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My name is Lee Hawkins.
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I ve been a journalist for over 25 years.
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On my new podcast, What Happened in Alabama, I get answers to some of the hardest questions about how things came to be for many black Americans and the truth that must come before any reconciliation can happen.
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I investigate my family history, my upbringing in Minnesota, and my father s painful nightmares about growing up in Alabama.
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What Happened in Alabama is a new series confronting the cycles of trauma for myself, my family, and for many Black Americans.
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Listen now.
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Hey listeners, what you re about to hear is a conversation with a very old friend of mine, comedian and filmmaker, Joe Wilson.
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I ve known Joe for so long.
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I ve probably have known him for 25 or 26 years.
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We came up together in the open mic stand-up comedy world.
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We would see each other on a weekly basis at all of these little rinky-dink shows alongside Zach Galifianakis and Maria Bamford and Martha Kelly, all sorts of comedians that you know and love.
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And Joe was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and given 15 months to live.
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That was 18 months ago.
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I was so devastated to learn that he was going through this, and I reached out to him to see if he would be interested to come on the show and share his story and connect.
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I know that when I was going through hard times in my life,
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It was nice to be able to share what I was going through, share my story, connect with friends, strangers, and I just thought I would see if that was of interest to Joe.
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And I caught up with him over Zoom from where he s living in Albany, New York, with his wife, Kathy, and their cat, Mike.
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Having this time with Joe was just very, very meaningful.
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It was great to see him.
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It was nice to hear what he had to say.
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It was also nice to have laughs with him.
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He s such a great guy, and I hope that you get something from hearing this conversation.
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So Joe has had this saying, which is, quote unquote, we are all famous to a few people.
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Joe, no question that you re famous to me, and now you ll be famous to the Don t Ask Tig listeners as well.
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Oh, and one more thing.
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At some point, you may hear a short change in Joe s audio quality.
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It s very brief, so thanks for bearing with us.
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Now, on with the show.
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If I ever start doing stand-up again and record an album, 2,000 hours of emo, that probably won t be the title.
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But it could be.
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It ll be in the running.
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I ll say that.
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It could be the name of your tour.
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Yes, right.
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This is Don t Ask Tig.
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I m Tig Notaro, wondering if my advice-giving alter ego should be named Tip Notaro.
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Joining me today is an award-winning filmmaker, comedian, coffee enthusiast, and fellow lover of felines.
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He created the online series, Play Shorts and Vampire Mob, and once made international news selling a jar of celebrity air.
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My old pal, Joe Wilson, welcome to Don t Ask Tig.
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Thank you for having me on today.
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Nice to be on, and nice to see you.
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It has been a couple of minutes.
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Yeah, it s been a beat.
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It s really great to see you, and I appreciate you taking the time to be here.
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I m on chemo right now, so I m multitasking.
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I m plugged in, so you are listening to a human being on chemo right now.
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Wow.
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I have never had somebody multitask with chemo before.
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And I would never have known, I ll be honest.
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Had no clue that you were plugged into your chemo machine.
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My chemo to go.
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Chemo to go.
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Yeah, I got home from the hospital like three hours ago.
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Okay, so we ll just go right there and say, you know, you re on quite the personal journey, to say the very least.
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And before we get into that, how are you feeling today, right now?
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Fantastic.
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I feel great.
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It s ridiculous.
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How good you feel?
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Yeah, it s horrible, but I feel better than, well, definitely after I started feeling bad and they diagnosed it, but just life in general and my attitude, I enjoy life a lot more since I got cancer, way more.
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You were diagnosed, is it 18 months ago?
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Yeah.
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Do you want to walk us through anything you care to share?
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Oh, yeah.
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A lot of fun.
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I had this sort of slow motion version of your tragedy plus time equals comedy.
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I got diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.
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It spread to my liver and lungs and was given 15 months.
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I m now at 18 months.
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Ha ha.
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I m married to an incredible person who is also a cancer survivor.
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She had breast cancer in 2016 and beat it and I got to be her caretaker and then I got it and she got the stiff end of the deal because this thing s like just goes on and on.
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Like hers was just like, let s get some surgery, have some little chemo and we re out back to work.
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It s great that she beat it and I was like her caretaker and we were together every second.
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But yeah, when I got this, I was working as a clerk at a butcher shop a mile away, which is why I took the job.
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I was walking to work and just threw up for no reason.
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So I went right to the diet, no coffee, no alcohol, no meat, and I was just losing weight like crazy.
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Then the pain started and then it got to the point where I got to see a doctor.
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I couldn t get an appointment for three months.
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It got to the point where it was bad.
