Handsome - Nina West asks about creativity

Episode Date: September 5, 2023

Nina West (RuPaul's Drag Race, Hairspray) asks the handsome squad about creativity! Plus Tig goes viral, Fortune sings a Disney song, and Mae has a spiritual experience on the massage table. Handsome is hosted by Tig Notaro, Mae Martin, and Fortune FeimsterFollow us on social media @handsomepodEmail the show: [e-mail]'t forget to rate & review Handsome wherever you get your podcasts!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Welcome to the handsome podcast. It's your one stop shop for everything handsome. I'm Mae Martin. I'm joined by my co host. Oh fortune feimster and tig notaro should i have said your names no i think that was good i think we nailed that we nailed it we nailed it you nailed it that was very handsome yeah thank you handsome work um wait tig you're going viral well i did just get an alert from our producer thomas um that Fortune, did you know it was going viral or did Thomas alert you? Thomas alerted me. He's got his finger on the pulse of anything viral. And anything LGBTQ for some reason. But so Fortune, explain to me what's happening.

to me what's happening? Recently, there was a Supreme Court ruling that this woman had filed a while back in Colorado that she was a web designer, did not care for making wedding websites for gay couples. And it went all the way up to the Supreme Court. They ruled in her favor. So there is a TikTok going around of a clip from your show, One Mississippi, where you are talking to someone at a hospital, and they're, I'm assuming, very rude to you and not helpful. Yeah, my stepfather in that episode is in the hospital, and I'm trying to go back to see him and visit him, and the woman is not letting me back.

And so at the top of the video it says life now after yesterday's supreme court ruling and that's gone viral on tiktok and twitter i gotta i gotta watch it i don't i'm not getting the connection yeah so basically it's like oh no one has to let you do anything yeah now people can deny really discriminate on a whole other level yeah they don't have to they can deny you any services anywhere oh it's nice that there's the silver lining is tig's gone viral that's right there's the silver lining i'm not are you on tiktok may no no i i'm too i have too addictive of a brain i would just be on it all the time i am on it are you are you addicted to it i'm not addicted to it but there are times

where you said the addict you can go in a rabbit hole um i don't do that often but on the road sometimes i'm bored and you do get into that scroll scroll scroll because once you watch one video say there's like a lot of random like murder stuff on there um like cases you love a murder i love a murder and there'll be like some random case i'm like oh i never heard this and you get sucked into this like tiktok explaining it then you keep scrolling and now the algorithm knows oh this person's into murder then all these cases start popping up and then you're like well god dang it now i gotta learn about this one but that's with anything say you watch a video of someone singing now you got the next one someone's

singing you're like well they have a beautiful voice keep scrolling now i gotta hear all the beautiful i can't go to bed now so it does allow you to go down a rabbit hole pretty easy yeah i was always confused because i'm not on tiktok and then i'll go places and somebody will say hey i love your stuff on tiktok and i'm like i get that too yeah and i'm always like what i don't even understand what's happening in the tiktok world because i'm not on that that does happen where people somehow will just pull a clip or an audio thing from something and suddenly they post it and it's everywhere like tom papa has a i do a radio show with him and he has a bit about making a person and then someone pulled that audio and then all these moms would put that audio his bit about making a person and they would like lip sync to it or have their own video to it and no one even knew it was tom

a random man's voice exactly yeah i always thought tiktok was just these random man's voice. Exactly. I always thought TikTok was just these dances, like these weird dances. And so then when people would go, I love your stuff on TikTok, I'd be like, am I like sleep dancing? Like doing choreographed dances? I don't know about. So then probably they made a clip of,

like clips of yours have probably been pulled from feel good or something or stand up. And they're just out there and people are commenting on them or you can duet them or lip sync to them it's a whole thing i remember when i was doing the movie with uh reese and ashton called your place or mine and i had a line in there that i say to ashton about my wife i say um yeah she's just making a bunch of TikTok recipes or something like that. And I remember while I was delivering that line thinking, I don't know what I'm talking about,

what a TikTok recipe is. I don't even know if that's exactly the line, but I was just... You're like, do I put the emphasis on the tick or the talk? Well, I knew I'd heard of tiktok but i didn't know i don't know i just wasn't quite sure what i guess i thought tiktok was dancing and stuff like that too so i wasn't i don't know i was just like okay i guess they do a bunch of recipes on tiktok i hope somebody takes the some audio from that from you explaining that you don't know tiktok and they make a tiktok and make it go viral whoever does it make it go viral and then when did my viral videos start going 18 hours ago

so we're on the cusp of your viral explosion okay i don't want to brag i have a video making the circuit right now oh really uh really? From a Subaru dealership. Because in an episode of that FUBAR show I do, I say something like, I drive a Subaru because I'm gay. And it's like promoting their Subarus and then it cuts to that. That's so funny.

And wait, Subaru made it? No, not like the Subaru people, but like an independent car dealership. Gay woman. That's how Subaru is. Oh, an actual car dealership made it. Yeah, a car dealership. Oh, that's so funny.

And I was like that. People kept sending me, sending me like, did you see this? I'm like, what in the world? So yeah, it can morph into anything really. Yeah. Okay.

Look at us. Look at us grandmas. I know. Or grand people. Grand people. Grand people. Grand people. Yeah.

