Golden Globes host Nikki Glaser struggles with Julia Roberts and Venezuela while building monologue

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Golden Globes are fast approaching, and Nikki Glaser is struggling to find a Julia Roberts joke.

“She’s been the toughest nut to crack,” Glaser, who’s hosting Sunday’s Globes, said Tuesday with a determined laugh. “But I’m going to crack it.”

The comedian got the hosting gig last year after showing her skill at ruthlessly roasting celebrities. She got raves for her monologue. She brought out the knives, but they weren’t overly sharp. She was promptly asked back.

Sunday’s monologue will be a shape-shifting monster until the moment the CBS telecast starts and she takes the stage at the Beverly Hilton, ideally with a bit ready for Roberts, who’s nominated for best actress in a drama for “After the Hunt.” She’ll be sitting in front of Glaser with her star-powered charm.

“I just want to do the perfect joke but it’s like people do not have a sense of humor about Julia Roberts,” Glaser said in an interview with The Associated Press. “She’ll be fine — other people are not fine on her behalf. Like the most innocent joke about her that I made a couple times trying it out, they booed, they were like jeering.”

Which stars Glaser plans to joke about during the Globes

For others, Glaser is confident in her material, and their ability to take it, including the men in the absurdly star-studded best actor categories:

— She’ll get another shot at Timothée Chalamet, nominated last year for playing Bob Dylan and this year for “Marty Supreme”: “Timothée, he’s great. He knows how to handle it,” she said. Last year, she told a mustachioed Chalamet: “You have the most gorgeous eyelashes — on your upper lip.”

— She’ll get her first chance to poke at George Clooney, nominated for “Jay Kelly”: “George Clooney’s going to be exciting to just have any kind of interaction with. I think he’s such a good sport,” she said. “He’s down for it.’”

— She’s says she’s excited about her stuff on “Sinners” nominee Michael B. Jordan.

— And what about Leonardo DiCaprio, representing awards season powerhouse “One Battle After Another?” “Leo? Leo, yeah, Leo. We’re going to hit Leo,” she said. “The icebergs are coming. Watch out.”

Taking the monologue to the clubs

Glaser spoke to the AP while wearing a gown and fur coat on a mock New York street at a CBS studio lot where she’s prepping.

But the real preparation has been happening at Southern California’s comedy clubs.

“I’ve been running the jokes constantly,” she said. “I live and die by those crowds. They really tell me what to keep and what not to. Things that I think will kill will just be nothing and things that I think are just a throwaway are like the best joke.”

She shares one that she dumped.

“I was going to make a joke about ‘Pluribus’ where I said like, ‘Have you seen it? Pluribly not,’” she said. “But we could not find a place for ‘pluribly not’ and so that one is in the graveyard. Probably rightfully so.”

Because the monologue is directed, roast-style, at the people in the Globes crowd, the comedy club audience has to play celebrity roles.

She’ll ask them, “’Will you play Julia Roberts for me?’ You know, like it is, it’s strange, but I kind of just set it up. Like I’m hosting the Golden Globes. They’re usually very excited about that.”

The Venezuela question

Like every awards show host, she’s wary that some major current event will upend everything. During the past weekend, she thought she certainly would have to talk about Venezuela onstage. Now she thinks maybe not.

“You can’t even anticipate things a week away as being relevant enough,” she said. “You’d be surprised that half the room had no clue why I was saying ‘Venezuela.’ People aren’t getting the news like we all are.”

Last year’s version of the Julia Roberts problem was “Wicked,” and finding a joke that rode the line between meanness and affection. It took a long time, but she and the two friends she writes with found it.

“It ended up being perfect. I loved it,” she said, repeating the line. “’My boyfriend loved it, my boyfriend’s boyfriend loved it.’ Perfect ‘Wicked’ joke. Wasn’t too mean, just celebrated the gayness.”

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