June 26, 2024 • 35 mins
You may know Ilana from her award-winning TV series, Broad City, and her self-admittedly “wild” and “free” character, Ilana Wexler. However, Ilana has soared far beyond her character on the Broad City, writing and starring in her own movies, including Babes (in theaters now!!), releasing her own stand-up comedy special, and diving into political activism through the Generator Collective. On this episode of She Pivots, the comedian, activist, producer, and actress talks about how Broad City went from a web series to a critically acclaimed series on Comedy Central; the differences between her character on Broad City and herself; why she decided to launch Generator Collective and what they’re doing this year before the upcoming election; and how creating Babes was an immensely personal process.
She Pivots was created by host Emily Tisch Sussman to highlight women, their stories, and how their pivot became their success. To learn more about Ilana, follow us on Instagram @ShePivotsThePodcast or visit shepivotsthepodcast.com.
Support the show: https://www.shepivotsthepodcast.com/
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome back to she Pivots. I'm Alana Glazer.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Welcome to she Pivots, the podcast where we talk with
women who dared to pivot out of one career and
into something new and explore how their personal lives impacted
these decisions. I'm your host, Emily Tish Sussman. Hey, she
Pivots listeners Today, I'm absolutely thrilled to have the spectacular
(00:36):
and brilliant Alana Glazer on the show. You know her,
you love her from Broad City, and you're sure to
fall in love with her all over again with the
release of her new movie, Babes. Alana is an actress,
a writer, a producer, a change maker, and a mom. Today,
we're talking about her latest film, Babes, and how her
(00:56):
personal experience shapes the creation, as well as her incredible
pivot into founding Generator Collective. Alana does what Alana does
best in her new movie Babes, where she uses her
sharp wit and intellect to explore the multifaceted lives of
women and the crazy but beautiful moments of pregnancy and
the ups and the downs that come with navigating life.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
All of it.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
It's in theaters right now, so grab your friends and
get your tickets today. But of course Alana's many ventures
don't stop there. Recognizing the need for real, impactful change,
she co founded Generator Collective after the twenty sixteen election,
and as someone who's worked in politics and is now
working in culture change, I absolutely love what Alana is
(01:39):
doing over a Generator. She makes politics accessible, engaging, exactly
what we need in this political climate. From her advocacy
to comedy to motherhood, Alana has always had the incredible
ability to bridge her personal experiences with her professional work.
I mean, her character was literally named Alana on Broad City.
(02:00):
Excited to share this conversation, let's dive in.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
My name is Alana rose Blazer, and I'm a comedian
and an activist.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
Did you always know that you wanted to be a
comedian and actually also an activist?
Speaker 3 (02:17):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (02:18):
The activist part now that kind of like unfolded and
revealed itself to me. But comedian, yes, in the way
that I think people start to understand their gender and sexuality.
Around seven and eight. My identity was becoming organized around
being a comedian around seven and eight. When when I
was a kid, it was like Rosie O'Donnell, Whoopie Goldberg,
(02:38):
Robin Williams, Billy Crystal Musty TV Thursdays. It was like
that was kind of the vibe those channels were pop in.
At the time. There was so much TV to watch.
I used to watch hours and hours of TV every day.
It was crazy. So my brother also wanted to be
a comedian, and my dad was awesome enough to be
(03:02):
chill about letting us use the Sony camcorder. So my
brother like really put me on when we were kids,
and he, you know, we would make sketches from when
I was four and he was eight years old. We
would make hours and hours and hours of sketch comedy
and it was based on SNL. We loved SNL and
(03:22):
we loved SNL before we were like old enough to
watch and throughout the years and all the generations from
like Adam Sandler and Chris Farley and David Spade to
like Tim Meadows and Will Ferrell and Cherio Terry and
Molly Shannon to Tina and Amy. So we would make
these videos in our basement for so many hours. So
(03:43):
my grandpa, my mom's dad, Grandpa Dave David Wexler, he
would make videos and called it KRIPTV was his like
Joke Network, and we inherited it from him and took
on that branding and then we had a rebrand GBS
Glazer Broadcasting System. Yeah, we were obsessed. We were obsessed.
(04:04):
And it's so funny at the time, like Elliott would
edit in real time how you one used to do
with film cameras where you're like you redo over the
tape if you don't like that, take like crazy crazy.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
Well, when you started broad City, it was just a
jump ahead a little bit. Here, wasn't that far off,
Like you were doing it as a web series exactly,
just sort of taking it upon yourself to organize some
ideas and have the gumption to film it and like
spend resources on it, you know what I mean. Like
when Abby Jacobson and I were making Broad City, we
(04:41):
were catering and waiters and nanny ing, and she worked
at a bakery and then we worked together at a
as sales people at a company that later my character's
Alana Weser's job deal Steel Steels, was based on. And
we were just like spending all our money on this
web series and it was like are we crazy?
Speaker 1 (05:01):
You know? But even if like all the actualization that
came to be of broad City. Hadn't happened, it would
have been worth it to do that because we learned
so much about like gathering people to make a project.
You know, it's really hard to sort of fight entropy
in that way and sort of will something to happen.
(05:21):
We did it thirty five times. Actually, we had thirty
five short films by the end of the two years
that we made broad City the web series, And I
think that obsession, that obsessiveness of making thirty five short
films in two years was what proved our command over
the world, Like you can't recast that shit, you know.
And the first webisode we put out it was called
(05:43):
making Change.
Speaker 4 (05:53):
Dollars.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
Oh, I don't have any cashman side wonderful? Kay I?
Speaker 1 (05:57):
Actually I have a ten if you could give me
eight back or we're good. Yeah, that's perfect. Thank you
so much. Yes, have a good day. Okay. And this
is for the bagel.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
Thank you a lot.
Speaker 5 (06:12):
What the you doing?
Speaker 1 (06:13):
You make casture the holes for I just said thank
you for the bagel. And right after that, Paul w
Down's and Luccia on Yellow, the two of the three
creators of Hacks, the third being Jenstatski wrote us and
they were like, this is something, this is good, and
they told us. I'm now remembering they told us about
Ali Shakat and Elliott Page at the time had this
(06:34):
project at HBO, and Luccia was like, you should try
to like send this over to that team so they
can see and if it goes, you could be writers
on it. That was like what we That was what
we were hoping for, to get a writing job as
a duo, you know, like really couldn't have I don't
like maybe maybe yes, could have dreamed. But like it's
(06:55):
years later, it's like fifteen years later, and I still
kind of am processing that the miracle happened and what
we started the web series. I was twenty two. We
ended the TV shows thirty two, and that was five
years ago, so like fifteen years later, I'm like, damn, damn.
You know, it's like it's still kind of shocking. But
we learned everything. We learned how to line, produce, show
run right, direct, and act. And in that process of
(07:19):
finding it, Amy Poehler had found you guys.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
I mean, given the fact that you had started imitating
these incredible years of SNL right with Amy, I mean
could you even believe it? Like, what was the first
interaction in did you fall over? Oh my gosh, I
have like chills thinking about it's so crazy.
Speaker 1 (07:38):
Oh my gosh. And she just texted us actually this
like oral history of Broad City. It's like such the
characters are almost like our little babies, you know, all
of us at this point where we're like, oh, you know,
like the characters and also young Abby and me not
even knowing what was ahead. You know, it's so so wild.