Thank you. Grand person. Grand persons. Is that what I'm going to be if I'm a, am I going to be a grand person? You might be a grand person. Yeah.

Yeah. Or I'll, you know, people like make up new words. Like if it's a gender neutral thing, they're like, I'm bebop or whatever. I'm a bebop. I'm bebop. Call me bebop. Yeah.

Great, great bebop. I'm nana. Nana. I'm not having kids, so I guess I won't be a grand person well you say that but maybe you'll you know have a pregnancy test and boom it'll surprise you you never know it could really come out of nowhere yeah I already look like I'm pregnant because of the hair yeah the hair what were you saying may oh it was unpleasant i just was i feel like i'm pregnant now because i'm having an allergic reaction to coconut yeah anyway you don't have to dwell on it well i am

curious though have you always been allergic to coconut yeah i didn't know for my whole childhood so i would eat like a coconut cream pie like i I loved it and really love it. And then be so violently ill. And then I dated this girl who her big thing was she can make coconut sticky rice. That was her big thing. but we were living in a sketchy apartment and she'd be like i'm gonna make tofu and coconut sticky rice and i was so proud that i had a girlfriend who i lived with who made this sticky rice like i just we were like playing house almost yeah and then uh so i was eating it all the time i think i was sick for a year i was so sick and then uh yeah it turns out i'm allergic to coconut you're like i'm either being slowly poisoned and we'll read about it on dateline or i'm allergic to coconut and it's in everything like in a lot of vegan food coconut oil coconut flour trying to make the quit trying to take me down how do you know you are not just

not supposed to eat an entire coconut cream pie it could be that or just like tons of coconut sticky rice and made in a sketchy apartment with a dirty pan. Yeah, could be that. Could be the dirty pan. Yeah. I don't think I'm allergic to anything. Congrats. Like nothing, no medication.

No. You don't sneeze in a point in a certain season. No. Are you allergic to rude people? Yeah, I don't like mean people. Yeah. That'll make her cough. I want to tell people that I'm allergic to strawberries

because I have this weird texture thing where I cannot stand the biting down on a strawberry, the little hard seeds. I have a violent reaction to that they're not that hard by the way no i know but like they're so tiny something about that texture in my mouth makes me like literally gag so i love the flavor of strawberry but i can't eat an actual strawberry and everyone thinks i'm insane so at this point i just sometimes i just have to be like i'm allergic to strawberries to avoid the conversation yeah because they don't

accept my that i just don't like the texture of it well you know those aren't the only tiny seeds there's obviously plenty of other seeds there's chia seeds do you gag when any other tiny seed is in there what is yeah i don't do chia seeds i don't so raspberries and those blackberries are in the same vein as strawberries um but i can't eat sesame seeds it's i guys that's a different thing i can't explain it now if you care at all some of the most healthy fruit yeah berries so if you can have blueberries i would highly recommend blueberries on a daily basis nice little handful wild blueberries even better what do blueberries do for you full of antioxidants okay cancer fighting all of that stuff okay yeah

what were you saying may before i was getting health advice oh i don't nothing of worth i mean i i almost said something there about our non-binary ants called antioxidants but it didn't work in my head it was like a half-baked thing antioxidant antioxidant but it wasn't good enough well we appreciate it still made the cut because you said it it's getting in that handsome pod but it'll it'll haunt you for the cut because you said it it's getting in that handsome pod but it'll it'll haunt you for the rest of your life it's not gonna go viral no it's not gonna be a tiktok yeah that would be an interesting first um step into tiktok is if you tried that joke out you know hey guys i'm new to tiktok uh i got this one thing it's kind of half-baked but

that picture of you during the pandemic went viral as well tig when you did the zombie movie oh yeah i mean i yeah i remember seeing that a lot it's gone viral a number of times yeah congratulations for having cancer and then cancer Largo. Yeah, and then for being sexy AF is what was on Twitter. Yeah, sexy AF with a cigar. Yeah, and now go on Twitter for my show, One Mississippi. For a person being mean to you because you're gay. Yeah. What a life.

What a life. What a life. What a life. And then there's Fortune with the billboard and Times Square. Do you have one now? Yeah. I do this radio show for Sirius XM for Netflix and they posted this big mug on a billboard for Pride Month.

So, you know, two steps forward, steps forward one two steps back and if you look closely you see um strawberry seeds all in her teeth yeah this was all a charade actually she loves strawberry seeds i mean the two of you with strawberry and coconut ice cream yeah no thanks let's not even talk about coconut. I mean, yeah, yeah. It's in pain. Yeah. Just pushing through it for us.

Yeah. Maybe it'll make me funnier, but it doesn't feel like it so far. Well, we have to check back with your Tik TOK video. Yeah. We'll see how many, how many shares.

Yeah. How many shareholders drop out. People are really investing in that joke. Yeah. Congrats. Thanks. We've been talking about it on the podcast. I've been treading water lately.

