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3.97 AVERAGE
3.97 AVERAGE
I really respect and admire Tig Notaro. However, I was expecting new stories instead of the same stories that fans of her work are already familiar with in various other formats. If not new stories, then a perspective on those stories that went deeper than the other shows and recordings. I also think the book was the least funny of these. Still an enjoyable book, and it's nice that she narrates the audiobook herself. The rating would have been higher if this had been my intro to Tig Notaro.
I may be obsessed with Tig Notaro's comedy. This is a not as comedic look at her life which I enjoyed greatly.
Touching. Tig goes deeper than in her Netflix documentary. She's very open about her grief, losses and happiness she finds.
admiring as i am of the person, this book didn't do it for me.
Tig Notaro tells the story of the worst year of her life with such authenticity and humor.
Tig's observational brand of humor is transcendent and infectious. She bravely shared the worst year of her life with the world during that famous Largo set, and continues to be a force for good despite the hardships she's faced.
Tig's book offers a more in-depth look at that fateful year and the complicated relationship she had with her mother. It's a must-read for fans of Tig/stand-up comedy in general, but it's also a beautiful, heartwarming take on the struggles that connect us all.
Side note: Tig's Santa joke *kills* me.
Tig's book offers a more in-depth look at that fateful year and the complicated relationship she had with her mother. It's a must-read for fans of Tig/stand-up comedy in general, but it's also a beautiful, heartwarming take on the struggles that connect us all.
Side note: Tig's Santa joke *kills* me.
I was well aware of Tig Notaro before reading this memoir, but I had no idea the extent of her compounded misfortunes (for lack of better words). This is a story of resilience and a lesson in how vulnerability may release some weight carried from negative experiences.
dark
funny
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
First of all, if you are one of seven people in the world who hasn't yet listened to Tig Notaro's famous set from Largo, go do that right now.
If you know anything at all about Tig Notaro, it's that 2012 was an absolute shit year for her. She was diagnosed with an aggressive bacterial infection called c. Diff that more or less ate her intestines. As soon as she got out of the hospital, but before she had really recovered, she received a phone call from her stepfather that her mom had fallen, hit her head on a coffee table, and wasn't going to survive. She traveled home to Texas to say goodbye and attend the funeral, then went back to LA just in time for her relationship with her girlfriend to dissolve. Then, she discovered a lump in her breast.
She went in for a biopsy and was diagnosed with bilateral breast cancer. She required surgery as soon as possible.
Oddly, all of this terrible, terrible stuff led to perhaps the biggest moment of her career as a stand-up. A week after the cancer diagnosis, she had been scheduled to perform a stand-up set at the Largo in LA. Instead of canceling the show, she got up there and announced to everyone, "Good evening, hello, I have cancer." It was widely considered a groundbreaking, revolutionary thing. She just got up on stage and cracked jokes about all the terrible things she'd gone through over the previous 4 months. It was wry and self-deprecating and a little angry and confused, but touching and funny and wonderful.
Louis CK--who was at a professional peak of his own at the time--raved about the set on Twitter and before Tig had even woken up the next day, news of the show had gone viral and she was an instant sensation. In the three and a half years since then, I feel like Tig Notaro is everywhere. She sold the recording of that set, which became one of the fastest selling comedy albums of all time and was nominated for a Grammy. Her stand-up tours started selling out bigger venues than ever before. She was interviewed in nearly every media outlet you could name, she made a documentary for Netflix, an HBO special, a Showtime special, and now a show on Amazon Prime...and a memoir. Tah-da!!
I adore Tig Notaro. I discovered her just as her profile was starting to rise, when she appeared on a special live edition of This American Life that broadcast in movie theaters in the summer of 2012. This was post-c. diff, post-death, but pre-cancer. In what's become one of her most famous bits, she told the story of the many times that she's bumped into pop star Taylor Dayne. It's silly and absurd, told in a signature deadpan style with lots of awkward pauses that I love. From that moment on, I was a fan and I was really excited to see her blow up.
In fact, one of the proudest moments of my life is the time that Tig Notaro made fun of my giggle during a stand-up set in Arlington, VA, after a bit about her breasts retaliating for years of making jokes at their expense.
