When I was a fresh turd in college, I got the change to listen to this new tape Louis C.K. released because I was(and still am) a huge fan of Louis. It was Tig Notaro: Live and I remember thinking "freshturd" was an accurate name for myself because here was a woman who bared it all on stage and here I was complaining about my life! Who would have thought that turd would have gone to interview Ms. Notaro just a couple years later.
I'll never release the audio of our interview only because it will only serve to confirm I was shitting my pants during the interview. You can hear the amateur-ness in my voice and yet, just as the wonder woman that she is, Ms. Notaro was a champ and entertained me. Check it out:
Through all of the projects that you have been a part of what do you feel the most proud of?
I feel very proud of my new show on Amazon, One Mississippi. I'm going to sound like an egomaniac but I'm proud of so many things. I feel proud of my book, I'm Just A Person, proud of my HBO special. I'm proud of a lot of things.
Would you do anything different if you got the chance to revisit your projects?
The only thing that I would do different would be with my book. I would have loved to have written that when I didn't have 10 million projects going on at the same time. That's why it took me four years because I was constantly having to do other things. I feel like I would've added more and with my TV show, I would've tried to maybe not have so many cooks in the kitchen.
Did you ever second-guess yourself when it came to writing a book?
No, It's more so that I just wish I would've filled out the story little more but everything that I put in there I'm happy with in general. I'm really proud of it. I just wish I had more time with it.
Do you feel stretched thin these days?
Yeah. I don't want to sound like I'm complaining but the past four years between health issues, media coverage of my personal & professional life, touring, writing/filming and everything that has happened, it's been hectic. Then, falling in love, getting married, having babies and buying a house. They're all very big things that happened all at once but you can't find a happier person. Now, I want to make sure that I don't have a lot of projects overlapping because I want to spend time with my family, my friends and I hope to write another book.
You must be a lot more strict with the projects that you take on nowadays then.
Oh yeah definitely. I need to for my peace of mind and my health. I'm so busy that I couldn't possibly do something that didn't want to do. That's why the projects that I put out are all things that I'm so proud of because even in the past four years, I've had to be picky.
How do you keep yourself happy then? What's your guilty pleasure?
I love to take a hot bath and I love to watch documentaries. I just went on a 5 mile bike ride with about 12 friends the other day so that was very nice.
Do you bike a lot?
No because my babies are only three months old. When they go to bed, I head out and do stand up at night. Right now it's all about them.
Do you like to just stop by smaller venues or do you prefer the bigger audiences?
Definitely both. It's important that when you do standup, you do small places like coffee shops and also big places like colleges. It helps you find the little nuances in your set that don't work and you can shave off the excess. I just did a set in a little room last night where the audience was there to have dinner and that can always be the worst room to go into because people just want to have dinner. So, that's sometimes a struggle. I like to throw myself a curve ball here and there.
What do you think is the hardest lesson to learn in comedy?
The hardest lesson to learn always is to just have faith in that you will always have something to say or a story to tell. I have faith that I'll be able to continue to tell stories, write and tell stories. You just need to keep going at it. Learning that bombing a show is helpful too.
Have that changed your idea of fame?
Luckily I don't think that I'm too famous. I can still live my life pretty comfortably. Fame has never really ever appealed to me. I think it's easy to see that it's not a great thing to have. I can still do what I do and not be the most famous person in your face all the time. I prefer people to not recognize me. I don't need that.
Has people's image of you and your image of yourself ever conflicted?
Yeah I think that the tricky thing about standup is that you want to be likable onstage even if you're an unlikable character. You want people to like that unlikable character but sometimes people think that because you're seemingly personable and likable onstage, it's the same story off stage. Sometimes you're having the worst day of your life and and people are expecting you to meet them at the level they expect.
Has it become easy for you to accept compliments?
I used to have a hard time with it and then I started pay attention to how it's not really fun to compliment someone and have them deny your compliment. So, I try to just accept it and have it be about them and not about me. Sometimes I get off stage and I feel like I've just done the worst show of my life as far as I'm concerned and somebody is still thrilled by it. So, I'll just say, "Oh, I'm glad you had a good time" and I withhold my feelings about the night.
What drives you nowadays?
Just happiness and comfort. I want to build my family and put out projects that genuinely fulfill me & excite me. I put out a project where I went to peoples living rooms and that came out on Showtime a couple years ago and that was a big passion project of mine. That was a project I was trying to do for years. Everything has been a dream come true
Carnegie Hall Tickets - November 5th:
https://www.carnegiehall.org/Calendar/2016/11/5/0700/PM/Tig-Notaro-Comedian/
The entire first season of ONE MISSISSIPPI is now available on Amazon Prime Video.