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Abbi Jacobson · It's Open with Ilana Glazer

• 0:00
  Oh boy.
• 0:01
  I just finished laughing and loving in my latest interview for It's Open with Ilana Glazer with the one and only my beloved Abbi Jacobson. Check us out.
• 0:12
  It's a grand old time.
• 0:17
  So my guest today is one of my best friends and dearest collaborators.
• 0:23
  Abbi! Abbi Abbae, Abby Lee Jacobson. Hi.
• 0:27
  Hi. Thanks for having me.
• 0:28
  Could we reflect on our beautiful baby Broad city and reflect on us?
• 0:34
  First of all, I want to say like Broad City was so much work.
• 0:38
  It was so much work, which anything that is really good is any art worth making is hard to make in at least some aspects.
• 0:50
  And the removal of all that work has left this space for this warm, ooey gooey friendship of ours that I've just been lapping up.
• 1:03
  It's kind of going back to when we first met where we didn't have that work.
• 1:08
  Right?
• 1:09
  So when we first met, I wouldn't say that our improv team wasn't a ton of work, but we were just hanging out and being friends and now we kind of just get to do that again where we're just shooting the shit and it's not a deadline upon deadline upon us and decisions and incredible things happening, but we just get to hang out and talk about life.
• 1:34
  But you know what I'm remembering From our early days, I wonder if this resonates with you.
• 1:40
  I almost felt the work ahead.
• 1:45
  I almost felt like the creative birth ahead, the momentum that we felt like in our hearts and we were like, who are you?
• 1:53
  That magic of that momentum in those early days.
• 1:56
  Now it feels like we have children that we sent off to college or they've graduated college and they're able to both work and enjoy their lives.
• 2:06
  That's how it feels to see Broad City out in the world. I.
• 2:10
  Think that time I can romanticize that time.
• 2:14
  I was in my twenties. You were not.
• 2:17
  I was 19 when we met.
• 2:18
  I know you were 22 and we didn't sell the show until I was 27, but I can romanticize that time so much as you talk about the build, it was there. We were yearning to have that work.
• 2:35
  We wanted to be focusing all of that energy into please let us use this energy, use.
• 2:41
  Us.
• 2:42
  Make.
• 2:42
  Use of.
• 2:42
  Us. And so I think I look back on that time with such, yeah, I can feel very romantic about that time because it was like the before of we know we can do this.
• 2:52
  Couldn't someone let us?
• 2:56
  And I think even before we found the web series, I think I know I recognize that in you of there's this build and how can we do it? We're here, we're in the city and.
• 3:08
  An agitation almost really itching and I'm thinking about how they wouldn't make use of us the Upright Citizens Brigade. We tried and tried to get on a house team, which means you're part of the almost a theater company part of the UCB theater company.
• 3:26
  So that's how we made Broad City because we would audition and we wouldn't get on a team, so we made our own thing. But before that, you also weren't exactly taken seriously for your dramatic efforts either you came to New York after graduating art school and you went to the Atlantic.
• 3:45
  Yeah, I went for a week and I don't know if it was them not taking me seriously, more than me quitting.
• 3:51
  Before.
• 3:52
  They could. I just was like, this is not the right place for me at Micah.
• 3:57
  I majored in general fine art and minored in video.
• 4:00
  It was mostly me just doing character stuff and I realized I really wanted to do to be an actor and I really wanted to be a dramatic actor even though everything about my whole upbringing, everything was just clearly comedic. But I was like, no, I want this. And so I auditioned to go to the Atlantic Conservatory, which is a four year program. David.
• 4:22
  Mamet.
• 4:22
  David Mamet.
• 4:23
  Bere all.
• 4:23
  Day, and William h Macy.
• 4:25
  Beret.
• 4:25
  All.
• 4:26
  Day.
• 4:27
  Duo.
• 4:27
  And.
• 4:28
  I was like, this is the.
• 4:28
  Place for me. And I moved here.
• 4:31
  Did you go to the Atlantic Theater Company because of David Mamet's Beret?
• 4:37
  It was probably.
• 4:37
  Like 60%.
• 4:38
  Beret. Is that what drew you? You know what that makes me think of?
• 4:42
  Beret pri goin beret, pre ha goin.
• 4:46
  Did you purchase a beret?
