Should Tig Notaro win the Grammy for best comedy album, or the Scammy? You decide

Sunday, January 12, 2014

Should Tig Notaro win the Grammy for best comedy album, or the Scammy? You decide

“ I make things up as I go along. I make things up as I want them to be. Repeat it till it’s true. I get away with it cause I’m adorable .”
                                                         Tig Notaro on her MySpace Blog(2007)

                                   
Is comedian, Tig Notaro, telling the truth about having cancer, and her cancer set?

On a October 4th 2012 podcast, she told her cohosts, and audience, that she will would have  “natural treatments.”  The update came in at the last minute of the podcast, and no more detail was provided.


In preparation for  Louis CK’s release of an audiotape, on  October 5th 2012, she told Terry Gross of Fresh Air, why she’d be fine with just those natural remedies.

GROSS: What's your prognosis now?    

           
 NOTARO: I spoke with my doctor, who told me the testing came back, and I have a 7 percent recurrence rate. So that's beyond amazing.

Has her treatment changed over time, or just in the telling?

 In September of 2012, she told her ever faithful chronicler, The Huffington Post’s  Carol Hartsell this:

“ So as it stands right now after my surgery I will begin chemo. And my surgery is gonna be in Los Angeles and then I’m gonna start chemo in New York.”

On September 24 2012, she wrote this one and only, and very odd, blog post.  Here she has more tumors too : http://www.standup2cancer.org/blog/view/knock_knock._whos_there_cancer

Hmmm. What is this about? 


On her October 2nd podcast, Professor Blastoff, she said that it would only be "natural treatments."


In July of 2013, she states that all along she's been on hormone blockers as opposed to her telling everyone else  until then that it was just her you know... having a healthy diet...
. http://www.glamourmagazine.co.uk/news/features/2013/07/a-double-mastectomy-was-my-only-option


 After surgery, I was put on hormone-blocking treatments, which will last for five years. Chemo was suggested, but I refused, since it might affect the possibility of having kids some day. 

OK, so for whatever reason(usually because Nick Kroll has a contact in the publication,) in July of 2013 Glamour Magazine UK  saw fit discuss the very strange case of a grizzled lesbian self named, "Tig." Glamour and Elle covering her false story has its roots in Nick Kroll's contacts in the press. Here's just three samples. There are many more.

http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2010/08/a-spy-in-the-jungle/60770/


. http://theumpires.quora.com/Grantland-should-learn-from-The-Atlantic

 http://www.inquisitr.com/68429/freelance-reporter-fronts-for-pi-firm-in-investigation-of-fda-members/

 On August 23rd 2013, a month later, she told Claire Black this in the Independant: 

“I didn’t really start doing stand-up again until three months ago,” she says, explaining that after having a double mastectomy and radiotherapy she wasn’t in any physical or emotional state to be getting on stage. “ 

(Strangely, she got on stage non-stop, and traveled extensively all over America and other countries to promote her Professor Blastoff Podcast. 16 days after allegedly having major surgery, she was on Conan waving her arms around and appearing to suffer no adverse side effects.  I can find no further reference to anything but “natural remedies,” a year ago, and then “I’m starting hormone shots,”  three months ago.  )

To Peter Holmes in You made it Weird Podcast- “ in September of 2013-  

Discussion about her diet and how healthy and ecstatic she is. How she is "so happy I had cancer."  Nothing about radiation or treatment other than…“I’ll be starting hormone shots in a few weeks,”

Note: Is any one suffering from cancer every so happy to have it? Why did she not mention to Holmes her radiotherapy and her diminished health due to it? Why would she have not told him she began hormone shots after her surgery as opposed to her talking about how she disdains diet coke drinkers and would be starting up hormone blockers in a few weeks.

Flashback to the diagnosis, and the set-

When did she get a mammogram?

On her podcast:  “July 2012”

To Huffington Post’s Carol Hartsell:  “Yeah, after Amy hired me on the show, I had the mammogram and the abnormal results

Vs. 

