Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: What challenges did Tig Notaro face before her big break?
Kings Network. I'm very excited to do this. It seems to me like you're in full blossom. So I'm going to introduce you to the audience and tell you TigNation.com is where you get tickets, tour dates. Saw her in Fort Lauderdale. It was a lovely show. She's back on stand-up comedy. It's nice to see you there again. Actor, comedian, best-selling author, producer, director.
Which of those do you like best? Like the sound of best, not doing.
Podcasting.
Oh, wow. Handsome. OK, so it's the intimacy of podcasting or you're just trying to you're just trying to throw me off balance at the top.
Yeah. Well, I'm not interested in directing anymore. I really enjoy producing. Stand up is like breathing. And I really do enjoy podcasting.
But why are you not going to do directing anymore? Because all the problems come to you?
Yeah. I mean, I've directed a bunch of comedy specials, which I've enjoyed, whether it was my own or other comedians. But my wife and I, we co-directed a movie called Am I OK? Dakota Johnson and Sonoya Mizuno starred in it. And And as soon as we got started working on this together, it was so clear my wife is a director and I'm not.
Because anybody, yeah, if you're directing a movie, everybody is coming to you to ask the big and the small questions. So it's not just like, where do you want the camera to be?
uh set up it's also like hey tig do you want a silver pen or a purple pen uh on the desk and i would be just like i wish i cared whereas stephanie would be like oh my gosh it has to be silver because the character and then there's a whole story behind it so so you didn't like being in charge i'm not
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Chapter 2: How did Tig's upbringing influence her creative journey?
Like the gleam in your eye, you said the podcast, and I imagine it's because it allows you to exercise some of the same things that stand-up allows you to exercise. It's a freer form of working on your craft and how to cut things up and be funny, but stand-up was the one that got the gleam in your eye.
Yeah, I mean, and also I've directed other people's stand-up specials, but a lot of directing is... Camera placement for stand-up specials. Camera placement and then largely when you're in the editing bay. And that's fun to me is finding the right camera angles and where to cut off and move on from each moment.
Where does your creativity come from? I don't know.
I feel like I have to be submerged in real life and in touch with So many different experiences. Otherwise, I don't know. I mean, you see a lot of people. I don't know if this is exactly what you're asking, but I think you see a lot of people that get a certain amount of success and then they're not having a terribly normal life.
I mean, it's hard to have a normal life when you're a massive, massive star. But I just, I feel like real life interactions spark so much.
So you were talking about the now. I was asking you more for the roots of it. Like it would make sense that you would answer it now. You really, when I introduce you as blossoming right now, you must feel it creatively, no? Like in terms of the amount of different projects that you're spreading that creativity. Yeah.
Yeah. I mean, I feel like I've gone through different points in my career where I felt like a lot was going on or I had a lot of ideas that excited me in other times where it's like, okay, I need to kind of pull back and see what I'm really feeling because you can get into these modes of like, this is what I do. And then I write new material and then I go on tour and it's like,
There was a beat after my last special that Stephanie directed and was nominated for an Emmy where I felt like I think I need to take a beat away from touring. And so I took like two and a half years off. And I wanted to return with a genuine, authentic excitement about being back.
Yeah.
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Chapter 3: What motivated Tig to stop directing and focus on producing?
we were different in that she was a little, way more energy than I had. But I think I was kind of a reaction to her.
She would be embarrassed by your deadpan? She's more theatrical?
She was more theatrical. And I was a little like, oh boy. But her sensibility has stuck with me. And But, yeah, I just I think it all kind of came from there. And it's funny, you know, I'm from Mississippi and people are always like, what is going on in the south? What's going on in Mississippi? Everybody's got some crazy story to tell. Where does that come from? I'm like, I honestly don't know.
I encourage you just to head down there and I promise you will have a story when you return.
Well, what was it like? So you're nine years old. What's the house? What's happening in the house? You were saying she's painting donkeys on the back of the house.
Well, we lived in Mississippi and then Texas and then a couple of years in New Jersey. But what was it like in the house?
Yeah. What was it like growing up as you when you're nine?
