There is some good news concerning standup comedian Tig Notaro, but her life has not been without incident this past year. Earlier in 2012, Tig was fighting off pneumonia when antibiotics prescribed to eliminate the pneumonia actually eradicated all of positive bacteria that lived in her intestinal tract and left room for C. diff (Clostridium difficile) to move in. This C. diff infection caused Tig--an already small woman--to lose 20 pounds. Tig beat C. diff, but not long after leaving the hospital, Tig’s still-young mother died from falling and hitting her head. During this time, Tig and her girlfriend split, and the show pilot on which Tig was working with Sarah Silverman was not picked up. Not long after that, on July 31, Tig revealed on her podcast Professor Blastoff that she had been diagnosed the day before with stage II breast cancer in both breasts.
Despite that crapstorm, Tig has also found a large measure of success in her career during that same period of time. In December of 2011, Tig made her first--and a very memorable--appearance on Conan. Tig was then a guest on This American Life with Ira Glass in May. Tig’s KickStarter campaign for her project “Clown Service” hit its funding goal in June. Tig appeared on the Conan After-Hours Stand-Up web-series on July 6th. Additionally, Tig also landed a job writing for an upcoming Comedy Central sketch series created by Amy Schumer. And when, just four days after her breast cancer diagnosis and during her "Tig and Friends" show at Largo, Tig decided to use her time on stage to openly discuss her troubles, she found not only that the audience wanted to hear everything she had to say, but also that her honest dose of reality makes for some amazing stand-up. Concerning Tig’s set, Louis C. K. tweeted, “[I]n 27 years doing this, I’ve seen a handful of truly great, masterful sets. One was Tig Notaro last night at Largo.”
Still, no amount of success can take away the uncertainty of a cancer diagnosis. Tig underwent a double mastectomy on September 4 and I’m very happy to relay that on the September 20, 2012 episode of Conan, Tig announced that her prognosis for the future is great. What’s more, Tig received a call from Louis C. K. who insisted that her amazing Largo set should be released. After some initial hesitance, Tig accepted Louis’s offer. Tig Notaro: Live (pronounced like the verb, not the adjective) will become available through Louis’s website starting October 5th at a cost of only $5. A portion of that money will be donated to various breast cancer charities. Also, Ecco (a HarperCollins imprint) announced earlier today (Septermber 24) that they have signed a publishing deal with Tig for a collection of autobiographical essays to be published sometime in 2015.
No matter what is thrown at Tig, she seems to come out ahead. If you aren’t familiar with Tig’s work, I have included some funny stand-up and interview videos following the recent Conan interview in the playlist below. Also, I highly recommend checking out the podcast Tig co-hosts with Kyle Dunnigan and David Huntsberger called Professor Blastoff, and Tig’s stand-up album Good One.
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