Tig Notaro on Her Oscar Nomination and New Stand-Up Tour

Tig Notaro was an ideal producer for the Oscar-nominated documentary Come See Me in the Good Light, even if she was new to the space. She was close friends with the subject, poet Andrea Gibson, and fiercely protective of the way in which the film would capture Gibson’s battle with terminal ovarian cancer and their deep bond with Gibson’s wife, Megan Falley.

Notaro herself had some experience with publicly revealing a serious illness: At a live show in Los Angeles circa 2012, she announced a then-recent breast cancer diagnosis as part of a set which promptly went viral for its deadpan honesty — and shot Notaro toward national fame. That wasn’t always comfortable. 

Notaro was also the person who first brought this idea to director Ryan White and his producing partner, Jessica Hargrave (Good Night Oppy). Her track record on stage and behind the camera spoke for itself. “I trust Tig, and I trust her sensibilities,” White told The Hollywood Reporter last year. “And I think what Tig saw was not only a remarkable friend of hers but also the possibility of subverting this terminal illness genre of film.” (Gibson died in July of last year, after the film had premiered at Sundance.)

And yet: Sitting down with THR a few weeks out from her first-ever Oscar nomination, Notaro admits she’s still shaking the habit of downplaying the work that she put into the film. In fact, the last few months of campaigning and sharing Come See Me in the Good Light have prodded a great deal of reflection in the comedian, who’s in the beginning stages of a new stand-up tour and currently starring in Star Trek: Starfleet Academy. In an open, vulnerable, dryly funny conversation befitting the intimate power of her movie, she explains why. 

You’re a unique person of interest this award season as a first-time contender. For some of us, it took a double take of, “Oh, Tig Notaro is an Oscar nominee now!” Did you have that experience?

(Laughs.) I continue to have that experience. I was on my flight yesterday from L.A. to Toronto and didn’t realize that another comedian, Caroline Rhea, was on the flight. When we saw each other, she announced to the plane that I was an Oscar nominee. That was fun and embarrassing. I got a round of applause.

I’m interested in how you’ve experienced the life of this movie. The idea began with you, it was shot over a full year, you were incredibly close to the subject. And it’s been over a year since the premiere at Sundance. 

Everybody that came on had a similar feeling of, “We know this is a risk, but we also feel like this is also a clear vision.” There was a screening in Los Angeles that I was at that made me really emotional, because I felt like all of the dreams and thoughts and ideas I had about this film finally caught up in real time. I was standing there going, “God, here we are. We actually did this, and everybody seems to get it like I hoped.” Then getting to this part was something that I never in a million years imagined —  for myself, mainly, to be an Oscar nominee — but I just didn’t think, “Oh, this film will go that far.” But it’s become the thing I’m most proud of in my entire career.

Producing any kind of ambitious, intensive documentary is new territory for you. You’ve been producing for a few years, but I’m curious what you took away from the experience, and maybe learned about yourself behind the scenes? 

Well, I’ve only previously been a producer on something I’m starring in, and that usually means I have assistants, directors and other people that are really making the big moves for me outside of the creative part. This was so led by love and passion that I just jumped in not really knowing where to start. I thought about reaching out to people for advice, and then I was like, “I don’t even want to get hung up on that. I just want to go with my instincts.” What I learned is that I love it. I loved the process. I loved relying on my instincts. I always say that every production, there’s always a weirdo rattling around in there. And there wasn’t on this — unless I was a weirdo, which I’m fine to be.

We’ll never know.

Well, if you ask around, maybe you’ll find out. But we all went in with love and passion and came out even closer. I learned it’s possible to do that. It’s possible to make something from your heart but really artistic, to really follow your instincts and come out the other side all the better. 

How would you describe the day-to-day for you on this film? 

I’m filming often in Toronto on Star Trek: Starfleet Academy. When I’m not there, I’m either on tour or I’m at home in Los Angeles. So I was more, after everything was in place and going, making sure everything was still moving. Checking in with Andrea and Meg — I knew that everybody was great that was coming in, but I really emphasized that there can’t be a weirdo. This is a dear friend in a really tricky moment in time, and there just can’t be any of the craziness, and there just wasn’t. Of course now, because I’m the more public figure out of the producing team, I’ve been doing the majority of the press tour, which — it’s a lift! But I would do anything in the world for this film.

