It’s one thing to be invited into the home of a comic, but to see them in the thick of motherhood is, to me, like the spotted owl of documentary conversation.

Today’s episode is a sort of extreme form of eavesdropping. An audio portrait of the sacred struggle to get a kid to bed with comic, mom, and brilliant facebook satirist Julie Kottakis. AKA Madge the Vag.

I first saw Julie perform at the New York Fringe festival last year in her solo show “Does This Dress Make Me Look Alone” which she called an “Alone Woman Show. She did address the circumstances surrounding the conception and birth of her daughter, what it’s been like to care for her on her own, but I hesitate to bring that up because there’s a danger in thinking this was just a mom doing a one-woman-show about being a single mom. That sells it way short. Her performance spanned the range of comic and tragic registers and she laid out some rawness in a way I don’t remember seeing before. Not tell it like it is stuff. Afterbirth type stuff. Literal and metaphorical. Frankly, I wish more comics packaged their jokes less and did more of what Julie is doing. 

As you’ll hear in this episode she offers her life with abandon and pushes nothing. Frankly, I was surprised she allowed me to put some of this audio in here. Having wireless mics on people makes them forget they’re on tape sometimes and that yields some very candid moments. The moments people don’t talk about like a 5-year-old kid that still asks to breastfeed sometimes. Take a listen. I’ve received permission to use all of it. And I’m so grateful to Julie for that because it’s stuff people need to hear I think.

It’s a very real, very earthy, and absolutely beautiful and generous look at something a lot of us who don’t have kids take for granted. And if you don’t laugh at this, rot in hell.

Friend her on facebook (Julie Kottakis) if you can because that’s where the really good stuff happens. Also @theweirdjulie

Music this week:

“When the Saints Go Marching In” – Marysville Marimba

“Glockendoodle” – Aaron Campbell (@banjoporkchoppy)

Technical Help from:

Vince Fairchild at WNYC (@vincefair)

Doug Shugarts at WBUR in Boston

Consulting Producers:

Tasha Matsumoto

Ali Pearl 

I hope that this conversation with one of the best and brightest French people I know makes up for my lack of insightful commentary on the situation in France. Sami Bronowski is a NYC comedian who walked around Manhattan with me back in April. (I’ve been sitting on this episode because I was worried you guys might think it’s too difficult/distracting to listen to a lively conversation which sometimes battles the sounds of dump trucks and helicopters.) We talked about the usual stuff: girls, mimicking people, food, death, and a lot of other very French type stuff. It’s worth a listen. Very John Cage-esque if you go in for that sort of thing. @SamuelBronowski

How ducks have sex; ways to call in sick to work; and “food brain”–just a few of the topics covered during this fantastic conversation with LA comedian Barbara Gray. We walked through Prospect Park in Brooklyn on a crisp afternoon and watched fall ripen around us. Listen to this episode of What’s Your Yarn Worth? with Andy Farnsworth and then go listen to her on the popular Lady 2 Lady podcast over there on Maximum Fun. Lady to Lady Podcast @BabsGray @Lady2LadyComedy Sauce