Amy was one of four people who started the Upright
(08:01):
Citizens Brigade Theater. She and the UCB Improve and Sketch
Group came from Chicago, planted themselves in New York and
built this theater which became This is when like comedy
used to be like real binary. You were either like
Jim Carrier Robin Williams, or you were a stand up
you know in clubs, or you were on SNL. And
(08:21):
then like there became this like alt comedy scene and
uh kind of kind of intersecting with like mumblecore, where
like weirdness was allowed to kind of come up. And
that's when like UCB was kind of getting into the
planting its seeds in the New York comedy scene and
making this like sort of third space, this third weirder space.
(08:43):
And my brother was going to NYU and I was
still in high school, and he was like telling me
about this scene emerging, and we like planned to get
into it when I got to the city. So Amy
was one of the founders of UCB, and my brother
and I and Abby at the same time time had
been taking classes there. And I think it was almost
(09:04):
like we prepared for the opportunity to meet her because
we asked her to be in our thirty fifth webisode,
this the finale, and so then we have this like
huge portfolio of work that she could look at, and
we didn't ask her to be a part of it.
We asked her to you know, feature in it. It
was a cold ask, and we were like a generation
a part where our teachers had been her students. Before
(09:27):
she got on SNL, way before Parks, she was teaching improv.
This was like funny, like funny enough, I think years ago,
like in her I don't know whatever press periods, she
was always like I could always fall back on teaching
improv again always, you know, can you imagine taking improv
from Amy Poehler like that is magic and then also
also funny because like, sure, I can idealize her, but
(09:49):
she was probably a human being and complex and tired
at some points or annoyed at some points, Like that
is just so funny to imagine. So our improv teacher,
like the head of UC at the time, had been
her student, and we were like, would you ever consider
forwarding an email to her? You know, like we didn't
even like ask very directly, but he was like, yeah,
(10:10):
she's gonna love this. And then it turned out she
had heard about us already. And then the ass was
so I think finite and specific and you could grasp
it right. It's a one scene featuring in one scene,
and we'll shoot it wherever, wherever the hell you want.
So she chose around the corner from her house. She
has two boys under four years old. At this point,
(10:32):
she and her baby and her youngest her nanny, walked
around the corner from her apartment. We were already set up,
ready to go, and we got her out in an hour.
My parents drove from Long Island and we filmed out
the back of their car. The director and DP of
that episode shooting a camera out the trunk of the
prius and Amy and us were running down Cherry Lane.
(10:55):
I mean, just crazy without me, save yourself.
Speaker 3 (11:02):
You just leave her one set in my bag a lot.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
I mean, I'm telling you, it's like still, I'm just like, damn,
was that a dream? You know, Like I'm so oh
my gosh, so grateful for these memories in my mind
and body. So we had a good time, Like we
had a We got along very well and like lightly
touched on expanding and we were like already planning to
pitch it and writing a pilot to uh to pitch
(11:30):
and go to LA for a couple months and try
to sell it. And I feel like Jonah Hill was
like also looking at the web series and we were
like yeah, Like Jonah Hill is like you know, asked
about it, just like yeah, yeah, and she was like okay,
all right. But then afterwards we like sent her the
(11:50):
episode and we had created these parties around a season
one and a season two, so we had this event
around the season two and people were like dying that
she was on screen when we showed it, and then
we formally asked her if she would want to attach
as executive producer and she did and we were planning
already to go to La and pitch it, but this
time we were bringing Amy with us and it was phenomenal.
(12:12):
We met her after that, after she agreed to be
a part of it, and we had a pitch in
a script, but we really needed her scope and her purview.
We met up for lunch and she had like a
legal pad with notes about what she loved about thirty
four of the webisodes and that I was like floating
out of my body.
Speaker 3 (12:34):
Before they knew it.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
Broad City was picked up and greenlit by Comedy Central,
and it quickly had a cult following.
Speaker 3 (12:41):
Throughout its five season run.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
The show received critical acclaim and has been ranked among
the best television shows of the twenty tens. Night They
are the creators, writers, and stars of Comedy Central's Great
broad City.
Speaker 6 (12:54):
Plea was welcome.
Speaker 3 (12:54):
Ho me tell you're sending a lot of geyser. Come on,
I've not seen the show.
Speaker 4 (13:00):
It is very funny.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
I probably it's called broad City.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
You can watch it Wednesday night, ten thirty on Comedy Central.
Speaker 3 (13:06):
That's Abby and Alana everybody.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
But I feel like there's so many pieces in there
that are applicable for people in any industry in any phase,
Like you know, you guys were scrappy and putting it
together and you willed it and you put the work
in and you put it together and there's this dream
icon Amy Poehler, and you found a way not just
to get to her, but also to make it workable
(13:31):
for her.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
Yeah, and like there's this like the scrappiness is something
that I'm still accepting about myself. And I have to say,
like it's kind of entire like a sense of entitlement,
Like shouldn't it be more like streamlined or sleek the process?
Like even this movie Babes Babes was as scrappy as
making broad City, the web series like crazy. And Pamela
(13:55):
Adlon is so scrappy too, And Michelle Buto has been
doing comedy for twenty three years. I mean we just
did Hoda and Jenna the other morning and it was
like a trivia question she used to do, like stand
up in a strip club and her payment was like
hot food, you know, like we have just And Pamela
is the scrappiest, Like the texture of her voice is
(14:16):
her character, you know what I mean, Like she's down
to get down and dirty, and like you know when
we were making Babes. I was like, damn, like I
wish this was. It was an indie movie, it was
a small budget. We made it like hardcore. And Jeff
Kimmer cinematographer, an elegant man, a man of beauty, like
made this movie look like it cost twenty five million dollars,
thirty million dollars. It looks like a nor Efron movie,
(14:37):
or a or a Rob Reiner or a jud movie.
But like it was so scrappy and it was seven
million dollars. It was a scrappy indie movie that especially
in New York City. Your dollar doesn't go afoot in
New York City. And I don't know talking about this
today and like remembering how that was actually the sort
of like I'm thinking of guitar string, like the vibration
(15:00):
on which we were meeting Amy, It's like that's who
I am.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
As I do these interviews, it's always so interesting to
live in both the past and the present with each guest,
to listen to them as they discover their connections between
what they did pre pivot and how it brought them
to this moment. After the advertisements, Alana talks about her present,
her latest project, Babes, which lives in that same guitar
(15:24):
string she spoke about in Doing What She Does Best.
Alana and her co writer Joshua Binowitz ridge the complexities
of friendship, pregnancy, and parenting, all while being hilarious and
deeply honest. It's a movie that showcases the wit and
intelligence we all know and love for Milana more after
the break. Okay, So I want to hear about Babes
(15:50):
as a parent and specifically as a mom of three.
I was so excited when I heard about this film.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
Babes is the story of two best friends who are
in very different places their lives. Don played by Michelle Buteaux,
has two kids and a husband, sort of a standard situation,
and my character Eden is a free spirit and spontaneous
and naive, completely clueless to the responsibilities that it takes
to have a child. And when she gets pregnant by
(16:17):
a one night stand, she decides to keep the baby
and it tests the friendship of Eden and Down played
by me and Michelle Buteau, this movie is I gotta
tell you, gotta be honest.
Speaker 3 (16:27):
It's hilarious.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
It's so funny you're missing jokes in the theater it's
worth seeing in the theater to laugh with your damn neighbor,
and then the cries sneak up on you. People keep
telling me I did not know I was gonna be
crying three times, and I'm loving it. I'm starting to
get addicted to those tears.
Speaker 4 (16:45):
Crying my eyes out. I just got out of the
New Babes movie. It was like a release premiere thing,
and they did like a Q and A in the beginning. Anyway,
Alana Glazer and Michelle Buteau. I love this movie so much.