Oh, my gosh. This would turn into a therapy session. My mother was also a bit of a partier. And so it was... It was kind of a fend for yourself in ways. My mother's really wild, so it gives me no real gauge of what is a normal life or what a normal mother might do. I remember her saying, Sweetie, do you wish I had cookies made for you when you got home? And I was like, eh, I don't care.
But I mean, there was some structure, like we'd have a bedtime and I don't know.
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Chapter 4: How did Tig navigate her grief through comedy?
Well, they're mirrors, right? The people we love end up being mirrors for because it's a safe place for you to put that. You don't want everybody to see that. That's your most treasured dangerous stuff, right?
Yeah, for sure.
And so that's it. Your relationship is lovely. And when I say you've got a lot of go to hell in you, it's in your work, right? You're not telling anybody to go to hell, but you're being yourself no matter the cost.
Yeah. Yeah. It's that, I guess that's what I meant is like, You know, the example of after having had cancer, I did an HBO special where half of it I did with my shirt off and it was just my double mastectomy scars. And I was so excited to reveal that once I came to terms with what my body looked like. And realized, why would I be ashamed of my body when the scars were just evidence?
That was just evidence that my body healed. And so I was so excited to go out on stage, talk about ridiculous things, and not acknowledge that I took my shirt off. And that is kind of a go to hell experience.
Well, you moved my wife with that, as I imagine you've moved many people with that. Can you take me through the decision-making process, all of that? Because it's not like it's something – it was brave, but it's not like something you've seen a lot of people do before.
No, I hadn't seen anything. It came from a very natural place. And I didn't know if I was actually going to do it, but when I – When my surgery was lined up to have a double mastectomy, I became aware of my body in a way that I hadn't been before. And I started to realize like, oh, I like my body. I don't necessarily want it to change.
And so I was really upset that I was going to have this surgery and have these scars. And then when I came out of surgery and I was going home, I was with the actress and my dear friend Lake Bell. And I told her, I said, oh, my gosh, I keep having these visions and thoughts of taking my shirt off on stage. And it makes me giddy. And she was like, oh, Tiggy, you got to do it.
She was like, that is the best idea. And then as time went on and I kept thinking about it, I thought, well, I already had my surgery months ago because it took me a while to kind of get back into life after I was sick. And and and then once I was on stage, which was months after my surgery, I And even though I thought the window had closed, I realized that it's always there.
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Chapter 5: What led to Tig's decision to perform with her shirt off after surgery?
I did that halfway through. So for the first half hour, I'm just dressed like a normal comedian and I guess a gay comedian. But and then I take my shirt off. And I think the exciting part was when it merges with my shirt is off, the crowd's going nuts. And then I go into my airline material and I was like, oh, this feels so good. It felt so good because you could feel the audience. They got it.
Like because to take my shirt off and hang it on the thing and then be like I was on this flight and, you know, and then just it was such a rush.
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Do you have anything else that compares to exactly that? Now, obviously, laughter is laughter, and killing is killing, but do you have anything in the realm of that kind of exhilaration that you've had inside of a performance before?
And before my surgery, I had done a show at Largo where I announced that I had cancer on stage. And it wasn't the same kind of exhilaration, but it was like a... Oh, my gosh. This is working. This is happening because I knew I wanted to talk about all of the, you know, I had pneumonia and cancer and this intestinal disease called C. diff that's very deadly.
And my mother tripped and hit her head and died. And I went through a breakup. And that was all in a four-month period of time. And I just thought, I really don't know how I can go on stage and talk about this. going to the grocery store without acknowledging the hell I was going through. And I had never done anything like that.
And I just, I pictured myself sitting down on the stool and I just didn't know how to get into it. But when I was showering before the show, I had this like thought that I could go on stage saying, hello, good evening, how's everyone doing? I have cancer, and delivering it in the way that you do when you say, hey, how's it going? Are there any birthdays tonight? Anyone new to town?
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Chapter 6: How did Tig's documentary project reflect her personal experiences?
I did a show and then I went home and went to sleep. Like what went viral? There's no audio of it. And it was just the idea of it that went viral. And so, yes, I don't remember what your question was.
You took us there, the vulnerability of sharing it with the audience, right? And that the album ends up doing well because you're connecting in a very human way. Yes, it's funny, but you're also doing something that, you know, I think it's fair to say is pioneering. There aren't a lot of people who get to change the form of comedy, right?