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So I went to one of the dock-in-the-box places and they got me referred to some other dude and that guy was the one who found the cancer.
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So I found out over the phone.
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He said, we got the results, they are not very good.
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Then I started chemo.
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A little while later, I got a port, which was fun.
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I m doing definitely the comedy armor thing.
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It s got to be helping because I m still alive.
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But when I got the port, I asked the surgeon, can I drink port through my port?
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She said, you technically could, but I wouldn t recommend it.
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How do you describe how you re feeling now compared to first getting that diagnosis?
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Because you can make all the jokes that you want, but it can t be where you maybe find yourself now.
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No.
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I ve never been more depressed than when I got to Albany because it was
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recognizing my best days were behind me.
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And then this was like, all right, I have to have a few more good days, because I need some juice in the engine to be able to deal with this.
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And Kathy s an amazing human, and I will be leaving her behind.
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Yeah.
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That s the hard part.
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I m very good at compartmentalizing.
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That is a fantastic superpower to have.
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Yeah.
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Initially, it was way more crying than now.
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I had to tell my mother probably seven times before it took.
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She asked if she could go first.
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And I m like, I ll do what I can, but it might not work out that way.
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I mean, you know, I could die during this podcast, just, you know, like that.
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Just walking around with that sort of ticking time bomb kind of thing.
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Like after a while, it gets kind of exhausting.
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The red wire, the blue wire, like, I don t care.
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I m just going to rip all the wires out.
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And then it was just kind of like, I just wanted to beat the thousands of dollars of medical school that were like against me with their knowledge and their tests.
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I was just like, I went to art school.
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I m going to be for so much less money.
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So yeah, once I got past 15, I m just like, wow.
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So I m like at 18 now and I don t know, I m just like drawing a lot.
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I m making some art.
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I made some art of my nephew Rory outside.
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We were all famous to a few people like mural.
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It was something I wrote in 1989 and it s taken on a life of its own.
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I made a giant stencil and we painted it and so it s right out my window.
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And the next one is six foot Mike.
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We re going to do a six foot painting of Mike with stencils.
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Your cat.
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I m sorry.
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Yeah.
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I forget because I might take a selfie with Mike, you know, when he s around my height.
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Yeah.
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I m having a lot more fun and everybody online and social media, you know, it really is like a place for me to go.
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It s like a,
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neighborhood of really nice people and supportive people because I can t work.
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I can t feel my hands and feet for the most part.
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I walk with a cane.
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When I saw you on the Colbert Variety Hour and you had your cane, I m like, that was in my Amazon cart.
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That was in the running.
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My cane s got an alligator head.
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It is really, it is a sweet, sweet cane.
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And speaking of social media, I ve known you, Joe, for I think probably 25 or 26 years.
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Yeah, since like 97-ish?
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Yeah, something like that.
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Somewhere in there.
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Yeah, I saw you at Patterson s at the open mic.
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Yeah.
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And I certainly can t claim to be your best friend in life by any stretch of the imagination, but I ve been keeping up with you through social media.
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I m not on Facebook, really, and I didn t know that you had been going through this.
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And something popped up on my feed, and I was just absolutely leveled.
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And I just really felt for you.
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And I was also, as I was looking through your profile, I was also so
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inspired and touched by your shenanigans.
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I mean, you know, you re full of shenanigans with or without cancer, but it was still, you know, there was such a genuine appreciation and love for your wife and your family and all of the things that you ve been spending time doing and obviously Mike the cat.
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I just felt very compelled to
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reach out and connect.
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And when I went through my period of time in 2012, I had so much to say, and I had so many thoughts and feelings, and I just wanted to offer any option for you to share your story, your feelings, your thoughts.
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And again, just very leveled, but very inspired.
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Thanks for saying that, that is really- It s true.
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Nice because your 2012 live set is the funniest stand-ups that I ve ever heard in my life.
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Well, you re kind.
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I didn t listen to it until yesterday on purpose because I avoided it when it was happening because I avoid, if I was depressed, I would avoid anything that was going to take me down a couple of notches.
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Yeah, of course.
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I was laughing my face off and it s just so,
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I think when you have it and especially having gone through with my wife, she s taking care of her mom at the same time she s taking care of me and working a full-time job.
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Maybe I ll make art and sell that.
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We re all famous to a few people shirts.
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I actually do have, though, the very long name of we reallfamoustoafewpeople.com.
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Do you really?
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I really do because when Kathy got diagnosed, that s how I raised money to help pay the medical bills.
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I don t know how many people worldwide bought those shirts, but yeah, there are a lot of those shirts out in the world and always a conversation starter, especially at airports.