It is probably an unexpected first foray into the wonderful world of Oscar campaigning.

And I mean, I was doing it simultaneously while Star Trek was coming out, so it was a real rollercoaster of talking about outer space and then the next interview about losing a friend. 

Right. What has that been like? It’s an unusual experience, speaking about very real grief in these kinds of tight interviews or panel conversations. 

Yeah, I think about Meg, when somebody said to her, “What’s it like being on a press tour while you’re grieving?” She said, “Am I on a press tour? I didn’t really think about that. I just saw it as a joy that I get to speak about Andrea every day and that people get to learn about Andrea every day.” Because Andrea was so open to talking about every aspect of life, including mortality — and same with Meg — there’s not as heavy of a vibe around it, it’s not a taboo. That’s changed me because death previously was something I was always just kicking away and so fearful of. Look, I don’t want to die. Andrea didn’t want to die. But I’m approaching it very differently and I’m accepting that it’s coming. Andrea wanted to die at home around loved ones, and they did exactly that so beautifully, and it just made this process a little bit easier because of how Andrea did things and laid the tracks for everyone. 

This connects to your work too — you spoke about getting sick and facing mortality in your own work, in a very public way. Have you reflected back to that time, going on the journey with this movie? 

Well, when I made a choice to speak about it publicly, I didn’t think it was going to be that public. I thought it was going to just stay at Largo within the ears of those 300 people, and then when it went beyond that and people were blogging and tweeting and all of that kind of stuff, it was a little confusing. In 2012, I was less connected to technology or social media. I was so confused by that. 

But yes, thinking back on it is why I think I was very protective of this project — because there were people in situations that convoluted stuff and it didn’t feel great in certain ways. Other projects and people were tremendous, but I really had an eagle eye on this and how it was handled. But thinking back on my own experience, I wouldn’t do it any differently. I’m so glad that it happened the way it did because not only did being so sick all those years ago crack me open, the way I navigate the world is so informed by that time period and expressing myself. I held things so closely, and I’m finding that balance still because after sharing so much, there’s also this feeling of like, “Oh, what do I share and what don’t I share?” Not everything is for everyone. I’m more than just somebody that was really sick, and I don’t always want to talk about that. It’s something I’m navigating constantly. It was interesting to watch Meg and Andrea go through that, and then now that Andrea’s gone, seeing Meg go through it, because the spotlight is now on her and it’s a real navigation.

Which again speaks to the protective quality you were talking about. You’re there with her. 

And again, there wasn’t a huge amount that I needed to bat away, but it’s like steering a ship and it just needs just a slight movement, just a little to the left, a little to the right. That’s what this entire production needed. I do feel like I’m bringing something because I did go through a rough spot. I was a subject of a documentary, and I am an old friend of Andrea, so know what I’m talking about.

You made the film independently, and premiered at Sundance before selling to Apple. It’s not necessarily the kind of pickup I’d expect from them, at least in terms of how much they’ve put behind it.  

Molly [Thompson] at Apple was at Sundance and was just taken by the film out of the gate — she was our big champion from day one. We kept hearing that the days of late-night negotiating at Sundance is over, so we were hitting these moments of losing hope. But people would be like, “No, no, no. Apple’s very interested.” You hear those things through selling projects or casting or whatever it is, and then sometimes it just slips away. The whole team has been incredible, and as you said, fully behind this film. It wasn’t an obvious sale to Apple, but we could tell that they were serious and they were going to do everything to get this film out there.

You had directed the film Am I OK? with your wife, Stephanie Allynne, and that premiered at Sundance. HBO Max bought it and it premiered several years later — what happened there? 

That was a perfect example of something just slipping out of your hands. It was such a bizarre ride. It was one of the big sales of Sundance, and it was when HBO and HBO Max were kind of in flux, which — are they still? I am not quite sure.

