Nikki Glaser’s Nipples Once Paused The ‘FBOY Island’ Production — And She’s Fine With It

The first compliment I gave Nikki Glaser about her hosting skills on the new HBO Max reality dating series FBOY Island was that she is not annoying. And it is a compliment! One which Glaser, a fellow fan of reality TV shows, immediately recognized. She clasped her hands over her chest and looked genuinely touched, understanding what I meant by it. “And I am annoying, Lea,” she responded with a laugh. “That is something I have to work on because I can be a lot and I was so enthused being at that show that sometimes I felt like I was a little too much,” she admitted, but I assured her that was not the case.

I spoke to Glaser via Zoom one recent afternoon, as she was sitting in her bright podcast studio. She has the tendency to speak in run-on sentences, which is likely due to the fact that the comedian is used to speaking a lot on The Nikki Glaser Podcast and nationwide stand-up tour dates, that she’s just plain excited about this show, and that she’s a woman with lots of valid thoughts she just can’t wait to get into the world. While both her appearance and soundbites are much briefer on FBOY Island, she makes the most of her on-screen time and makes it abundantly clear that her love and familiarity with this particular genre of TV show are what contribute to her hosting being such a success — i.e., not annoying.

The Chris Harrison comparisons are inevitable, as this show borrows many of the same devices from The Bachelor, and comes from creator Elan Gale. However, this show also figured out how to carve its own path, leaning into more of the comedy and the absurdity of the whole premise, with the help of Glaser as host. “That was the struggle of the show, what was my role? How do I approach it?” she said. “No one knew, we’re figuring it out as we went, and I hope you see an evolution of my tone. I come out first episode roasting everyone, making fun of people. And then I start to get invested. Island love filmed in front of many cameras and lit properly and on a union schedule is not to be mocked. It is real, it is real,” she joked. “I fell in love with the experience of being a host on the show. I never wanted it to end. I honestly didn’t leave the Cayman Islands for two weeks after we wrapped. I just couldn’t say goodbye to that world, that life. You just get caught up in it.”

She’s right about that. Once you start watching this show, you will be hooked. The series brings together three gorgeous women who must choose from 24 men — except 12 of the guys are Nice Guys and the other 12 are self-proclaimed FBOYs. The women, and viewers, and Glaser, must decide who are the nice guys — and, maybe most importantly, if that’s what they even really want.

Glaser also holds an Executive Producer title on the show which allowed her to write in her jokes and give a bit of comedic shape to the show, including weighing in with ideas for dates and challenges along the way. But she also tried her best to be kept in the dark about anything happening that she didn’t hear from the women themselves when they were filming. “I asked to be kept out of anything that they didn’t know, because I wanted them to trust me and I didn’t want to lie, pretty much. I knew that I wanted to play the game with them.”

Maybe the crew got that memo too because Glaser found…they simply weren’t speaking to her? “No one was talking to me,” she said. “It was nice to be treated like such a star, I honestly felt like JLo for the first time. It’s lonely, no one looks at you because, you know, talent is so crazy. I literally thought I was having a crisis because they wouldn’t talk to me on set. I thought they were so focused on their work with the cameras and stuff I’m like, wow. I would try to talk to them and go, no, they’re just very involved in their work. And then I found out that they all fear for their lives because of their experience working in daytime TV.”

Which was something Glaser knew she could also help shift on the set of this show. “What I loved about being EP was that I made damn sure as much as I could that no one felt bad about their experience,” she said. “You know there’s going to be heartbreak, there’s going to be anger. But I really didn’t want anyone to go, I was tricked. They’re already being so vulnerable allowing themselves to be on TV.” It was an experience she learned firsthand after she took a joke too far with one of the men, only to realize her quip was actually hurtful. Glaser said she realized, “I need to go talk to this person and apologize and say, that wasn’t fair to you and I’m sorry.”

After all, she has an idea of what that feels like after her brief stint on another reality show as a contestant. “I realized, you know, my jokes go over your head, much like my dance partner Gleb on Dancing with the Stars. There was this weird thing where he would never laugh at anything I did. So the only thing that I have any value with wasn’t even working in an atmosphere where I was doing the thing every day that I’m the worst at, which is dancing. And no, I am not suffering any trauma from my time on Dancing with the Stars,” she said sarcastically. “No, that couldn’t happen in such a short amount of time. I mean, it was only one episode. I mean, it was two episodes, but it was a two-night premiere, and I was voted off first. So what I’m saying is that I love that this show got me. People that go into reality shows, I think they think they’ll always remember the cameras there, but you forget.”

Which is precisely what makes this show work: during the silly challenges, during the romantic dates, and of course, during those sloppy, wet kisses. Much like The Bachelor, you’ll root for your favorites, you’ll think you have these guys all figured out, and whether you like it or not, you’ll think about your own experiences with dating, just as Glaser did. “I learned so much about all the FBOYs that have F’d me over and got to see versions of those guys from my past in these guys, and got to follow up with them like, why did you do this?”