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Some people wanted to debate me about it.
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I don t know why.
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Just a shirt, man, just a shirt.
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And as far as making these shirts and murals, are you feeling creative in general these days?
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Are you feeling exceptionally creative?
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I found myself, too, in that spot when I was going through everything that I went through.
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I felt so crazily creative, but it was also a real roller coaster that I was on.
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Was it ideas coming in or ideas about stuff you were working on?
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I think that it was my sense of humor kicked in like on overdrive.
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And so I was just writing my thoughts and feelings and stories and jokes.
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And I was just, not that all of it went anywhere, it just had to get out of my head.
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But yeah, I m curious where you are with creativity because again, you ve done your share of writing and directing and stand-up and T-shirt making.
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Yeah, right.
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I m hyphen it to death.
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I went from photographer to installation artist, performance artist, comedian, actor, writer, producing, directing, casting director.
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Didn t you also direct a thing with me and Martha Kelly?
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Oh yeah, yeah.
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I was thinking of that.
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I was running that through my head.
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The Scott Aukerman project?
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Yeah.
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Lake Charles Lake.
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Lake Charles Lake.
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That s right.
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Yeah, I walked in.
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The first day I was helping, the second day I was the director.
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I just remember I hadn t done a lot of TV or film at that point, but I remember when you were directing, I was like, oh, wow, Joe knows what he s doing.
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Holy moly, look at this guy.
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I worked as a private investigator for 11 years, just telephone, mostly telephone stuff.
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And I was always lying and I was always somebody who wasn t.
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to get information from lawyers.
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I think between that and stand-up, I learned how to pretend I was confident and I was not.
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Because there were a couple of times with Vampire Mob where I had two fight choreographers, two makeup artists, four actors, three camera operators.
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The thing I loved about that was everything s my fault, but I ve dealt with a lot of social anxiety.
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But there s something about that that I m
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So much can go wrong that I m just so calm.
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I don t know.
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It was something about that environment and always ran fun sets.
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I always brought people on who were fun to have on sets and even lack of experience.
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If you re fun and you can focus, let s go.
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Is that still going on with you of that need to create even with all that you re juggling right now?
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More of my creativity is in the drawing and the painting.
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When it comes to the comedy, I was writing jokes for the receptionist.
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Oncology, I would have a different reason to check in that didn t have nothing to do with oncology.
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So I d be like, hi, I m here to adopt an alpaca.
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She liked that one.
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Then two weeks later, I d be like, put 20 on Thunderball on the sixth.
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Maybe I m here for the couples massage.
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It was one time I was there to audition for Cats.
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She enjoyed that.
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Connie, who s the nurse who I mostly get an oncology, I told her she s like the bartender in the weirdest bar that I go to and I get hammered and my wife has to pick me up and drive me home.
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You re the bartender that gets me all messed up on whatever it is you guys are pumping into me.
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They re dealing with a lot of serious stuff, and I feel great right now, and I m in overtime, so I m Mr. Jokey Joke, and they really enjoy Mr. Jokey Joke.
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Yeah, I m sure.
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I m sure.
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So what would you say in your day-to-day is bringing you joy right now?
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Definitely like hanging out with my wife and my friend Eric and Morgan have come from Ohio and LA and spent weeks and weeks hanging out with me here.
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Drawing and I watch birds.
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You have a bird feeder going, I got a hummingbird feeder going.
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That s the best.
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I ve got an outdoor garden, I have an indoor garden.
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There s a lot of gardening going on here.
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First garden was last year and I thought, last garden.
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And then I m like, oh, I guess I m going to be alive again.
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Some more tomatoes.
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Got to keep gardening.
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Yeah, I feel this pressure of like, oh, Joe s not gardening.
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Is he okay?
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When people think of Joe Wilson, or what would you want people to think of when they think of Joe Wilson?
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Wow, that s a good question.
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Keep me in mind as an option of when you get diagnosed with cancer, maybe you ll get to beat the clock and that Joe Wilson guy, he did.
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Maybe I ll make jokes and become the regular at the oncology bar.
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At one point, my oncologist looks at me and she s like, so Joe, what do you do?
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I m like, what do you mean?
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When you re not here, she s trying to figure out, you re not dead.
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How come?
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Why are you so alive when you have really bad cancer that can t be operated on, they can t touch it, it s bad.
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It just doesn t move.
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I just don t.
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I don t know why.
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Then she ll say things like, when you were first diagnosed, you had 500 tumor markers.
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You have seven today.
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Wow.
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That s incredible.
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Yeah.
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Again, it s not remission.
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It s just like we re in a staring contest and nobody s blinking.
