Skip to content
Brick Wall Comedy
Brick Wall Comedy

Live

Tig Notaro

LouisCK.com · Album · 2012 · 31 min

An unrehearsed audio set recorded days after a cancer diagnosis.

Tig Notaro walks on stage, takes the microphone, and greets the crowd with, “Hello. Good evening, hello. I have cancer”. She is not setting up a misdirection. She is delivering the facts of her actual life, having just been diagnosed with stage two breast cancer days prior. The resulting half-hour set isn’t polished material, but a working comic using a club stage to process an almost cartoonish string of personal catastrophes in real time.

Recorded as an audio-only set at Largo at the Coronet in Los Angeles in August 2012, Live captures a 41-year-old Notaro at the absolute bottom. In the four months leading up to the recording, she contracted a life-threatening intestinal infection, went through a breakup, and lost her mother in a freak accident. The audio preserves the ambient tension of a room full of people realizing the performer isn’t doing a bit. The crowd gasps, cries, and laughs as she dryly details the physical reality of her diagnosis.

At one point, she attempts to deliver a standard piece of observational comedy she had planned to test out before her life fell apart, a gentle joke about a bee passing her in traffic. The contrast between her normal deadpan whimsy and the looming specter of a severe illness makes the old material sound completely alien.

Louis C.K. watched the performance from the audience and convinced Notaro to release the audio. Initially sold exclusively on his website for five dollars, the recording sold over 60,000 copies in a week and became a massive commercial success.

The set list

5 bits

  1. Greeting the audience and announcing her cancer diagnosis

    Opens the set immediately with 'Good evening, hello. I have cancer. How are you?' and comforts an audience unsure whether to laugh, assuring them that 'It's gonna be OK' before admitting 'It might not be OK.'

  2. Doctor discovering lumps in her breasts

    Recounts the medical examination where a doctor warned of discovering lumps on both sides, which she deadpans were simply her tiny breasts.

  3. Nurse complimenting her flat stomach

    Explains her weight loss from illness to a medical worker who inquired about her flat stomach, answering bluntly, 'Well, I'm dying.'

  4. Hospital care questionnaire sent to her deceased mother

    Analyzes the surreal cruelty of receiving a hospital survey rating her mother's care after she had died there, deadpanning that the hospital should consider not mailing questionnaires to dead people.

  5. The closer (spoiler). Show it

    A bee passing her in traffic on the 405 closer

    Caves to audience demand to deliver a trivial, pre-written joke about traffic that deconstructs the artificial conventions of standard comedy routines against the backdrop of her actual tragedies.

How it plays

Tone
Raw, emotionally naked, dark, and bittersweet, navigating the boundary between devastating tragedy and absurdity.
On stage
Deadpan, calm, raw, and vulnerable; shifting away from detached one-liners into deeply open and honest personal storytelling.
Pace
Calm, steady, and unhurried cadence despite occasional shakiness, navigating heavy silences and raw emotional tension.
About
breast cancer diagnosis, grief and the sudden death of her mother, hospitalization and C. diff infection, relationship breakup, the balance between tragedy and comedy

What the critics said

Universally heralded as a raw, courageous, and masterful piece of standup comedy that turned personal calamity into profound art.

In the room: Shocked, stunned, and uncertain at first, transitioning into deep empathy, supportive catharsis, and rapturous encouragement.

Summed up from reviews, articles and listings. Sources: allmusic.com, secretlystore.com, en.wikipedia.org, theguardian.com, slate.com, ew.com, avclub.com, npr.org, vulture.com.

Backstory

Performed at Largo just days after being diagnosed with stage two bilateral breast cancer, concluding an agonizing four-month period marked by pneumonia, a life-threatening C. diff infection, the sudden death of her mother, and the collapse of a relationship.

Details

Released
Taped
Largo at the Coronet Theater, Los Angeles
Runtime
31 min
Where
LouisCK.com (album)
Honors
Nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album at the 56th Annual Grammy AwardsPeaked at No. 1 on Billboard's Top Comedy Albums chart
Topics
Before
Comedy Central Presents (2004)
After
Knock Knock, It's Tig Notaro (2015)

More from Tig Notaro

If you liked this