And there aren't a whole lot of people going out there and giving their cancer diagnosis as a way to be funny and connecting with an audience differently. Everyone is affected in some way by cancer, right? And so you're connecting there with just your public frailty.
Well, the cancer, there's illness. There's also the loss of my mother. There's the loss of a love relationship. All sorts of things were going on. And I mean, people like Richard Pryor certainly had those kind of confessional sets that they did. And I think that people are doing it more now. Mine was not... I wasn't like...
It ended up being an album that got released, but it wasn't intended to be at all. I didn't go on stage intending to release it as an album.
Was all of that in any way medicine? Because you use the phrase, I think, come back to life, that you were probably walking around haunted because of the assortment of things that you were grieving.
It made me feel empowered when I felt nothing else could possibly be yanked out from underneath me. I didn't have any I thought I was cursed, and I don't believe in that kind of thing. I was very scared and vulnerable. I didn't have a girlfriend. I didn't have a mother to call. I didn't have my health. I didn't know if I was going to be able to make money. I didn't know if I was dying.
I certainly had amazing experiences. friends around me my brother my aunt and cousin people were very supportive and strangers i mean but it was it was definitely empowering at a rock bottom moment have you listened to it since or recently No. Sometimes when I do interviews, they'll lead in to a segment of a show with an audio clip and I have to take my headphones off.
People think, oh, I'm sorry, I'm sure that's hard for you to hear because it brings back bad memories, but it's not even that. It's that because I didn't intend for the world to hear it, it's so... Not worked out material.
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Chapter 7: What insights does Tig share about love and relationships?
It's funny for a number of reasons, but also it distinguishes sort of in front of everybody the pride that you have in the craftsmanship. It sort of explains how it is that you are so good as a comic because –
You're crawling around in your skin at the idea of it being imperfect like it's not like and and and what it what it was was you know imperfectly perfect because you were being you know you were trying to be yourself trying to work through the literally trying to work through the pain.
Well, yeah, and so many comedians, myself included, even after you work out your new material, you tour it around, and then you record your album or your special, that comes out for public consumption, and then you still have notes. I mean, I know I do, where I'm watching it going, oh. I should, you're always tweaking and fine tuning and rewriting and moving things around.
And so for me to just go on stage and do that show and then that be pressed into an album, it was, I had to just make a decision. Okay, for the greater good, I'll put it out. But I thought it was not going to be well received. In my mind, I thought, I feel like,
I know and nobody else can see that I need to go to a deserted island and be there for weeks until this blows over after all the bad reviews. But again, I think that's what excites people is that it was so raw. And it was so in the moment.
And you're just imagining other people who care like you as comedians listening to it and being like, oh, but that's not sculpted correctly.
Or even just a person listening, whether it's a comedian saying, what's the big deal? Which plenty might have. And plenty of people that just heard it might have been like, what's the big deal? I don't argue with them about that. I'm like happy if it's helpful to somebody. And then also, but that's not just that album. It's anything I do. It's like, if I'm not for you, I get it.
And you can go to hell.
To hell with you. Right. I wanted to go back there because during your formative years in your youth, you're not doing well in school, right? School's not for you. Classic education's not for you because you're the daughter of a wild child and you like music and the arts are calling you then or –
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Chapter 8: How has Tig's perspective on life changed after her struggles?
It just seemed like so far off as far as a dream. You know, it seemed like becoming an astronaut, going to the moon or becoming president of the United States.
Yet you figured out how to get there somehow. So how did you take the first step?
Well, it was accidental. I have a group of childhood friends that had more focus in life and education and went to college, grad school. And I just followed them where they went and worked odd jobs.
How old are you at this point?
When I started stand-up.
Just this period when you're meeting the friends, right? Because you leave school in the ninth grade, right?
Yeah.
Yeah, but I had failed eighth grade twice and then they moved me up to ninth grade so I wouldn't hurl myself off a building, you know, go to eighth grade three times. No, I did it twice, failed it both times. They moved me up to ninth. I failed that. And then I dropped out. So I was essentially almost or exactly the age of when you graduate.
So I left school and just went with my friends whenever they were in college. But I met them in elementary, junior high school age. And So one of my friends went to college and grad school for film and TV, and she wanted to move to Los Angeles.
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