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Well, I would say it s a good place to be compared to the 500 markers, man.
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Yeah.
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I d take the stare down.
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Yeah, I ll take the stare down.
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Now, before we get started with the advice, can you explain to the listeners what exactly Celebrity Air is?
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Celebrity Air is an idea that came up with my friend, Pamela Dumon, who s a very good writer.
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Look up her stuff on Amazon.
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She wrote like 30 books.
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It was at a time when all the crazy eBay stuff was being purchased, pretty much just for publicity.
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And I m like, I m going to get air from both oceans, both Pacific and Atlantic.
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I m going to auction off, or like the kind of air that you would, you know, you open up and smell in the winter.
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When I was telling Pam about it, she was like, oh, when you go to the Pacific, get it at Malibu because you ll get some celebrity air.
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I m like, oh, celebrity air is such a better idea.
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Then we re cooking it, and then I m like, premieres, and then I m finding a premiere.
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Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt, first time seen in public at the premiere for Mr. and Mrs. Smith.
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And I camped out from 7 a.m.
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to like 12 hours later, whenever it was.
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And I photographed the jar in the foreground.
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It s a mason jar as they walked by.
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I remember seeing that.
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Yes.
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And then put it online and it just, it was on The Tonight Show.
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Did you sell it?
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Yeah.
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Now, this is the crazy thing.
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This is so crazy.
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I did write a one-man show about this.
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Well, of course.
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It was hate mail and eBay.
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eBay didn t want it on the site because it got to $99 million and they were afraid that the place was just going to get flooded.
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So it was a battle between me and eBay and finally got down to their finding every reason to get rid of it and they said that me using the word air was keyword spamming because you can t sell air.
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So even having air in the description.
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So I was selling as the celebrity jar, so nobody could find it.
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And Golden Palace Casino got in contact with me.
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They said, I ll give you $25,000 for it, but it has to be on eBay.
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So people couldn t find it anymore.
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Because every time I put it back on, it would zip to like over 100K in like minutes.
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That is insane.
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I was doing morning radio all over the country, Australia.
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I ve seen it in so many other languages.
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I saw it in an article that was posted like two months ago.
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it still bounces because it s such a ridiculously stupid idea.
1
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It was a point in time when celebrities were a much bigger deal and that isn t the case.
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There s so many famous people now.
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Yeah, there sure are.
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There are very few superstars.
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It was so gossipy.
1
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That is so funny.
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Now, it s time, Joe, to help the Don t Ask Tig listeners out there.
1
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Are you ready to dole out some advice?
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I have lots of bad advice.
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Let s do it.
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Like I said at the top, you re a coffee enthusiast.
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That is true.
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Hopefully, that comes in handy for this first question.
1
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Autumn writes, hey Tig, my boyfriend is almost 40 and he s never tried coffee in his entire life.
1
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I wish you could see Joe s face.
1
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I plan to introduce him for the first time, but what kind of coffee would be the perfect kind to have him try?
1
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Please include any special prep, add-ins, et cetera.
1
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Spare no details.
1
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Are you just a straight black coffee guy, Joe?
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This is going to really sound weird, but this morning I had eggnog in my coffee as I have since December.
1
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Almost every day.
1
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Well, Merry Christmas.
1
SPEAKER_01
I know.
1
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There s a company here called Stewart s.
1
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They make eggnog year-round.
1
SPEAKER_01
Don t do that.
1
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I definitely would start them with black just because I think you should know what the flavor.
1
SPEAKER_02
You re a purist.
1
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It s like you should ski before you snowboard.
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Yeah, I would agree with that.
1
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And then having the options of a cream nearby, of a sugar nearby, and then sort of like, let them take a few sips of it black.
1
SPEAKER_01
And if it s a horrible experience, maybe put a little 2%, have the half and half on deck, and sort of cut it from there.
1
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And I would go with a better brand of coffee.
1
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Yeah, start high end.
1
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Yes, do not have something that you got in a can.
1
SPEAKER_02
You might appreciate this story with your love of coffee and cats.
1
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I m always astounded by how much non-dairy cream my wife Stephanie puts in her coffee.
1
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My jaw is on the ground.
1
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One day, our cat walked up, sniffed her coffee, turned around, and started trying to cover it up with her paws like she was in a kitty litter box.
1
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Fake berry.
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And I was like, oh my gosh, Fluff knows that this is bad, too.
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but I agree.
1
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I think start out high-end black coffee.
1
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I m personally a big Cortado fan, and so that s what I do.
1
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I m a decaf oat milk Cortado gal.
1
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Essentially, Cortado is espresso and then the same amount, I believe, of milk as the shot.
