every holiday together, for sure."
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