It really touches on like how friendships change after one
or the other have a baby in the most beautiful
(17:06):
way possible. Bitch. All I can say is, go watch
it now, bitch, go watch it. Really.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
Am I pregnant? Yeah, single mom? She may not keep the.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
Baby in choice right right? Single that's friend gets so
screwed over in adulthood.
Speaker 1 (17:29):
You and me, we're family. I'm scared of the decision
I made, but it just feels like destiny, and this
is Destiny's in file.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
The baby.
Speaker 1 (17:42):
So I am taking more pleasure in this press period
for my new movie Babes that I have in press
periods prior. I'm taking more genuine pleasure, enjoying it more
than I have before.
Speaker 6 (17:57):
West twenty twenty four. I am beyond thrilled to be
here with the team behind Babes. Your movie was wonderful.
I love so much about it, in particular your chemistry together,
your friendship. It just like radiates off the screen and
it filled my heart.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
Oh boy, this movie is so good.
Speaker 5 (18:18):
Thank you.
Speaker 6 (18:18):
And it's so funny, and you're so good in it,
and I'm just I'm thrilled to death for it.
Speaker 1 (18:23):
Thank you. Yeah, it's are you? Are you excited?
Speaker 4 (18:25):
Boy?
Speaker 1 (18:26):
It's coming out? When is it coming out? It's coming
out in select cities May seventeenth, and expands and expands
the twenty fourth.
Speaker 4 (18:35):
Did you yourself? Personally?
Speaker 5 (18:36):
Everybody is DJ Envy, Jess, Hilarious, Charlamage, the guy.
Speaker 3 (18:41):
We are the breakfast club. We got some special guest
in the building who keep a job.
Speaker 1 (18:45):
Both from the new film day. Also, press is like
such an insane part of the job.
Speaker 3 (18:51):
But to do it with Michelle we have been just left.
Speaker 1 (18:54):
Its sloopy.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
I don't I haven't figured out my dosage yet, but
I don't need it.
Speaker 1 (18:59):
Just do press, you know what I mean? So Babes
is interesting.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
I feel like this through line between Broad City with
a number of pieces that you did in between and
then coming now to Babes. Like the reason that I
do this podcast is to kind of show like the
intersection of personal and professional when we have this narrative
that everything professional we do is just for professional factors,
like that's a good job, it's a good movie, like's
(19:25):
I made that decision, And then we also try to
cover up things when we make them for personal reasons,
so like if you leave the workforce to like have
a kid or take care of a sick parent or
move or something, we like come up with these ridiculous
reasons why we did instead of just saying why we
made these choices, Like how have you thought about this
intersection of personal and professional?
Speaker 1 (19:45):
I feel like there's this conversation ten years ago of
like women compartmentalizing, and it like feels so like harsh
and untrue and binary to me of kind of what
you're saying of like separating these pieces and keeping them distant.
It has been hard to sift through and organize and
understand and hold all of it because Abby's name is
(20:09):
Abby and my name is Alana and that was our
character's names. And I chose Wexler and that's my mom's
maiden name. And Abbie chose Abrams for her character's last name,
and that's her grandma's made a name. I think a
big something that's been that feels very different for me
in a personal sense is that broad City was like
this character that I wished I could be. She was
(20:30):
so free and she was so wild, you know. And
I think, especially once Broad City became a thing, even
a web series that people knew, but especially on TV,
like a sort of painful self awareness kicked in where
I was not as free as the character was. And
with Babes it's been it's been so you know, broad City.
(20:52):
I learned absolutely everything I've learned. I learned everything I
know about this business from Broad City. We made fifty episodes,
and ending broad City choicefully was like also kind of
a miracle, you know, creatively, I think as artists it's
a rare opportunity to be able to choose an ending.
(21:12):
And with Babes, I mean, just the pleasure I took
in the process, having gone through all the training in
the boot camp of broad City, it was like it
was so fun I felt like I was returning to
camp actually, and it was really fun. And I think
my character of Eden and Babes like I'm pushing less
and more just like being being her more rather than
(21:35):
like conjuring and adding and jumping and leaping. You know,
it was I think I had a sense of being
enough much more during Babes than in Broad City. And
now my daughter's three, having a real kiddo, not just
like a new born baby, I feel so rooted, and
I feel like in the same way that I continue
(21:57):
to discover things about my kN and she keeps unfolding
and uncovering herself to me.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
I find the same thing with the movie.
Speaker 1 (22:04):
It's meaning. You know, we made the movie, we fucking
did it, But then it's layers of meaning keep uncovering
themselves to me, and it's magical.
Speaker 2 (22:13):
Well, this is a really interesting point about like the
personal and professional that you did get to end it
on your own terms. Was it because there were personal
factors at play like that you were just done? I mean,
as you're talking about them, thinking, oh my god, I cannot.
I mean, I was not as funny or talented as you,
But like if I had put something out that was
a version of my twenty two year old self. I
(22:34):
would have been cringe mortified by it immediately.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
Yes, yes, and like I'm you know, it's like I
actually like haven't watched it since it aired, because it
is like the most intense, nuanced specific photo albums or
home videos. You know, it's like personal to me, and
it's like I'm laugh and I'm crying. It's like so
so emotional, but like it cracks me up. I love it.
I am so proud of the series and of this
(23:00):
as art and as a record of a time. But
then there's also this cringe factor just that time has
passed and that we're human and that I'm like X
number of years further along my personal timeline. You know.
We also felt like we had so thoroughly covered our
twenties and wanted to push these characters into their new chapters,
(23:21):
but not cover those chapters. You know. Creatively, we really
were like this has been so funny and good and
we are so proud of this, and it really felt
naturally like it between us came to an end. You know,
our contract was for seven seasons, and it was a
really uncomfortable and painful conversation A series of conversations that
we had to have to end it, but it felt
(23:43):
like we really again. I was thirty two by the
time the TV show ended twenty two when the web
series started, so a third of my life I had
been in this broad city vortex, which I loved and
I still love, but had had to pull my head
out of the sand to see who else I am
and how we started this conversation, you know, where I'm like,
these patterns they're not me, you know, they're not me.
(24:07):
And my husband and I talk about it with just
each of us, both of us all the time, where
it's like these anxieties, these stories, even these desires and
hopes and dreams. Like I also had tricked myself into
thinking that productivity was an identity, you know, or a
personality trait or something about me. And I've always been
ambitious and generative, but there's such external factors and such
(24:27):
like capitalism embedded in encouraging productivity, you know what I mean,
Like I don't want to be a worker twenty four
to seven. I also just want to be like a
mushy pile that my kid can jump on, you know,
Like it's I'm so I feel so grateful for having
the opportunity to have a healthy kid, because it's just
like those moments where the way that you think life
(24:50):
is organized just isn't.
Speaker 3 (24:52):
Life always has a way of surprising us.
Speaker 2 (24:55):
I never thought i'd leave politics, but then I had
my three kids and everything changed. As for a lot
of the opposite happened to her after the twenty sixteen election,
and she made another of her pivots into political organizing.
When we come back, a lot of talks about founding
Generator Collective and what's ahead with this year's election looming. Okay,
(25:19):
I want to make sure that we're also cover your
pivot into starting Generator.
Speaker 5 (25:24):
So twenty sixteen hit and Donald Duck as I like
to call him, was elected president, and I found myself
questioning things the way what this country is, who.
