[00:00:00] The old people’s dating app

I talk about sex ’cause I’m not having any. Zero. Sex is heaven. I am postmenopausal. I’m so far past menopause. I’m back to pre puberty. Do you feel that, how old do you feel? Like, what do I feel? Like I’m feeling like 14, 15. Maybe 15. I don’t know. I feel very immature. I try to think of like, what would I put on my personal ad, you know, like do they even call ’em that anymore? What do they call ’em? Profile. What do you call ’em? Kids. Dating profile. Is that the correct term? That’s how out of it I am. I mean, I’m back in the old days with a newspaper.

I’m on the Old People’s Dating app. I’m looking, thinking I’m not on Tinder. I’m on Timber.

Andrea Marie: We are Moms Unhinged, a nationally touring standup comedy show. Join us in our podcast as we explore everything from motherhood, midlife, crisis, marriage, divorce, online dating, menopause, and other things that irritate us.

All right. Cheers, cheers. On the good.

Nancy Norton: After morning.

Andrea Marie: Good after morning. Good morning to Nancy at 1:00 PM.

Nancy Norton: That’s it. Come on, come on, you guys. Stop shaming the night owls. All right.

Andrea Marie: You guys get all the stuff done while we’re sleeping.

Nancy Norton: It’s a genetic predisposition to not be a morning person, and I’m tired of being shame for it, so I’m celebrating. I got for this. I got up for this o’clock podcast, rise shine.

Andrea Marie: Good morning you guys. We are Moms Unhinged. We are super, I’m super excited to be talking today to the amazing, the hilarious Nancy Norton.

Nancy Norton: Settle down. I have built up some skills over the last 35 years. I can own that. But yeah, thank you. Thanks for having me and thanks for having me on Moms Unhinged. I the Mom. They’re my favorite shows.

Andrea Marie: Yeah, there’s so much fun. And you guys, it’s just, it’s such an honor for me to be working with Nancy. She’s incredible. She just like crushes every time. It’s just, I love having you on the show, and I’m excited to have you on the podcast, so, yeah.

Nancy Norton: Same, same. ​

[00:02:24] From nurse to stand-up comic

Andrea Marie: And so why don’t we just dive in now that we’re talking about comedy. Start about how you got started as a comedian, and you’ve been a road dog, you’ve been out there, you’ve been doing festivals, but yeah.

Nancy Norton: I did. I put 300,000 miles on my Honda Accord in the nineties touring around the country. And now I look back on that and I realize actually I think every comedian underestimates how long it really takes to develop these skills. Like I don’t think you have your stage legs till you’re at least 10 years in.

I don’t personally. But I was a slow learner ’cause I had so much stage fright, like I had cotton mouth and I still quite, quite frankly, the reason I’m leaning over to my table, the reason I drink Emergen-C I still get a little nervous. I still can get stage fright, so, but I started, what’s wild is I wanted to do comedy since I was four, but because of my severe stage fright, I went into nursing.

Andrea Marie: Sounds terrifying.

Nancy Norton: I was not looking back actually. I’m a fifth generation nurse, so I have a lot of intuition, a lot of like, you know, I was a good nurse. And I really worked hard to be a good nurse, but it took everything I had with my ADHD to be organized at all. And I’m a type B.

You know, I’m not a leader. I’ve never been a charge nurse or a head nurse, I did love, I do and still love connection. That’s my main like love language of just authenticity. And so I was working, this is how I got into comedy is helping people die. And I know that’s weird, but I was helping people in my twenties transition and it was sacred to me.

And I was like, wow, people are so, like, it was the most real relationships I’d ever had. And people that are dying, they don’t waste their time. And they told me honey, you know, live your dreams, basically. I mean, I was asking them questions at the end of their life.

Andrea Marie: Mm-hmm.

Nancy Norton: You know, how is it you’re at peace?

And my goal became to die with peace. And I know that’s a weird life goal, but I got it in my like mid to late twenties. I’m like, I wanna die with peace. Like that person. And she was saying, oh yeah, that’s because I did the things, you know, I wanted whether, I mean, a lot of people I ask and they were like, I had the family.

