In August 2012, hours before stepping onstage at the Largo in Los Angeles, stand-up comedian Tig Notaro had no idea if she would survive the next few months of her life.
"Good evening, hello. I have cancer, how are you? Is everyone having a good time? I have cancer, how are you?" said Notaro, opening her set, which now can be heard on her career-defining album, "Live."
"In 27 years of doing this, I've seen a handful of truly great masterful stand-up sets. One was Tig Notaro last night at Largo," tweeted Louis C.K., who helped release and distribute Notaro's album through his website later that year.
Notaro's life was suddenly in shambles. Over the course of four months, she'd battled a debilitating bacterial infection that landed her in the hospital, broke up with her partner, lost her mother and was found to have cancer in both breasts.
Today, Notaro is in much higher spirits. She's healthy — emotionally and physically. Over the phone ahead of her performance Wednesday at the Woman's Club of Minneapolis, she sounds grounded and speaks with great clarity and candor. But her recovery took time.
Not only was she recovering as a human being, but as an artist, too. The narrative that formed following the release of "Live" would leave Notaro feeling stifled creatively.
"I knew I wouldn't be able to follow that [success]. There was a lot of pressure," the 43-year-old comic explained. "I'd come to an open mic or a comedy club and they'd introduce me with, 'Oh, we are in for a big treat tonight,' and I'm like, 'No, I don't have any material.'
"I felt like a whole brand-new comedian, like an open mic-er. To feel funny again, that took a long time."