Speaker 1 (25:36):
I am in it? And I think also as a
white person, I like really had to look at the
system operating as intended and you know, you know, rather
than being like, but this is awful, and it's like
it actually was truly built this way or organized around
this principle. And so I think, like my values that
(25:59):
I I grew up with and also you know, expressed
on broad city started, I started seeing them more clearly
and being able to claim them and claim my role
in advocacy and activism. And you know, we did a
lot of different things. Generator as a collective had conversation
like I, I'll host conversations with you know, I was
(26:19):
lucky to talk to Gloria Steinem and Amanda Winn and
Eric Holder and Jumanni Williams, the public Advocate for New
York and Cynthia Nixon when she was running against Cuomo,
which was an unbelievable Mitzvah dance party is called Jenny Socials,
where we dance for twenty or thirty minutes at a time.
Then we take the little breaks to get cheat sheets
(26:41):
for the voting booth for whatever upcoming election is next.
And then when COVID hit, we actually were on tour.
I was doing a stand up tour in every city
I was going to adding a Jenny Social onto that city.
Because of lockdown, we couldn't do these Generator conversations. We
couldn't do Jenny Socials, So we pivoted to digital messaging
and owned our sweet spot there. We found that we
(27:02):
can actually reach more people with cheat sheet for the
voting booth as digital graphics and cover more ground. You
can actually take this cheat sheet into the voting booth
in Key States. Welcome to microdos democracy parrot by Generator. Okay,
we are exhausted. Every four years we get screamed at
for months about the upcoming presidential election and it's just
(27:25):
it's just gross and a blows. So we're here because
we don't want to trip balls on democracy next year.
We want a microdose, take a little bit consistently over
time to create foundational change. As a white led organization,
we hear a generator collective are in a safer position
to call out white people.
Speaker 4 (27:40):
So here goes.
Speaker 1 (27:41):
In twenty twenty, forty one percent of white millennials voted
for Trump. What have you read a voting plan yet?
Speaker 3 (27:50):
Because it's not nothing. It's like who are you voting for?
Speaker 4 (27:52):
Work? Are you witting early?
Speaker 1 (27:53):
Are you voting asentee? Are you voting in person?
Speaker 4 (27:55):
Like?
Speaker 1 (27:56):
Make about a plan today? So you heard it here first,
going to keep the House and keep the Senate. And
this is the year that the most Gen Z and
millennials are going to turn out for the mentrumps.
Speaker 2 (28:08):
You know what? So I'm asking people like, what is
like the big thing that was so big that it
cataclysmically changed your perspective and then you change your career.
And I anticipated COVID coming up a lot, and it does.
But something that came up that comes up more than
I anticipated was twenty sixteen and the election of Donald Trump.
It actually comes up a lot. And like in in stories,
(28:32):
I didn't think I would hear. I mean, yours is
about founding a political organization, so I thought I might
hear it. I don't know, but you know, you know,
it really does come up a lot, which indicates to
me when I think about when I kind of put
my political strategists hat back on that there's something very
visceral for women about that moment. It's not intellectual, but
it's actually visceral and emotional. And although we get into
(28:54):
like you know, this polling and this horse racing and
the strategy right now talking about the presidential that thing
will take over when we get into the fall. I'm
hoping and that it's not going to be an intellectual moment,
but it's going to be a visceral moment.
Speaker 1 (29:08):
I hope you're right, because I don't want him in
office again. But you know, it's just I think, like
the to once again see in the past seven months,
the system operating is intended, this harsh way in which
the world works, and we've accepted for so long, and
(29:30):
it's just it's tough. And like what you say about
the youth and this headline being a theme, a recurring themes,
it's just the one thing that's different is that we're
communicating at a higher speed and higher volume than we
ever have before in human history. But I'm definitely just
like in comedy, I'm trying to grow with my generation
and keep you know, entertaining them and making them laugh,
(29:53):
but also making a space in comedy, making a space
for them to reflect and feel, and in politics, make
a space for people to have the minimum civic engagement
they need to change the system at a foundational level.
Speaker 2 (30:08):
So what is that going to look like for you
over the next couple of months. You think you're going
to stick with the online content, you know, I don't
really know, Like I know we're sticking with the online content.
I know we're going to be doing.
Speaker 1 (30:18):
Some We did also like a microdos democracy series where
you know, people don't want to be like tripping balls
on democracy and it's like vote vote and forced into
a corner. So I believe we will be doing a
cheat sheet for the voting booth and or a microdos democracy.
But damn, this year, like things have really changed. You know,
(30:40):
things were I think clear until I don't even know
how to say this, but things have changed. I mean
things have changed in the past seven months that have
made I think the task at hand even more nuanced
than before. People were like struggling to get it up
for Biden in twenty twenty even and it's different. The
(31:00):
landscape has changed. And something you know, so funny to hear, like, well,
the youth even engage in politics. Oh my god, now
we've seen eight years later, they're running politics and they're
resisting the two party system within from within from the
White House, like these young people who are working in government.
I think those young people know more than I do.
(31:21):
And the thing that I know that I know is
how to say something funny and quickly. But it's like
the ingredients for the stew are all there, but like
the proportions are changing.
Speaker 2 (31:32):
So what is one thing that at the time you
thought was like a total negative, Like I'm never going
to get myself out of this I'm done, and now
you see it in retrospect. It really launched you to
where you are now.
Speaker 1 (31:45):
I got into NYU kind of by the skin of
my teeth. I got into like, you know, I applied
early decision to try to ensure a spot, and I
got into this, like I didn't get into the normal
college I was applying to. I got into this like
general studies program more for like I think kids who
like went to public school and needed to catch up
on the basics before going to like the aftroviologe and I,
(32:08):
you know, I had all this financial aid and like
had all this like debt for you know, student debt,
and all of those things were part of what motivated
me to get into comedy. I wasn't in like, you know,
a normal program there, and everybody in that school was
working really hard to get to the college they had
(32:31):
originally applied to, and the financial aid. I was like
just obsessed with like working and saving money and being
able to do, you know, to live and you know,
then I learned how to make that money for broad
City and spend it on the web series, and you know,
it was really freed me up to be in the
comedy scene night, every night, doing sketch, stand up and
(32:53):
improv in those early days, starting at nineteen. So you know,
while I felt like felt like I had been like
Jack in a way and sort of like renting a seat,
it was the motivation that really actually catapulted me straight
into the comedy scene, where I staked out a permanent claim.
Speaker 2 (33:11):
You hit the perfect note, you got it all, you
nailed it. Thank you so much, Alana, Thank you so
much for having me. You're just so great to have
a conversation with.
Speaker 1 (33:19):
I appreciate it.
Speaker 3 (33:20):
You're the best.
Speaker 2 (33:23):
Alana still lives in New York with her adorable daughter
and husband. I truly don't know how she does it,
because not only is Babes the hit comedy of the year,
but she's still running Generator Collective as a way to
get us politically active and motivated.
Speaker 3 (33:37):
Be sure to go see Babes in theaters. It is
a must see, so make a whole light of it.
Speaker 2 (33:41):
Get your friends, maybe even sneak in some of your
snacks but you didn't hear that here, Get some popcorn.
Speaker 3 (33:46):
And tissues and enjoy tag us.
Speaker 2 (33:49):
If you go see Babes, and make sure to follow
Alana on Instagram at Alana by the way, are you
as impressed as me that she snagged that Instagram handle
and her political org At Generator Collective for all the
latest happenings talk.
Speaker 3 (34:01):
To you next week.