Notaro to Elle Magazine’s, Ariel Levy: When Notaro finally made it back to California a month later(after her mother's death,) she kept a scheduled mammogram appointment; it came back abnormal. "

( From her Facebook: Tig Notaro  July 2, 2012)

“life, you are a strange, strange bird, aren't you?all of a sudden i'm now moving to NYC.i got asked to write and also be on a fancy television program. It’s been a swirling possibility, but last night i got the confirmation …”)

(From her Facebook - May 15, 2012

Tig returns after a 6 wk absence dealing with the unexpected loss of her mother and recovering from her own wk long stint in the hospital.

Note:-Notaro was hired for the Amy Shumer show on July 2^nd 2012 - according to her facebook page, so she’s telling Hartsell it was July when she had this mammogram scheduled. Her mother. Mathilde “Susie” Ocgallahan had a funeral, on April 1st, according to a eulogy online, so she was telling Levy it was in May when she kept the scheduled appointment for a mammogram.
She returns to LA some capacity on May 15^th, according to her facebook.  If Notaro told Levy it was May, then that would mean that it took a long time form from mammogram to diagnosis and that she was lying about it being in July. I will defer to those with experience with breast cancer, but it seems that you’d remember if you got the mammogram in the throes of a breakup, your mothers death, and C-Diff as opposed to the story of getting it after July 2^nd,when according to Notaro she’d gone to her regular doctor, after getting out of the hospital. That whole story of how she revisited the lump also makes no sense and I will get to it soon.

How soon before she took the  Largo stage, had Tig Notaro  been told she had cancer?

A blogger named Kira Hesser who also appears to consider herself a historian crafted her eyewitness account to a "truly historical moment in comedy." stated this as coming from the mouth of Tig Notaro on that Largo stage:
 

From Kira Hesser's blog flame like me:

 Applause gave way to reticent laughter as she explained how she had planned a set about bees flying alongside her car on the 405, but that she couldn’t possibly do her “silly jokes” when all this was going on. And that’s when she told us that 3 days ago, she was diagnosed with breast cancer, in both breasts.
 


 NPR  would have Notaro on, in time for October’s Cancer Awareness month, but apparently not in time to pin down the date of diagnosis. To them it was more dramatic that Hesser/Notaro's three days.

Ira Glass of NPR: “A few hours after learning her diagnosis, she went onstage. “

Notaro on her podcast and to Entertainment Weekly: The day before I did the set,  I learned the stage of the Cancer.

Notaro to the guardian: four days before she learned the stage.

Time magazine- hours after her cancer diagnosis she went on stage.

Wikipedia: “A day before .”

To Terry Gross of NPR’s Fresh Air: Maybe a week before, or maybe a day before in reference to told she had cancer, and the staging.

I was very nervous. I was rattled, and I felt raw, and I felt very vulnerable. Even though I had been diagnosed maybe a week prior to that, it was only maybe the day before the show that I had met with my doctor, who told me that I had stage 2 breast cancer and that the tumor on the left side was invasive and that because the cancer was not contained, their fear was that it had possibly spread to my lymph nodes.

 To Andrew Goldman of The New York Times: I was diagnosed with cancer on July 25^th (2012)

Note: If I performed a set that got press and acclaim, I think I’d remember how soon after I got the stuff up to brace myself to do a comedy set. Also, Bilateral Cancer is rare. I wonder how rare it is to have bilateral breast cancer with stage two in both breasts…It's possible but is it probable, and is it realistic that she never discussed any details about her complex diagnosis's. Also note that her story of it spreading to the lymph nodes will change to it not spreading and then she will forget and tell another publication that it spread long after telling how the surgeons laughed when she awoke from surgery as there had been no spread at all.

Why was the show taped? Who taped it? 

Notaro on her podcast, and to various outlets: Because she wanted to be on American Life twice and Ira Glass was after her for material, and told her “ your power is on the stage.” So she taped it so she might use some of it for later for This American Life.

Notaro to Entertainment Weekly’s Popwatch: “Flanagan records audio of most of the shows there, so when I got off stage and went home that night, I emailed Ira and said, ‘I think I got something you could maybe use [for This American Life].’