I traveled, I wrote the book, whatever it was, they did it and that’s when I knew, I go, “oh, I have to do it. I got the epiphany. I have to do standup at least once,” and I was just gonna do it once.

Andrea Marie: Yeah.

Nancy Norton: That’s it. I was just gonna go on stage once. And this is so weird, Andrea. It’s the weirdest like start out story.

I had never been in a comedy club, had no clue. Can’t even explain it. It’s like a higher power talking to me. I got goosebumps. Maybe I’ve shared this with you, I don’t know. Yeah, I have. I love talking about it, but I really, that day I had that epiphany. I turned on the TV and there’s an episode of Mary Tyler Moore saying, a guy on there, Jerry Van Dyke played the character, wanted to do standup, and finally like did it.

It was like, like what are the odds? And then a commercial came on. Do you think you’re funny? Do you wanna enter this contest? I entered it and I practiced and I practiced. I had stage fright, so I ran the two minutes in front of my microwave with a flashlight on top of it, and I had a shaky voice.

[00:05:48] How AA meetings inspired her first set

Nancy Norton: Literally, my mom had the same thing talking in public, shaky, and so I, I was a post-menopausal smoker. I disguised it, and I had a character I had met in nursing school, and her name was Velma. No, this wasn’t her real name, but this was like a character. My name’s Velma and I’m an alcoholic, I have not had a drink since 1955.

I don’t care if that is five till eight in military time. Still pretty good for me. But anyway, I based it on, you know, some people I had met at, we had to go to AA meetings in nursing school in our uniform. It was awkward.

Andrea Marie: God, yes.

Nancy Norton: But I met this lady and she was just like bonafide character. You know, postmenopausal smoker lived hard, but she was in recovery and it was.

I don’t know. But anyway, I disguised that voice and the owner sat down next to me after and said, Hey, you’re funny. You wanna come work here? I was like, I have no idea how to do this. I have never done this. He goes, I’ll show you, I’ll show you how to do it. Like, it was bizarre.

Andrea Marie: Oh my gosh.

Nancy Norton: I bombed for two years. Bombed hard for two years. It was like awful. I was like, why am I doing this, God? But I had to keep going. was terrible. I was terrible. Cotton mouth.

Andrea Marie: Yeah.

Nancy Norton: Couldn’t remember anything.

Andrea Marie: Yeah.

Nancy Norton: I can’t believe he had me back. Honestly, I can’t believe he kept having me back for three years. I was the house MC of the Honolulu Comedy Club.

That’s where I was doing nursing.

Andrea Marie: That is amazing. I love that.

Nancy Norton: Thanks for letting me share it again. I love sharing.

Andrea Marie: I it so much. I think it’s just, and it just really shows like, again, like that lesson you learned in your twenties. So many people don’t even get that until they’re, you know, midlife. That’s what the midlife crisis is about, it’s like, oh my God, time is short, but you got it in your twenties, and that is such a gift.

Nancy Norton: it is a gift and I’m grateful for my nursing license. I’m grateful for those really rich experiences at such a, you know, time of immortality. But when you are watching, and that was the eighties, so I was helping young men, you know, like that had AIDs and that was like, I mean, these men were not much older than me or maybe the same age.

So it was like, I got it. Like I am going to die, like, you know, ’cause you do have immortality feeling in your twenties, but when you’re in it day after day, you’re like, oh wait, I will.

Andrea Marie: Yeah.

Nancy Norton: And what do I wish I’d done? And I’m glad I had that early on.

I’m grateful for the epiphany, not for the reason for it. I’m so sorry for the young men that died before their time.

Andrea Marie: Yeah.

Nancy Norton: Anyone who dies before their time, or even when you die at your time.

[00:08:33] The root of all humor is suffering

Andrea Marie: Death is just hard no matter what.

Nancy Norton: I mean, is that? I mean, is this like the root of all humor? I think the root of all humor is suffering, right? Like trying to relieve our suffering of knowing that we are mortal beings.

Andrea Marie: We’re mortal, we’re imperfect, we make all these mistakes and let’s go talk about it on stage.