Speaker 2 (34:03):
Thanks for listening to this episode of she Pivots. If
you made it this far, you're a true pivot So
thanks for being part of this community. I hope you
enjoyed this episode, and if you did leave us a rating,
please be nice. Tell your friends about us. To learn
more about our guests, follow us on Instagram at she
Pivots the Podcast, or sign up for our newsletter where
(34:24):
you can get exclusive behind the scenes content, or on
our website she Pivots the Podcast Talk to You next
Week special thanks to the she Pivots team, Executive producer
Emily eda Velosik, Associate producer and social media connoisseur Hannah Cousins,
Research director Christine Dickinson, Events and logistics coordinator Madeline Sonovak,
(34:47):
and audio editor and mixer Nina Pollock I endorse she
Pivots
Welcome back to she Pivots. I'm Alana Glazer.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Welcome to she Pivots, the podcast where we talk with
women who dared to pivot out of one career and
into something new and explore how their personal lives impacted
these decisions. I'm your host, Emily Tish Sussman. Hey, she
Pivots listeners Today, I'm absolutely thrilled to have the spectacular
(00:36):
and brilliant Alana Glazer on the show. You know her,
you love her from Broad City, and you're sure to
fall in love with her all over again with the
release of her new movie, Babes. Alana is an actress,
a writer, a producer, a change maker, and a mom. Today,
we're talking about her latest film, Babes, and how her
(00:56):
personal experience shapes the creation, as well as her incredible
pivot into founding Generator Collective. Alana does what Alana does
best in her new movie Babes, where she uses her
sharp wit and intellect to explore the multifaceted lives of
women and the crazy but beautiful moments of pregnancy and
the ups and the downs that come with navigating life.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
All of it.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
It's in theaters right now, so grab your friends and
get your tickets today. But of course Alana's many ventures
don't stop there. Recognizing the need for real, impactful change,
she co founded Generator Collective after the twenty sixteen election,
and as someone who's worked in politics and is now
working in culture change, I absolutely love what Alana is
(01:39):
doing over a Generator. She makes politics accessible, engaging, exactly
what we need in this political climate. From her advocacy
to comedy to motherhood, Alana has always had the incredible
ability to bridge her personal experiences with her professional work.
I mean, her character was literally named Alana on Broad City.
(02:00):
Excited to share this conversation, let's dive in.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
My name is Alana rose Blazer, and I'm a comedian
and an activist.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
Did you always know that you wanted to be a
comedian and actually also an activist?
Speaker 3 (02:17):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (02:18):
The activist part now that kind of like unfolded and
revealed itself to me. But comedian, yes, in the way
that I think people start to understand their gender and sexuality.
Around seven and eight. My identity was becoming organized around
being a comedian around seven and eight. When when I
was a kid, it was like Rosie O'Donnell, Whoopie Goldberg,
(02:38):
Robin Williams, Billy Crystal Musty TV Thursdays. It was like
that was kind of the vibe those channels were pop in.
At the time. There was so much TV to watch.
I used to watch hours and hours of TV every day.
It was crazy. So my brother also wanted to be
a comedian, and my dad was awesome enough to be
(03:02):
chill about letting us use the Sony camcorder. So my
brother like really put me on when we were kids,
and he, you know, we would make sketches from when
I was four and he was eight years old. We
would make hours and hours and hours of sketch comedy
and it was based on SNL. We loved SNL and
(03:22):
we loved SNL before we were like old enough to
watch and throughout the years and all the generations from
like Adam Sandler and Chris Farley and David Spade to
like Tim Meadows and Will Ferrell and Cherio Terry and
Molly Shannon to Tina and Amy. So we would make
these videos in our basement for so many hours. So
(03:43):
my grandpa, my mom's dad, Grandpa Dave David Wexler, he
would make videos and called it KRIPTV was his like
Joke Network, and we inherited it from him and took
on that branding and then we had a rebrand GBS
Glazer Broadcasting System. Yeah, we were obsessed. We were obsessed.
(04:04):
And it's so funny at the time, like Elliott would
edit in real time how you one used to do
with film cameras where you're like you redo over the
tape if you don't like that, take like crazy crazy.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
Well, when you started broad City, it was just a
jump ahead a little bit. Here, wasn't that far off,
Like you were doing it as a web series exactly,
just sort of taking it upon yourself to organize some
ideas and have the gumption to film it and like
spend resources on it, you know what I mean. Like
when Abby Jacobson and I were making Broad City, we
(04:41):
were catering and waiters and nanny ing, and she worked
at a bakery and then we worked together at a
as sales people at a company that later my character's
Alana Weser's job deal Steel Steels, was based on. And
we were just like spending all our money on this
web series and it was like are we crazy?
Speaker 1 (05:01):
You know? But even if like all the actualization that
came to be of broad City. Hadn't happened, it would
have been worth it to do that because we learned
so much about like gathering people to make a project.
You know, it's really hard to sort of fight entropy
in that way and sort of will something to happen.
(05:21):
We did it thirty five times. Actually, we had thirty
five short films by the end of the two years
that we made broad City the web series, And I
think that obsession, that obsessiveness of making thirty five short
films in two years was what proved our command over
the world, Like you can't recast that shit, you know.
And the first webisode we put out it was called
(05:43):
making Change.
Speaker 4 (05:53):
Dollars.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
Oh, I don't have any cashman side wonderful? Kay I?
Speaker 1 (05:57):
Actually I have a ten if you could give me
eight back or we're good. Yeah, that's perfect. Thank you
so much. Yes, have a good day. Okay. And this
is for the bagel.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
Thank you a lot.
Speaker 5 (06:12):
What the you doing?
Speaker 1 (06:13):
You make casture the holes for I just said thank
you for the bagel. And right after that, Paul w
Down's and Luccia on Yellow, the two of the three
creators of Hacks, the third being Jenstatski wrote us and
they were like, this is something, this is good, and
they told us. I'm now remembering they told us about
Ali Shakat and Elliott Page at the time had this
(06:34):
project at HBO, and Luccia was like, you should try
to like send this over to that team so they
can see and if it goes, you could be writers
on it. That was like what we That was what
we were hoping for, to get a writing job as
a duo, you know, like really couldn't have I don't
like maybe maybe yes, could have dreamed. But like it's
(06:55):
years later, it's like fifteen years later, and I still
kind of am processing that the miracle happened and what
we started the web series. I was twenty two. We
ended the TV shows thirty two, and that was five
years ago, so like fifteen years later, I'm like, damn, damn.
You know, it's like it's still kind of shocking. But
we learned everything. We learned how to line, produce, show
run right, direct, and act. And in that process of
(07:19):
finding it, Amy Poehler had found you guys.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
I mean, given the fact that you had started imitating
these incredible years of SNL right with Amy, I mean
could you even believe it? Like, what was the first
interaction in did you fall over? Oh my gosh, I
have like chills thinking about it's so crazy.
Speaker 1 (07:38):
Oh my gosh. And she just texted us actually this
like oral history of Broad City. It's like such the
characters are almost like our little babies, you know, all
of us at this point where we're like, oh, you know,
like the characters and also young Abby and me not
even knowing what was ahead. You know, it's so so wild.
Amy was one of four people who started the Upright
(08:01):
Citizens Brigade Theater. She and the UCB Improve and Sketch
Group came from Chicago, planted themselves in New York and
built this theater which became This is when like comedy
used to be like real binary. You were either like
Jim Carrier Robin Williams, or you were a stand up
you know in clubs, or you were on SNL. And
(08:21):
then like there became this like alt comedy scene and
uh kind of kind of intersecting with like mumblecore, where
like weirdness was allowed to kind of come up. And
that's when like UCB was kind of getting into the
planting its seeds in the New York comedy scene and
making this like sort of third space, this third weirder space.