1
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So I get a double
1
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Decaf oat milk cortado if anybody out there cares and my sons both know my coffee order which is hilarious well my son finn was like i don t what is your what was your coffee order is it a cortado and it s so cute to see decaf oat milk cortado come out of his six year old mouth.
1
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So your children have been turned into interns?
1
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That s right.
1
SPEAKER_02
Oh my gosh, their whole life will be interns.
1
SPEAKER_02
They re our roommates as far as I m concerned.
1
SPEAKER_01
That s the way I look at Mike.
1
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He s a horrible roommate.
1
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Yeah.
1
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He poops in a box.
1
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It s ridiculous.
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SPEAKER_02
Yeah.
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Well, you re lucky it makes it in the box.
1
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So Autumn, Joe knows is Joe and that s our advice.
1
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Joe, we re going to stop for a quick break and then we ll be back with more listener questions.
1
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I m Christina Cotarucci, and this season on Slow Burn.
1
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It s called Proposition 6.
1
SPEAKER_00
The Briggs Initiative.
1
SPEAKER_01
John Briggs is going to fire every gay and lesbian schoolteacher in California.
1
SPEAKER_00
With so much at stake, young people became activists.
1
SPEAKER_00
We can t let this happen in California.
1
SPEAKER_00
And activists became leaders.
1
SPEAKER_01
My name is Harvey Milk and I m here to include you.
1
SPEAKER_00
Slow Burn, Season 9.
1
SPEAKER_00
Gays Against Briggs.
1
SPEAKER_00
Out now, wherever you listen.
1
SPEAKER_02
And we re back.
1
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Joe, this next question is from a listener in Utah.
1
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Bob writes, I have no idea how to carry a conversation with a woman I m romantically interested in.
1
SPEAKER_02
After a few sentences about the weather, how do I proceed?
1
SPEAKER_02
I don t follow professional sports, my TV stopped working when broadcasts became digital, and movie theaters are loud.
1
SPEAKER_02
Men in my age range are expected to make any first move.
1
SPEAKER_02
Women s equality came much too late.
1
SPEAKER_02
Well, first of all, Bob, I cannot express enough how much you should not lead with talk about the weather, okay?
1
SPEAKER_02
And look, we all know you re not my type, Bob.
1
SPEAKER_02
I don t even have to see a picture of you.
1
SPEAKER_02
You re not my type.
1
SPEAKER_02
I m certain I m not your type.
1
SPEAKER_02
If you or anyone came up to talk about the weather, they better be doing it with a smirk on their face and telling me that they re not really coming up to talk about the weather, unless the weather is exceptional, which then brings me to, I actually really love weather and think all weather is exceptional, so this is why the show is called Don t Ask Tig.
1
SPEAKER_02
Joe, what do you feel?
1
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Wow.
1
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I am, as they would say back in the day, when it came to women, I have no game whatsoever.
1
SPEAKER_02
You must have some game.
1
SPEAKER_02
You scored a phenomenal spouse.
1
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Well, way out of my league, was told that by multiple co-workers at the restaurants where we work.
1
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Like, don t embarrass yourself, Joe.
1
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It s very cringy for everyone involved.
1
SPEAKER_01
And so I talked to her.
1
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She had a boyfriend.
1
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I talked to her for nine months.
1
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She went to art school and I was working on some stuff and I had gone to art school in totally different media and we just kept talking and that led to, oh, I made a mixtape.
1
SPEAKER_02
Of course.
1
SPEAKER_01
Actual cassette and I put a Chet Baker song in the middle of the second side called Imagination.
1
SPEAKER_01
and it s pretty much I can t imagine you would like me. 
1
SPEAKER_01
She played it for friends and they were like, yeah.
1
SPEAKER_01
I was just walking around the whole time going, this is going to end any minute, like 30 something years later, still go, still out of my league.
1
SPEAKER_02
Wow.
1
SPEAKER_02
So I think the key is to make a mixed tape.
1
SPEAKER_01
It is, which must be hard now.
1
SPEAKER_02
It would be even more charming if you were walking around, Bob, with a mixed tape in this day and age, ready to go.
1
SPEAKER_02
If you met somebody that was of interest to you, you can just say, hey, by the way, I made you a mixed tape.
1
SPEAKER_02
Come on, Bob, even though you re not my type, I would be all over you.
1
SPEAKER_02
I would be like, this guy is hilarious.
1
SPEAKER_01
OK, I don t accept player.
1
SPEAKER_01
I m going to play it.
1
SPEAKER_02
And then, you know, you say you say, well, well, you know what?
1
SPEAKER_02
We ll figure it out together.