Notaro to the Los Angeles Times- She records her performances, then tweaks the routines. That's why Notaro recorded the Largo show

Or, was Louis CK’s version correct: 
After her set, I asked Mark Flanagan, the owner of Largo (great club, by the way) if he recorded the set. Largo is set up for excellent recordings. He said that he did.

 To Peter Holmes , two months ago: (Since Holmes is a comedian in L.A and NY and knows of Mark Flanagans strict no taping policy, he sought to have her clarify why it was taped.)

 On Holmes’s podcast of  October of 2013- She stated that she had made sure she requested Mark Flanagan tape it so she’d have it for this American Life- to work on or use etc.

Note: So what’s the score there?An even split between her taping it and Mark Flanagan taping it? One for her asking Mark Flanagan to tape it? Why would something so concrete and easy to remember not stay consistent?

Who was the MC on the Evening of  August 3^rd 2012 (The case of the missing host?)


Kira Hesser:  Ed Helms Introduced her

Louis CK: Ed Helms introduced her

The Independent in August of 2013 : " Louis CK and Notaro are old pals, so he gave her a warm introduction"

Taken from an interview, so this must be what she told the writer.

Notaro: Ed Helms introduced me

Note:  The show was called Tig Notaro and friends. She has done this show may times at Largo, and she does the introducing. The scenario that was sold was of her there to perform a 30 minute show and that she’d faced the audience, for the first time, after May Lynn Raskub, and Ed Helms had performed. The only way for this to make sense is if she had been relieved of her hosting duties  due to the stress of learning her diagnosis one day or two days a or a week or four days before. Or, was it July 25th 2012- when she and Nick Kroll went to Largo to cheer her up, and once there Conan O’Brian told her how he and his staff loved her and she can come on anytime.

Also, Notaro tells her pod cast cohosts and audience, that she gets to the show, and she is in charge of scheduling, and she goes on to say how she scheduled it strategically: i.e.  Ever the pro, she scheduled it so Bill Burr and Louis CK, came after her - if she didn’t do well the audience would leave feeling they got a good show.  If it was her show, who was doing the MC duties, if not her?

Notaro would tell a tale of how Mark Flanagan had cancelled a show on July 29th 2012, when she said she wasn't up to it,  and that Mark Flanagan promised to cancel this one too, if she just said the word. He'd been willing to lose over twenty thousand dollars( 25 dollars a ticket times 560 seats and drinks) because she was performing one set?

If any cancellations really did take place(and evidence suggests they did not.)Would he need to cancel a show where she was not the host, and had only to come perform a 30 minute set? Hadn't Flanagan let her do a "return to Largo" show on July 16th 2012 already? If she told him of cancer would he cancel two shows in response?


Did Notaro tell anyone what she planned to do on stage?

Not all of it, of course, but Louis CK, would remember a detailed encounter with Notaro backstage, when he sold the set on his website, and when he set this out to all the people on his e-mail list. The Huffington Post wrote a whole piece dedicated to his "e-mail blast."

From Louis CK's Website:

 October 5th 2012- 

One night I was performing at a club in LA called Largo. Tig was there. She was about to go on stage. I hadn't seen Tig in about a year and I said how are you? She replied "well I found out today that I have cancer in both breasts and that it has likely spread to my lymph nodes. My doctor says it looks real bad. "

Three days later, Louis CK spoke to Terry Gross of NPR’s Fresh Air about the set.

October 8th 2012

So I went in and there was Tig and we're standing in the dark next to the stage and she's getting ready to go on. And I said hey, I heard you're sick. I'm sorry. And she said actually, I have cancer. And I was like what? And she said yeah, it's really bad and it's in my whole chest and it's going to go all the way to my lymph nodes and I'm not going to make it, probably. And she started telling me this stuff and, you know, my eyes filled up, I couldn't believe it.

Notaro to WBRC radio, and to Peter Holmes, and on her podcast:

"I didn’t talk to anyone backstage. I didn’t tell anyone." She went on to how shocked all the performers were afterwards.


