Tig Page #2

calling to wish me happy birthday again."

Hi, Tig.

I'm afraid I have some terrible news.

Your mother fell last night and, uh...

it looks like she's not gonna make it.

Please give me a call.

My mother and my stepfather

were watching Jimmy Kimmel,

and she got up and fell.

Hit her head.

My stepfather checked her head,

and she was talking and seemingly okay.

He decided to go to bed,

and she stayed up.

In the morning,

Ric saw that she had blood

coming from her nose and mouth.

She was never... never conscious again.

My brother, Ric and I went to the hospital

to say our goodbyes.

She lived 12 hours off of life support,

and it was really horrendous.

My brother and stepfather

ended up going home,

and I was just there by myself.

They said there was zero brain activity,

and I believed that,

but I made up in my mind

that she knew I was there.

I just...

really...

wanted her to know that I was there.

And that there was no way

I was gonna leave.

After the funeral,

I was too sick to go back to Los Angeles,

and so I just stayed in Texas.

This is the house where she fell.

You know, there's moments

of sadness and realization.

You know, my mother's

not in the house and, um...

My mother's dead.

Ric?

I'm in here, Tig.

Hi.

My mother and I had very

up and down times in our relationship,

but we loved each other so tremendously.

My mother was hilarious,

very silly and ridiculous,

and wild and crazy.

Not concerned at all about

what anybody thought about her.

My mother was very comfortable

when things were uncomfortable.

And my humor is

directly tied to her sensibility.

She was very into pranks.

Friends would come over to eat,

and she'd be like, "Tig,

I'm dying everyone's potatoes blue.

Don't tell your friends."

And I'd be like,

"Okay." You know.

And so we would all pretend

like mashed potatoes are blue.

She had this fierce inner strength.

When I had issues as a kid, like,

"Oh, this is happening,"

she would always be like, you know,

"Tell 'em to go to hell.

If they have a problem,

tell 'em to go to hell."

And it just... It gave me this confidence

to not question myself or doubt myself.

A parent is supposed

to understand a child,

and I'd never really understood Tig.

I had a model of what a person should do,

and Tig was having nothing of that.

My mother understood me in a way

that was different from other people.

When I lost my mother,

I truly lost the person

that understood me the most.

When I was at my mother's house

after she died, I was really devastated.

And I was still so ill.

So it just seemed to be this tunnel

that I would see the light at the end,

but then it was like somebody

put another tunnel on it.

- Take care. I love you.

- All right. I love you, too.

I needed something positive to happen.

We had this show booked

where we were gonna do an episode

of This American Life.

We were gonna do it onstage

in New York City,

and beam it into movie theaters

around the country.

And, uh, Tig was one of the performers.

Ira and I were planning

this show for nine months.

I was warning him I had been sick,

and he said,

"Don't push yourself.

We can do this another time."

And I was just like,

"You don't understand."

And I felt like, "If I could just get to

New York and do This American Life,

I would feel like finally

I was coming through something."

Welcome comedian Tig Notaro.

I went to this party with my friend Pam,

and we were going to leave the party,

and she said to me,

"Do you know who that was

standing by the door?"

I said, "No."

She said, "That was Taylor Dayne."

Do you know who Taylor Dayne is? No?

She was a pop singer

in the late '80s, early '90s.

She sang "Love Will Lead You Back."

Anyway, I love Taylor Dayne,

and not ironically.

And I went up to her, and I said,

"Excuse me, I'm sorry to bother you,

but I just have to tell you,

I love your voice."

And she just turned and said,

"Yeah, I don't do that anymore."

Tig is a really pure

kind of deadpan,

incredibly special performer.

She's somebody

who is just in no hurry at all.

Like, it's just somebody

with such supreme confidence

that she will just

pause and hold a moment.

Then, like, nine months passed.

And I happened to be out to eat

with that same friend of mine, Pam.

And there was a party of ten

seated right behind us.

You guys are not gonna believe

who was sitting there.

Any guesses?

- What's that?

- Taylor Dayne.

That's correct.

It was Taylor Dayne.

Tig really

just brought down the house.

And immediately when we got done

with that, I was like,

"Okay, what else you got?

You're now, like, an audience favorite.

Like, you know, our whole radio audience,

millions of people,

they wanna hear you again.

What else you got?"

He suggested doing a piece

about the recent tragedies in my life.

He said, "You need to do that on stage."

Well, first of all, she made it clear,

she had no interest in that at all.

I guess there was a part of me

that was a little offended

that he would think that

there was humor in this.

She didn't know

how she would go about that,

and she was just, like, it didn't seem fun

or interesting in any way at all.

Like, of course he knew

I was not gonna do this material.

Like, what, "My mother died, and I

can't eat food and I'm withering away.

Ladies, you know what I'm talking about."

You know, it's like, what?

Where is the humor? I didn't get it.

And then, I found a lump.

The doctor came in and she said,

"We saw the lump.

We found another one."

And I said, "Wait a minute.

Are you saying that I have cancer?"

She said, "It is very likely that you do."

And I was like...

Immediately in my head, I was like,

"Wait a minute. My mother just died.

How could this happen?

Like, I've already been through all this."

Like, I wanted to pull out

these calling cards.

Like, "No, look,

I just went through all this stuff,

and I can't have cancer."

I happened to be sobbing

on the sidewalk,

and Flanagan,

the owner of Largo, sent me a text,

"Are we doing the show or not?"

I just... I love stand-up so much.

I wanted to do it one more time.

Maybe that seems utterly insane,

but as soon as

I was diagnosed with cancer,

everything came over me as funny.

And I got a sense of humor

'cause it just was so ridiculous.

After everything that had happened,

I have cancer?

And so, I just started writing.

That was such a major risk,

'cause it could have

easily been my last show ever

that bombed awkwardly

and then I died.

I'm now very thrilled,

and it is my great privilege

to bring to the stage.

Tig Notaro.

Hello.

Good evening, hello.

People were laughing and staring at,

like, "This is a weird opening."

When people were realizing it was true,

I was also seeing people

crying in the audience.

And it was...

It was very intense

because it was also reflecting back at me.

Like, this is really happening to you.

It's one of those rare times

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