TCB Endless Day (11/12) - EP #767: Tig Notaro's Links: Follow Tig on Instagram Tig's Tour Dates Listen to the "Handsome" podcast It's Mental Health Awareness month. If you or anyone you know needs help or is in crisis you can text HOME or HOLA to 741741 to reach a live volunteer Crisis Counselor. 24 hours a day. Don’t go through it alone! Watch EP #768 on YouTube! Text us or leave us a voicemail: +1 (212) 433-3TCB FOLLOW US: Instagram: @thecommercialbreak Youtube: youtube.com/thecommercialbreak TikTok: @tcbpodcast Website: www.tcbpodcast.com CREDITS: Hosts: Bryan Green & Krissy Hoadley Executive Producer: Bryan Green Producer: Astrid B. Green Voice Over: Rachel McGrath TCBits / TCBits Music: Written, Voiced and Produced by Bryan Green To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Chapter 1: What is the main topic of this episode?
Tig Notaro once did a whole show based on one chance encounter with singer Taylor Dane. It helped to further her career and solidify her as a stand-up great. She's publicly shared her struggles and successes both on and off stage. She was once referred to as the heart of stand-up comedy by Brian. Wow, Tig must have a big heart. She agreed to come on TCB. Or she just has empathy for Chrissy.
And so do I. Tig Notaro is your penultimate guest on TCB's Endless Day. I'll be back next hour with Brian and Chrissy to wrap it all up. Let's start Tig's episode now.
The next episode of The Commercial Break starts now.
And on this very long day, Chrissy, Tig Notaro is here with us.
Welcome, Tig.
Welcome, Tig, to the commercial break. Thank you.
Thank you.
Such an honor to have you here, and I do not say that tongue-in-cheek. I want to start off by asking a serious question, and then we'll get to the funny shit later. I...
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Chapter 2: How did Tig Notaro's cancer diagnosis change her career?
sense that your career, and I think you have said this, your career really kind of hits, and you put some gasoline in the tank, when you are at your most raw and vulnerable, and possibly maybe even you would consider the worst moments of your life, the worst time of your life, 2012, Largo, you walk out there and bravely say, I'm Tig Notaro, I have cancer. And the
like overnight and i saw that video and i was touched confused uh awestruck beshucked i don't even know how you say it i was i thought wow they really just went out there and let it all loose did you have any sense in that moment in 2012 standing there on stage at largo that just being this vulnerable would lead to such a connection with so many people
Chapter 3: What challenges did Tig face during her health struggles?
No, I had no idea. I mean, just for some more context, I had been diagnosed with pneumonia and then an intestinal disease that is very deadly called C. diff. I had invasive cancer and my mother tripped, hit her head and died. And my girlfriend and I split up and that was in a four month period of time.
And, um, and I, uh, yeah, I, I went on stage just feeling like I had lost everything in the world. And, um, and, uh, There was no part of me that thought this is going to be anything. I didn't even think the people in the audience wanted to hear about it, much less the life that it took on. Yeah, it went viral. A lot of people were blogging and tweeting about it. I remember that.
Yeah, and then it was released as an album and became the number one selling comedy album of the year.
Grammy nominated, am I right?
Yeah, yeah. But yeah, there was not, I was just, I was stunned. I was very stunned. But I did, when I thought about it, I was like, wow, there are so many things. elements to my story that people can relate to, whether it's health and a loss of a parent or loved one. So many, I mean, so many things.
Sickness.
Yeah.
Feeling down, feeling.
Breakups. Yeah. Romantic breakups. So I was going through it all. And, but yeah, I didn't, I didn't know what to think.
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Chapter 4: How does vulnerability connect with audiences in comedy?
Can you, you know, as if you haven't given us enough. Can you give us an idea of where you were mentally in that moment up there on stage? Was this a moment of desperation where like, I've heard you say before another, let me preface this, I've heard you say before another podcast interviews and read that it's like, fuck it.
If I say this out loud and then I die tomorrow, well, then at least I said it out loud and somebody somewhere may get something out of it. Was this like just a moment of pure desperation in your mind or where were you? Where were you mentally? I'm curious.
I think it's taken me a long time to really understand what was going on with me. I think that... Number one, I love stand-up. I had seen how quickly life can slip away with my own health and my mother dying. And because I was so sick, I just thought, I don't know if I'll be able to perform again. I don't know if I'm going to be alive. I didn't know what was coming. So I wanted to perform again.
And when I did perform, I thought, well, I can't do... my regular observational comedy. That's not where my head is. And it kind of cracked me open in a new way, sharing so personally. I had never, ever done that before. And yeah, I think I just felt like I had... almost lost everything in life. So why not just, you know, go for it. Yeah.
Just see what happens because it already looked pretty bleak. So it's like, if I have a bad show, I mean, I have worse things going on.
That was a form of therapy too.
Yeah. Yeah. I think there was a part of me that was kind of reaching out for help and support, um, because, um, even though I have incredible friends and family that were surrounding me, it was still, I needed, I needed help. I needed support. And, and it's, I think all the time about people that don't have the support that I had.
