A pair of friends are having dinner together. One leans in, and says: “This is a headline from the Onion that made me laugh so hard…”
“What is it?”
She struggles to get it out: “…‘Seagull With Diarrhea Barely Makes It…Barely Makes It To Crowded Beach In Time!’”
Both burst into laughter.
This exchange may seem as though it would be out of place in a documentary that has been described as “carefully constructed to tell a story about a performer who survived several very difficult years and triumphed.” But that’s “Tig.” And that’s Tig.
The documentary, which was released on Netflix July 17, explores Tig Notaro’s career: Her steady climb to success and the monumental surge in fame she experienced following one particular stand-up set. That set, which she performed on Aug. 3, 2012 at Largo at the Coronet, went viral by the following morning.
Notaro describes the shock of waking up to find out that the show had gone viral overnight: “There was no video. There was nothing there. It was just the idea that this show happened went viral.” The film displays the barrage of attention following the performance: The myriad of tweets, articles, and offers for book deals…
This was all happening in the midst of the personal struggles that were the focus of the performance in question: Recovering from a harrowing battle with C-DIFF, grieving the recent and tragic death of her mother and finally, being diagnosed with breast cancer--in both breasts.
The film deals with these aspects of the comedian’s personal life, as well as facets that are probably less familiar to the viewer: Notaro’s childhood, her family, her attempts to have a child, and her friendship with a former coworker, Stephanie Allynne, which blossomed into a romance—all of which add to the overall raw, yet heartwarming nature of the documentary.
“Tig” also explores Notaro’s career difficulties following the dizzying success of what now exists as the album “Live.” What happens after you do something the whole world is describing "historic"? The answer, in this case, is a sense of daunting uncertainty: “Being interviewed several times a day, and being asked, in every interview: ‘What is your comedy like? Are you a different comedian? What is your material? Who are you now?’ It’s pressure, like ‘Gosh, I don’t even know.’”
The film follows the comedian’s difficult process of rediscovering herself as a performer, a task made all the more arduous by the fact that it was linked strongly to, and occurred in tandem with, her personal struggles.
There is something to be said for the fact that the film opens with its namesake, nervously preparing for what the viewer will later be informed is the one-year anniversary show of her famous performance at Largo. Towards the end of the film, she is seen preparing to go on, looking uncharacteristically frazzled. At one point, she turns, looks into the camera, and asks with a more familiar frankness: “What if this show is a bomb?”
Someone off-screen responds: “Oh, my God. It’s not gonna happen.”
Of course it doesn’t.
She goes on. She kills. And then, she keeps moving forward.
“Live” was an act of tremendous bravery, and so too was this documentary. Ultimately, the film’s greatest achievement is successfully drawing its audience into Notaro’s world, and that alone—given what a breathtaking world it is--makes it well worth watching.