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at seed.com slash handsome, code 25handsome. I love the show, Hacks, and it is back, baby, for season three. That's right. We are going to see what kind of antics Deborah Vance is up to this season. She is such a treat to watch because who doesn't love Jean Smart? She is so freaking talented. Now, season two left off with Ava being fired. If you haven't watched any of Hacks, guess what? It's on Max. You can catch up and I highly recommend that you do so before season three starts. There is also an official Hacks podcast. In each episode, Hacks

creators Lucia Agnello, Paul W. Downs, and Jen Statsky speak with cast and crew members to unpack the Emmy-winning comedy series. So check out that podcast, but watch Hacks streaming exclusively on Max and listen to the official Hacks podcast on Max or wherever you get your podcasts. No, I know that we will be airing this after this has already happened, but do you guys have any plans for the 4th? The 4th of July? May, another big party? I i'm gonna go to the beach alone yeah yeah and just have a think just gonna gaze at the waves and have a little think about things no i'm gonna go with the some americans to the beach and i don't know what people do on

the fourth of july i think i don't want to wait till the night to wait for fireworks and stuff so i think i'll just sit in the sun i love that you specifically said with americans yeah yeah because do you typically hanging with americans well or even just acknowledge where everyone's from i'll be out there with some australians and there is one because i'm coming off the back of canada day and like assembling all the all the canucks i'm like i just want to clarify that i'm coming off the back of canada day and like assembling all the all the canucks i'm like i just want to clarify that i'm not taking canadians to the beach on july 4th yeah get them off our beach yeah i'm gonna immerse myself in your culture but if a canadian a fellow canadian wanted to join you're not gonna they say you can't come only amer. I'd say like keep it on the DL, but you can come.

Yeah, it feels like a similar vibe to Canada Day, right? Yeah, barbecue vibe. What are you guys going to do? I have no plans. That's why I wanted to live vicariously through YouTube. Well, that's sad. I know. We're going with some Eastern Europeans to the movie theater.

No, our kids have a friend whose parents are renting out a movie theater. What? Whoa. Well, people were doing that during the pandemic for like $200. True. You could rent out a movie theater. No way. Yeah.

Yeah. Because no one was going to the movies so they were like you can have the whole thing for the yeah two hours and then they make the money on the the snacks and make money anywhere because they were making zero and so people are still kind of doing that sometimes and so this kid's parents rented a movie theater out. Just to hang? Or were they going to watch a movie? Yeah, we're going to watch, not Noah's Ark. The Pixar movie that's out right now? No.

Noah's Ark would be a weird choice. What kids' movie's out right now? Of the Lost Ark. Oh, Indiana Jones. Oh, Indiana Jones. Indiana Jones. Oh, that'd be fun. Indiana Jones, yeah.

We're going to watch Indiana Jones. You're like like where's that arc you know that arc yeah and so you and you and Stephanie are gonna go

and watch it as well yep we're gonna take Max and Finn and go get some little vegan gummies that they sell there and just chomp away

wow I wonder if it'll be scary for them seeing Harrison Ford so old the plot you're like no seeing him old i was gonna say they don't know who he is but they've seen star wars so i'd have to explain that that's who that is yeah i can't wait to see it yeah i'm

i'm looking forward to it i saw the original original originals there's a lot yeah okay there's three there's three solid ones and then there's one new one that yeah i saw the original well i am available that day okay so tell ask your friend ask finn's and max's friend's mom if they have can i bring Can I bring this random friend? She just didn't have anywhere to go. I know there's room in that theater. My other friends on the beach having time alone. We got invited to a friend's house where it's a lot of kids, but they are going to be setting off fireworks. And I was like, I don't know if this is a great idea.

I'm not into the nov be setting off fireworks. And I was like, I don't know if this is a great idea. I'm not into the novices setting off fireworks. I would prefer professionals to be involved. Yeah. And dogs get stressed. And cats and birds and squirrels. Oh, that's true. I didn't think about that. Why am I only thinking about the dogs?

Yeah. Because they're domesticated and close to humans. Yeah, anthropomorphized. humans yeah then i will have no part of this i'll just i'm gonna sit at home and make myself a hamburger yeah and i'm proud to be an american should we get into our question? We sure shall. I have a lovely question here from the great Nina West, who is a drag queen, an actor, a singer.

Some of you might know Nina West from RuPaul's Drag Race on season 11, where she killed it. Super great. And has been on the national tour of hairspray currently playing edna oh wow yeah so really fantastic person and uh nina has a question for us hey handsome pod it's me nina west from rupaul's drag race and i've got a question for you today what inspires you to create all right there we go okay nina nina is like the embodiment of happiness yeah what a joyful um cadence yeah she was miss congeniality on her season of rupaul's drag race and then now does a lot of stuff with disney yeah actually has that kind of disney vibe right yeah speaking of disney disney's really

stepped it up with the lgbtq community oh in a good way oh yeah like they have like gay days and not just that but threatening to like take their whole situation out of florida whoa my god that is really good well they have a ton of gay people that go to disney like oh yeah i mean a lot of straight people do too but you know no some say it's the gayest place on earth and i the last time i was there i saw actually a lot of the employees who like do the vip tours who were passing me because i wasn't doing one they were there were like a lot of a lot of queer looking employees yeah so i thought that was pretty cool yeah it's it's been quite a turn of events yeah very inclusive so is it disney that inspires you to create disney is my whole inspiration

yeah a whole new world oh that's beautiful thank you i haven't even seen that movie yet well i'm i haven't either but i'm gonna see it now after when i just heard come out of your face well luckily uh they sing it a lot better than me in that movie i highly doubt that why does it sound so different saying like a sound came out of your mouth versus a sound came out of your face? It's so different. Something coming out of someone's face is so like. It reminds me of Max and Finn's birthday party. A friend of ours that was there, she was asking who was Max, who was Finn.

