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:
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SN5:EP7 “A Brother Runs Through It”
The inimitable Eeland Stribling @blacksteveirwin–one of the most relaxed, but killer comics I’ve seen in a while. He’s also a Wildlife Biologist and a major part of the @brownfolksfishing initiative.AND co-host of the popular “Get Home Safe” podcast. We start with some basic bachelor grocery shopping and trade our takes on: trout fishing and race; religion; carbonated Hawaiian Punch; Ireland (or what he calls “White People’s Africa”); and witness a rare kid-accidentally-breaking-some-eggs-on-the-way-home-from-the store ritual. This is a longer episode for you to live in and truly one of the best recorded evenings in the history of @wanderingaisles. Consider supporting the show on Patreon! (or just tell a friend). -
SN2:EP1 “Trap, Neuter, Return”
Margaret Dodge is my traveling companion this week. Recorded in two parts: October 25th, 2015, on a visually and aurally beautiful day in Central Park; then, deeper into our respective issues and into the belly of her new apartment/feral cat cave at the end of February 2016. Basically, this episode bookends several months of substantial emotional fermentation.
Anyway, I’m making some progress and Margaret has become a good friend and has been pretty helpful with that. She’s funny and easy to talk to. @dodgecityradio
Check out Dodge City Radio: Friday nights at 7pm on @radiofreebk
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SN4:EP1 “Clip Show”
Preview of Andy’s new standup album. Roundup of where WtA has been the last few months and where it’s wandering next. This is a mini-episode clip show of: your refurbished host; the cinching of some bows on the past; and a sigh of hope for an amazing and stable new one. Highlights of a profound experience with Adrian Lambrinos, my ambassador to a sweat lodge ceremony which will air in its entirety soon.
