Tig Notaro, Hello Again Tour

By: Canonblue Lalley

The Orpheum Theater in New Orleans buzzed, packed as responsibly as possible with masked patrons waiting for Tig Notaro to take the stage. A single microphone sat there illuminated, with a baby grand piano poised just to the side. Whatever caution Notaro may have had about reprising her stand up shows in the wake of Covid-19 was easily washed over with her light banter with the audience. Rib cracking laughter rang through the theater, as well as a rousing chorus of Adele’s “Hello” (if you know, you know).

Notaro is a Mississippi Native, calling the Pass "home.” She was kind enough to take some time to sit down with us via telephone and talk current and future projects, life on the road post pandemic, and being from Mississippi.

CB: Tig, it was such an amazing show the other night. Thank you so much for taking the time. How was it actually getting back out in front of people after the Covid-19 lock downs and suspensions of shows? And do you have any new projects you’re excited about?

TN: “Um, my wife and I are doing a movie that Judd Apatow is producing. She and I came up with this story and then she actually read the script and is going to direct it. I’m going to star in it, and then we actually have someone starring with me that we haven’t been able to announce just yet but stay tuned.”

TN: “It was surreal getting back on the road. I did about, four shows maybe, before I left town and just, ya know, refreshed my memory with the material that I’ve been working on-what you saw last night, that was the material I had been working on before the pandemic. It’s kind of the majority of my tour before the pandemic was majority smaller markets. So I had been gearing up to hit those larger markets, and then the Pandemic hit and i was off for two years. It’s been really, really fun.”

CB: So, you’re a Mississippi Native, as am I. I’m talking to you now from Ocean Springs. Yesterday I saw you popped into my friend Lauren Turner’s place, Making Groceries. She’s a huge fan of you herself. I know you worked on “One Mississippi” and maybe you’ve talked that to death, but I think it’s important to mention a few things about it. Pass Christian is where you consider home, right?

TN: “Oh yeah.”

CB: Do you know why they chose to film the show outside of MS?

TN: “Oh, well yeah, there are so many factors. Tax reasons, crew availability, liabilities, the list goes on. We filmed in MS, LA, and TX, there are so many different reasons that shooting takes place. It’s so complicated I couldn’t even begin to explain.”

CB: It was a cool thing to see, growing up on the coast and how it differs from the stereotypes of the more northern parts of the state. I grew up in South Mississippi with a gay parent. So for me it was cool to see that experience in a different light. The thing that I love is that it would have been an easy road to just talk about how horrible it can be here, but the coast is kind of a different animal than the rest of the state when it comes to progression.

TN: “Yeah I mean, I obviously am aware of the dark side of MS, but i also wanted to show that this is my experience, even though the show isn’t 100% factual to my life, my experience is that I love MS, I love where I’m from, I love my town and my family. I didn’t have a big coming out moment with my family. They’re very accepting and they’d rip someone’s head off for me type of supportive. I had people go, well, they didn’t think it was realistic that I just walked into my living room with my girlfriend for the first time in Mississippi and there was nothing said. And I said, this is my experience in my home, and I wanted to show that there are open people here, there are smart, talented and wonderful people here. I wanted to wait until the second season to show the more darker side, the political side of things.”

CB: If you are from here at all, you know the coast is constantly fighting for our rights down here and actually gaining a bit of ground. So the Army of Dead stuff was pretty intense and last minute. Can you tell me what it was like being cast?

TN: I had a blast and, you know, it was smack dab in the middle of Covid. But it was a scaled down crew and production, and I met with Zack Snyder, the director over zoom and he was reassuring. I could tell he was a kind, solid, easy going guy and I had so much fun with him. It was a very technical shoot, he’d tell me ‘Okay, walk this like on the green screen’ and we’d shoot and he would go, ‘Okay, as crazy as this sounds we need to move a centimeter to the left’ and we’d do it again, over and over in different ways to get it right. I do Star Trek and there’s a little bit of action that I do, but not like, this was an entire action film by myself was completely insane.”

CB: Well that was the insane bit too, right? They had already wrapped filming when they replaced your predecessor? So you didn’t have the rest of the cast?

TN: “Yeah they had planned to release the movie, and then after all the news came out about the other actor, Zack said he was in the editing bay and he thought, ‘I can’t release this film. I’m gonna have to erase this guy and start over.” So then he said, uh, reach out to Tig. And I don’t know why they chose me but I’m so glad they did and that experience was so unique.”

CB: I must have been living under a rock, because when the movie came out and I was traveling doing shoots in NYC. I sat down with my husband and you popped on Netflix and I saw you and immediately was like we’re watching. I found out about all the scandal after I watched it and I couldn’t even tell you were replacing anyone.

TN: My wife and I write, produce and act and we have our own production company now. We’re having a really great time doing those things together, and seeing our kids.”

CB: Thank you so much for taking the time to sit with me today and giving me some insight. We’re so excited to have you represent us.

TN: ”It is my pleasure, and thank you. I’ll be back pretty regularly, and we have a podcast “Tig & Cheryl, True Story” so you can catch updates there too.”