Tig Notaro. The Funniest Comedienne You've Never Heard Of.

Tig Notaro at Bumbershoot

So around 6:00am, when I usually leave for the day, to wake up, I've got coffee in hand, an ambivalent attitude towards waking life, and my Pandora shuffle on. Not proud of this, but a lot of my channels are stand up comedy-centric. Patton Oswalt, Kumail Nanjiani, Iliza Shlesinger etc. On one such occasion, someone came on my shuttle who's voice, delivery and punchlines seemed totally unique to me, even though at that point I'd heard it all. 

I looked down at my shuffle and it told me it was playing a segment from Tig Notaro's special, called 'Taylor Dane'. And let me tell you I almost doubled over laughing. Her routine was unlike anything I had heard before. I know a lot of writers, a lot of comics, and they all govern their routines by the idea that there is a long build up to a punch line. The greater the punch line, the more elaborate the build up. Tig seemed to speak just as if she was having a conversation, in a very recognizable, 'so what' delivery style, as if she was having a personal conversation with you, and not trolling for laughs. My father always used to say that it was the person with nothing to say that projected the loudest, and when the person who actually knew what they were talking about started to speak, they always did it softly and slowly, so that everyone brought their own vigor down so they could hear the words. Such is the case with Tig Notaro. 

Tig's album (Good One) now available on iTunes and Spotify

I didn't know anything about her at the time, so I did my wiki research, and turns out this woman, in her early 40's had been diagnosed with a very aggressive form of breast cancer. I can't remember how much time she was given, but it wasn't a lot. She had an act to do at Largo in Los Angeles, and instead of canceling, being the bold brash force that she was decided to go out there and just talk about it. In the best and most humorous way you can do. It's perhaps the ballsiest thing I've heard a performer do. 'Good evening, hello. I have cancer, how are ya?' the set starts. Many of her comic friends were in the audience, Sarah Silverman, Zach Galifianakis among them, and even they couldn't believe their ears. Her performance that night was instantly considered legendary and overnight this fringe comedienne had become a sensation. She was interviewed by everyone and their mother, and shone a light on the absolute hell that it is to try to be funny in the face of perhaps the most devastating thing that can happen to someone. 

Tig and her wife Stephanie.

Within some time, she had a double mastectomy and removed all traces of the cancer that was ravaging her body. She also got married to a lovely women who played her love interest in In a World... 

Netflix (bless them) has recently started to stream a documentary about her simply called...you guessed it; Tig. In it, she chronicles everything that I just told you about, compounded with the sorrow of losing her mother and trying to conceive one with her wife although taking hormones was in her words 'like throwing a match on the fire' of the dormant cancer that had ravaged her body for years. 

Although she's not on many people's radar, every comic (in particular Louis CK) have nothing but the utmost admiration and respect for Tig, and aside everything that she's been through and is still going through, she is still one of the funniest comics that's out there. Not just women comics. I immediately recognized it, and I hope you will to. Gawd, I never get this sincere or mushy about a topic, and I'd like to lighten the mood. So watch some of the clips below. FWI the Conan O'Brien bit was NOT staged. And check out the aforementioned film on Netflix. 

Milk Milk Lemonade: The Church of Schumer

Schumer is god.

Ms. Schumer is a breath of fresh air. In a society that has become overloaded with young girls well late 20's - early 30's that take themselves wayyyy too seriously (talking to you, Gerwig and Dunham), it's refreshing to see a woman on TV who is totally blunt, completely unapologetic and viciously fearless. Her medium of choice is comedy and currently rules the landscape. The shooting in in Lafayette during her film Trainwreck showed us a very serious side of the comedy icon, when she allied with her uncle, Senator Chuck Schumer to take a stand against gun violence and the second amendment which just goes to show how incredible of a person that she is. 

But I'd like to talk about Schumer the comic if I may. We were first introduced to her as the sweet-looking, baby-doll dress wearing comic on every deus at a Comedy Central Roast who shocked everyone considering she looked so sweet, but what subsequently would come out of her mouth was the best foul comedy we've heard in years. During her meteoric rise, she has shut down critics and haters, saying 'I'm 160 pounds and I can catch a dick whenever I want', and acknowledging that yes it's hard for female comics, I mean duhhhh. It's a man's world, but she has machete'd the status quo with her brazen material to show that she's just as good if not better in her outrageousness. She's almost like the female Chris Farley. She came out of the box with the whole 'I own this' attitude, and not afraid of anything or any body.

Never afraid to say what we're all thinking.

What I particularly love about her is that she's not one-note. Usually people that do sketch  comedy aren't great at stand up, or the other way around. She's been able to nail both with her show Inside Amy Schumer (great pun bdtubs) as well as her stand-up special 'Cutting'. She's not afraid to be self-effacing either. This is usually a cop-out, but it works brilliantly for her; 'you'd sleep with me, but you wouldn't blog about it'. Bless her. She is also tackling some serious issues that women face today. Her 'Girl You Don't Need Make Up' song sketch is a brilliant satire of the whole 'you're beautiful just the way you are...as long as you're still conventionally beautiful' sentiment that seems so popular right now. When you're watching comedy and your first thought is 'I can't believe they're showing this on television' that's always a good sign. There are no limits with her. The whole 'you can't say that on television' has dissipated. I still remember when Jimmy Fallon asked her; 'what is your opinion on teeth?' and her response without even thinking about it was; 'I've been told to use less' The world would never be the same. She's brought her male comic counterparts to tears, showing that she's in fact not only just as good but superior.