How did Louis CK approach Notaro about releasing the tape? / Woody Allen as witness?

http://www.timteeman.com/2013/08/09/tig-notaro/

According to Tig Notaro: 

“After the show It took her two months to agree to Louis C.K.’s idea to release it and is “shocked” that it’s become the No1 selling comedy album. “When you do a show it might generate chatter, but not go around the world,” she says.

(It was released at the Start of October- Cancer awareneness month, don’t ya know.)

On his website, Louis CK would say this about her reluctance to release the tape. https://buy.louisck.net/news/about-tig-notaro

“A few days later, I wrote Tig and asked her if I could release this set on my site. I wanted people to hear what I saw. What we all saw that night. She agreed.”

Vs. 

 Tig Notaro to Ariel Levy of Elle Magazine:

After the show, Notaro was revved up and stayed out with friends until 5 a.m. "I woke up at noon and turned my phone on, and it would not stop buzzing. Hundreds of e-mails, texts: ‘How are you?’ ‘I love you.’ From everyone I’ve ever known. It had just exploded on the Internet during the night; I was so confused. I had e-mails from my manager: Rolling Stone wants to talk to you, The New York Timescalled, book offers are coming in. It was like it was July and I came out of my bedroom and the house was decorated for Christmas, with a tree and presents and your whole family is there like, fa la la la la. What is happening?"

C.K. called to say he’d had a three-hour lunch with Woody Allen talking about her set, and wanted to sell a recording of the set on his website. (Called "Live," it has sold more than 100,000 downloads.)

Note: In nearly every version of this part- she says Louis CK called her the next morning and urged her to release it and she only agreed a week before October...

So, did CK e-mail her somewhat leisurely and have her agree a few days later, or did he call her the next day urging and pleading and such...? Or is Tig Notaro an insane liar. I go with the last one unless Louis CK is lying for whatever reason?

She would repeatedly make comments about how she only gave in after months of Louis CK's pestering. And, she always maintained that Louis CK called her the next day to urge her to release it because "It is very important."

A fist fight broke out... This is all during my set. I had to stay focused and talk to audience while people were pinning each other down and screaming. And one of the guys that left, the police broke his leg while they were holding him down. 

                                            Tig Notaro

And,more strange drama for Ms. Notaro via  Stef Willen,

4/21/2007 2:28:35 PM Pacific Daylight Time,> swillen@gmail.com writes to alisa spitzberg:

> alisa,

> 

 back now at my place. had a crazy night. went to the normandie room with tig and her friend from denver. we wanted to show her friend a nice, quiet bar and at the end of the evening a birthday girl wearing a I heart pusssy t-shirt calledd tig a "fucking dyke" for eating a piece of her cake, then the girl threw cake at her, and yelled at me…

Next up: The improbable elements of her cancer set story, and her past.Why the tape was released. How did it get released.. What was promised if one paid for it.
Then,  The beyond suspicious press that would follow her public declaration of cancer, as well as the outright lies, surrounding this cancer story, and so many of her stories.

 P.S.

I'll just add two fun ones for those who might know about her, and her assorted stories- Her stepfathers name isn't Rick, and there is no lawyer in Texas( with the fake or real name)  of Tig Notaro's stepfather.

2-Notaro has long maintained that the music biz brought her out to LA, but then it changed to Beth Redick's life bringing her here. She has steadfastly maintained that she was  either a band promoter or a band manager in Denver ,but gave it up when she hit L.A when she got chummy with Sam Raimi and he liked her so he insisted she audition for Spiderman. Then, the comedy bug bit and the rest is cancer scam history etc.  That story was abandoned for a story of working in coffee shops and sleeping in her car...Soon the story was of her bicycling to gigs due to no car.

 Unless, I missed it, there is no evidence she ever had any dealings in the music business. When a Denver based journalist recently asked her what bands she managed she said,' There all gone.now." as the answer... She couldn't even come up with one nam,e and the Kroll bought journalist didn't ask a follow up. Gone where? To failed Band Heaven? Not a one name might ring the bell of this Colorado Journalist?

P.S 2- Everything is  found on line. In the interests of brevity, I removed links, for now.  I have links that confirm everything written. Feel more than free to ask for them, or to offer any insight that can explain Tig Notaro's  "inconsistent," statements.