And I said, oh, that's Max right there with the red, red hair. And then that's Finn. And my friend said, oh, you mean the one walking around with Stephanie's face on his head? So, yeah. That's funny. Well, Nina asked us what inspires you to create. Did you have something that came to mind, Mae?

Probably like a sort of gaping hole in my soul, like a combination of like a need for approval and, you know, some childhood attachment wound. And then also just like I am really a big fan of so many people and of comedy. And I think I remain like a big fan of so many people and of comedy. And I think I remain a big fan person. And so I still love going to see comedy. And yeah, I feel like a fan still.

I don't know. And of course, Jesus Christ, our Lord, inspires me. And Savior. Now, let's go back to your gaping hole. Which I laughed at. That's what she said. And I apologize because I was like, that's hilarious. And then you were like, no, I'm dead serious.

Fortune, you were laughing at Mae's gaping hole. Well, Mae sometimes has a dry sense of humor like Jesus Christ. That part. Similar tone. Jesus Christ has a dry sense of humor yeah and then i was like wait is may i don't think may's kidding about that about the gaping hole well i'm reading a book right now that is kind of about feeling the need to to achieve and perform all the time and and where that comes from and and like yeah so it's making me think about, about whether that's a

healthy urge. But then at this point, it's just my job. I don't have any other qualifications. So I guess also there's stuff I want to, I want to be heard, like stuff I want to say and express. And yeah, I don't know. What about you guys? Well, I'm curious, just because this came up in my therapy session this morning about being seen and heard. Do you both feel seen and heard? Because I have to say, I do. Yeah, I do too. I feel seen and heard. And I think that I maybe didn't when I first started in stand up. And I felt like I had so much to say and so many thoughts and feelings and wanted to express these different ideas and I still have that but it's definitely not personally it's not

coming from I don't feel seen or heard yeah I feel I feel seen and heard by my family, by Stephanie, by strangers. I don't know. That's really nice, though. Yeah. That's interesting that you're like, the thinking back, that was probably part of it. I definitely feel like, and this is so crazy, but I feel like there's a part of me that, especially in my early 20s and stuff, that wanted straight audiences to be like, oh, this person's just like me which is

so obvious of course they should know that but just like getting just being like guys this is not the most important thing about me and we're the same and we can and we all laugh at the same thing I think that was like an underlying impulse of like I want people to relate to like my love stories as much as I relate to like watching Titanic wait that's a weird example but like like you know I grew up watching straight love stories like I so I felt compelled to like very much write for straight audiences but not changing myself but being like I want people to feel do you still go in that direction do you feel or or have that need or maybe uh the inspiration still coming from there?

Maybe a little bit. Yeah. Yeah, definitely with gender stuff, like trying to explain myself constantly and be like, everybody has a gender and a relationship to gender. It's not limited to just trans people or whatever. It's like we all exist on that spectrum and can like interrogate it and have a relationship with it. I don't know. I'm being serious today it's crazy i know that's all right all the while very handsome thank you so much as long as so seriously handsome seriously handsome

in fact speaking of handsome this morning when i went in to um goodbye to Stephanie before I went to the doctor I walk into our closet and she turns looks at me and she says you look so handsome oh she's never said that to me before and I said wait what and she said I I've never ever said that to you I don't know she said I don't know why that just came out of my mouth and I said that is so interesting and how did it feel i mean it felt just the same as um you know pretty yeah well i mean it doesn't you know i don't know that people look at me and they're like well isn't tig so pretty has kind of a I think that the Pippi Longstocking vibe girl you are so pretty too but you know what there is this weird thing where every now and then when I have makeup on

and someone takes a picture of me I pointed out to stephanie i said there is this person that appears from time to time when i have makeup on and they take a picture pretty little lady shows up and i and i look like a pretty little lady yeah and i showed it to stephanie and we laughed so hard and every now and then she'll show me a picture of me and she'll be like, pretty little lady was out to dinner tonight. Pretty little lady. Pretty little lady was backstage. And it's not always, but every now and then pretty little lady is in a photo. And I never know when she's going to show up.

And it makes us laugh so hard because it does not look like me. It's so funny that it's not even like a particular angle. It's just like an energy that appears and i'm picturing like a pretty little lady batting your eyelids it's as though i never was gay and i'm just living my straight life and and i and we get a little glimpse into what pretty little lady looks like i imagine all three of us are the type that if someone were to say you look really pretty the three of us would all be like oh thanks it's like kind of weird yeah thanks grandma but then if they're like oh how dapper how handsome we're like yeah oh thank you you know like we're like more that suits us more than when

it feels so silly when someone's like i get it sometimes too if i like i do characters that have makeup they're like you look so pretty and i'm like you're like okay my character's pretty yeah this feels weird to accept for myself but i'm trying to start describing my male friends as pretty like my straight male friends that's most of my friends are are straight british guys and and i'm like you look beautiful like i i want to tell like you tell max and finn they're beautiful we gotta make sure we do yeah i tell it they're beautiful they're adorable they're handsome i just all the things yeah and they are and pretty yes and pretty pretty is a weird word pretty does feel like why aren't you so pretty like you're talking to a

