No Moleste

From Rooftop Comedy

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Tig Notaro
Live Review

Tig Notaro’s command over her audience is hugely impressive. Like all the best underworld dons, she controls though calm, quiet confidence, making it clear she has the comic firepower to maintain her authority, but rarely having to deploy it.

Her delivery is as cold and dry as the most perfectly-mixed martini, neither shaken not stirred. The poise is perfect, the tone half a degree above deadpan, drawing the audience inward rather than forcing her witticisms on them, Sometimes it’s only a barely-perceptible inflection that shows she’s actually joking, the verbal equivalent of a raised eyebrow of distain, but that’s more than enough.

Yet beneath the implacable exterior, the Mississippi-born comedian can be surprisingly playful, she riffs – albeit in her own good time – with audience members who interject, either prompted or otherwise. It’s a compellingly engaging, almost hypnotic, performance.

In previous shows, including her stint at the Headliners strand in Melbourne last year, I found her interminable pregnant pauses and lazy pacing hugely frustrating, but here she strikes a more perfect equilibrium of awkward tension and on-the-nose laughs. I’m not sure if she’s changed or I have, but either way her deportment has few rivals.

For material, she slowly weaves long routines around the most unlikely of subjects: she spins out for a good ten minutes her surprisingly frequent encounters with Eighties singer Taylor Dayne that seem forever destined to repeat themselves. The obvious gags about the Spanish for ‘do not disturb’ – ‘no moleste’ – is painstakingly spelt out, line-by-line, but there’s humour in the anticipation, and an occasional left-turn to keep you on your toes.

You have to board her train of thought at the first station, however, otherwise you may be left behind. Routines about GPS navigation or how to deal with shark attacks seemed rather too clichéd, and never quite took hold, although plenty in the audience would disagree. But by then they were under her spell as surely as brainwashed cult members, soaking up the highly polished wit from a calm and collected craftswoman.

Reviewed at the Melbourne Comedy Festival, April 2011

All those chastising the review for being harsh must be Tig Notaro herself.

Albert cook, October 2010

I don't care what your review says, this woman has a unique way of stand up comedy. I agree that her deadpan is what makes her humor hilarious, because it's true. So that's that.

Cherie, July 2007

I just saw her comedy special on Comedy Central. I sort of agree with the reviewer. She was great at some points, but other times I felt like I had heard the jokes before. That being said, I'd certainly pay to see her perform live and give her another chance.

J Grut, June 2005

I laughed so hard I cried the first time I saw her on television. She is absolutely hysterical.

Chelsey Laporta, December 2004

Tig's deadpan is what makes her humor hilarious and she told me that it stems from stage fright. She is an impressive comedian with interesting insights into the world. Your review was harsh

Johanna, October 2004

I can firmly say that this was the worst act I've ever seen.

Jon Snow, January 2004

I find this review so harsh and untrue. Maybe you just don't understand her genius. She was brilliant each time I saw her perform. I returned three times during the Kilkenny festival just to see her. Her stage presence was captivating.

Matthew, June 2003