(08:43):
And my brother was going to NYU and I was
still in high school, and he was like telling me
about this scene emerging, and we like planned to get
into it when I got to the city. So Amy
was one of the founders of UCB, and my brother
and I and Abby at the same time time had
been taking classes there. And I think it was almost
(09:04):
like we prepared for the opportunity to meet her because
we asked her to be in our thirty fifth webisode,
this the finale, and so then we have this like
huge portfolio of work that she could look at, and
we didn't ask her to be a part of it.
We asked her to you know, feature in it. It
was a cold ask, and we were like a generation
a part where our teachers had been her students. Before
(09:27):
she got on SNL, way before Parks, she was teaching improv.
This was like funny, like funny enough, I think years ago,
like in her I don't know whatever press periods, she
was always like I could always fall back on teaching
improv again always, you know, can you imagine taking improv
from Amy Poehler like that is magic and then also
also funny because like, sure, I can idealize her, but
(09:49):
she was probably a human being and complex and tired
at some points or annoyed at some points, Like that
is just so funny to imagine. So our improv teacher,
like the head of UC at the time, had been
her student, and we were like, would you ever consider
forwarding an email to her? You know, like we didn't
even like ask very directly, but he was like, yeah,
(10:10):
she's gonna love this. And then it turned out she
had heard about us already. And then the ass was
so I think finite and specific and you could grasp
it right. It's a one scene featuring in one scene,
and we'll shoot it wherever, wherever the hell you want.
So she chose around the corner from her house. She
has two boys under four years old. At this point,
(10:32):
she and her baby and her youngest her nanny, walked
around the corner from her apartment. We were already set up,
ready to go, and we got her out in an hour.
My parents drove from Long Island and we filmed out
the back of their car. The director and DP of
that episode shooting a camera out the trunk of the
prius and Amy and us were running down Cherry Lane.
(10:55):
I mean, just crazy without me, save yourself.
Speaker 3 (11:02):
You just leave her one set in my bag a lot.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
I mean, I'm telling you, it's like still, I'm just like, damn,
was that a dream? You know, Like I'm so oh
my gosh, so grateful for these memories in my mind
and body. So we had a good time, Like we
had a We got along very well and like lightly
touched on expanding and we were like already planning to
pitch it and writing a pilot to uh to pitch
(11:30):
and go to LA for a couple months and try
to sell it. And I feel like Jonah Hill was
like also looking at the web series and we were
like yeah, Like Jonah Hill is like you know, asked
about it, just like yeah, yeah, and she was like okay,
all right. But then afterwards we like sent her the
(11:50):
episode and we had created these parties around a season
one and a season two, so we had this event
around the season two and people were like dying that
she was on screen when we showed it, and then
we formally asked her if she would want to attach
as executive producer and she did and we were planning
already to go to La and pitch it, but this
time we were bringing Amy with us and it was phenomenal.
(12:12):
We met her after that, after she agreed to be
a part of it, and we had a pitch in
a script, but we really needed her scope and her purview.
We met up for lunch and she had like a
legal pad with notes about what she loved about thirty
four of the webisodes and that I was like floating
out of my body.
Speaker 3 (12:34):
Before they knew it.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
Broad City was picked up and greenlit by Comedy Central,
and it quickly had a cult following.
Speaker 3 (12:41):
Throughout its five season run.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
The show received critical acclaim and has been ranked among
the best television shows of the twenty tens. Night They
are the creators, writers, and stars of Comedy Central's Great
broad City.
Speaker 6 (12:54):
Plea was welcome.
Speaker 3 (12:54):
Ho me tell you're sending a lot of geyser. Come on,
I've not seen the show.
Speaker 4 (13:00):
It is very funny.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
I probably it's called broad City.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
You can watch it Wednesday night, ten thirty on Comedy Central.
Speaker 3 (13:06):
That's Abby and Alana everybody.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
But I feel like there's so many pieces in there
that are applicable for people in any industry in any phase,
Like you know, you guys were scrappy and putting it
together and you willed it and you put the work
in and you put it together and there's this dream
icon Amy Poehler, and you found a way not just
to get to her, but also to make it workable
(13:31):
for her.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
Yeah, and like there's this like the scrappiness is something
that I'm still accepting about myself. And I have to say,
like it's kind of entire like a sense of entitlement,
Like shouldn't it be more like streamlined or sleek the process?
Like even this movie Babes Babes was as scrappy as
making broad City, the web series like crazy. And Pamela
(13:55):
Adlon is so scrappy too, And Michelle Buto has been
doing comedy for twenty three years. I mean we just
did Hoda and Jenna the other morning and it was
like a trivia question she used to do, like stand
up in a strip club and her payment was like
hot food, you know, like we have just And Pamela
is the scrappiest, Like the texture of her voice is
(14:16):
her character, you know what I mean, Like she's down
to get down and dirty, and like you know when
we were making Babes. I was like, damn, like I
wish this was. It was an indie movie, it was
a small budget. We made it like hardcore. And Jeff
Kimmer cinematographer, an elegant man, a man of beauty, like
made this movie look like it cost twenty five million dollars,
thirty million dollars. It looks like a nor Efron movie,
(14:37):
or a or a Rob Reiner or a jud movie.
But like it was so scrappy and it was seven
million dollars. It was a scrappy indie movie that especially
in New York City. Your dollar doesn't go afoot in
New York City. And I don't know talking about this
today and like remembering how that was actually the sort
of like I'm thinking of guitar string, like the vibration
(15:00):
on which we were meeting Amy, It's like that's who
I am.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
As I do these interviews, it's always so interesting to
live in both the past and the present with each guest,
to listen to them as they discover their connections between
what they did pre pivot and how it brought them
to this moment. After the advertisements, Alana talks about her present,
her latest project, Babes, which lives in that same guitar
(15:24):
string she spoke about in Doing What She Does Best.
Alana and her co writer Joshua Binowitz ridge the complexities
of friendship, pregnancy, and parenting, all while being hilarious and
deeply honest. It's a movie that showcases the wit and
intelligence we all know and love for Milana more after
the break. Okay, So I want to hear about Babes
(15:50):
as a parent and specifically as a mom of three.
I was so excited when I heard about this film.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
Babes is the story of two best friends who are
in very different places their lives. Don played by Michelle Buteaux,
has two kids and a husband, sort of a standard situation,
and my character Eden is a free spirit and spontaneous
and naive, completely clueless to the responsibilities that it takes
to have a child. And when she gets pregnant by
(16:17):
a one night stand, she decides to keep the baby
and it tests the friendship of Eden and Down played
by me and Michelle Buteau, this movie is I gotta
tell you, gotta be honest.
Speaker 3 (16:27):
It's hilarious.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
It's so funny you're missing jokes in the theater it's
worth seeing in the theater to laugh with your damn neighbor,
and then the cries sneak up on you. People keep
telling me I did not know I was gonna be
crying three times, and I'm loving it. I'm starting to
get addicted to those tears.
Speaker 4 (16:45):
Crying my eyes out. I just got out of the
New Babes movie. It was like a release premiere thing,
and they did like a Q and A in the beginning. Anyway,
Alana Glazer and Michelle Buteau. I love this movie so much.
It really touches on like how friendships change after one
or the other have a baby in the most beautiful
(17:06):
way possible. Bitch. All I can say is, go watch
it now, bitch, go watch it. Really.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
Am I pregnant? Yeah, single mom? She may not keep the.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
Baby in choice right right? Single that's friend gets so
screwed over in adulthood.
Speaker 1 (17:29):
You and me, we're family. I'm scared of the decision
I made, but it just feels like destiny, and this
is Destiny's in file.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
The baby.
