See Tig Notaro perform standup and speak at PromaxBDA The Conference 2015, June 9-11 in Los Angeles.

Grammy-nominated comedian Tig Notaro gained recognition and critical acclaim in 2012 when she stepped on stage at LA’s Largo at the Coronet for a standup set, and spoke frankly and openly about her recent cancer diagnosis.

She walked onto the stage, casually welcoming the audience: “Hello, good evening, hello. I have cancer. How are you? Hi, how are you? Is everybody having a good time? I have cancer, how are you?”

She spoke about getting diagnosed with cancer and her mother dying in the span of four months, and managed to keep the audience engaged and laughing throughout the entire 30-minute set, which was at times heartbreaking and at times purely hilarious.

But her creativity, her legacy and her talent make up so much more than that one set.

Notaro now has a Showtime special (Knock Knock, It’s Tig Notaro), bestselling album (LIVE), successful podcast (Professor Blastoff), upcoming comedy special for HBO, a self-titled documentary that debuted at Sundance and a memoir slated to come out next year.

LIVE (as in “to live,” not “Live at the Beacon Theater”), available for download then on Louis C.K.’s website and now on iTunes, sold more than 75,000 copies right off the bat, prompting The A.V. Club to proclaim “People Still Buy Comedy Records” – adding that with those sales numbers, she was “technically more popular than Kiss.”

Louis C.K. called her special LIVE “an amazing example of what comedy can be.”

Notaro’s Showtime special involved she and fellow comic Jon Dore knocking on fans’ doors to perform standup in their backyards, barns and living rooms. Her dead-pan humor and signature style of not quite promoting anything at all on her promotional tour have made her TV appearances special and exciting to watch.

When asked what her promotional strategy is in trying to get herself or her work out there, Notaro says: “I think it’s good to just do things the best or funniest way possible, and then hopefully people take interest through that.”

For an example, check out her appearance on Conan below:

Notaro says that while she accepts the deadpan comedian brand that she’s been given, she is also comfortable allowing herself to be more than that.

“I am a dry, deadpan type person naturally, but it’s very magnified on stage,” Notaro told Brief. “And as I grew, I started to have different ideas of how to express myself. I started to think about the saying, ‘Take your own advice.’ And I would never say to somebody ‘No, don’t do anything outside the box that you’ve created for yourself.’ I would never say that. And so, therefore, I have allowed myself to be deadpan onstage, but I also can do one-liners, I can tell 15-minute long stories, I do physical humor, I do honest and revealing storytelling, I do pure and utter silly things onstage.”

After her double mastectomy, for example, Notaro did an entire show topless, just because she thought it would be funny to be topless onstage and never acknowledge it.

“I think it’s a really good thing to put yourself on the other side of anything, just see things from a different angle I think is very helpful, and I also kind of realized at a point in my career that no one performance or action or anything is going to make or break my career. I think it’s all just steps forward.”

Notaro also says that she writes most of her set onstage – she tries it out, tweaks what works one night and might not the next. So an audience hearing a story or a bit may get an entirely different version of that same bit the next time she goes onstage.

“I feel like anyone’s voice comes through in anything they do. If you have a voice, and everyone does, whether you’re doing a physical bit, a short one-liner or story, your voice is going to come through so there’s no reason to be a confined performer. I just don’t think it’s good to do that, I think you should allow yourself to do whatever you want, try it out.”

And while she holds firm that she’s no model for creativity, her advice to fellow creatives is simple. Be passionate in what you do and no matter your skillset, never be afraid to go outside that box.

“You have to want to do what you do so earnestly and that you want to do it all the time – not because it’s expected of you but because it’s driven within you,” said Notaro. “People have come to me for advice, beginning comedians starting out ask ‘How many times a week should I be getting on stage?’ I can’t even imagine asking somebody this question because I would want to be on stage all the time. I wouldn’t ever say ‘Oh, at least 2-3 times a week you should be getting onstage.’ That doesn’t indicate passion.”

Learn more about Notaro’s thoughts on creativity, passion and comedy at PromaxBDA: The Conference June 9-11 at the JW Marriott at L.A. LIVE.

Photo credit: Bob Chamberlin – Los Angeles Times

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