five-year-old girl or something look at your pigtails i'll ask people you know just in an awkward situation i'll ask do you think i'm pretty but like at the doctor's office just anytime i can just get someone to squirm out the answer to that that's so you like making people squirm in general i do do you think i'm pretty my mother was very beautiful like very beautiful same my father was um oh same what everyone's mom's beautiful and i didn't say anything and i was like wait i should say my mom is my mom i always say my mother was gorgeous my father was not and that makes me drop dead cute do you think that um wanting people to think you're handsome inspires any of your creativity guys i don't know if i feel handsome pretty or gorgeous i feel like i i fall in the like cute

category yeah like adorable kind of thank you fortune are you thinking about me directly about you yeah not or do you feel adorable Fortune? I get a lot of like you're so cute you're adorable that kind of stuff more than handsome and pretty no you're both also beautiful and handsome and pretty we just wanted to make each other feel good today

I'm just imagining someone tuning into this podcast for the first time and being like what is this it's just us being like you're beautiful complimenting each other i don't think that my motivation is ever like in the looks department when it comes to content it would take when you said have you do you feel seen and heard i think i think i didn't feel seen and heard until I put out my first hour special. I think before that, like, I felt so misunderstood or, like,

nobody really knew my voice or what I did. No one really knew what to do with me. And then that was the first time I got to just be like, well, here's my story. And here's who I am. And that, I feel like that was when I first started getting seen and heard but I think as far as like feeling handsome I always feel ridiculous on stage like I don't feel like oh this is I'm gonna be they're gonna think I'm real sexy when I tell this story I'm always like over the top and big and it's like more ridiculous than anything yeah you are ridiculous and adorable

it's true that like trying to look cool or hot is the enemy of comedy well it is it is interesting that that that angle of cool and hot it doesn't work for me like i'm always in like becoming some gargoyle like creature from my teens and that doesn't come across to me just so you know when i watch your comedy i do get the more handsome vibe oh thanks but i think i think there's something cool fortune you need to cool it off yeah well i'm just you know okay you're a married woman yeah your stuff's like funny but you also come across as cool when i watch it here is the pact that we have to all be involved in and it's that we never allow our comedy to be the kind of comedy where you're like full-on acting like you are a rock star no before you go on stage right

oh like airbox shadow box we can't airbox you can't airbox and then you can't do like i'm so intense like yeah yeah i did like when i started did you ever do when you started have a moment of like, look, I remember being like 15 and doing standup and just impersonating other standups basically. Like, and I remember smoking a cigarette on stage because you could still smoke inside. And I bombed because everyone was like, this is so, who is this child smoking?

Yeah, it was so not cool, but I'm glad I got over that. This child smoking. yeah it was so not cool but i'm glad i got over that smoking i feel like there were so many comedians that were really pacing around and and really intense deep thinkers and maybe there was a smoker in there and maybe someone had a drink or but there i feel like there's so many people just trying to present themselves as like i'm intense i'm deep yeah i'm on the edge i am i'm like tortured yeah yeah and i don't know it's it's just I feel like that stuff just happens authentically. And you don't have to be pacing around smoking. Agreed. And doing intense stares into the camera. Yeah.

Agreed. Okay. So let's say you've just had a special come out, or something come out that you've been working really hard on. And then you're kind of like, starting from scratch, or you're just sitting around like, well, what do I do now? What is what is like the jumping off point like are you always thinking about what's my next hour of stand-up gonna be or are you like what's my next project gonna be or not me I'm always like I'm always worried I'm not gonna have anything to say that's always my greatest fear is like I just put out an hour what now like what do I say and so I really sit with that for like a couple months of like I don't know what to say. And then I have to kind of start forcing myself to sit down and think about things. And like I keep a note like on the notes section of my phone.

I'll keep like stories and stuff. So I'll just have to like go through that and be like what what is funny of those things and i'll start like hashing them out but then i don't find a narrative till much later into whatever this hour is yeah how about when you find an old note of what you clearly thought was hilarious and you cannot piece together what the hell that meant. Yes, that's definitely happened. Oh my gosh. I'll just jot things down on a piece of paper or napkin. And I'll be like, okay, I'm sure I'll know what that is. Cause that is so funny.

And then I stumble upon it and I'm like, what on earth could that possibly be? And I'll run it by Stephanie. And she's like, I do not know. And it makes zero sense i mean i love i think we've talked about this take like i love when people bomb so i i love watching someone bomb i don't mind bombing myself like i find it so same oh it's just i don't enjoy it it's like oh we're alive and it's so embarrassing to have been like i thought this was funny i 100 and like i flew here

i flew here on a plane and told you something that i had a very off perspective about yeah and uh now i'm gonna pack up my things and fly home i the other day told someone i was in i was actually in bed with someone and i told them this and then all right wi-fi went out it'll be up in 30 minutes yeah you know when my wi-fi went out i was was telling this person. And then I thought it was really funny. And she went, that's interesting. And I went, like, funny, though? And she went, no, I don't think it would work on stage.

