STAR OF THE DAY: TIG NOTARO

http://www.spreaker.com/user/6733116/tig-notaro

We've had hundreds of stars on Radio Titans (www.radiotitans.com), my podcast network - enough that we were named one of the 50 best talk outlets in the country by www.talkers.com, the talk industry's leading news site! 

Tig Notaro was one of our greatest "gets" ever, thanks to a fantastic woman comic in LA named Merrill Davis who hosted a show called  "Good Talk" with us in our first year back in 2012-2013, in Hollywood. Tig has really blown up even bigger since then, with a terrific HBO special and a stirring and funny new memoir called "I'm Just a Person" which i couldn't recommend more highly. 

She's an inspiration to me because of something that comedy mega-manager Barry Katz (who's handled the careers of Louis CK, Dave Chappelle, Dane Cook, Jay Mohr and many more) said to me when I interviewed him for my "Kozversations" podcast back in December - go find it, it's a great one!

Barry asked me what was holding me back as a comic and writer, since I had points in my comedy career where I'd been a literally paid regular comic at the Laugh Factory here and Zanies in Chicago, and worked with tons of great comics like Chappelle, Lewis Black and Mitch Hedberg. And I told him about my numerous health problems over the past 15 years (which i'm overcoming now to intense workouts and nutrition regimen), and that i had a severe sleep disorder and a chronic leg infection holding me back. 

Barry asked me "Do you have cancer?" And i said "No! Why?" And he told me the story of Tig. How she had been diagnosed with serious breast cancer, was dumped by her longtime girlfriend soon after, how her mother had just died around that time too, and how she went onstage at Largo in LA with all that soul-crushing madness weighing on her .... And proceeded to share it with one of the greatest, most humane sets of comedy and storytelling anyone has ever heard. You can find that recording for sale and you should track it down and buy it, at www.tignotaro.com. 

And Louis CK, who had been on that night right before her, had happened to leave his recorder running and taped her set. And put it on sale with his highest recommendation and raised the money she needed to pay her medical bills. 

And Tig beat cancer. Found a fabulous wife. And that weekend, was debuting a new HBO special. 

"So what's your excuse?" Barry asked me, point blank. 

Suddenly my sleep disorder and my leg didn't seem like anything in comparison. And that weekend, i shot the first day of a sitcom pilot I wrote and star in, and had Stephen Tobolowsky, Ian Edwards, Alonzo Bodden, veteran comedy actor Bill Chott and Chris Walsh of the Walsh Brothers in it. And lots of other things are brewing now too, which i'll bore you with in other posts. 

The point is, "What's your excuse?" 

There shouldn't be any. 

Tig Notaro has taught us that in spades.