• 4:49
  You had to buy one as soon as you walked in the door.
• 4:53
  They were like you had a kind of.
• 4:55
  Part of the course curriculum.
• 4:56
  Yeah, I took this class, one of the only non art courses in college where we read a lot of mammo plays.
• 5:04
  And so I was like, really?
• 5:07
  I think it was like that teacher is smitten with this older teacher who was exposing sexually. I mean no, no, no.
• 5:15
  He was so much older and I still asked sexually, I don't think so truly was not sexually attracted to him, but there was something about his creative vibe and he was exposing me to plays love. And I was like, oh, mammo.
• 5:32
  And I read his book and there was one thing that I feel like I said to you that I'm truly do not get me wrong.
• 5:40
  I'm not like a mammo gal, but at the time it was like if you have a plan B, you will do the plan B.
• 5:48
  I feel like that was in there with us of there can't be a plan B, every plan B will not be our course, so I will take that little mammon. But anyway, I got there and I was just like, fuck this. This is bad.
• 6:03
  This is not the vibe or how my mind thinks.
• 6:06
  At Atlantic it was very heady, very approaching the text in a, you were analyzing every sentence.
• 6:14
  What are they really saying?
• 6:18
  They're saying this and yeah, a lot of actors operate that way. Improv.
• 6:23
  Is like don't think.
• 6:25
  Literally don't think. And my roommate at the time, which is like loosely melody was like, what about there's this place UCB that you would love? I never even, I did not know about it and I went and I was obsessed.
• 6:39
  I really do feel so, so proud of what we created with Broad City.
• 6:44
  It feels like our little babies are out there thriving and living their own lives and these younger people who a lot of people moved to New York City after seeing Broad City and felt like they could make it if these two knuckleheads could make it, so could I.
• 7:00
  It's like the feedback I keep getting from 30 year olds and people in their twenties and it feels like mothering in a more literal sense.
• 7:11
  We raised these babies culturally and also let them know you can do this because guess what?
• 7:17
  Fucking up is a huge part of it.
• 7:23
  It's a storyline in every episode. No, I think we did that unintentionally.
• 7:27
  I don't think we were like, we need a show that you can do it.
• 7:34
  I think we were also simultaneously trying to do it ourselves a couple years ahead of them.
• 7:40
  Of the characters, but.
• 7:42
  Looking back and drawing from more specific fuckup.
• 7:49
  And.
• 7:49
  We were like, we've figured that.
• 7:51
  Out.
• 7:51
  We're not getting caught between buildings and things.
• 7:56
  Oh my God.
• 7:58
  No, I think it's so cool that people moved here. I mean, I am just trying to think why I moved to New, why I wanted to be in New York so much.
• 8:09
  It was definitely a lot of film and TV that I have seen, but I wasn't like, I'm moving and I'm going to be like Carrie Bradshaw.
• 8:18
  I was like, that's not me. I do think we maybe opened up a little bit, right.
• 8:23
  What it could be.
• 8:24
  That you.
• 8:25
  Like. Yeah. Well speaking of types, you were just remembering this.
• 8:29
  Oh my goodness. This thing that we heard early on in our careers. Yeah, I totally forgot this. Forgot It definitely was traumatizing.
• 8:37
  So I blacked it out and wiped it for my brain.
• 8:39
  But I'm actually in a place where I'm secure enough to be thrilled to hear this.
• 8:44
  I.
• 8:44
  Think it's just that also is the difference between us.
• 8:47
  We hear a thing and you block it out. And then for me, I keep it right at the top.
• 8:52
  Just like you used to kind of look at our trolling comments and I can't even, same thing on social media now.
• 8:59
  It's one of the reasons why I just don't want to be on social media.
• 9:02
  If this helps.
• 9:03
  We're tipping into the dead internet era in which more than half of the comments and trolls and texts are coming from bots, not human beings. Cool. Is.
• 9:15
  That cooler?
• 9:15
  Does that help?
• 9:16
  Yeah. So they're not real.
• 9:18
  Not real.
• 9:18
  Not real cool.
• 9:19
  Just sort of bot farms just burning up.
• 9:22
  Maybe I will stay.
• 9:23
  All the burning up, all the water.
• 9:25
  On.
• 9:25
  Planet Earth.
• 9:26
  All that makes me feel so much better to.
