Hannah Berner Says She & Paige DeSorbo Have Never Been Closer

Fresh off two sold-out Radio City Music Hall shows for her live podcast, Club Giggly, with Paige DeSorbo, Hannah Berner still sometimes forgets that people tune in to Giggly Squad.

“It's just me and her in a hotel room with a microphone sometimes. It's kind of lonely,” Berner, 33, says. “So to go out as a New Yorker at Radio City was like, a win for women, which I think we really need right now. It felt like the girls are here. We're out to play. We're out to be seen, be heard, and take up space.”

As for the boyfriends and husbands who attend the show with their Giggler partners? “The boys are not allowed to form alliances,” Berner jokes. However, she admits that straight guys do learn a thing or two from their shows, which feature segments like “Is He Trash?,” where they bring a Giggler’s boyfriend on stage, and “What Your Nail Color Says About You.”

“I'll get messages from guys being like, ‘I didn't know this, and my girlfriend always said this, but I thought it was just her.’ And I'm like, ‘No, she's not crazy. She's not crazy,” Berner says.

Giggly Squad began in 2020 when the duo started going live on Instagram after episodes of Summer House, which they joined in 2019. “We never tried to sell anything out,” she says. “We never wanted to make money with this. We just wanted to, honestly, show some of the things that were on the cutting room floor of reality TV, like what friends are actually like and what their banter actually is, and making each other laugh while rooting each other on.”

You can tell we're best friends because we know when to shut up. We know when to just sit there and let each other rest and not talk sometimes.

While Berner is no longer on Summer House, their podcast — and live shows — still feel like the behind-the-scenes of a much-needed hangout with the girls. “We've been through so many crazy times as friends,” says Berner. “Tour just seemed like a celebration. We've never been closer. It's actually cute.”

Now, the besties are focused on the last leg of their Club Giggly tour and have a book, How to Giggle: A Guide to Taking Life Less Seriously, coming out in April. If that wasn’t enough to fill her calendar, Berner, whose stand-up special We Ride at Dawn premiered on Netflix last July, is also on a comedy tour. “The hardest part about being a standup is after you do an hour and it's on Netflix and your dreams come true, you then start from scratch,” she says. “I'm actually very jealous of singers where once you get a hit, you can play it forever. Now everyone's like, ‘OK, what's the next joke?’”

For her new material, the Brooklyn native says she had to dig deep for inspo. “I'm getting a little more personal,” she says. “I'm talking a little more about family and tennis and some relationships I've been in, where I feel like the first special was very, ‘What makes me laugh so hard?’”

She has star quality — when she walks into a room, she has an aura about her, so I try to steal it.

Due to her busy schedule, the comedian keeps her self-care routine flexible. “I've always been someone who's — I don't want to say ‘balance’ because it's corny — but I don't like to give myself too many rules, especially with eating and working out. I like to be kind of intuitive. And when I want a quesadilla, I'm going to have a quesadilla.”

That same energy Gigglers love from her and DeSorbo is exactly why Giggly Squad teamed up with LACTAID for their Dairy Baddies campaign — showing dairy lovers they don’t have to give it up, even if their bodies have trouble handling it. “It was such a natural partnership for us,” Berner tells me at the Dairy Lovers Lounge pop-up event in New York City on Feb. 11. “I’d be talking about this anyway — somehow talking to you about chicken Parmesan.” [Editor’s note: Chicken Parmesan was mentioned four times during our 10-minute interview.]

Below, Berner talks about her friendship with DeSorbo and her meet-cute with LACTAID — and answers a controversial MFK.

Elite Daily: This is a big partnership for you as someone who loves dairy but is sensitive to it! Tell me about your first experience with LACTAID.

HB: My friend Halie — not Hailey Bieber — my other friend, would literally bring LACTAID pills out to dinner. She’d hand them to everyone, and I’m like, "This is me going out. This is me partying — eating this chicken Parmesan and not worrying about a thing. I have no problems in the world.”

Elite Daily: I know you identify as Gen Z. What's the most Gen Z-coded thing about you?

HB: My sense of humor. Millennials were raised with Disney princesses and more traditional gender roles, but I find myself leaning more Gen Z. I think that's why I connect with them — I want to break a lot of the molds, which I think a lot of millennials are doing. Millennials and Gen Zs are more similar than different, but I just love a cool Gen Z girl. I really like her fashion. And I'm leaning into that.

ED: Who’s your inspo right now?

HB: I’m trying to be Billie Eilish-coded.

ED: What’s the green room like before a Club Giggly show?

HB: I always joke that the hardest part is getting to the stage. When we're on the stage, it's fun, it's easy. But it's the flights and the hotels and picking the outfits and the glam — it's just chaos. In the green room, honestly, we have Grace [who works for Giggly Squad], our ride-or-die glue. She always keeps us sane. And then if Paige is nervous, I'm playing spy music for her. I'm trying to make her laugh. We're creating content, we're doing TikTok. Also, you can tell we're best friends because we know when to shut up. We know when to just sit there and let each other rest and not talk sometimes.

ED: That’s so important.

HB: Paige and I sometimes sit next to each other for 30 minutes in the green room, at peace, and have each other's backs until it’s like, “Are you ready?” It just feels like she's my teammate. We're allowed to be our full selves in front of each other. Thank God. I don't think we would have made it this far otherwise.

ED: What's the best advice Paige has given you?

HB: Honestly, Paige isn’t a big talker. She's not yapping just to yap, where I definitely do. Instead, she sets an example. I see how she carries herself and exudes confidence, even at times when she's not feeling it. She has star quality — when she walks into a room, she has an aura about her, so I try to steal it. I try to take that energy. But I do think there are sides of her that have helped me, and parts of me that have helped her. You know how you start blending a little bit?

Creme brûlée is Paige-coded. Hannah-coded is a big Italian sub that's sloppy.

ED: Totally. It sounds like you two have really influenced each other.

HB: I've become more Paige-coded. She's become more Hannah-coded. I'm a comedian who loves fashion, and she's a fashionista who loves comedy.

ED: Which dairy dish do you think is Paige-coded and what do you think is Hannah-coded?

HB: Creme brûlée is Paige-coded. Hannah-coded is a big Italian sub that's sloppy. A cheeseburger with fries and pickles. Anything gooey is Hannah-coded, whereas Paige is coiffed. In a cheese board, she's the beautiful Brie and I'm the sliced-up cheddar that's a little too loudly bright.

ED: Honestly, both are so necessary on the cheese board! Let’s play Marry, F, Kill with some Giggly Squad faves: Lasagna, chicken Parm, and pizza — go!

HB: Oh my God. OK. Marry chicken Parm. F*ck pizza. Kill lasagna.

ED: Wait — lasagna?!

Hannah: I know, poor lasagna.

ED: That’s going to be a headline, Hannah!

Hannah: Wait, no, I'm going to be canceled.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.