Nancy Norton: Yeah. And that is my motto, like, Hey, let me show you my, you know, I’m gonna say “ass,” let me show you my mistakes. I dunno why I put in quotes ass. It’s like, if you need time to bleep it, bleep, let me show you my mistakes. So, you know, hopefully you feel a little more forgiving about your own.

I mean, my goal really is to help heal myself and others with humor. I still have that nurse inside me and I still, I want that every show. I want people like dude and also my son’s 21, so I can actually share some things. I gotta be honest that I would not be comfortable sharing if the state could take custody of him. I mean, there is a freedom of like.

Andrea Marie: You can’t take him away. He’s too old.

Nancy Norton: want this kid at this point. He is 21 and he is in my basement right now as we speak.

Andrea Marie: And if you want ’em, please come get ’em.

Nancy Norton: Take my son, please.

Andrea Marie: Yeah, right.

Nancy Norton: Not really. I love this kid. Of course. We all love our kids, but we’re human and we have generational trauma and me, I have trauma reactivity.

I have criminal record. I may be the only, I may be the the most unhinged. I don’t wanna brag.

Andrea Marie: But you know that, that is great. I love that. I love how personal and how much you share on stage. ‘Cause I think it, it is really true that we just are able to say, wow, I am not alone in, you know, kind of the things that I have done or maybe I’m feel embarrassed about or whatever it is. I think the shows in themselves are healing.

Comedy is healing because of that. So it is very true.

Nancy Norton: Absolutely. And I just, you know, I have a podcast called Tromedy. Not pitch, but I will, I do think it’s important to get it out there because it’s helping people. So it’s T-R-O-M-E-D-Y. But I just interviewed a psychiatrist. I mean, she is like a lead researcher at our local Colorado on shoots and she has done like 86 studies about female brain, and it was really wonderful to hear her talk about postpartum.

[00:11:03] Forgiving ourselves as moms

Nancy Norton: Now I adopted my son and we’ll get into that. I’m just saying to all of you who have given birth and postpartum hormones are not to be underestimated. And also like if you’ve ever had a hostile thought about your child, she was saying that is so normal and it’s really dangerous to deny your feelings because sometimes they, like with my mother, I do believe she experienced postpartum psychosis.

And it’s like, I feel for her because it’s so hard for a mom to forgive herself. But if your mind, if you’re not in your right mind.

Andrea Marie: Right.

Nancy Norton: You can’t help it. And so she actually has been amazing. Her name is Dr. Neil Epperson. If you wanna listen to that episode, I’m just telling you man, she helped me forgive my mother.

She helped me. Like also just for any mom out there, I think it would help you have compassion for yourself. So important, so important.

Andrea Marie: Important. Compassion for ourselves is so underrated, undervalued, and I definitely had some times where I felt like I’d made big mistakes, and just by having that compassion is huge. Just to be able to say it’s, I’m okay. It’s okay. You know.

Nancy Norton: Well, we all have our survival strategies and you know, like some of us get kind of rigid. I can get really controlling about trying to keep my son safe, me safe. And sometimes in that I end up shaming him and it’s like, ugh. But the most important thing that my therapist says is to repair the rupture. So if we make a mistake, be humble, say I’m sorry that it didn’t belong to you.

That’s, I say that to my son quite often. That did not belong to you. I have complex PTSD and I am reactive and I think it’s really important. I think it’s really important to try and heal that generational trauma and do our recovery work and make amends and use humor. My son, oh my gosh, he’ll say to me, that’s an ish-you not an ish-me.

Andrea Marie: That’s hilarious.

Nancy Norton: And he is still my basement. remember.

Andrea Marie: Yes. Yeah.

Nancy Norton: not flee. He’s still here.

[00:13:02] Nancy’s adoption story

Andrea Marie: He is still, yes. That’s so, and let’s talk about your son. Let’s talk about, I love your adoption story. You adopted him from Nepal, and I wanna hear more about that because I love. I love story of you, the whole story. You’d be bringing ’em home and you share this in your act too.

Nancy Norton: Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Well first of all, I had fertility issues. So one of the things I’ve been thinking about with Moms Unhinged is I’m getting ready to go on this tour up to the northwest is like, I wanna take a moment. ‘Cause I do have women come up to me after the show sometimes with special needs kids or with like, I have a friend whose son is on the streets right now addicted to drugs.

