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Promotional art for Hello Again
Cover image credit: Source: out.com

Hello Again

Tig Notaro

Prime Video · 2024 · 60 min

A quiet comedian tackles loud firemen, bad texts, and a piano.

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Tig Notaro is at her best when she is leaning into excruciating social awkwardness, and this hour leans heavily on the quiet agony of miscommunication. The high point of the performance comes when she recounts a middle-of-the-night medical emergency that ends with a muscular, mustache-wearing fireman carrying her down the stairs. It is a moment of pure physical vulnerability that Notaro, a self-described “old-fashioned lesbian,” greets with a sudden, droll epiphany about why people find these men attractive.

Filmed at the Kings Theatre in Brooklyn and released on Prime Video in early 2024, the special caught Notaro during a highly visible stretch of her career, alongside her acting roles on The Morning Show and her work co-hosting the comedy podcast Handsome. Directed by her wife, Stephanie Allynne, the set ranges from hallucinatory text messages sent while under the influence of post-surgery painkillers to a prolonged, agonizing misunderstanding with Reese Witherspoon regarding Nicole Kidman’s height.

While her deliberate, deadpan storytelling carries the first two-thirds of the set, the performance shifts radically for the finale. Notaro rolls out a white baby grand piano, attempting to convince the crowd she has suddenly become a musical virtuoso. The extended bit, which relies on her complete lack of piano skills, divided critics and audiences alike. Some appreciated the sheer absurdity of the joke, while others felt the gag wore thin long before she finally stepped away from the keys.

The set list

4 bits

  1. A late-night emergency call brings a muscular, mustachioed fireman to the rescue.

    Notaro humorously questions her identity as an old-fashioned lesbian, spinning an imaginative fantasy of abandoning her family to live with him in a nightgown.

  2. Physical therapy following back surgery and an allergic reaction to medication.

    Combines absurd storytelling about post-surgery hallucinations with physical comedy, including an extended crab-walk squat across the stage.

  3. Hearing loss leading to awkward social confusion.

    Recounts misunderstandings at the airport and in production meetings with Reese Witherspoon.

  4. The closer (spoiler). Show it

    A grand piano is wheeled onstage as Notaro admits she cannot play piano or sing. closer

    Vamps extensively, takes audience requests, and recounts performing Adele's 'Hello' in front of Adele at a star-studded party, dragging out anticipation for an anticlimactic musical payoff.

How it plays

Tone
Sharp, whimsical, deadpan, and conversational.
On stage
Dry, droll, deadpan, self-effacing, and gentle.
Pace
Deliberate, easy cadence with pauses and long, drawn-out teases, punctuated by unexpected physical comedy.
About
marriage and parenting, health scares and physical therapy, hearing loss and aging, awkward misunderstandings, celebrity encounters, sexuality and queer identity

What the critics said

Praised for her signature deadpan delivery, exquisite storytelling, and subtle character work, though critics were divided on the drawn-out piano-playing finale.

In the room: Warm, engaged, and playfully receptive to her teasing and audience interaction.

Summed up from reviews, articles and listings. Sources: primevideo.com, press.amazonmgmstudios.com, 800poundgorillamedia.com, rottentomatoes.com, vulture.com, theguardian.com, pastemagazine.com, decider.com, en.wikipedia.org, npr.org, out.com, hollywoodreporter.com.

Backstory

Drawing on her life in her 50s, raising twin sons Max and Finn with wife Stephanie Allynne, dealing with back surgery and hearing loss, more than a decade after her landmark cancer set.

Details

Released
Taped
2023, Kings Theatre, Brooklyn
Runtime
60 min
Where
Prime Video
Director
Stephanie Allynne
Honors
Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Directing for a Reality Program (2024)Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Picture Editing For Variety Programming (2024)
Topics
Before
Drawn (2021)

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