It is fitting that my interview with Natalie Telfer begins with sounds of children in the background.
Telfer and Cat Belknap are moms who created a one-of-a-kind digital community for other mothers. Based in Toronto with seven children between them, they are best friends, business partners, social media darlings and accidental millionaires.
Cat & Nat, as they're known to audiences, share brutally honest yet comedic takes on surviving motherhood and parenting. The effect of sharing the warty side of motherhood has earned them a few critics. But their large online community of moms plugs in to the duo’s relatable content.
Jumping into a van, they are embarking on a Canadian tour dubbed Cat & Nat Unfiltered Live and will play a show at the Arden Theatre Sunday, April 2. Set up similarly as a podcast, the Cat & Nat show is a memoir mixed with humour, advice, dancing and DJ music.
“We talk about things people think, but don’t say. Our take is how to find comedy in things around us,” said Telfer. The duo has also written two books, Mom Truths and Mom Secrets, filled with juicy tidbits.
The perfect mom image has saturated pop culture, but Cat & Nat dismantle it one punch line after another. One line goes like this; “clubbing prepares you for having kids, someone is always barfing.” Another ridiculously honest piece of advice for first time mothers giving birth at a hospital is leave the lip gloss at home in favour of a hemorrhoid pillow.
“It’s comedy. It’s the things you tell your best friend but wouldn’t tell your husband. We get confessions from our audience. We joke about it and normalize it,” said Telfer.
The two first met at Toronto's Northern Secondary School as acquaintances. Upon graduation neither had a hard-core purpose in life and went their separate ways.
“We were a bit lost and didn’t know how to be successful. We didn’t know what our passion was. We just knew we wanted to be moms. We didn’t plan things ahead. If something didn’t work out, we didn’t see it as a failure.”
While other women in their social circles were building careers, they were the first two to have babies and the new obligations isolated them. Wanting to meet other mothers and enjoy in-person fun, Telfer and Belknap planned events with a glass of wine and a few laughs. Parenting experts, relationship experts and sex experts were sometimes invited to these evenings.
“In the beginning we wanted moms to have the most fun ever, but what we realized was it just gave them a sense of belonging. We wanted them to feel joy and belonging with other women who shared the same things.”
The transition to podcasts, especially during COVID attracted newcomers. However, organizers at CBC Theatre invited them to do a live talk show.
“The 500 seats were sold out in less than one hour. We realized women need this, and we could do this, and we made a commitment to do a live video and podcast tour.”
Cat & Nat Unfiltered Live runs Sunday, April 2 at 6 p.m. at Arden Theatre. Regular tickets are $49.50 and VIP tickets are $125.00. Visit https://stalbert.ca/exp/arden/events/ or call 780-459-1542.