And I was like, I'm going to prove you wrong. And then did it on stage. It's still not funny. But how many times did you do it on stage? Yeah, only once. Because I feel like you've got to do it at least three times. You've got to try to go through. Yeah.

OK, it's just that I was having a massage, and then I was imagining, I was trying to relax, and so I was imagining. Wait, Fortune, are you prepared for this awkward situation? I'm ready for it. Where Mae is trying out material on us? Okay, go on. You're getting a massage.

Let's just pretend we're in bed with Mae. Okay, pretend you're in bed with me. I just told you you're so pretty massage but let's just pretend we're in bed with me okay you're in bed with me i just told you you're so pretty so handsome oh my gosh man so handsome but also this is not material yet this is just the anecdote that i think one day could be material i'm making i hear it as your closer okay i was getting a massage and i was imagining that i sometimes imagine that the masseuse is god and they're creating me out of clay or something and then i so i think it's like a benevolent creator who just loves me and is making me out of clay and i was saying it's that's a good way to a cool thing to do but don't tell the masseuse that that's what you're doing because

it'll freak them out because i did tell them you told the masseuse that that's what you're doing because it'll freak them out. Because I did tell the masseuse. You told the masseuse that you thought they were God? Yeah. I said, man, sometimes I imagine. I just said it like I just said it. Sometimes I imagine like you're God and I'm like, you're creating me. I honestly would not know how to respond to that. Yeah, it wasn't good.

It wasn't good. And what did God say? He just sort of awkwardly chuckled and were like okay well i imagine you're god and you're creating me they're like um is this enough pressure yeah and also it was one of those like apps where they come to your house and i think the guy the poor guy just was like i gotta get out of here what situation am i in oh my gosh yeah that that's a funny bit for like um if you're writing your shit you know when you're writing your show for you to act out to act out but not to yeah because what i couldn't when i

said it on stage i just i just said it like that and everyone was like wow i still say use it as your closer and call my next show benevolent creator masseuse yeah absolutely but i also think that you should put together your strongest best material and then just awkwardly end your show with uh i don't even know if this is funny but i told this this girl once yeah i got i told this girl then i told on stage it didn't work then i told her on a podcast tried it on the podcast so what inspires me to create being in bed with someone well someone saying that's not funny and then i go well just too late let me show you i'll be laughing all the way to the bank i will say next time you get a massage though try that it's pretty spiritual okay like don't

tell them but imagine thinking thinking of them as their god and creating us yeah or the universe or whatever you want like just end it okay that that it's like infinite love from the universe i'll do it i honestly can't wait you're gonna have to because we still have a little while before the episode i can't do it i can't go just do a massage right now but i just imagined the reverse and how freaked out I would be if a masseuse said to me, hey, okay, so I want you to imagine I'm God. You might be open to it. Yeah.

Tig and I would be like, what? I'm going to call your manager. Hi, can I speak with the manager? This freak. Just called me God. hi can i speak with the manager uh this freak just called me god yeah do you ever when you when you write stuff imagine a specific person watching it i don't think that you're performing it to one person like i think i'm like i if every time i post something on instagram i'm imagining like a couple girls who bullied me from high school seeing that post oh interesting is there I'm imagining like a couple of girls who bullied me from high school, seeing that post.

Oh, interesting. Is there anyone who you like want to be seen and heard by specifically? I'm always hoping Oprah will watch one of my videos and invite me on a hike. Yeah. No, I don't know. I,

yeah, I don't think I've ever thought about anyone in particular. Cool. Me neither. Yeah. about anyone in particular cool me neither do you guys get inspired by other comics like like do you ever watch someone and go fuck that was good man maria bamford maria bamford maria bamford i'm always always creating too oh my god and and talk about watching someone bomb i've seen maria bamford bomb and it is you know i i feel for her if she's not enjoying the experience but as a fan i'm like

the audience is wrong first of all totally um you're brilliant and second of all it's still hilarious yeah but yeah she's the kind of comedian where when i watch her i go why am i doing that why do i do stand-up yeah when maria bamford exists yeah and when people just have a skill that you don't like a type of like she's so singular and it's so yeah yeah she's so great she's so good yeah yeah definitely like we'll watch some people's either live or their specials and be like oh i gotta start writing more yeah that's usually what's always it always goes back to like i gotta go write more right yeah i just watched um john early's special and the way he moves his face, like that's one thing I really don't have. Like I say a lot of words and stuff,

but I'm not aware of what's going on with my face or body at all. I'm just like not that connected to it. So watching the way he moves his body and his face and his expressions, he's such a clown and it's just so amazing to watch, like the precision of the movements that I'm like, fuck, I and then I think for like a week, I'm like, I want to do that. And then I try. And then I'm just go back to talking about my masseuse. You give it a whirl. And then somebody's like, what were you doing with your face?