Well, they’re about to be sold again, so.

Yeah, that’s what I’m saying. I don’t know where things were in the process then, but I just remember after we made that sale, which was one of the big sales that year, we were under the impression it was going to be released. And then we got a call that was not, it was just going to go away through the shift at HBO. We were like, “Wow. That was a lot for nothing.” We were one of the first productions up and running during COVID, even before the vaccine had come out, so all of that stress making the film and then the pride we had when it came out — it was so well received — and then it went away. And then, yeah, we just got a random call: “Hey, they’re going to release it.” You’re like, “Okay, we’ll believe it when we see it.” And it did. And then it was so popular. It’s like on every flight, somebody’s watching me in a bad wig. 

So you’re on a bit of a run in the feature space, then. You mentioned learning through Come See Me in the Good Light that you love producing. Are you ramping up? 

There was a point in time when my wife and I were like, “Let’s become a full blown production company.” To go back to the pandemic, once that happened, it gave us a beat and a moment to really reflect that that’s not what we want to do. We don’t want to just become a big production company and be making all these things. We want to focus on our projects and what we are very passionate about; my wife is a writer, director, producer, actor, and she has a very long list of projects that we’re both working on. 

So I wouldn’t say it’s ramped up, but this has all made me take myself more seriously. I have a tendency to not take myself seriously. In fact, I was just having a conversation with Stephanie, my wife, on our morning walk. She said she hears me in interviews saying, “Yeah, I don’t know, I called some people and I don’t know what I’m doing.” And she said, “You actually did a really good job. You actually produced the film. You’re not here by mistake. It’s not like a haphazard thing.” I realized that’s so attached to this old part of me: I failed high school, I dropped out, I’m a standup comedian and I fly by the seat of my pants. But I am not a mess. And so she was like, “Stop talking about yourself like that.” It meant something to me because she really walked me through everything I did. I don’t want to sound like I’m patting myself in the back.

You don’t, quite the opposite.

Okay. She asked, “How does it feel to be nominated for an Academy Award?” And I said, “I feel like I wandered out on a football field accidentally and got into the Super Bowl or something.” Then she went step by step, and she said, ”You’re there legitimately.”

To the earlier point of “not everything’s for everyone,” when it comes to your personal life, where are you in your current stand-up tour right now? What can you share about it? 

The very beginning. A lot of my dates are moved or canceled because of the awards season, but I’m slowly rolling out my new material in kind of a long weekend run each month, just so I don’t run myself into the ground. It’s tricky because I’m filming Starfleet Academy in Toronto, which is on the other side of the country in another country. Then I’m touring a long weekend a month, and I’m doing press for both projects. Then I have a wife and kids, and I sadly have a sick cat at home.

I always say I live in a house full of writers, my wife and kids and cats. That’s what I want to talk about. And I never thought I’d become that comedian, but I can’t do anything that doesn’t amuse me, and they fully, endlessly amuse me. So it’s more family stuff. I don’t have any illnesses to report, thankfully. I’ve been on the upswing for the past few years, and so that feels good.

I know some people who were briefly freaked out by a video you posted a few days ago, with the caption, “Update.” 

(Laughs.) Can I just tell you? I posted that and then I left for the day, and I didn’t even think twice. When I was on The Morning Show or Sex Lives of College Girls, I would post photos of myself in wardrobe and I would talk about how adorable I looked. I would just do these silly posts. So I made a video and then I thought it would be funny to go in with this intense seriousness, and I promise I didn’t even think about it. Then I was at the DGA for a screening the other night, and people were saying as they left, “Hey, Tig, nice haircut.” And I kept thinking, “Huh, well, thank you.” In my mind, that video wasn’t about a haircut; it was about being hotter than the rest of the Star Trek cast. Then Meg said, “Gosh, my dad sent your haircut video to everybody.” I was like, “What haircut video?” And she said, “On your Instagram?” Then I look, it’s like 4 million views. I’m not verified. I don’t want to be verified. It’s my cat’s account.

**

Come See Me in the Good Light is currently streaming on Apple TV+