Pretty Little Episode #95

Fortune and Tig answer a question about different jokes for different folks and dream up their own social movements on a Pretty Little Episode that's hilarious in every corner of the globe! Handsome is hosted by Tig Notaro, Mae Martin, and Fortune FeimsterSubmit your questions to speakpipe.com/handsomepod http://speakpipe.com/handsomepodFollow us on social media @handsomepodMerch at handsomepod.com http://handsomepod.com/Watch Handsome on YouTube http://youtube.com/@handsomepodThis is a Headgum https://headgum.com/ podcast. Follow Headgum on Twitter https://x.com/headgum, Instagram https://www.instagram.com/headgum/, and Tiktok https://www.tiktok.com/@headgum. Advertise on Handsome https://gumball.fm/shows/handsome via Gumball.fm http://gumball.fm/. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:01Speaker 00

  This is a HeadGum Podcast.

• 0:16Fortune Feimster?

  Pretty little episode. Welcome to the Handsome Pods Pretty Little Episode. I am Fortune Feimster.

• 0:25Tig Notaro?

  And I am Tig Notaro. How are you, Fortune?

• 0:31Fortune Feimster?

  I'm so good. How are you, my friend?

• 0:34Tig Notaro?

  I'm doing well. I'm just touring around and just doing the best I can, really. That's, that's all I can do.

• 0:44Fortune Feimster?

  You're doing great.

• 0:46Tig Notaro?

  Some days.

• 0:47Fortune Feimster?

  Are you enjoying being back on tour?

• 0:50Tig Notaro?

  I am. I'm liking these, um, I really don't, I don't know if it's my age or what, but like, I'm just like, I'm really happy with once a month, four or five nights in a row. And it's just, it just is nice. I would go out, I'd go hard and fast, whereas I'm like, I'm gonna let this ride as long as, as it wants to.

• 1:17Fortune Feimster?

  Yeah.

• 1:18Tig Notaro?

  But things are good. Stephanie and I are, we have stuff we're working on that's been really fun and

• 1:26Fortune Feimster?

  Yeah.

• 1:26Tig Notaro?

  It's, it's one of those things where like, you, you go into these projects and they're kind of like, stalled out sometimes for a while and then, and who knows what will ultimately happen, but we just had like a really fun run of a week of like, wow, this is, that's a really good email. Whoa, I didn't, oh, this came back around.

• 1:49Fortune Feimster?

  Yeah.

• 1:50Tig Notaro?

  And so I'm also though, trying to

• 1:56Tig Notaro?

  Like I, I love working on that, but I'm also, I think I'm realizing I don't know that I want to be fully producing anymore.

• 2:07Fortune Feimster?

  Really?

• 2:08Tig Notaro?

  On projects. Yeah.

• 2:09Fortune Feimster?

  Why? It's just too much work?

• 2:11Tig Notaro?

  It's just a lot. Um, it's a lot with, when things get really layered and complicated and stuff, I don't have the, I, I find it fascinating that people will get into the business to be a producer because you're taking on so much. Whereas I started out as a comedian and then got into different projects and development and, you know, oh, that'd be fun. Yeah, let's do that. And then, and then you're like, oh my God, I'm full on in a producing role. And just kind of pulling back the layers of getting in touch with what do I really want?

• 2:53Fortune Feimster?

  Right.

• 2:53Tig Notaro?

  What do I want for my, my time? My, what are my actual interests? I don't want to get my, my dream confused with anybody else's dream. Um, I want to do what really, what I really want to do. So yeah, um, it's, it's a weird but good time.

• 3:12Fortune Feimster?

  Well, that's good.

• 3:13Tig Notaro?

  Yeah.

• 3:14Fortune Feimster?

  I would think that that would be a lot of, uh, like coordinating and I don't know, a lot of being required to be organized.

• 3:26Tig Notaro?

  Well, yeah.

• 3:28Fortune Feimster?

  Yeah.

• 3:29Tig Notaro?

  You don't want.

• 3:30Fortune Feimster?

  I don't know that I wanna, I would wanna do it full time either.

• 3:35Tig Notaro?

  And I didn't mean to do it full time, but I just started to realize like, gosh, so much of my time is like being allocated to these kinds of tasks and calls and conversations and meetings. And I'm just like, is this really what I want to do?

• 3:52Fortune Feimster?

  Mm hmm.

• 3:52Tig Notaro?