And it’s like how I wanna make space for women. You know, who’ve had like sadnesses around parenting as well. So I was like, I had fertility issues, I had miscarriages, and then it didn’t help that my last partner had a low sperm count. Zero was the count and absolutely no testicles and was a woman. So.

Andrea Marie: Yeah.

Nancy Norton: I’m versatile. I’m just trying to say I am a pansexual, but really I’m a barely sexual. Anyway, point is for 12 years, I wanted a child for 12 years. I really, this call, I. It wasn’t even rational, you know, like I was touring as a comedian. I got no space for this in my life. Right? But this calling would not, you know, the calling when you wanna be a mom, you wanna be, you can’t. It’s something, I don’t know if it’s like Spock, it’s biological captain, or if it’s.

Andrea Marie: I think it is for sure.

Nancy Norton: And nobody’s gonna get that reference except the nerds.

Andrea Marie: It’s okay. We love Star Trek.

Nancy Norton: Star Trek where Spock has to go home and breed. Anyway, sorry, I digress. Are we, is 30 minutes up? Anyway, I always say all roads led to Vishvas, which is his Nepalese name, and it means have faith, believe in trust, and they gave it to him at the orphanage.

As soon as I heard his name, and I’m telling you it was a two year adoption journey. Things went south. Lots of issues I’m not gonna go into, but it was like kind of a miracle really, that I stayed six months. I was supposed to be there two weeks. But anyway, my heart’s desire, my willpower, my humor helped me stay.

And so, I got goosebumps when I heard his name. And I do believe in truth chills. I knew just like those truth chills when I felt like higher power called me to do comedy. My son called me and he, I called him, you know what, like, it’s definitely a reciprocal Relationship, you know, he saved me.

I did save his life. I mean, I’m a nurse and he was getting reinfected in the hospital with the cloth diapers. He had a really bad kidney infection. They were washing the diapers on the floor of the bathroom. Anyway, I took him out. I asked him if I could please take him outta the hospital and give him IV antibiotics at my apartment in Katmandu.

So we kinda saved each other’s lives, you know, seriously, like he has been. He’s the reason I’m no longer in sociopathic relationships. And seriously when I started looking at partners through his eyes, I’m like. What am I doing? Like, just ’cause I just be, you know, my mom had some tendencies just because I can tolerate this, I can’t put him through this, you know?

And anyway, so he did, we saved each other’s lives and I always say all roads led to Vishvas and then, you know his name, have faith, believe in trust. And yet, cut to six months later, we’re on the airplane coming home from Nepal, 30 hour journey with just me and a baby. He was 12 months. I say 12 months.

‘Cause it sounds better than one year. Like I, and just so you know, he was 12 months old. Yeah. he was a good little traveler.

Andrea Marie: Right.

Nancy Norton: Although I overfed him and he did, uh, explode on my lap.

Andrea Marie: It’s hard. You don’t know. You dunno how much to feed him. I was always like, eat, eat, you know?

I

Nancy Norton: know. Well, the doctor, I was like worried about attachment, you know, after an adoption. He goes, you feed him, you love him, you change him, he’ll bond with you. And so I was like, every time he looked at me, I’m like, feed. So I just kept putting a bottle in his mouth. Anyway, poor little guy. I only brought one outfit for myself and 16 for him, but you can was a shirt in that little toy bathroom.

But I think what you’re getting at is when the unhinged moment.

Andrea Marie: Yeah.

Nancy Norton: When I first, like, this is when I first started, the forgiveness for my mom is when I channeled probably the ancestors. We were in the Bangkok airport, you know, in a layover, and he’s playing with a ball, and I have been alone with him, and I had to go to the bathroom.

You know how it is. And he was already running and walking. He was running, he was precocious.

Andrea Marie: Yeah.

Nancy Norton: I took him in the bathroom stall and I wish that, I don’t understand the whole design of the stall with.

Andrea Marie: Why?

Nancy Norton: Why would the?

Andrea Marie: Such a big gap under there?

