74 MINUTES WITH...Nikki Glaser

The comedian has been in the business for decades. But her set on the Tom Brady roast seems to have shifted something.

- GRACIE HADLAND

AS I PULL UP to Bally's Casino in Lake Tahoe, right on the border of Nevada and California, I'm greeted by a 30-foot version of the comedian Nikki Glaser. The big-screen marquee is advertising her "Alive and Unwell" tour, and somewhere inside, past a maze of slot machines and solitary gamblers, she's getting ready for her soldout Memorial Day weekend show. "Are you going?" my cab-driver asks. "She's going to be a big deal after the roast."

By "the roast," he means The Roast of Tom Brady, which recently aired on Netflix to nearly 14 million viewers in its first week. Glaser was quickly, if unofficially, deemed the night's winner. Kevin Hart, the event's host, was visibly moved by her set, nearly choking up when he came onstage after she walked off. "That's the beauty of roasting," he said to the crowd. "There's an art to it, and when you get it right, goddamn it's amazing." It's true: Watching her-one of the only women on a decidedly laddish stage-felt sort of like watching a woman going into the boys' locker room and politely brutalizing them. "I get it," she said breezily to Brady at one point, referring to his first, failed attempt to retire. "It's hard to walk away from something that's not your pregnant girlfriend."