In a new podcast, Tig Notaro is offering advice — but you may not like it

Comedian Tig Notaro may not have all the answers on her new advice podcast, but she would "love to try and help."

"I've done other advice shows and I've really enjoyed being on them — and I feel like in my regular life outside of the podcasts, if somebody has a problem, I really take it to heart.," she said.

On Don't Ask Tig, Notaro dishes words of wisdom for everything from relationships to haircuts, and spoke with Day 6 guest host Saroja Coelho about what listeners can expect.

Here is part of their conversation.

You told a story on your podcast about being in your 20s when you gave some advice and it didn't go quite so well. What happened?

My friend was in a dating situation that was not healthy and she was talking to me about it — and didn't ask for my advice — and I gave her my advice. And I don't know, I didn't handle it well. I didn't filter things at all. I didn't consider how she might feel with what I had to say. 

She was a childhood friend and I hurt her feelings, and I don't think we talked for several years. And then we made amends and, yeah, we're friendly again. But that was rough.

So I guess what you were saying earlier is that you really like to listen. So I guess from that you learned ... also that giving advice is still something that you wanted to do.

Yeah, it's very different than just opening your mouth and just saying exactly how you feel — and what you think — when nobody has asked. And then there's something to having more experience in life and more of my own romantic experiences to see that they're kind of tricky.

This is a really interesting moment to start an advice podcast. Many of us are at home; we've been through really tumultuous times. Why start a podcast giving advice right now?

As you said, it's a hard time, and people are looking for connection and humour, and I'm hoping to offer both. So knowing that I don't really have the answer for everything, but maybe the crazy twists and turns of nonsense that it spirals in to can maybe make somebody feel a little better, even if my advice does not.

How has the podcast helped you during these moments?

I think it's really not only made me connected to what everyone else might be going through, because I'm doing fine and well in certain areas, but I'm having my own issues in other areas and this kind of gives me a more well-rounded view of things. And it's also just kind of nice to have to reflect on the experiences I've had in life.

I don't know if I've said it on my actual podcast, but one of my favourite things to tell people ... the best gift you can give anybody is a well-lived life of your own.- Tig Notaro on her best piece of advice

One of the big stories that you have shared with people over the past decade is your own fight with breast cancer and your experience with a double mastectomy. How does that experience help you give advice to other people?

There's so much that comes with getting a cancer diagnosis. I think that there's medical — I mean, not that I'm doling out medical advice, but just to be able to explain to people that when you do get a diagnosis like that, it's almost as if you should show up to that appointment with a doctor's degree, because there's so much information. And, so, [I'm] trying to help people to prepare for what the experience might be like.

But I feel like, yeah, anywhere from the medical experience to nutrition — which I've gotten very into — to emotional connections with people, I feel like I have a lot to offer with that diagnosis in my history.

But then you turn those into moments that we can all laugh with you about. You find the humour and the levity in these hard moments. How do you do that?

I don't know how I do it. I think it's just very much a part of who I am, and it's a part of how I was raised. I was telling somebody recently about how my stepfather, who is very buttoned up, had never FaceTimed before the pandemic.

I asked if he would FaceTime with my sons, and so he agreed to do it. And while we were FaceTiming, he stopped answering my questions and he stopped talking. And I was like, "Oh, Rick? Rick." And there was no response, and I immediately thought, "Oh my God, my stepfather just died on FaceTime." And he had just fallen asleep.

But my second thought was immediately, "Oh my gosh, as soon as I'm back on stage, I'm going to be able to tell people about how insane [it was] my stepfather died on FaceTime with my four-year-olds."

You have found the humour in so many of those difficult moments, but it's really joyful. We're not laughing at the experience or at the person who is in trouble in the story, but laughing at the humanity of it all. And that seems to be some of the balance that you find in the podcast.

Recently, you asked folks to send in the worst advice they'd ever heard. What did you hear from people?

There was a woman that did not have a foot. She never had one. And she was told to pray harder and that it would grow.

No, no, this did not happen.

That's what she said. I mean, you're calling her a liar. I mean, my jaw dropped when I heard that. And you could hear in her voice that she was just — she had a sense of humour about it.

I think that is the worst advice — you have outdone all examples of bad advice I could have [come up with]. That is quite amazing. What do you think the best advice is that you've given anyone so far?

I don't know if I've said it on my actual podcast, but one of my favourite things to tell people, it's a quote that I read years ago. I altered it slightly so it would apply to more people.

But it's basically that the best gift you can give anybody is a well-lived life of your own. Well, that's really beautiful. Yeah. I love it. If you're happy living your life, you really release everybody else from stress and concern.

Written by Jason Vermes. Produced by Rachel Levy-Mclaughlin. Q&A edited for length and clarity.