Yeah, they're like, okay. Yeah. Well, I am glad that comedy is has shifted into that place where people being themselves is like what people want yeah you know like the uniqueness of of different comics and like it's not just like about a setup and punchline anymore but it's like what's your story yeah what makes you you like i'm i'm glad we're kind of entering that space now because that's more interesting to me yeah and realizing that that almost like the more specific you are the more universal it is it's such a weird phenomenon yeah you know it reminds me of you know when you're a kid and your parents tell you oh you you know they're jealous or you have to be yourself and

all of those things you don't really believe or know to be true yet yeah and and you're just like yeah right you're my mother so you're telling me that people think i'm smart or whatever it is funny and then you get older and you have the experience or hopefully have the experience that the more you are yourself yeah the more you stand out yeah and and now like the people i want to be friends with are the people that are the most authentically themselves and and the older you get the more it's you can really pick up on someone who's not themselves or and it can make you feel uncomfortable but it does feel like a trap someone being like just be yourself on stage and and then it is like a self-esteem firing squad because you're like oh okay well everyone's gonna relate to this masseuse story and then everyone's

like that's freaky but it does feel like how could that possibly be enough to get yeah people to hear and understand me and then you realize oh that's 100% the direct route there yeah completely yeah I remember starting out my material was way less personal and then you really feel like a palpable change in the audience reaction like people are so there for it when the more you I mean unless you're doing a different genre of comedy like of which there are many but yeah i definitely felt like a total shift in how much people were connecting and who who are comedians that inspire you me anybody that's listening hello hello he was saying me i inspire myself me who me um i mean i i always have it's interesting i i grew up watching more

like sketch comedy same than i did um stand up so i don't have like when everyone's like who's your who who you listen to growing up i didn't really listen to stand up but i was like obsessed with carol burnett and watching like old reruns of her show i always love like will ferrell molly shannon like those over the top kind of characters that they would you want to be on snl yeah that was my dream for a long time i tested twice for the show back in 2009 2010 i thought that was like my path and so when that didn't pan out, you just, you know, shift the dream shifts. And then I started to get a lot more serious about stand up probably in the last seven years, I would say. So now I'm, you know, looking at comics.

And I think the people that I resonate with the most aren't as known. Same. people that I resonate with the most aren't as known. Same. I, I ironically, you know, it's like,

I, there's all these like local comics, like in New York that I'll go watch. And I'm like, they're so funny, you know? Yeah. That, you know,

they're up and coming or whatnot. Yeah. I, I also had, was into sketch comedy and like, uh, SCTV and kids in the hall and British comedy and stuff. But,

but then, I mean, you, you guys definitely, I'm a fan of and i remember yeah like like your pacing take is so that's so something i can't do i've i've nervously like fill every every silent moment and like i remember seeing you on conan and being like oh my god like a master of confidence yeah like it's electric yeah and then who else yeah silly people that's all i was waiting yeah yeah well sarah silverman was always yeah i was always inspired by her being so unique like i was like there's no one like her i love that and sarah's like no matter how successful sar, I mean, she just continues to write and work on stand up. Yeah.

Isn't too proud to go do some, you know, random weird show. You know what I mean? Like she's same with like Margaret Cho. It's the same thing. It's like you see them have this great success they become these iconic comedians and they're they're not jumping off the boat yeah as soon as they get a tv show they're like still going back to and have never stepped away from the stand-up stage did you watch the joan rivers documentary that was pretty well fascinating on so many levels but

also made me feel real lazy because man she I mean in her 80s cabinet with all the jokes yeah the file cabinet millions of jokes and then doing like an hour of new material every week or something in her 80s like wow yeah yeah Stephanie got tickets for us to go see her. It was shortly before she died. And seeing her run around the stage in high heels in her 80s, destroying the room, was mind-blowing. I have to say, though, the one thing that kind of broke my heart watching that documentary was that she said she doesn't feel like a comedian, which is that she's an actress. Yeah. And I was I was I was what? I know. But isn't that just isn't that just misogyny, basically, like a lifetime of just not feeling in the club

and being like, well, I must be different to these guys. And even though but I mean, she started out as an actor. And so that's how she saw herself is first and foremost, she's an actor. I kind of relate to like, not feel like I feel like I'm, there's an element of acting and stand up. And I'm always like embarrassed to say I'm a stand up, even though I do it all the time. And I like, yeah, I don't know.

You're embarrassed. Why? Yeah, I just just i've never felt quite part of the club like i i guess now i've yeah i wouldn't i would say i'm a i'm a comedian or but i would i don't know if i'd say like i'm a stand-up because even though that i i am i guess it seems like it yeah tig is there a stand-up you look to as for inspiration or the i mean just maria i mean maria bamford inspires me where i'm just like but then there's comedian i mean i love i just love

silliness and i i i just love it so much and and and you get silliness even from maria bamford who could be talking about being in a mental institution. There's still silliness in there. And even Sarah Silverman, no matter where she's going, there's silliness in there. I love Zach Galifianakis. Same, same, yeah. Yeah, I love him.

Conan, like... Conan is so dumb. Yeah, when I... And then, like John Doerr, do you know who John Doerr is? Yeah, I love John Doerr. He is so dumb yeah we're not and then yeah like john dore do you know who john yeah i love john dore i he is so dumb yeah he is the dumbest person alive but yeah conan o'brien was big and for me and being in school and being like because so many comedians at that time it felt like we're pointing the finger outward and being like too cool and then conan was like i'm ridiculous and i'm and always making fun of himself on a show and being like this clown and then conan was like i'm ridiculous and i'm and always making

fun of himself on a show and being like this clown and i loved it i was like that i can get like i love that yeah it's always fun to just see entertainers themselves having a good time yeah you know like oh it's fun to watch you have fun, too. Oh, man, like Martin Short on stage. You just can tell he's having the time of his life. The dumbest person alive. The dumbest person alive. I love it. Well, should we hear what Nina has to say?