Speaker 1 (17:42):
So I am taking more pleasure in this press period
for my new movie Babes that I have in press
periods prior. I'm taking more genuine pleasure, enjoying it more
than I have before.
Speaker 6 (17:57):
West twenty twenty four. I am beyond thrilled to be
here with the team behind Babes. Your movie was wonderful.
I love so much about it, in particular your chemistry together,
your friendship. It just like radiates off the screen and
it filled my heart.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
Oh boy, this movie is so good.
Speaker 5 (18:18):
Thank you.
Speaker 6 (18:18):
And it's so funny, and you're so good in it,
and I'm just I'm thrilled to death for it.
Speaker 1 (18:23):
Thank you. Yeah, it's are you? Are you excited?
Speaker 4 (18:25):
Boy?
Speaker 1 (18:26):
It's coming out? When is it coming out? It's coming
out in select cities May seventeenth, and expands and expands
the twenty fourth.
Speaker 4 (18:35):
Did you yourself? Personally?
Speaker 5 (18:36):
Everybody is DJ Envy, Jess, Hilarious, Charlamage, the guy.
Speaker 3 (18:41):
We are the breakfast club. We got some special guest
in the building who keep a job.
Speaker 1 (18:45):
Both from the new film day. Also, press is like
such an insane part of the job.
Speaker 3 (18:51):
But to do it with Michelle we have been just left.
Speaker 1 (18:54):
Its sloopy.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
I don't I haven't figured out my dosage yet, but
I don't need it.
Speaker 1 (18:59):
Just do press, you know what I mean? So Babes
is interesting.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
I feel like this through line between Broad City with
a number of pieces that you did in between and
then coming now to Babes. Like the reason that I
do this podcast is to kind of show like the
intersection of personal and professional when we have this narrative
that everything professional we do is just for professional factors,
like that's a good job, it's a good movie, like's
(19:25):
I made that decision, And then we also try to
cover up things when we make them for personal reasons,
so like if you leave the workforce to like have
a kid or take care of a sick parent or
move or something, we like come up with these ridiculous
reasons why we did instead of just saying why we
made these choices, Like how have you thought about this
intersection of personal and professional?
Speaker 1 (19:45):
I feel like there's this conversation ten years ago of
like women compartmentalizing, and it like feels so like harsh
and untrue and binary to me of kind of what
you're saying of like separating these pieces and keeping them distant.
It has been hard to sift through and organize and
understand and hold all of it because Abby's name is
(20:09):
Abby and my name is Alana and that was our
character's names. And I chose Wexler and that's my mom's
maiden name. And Abbie chose Abrams for her character's last name,
and that's her grandma's made a name. I think a
big something that's been that feels very different for me
in a personal sense is that broad City was like
this character that I wished I could be. She was
(20:30):
so free and she was so wild, you know. And
I think, especially once Broad City became a thing, even
a web series that people knew, but especially on TV,
like a sort of painful self awareness kicked in where
I was not as free as the character was. And
with Babes it's been it's been so you know, broad City.
(20:52):
I learned absolutely everything I've learned. I learned everything I
know about this business from Broad City. We made fifty episodes,
and ending broad City choicefully was like also kind of
a miracle, you know, creatively, I think as artists it's
a rare opportunity to be able to choose an ending.
(21:12):
And with Babes, I mean, just the pleasure I took
in the process, having gone through all the training in
the boot camp of broad City, it was like it
was so fun I felt like I was returning to
camp actually, and it was really fun. And I think
my character of Eden and Babes like I'm pushing less
and more just like being being her more rather than
(21:35):
like conjuring and adding and jumping and leaping. You know,
it was I think I had a sense of being
enough much more during Babes than in Broad City. And
now my daughter's three, having a real kiddo, not just
like a new born baby, I feel so rooted, and
I feel like in the same way that I continue
(21:57):
to discover things about my kN and she keeps unfolding
and uncovering herself to me.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
I find the same thing with the movie.
Speaker 1 (22:04):
It's meaning. You know, we made the movie, we fucking
did it, But then it's layers of meaning keep uncovering
themselves to me, and it's magical.
Speaker 2 (22:13):
Well, this is a really interesting point about like the
personal and professional that you did get to end it
on your own terms. Was it because there were personal
factors at play like that you were just done? I mean,
as you're talking about them, thinking, oh my god, I cannot.
I mean, I was not as funny or talented as you,
But like if I had put something out that was
a version of my twenty two year old self. I
(22:34):
would have been cringe mortified by it immediately.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
Yes, yes, and like I'm you know, it's like I
actually like haven't watched it since it aired, because it
is like the most intense, nuanced specific photo albums or
home videos. You know, it's like personal to me, and
it's like I'm laugh and I'm crying. It's like so
so emotional, but like it cracks me up. I love it.
I am so proud of the series and of this
(23:00):
as art and as a record of a time. But
then there's also this cringe factor just that time has
passed and that we're human and that I'm like X
number of years further along my personal timeline. You know.
We also felt like we had so thoroughly covered our
twenties and wanted to push these characters into their new chapters,
(23:21):
but not cover those chapters. You know. Creatively, we really
were like this has been so funny and good and
we are so proud of this, and it really felt
naturally like it between us came to an end. You know,
our contract was for seven seasons, and it was a
really uncomfortable and painful conversation A series of conversations that
we had to have to end it, but it felt
(23:43):
like we really again. I was thirty two by the
time the TV show ended twenty two when the web
series started, so a third of my life I had
been in this broad city vortex, which I loved and
I still love, but had had to pull my head
out of the sand to see who else I am
and how we started this conversation, you know, where I'm like,
these patterns they're not me, you know, they're not me.
(24:07):
And my husband and I talk about it with just
each of us, both of us all the time, where
it's like these anxieties, these stories, even these desires and
hopes and dreams. Like I also had tricked myself into
thinking that productivity was an identity, you know, or a
personality trait or something about me. And I've always been
ambitious and generative, but there's such external factors and such
(24:27):
like capitalism embedded in encouraging productivity, you know what I mean,
Like I don't want to be a worker twenty four
to seven. I also just want to be like a
mushy pile that my kid can jump on, you know,
Like it's I'm so I feel so grateful for having
the opportunity to have a healthy kid, because it's just
like those moments where the way that you think life
(24:50):
is organized just isn't.
Speaker 3 (24:52):
Life always has a way of surprising us.
Speaker 2 (24:55):
I never thought i'd leave politics, but then I had
my three kids and everything changed. As for a lot
of the opposite happened to her after the twenty sixteen election,
and she made another of her pivots into political organizing.
When we come back, a lot of talks about founding
Generator Collective and what's ahead with this year's election looming. Okay,
(25:19):
I want to make sure that we're also cover your
pivot into starting Generator.
Speaker 5 (25:24):
So twenty sixteen hit and Donald Duck as I like
to call him, was elected president, and I found myself
questioning things the way what this country is, who.
Speaker 1 (25:36):
I am in it? And I think also as a
white person, I like really had to look at the
system operating as intended and you know, you know, rather
than being like, but this is awful, and it's like
it actually was truly built this way or organized around
this principle. And so I think, like my values that
(25:59):
I I grew up with and also you know, expressed
on broad city started, I started seeing them more clearly
and being able to claim them and claim my role
in advocacy and activism. And you know, we did a
lot of different things. Generator as a collective had conversation
like I, I'll host conversations with you know, I was
(26:19):
lucky to talk to Gloria Steinem and Amanda Winn and
Eric Holder and Jumanni Williams, the public Advocate for New
York and Cynthia Nixon when she was running against Cuomo,
which was an unbelievable Mitzvah dance party is called Jenny Socials,
where we dance for twenty or thirty minutes at a time.