So, yeah, I knew I was going to have to read this book and I was suuuuuuper excited when I saw that it was available on Edelweiss. If I'm 100% honest, I was maybe a smidge disappointed that this book primarily rehashes all the stuff that I learned from the Largo set, the multitude of interviews, the documentary. It wasn't as laugh out loud funny as I expected it to be (though I think this might be worth checking out on audiobook if she reads it herself), but she still tells her story with warmth and insight and humor. It was familiar but still moving, this intense yo-yo that's been this woman's life over the last few years.
If you haven't done so yet, take the time to catch up on her stand-up on YouTube, watch her Amazon pilot and her HBO special, and definitely, definitely, definitely watch this heartbreaking video from her appearance on The Moth (which also factors into the book). And if you're not yet tired of Tig Notaro, then pick up this book this summer. It might be treading some familiar water, but it's still thoroughly enjoyable and engaging water.
If you know anything at all about Tig Notaro, it's that 2012 was an absolute shit year for her. She was diagnosed with an aggressive bacterial infection called c. Diff that more or less ate her intestines. As soon as she got out of the hospital, but before she had really recovered, she received a phone call from her stepfather that her mom had fallen, hit her head on a coffee table, and wasn't going to survive. She traveled home to Texas to say goodbye and attend the funeral, then went back to LA just in time for her relationship with her girlfriend to dissolve. Then, she discovered a lump in her breast.
She went in for a biopsy and was diagnosed with bilateral breast cancer. She required surgery as soon as possible.
Oddly, all of this terrible, terrible stuff led to perhaps the biggest moment of her career as a stand-up. A week after the cancer diagnosis, she had been scheduled to perform a stand-up set at the Largo in LA. Instead of canceling the show, she got up there and announced to everyone, "Good evening, hello, I have cancer." It was widely considered a groundbreaking, revolutionary thing. She just got up on stage and cracked jokes about all the terrible things she'd gone through over the previous 4 months. It was wry and self-deprecating and a little angry and confused, but touching and funny and wonderful.
Louis CK--who was at a professional peak of his own at the time--raved about the set on Twitter and before Tig had even woken up the next day, news of the show had gone viral and she was an instant sensation. In the three and a half years since then, I feel like Tig Notaro is everywhere. She sold the recording of that set, which became one of the fastest selling comedy albums of all time and was nominated for a Grammy. Her stand-up tours started selling out bigger venues than ever before. She was interviewed in nearly every media outlet you could name, she made a documentary for Netflix, an HBO special, a Showtime special, and now a show on Amazon Prime...and a memoir. Tah-da!!
I adore Tig Notaro. I discovered her just as her profile was starting to rise, when she appeared on a special live edition of This American Life that broadcast in movie theaters in the summer of 2012. This was post-c. diff, post-death, but pre-cancer. In what's become one of her most famous bits, she told the story of the many times that she's bumped into pop star Taylor Dayne. It's silly and absurd, told in a signature deadpan style with lots of awkward pauses that I love. From that moment on, I was a fan and I was really excited to see her blow up.
In fact, one of the proudest moments of my life is the time that Tig Notaro made fun of my giggle during a stand-up set in Arlington, VA, after a bit about her breasts retaliating for years of making jokes at their expense.
So, yeah, I knew I was going to have to read this book and I was suuuuuuper excited when I saw that it was available on Edelweiss. If I'm 100% honest, I was maybe a smidge disappointed that this book primarily rehashes all the stuff that I learned from the Largo set, the multitude of interviews, the documentary. It wasn't as laugh out loud funny as I expected it to be (though I think this might be worth checking out on audiobook if she reads it herself), but she still tells her story with warmth and insight and humor. It was familiar but still moving, this intense yo-yo that's been this woman's life over the last few years.
If you haven't done so yet, take the time to catch up on her stand-up on YouTube, watch her Amazon pilot and her HBO special, and definitely, definitely, definitely watch this heartbreaking video from her appearance on The Moth (which also factors into the book). And if you're not yet tired of Tig Notaro, then pick up this book this summer. It might be treading some familiar water, but it's still thoroughly enjoyable and engaging water.