Yeah. You know, Handsome Pod, there are a lot of things that inspire me to create, from reading books to hang out with my friends, but really mostly a delicious bottle of Pinot Noir. Cheers. Oh, all right.

Okay. Some drunk creating is fun too. I was not expecting the bottle of Pinot Noir. Nor was I. I I've never been. I know a lot of people. Do you guys drink before you're on stage? I used to.

Not much. Maybe like a couple sips sometimes of something. Yeah. Sometimes just the sense memory of being relaxed, like having a couple sips of a whiskey soda. My brain will go, oh, you must be relaxed. But no. You? Yeah. No, no. whiskey soda my brain will go oh you must be relaxed but no you yeah no no and i've had like

a secret fantasy of getting just shit face let's do a show where we're going on stage and just seeing what happens we should go and do the drunken handsome tour together yeah we're all three trashed and we do whatever like 30 minutes each and see what happens light our careers on fire just yeah name names get really oh my god name name i did that drunk history show where you hammered and then tell a story how was that i mean it's hard to know when you're gonna be the most drunk and i they like i was drunk for sure but they rapped and then the height of my drunkness hit oh my god right as they right when they wrap so i was like bananas post filming like how drunk and what did you like how much did you drink like a lot a lot of whiskey i drink a bunch of whiskey and what's a bunch i mean gosh i don't even know like five whiskeys five whiskey drinks yeah five or five or

six oh that's a lot i would be hospitalized well they have a nurse that they had a nurse there that like takes your vitals no oh my god that's when you know you've made a great decision i just remember having to pee a lot too because i was drinking it so much so yeah so it was like you know when you're filming something you you don't know when the window's going to hit. We're at peak drunk. How long does it take you to get to peak drunk? I'm a pretty, I can drink a lot. It takes me a lot to get tipsy.

So I have to drink. I have to start a couple hours before I want to be drunk. Oh my gosh. Before you let the party start up. Yeah, before I really want to get drunk. I don't get drunk a lot because i don't have the patience to wait and drink keep drinking till i get to that point i'm just like this is pointless well on the on the drunk handsome of you yeah i really think we should do a show at largo or

something where we explain at the beginning that tig's always had this fantasy of doing a trunk yeah and we watched tig drink or you leave the stage and then you come back out and you do a lot it does not take a lot crowd does not take a lot yeah oh it should be the drunken crowd work yeah i love it oh my god it's kind of win-win because if you are killing it's amazing if and then if you're i mean if something goes wrong and you're just being mean to people or something then i love that even more it's like i love when people we just go out and we're just so ruthlessly mean to the audience thank you and good night so funny well something to plan for all right well, I guess we'll just see our listeners on the drunken, handsome crowd work tour. Not for the faint of heart.

That's right. Get your bourbon, get your whiskey. I did enjoy getting to hear about everybody's like creative side. That was cool. Yeah, that was so cool. Look at us learning about each other. Look at us. Pretty little ladies.

Pretty little ladies learning and drinking. Tig, do you have anything you'd like to promote for our lovely, handsome listeners? Fortune, I do. I'm going to be in Torrington, Connecticut on September 15th. Rochester, New York, September 16th. Wilmington, Delaware, September 17th, Colorado Springs, September 25th, Breckenridge, Colorado, September 28th, La Crosse, Wisconsin, October 28th.

Also, the rest of October, early to mid to late, I mean, basically all of October, I'm going to be doing a European tour, but all that information's at my website, tignotaro.com. And then let us not forget that I am taping my next special November 4th in Brooklyn at King's Theater. I believe the early show is sold out. And so there are late show tickets left for you to grab. That's exciting. Also, I want to remind our listeners that on September 12th,

I'm doing a live show of my other podcast. It's called Don't Ask Tig. And my two guests are Fortune Feimster and Mae Martin. And it's going to be a live streaming show. Get your tickets at donastig.org and look at our handsome faces online. And Fortune, what about you? Do you have anything to promote? Yes, Tig, thank you for asking. Absolutely, Fortune. Starting September 15th, I'm going to be in San Antonio, Texas and New Orleans. Then a couple weeks after that, Portland, Oregon, Spokane,

Washington, Boise, Minneapolis, Sioux Falls, South Dakota, Oakland, California, Evansville, Indiana, Dayton, Ohio, and Charleston, West Virginia. And then we're putting Florida dates on sale soon. So be on the lookout for that. Fortunefeimstercom nice so may do you have anything you want to tell our handsome podcast folks about i want to tell them i love them and i want to tell them that i'm doing a largo show september 13th may martin and friends with uh nicole byers doing it and a bunch of a bunch of really fun people and then also on the 16th and 17th, I'm at the Elysian doing improv with Stephanie Allen and Alana Johnston.

All right, well, until next time, keep it handsome. Yeah. Handsome is hosted by me, Tig Notaro, Mae Martin, and Fortune Themester. The show is produced, recorded, and edited by Thomas Ouellette. Email us at handsomepod at gmail.com.

Follow us on social media at handsomepod.