It's, it's really, after I went on tour or I went on tour after I was in remission and, I stood and talked to everybody that wanted to talk after the show. Cause I was like, man, you guys listened to what I went through and, and people lined up sharing their stories and their appreciation.
And, um, I'd never really done that before either after a show, after a tour or after, you know, um, any performances like really sat there and connected with people for hours.
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Chapter 5: Why is therapy important for comedians?
It's not as fucking bad as I'm making it out to be in my own head because this person or just the simple connection that I feel bad, they feel bad. We're kind of in this together. Did you... Did you seek? I'm sure you did. I mean, I can I can almost answer this. I'm sure you did. Did you seek therapy during this period of time?
Yes.
And I'm I imagine that was helpful because the cancer alone, it's like you're facing the the empty chamber of a gun. You're staring it down at all times. You just don't know what's coming next. And that's got to be really scary.
For sure. And, you know, that's what was crazy about that time period was cancer is such a obviously well-known disease, but C. diff isn't as known. And it actually ended up killing my stepfather 10 years later. And I was really suffering with that disease. And I remember before I was diagnosed, I remember telling people,
god if only i had cancer people would understand right that i'm struggling and then i meanwhile i had no idea i had invasive cancer um and that i found that out like you know a month later can you explain to the audience for those who don't know Yeah, C. diff is a bacteria that's in your gut, and it's totally supposed to be there and works with all the other bacteria in your gut. But if you...
Well, I got it from taking antibiotics because I had pneumonia. And the antibiotics, I had an adverse response and it cleared out all of the bacteria in my gut, but it leaves C. diff alone to thrive. And it just like eats your insides and you just, you can't, you can't eat. You can't, it's so debilitating. And, um, And it's a superbug.
You know when you see on, what is it, the hand sanitizer that it kills 99.9% of germs?
The .9 is C. diff?
Is C. diff. It's so hard to kill. It's so hard to manage.
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Chapter 6: What was the impact of Tig's viral performance?
How long did you struggle with this for? Like, is this a long illness that takes a long... I imagine, because it's in your gut and you can't get rid of it.
Well, there's different levels of severity. I mean, I was hospitalized. I think it was... I don't even remember how long I was hospitalized. It was maybe a week or something. Some people have it and they're just quarantined at their house. But I was... They thought they were going to have to remove a chunk of my intestines. And... But...
After I finally turned things around, I still had a lot of pain and symptoms and struggled a lot with eating. And that was, I had sharp stabbing pains. I would just be, my wife Stephanie, when we first were dating, she thought I was doing a bit because I would be talking to her and I'd be like... Oh, God. Yeah. And she'd be like, what was that? Yeah. And I'd be like, oh, sorry.
I mean, it was truly like I was being stabbed in the gut periodically.
Random orgasm.
I'm sorry. It happens to me all the time. But yeah, I would say it took about a year for the severity of it to go away. Yeah.
That is intense. And then diagnosed with breast cancer. Your mom dies. The breast cancer, which is a diagnosis that so many women each year will receive, you know.
My sister.
Yeah, Chrissy.
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Chapter 7: How does Tig blend humor with storytelling?
She was having sharp pains actually in her stomach and they went to the doctor, did some tests, did some scans and found out that it had metastasized somehow from the breast and now she had liver cancer and moved to her spine and we lost her four weeks later. It happened super quick and thank you. And just to talk about therapy, I had to go through a lot of therapy after that. It was so shocking.
She was 43 and a best friend with two small boys. I am so sorry.
The speed at which the cancer took Kelly, if I can speak from where I was sitting as Chrissy's best friend for decades, was...
intense it was it was hard to believe you couldn't wrap your head around it no no no everything will be okay it'll be fine she'll you know people don't die in a week that doesn't happen but that's what happened yeah we got her out to md anderson even thinking that you know that somebody can do something and when they called they said uh there's nothing we can do i mean her husband called and said there's nothing that they can do you've got to get out here now oh my gosh ah
And to watch her, too, go through the double mastectomy. I was right there with her, saw the whole thing, helped her recover from it. And for them to think that it was gone and that, you know. That is a nightmare. Yeah. Yeah. But therapy has done a lot. Professional therapy really has been a lifesaver for me because it was like I couldn't put that on my friends and the family that I had last.
My mom also passed suddenly. Yeah. In 2020. Yeah. So it was just all very shocking. And I know that therapy has really helped me and the podcast, which, you know, we had just started in 2020 and being able to having to get up and go do that and come here to the studio and record and and laugh. Really? Yeah. Stupid things helped.
And I know that that had to have helped you, too, to be able to get up on stage and have that purpose.
Oh, yeah.
That connection with those people. So, thank you for that.
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Chapter 8: Who are the comedians that inspire Tig Notaro?
I know Ira doesn't want you to say.
They actually just re-aired that.
Oh, they did?
Yeah, this last weekend.
Oh, on PBS?
On This American Life.
On PR, I'm sorry.
They just, yeah, that just re-aired. That's a great story.
Well, you can tell me off air, or I may never know. I don't know.
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