do you mind if we start watching this
set together and if there's something
you want to tell me at some
certain point you know stop me fill me
in
nothing i love more than sitting back
and watching my stand up
play a lot of work goes into a short
late night stand-up set
join me jp buck as i spotlight the
comedians who came up with some of my
favorite coin sets
this is the setup please welcome the
very funny tig
notaro
when i was working at the titan show i
was talking to your manager about trying
to get you on the show
we were working on a set yeah and then
we were no longer on the air so i didn't
have the opportunity to have you do that
set there
i didn't i don't remember you working at
the tonight show
it was only for seven months i see
because i was gonna say i have
i don't think that's correct because i
know
that jay leno tonight show turned me
down
for years and wouldn't put me on so i
thought you were saying you worked
for leno and i was like i don't remember
that because i remember
it's very much a part of my story that i
tell people and that is how
focused i was i'm trying to get on the
tonight show with jay leno
and then having absolutely no luck for
years and years and years
and so many of my friends that i came up
with surpassing me and getting on the
tonight show with jay leno
and then um and finally reaching a point
where i
i shifted my focus and that focus
went to conan flash forward we're back
on the rtbs
2011. in september of 2011
you actually did a set that for the
first time and i've not i've not heard
this since
conan demanded me to book you the next
week it just kind of blew my mind to go
from
a show that i was clearly
not ever going to be on and then um
the open door on conan
you and i had kind of settled on about
three and a half three plus minutes
which were your first your opening bits
and then we were sort of at us i felt
like we were in a stalemate of trying to
figure out how do we close the set
so i remember you called me i was at
home i picked up the phone
and you said i've got this idea and you
started telling me a story
i was performing in seattle and um when
i was on stage
i moved the stool next to me just
slightly and it made this weird noise
and it caused the entire audience to
laugh collectively
i was like oh that's all you guys needed
i said okay so you're going to actually
do this and you said no no that's the
bit
and you were just you were dead serious
and i just i mean i trusted you
i didn't think what you have to say it
didn't feel like you totally trusted me
well
i mean i did say okay let's come back
let's let's let's book you for the show
yeah yeah for sure but i i remember you
being like um
so i'm sorry you're gonna just you're
gonna move a stool i remember
working it out in the main room at the
comedy store
that's where you came to see me um
do it and uh and you're like okay
let's do it
i remember trying to find spots for you
and i was sending out emails
and the question i would ask is does
your stage have carpet
a question i've never asked i never
thought about you know what now i know
the comedy store the belly room and
largo doesn't have carpeting but it has
a small
rug which you can work around yeah i've
worked around that rug
many times improv improv is carpeting
uh flappers in burbank has carpeting
things
i never knew before that working with
you taught me
the boundary that went into selecting a
stool number one
and number two finding the spots on a
stage that
actually made noise yeah if i was
running into a problem
with the stool noise in a theater or
club
i didn't feel under pressure really i
could just kind of
search for the best spot on the stage
but when you're on national
television the stool isn't quite doing
what you thought it was going to do then
i just thought all right well i got to
have a new plan because this floor
sucks actually i can show you now this
is our
crew our audio our props our stage
department
all working to figure out the best
location
on the stage
[Music]
we learned that wood was the best yeah
really does that mean
there's john rower prop master it gets
too dusty it loses the sound
that's hilarious we used to have an
opening credit sequence where
they would show a commit they would say
like comedian take notaro and they would
show
a microphone your rehearsals alone
made our graphics and editing department
want to put together
an actual graphic for you for your
opening i don't know if you remember
seeing this
i never saw i never noticed that it's
very subtle because
no one knows what's coming but he's
basically he's telegraphing your bit
yeah that's awesome
so i just kept pushing the stool
and they kept laughing
so i just kept pushing the stool and
they stopped laughing
so i kept pushing the stool they started
laughing again
it just kept going like that for a while
a good 10 minutes
so i was just curious what you guys
would think if i
push the stool here
oh the old mic in the pocket
[Music]
i thought i would take the stool party
up
closer to conan's desk because i saw the
plexiglass across the stage that had i
guess the lighting
underneath it and i thought that would
make a good sound so
i jumped up there
i remember paula tompkins was sitting
there and i remember thinking as a
comedian
what does he think of me right now i
feel like
maybe some of you aren't into it
that doesn't offend me
if you're not raise your hand i'm not if
you want me to stop
a couple of you maybe it's because you
haven't heard it enough
[Music]
[Laughter]
were there any raised hands oh yeah
whenever i do
that there's always people that are just
like please no
like it didn't stop
[Laughter]
which of course just feeds me
see how it just keeps doing that
[Music]
for those of you that do like it i'm
gonna that's gonna be on my new cd
and please look for it the it's called
stool movement
thank you my name's ticks
take notaro everybody that's our show i
remember yeah i handed him my business
card
which uh i have right here
this their level and there is no contact
information so when i am
at a party i like to hand somebody this
and say we should definitely keep
talking
about that and then um
you know just bits bits bits bits
[Music]
509 said the level of commitment to a
joke this woman has
is herculean yes
yes indeed i don't know anyone who's
ever accused you of not committing to a
bit
i don't know either whenever somebody's
like god i can't stand her i'm always
like
i hear you i i i can i can imagine
that i would really annoy people
if you did not like my style
next day in rehearsal after your
performance our director
started cueing your stool sound to
irritate going into
rehearsal i remember hearing about that
yeah
it became an ongoing audio cue that i
think some people
consider nails on chalkboard but i think
it's nails on a chalkboard for
for a good amount of people and i don't
know what it is that gets people
laughing or coming around again after
it drives them insane there's got to be
something about it scientifically i
don't know if anyone's come to you
wanted to do a study about this bit nope
not a single scientist has approached me
about uh studying this bit but if there
is
a scientist out there uh watching
i'm i'm game i love love love working
with you
and i mean from everything that you've
done on the show
i've that i've been lucky to be a part
of i mean you do 99 of heavy lifting i
do like maybe one percent of like giving
cohen a heads up
as to where you're gonna go i love going
on the show i feel
i feel the support and i feel
the freedom and it's it's very nice all
of
all of the help and leeway that you and
conan and everybody on the show
gives and allows for it's it's so great