Until a couple of years ago, Tig Notaro was a moderately successful
comedienne surviving on a regime of stand-up shows, TV spots, Film cameos and
her touring podcast Professor Blastoff. And then during March of 2012, everything
completely changed.
Whilst filming In a World… she started to feel ill and eventually got diagnosed
with a rare bacterial infection illness known as C DIFF; then as she was
recovering from that she found out her mother had fallen and unexpectedly died;
and then to top it all off, she was suddenly diagnosed with an aggressive
breast cancer… so after so much bad news she made the only sensible
decision: She would fight fire, with
funny. On the night of 4th
August 2012 she decided to tell her story on stage, for laughs, and instantly
make comedy history…
Firstly, it is completely impossible not
to fall in love with Tig’s eponymous
character. Tig manages to articulate her
concurrent tragedies with dignity and a touching introspection that maybe only
a hardened stand-up could accomplish. It
isn’t hard to see why some of America’s current comedy luminaries (Louis C.K, Sarah Silverman, Zach Galifianakis) as well as liberal cultural icons (Ira Glass, Jimmy Kimmel)
adore her.
Before, and throughout, the darkest
points of her illnesses, Tig expressed her desire to have a biological child
one day. Given that she is gay, the filmmakers
follow her enlisting an old friend of hers to donate some sperm and then on to
her quest to find a surrogate for IVF.
It is during this process that she meets Stephanie Allynne and begins to fall in love with her sense of
humour and charm: the messages that they
exchange are utterly adorable…
It is interesting that the last decade
has seen a real rise in the deconstruction of the art of comedy. Some people would say that to explain a joke
is to ruin it, but a number of interesting shows, documentaries, round-tables
and blogs are starting to reveal the practice and format of stand-up humour in
such a way as to make it funnier and richer – a veritable craft. For those viewers who
are interested, documentaries such as Tig
give an insight into the craft of comedy without deflating the artist in the
process. And if this sounds pretentious
and gratuitous, then the humble charisma of Notaro will win you over without
needing to reflect on her stagecraft.
The night that Tig announced her illness
on stage at the Largo will rightly go down in comedy history, but it is the
quality of the material rather than the content that should be truly
remembered. And who else has ever been
heckled with shouts of “This is fucking amazing” and begs to keep going from
crying audience members.
Tig is amazing and is now available on Netflix
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