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Boyish Girl Interrupted

Tig Notaro

HBO · 2015 · 55 min

Tig Notaro delivers quiet deadpan stories and eventually goes topless.

The image of Tig Notaro is often tied to her 2012 “Live” set, where she walked on stage days after a breast cancer diagnosis and announced it to the crowd. She works to prove she is, as she repeatedly tells the audience, just a person. The peak of this transition occurs when Notaro, mid-anecdote about a baffling TSA pat-down, casually removes her shirt. Showing her double-mastectomy scars, she goes on to perform the final third of the hour entirely topless, barely acknowledging the nudity. It is a striking visual moment that manages to be both a triumphant assertion of survival and a joke about the absurdity of a half-naked comic pacing the stage.

Filmed at the Wilbur Theatre in Boston and released on HBO in August 2015, the special caught Notaro at a professional high. She had spent the previous three years managing a whirlwind of tragic headlines, critical acclaim, and multiple documentary projects. Here, her comedy leans heavily into the playful, deadpan silliness that defined her early career before her illness. She breaks down the various types of audience laugh noises, such as the post-giggle sigh, and acts out a painstaking, slow-burn story about chasing a Santa Claus lookalike in a McDonald’s parking lot.

Much of the set is anchored by her slow, deliberate pacing. In a centerpiece routine about bombing 14 straight shows in Las Vegas, she mimes eating an imaginary ice cream cone, deliberately keeping the microphone away from her face to heighten the physical absurdity. Other routines focus on the logistics of getting buried next to her fiancée and the culture clash of introducing her partner to her Southern family. The special received wide acclaim, earning an Emmy nomination for writing, while its subsequent audio release picked up a Grammy nomination for Best Comedy Album.

The set list

7 bits

  1. TSA airport security pat-down

    Recounts a confusing security screening where a female TSA officer panics trying to discern Notaro's gender, while Notaro intentionally stays quiet to let her struggle.

  2. Performing topless onstage

    Removes her blazer and shirt to reveal her double mastectomy scars, then nonchalantly pivots into routine comedy about being afraid to fly without acknowledging her naked torso further.

  3. Searching for Santa Claus

    Details adult excitement at spotting a man who looks exactly like Santa Claus in a McDonald's parking lot.

  4. Audience laugh noises

    Dissects the bizarre noises audiences make, specifically the reminiscent sigh right after a laugh or a pig-like snort.

  5. Bombing in Las Vegas

    Reflects on performing and bombing a stand-up set in Las Vegas.

  6. Mother's childhood rug

    Explains that she filmed the special in Boston just so she could stand onstage on a rug brought from her deceased mother's childhood home.

  7. Meeting family in Mississippi

    Brings her fiancée to meet her eccentric family in Mississippi and jokes about being 'gay buried' next to her.

How it plays

Tone
Subtle, understated, deadpan, blending silliness with dark personal honesty.
On stage
Deadpan, quietly spoken, dry, monotone, solemn yet mischievous and impish, marked by relaxed confidence and nonchalance.
Pace
Low, slow, and measured pacing with heavy reliance on deliberate silences, long pauses, and minimalist delivery.
About
cancer and double mastectomy, gender confusion and perception, mortality, family, air travel and TSA, everyday silliness

What the critics said

Critically acclaimed for its cool confidence, masterful understated delivery, and the groundbreaking, unapologetic choice to perform topless to normalize her post-mastectomy body.

In the room: Delighted, rapt, and cheering, initially surprised and whistling at her toplessness before fully settling into laughter.

Summed up from reviews, articles and listings. Sources: en.wikipedia.org, hbomax.com, primevideo.com, broadwayworld.com, chortle.co.uk, vox.com, nylon.com, washingtonpost.com, imdb.com, nbcnews.com.

Backstory

Taped three years after a tumultuous 2012 where she survived a severe intestinal infection, the sudden death of her mother, and a bilateral breast cancer diagnosis requiring a double mastectomy without reconstruction; taped while planning her wedding to Stephanie Allynne.

Details

Released
Taped
Wilbur Theatre, Boston
Runtime
55 min
Where
HBO
Director
Jay Karas & Tig Notaro
Honors
Nominated for Outstanding Writing for a Variety Special at the 68th Primetime Emmy Awards (2016)Nominated for Best Comedy Album at the 59th Annual Grammy Awards (2017)
Topics
Before
Knock Knock, It's Tig Notaro (2015)
After
Happy To Be Here (2018)

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