Huffington Magazine Issue 25 | Page 70

Exit COMEDY HUFFINGTON 12.02.12 How to Take a Comic’s Breath Away BY ROSS LUIPPOLD N AUGUST, Tig Notaro took the stage at the nightclub Largo in Los Angeles for a show that was expected to be a typical Notaro performance: wry, acerbic and playful. But when a smiling Notaro opened by telling the applauding audience, “thank you, thank you, I have cancer, thank you, I have cancer, really, thank you,” the jolt in the room was palpable. What kind of person tells the world about her breast cancer diagnosis in a performance medium normally reserved for quips on airline food? The kind that has been producing some of the most inventive, if not STEVEN DEWALL/REDFERNS/GETTY IMAGES I Comedian Tig Notaro at the at Sasquatch! Music Festival in May of 2011.