• 9:28
  Troll us, if that helps. Yeah.
• 9:29
  No, so we had manager, Sam, safer, who we both shared.
• 9:34
  Sam came back after she got some feedback that was like, well, they either need to lose 15 pounds or gain 15 pounds if they're going to make it in this biz, which is so weird.
• 9:50
  Let's unpack that for a second.
• 9:51
  Yeah, let's unpack.
• 9:52
  So if we lost 15 pounds, we might have a shot at playing one out of 20 of the roles for hot girls.
• 10:01
  Maybe if we developed successful eating disorders or.
• 10:04
  The show would be watchable.
• 10:08
  If.
• 10:08
  We had lost.
• 10:09
  Weight and then if we gained 15 pounds, I mean honestly would've made it even more revolutionary.
• 10:16
  Yes, yes.
• 10:17
  I guess that I know that person that she got this feedback was from a man without a doubt. But what an interesting just puzzle.
• 10:27
  We were too.
• 10:28
  Normal looking, which ended up being I think our superpower that people us.
• 10:34
  Yes.
• 10:34
  I remember actually we started getting into nut mixes.
• 10:39
  Alana.
• 10:45
  The variety of snacks that we had gotten into because I you talking about the nut mixes, giant tubs of nut mixes like.
• 10:55
  Gop, like mixes. We would make.
• 10:57
  Them ourselves go, you're weird.
• 10:59
  As think stands for good old raisins and peanuts. Oh my God, is that nineties?
• 11:04
  Think more expansive than that.
• 11:06
  And that's for people who go to REI and hike who don't have time. They're belaying so quickly.
• 11:13
  They're like gorp go because they have time to say the full good old raisins and peanuts. I'm dying.
• 11:20
  Do you remember when we went to la?
• 11:25
  We went to LA and I was saying at a friend's, I was renting an extra amount of friends and Alana found an apartment that you rented with the car that was in kind of a not safe area like downtown Hollywood, which is a little bit of an interesting spot.
• 11:46
  And you were driving her maroon PT Cruiser because when you first went renting a car was so expensive, you were under 25.
• 11:57
  I was 24 years old from waitressing and babysitting.
• 12:04
  I had saved $12,000 in my savings, renting a car to stay in LA for two months to pitch this show was going to cost two thirds of that savings, $8,000.
• 12:17
  And I had to call my dad and I was like, tell me it's a good idea. He's like, I don't know. I was like, tell me it's a good idea so I can do it.
• 12:25
  It cost that much because of the car you were but didn't cost me that much.
• 12:29
  No, I know I was 24.
• 12:31
  That's it. It's double.
• 12:31
  Or it's crazy to get.
• 12:34
  Younger. They're like, you little idiot, you're going to crash the car immediately.
• 12:38
  Which maybe I remember driving in LA being like, no, it's so scary.
• 12:43
  But this was a different time in which I was, I think I was essentially living this woman's life for her because I was renting her disgusting apartment as well as her disgusting PT cruiser.
• 12:56
  Which.
• 12:56
  She didn't think too clear of her energy drinks.
• 13:00
  She didn't clean it at all. And I just remember you were like, come on over.
• 13:03
  And then when get on in and we went somewhere and I was like, this is nuts.
• 13:09
  You've become her.
• 13:11
  But then I remember in the kitchen you were like help yourself and you had gone to Trader Joe's but you only did it. We did it at home here.
• 13:20
  And you had bought bulk, the Tricolor Raisin.
• 13:25
  Pack. Oh, I remember those.
• 13:27
  Raisins. And you were.
• 13:28
  Making own mixes. We were trying to cut bread. Yeah, we were trying to cut bread. And I remember a time that I said to you, Abby, I was like, oh, cut bread.
• 13:35
  Yeah, goodbye Doing it with.
• 13:38
  Just raisins. No bread, only.
• 13:44
  Raisins. You know what the health experts say?
• 13:49
  Swap bread and raisin. I remember one time when I was like, we were getting into paleo eating and I would totally own up to it being disordered eating. I don't think it was. I think we were genuinely.
• 14:01
  Was it?
• 14:01
  Well, I'm about to lead us into, I just was with my dad and we for some reason got on the topic of it hurts my mouth even to say it Turkey jerk.
