Movie Review: Tig (2015)

Tig Notaro is a comedian I have enjoyed for longer than I can remember. In 2012, after battling a horrible health scare and losing a close member of her family, she found out that she had cancer and broke the news on stage during a show. The result was a set that broke her career wide open. Just as she thought life was at its worst, some of the best things she could hope for started to happen.

Tig was on the set of the movie In a World when she started to feel ill. She was rushed to the hospital, and she was soon diagnosed with C-Diff. This is an often deadly disease that destroys your digestive system. Though the battle was difficult, Tig survived, but thuis was only the very beginning of her struggle.

During her recovery, she got a message from her stepdad. Her mom had fallen and hit her head, and it looked like she wouldn't make it. Tig went home to deal with this new tragedy, and it didn't stop there.



With one thing happening after another, Tig had a lump in her breast, and it was cancerous. After hearing this, she decided to go on with a show that she was already scheduled to do. She announced her cancer right out of the gate and ran with it. It's one of the smartest and funniest sets I've ever heard, and you have to think about the fact that this wasn't written material. She was learning to cope on stage. Several of her comedian friends including Ed Helms, Louis C.K. and Bill Burr were on the show, and they and others convinced her to release the set as an album. It was a huge hit.

This is as much as many of us know about her story, but there is so much more. I won't spoil any of the rest of her story, but it gets deep and personal and makes for the best comedian documentary and one of the best inspirational documentaries I have ever seen. I couldn't stop rooting for Tig. In the first half hour alone, I was crying, laughing and completely engrossed in her story. Tig is a must watch for everybody. Get on it.