Nancy Norton: I guess if people get locked in, it’s easier to get ’em out. I don’t know. I was trying to figure that out too, like. Why can’t we have privacy anyway? Second of all, I had to, you know, I was in the number two bathroom. That’s one of my jokes is like, I don’t care what gender, bathroom, I wanna know, are you in the number one or the number two?

That’s all I care about. So I was in the moment and I was trying to hold onto him, but at some point you have to grab a little tissue, let go of the toddler.

He dove under the door.

Andrea Marie: Oh my gosh.

Nancy Norton: And I was terrified because there’s no documentation when you go on an airplane, you can just pick up a kid and put ’em on a plane. You know? They don’t even ask.

Andrea Marie: Yeah.

Nancy Norton: I went into total fear and combo rage.

Andrea Marie: yeah.

Nancy Norton: I was saying his name.

Andrea Marie: I love that combo.

Nancy Norton: Well, they are sisters, fear and rage. They really

Andrea Marie: yeah.

Nancy Norton: are. Another therapist I interviewed on Tromedy said, fear screams, wisdom whispers.

I thought, oh, it was not a whisper, it was a scream. So like, I was screaming and his beautiful name, have faith, believe in trust. I was like, Vishvas. I saying it was such rage and shame and like all the energy I could muster that would get my attention if my mother used that tone. I was like, yes, ma’am.

You know, but not Vishvas. He has Teflon. The shame. I was like, Vishvas. And that little guy just smiled. He laid on the floor just outside the stall. At least I could see him. And then worse than running away, I gotta be honest, as a nurse, he was on the floor of Bangkok Airport doing snow angels. And I have to do small pantomimes in this.

Andrea Marie: Yeah, yeah.

Nancy Norton: Like those are his hands.

And he had a ball he was playing with and then he was rubbing that on the floor and went and put it in his mouth. And I was like.

Andrea Marie: My God. Oh my God.

Nancy Norton: My mind.

Andrea Marie: There’s nothing you can do.

Nancy Norton: Powerlessness, and that is part of my codependency recovery, is to just like sit in the powerlessness. You know? I cannot control other people, not even in 12 month old. But anyway.

Andrea Marie: Enough.

Nancy Norton: He has a lot of germ resistance. Turns out.

Andrea Marie: That’s good. Yeah. I mean, ’cause you had to save his life once you’re, you’re probably thinking not again.

Nancy Norton: Do you know with my nursing record, can I do it again? I don’t know. yeah, actually he stayed well. He has been well, so that feels really good, I have to say, yeah.

Andrea Marie: Yeah. That’s so great. And what an amazing gift to be able to adopt him and be able to, you know, raise him while you’re doing, growing this comedy career. That’s incredible. Like, you must have, that must have been so challenging.

Nancy Norton: Yes, as a single mom. I mean, here’s the thing, the reality was for me, um, and we have another member in our community right now who’s single parenting Janae Burris, you know, and it’s truly single parenting. It’s not divorce parenting. I’m sorry, it’s still if divorced.

[00:21:20] Using humor to survive trauma

Nancy Norton: Listen, there’s different challenges. For both ’cause people, my ex, who I did adopt with turned out to be a sociopath according to The Safe House. Okay. Anyway, it’s true though. I mean, I have to almost say it with a laugh because it’s so upsetting. But the truth is, okay, I wasn’t going to be a single parent, and then he was two and a half when this big explosive, I threw a guitar.

Went to jail for a day. But like I said, The Safe House was like, that’s a good, you did the right thing. You ended the physical. She was attacking me. I threw it out, locked her outta the house, and it ended the physical violence. But according to the state of Colorado, that is a felony. So they don’t, you know, and she was a lawyer, you know, whatever.

That what I’m saying is though, then suddenly I was like, I was a single mom with a two and a half year old going through not just single parenting, dusting off my nursing license ’cause I could not tour. I tried, I took the pack and play the potty chair. I tried to get the club owners, teenage kids to babysit and it just.

It was not viable. It was not sustainable. So I had to dust off my license. I had to find a home for us ’cause I couldn’t go back to my home that I had spent five years building. I just want you to know this is what humor can do for you. Humor got me through all this ’cause honestly, there was a time I was like, I don’t know if I wanna be here right now.

