Janel England
News Editor
Even if you’re not familiar with stand-up comedian Tig Notaro, you might still be familiar with her story. Back in 2012, she was already becoming a household name in comedy after she appeared on This American Life where she shared her stories about multiple run-ins with Taylor Dane.
However, in the span of a few months after this success she suffered pneumonia, contracted the intenstine-eating disease commonly known as C-Diff, unexpectedly lost her mother, was dumped and then was diagnosed with stage two cancer. Shortly after the cancer diagnosis, Tig performed a set at Largo that she famously introduced with, “Hello. Good evening. Hello. I have cancer. How are you? Is everyone having a good time? I have cancer. How are you?”
Even though there was no video taken that evening, her set went viral overnight. Luckily, Largo audio records all performances at the venue and the set was eventually released under the title Live (pronounced with a short i).
Fast-forward four years and Tig’s life has done a complete 180. In that time Netflix released a documentary about her recovery entitled Tig. She married Stephanie Allyne, with whom she recently welcomed twins. She produced a new standup, Boyish Girl Interrupted and wrote and starred in the show One Mississippi that recently debuted on Amazon.
Last week, she came to Cleveland and performed a set at the Capitol Theate. Her tone was much lighter than that of Live, but was still equally as hilarious. The evening opened with a short film titled Clown Service, which featured a recently broken-up with and heavily depressed Tig alone in her home.
Attempting to shake off her funk, Tig orders a clown to come to her home to perform for her. Much of the comedy in the short was rooted in the same qualities that worked so well in her standup: physical humor and Tig’s ever dead-pan delivery (For instance, please take a moment and picture a very small room with a very tall clown that Tig stares at blankly while he struggles making a balloon animal that just ends up looking like a penis and testicles).
After she came out on stage and began her set, those same hallmark qualities held her show aloft for most of the night. However, as this was my first time seeing her live, I could witness firsthand some characteristics in her stand-up that aren’t accessible in her prerecorded work, but showcased the mastery of her craft. Throughout the night, she interacted with the crowd frequently, often stopping in the middle of a joke to comment on something a crowd member had done. When a few of her jokes fell flat, she quickly rebounded by acknowledging it — “some of you guys are waiting for the punch line. That was the punch line. It’s not a good joke yet.”
In addition, she was never unsettled by the multiple technical difficulties that occurred throughout her set, instead transforming them into jokes themselves; she challenged the room to remain silent as she told a joke without her mic being on.
Although much of the night’s material was off-the-cuff or noticeably still being worked out, she made the show thoroughly enjoyable for her audience by capitalizing on the fact that her mistakes were unique experiences that we could solely share and enjoy with her. The night, much like Tig herself, was one of a kind.