1
SPEAKER_02
We ll figure out how to play this.
1
SPEAKER_01
My real advice would be if you have an interest.
1
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Find people who have that interest.
1
SPEAKER_01
Be around people who have that interest.
1
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Talk to people who have that interest.
1
SPEAKER_01
And you may run into someone who you like.
1
SPEAKER_01
Because of that interest, the conversational pressure is less and the weather will not be needed at all.
1
SPEAKER_01
And be genuine.
1
SPEAKER_01
No game conversation.
1
SPEAKER_01
Really talk about what you re really doing and what you re really interested in.
1
SPEAKER_01
That s my other advice.
1
SPEAKER_02
I m all for it.
1
SPEAKER_02
Bob, here s hoping you can strike up a conversation that leads you to love.
1
SPEAKER_02
Joe, this last question is from a listener who asks that we refrain from laughing at her name.
1
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Fanny writes,
1
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I ve been thinking about changing my name for a long time.
1
SPEAKER_02
It s French.
1
SPEAKER_02
I m from Montreal.
1
SPEAKER_02
But its English translation has a very bad connotation that has put me in uncomfortable situations over the years.
1
SPEAKER_02
Every time I meet an English-speaking person, I feel ashamed to introduce myself and even use fake names sometimes to avoid the awkwardness of being laughed at.
1
SPEAKER_02
I ve been meaning to start using my middle name, but I m not sure how I feel about it yet.
1
SPEAKER_02
I m considering it more and more as I m planning to move to New Zealand, and I would really like to feel good about saying my name out loud.
1
SPEAKER_02
What should I do?
1
SPEAKER_02
I just, right out of the gate, I say, ditch it, Fanny, because it doesn t seem like this is going anywhere.
1
SPEAKER_02
It s not going to go away.
1
SPEAKER_02
And people that are close to you and know you for years, they know you as Fanny, and they ll call you that, and there s not going to be any laughter.
1
SPEAKER_02
But I am all for embracing who you are and what you re about.
1
SPEAKER_02
I had a weird name my whole life.
1
SPEAKER_02
Everybody thinks this is my stage name and it s not.
1
SPEAKER_02
Joe, do you have any feelings?
1
SPEAKER_01
I can understand that.
1
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I can understand wanting to change it and being exhausted by the low-end comedy that it produces.
1
SPEAKER_01
If you re not going to be game with yes-ending the response to your name and making fun of them making fun of you or laughing at you or
1
SPEAKER_01
making more fun of your name than they can get to.
1
SPEAKER_01
But changing it might get you what you want and might be kind of interesting to start life somewhere where you are never fanny.
1
SPEAKER_02
Yeah.
1
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I mean, you have the perfect chance.
1
SPEAKER_02
You have a whole new beginning coming your way, your life in New Zealand.
1
SPEAKER_02
You could be, well,
1
SPEAKER_02
I don t know what your name would be, Fanny, but if you need me to name that thing and give you a new name, feel free to reach out.
1
SPEAKER_01
Don t go with Karen.
1
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, Karen.
1
SPEAKER_01
Could be problematic, just saying.
1
SPEAKER_02
Poor Karens, innocent Karens out there, I feel for you.
1
SPEAKER_02
Joe, there s one more thing before we say goodbye for today.
1
SPEAKER_02
This segment is simply called Best Advice, Worst Advice.
1
SPEAKER_02
What is the best advice you ve ever been given?
1
SPEAKER_01
My friend, late great friend, Marnie Cardozo, it s a question everybody asks, but she asked what if a lot, just pointing that question at stuff.
1
SPEAKER_01
I think it really opens up possibilities, I think, both with ideas and things you can do with your life and your art or your lack of art or you want to make something or do something or whatever.
1
SPEAKER_01
Sometimes the uncomfortable things for you personally also can be like the most gratifying, great memories.
1
SPEAKER_01
So don t avoid that, but point some what ifs at your own life and, what if I do this?
1
SPEAKER_01
What s going to happen?
1
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And I m really glad I did with all the stuff I did in LA.
1
SPEAKER_01
It did not work out, did not go the way I thought it was going to go.
1
SPEAKER_01
It was going really good there for a while and then it wasn t so good and then, wow, really good.
1
SPEAKER_01
Not so much.
1
SPEAKER_01
But a hell of a ride.
1
SPEAKER_01
And I met a billion people and cool people like you.
1
SPEAKER_01
And I already never would have laughed as much in L.A., probably not cried as much as in L.A., but it is a city built for that.
1
SPEAKER_01
That s why the sunshine and the palm trees are there.
1
SPEAKER_02
That s right.