From one of her funniest sketches about feminism.

In a society where women are really extreme in either being overly glamorized like Miley Cyrus to completely anti-glamour protest like Lena Dunham, Schumer has bulldozed those ideals and leveled the playing field. She comes out in heels and a designer dress and makes fun of the fact that we have to wear 'stilts' as she calls them and 'string in between our butt cheeks' to catch the attention of the opposite sex. She honestly doesn't give a shit, and that's very refreshing. Not only that, she's just really very funny. Genuinely so, because she does what she wants, on her own terms, and has turned the comedy cannon on its head. It's no longer the boy's club. She's proven that women can be just as provocative, incendiary, and shocking without getting on a soap box about it. 

Not afraid to make fun of her vices.

Her rise has been based on her ability to be classy while acting ridiculously, and being crass but smart. She's a highly intelligent individual who has honed her particular comedic ability into brilliance. She's created her own comedy cannon, and shows no signs of calming down any time soon. She doesn't show any signs of slowing down or calming down any time soon and her career is blossoming. She has become a mouth piece for all of us girls who have things that they are too afraid to say out loud, in all respects, and that takes some serious balls. For that, and for everything else, I bow down at the alter of Schumer. 

Below, some of my favorite Schumer moments and sketches. 

'This is what you think is hot?'

'These are just metaphors girl, but they are about your face'

Is Schumer a feminist? Absolutely. She points out the hypocrisies on both sides 

Amy on Jon Stewart. 

Body-image issues are something she tackles brilliantly in her comedy.

Did I Miss The Memo On How Rape Is Funny? Apparently.

Although crass and immature, and someone who definitely has their douchy moments, I wouldn't label Tosh as completely and utterly disgusting and depraved. I would label him disgusting and depraved at times. 

Unless you're living in a cave or you know...the valley, you've heard about the recent controversy regarding Daniel Tosh making insensitive and offensive rape jokes at a heckler at The Laugh Factory on July 10th which has the country up in arms and raising all kinds of eye-brows. Has history taught us nothing? Nothing good happens at The Laugh Factory. Didn't we learn our lesson with Michael Richards back in 2006? If you heckle a comedian there, he will in fact make racial epithets or say something equally degrading right back at you. I live like 5 minutes away from there and I still haven't set foot in it.

I have always been a huge fan of Daniel Tosh and have all of his specials on my iphone, but when one of them came up on my shuffle picks as I was going hard on the elliptical (have I humblebragged enough in that last sentence?) I was apprehensive as to whether or not I should listen to it or press the shuffle button again. 

If you have listened to his previous work, you'll know this is nothing new to his repertoire. Tosh has never passed himself off as a 'clean' comedian. He's about as filthy as they come, and always, always pushes the envelope. Would I say too far? Yes. But no one has ever complained before. In fact, he made a very similar joke in his Happy Thoughts (2011) special. It goes something like; 'My sister and I love to play practical jokes on each other. So I replaced my sister's pepper spray with silly string...anyway that night she got raped, and the next day she was like- You son of a bitch! You got me so good.' he followed this by saying another tasteless and crude joke after which he sarcastically quipped; 'is this the joke that's too far? just making sure. Everyone was ok with my sister being raped right?'. 

Now, let's make this perfectly clear. I am not at all condoning what he said, nor am I ok with dirty comedians hiding behind the 'everything is comedy' perspective much like hate mongers hide behind the first amendment, but I would say it's rather hypocritical of us to condemn Tosh for a tasteless joke he made in a long line of tasteless jokes that we before accepted with open arms because he implied it to a specific person rather than an abstract and unlikely scenario. 

But quite honestly I'm at a loss, Jezebel and the like have been pointing the finger at Tosh basically being upset with the tonality and lack of substance to his joke rather than the content itself citing inexplicably other jokes regarding rape that are 'perfectly appropriate' such as Louis CK's quip which goes; 'obviously you should never rape anybody, unless you have a good reason like you want to have sex with someone and they won't let you'. And while Tosh is nowhere near being as nuanced and detrimentally snide as CK, his particular style has never been anything but offensive. That's specifically what he has cultivated over his career, and to condemn him now for something that was indeed a senseless and impulsive verbal diarrhea jag, it would be pretty late in the game considering how long we've tolerated and actually embraced those kind of jokes from the same source. 

We as a culture, have always fed like crazed vultures on the sensationalized, vulgar, and obscene. That's why we still watch The Real Housewives of... franchise, and Robert Blake is being interviewed on Piers Morgan Tonight this week to record ratings. But of course, there is a thin red line you tow when you choose to capitalize on that like Tosh has. What he said was indeed callous, and completely offensive to not only that girl at The Laugh Factory, but to women on the whole. Especially when our rights are constantly being threatened by the likes of Mitt Romney practically every day in his presidential campaign. One could say that this is the last thing we need, and they would be right. Given all of that, I think I'll eventually forgive Tosh's poor judgement, though it might be a bit hard to do so. 

Below is that joke that I referenced earlier. 

Louis CK, no stranger to the rape joke, went on twitter to defend Daniel Tosh. And while his particular brand of, I'm so sorry to say this, but apparently there's a term for it now and it's called 'rape-joke' is arguably more finessed, and less (for lack of a better word) douchy, they are still pretty dang sexist.