  You know? I mean, and that's a different kind of producer than just like, oh, this project is teed up. Everything's looking good. Your name might be helpful to have on this project. And it's like, in that case, I'm like, yes. Slap my name on there. And let's go. But I'm always really interested in that world of learning about myself.

• 4:18Fortune Feimster?

  Yeah.

• 4:19Tig Notaro?

  You know, I'm, I'm very interested in that because sometimes I can become numb and just be moving forward without

• 4:28Fortune Feimster?

  Yeah.

• 4:28Tig Notaro?

  thought.

• 4:29Fortune Feimster?

  Mm hmm.

• 4:30Tig Notaro?

  And I can't wait to tell May this, but this is exciting. I'm doing my own wellness weekend.

• 4:40Fortune Feimster?

  By yourself?

• 4:42Tig Notaro?

  I'm gonna hire people. Well, because I was thinking, I really want to do a wellness retreat, but not that I am the most recognizable person in the world, but I do think I wouldn't feel totally relaxed if I was at a retreat, you know, because people

• 5:01Fortune Feimster?

  Right.

• 5:02Tig Notaro?

  might recognize me and

• 5:04Fortune Feimster?

  Sure.

• 5:05Tig Notaro?

  And so I started to look into other options. And then I saw like, maybe you can hire somebody to come in and do a retreat for you at your house. So it's private. I was like, well, that's cool. Or you get a hotel room and somebody goes and meets you at the hotel and does the whole thing with you. So yeah, that's, it's just more of that of like, just, I'm gonna spend two days by myself and I'm gonna have different people that I hire to come in and, and

• 5:33Fortune Feimster?

  Whoa.

• 5:34Tig Notaro?

  Yeah. So I'm gonna get that little experience and then I'm gonna open it up for our wellness weekend.

• 5:40Fortune Feimster?

  Okay. Yeah. You, you see how it goes. See if you're into it, then take notes and perfect it by the time we come around. I have another thing I'm, I don't want to tell May about just yet either.

• 5:53Tig Notaro?

  Okay. Okay.

• 5:55Fortune Feimster?

  This is

• 5:55Tig Notaro?

  Are you pregnant?

• 5:57Fortune Feimster?

  No. Um, but I am going to go to Saturday Night Live on Saturday night, uh, to the taping.

• 6:08Tig Notaro?

  Is Alanis there?

• 6:09Fortune Feimster?

  No, even better.

• 6:12Tig Notaro?

  Ew.

• 6:13Fortune Feimster?

  Paul McCartney's the musical guest.

• 6:17Tig Notaro?

  Oh, my gosh. You guys are never gonna get past your

• 6:22Tig Notaro?

  Musical conflict.

• 6:27Fortune Feimster?

  So when I I'm going because Will Ferrell is hosting. So I'm doing a show in Pennsylvania the night before. So I was like, oh, I'll just take the train up to New York City and see Will. And I had no idea, had no idea till today. That's who the musical guest is. And maybe I won't meet him. I might not even meet him. But the idea that I could potentially meet Paul McCartney.

• 6:52Tig Notaro?

  May is not gonna handle this well. Okay, because now you might meet him. And I chose not to go to a party of his. May, May can't. It we were it's it's too much for, um, I think May's.

• 7:14Fortune Feimster?

  My soul.

• 7:15Tig Notaro?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 7:18Fortune Feimster?

  Well, TBD, I it might nothing.

• 7:21Tig Notaro?

  I bet you'll meet him. I bet you will.

• 7:24Fortune Feimster?

  I feel like it's a possibility because I'll be hanging out with Will's, you know, and his people. So I don't know. We'll see. We'll see. But it did give me a good cackle when I realized it.

• 7:37Tig Notaro?

  And when did you find that out? The past couple of days. Oh, today.

• 7:41Fortune Feimster?

  I saw Will's promo and he mentioned Paul McCartney and I went, oh, my God, is that the guest? The musical guest? And then I looked it up and it is. And I was like, are you kidding me?

• 7:53Tig Notaro?

  That is, I cannot wait. Please let me be there when you tell May.

• 7:59Fortune Feimster?

  I will, I will.

• 8:00Tig Notaro?

  Okay.

• 8:01Fortune Feimster?

  Yeah.

• 8:03Tig Notaro?

  Poor little May.

• 8:05Fortune Feimster?

  Oh.

• 8:06Tig Notaro?

  Well, uh, should we get into our questions?

• 8:08Fortune Feimster?

  Let's do it.