Nikki Glaser in a red dress hosts FBOY Island
HBO Max

However, she may have an even more enlightening time coming away from this show than viewers at home, who will likely just recognize it for the delightful, entertaining, binge-able trash that it is (my personal favorite kind of show). “It made me realize, these guys are just boys, whether they’re men or not. No matter how old they are there, you just see them turn into children,” Glaser said. “No one wants to be an FBOY. Truly, some of these guys were so excited about saying that they were, which I found so weird, to be like, ‘Yeah, I lie to women.’ That seems crazy. I’m saying FBOY stands for fragile boy and they’re all just fragile boys. That is a thing that my therapist used to tell me. She was like, when your boyfriend or whoever you’re with starts throwing a tantrum like he’s a child, act like you’re babysitting. What would you do to punish a child that age? I truly like to talk to them at that level.”

Hanging with the three women of the show, Nakia Renee, CJ Franco, and Sarah Emig, was a wildly different experience for Glaser. I paid them the same compliment, that they are not annoying, and Glaser seemed just as touched and proud to hear it. “I really wanted to earn their trust and their friendship,” she said. “That was always my goal and I really didn’t think I was gonna be able to pull it off.”

As someone who has watched the entire 10-episode season (three episodes drop today, three next Thursday, and the final four arrive on HBO Max on Thursday, August 12th), it sure seems as though she accomplished just that — a more impressive feat than it seems on the show. “I didn’t get a chance to actually talk to them,” Glaser revealed, saying that her time with the women was limited to nearly just what we see on the show. “But I did sneak notes to them,” she admitted with a laugh. “Because I couldn’t get any alone time with them. I respected the way these shows run, and it’s for good reason. But I did it like it was like high school again. I was writing notes and I got them to slip little handwritten notes, just telling them I was proud of them and that I wanted them to have a good experience.” If that’s not the purest thing you’ve ever heard about a reality dating show centered around FBOYs, then really what is?

Of course, as many of these shows do, Glaser ended up learning a lot about herself and even found her confidence boosted by the end of the experience. “I learned so much about sexiness and dressing and confidence and from CJ. The way she handles a moment where she gets slut-shamed pretty frickin’ hard, she just handles it in a way that I didn’t know you could.”

Glaser continued, “Sarah was someone who was like me. I just saw myself in her lot and her choices and the people she’s drawn to and the people she wants to be drawn to and maybe isn’t as much, and the struggle. I felt like a very older sister to myself with her. And then Nikea was just confidence, knowing exactly what she wanted, knowing exactly what she didn’t want, vulnerability at times when she found out she was wrong. Nikea was such a generous laugher that really made me feel comfortable in a way that I probably owe Nikea some money. Because everyone’s so wrapped up in themselves, having someone just laugh at all your dumb jokes, she was my audience and then the other girls would feed off of that and relax too. It just made us all so much more comfortable. And they always looked so hot and that was inspiring in its own way. CJ taught me that you can just wear a participation ribbon as a dress and look awesome.”

Host Nikki Glaser with contestants Nakia Renee, CJ Franco and Sarah Emig on FBOY Island
HBO Max

Don’t be surprised if after watching this show you find yourself clicking on Instagram ads for dresses you never thought you could pull off because it’s essentially what happened with Glaser. “I’m always reluctant to dress slutty because I think people are gonna call me thirsty. And that would be just like the worst thing, to ever want men to be attracted to you! Oh, God. So sad,” Glaser joked. “By the end of the show, I was taking risks because of CJ. I remember one time, my nipples were so hard the whole elimination and it wasn’t because I was horny or cold. I was just like, ovulating that day or whatever. People think that I want to be sexualized, but it just looked cool and hot. I liked it and it wasn’t for anyone but me. Throwback to Aniston for five seasons of Friends. The cold years.”

It’s an empowering message, to have that look be just for her. Except, it did cause a slight pause in the production. “Nipples are fine, I think they’re hot,” Glaser continued. “It was just funny though because people don’t know if you should be told about your nipples. I was just nipping out that night. But the set had to stop down one time because they were like, we need to let her know. But like, how do we let her know? They’re trying to be gentle and I go, is this about my nipples? And everyone’s like, yes. I was like, I’m fine with it, it’s fine.”

It’s a moment that may not have been so fine to Glaser had the events taken place even just a year earlier. “The show was so sexy and hot and everyone around me was so hot and decades younger than me that it was something I couldn’t have dealt with before COVID,” she confessed. “In terms of my self-esteem, I did not have a moment of being like, I’m not good enough on this show.” She credits herself with addressing a lot of her issues during COVID and remains grateful that she was mentally in a position where she felt great about hosting a show featuring young, hot people looking for love.

However, she also shares a message for other people that might have a similar experience. “This show was very very hot and you might get triggered watching it, but just remember that I have on a ton of makeup. Everyone has spray tans, everyone gets facials, everyone has a team of people making them look that good before everything they do. Even when they look like they don’t have makeup on, they do. It’s all a lie, except my hair, I didn’t use extensions. They offered them to me and I said no, more because I always feel bad about my hair. I made a point just for myself to show on TV, an example of a woman that just has her own hair and my hair is not bad.”

Stream FBOY Island on HBO Max

source: nypost.com