But you know, when you have a toddler, you can’t even take a nap. Much less end your life. I know you have to joke about this stuff ’cause it’s real. I think people will know I’m speaking truth. And then I had to go through like three trials. I had to go for trial for my house, a trial for this, you know, criminal offense.

And then she wanted a permanent protective order, and I was just like, you’re the one that attacked me. But it was crazy. Anyway, bottom line is I had to pause comedy. I only like, 10 years, I had to just do occasional like gigs that would come my way and I’d get a babysitter maybe like. Two or three gigs a month at the most, and now I do two or three gigs a week, or more, you know, depending on the week like this coming up, I have, I have four 16 days in a row.

It’s gonna be good, but busy. But he’s 21 now, he’s almost independent. I know that was heavy stuff that I shared, but you know. It’s part of life. And you know, there are women out there who have gone through domestic violence, who know, and you know, when I went to the Safe House meetings and I went for a year, it’s not just so you know, if anybody’s out there going through this hell.

These sociopathic people, they all, it almost always gets flipped on you. They don’t care. She didn’t care that my toddler, there’s a toddler and a mom without a home. Sociopaths have no empathy. They don’t care. But anyway, I am not a victim, but I was victimized. But I used humor to find empowerment and jokes around it.

[00:24:15] Why moms are the most resilient people she knows

Andrea Marie: Yeah, I mean it’s incredible because yeah, I mean, you can be really defeated from something like that. And you know, I think the other thing about. Being a mom in some of these situations are you are now existing, not just for yourself. But you know, that probably made you more creative or resilient in that situation to say, what do I need to do to, make this happen and put a roof over this little toddler’s?

Nancy Norton: Yeah. Oh yeah. I mean, and that’s the thing I know about myself and I think most moms know, is like, we will do what we have to do. And I did and I was able to find a job that I could do after being, you know, inactive. My nursing license was inactive for 13 years. So I was like, what am I gonna do at this point.

But I found a job, like a home care job where I took care of one quadriplegic man, and I could Google things I didn’t know, and it was low stress. So I had energy for my toddler, and he turned out he loved his, I found the best daycare for him. Shout out to Rainbow Preschool in Boulder, Colorado. I mean, he loved it there.

And so it all worked out and. I mean, but it is, like you say, there is a thing called post traumatic growth, that people have a lot of gifts and creativity sometimes from abuse and trauma. Yeah.

Andrea Marie: Yeah, I can imagine. It’s got a trial by fire type of thing, so.

Nancy Norton: Well, it does, it does force neuronal growth, exponentially. Yeah.

Andrea Marie: Wow. That’s amazing. And then, you know, I think the other cool thing too about this is really not discounting how much time you have after they’re grown. I think that is an exciting thing. A lot of the comedians in the moms and Hinge group are empty nesters or their kids are a little older and you know, once they get to that stage.

It can be now time for us. I mean, it’s great if you can juggle both, juggle things. I know that men aren’t always expected to juggle things the way we do, but you know, we can really focus on our careers, you know. When they get older and be working 16 days in a row or whatever.

Nancy Norton: I know, I know. I am grateful. I love, I love, love, love doing comedy. After 35 years, I still love it. And as you know, we both are members of a speaker association or have been, and that’s what’s been my growth in the last 10 years is doing these talks about the power of humor as a keynote speaker.

So I love doing that too. For nurses, healthcare workers, all that kind of stuff. Honestly, that’s what changed my life as a single mom. Reading those articles about what humor does for your brain, and for your stress. Like when you laugh, come out to Moms Unhinged and laugh because it actually gets rid of stress hormones in your body and it actually boosts your immunity when you laugh.

It helps you fight diseases.

Andrea Marie: Yeah, lowers your cortisol. I’ve got cortisol coming out my ears lately. I don’t, I dunno where to. It’s like a little puddle.

Nancy Norton: Can you draw? You should draw a picture of that. That would be good. Therapy, art therapy, cortisol coming out your ears..

Andrea Marie: Cortisol puddles on the stage as we’re getting rid of it all. No.