• 8:10Speaker 03

  Hi, Tig. Hi, Fortune. Hi, May.

• 8:13Tig Notaro?

  This is Wendy from Toledo. My question for you is this. So you know the social movements? No Shave November and No Mow May? Like you're not supposed to mow your lawn in May because it helps the environment?

• 8:30Fortune Feimster?

  Oh, I didn't know about this.

• 8:30Tig Notaro?

  I'm wondering what social movement you would want to start? And what month you would pick? And I am excited to hear your answers.

• 8:40Fortune Feimster?

  I didn't know about the mo- no mow November.

• 8:44Tig Notaro?

  And what, no shaving your hair on your body? Interesting.

• 8:49Fortune Feimster?

  Like no coochie?

• 8:54Fortune Feimster?

  No, you mean I can't shave McCucci?

• 9:00Tig Notaro?

  Fortune Marie!

• 9:02Fortune Feimster?

  I'm only thinking about Kate McCucci because I just saw her in a picture with a friend of mine.

• 9:07Tig Notaro?

  Oh, my God, I did a voiceover the other day and then she popped up on the screen. She was next in line to record on the cartoon. It was such a fun surprise to see her little face. And I love how much she is a part of this show just because of her last name. But she's also one of my dearest friends.

• 9:26Fortune Feimster?

  I do love that, but I and I love that your dear friend's last name is McCucci.

• 9:39Tig Notaro?

  Our question from Wendy is what would we start if we could start anything? I've thought about this. I've thought about this.

• 9:47Fortune Feimster?

  I knew you'd have an answer right away.

• 9:49Tig Notaro?

  Yes, I have thought that it would be, and maybe this is already happening. Um, but I've always thought it would be such a great idea to have, whether it's a day, a week or a month every year, that as just people on the planet in their town or city, everywhere you go, pick up something and throw it away. Just pick up trash, pick up recycling and just make it a thing that everybody knows. Because that would make such a huge impact as far as just like on a surfacy level of tidying up.

• 10:31Tig Notaro?

  The uh, the area that you live in.

• 10:34Fortune Feimster?

  I like that.

• 10:35Tig Notaro?

  Yeah, I like you too.

• 10:37Fortune Feimster?

  I used to do that Adopt a Highway thing back in high school. Do you remember that?

• 10:41Tig Notaro?

  Mm-hmm, yeah.

• 10:42Fortune Feimster?

  And so, we would go out and uh, pick up trash for, you know, some air, part of town that um, some company, basically a company would sponsor it and then get people to volunteer to help them.

• 10:58Fortune Feimster?

  Uh, so yeah, I like that, cause there's so much trash. We gotta do better about that, for sure. I mean, I would try to help save water. I think we should do like, no shower Wednesdays. And on Wednesdays, no one can shower and, but everyone, everyone would participate, so if someone were a little stinky on Wednesday, you would know why.

• 11:21Tig Notaro?

  Yeah.

• 11:22Fortune Feimster?

  You know, that particular day, maybe just, you know.

• 11:24Tig Notaro?

  You'd be like.

• 11:25Fortune Feimster?

  Do a little more deodorant, yeah, perfume. But yeah, since everyone's doing it, it wouldn't be a big faux pas.

• 11:32Tig Notaro?

  Well, we could probably save a lot of water also if May stopped showering twice a day.

• 11:38Fortune Feimster?

  May does enjoy a shower, a lot of showers and a lot of baths.

• 11:42Tig Notaro?

  Yeah.

• 11:43Fortune Feimster?

  That could help.

• 11:44Tig Notaro?

  Well, um, I'm all for stinky, uh, stinky Wednesday doesn't sound right. Stinky, stinky Saturday.

• 11:53Fortune Feimster?

  Well, you can't do Saturday, because that's a date night, you know, potentially.

• 11:57Tig Notaro?

  Stinky Tuesday.

• 11:59Fortune Feimster?

  Tuesday could, could work. I think it has to be a Tuesday or a Wednesday, cause those are not as much as going on socially.

• 12:07Tig Notaro?

  Stinky Tuesday, stinky Tuesday.

• 12:10Fortune Feimster?

  Okay, stinky Tuesday. So that's what, that's the day we're gonna save water.

• 12:14Tig Notaro?

  And we can't pick up trash that day.

• 12:17Fortune Feimster?

  Yeah, that, yeah, cause you don't wanna get too stinky.

• 12:21Tig Notaro?

  And we can't call the trash day Stinky Wednesday.