Then we take the little breaks to get cheat sheets
(26:41):
for the voting booth for whatever upcoming election is next.
And then when COVID hit, we actually were on tour.
I was doing a stand up tour in every city
I was going to adding a Jenny Social onto that city.
Because of lockdown, we couldn't do these Generator conversations. We
couldn't do Jenny Socials, So we pivoted to digital messaging
and owned our sweet spot there. We found that we
(27:02):
can actually reach more people with cheat sheet for the
voting booth as digital graphics and cover more ground. You
can actually take this cheat sheet into the voting booth
in Key States. Welcome to microdos democracy parrot by Generator. Okay,
we are exhausted. Every four years we get screamed at
for months about the upcoming presidential election and it's just
(27:25):
it's just gross and a blows. So we're here because
we don't want to trip balls on democracy next year.
We want a microdose, take a little bit consistently over
time to create foundational change. As a white led organization,
we hear a generator collective are in a safer position
to call out white people.
Speaker 4 (27:40):
So here goes.
Speaker 1 (27:41):
In twenty twenty, forty one percent of white millennials voted
for Trump. What have you read a voting plan yet?
Speaker 3 (27:50):
Because it's not nothing. It's like who are you voting for?
Speaker 4 (27:52):
Work? Are you witting early?
Speaker 1 (27:53):
Are you voting asentee? Are you voting in person?
Speaker 4 (27:55):
Like?
Speaker 1 (27:56):
Make about a plan today? So you heard it here first,
going to keep the House and keep the Senate. And
this is the year that the most Gen Z and
millennials are going to turn out for the mentrumps.
Speaker 2 (28:08):
You know what? So I'm asking people like, what is
like the big thing that was so big that it
cataclysmically changed your perspective and then you change your career.
And I anticipated COVID coming up a lot, and it does.
But something that came up that comes up more than
I anticipated was twenty sixteen and the election of Donald Trump.
It actually comes up a lot. And like in in stories,
(28:32):
I didn't think I would hear. I mean, yours is
about founding a political organization, so I thought I might
hear it. I don't know, but you know, you know,
it really does come up a lot, which indicates to
me when I think about when I kind of put
my political strategists hat back on that there's something very
visceral for women about that moment. It's not intellectual, but
it's actually visceral and emotional. And although we get into
(28:54):
like you know, this polling and this horse racing and
the strategy right now talking about the presidential that thing
will take over when we get into the fall. I'm
hoping and that it's not going to be an intellectual moment,
but it's going to be a visceral moment.
Speaker 1 (29:08):
I hope you're right, because I don't want him in
office again. But you know, it's just I think, like
the to once again see in the past seven months,
the system operating is intended, this harsh way in which
the world works, and we've accepted for so long, and
(29:30):
it's just it's tough. And like what you say about
the youth and this headline being a theme, a recurring themes,
it's just the one thing that's different is that we're
communicating at a higher speed and higher volume than we
ever have before in human history. But I'm definitely just
like in comedy, I'm trying to grow with my generation
and keep you know, entertaining them and making them laugh,
(29:53):
but also making a space in comedy, making a space
for them to reflect and feel, and in politics, make
a space for people to have the minimum civic engagement
they need to change the system at a foundational level.
Speaker 2 (30:08):
So what is that going to look like for you
over the next couple of months. You think you're going
to stick with the online content, you know, I don't
really know, Like I know we're sticking with the online content.
I know we're going to be doing.
Speaker 1 (30:18):
Some We did also like a microdos democracy series where
you know, people don't want to be like tripping balls
on democracy and it's like vote vote and forced into
a corner. So I believe we will be doing a
cheat sheet for the voting booth and or a microdos democracy.
But damn, this year, like things have really changed. You know,
(30:40):
things were I think clear until I don't even know
how to say this, but things have changed. I mean
things have changed in the past seven months that have
made I think the task at hand even more nuanced
than before. People were like struggling to get it up
for Biden in twenty twenty even and it's different. The
(31:00):
landscape has changed. And something you know, so funny to hear, like, well,
the youth even engage in politics. Oh my god, now
we've seen eight years later, they're running politics and they're
resisting the two party system within from within from the
White House, like these young people who are working in government.
I think those young people know more than I do.
(31:21):
And the thing that I know that I know is
how to say something funny and quickly. But it's like
the ingredients for the stew are all there, but like
the proportions are changing.
Speaker 2 (31:32):
So what is one thing that at the time you
thought was like a total negative, Like I'm never going
to get myself out of this I'm done, and now
you see it in retrospect. It really launched you to
where you are now.
Speaker 1 (31:45):
I got into NYU kind of by the skin of
my teeth. I got into like, you know, I applied
early decision to try to ensure a spot, and I
got into this, like I didn't get into the normal
college I was applying to. I got into this like
general studies program more for like I think kids who
like went to public school and needed to catch up
on the basics before going to like the aftroviologe and I,
(32:08):
you know, I had all this financial aid and like
had all this like debt for you know, student debt,
and all of those things were part of what motivated
me to get into comedy. I wasn't in like, you know,
a normal program there, and everybody in that school was
working really hard to get to the college they had
(32:31):
originally applied to, and the financial aid. I was like
just obsessed with like working and saving money and being
able to do, you know, to live and you know,
then I learned how to make that money for broad
City and spend it on the web series, and you know,
it was really freed me up to be in the
comedy scene night, every night, doing sketch, stand up and
(32:53):
improv in those early days, starting at nineteen. So you know,
while I felt like felt like I had been like
Jack in a way and sort of like renting a seat,
it was the motivation that really actually catapulted me straight
into the comedy scene, where I staked out a permanent claim.
Speaker 2 (33:11):
You hit the perfect note, you got it all, you
nailed it. Thank you so much, Alana, Thank you so
much for having me. You're just so great to have
a conversation with.
Speaker 1 (33:19):
I appreciate it.
Speaker 3 (33:20):
You're the best.
Speaker 2 (33:23):
Alana still lives in New York with her adorable daughter
and husband. I truly don't know how she does it,
because not only is Babes the hit comedy of the year,
but she's still running Generator Collective as a way to
get us politically active and motivated.
Speaker 3 (33:37):
Be sure to go see Babes in theaters. It is
a must see, so make a whole light of it.
Speaker 2 (33:41):
Get your friends, maybe even sneak in some of your
snacks but you didn't hear that here, Get some popcorn.
Speaker 3 (33:46):
And tissues and enjoy tag us.
Speaker 2 (33:49):
If you go see Babes, and make sure to follow
Alana on Instagram at Alana by the way, are you
as impressed as me that she snagged that Instagram handle
and her political org At Generator Collective for all the
latest happenings talk.
Speaker 3 (34:01):
To you next week.
Speaker 2 (34:03):
Thanks for listening to this episode of she Pivots. If
you made it this far, you're a true pivot So
thanks for being part of this community. I hope you
enjoyed this episode, and if you did leave us a rating,
please be nice. Tell your friends about us. To learn
more about our guests, follow us on Instagram at she
Pivots the Podcast, or sign up for our newsletter where
(34:24):
you can get exclusive behind the scenes content, or on
our website she Pivots the Podcast Talk to You next
Week special thanks to the she Pivots team, Executive producer
Emily eda Velosik, Associate producer and social media connoisseur Hannah Cousins,
Research director Christine Dickinson, Events and logistics coordinator Madeline Sonovak,
(34:47):
and audio editor and mixer Nina Pollock I endorse she
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