Nancy Norton: But that’s where you gotta keep laughing, you know? And I mean, truly it’s counterintuitive. So I always tell people like, it’s ironic. It doesn’t add another wedge to your pie chart, but just pie chart. But just sprinkle a little on top of your pie. A little humor every time. You know, it’s counterintuitive when you least feel like you have time to laugh is when you need it the most.

Andrea Marie: Right. Yeah, and that has been a thing that we’ve had people come up to us after the shows talking about like, you know, big events. We had someone who said their friend had committed suicide, you know, not that long ago, and they didn’t wanna come to the show. And it is true that it is when you least maybe feel like it, you think.

Nancy Norton: I have heard that time and again at Moms Unhinged shows. Moms just saying, I needed this so much. I haven’t laughed this hard in so long.

And especially, you know, moms that have, have some circumstances. And unfortunately, I hate to say how common it is. I hate to say how common domestic violence is, how common some of these, you know, hardships are.

Depression is real and it’s like actually when you laugh, it raises your serotonin. It actually is an antidepressant. So, yeah.

[00:28:50] The first woman to win the Boston Comedy Festival

Andrea Marie: And before we wrap up, I just wanna talk about two major amazing things I didn’t even touch on, and we were kind of cheersing in the beginning. I didn’t even talk about your bio at all, but you were the first woman to win the Boston Comedy Festival.

Nancy Norton: Yes. After 20 years of that festival, no female had ever won it.

Andrea Marie: Yeah.

Nancy Norton: And it was, and I was 58 when I won it. So it was a bunch of young, you know, younger comedians, it’s Boston, it’s pretty, you know, male dominated area. I’m not gonna say area, but you know what I mean.

But yeah, so first female. After 20 years of that festival. And then the, and then the next year I went to Seattle International Comedy Festival and the only, only one other woman had won it.

And that was in 1985. So this was the 40th. 40th Seattle International Comedy Competition, which is a three week competition. It’s a grueling grind. You have to stay in the top five. Every night for like three weeks in a row. And again, lots of younger guys. That year I would’ve been 59 and somehow Ole Nance pulls out the victory and the cha-ching. Yeah, yeah.

Andrea Marie: So yeah, you won.

Nancy Norton: $5000 for winning Boston and $5,000 for winning Seattle, and I needed that money as a single mom. So I was grateful, grateful.

Andrea Marie: Seattle should have been more given the three weeks,

Nancy Norton: Well, that’s just the way. Well, it’s not a winner take all. Like Boston is a winner take all festival, but Seattle, everybody gets some money. So it’s like winner takes the most, but. It’s divided among the participants. So a lot of times, you know, it is hard to do some of these long festivals ’cause it’s a you, it was a miracle that I could do that.

Like that I could take that time off and I thank my friend Diane Dandino for that because she watched my son while I was gone.

Andrea Marie: That is awesome. That’s so great. So, Nancy, why don’t you give people more information about where they can find you? And we’ll link to your podcast of course, and that episode you talked about for sure. But tell us where they can get ahold of you, get connected to you.

Nancy Norton: Oh yeah, you can just find my website, NancyNorton.tv. Like television. Nancynorton.com is a jeweler if you need some jewelry. She got it first. She got it first.

Andrea Marie: NancyNorton.tv.

Nancy Norton: It’s weird. There’s a suffix. I think it’s actually a country, but I just thought it was kind of a fun. It’s also my Instagram, Nancy Norton.tv, so if you wanna see clips.

And also, yeah, find Tromedy, the podcast if you have some. There’s like over a hundred episodes now with all different kinds of trauma survivors. A lot of comedians talking openly. And Andrea, thank you for what you are doing for founding this amazing company. Mom’s Unhinged. Is this backwards?

Andrea Marie: No, it’s forwards.

Nancy Norton: It’s backwards in my screen.

Andrea Marie: I know.

Nancy Norton: It’s mirrored in my thing. Okay, cool. I mean, seriously, these are so fun. These are some of the most fun shows I ever do, so thanks for doing so, putting this together.

Andrea Marie: Thank you, Nancy. You’re incredible. Thank you.

Nancy Norton: Thank you. Peace.

Andrea Marie: Thanks for listening and make sure you subscribe, share, and follow us on the socials to get more comedy clips.