• 14:25
  I know. I shouldn't have taken a sip. We were manic.
• 14:28
  I think it was like our coke now.
• 14:33
  I was chain smoking in the stairwell, chomping on eat that as our meals because we were like, what would the cavemen have eaten?
• 14:47
  Paleo and Smith Secret and manifesting.
• 14:50
  It was all before it was Tech Bros culture before they ruined and destroyed the planet and turned to fascism.
• 14:58
  Tech Bros were like believe in anything.
• 15:02
  So we were kind of on that tip and we were like, if we're going to be on tv, we can work out and cut bread and eat. The cavemen did.
• 15:12
  So one thing I remember is so we would make these big nut mixes jump on nuts. I was like, I can't hear you so loud.
• 15:23
  And I remember once I was like, we have to be careful.
• 15:25
  We don't want to get too skinny.
• 15:25
  And you were like, Alana, we won't. We if Broad City were made today, it wouldn't be.
• 15:39
  I don't know. There's a bunch of shows that feel sort of in the same wheelhouse, but.
• 15:43
  Only because Broad City had been made.
• 15:46
  Not.
• 15:47
  To be a bitch, but I'm just like Broad City couldn't be made today unless Broad City had been made. Well, if you say it like that, I feel that if Broad City were made today, it couldn't be because we're under an authoritarian siege.
• 16:02
  Oh yeah. I was even thinking with the whole Kimmel thing, I was like, we were just so vocal. I love that we fucking bleeped his name.
• 16:12
  Yeah, it was.
• 16:13
  Good. But that witches episode, the Instagram episode where we're in front of Trump Tower. Wow. Wow.
• 16:20
  All of that. I don't think that I would've been, who knows.
• 16:24
  How's your authoritarian sage going?
• 16:27
  It's just like every day feels more terrifying. And again, I know that there have always been moments in history that I think people have felt this way, but I think just matched with the way we receive information.
• 16:42
  I'm just an underlying anxiety of doom.
• 16:51
  Well, it's all by design too.
• 16:52
  The way that we receive information has gotten us here because very few individuals own algorithms that control our time and attention and minds.
• 17:02
  And we're supposed to feel more divided than we are.
• 17:07
  But I do have to say the no Kings march happened.
• 17:12
  Millions and millions of people showed up.
• 17:15
  I am reminded when I go to things like that, you're like, right, I have friends who are like, this is not going to do anything.
• 17:24
  This going to this. What do you think it's going to do? And I'm like, yeah, I'm not saying that this is changing policy, but it is also a reminder of being with people and masses. Thousands of people who are expressing anger and hope at the same time is pretty essential.
• 17:46
  And it's like most people want most people to have healthcare and housing the suffering.
• 17:51
  I don't know who these fucking weirdos are who get hard on other people's suffering, but they're supposed to be the minority and they're supposed to be getting mental health help, but most people are fucking normal and want a healthy democracy. I think.
• 18:07
  So too. And I just don't, the propaganda around that day, the narrative is so insane. If you were to go, it's the opposite of that.
• 18:19
  It was a Love America demonstration. Yeah, it was.
• 18:22
  It's, it's a really beautiful thing in the middle of a really terrible thing.
• 18:29
  What are you doing these days to feel good?
• 18:33
  I love me some park.
• 18:35
  Me too.
• 18:35
  Action.
• 18:36
  What do you love about it?
• 18:37
  I like walking a lot and it clears my head.
• 18:42
  I love going on walks with other people. I have a dog I love.
• 18:46
  I mean taking my dog, which I did this morning to the awfully section of the park is maybe the most joyful place on earth.
• 18:56
  Oh my God.
• 18:57
  And there's hundreds of dogs. Hundreds.
• 18:59
  I've never been that happy or joyous about anything in my life.
• 19:04
  New York is so major. Hundreds of dogs.
• 19:07
  Yeah, you got to just go one day. But you should.
• 19:10
  I'd love to see it. It's like a dog rave. Do you go to dinner with Jody?
• 19:13
  Yeah. I love dinner.
• 19:14
  Love dinner.
• 19:15
  I've been cooking this seared tofu with rice.
• 19:20
  Roasted veg. Hey, it's kind of, we usually make a bowl.
• 19:24
  Yu Yu like a rice bowl.