• 12:25Fortune Feimster?

  Yeah.

• 12:25Tig Notaro?

  Yeah, so. Oh, that's a good idea. Stinky Tuesday, then you wake up and you pick up trash on Wednesday and then you take a.

• 12:34Fortune Feimster?

  And then take a shower.

• 12:36Tig Notaro?

  Yeah.

• 12:36Fortune Feimster?

  Yeah, look at that.

• 12:38Tig Notaro?

  What's Wendy got for us?

• 12:40Speaker 03

  Mine would be, switch it up September, because I just love switching things up. And I think it'd be fun to have all kinds of people doing, you know, getting out of their routine and doing something different.

• 12:57Speaker 03

  Um, just to keep it fresh and maybe to keep it a little bit silly. So I think that could be a really fun activity for people. Thanks. Love your show.

• 13:10Tig Notaro?

  Thank you, Wendy. I like that. This is another example of our listeners have great questions.

• 13:18Fortune Feimster?

  They sure do.

• 13:19Tig Notaro?

  Really, really great questions. I'm always like, what is this gonna be? And Wendy delivered again.

• 13:27Fortune Feimster?

  Go Wendy. I love your hamburgers.

• 13:31Speaker 04

  Okay. Hi, Tig, I am Fortune. My name is Megan and I'm calling from just outside of Worcester, Massachusetts. And I have a question that I can't answer myself, but I'm curious to hear your answers. So I'm listening to a recent pod, Fortune's talking about her international tour coming up. And I'm curious if and how you tailor your comedy to locations. So I would assume not every country shares the same humor. And I'm wondering if you write different jokes for different places, even different cities. Um, and if you do, how that process works. Um, I love you guys and I look forward to listening to you every week. Um, and thanks.

• 14:14Tig Notaro?

  Well, we love you too.

• 14:17Fortune Feimster?

  That's right. It made me think about how comedy in general and podcasts in general. It's, it's for specific audiences. And because a friend of mine, her mom told me, she said, I try to listen to handsome. I just don't understand what it's about. And I said, I don't think it's for you.

• 14:39Fortune Feimster?

  Not that you can't be, we have people of all ages that listen to it.

• 14:42Tig Notaro?

  Oh, yeah, yeah.

• 14:43Fortune Feimster?

  But if you, but if you listen to it and your first thought is, I don't know what this is about, then probably you're not gonna enjoy the rest of the episode.

• 14:52Tig Notaro?

  That is so funny. What is it about?

• 14:56Fortune Feimster?

  What is it about? I just don't understand.

• 15:00Tig Notaro?

  And what would you say it's about?

• 15:03Fortune Feimster?

  It's about like nothing and everything, you know?

• 15:12Fortune Feimster?

  Because it's nonsense a lot of time, but then other times we really dig into things, you know? But that's the nature of these, the questions is that it takes us in many different directions.

• 15:25Tig Notaro?

  Yeah, I guess if it interests you to hear a group of people pondering, pondering.

• 15:34Fortune Feimster?

  Pondering. And then sometimes it's funny and we make people laugh and then sometimes it's earnest and sometimes it's sad and sometimes it's just chatting, you know?

• 15:46Tig Notaro?

  Yeah. With friends on the handsome pod.

• 15:49Fortune Feimster?

  That's right. But for international shows, you know, I just do Europe and a handful of places in Europe and I do Australia and then I do, I mean, Canada feels very similar to here. So, but like, I've never performed in some of the places I'm going, so I, you know, it will be new to me. And I do remember when I performed in Iceland last year, I was like, huh, you know, you do think like, are they gonna get this reference or this fast food chain or, you know, their biscuits or something else, you know?

• 16:34Fortune Feimster?

  So you just have to, you either shift it to like a fast food place that they recognize, if say, say if it's a fast food story, or like if I'm talking about a biscuit that's a southern biscuit, I'll take a couple extra sentences to describe it.

• 16:50Tig Notaro?

  Yeah.

• 16:51Fortune Feimster?

  Or if it seems like a very American story that's like, maybe not as relatable, I might just take that out completely. So I personally tailor it a little bit, but not to the point where it's a whole other act.

• 17:06Tig Notaro?

  Yeah, I remember when I first got into standup, people would be, people would be like, you gotta have your clean set, you gotta have your college material, you have to have your corporate, and I was like. I don't, I just.

• 17:20Fortune Feimster?

  That's a lot of sets.

• 17:21Tig Notaro?

