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Happy To Be Here

Tig Notaro

Netflix · 2018

Tig Notaro brings dry domestic jokes and a massive closing prank.

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Tig Notaro spent the early part of her mainstream career defined by heavy topics, most notably her breast cancer diagnosis. Her 2018 hour represents a conscious pivot toward silliness, trading dark autobiographical material for low-stakes domesticity and slow-burn crowd teasing.

Filmed at the Heights Theater in Houston near where she grew up, the set finds Notaro married, parenting twin toddlers, and living a comfortable life where her biggest social anxiety is attending a party at Ellen DeGeneres’s house. Her deadpan delivery remains intact, but the subject matter is gentler, touching on her interactions with her wife, the behavior of her kids, and being mistaken for a man in public.

The hour concludes with a prolonged, fifteen-minute prank where she repeatedly teases that the Indigo Girls are about to perform. It is an exercise in comic tension that tests exactly how long she can stretch a gag before the audience realizes she is messing with them.

The set list

6 bits

  1. Being mistaken for a man and responding at a cash register

    Recounts being called 'sir' by a store clerk and delivering the quick retort 'Just the gum, ma'am,' creating a standoff of mutual confusion followed by doing triumphant leprechaun kicks home.

  2. Exhausted 4 a.m. conversation with wife Stephanie

    Deconstructs a sleep-deprived misunderstanding when Stephanie asks 'How do you have sex with a baby?', spinning it into an Abbott and Costello-like linguistic routine.

  3. Airport travelator encounter with a fan

    Describes riding an airport moving walkway when a passerby gives her a finger gun snap with 'Yo, Tig. What's up?' and glides away without looking back, leaving her fixated on him.

  4. Searching for an imaginary dog named Mitzy at parties

    Describes a personal prank where she pretends to lose a nonexistent dog to watch well-meaning party guests search under furniture before casually exiting alone.

  5. Story of her worst temp job assignment

    Relates a job story while continuously fielding guesses and questions from the audience, folding their participation directly into the snowballing narrative.

  6. Extended tease of a surprise musical guest appearance

    Spends nearly ten minutes playfully teasing the Houston audience about an impending appearance by the Indigo Girls, repeatedly testing and subverting the crowd's expectations.

How it plays

Tone
Joyful, lighthearted, triumphant, silly, and wry.
On stage
Deadpan, playful prankster, relaxed, warm, and self-confident.
Pace
Deliberate and patient pacing with serpentine narrative arcs, unhurried pauses between setups and punchlines, and seamless conversational momentum.
About
marriage and domestic life, parenting twin boys, being misgendered, practical jokes and social pranks, fan encounters and celebrity, temp jobs

What the critics said

Universally praised as an exultant, joyful victory lap that demonstrates her masterful storytelling and playful audience interaction without relying on tragedy.

In the room: Rapt, energized, and deeply engaged, readily bantering and playing along with Notaro's setups.

Summed up from reviews, articles and listings. Sources: vulture.com, avclub.com, forbes.com, vogue.com, nytimes.com, en.wikipedia.org, cbc.ca, indiewire.com.

Backstory

Marks a shift from the profound grief, illness, and tragedy that framed her 2012 breakout set Live and 2015 special Boyish Girl Interrupted, finding her content, healthy, married to Stephanie Allynne, and raising twin boys.

Details

Released
Taped
2017, The Heights Theater, Houston
Where
Netflix
Director
Tig Notaro
Topics
Before
Boyish Girl Interrupted (2015)
After
Drawn (2021)

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