• 19:26
  Bowl. Yeah. Joe makes this thing on the side that is like a Swiss shard with some leaks.
• 19:36
  How does she prepare the leaks?
• 19:37
  Just cut it. Yeah, saute.
• 19:37
  Put the leaks in first.
• 19:41
  Saute them for a while. Tell her soft, put the shard in a little turmeric and a little coconut milk.
• 19:48
  Shit.
• 19:49
  It's very nourishing food.
• 19:49
  And we make that a lot.
• 19:53
  Joni makes that a lot.
• 19:54
  I'm intimidated by Lees and Bok Choy and Swiss Shard.
• 19:59
  Do not. I.
• 19:59
  Don't know. I'm like, it's delicate. I'm going to fuck it up. I don't know what.
• 20:01
  It is. I just discovered sesame oil, which again, I'm, I'm a late bloomer.
• 20:06
  Late bloomer, babe. So let's talk about prelude.
• 20:09
  Yes. I'd love to talk about prelude.
• 20:10
  So Prelude is a creative fellowship you've created to support emerging voices.
• 20:15
  Yeah.
• 20:16
  I created it with my friend Mika.
• 20:19
  And I had known Mika for a while.
• 20:21
  She's one of Jody's best friends and had done a lot of community work. And I had a feeling I was like, she's the person I want to do this with.
• 20:29
  And I had gone to this weekend excursion where you're in a miniature Ted talk and you're being exposed to, it's like a hundred people, really influential and successful people from music and entertainment and politics and all these people are staying at this place for the weekend and they're getting exposed to the most innovative minds in the world.
• 20:57
  And I remember feeling very mixed about the situation, but also I would leave and feel really, the ideas that we're being spoken about on stage were very filling and expansive in certain ways. And I was like, why does that always happen when you are successful?
• 21:17
  Why can't that sort of retreat happen when you're starting and you can be exposed to all that stuff?
• 21:23
  And so I came tomika with that and she had just done this documentary called Daughters, which Oh my gosh, incredible documentary.
• 21:31
  Yes.
• 21:31
  So she does a lot of social and impact work.
• 21:33
  And so she was that role on daughters and they were at Sundance.
• 21:38
  Daughters is on Netflix. It's an incredible documentary you have to watch.
• 21:40
  It's about, I think it's eight incarcerated men and they all have daughters.
• 21:46
  And they came up with this program to host a dance at the jail and track them for 10 years or something.
• 21:54
  And it's like a beautiful doc.
• 21:59
  And because at Sundance and one of the daughters is there, they're doing press and it's incredible.
• 22:05
  And she's telling Mika she's probably 17, she wants to be a cinematographer.
• 22:09
  She doesn't know she do that. And Mika was like, huh, I'm looking at her.
• 22:13
  There is just no door. And then truly Mika was like 10 minutes later, one of our eps who came on later, very, very famous couple.
• 22:23
  And their daughter's there.
• 22:24
  She's about the same age as one of the daughters and she's talking about how she wants to be a director. And Mika was like, this girl has every door open and this girl has absolutely zero.
• 22:36
  And so what if we can create a program where it's called Prelude for a reason, where it's like you can't have any experience.
• 22:44
  Our applications are open right now.
• 22:46
  We're reading applicants and so many people have a little too much experience.
• 22:51
  And.
• 22:52
  It's also exposing just how many people are yearning for an opportunity to create a cohort and find community. And also the thing, I keep saying exposure because I realized in the first year we finished in August that it's about exposing them. We have 10 fellows every year.
• 23:11
  It's about exposing them to all the different jobs in the industry.
• 23:14
  And so we use the word storyteller because I want it to feel like you can find a different way of storytelling throughout the program.
• 23:24
  So.
• 23:25
  Fellows, it's so exciting, Abby.
• 23:27
  It truly is a bright spot.
• 23:29
  For me.
• 23:31
  And I realize, okay, success rate, and I'll tell you success rate is like we can find them a job or this and we'll bridge them into the thing that's obviously a tangible success rate. But I realized at the end in August, January to August, I was like, we've succeeded.
• 23:49
  The confidence and the way in which they talk about themselves as storytellers from January to August is wild. It's like a wild change.
• 23:58
  And then they go back to whatever job they have and just feel like now I'm getting emotion, feel like someone believes in them.