1
SPEAKER_02
Now, what s the worst advice you ve ever received?
1
SPEAKER_01
My mother would say, have you applied at NBC?
1
SPEAKER_01
Have you gone down, filled out an application?
1
SPEAKER_01
Be sure to check off the part if you re not hiring now, keep this on file.
1
SPEAKER_01
That s the worst advice.
1
SPEAKER_01
Then again, I didn t do it and things didn t work out so maybe I should have.
1
SPEAKER_01
I ll never know.
1
SPEAKER_01
I m just the guy who sold some air.
1
SPEAKER_01
That s it.
1
SPEAKER_02
It s pretty impressive and very, very funny.
1
SPEAKER_02
Also, I feel like everyone s parent suggests similar things when their kid is in Los Angeles.
1
SPEAKER_02
You know what you should do?
1
SPEAKER_02
You should host SNL.
1
SPEAKER_02
You know what you should do?
1
SPEAKER_02
You should get your own TV show.
1
SPEAKER_02
Yeah, that d be fun.
1
SPEAKER_01
I mean, I don t know how it works, but then.
1
SPEAKER_02
Yeah.
1
SPEAKER_01
Right?
1
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
1
SPEAKER_01
Mm-hmm.
1
SPEAKER_01
Yep.
1
SPEAKER_01
I ll do that.
1
SPEAKER_01
Yep.
1
SPEAKER_01
As soon as I get off the phone.
1
SPEAKER_02
Joe Wilson, thank you again for spending this time with me and my listeners.
1
SPEAKER_02
I was very much looking forward to seeing you and connecting.
1
SPEAKER_02
I am as with you as I can be from where I am and where you are.
1
SPEAKER_02
Are you familiar with Ram Dass?
1
SPEAKER_01
I know the name and that s probably it.
1
SPEAKER_02
Well, he said this thing of how we re all just walking each other home in life.
1
SPEAKER_02
And I love that so much.
1
SPEAKER_01
That s a great idea.
1
SPEAKER_02
Because it s like, when I m down, when you re down, when a stranger, an old friend, your spouse, you just want to help people get through this experience in the most pleasant way that you can.
1
SPEAKER_02
And I just think about it all the time.
1
SPEAKER_02
I want to help people.
1
SPEAKER_02
I want people to help me in that journey of walking each other home.
1
SPEAKER_02
And that means basically through this life and through this world.
1
SPEAKER_02
And I was very called to reach out to you.
1
SPEAKER_01
Well, A, thank you.
1
SPEAKER_01
And thanks for that idea.
1
SPEAKER_01
That s a really cool idea.
1
SPEAKER_01
I had not heard that take on it.
1
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, it s without your help and a lot of other people s help, this would be a lot less fun and a lot more stressful.
1
SPEAKER_01
And again, you know, the people that I have known for some for over a decade online, well over a decade, or I call online neighbors because
1
SPEAKER_01
Like, we re not really friends, we re kind of friends, some I m really friends with, and some I m just like, hey, you know, we see each other when the feed says, here s something.
1
SPEAKER_01
And that s a nice feeling to sort of have in my head when I m going through all this crap.
1
SPEAKER_01
I know there s a bunch of people who are rooting for me, and I think making fun of the whole thing is the only way to do it.
1
SPEAKER_02
Well, I m for sure rooting for you, and I m certain that my listeners will be as well.
1
SPEAKER_02
And if there s anything you want to say before we head out for the day, feel free.
1
SPEAKER_02
Here s the moment to promote or say anything.
1
SPEAKER_01
I would suggest feeling, I keep saying I feel lucky, and I think that being positive about stuff, all that can get really cringy after a while, especially with dudes, guys who are not like, I m not positive and positivity.
2
SPEAKER_03
It s a lot of syllables.
2
SPEAKER_03
Feel lucky about something.
2
SPEAKER_03
It takes three seconds.
2
SPEAKER_03
You can keep going, and it just bends your brain a little bit to see how great things are for you, even when stuff is horrible.
2
SPEAKER_03
There s still some, you know, you have a great cat you can cry into.
2
SPEAKER_03
Yay!
2
SPEAKER_03
You know?
2
SPEAKER_03
That s a start.
2
SPEAKER_03
And sometimes just feeling lucky about just that little bit of whatever chemically happens in your brain.
2
SPEAKER_03
Do that because it s really quick and you don t have to meditate.
2
SPEAKER_03
It s not a practice.
2
SPEAKER_03
It s just when you re stuck in traffic, when you re in a line at the grocery store or whatever, don t look at your phone.
2
SPEAKER_03
Just feel lucky about something for five seconds.