  Yeah, I mean, but those, I mean, I just did not understand, because they felt very like business comedians, you know what I mean?

• 17:31Fortune Feimster?

  Right, yeah.

• 17:31Tig Notaro?

  Like, you gotta have this, you gotta be prepared for that, and you gotta make sure. But I never did that. I was just like, here's my material, this is what inspires me to write about and talk about and perform.

• 17:43Fortune Feimster?

  Yeah.

• 17:43Tig Notaro?

  And then, yeah, like you said, if there are moments that I, but it's also, you know, to talk about my Taylor Dane bit, sometimes when it wouldn't work in the early days, people would say, oh, it's because, you know, people don't know who she is, or they must not know who she is. And I'm like, that doesn't matter, because I've talked about my mother, I've talked about friends of mine, and you, it's your job as a comedian, as you're saying, to give that description, so that it doesn't matter who you're talking about, that it just becomes relatable. And whether you're tweaking a few words here and there, or just dropping

• 18:23Tig Notaro?

  an entire story altogether, because it's like, ah, but I don't really add things or write things, but, uh, specific to the town, but every now and then, something will happen when I'm on the way to a show, or if something outrageous, but that's also coming from a real place of, oh, I wanted to talk about this. I'm not like, hey, tell me what your local specialty is, or is there anything about your town I need to know, so I can like, write something. I just, and maybe people wish, or are looking for that in a comedian, but I'm, I'm not, I'm not that person.

• 19:04Fortune Feimster?

  I don't really do it either. Occasionally, right now, I'm doing like, a little bit of crowd work in the middle of the show, so sometimes I'll, you know, pop in a couple things here and there, but I'm not like, doing a whole like, five or 10 minutes on the town.

• 19:18Tig Notaro?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 19:19Fortune Feimster?

  That's another thing I will shift for my European shows. I have learned, I mean, at least through my time doing London and Amsterdam, European crowds don't seem to be as much into crowd work as American audiences, because they don't want to be a part of the show.

• 19:40Tig Notaro?

  Yeah.

• 19:41Fortune Feimster?

  They want, they're like, "Came to see you." I had, I did a week of shows in London at the Soho, um, gosh, this would have been like, seven or eight years ago, and a reviewer came, which I wasn't used to that either.

• 19:56Tig Notaro?

  Yeah.

• 19:57Fortune Feimster?

  Being reviewed in stand-up, unless you put out a special, just, you don't really get reviewed for your live shows. And, and he liked everything but the crowd work. He was like, "I don't, I don't like, enjoy, you know, the back and forth there." It wasn't that it was bad crowd work, that he just wasn't into it. And I learned that throughout the week, that people are just not, those audiences are a bit more demure, whereas Americans, you know, want to hear themselves talk, want to be loud, want to be boisterous. So they're into it. Um, so I definitely shift my set for that.

• 20:35Tig Notaro?

  Mm-hmm.

• 20:36Fortune Feimster?

  Yeah.

• 20:37Tig Notaro?

  Well, there you go. There's your answer.

• 20:40Fortune Feimster?

  There you go, Megan.

• 20:41Tig Notaro?

  A little bit, sometimes, maybe not, mostly, huh-uh.

• 20:45Fortune Feimster?

  Boom, poco.

• 20:47Tig Notaro?

  Send your questions in. Also, share episodes. Help us build this handsome community. Submit your questions to speakpipe.com/hansampod. Come check me out on the road, tignotaro.com. I'll be in Spokane, Washington, Eugene, Oregon. I'm doing some local shows in LA, Colorado Springs, Calgary, Iowa City, Des Moines, Omaha, Oklahoma City, Cincinnati, Charleston, West Virginia. The list goes on and on. Come on out. We'll see you soon. What about you, Fortune?

• 21:21Fortune Feimster?

  I'm in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, tonight, so come on out for that. Then Omaha, Nebraska, tomorrow night. Uh, the next weekend, Portland, Maine, and Detroit, Michigan. So I'll see you guys, hopefully, uh, on one of these fun shows, if you live in the area.

• 21:37Tig Notaro?

  Yeah. And until next time, keep it pretty handsome.

• 21:48Tig Notaro?

  Handsome is hosted by me, Tig Notaro, Mae Martin, and Fortune Themester. The show is produced, recorded, and edited by Thomas Willett. Email us at [email protected]. Follow us on social media @handsomepod. What a podcast!

• 22:12Speaker 00

  That was a HeadGum Podcast.