It’s not unusual for comedians to use their stand up routines as a substitute for a session with their therapists as they use their audience to unburden all their woes too. Tig Notaro however went much further than most when she went on stage to do her usual act one night in the Largo Club in L.A. and she simply blurted out to the somewhat startled packed crowd ‘I have cancer!’ What followed in the next hour was one unprecedented remarkable set where Tig brought everyone up to date with her extraordinary turn of events.First she had been hospitalized with a bad case of C-IFF which caused her to shed 20lbs as she couldn’t stomach any food. One week after being released, her mother died suddenly after falling down at home, and then exactly one month later, Tig was diagnosed with cancer. Oh yes, in between that, she broke up with her girlfriend too.
This rather compelling documentary from filmmakers Kristina Goolsby and Ashley York opens up with Tig one year on preparing for an Anniversary gig at the same club which at least gives us hope that she may have overcome her problems, but what it doesn’t warn us is that it gets worse before it even starts to get better.
L.A.based Tig Notaro’s humor is very self-deprecating and delivered in a deadpan fashion in which she often pauses to hold a moment when she is telling her stories, all of which are weaned from her own life. Before the night of the great revelation, she enjoyed a modest following, but once word of her bold brave act went viral, she found herself in great demand. Her new fame brought some consolation but as the cameras that followed her around for the whole year witnessed, it didn’t, however, make up for her inability to have a child in any way, or her stumbling with a potential new girlfriend.
Throughout it all, an extremely likable Tig radiated such warmth and mined what at times seemed an inexhaustible reserve of strength and fortitude. When she learned that if her cancer which had been stopped after she underwent a double mastectomy ever came back, then next time it wouldn’t be treatable, this seemed to spur her into action and vanquish her writer’s block so that she could do the ‘set’ at the Anniversary show that she had dreamed of.
It’s an inspiring journey full of hope that is a result of her triumphant spirit, and thankfully, it has a very happy ending too.
Labels: 2015, biography, documentary, gay, Sundance