2
SPEAKER_03
I ve upped it to five already.
2
SPEAKER_03
I know it s a lot of time in your day, but it s a couple of TikToks.
2
SPEAKER_01
I m all for it.
2
SPEAKER_03
And if you would like to follow my cancer shenanigans on the Instagram or Facebook, I am Joe Wilson TV on both.
2
SPEAKER_03
And if you d like to share our GoFundMe or donate, we d appreciate it.
2
SPEAKER_03
It is tinyurl.com slash KZJWM as in mother Z. That s all our initials.
2
SPEAKER_03
And thank you for that.
2
SPEAKER_01
Well, thank you, Joe.
2
SPEAKER_01
Thank you so much again.
2
SPEAKER_01
I ll hope to see you soon.
2
SPEAKER_03
Yes.
2
SPEAKER_03
Thank you.
2
SPEAKER_01
And maybe you ve forgotten, so let me remind you once more that I m still doing shows live and in person.
2
SPEAKER_01
And you re probably thinking, oh, she s never going to come to my town.
2
SPEAKER_01
My town s too small.
2
SPEAKER_01
Or, oh, she came to a city nearby me already.
2
SPEAKER_01
Well, guess what?
2
SPEAKER_01
Why don t you listen to where I m going to be because I bet there s someplace nearby.
2
SPEAKER_01
Jacksonville, Oregon, July 21st.
2
SPEAKER_01
Eugene, Oregon, July 22nd.
2
SPEAKER_01
Bellingham, Washington, September 8th.
2
SPEAKER_01
Olympia, Washington, September 9th.
2
SPEAKER_01
Torrington, Connecticut, September 15th.
2
SPEAKER_01
Rochester, New York, September 16th.
2
SPEAKER_01
Wilmington, Delaware, September 17th.
2
SPEAKER_01
Colorado Springs, September 25th.
2
SPEAKER_01
Breckenridge, Colorado, September 28th.
2
SPEAKER_01
Boulder, Colorado, September 29th.
2
SPEAKER_01
And then I m doing a huge European tour in October.
2
SPEAKER_01
Look at my website for all of the information, ticket information, everything s there.
2
SPEAKER_01
Make sure you get tickets for my next stand-up special taping in Brooklyn, New York, November 4th at King s Theater.
2
SPEAKER_01
There s an early and late show.
2
SPEAKER_01
Go to TigNotaro.com for all show links and ticket information.
2
SPEAKER_01
See ya there.
2
SPEAKER_01
Don t Ask Tig is hosted by me, Tig Notaro.
2
SPEAKER_01
It s produced by Thomas Ouellette and Shana Deloria.
2
SPEAKER_01
Our executive producer and editor is Beth Perlman.
2
SPEAKER_01
Engineering and sound mixing by Alex Simpson, Derek Ramirez, Josh Savageau, and Evan Clark.
2
SPEAKER_01
Digital production by James Napoli.
2
SPEAKER_01
Talent booking by Marianne Ways.
2
SPEAKER_01
Our theme music is
2
SPEAKER_01
Friend in Tig by Edie Burkell and Kyle Crusham, and Listen to Your Heart by Edie Burkell.
2
SPEAKER_01
Special thanks to Hunter Seidman.
2
SPEAKER_01
APM Studios executives in charge are Chandra Cavati, Alex Schaffert, and Joanne Griffith.
2
SPEAKER_01
Concept developed by Tracy Mumford.
2
SPEAKER_01
Our executive consultant is Dean Capello and Gobsmack Studios.
2
SPEAKER_01
You can always ask for advice at DontAskTig.org.
2
SPEAKER_01
Just write in with your problem or send us a voice memo.
2
SPEAKER_01
Remember to follow us on social media at DontAskTig.
2
SPEAKER_01
DontAskTig is a production of American Public Media.
2
SPEAKER_01
And as always, thanks Dana, and I ll tell Becky.
2
SPEAKER_00
A six billion dollar con.
2
SPEAKER_03
It didn t take long for it to spread like wildfire.
2
SPEAKER_03
You got to take a look at this really crazy gold stock.
2
SPEAKER_03
A buddy of mine got in at a dime.
2
SPEAKER_00
Which destroyed lives and devastated communities.
2
SPEAKER_00
Every little town across the nation, people have shares in this.
2
SPEAKER_00
We lost everything.
2
SPEAKER_00
And to date, no one has been brought to justice.
2
SPEAKER_03
Somebody knows more than we know.
2
SPEAKER_00
The $6 billion gold scam from the BBC World Service and CBC.
2
SPEAKER_00
Search for the $6 billion gold scam wherever you get your podcasts.