• 24:07
  And I think that that is like, mommy Abby, what we need, mommy Mika, that's what you need. If you're going to try to do this, you need to feel that yourself.
• 24:17
  But in the beginning you really need the Amy who was like, I think you guys are fucking brilliant. Let's go.
• 24:23
  And so I'm not making each of their projects with them, but I am their mentor as well for the eight months. And they each have a mentor.
• 24:32
  And representation matters. Yes.
• 24:33
  They got to see a person who they normally wouldn't connect themselves to, but you and Mika connected them to say, you are that person.
• 24:40
  Yes.
• 24:40
  You are. As worth the getting that door open as this famous couple's daughter, for example.
• 24:48
  And I'm going to tell you a very quick thing because you know her, you don't have to rush. One of our fellows came to the program, had not written anything. A lot of them have never, we got everyone final draft. Half of them didn't have final draft.
• 25:04
  And so they're learning that in the program.
• 25:07
  And she came in, she initially wanted to be a playwright. She was like, I'm really excited to be a playwright.
• 25:14
  I'm interested in all these different plays and I'm going to do my version.
• 25:17
  She worked at a women's shelter when she came into the program and throughout the program she realized her small goal was to get a job in the industry just as even if it was a desk job and wasn't a creative position and fit this film club.
• 25:35
  So we have screenings and then we have someone who was part of the film.
• 25:41
  So we showed everything everywhere all at once.
• 25:44
  And I wanted them to be exposed to an editor.
• 25:47
  And so we had Paul Rogers who won the fucking Oscar for that film.
• 25:50
  He's talking about how he initially thought he wanted be a writer and later in his career realized, I actually tell stories this way.
• 25:56
  And this fellow comes up to us after and she's like, wait, I didn't know that this, I didn't know about editing.
• 26:06
  She wants to be an editor.
• 26:07
  So another part of the program is setting our fellows up on a general.
• 26:11
  So we do a whole workshop on what a general is.
• 26:14
  We do a mock general that they watch and then they've all been set up on generals.
• 26:19
  This fellow I set up with Jess Bruto edited Broad city edited league of their own edits hacks. I think she won an Emmy for hacks.
• 26:27
  Beautiful.
• 26:28
  Person. Incredible at what they do.
• 26:32
  Oh my goodness.
• 26:32
  She meets this fellow tours her around the whole post facility.
• 26:37
  And then we find out that Jess found out there was an opening at this post facility.
• 26:42
  Our fellow works at the post facility now and she's not an editor yet, but it's like she went from, she's in the world. She's in the world.
• 26:50
  She got a door. It was like you created a door. Cool. And I'm like, I didn't even know exactly how that would happen.
• 26:58
  And now we have this whole alumni, it'll form.
• 27:01
  The best thing that will happen is in five years someone from that one will come back and they'll be a mentor. And it's just like.
• 27:08
  You as an artist, this is how you move through the world.
• 27:13
  The preludes and preludes messaging, the phrase, emerging artists really feels like you. Your voice is constantly emerging.
• 27:21
  I think so much of Michelle Obama's becoming that idea of continually becoming blossoming as your whole life.
• 27:26
  You're blossoming until the very, very end. You hope so.
• 27:30
  None of us are certain, but if we embrace that uncertainty, the magic, the human magic that emerges from it, I mean it's incredible. That is amazing.
• 27:40
  It's going to grow so quickly into a community. Abbi, you are so inspiring to me.
• 27:47
  I feel so invited to be my truest artistic self with you because of you and I hold you in my mind.
• 27:56
  You are so beautiful. I hope you know how beautiful you are from the inside out.
• 28:01
  Yes. I'm talking about the physical too. Abby, you are so pretty and beautiful and brilliant, and you have incredible taste.
• 28:09
  You have such good taste.
• 28:13
  It's part of your honoring beauty and part of your role as an artist in the world. Thank you so much. I love you.
• 28:22
  I love you too. And the feeling is completely mutual.
• 28:26
  Love you. Love you too.
• 28:28
  I guess I say stuff like and subscribe and be a part of the community. Comment. Tell us what you loved. Tell us Thanks for joining us. And give it up for Abbi Jacobson. Give.
• 28:41
  It up.
• 28:42
  For Ilana.
• 28:42
  Glazer.