Comedian Tig Notaro rose to fame in 2012 after announcing her cancer diagnosis during an off-the-cuff performance at Largo, a nightclub and cabaret venue in Los Angeles.The landmark set became her second standup album LIVE and over two decades later she has expanded her repertoire.
Today, she co-hosts the “Handsome” podcast, stars as Commander Jett Reno in Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, and produced the documentary Come See Me in the Good Light. The film follows the story of her longtime friend and acclaimed poet Andrea Gibson’s journey living with cancer — and was nominated for a 2026 Academy Award after winning Festival Favorite at Sundance in 2025.
“To celebrate an old friend and to put together a team of people that were only driven by love and passion — and come out the other side with a film that was truly an underdog… having the world jump on board and then lead us to the Oscars — it’s like I don’t know how much better it can get,” said Notaro.
She says when the idea for the documentary surfaced her mind started spinning thinking about calling her agent, envisioning the next best step to take, and wondering if she should reach out to other documentary filmmakers. But quickly she realized that wouldn’t be true to form.
“One second later I thought — I'm not calling my agent. I don't have time to waste. I am following my gut and my love for this person.” She said her attitude stems from being a gay woman in comedy with a non-mainstream approach, which has influenced her career moves across the board.
“ I always imagined everybody around me — including myself — getting in line to enter the front door of whatever it is we're all going for,” Notaro said. “And there are moments in my life where I have said to myself — what if I step out of this line and I look and see if there's a side door? You know, this might not be the only way to go in.”
Her ability to unpack issues of grief, illness, depression and being stuck with unflinching honesty comes with an ability to literally laugh in the face of dire circumstances. She's had multiple brushes with death, which she said have cracked her open. “I was always pretty authentic with how I was living my life, but it just went so much deeper when you feel like you really have nothing left to lose.”
Notaro illuminates the power that comes with being vulnerable on many occasions, like in her 2015 HBO special Boyish Girl Interrupted, where she bears double mastectomy scars while preforming shirtless, and throughout her autobiographical television series One Mississippi and in her memoir I’m Just A Person.
“Everything that I try to do is trying to take power back. And it's really something I'm kind of deeply lodged in right now on a personal and professional level,” said Notaro.
While her stand-up material isn’t overtly political, she's demanded justice on social media for the survivors of Jeffrey Epstein and his co-conspirators. Notaro also publicly cut ties with Cheryl Hines, who is married to U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The rupture ended Hines and Novaro’s podcast “Tig & Cheryl: True Story” in 2023.
“ I think a lot of people are playing a very complicated, manipulative, power hungry game, whether it's in Hollywood or politics or everyday life,” said Notaro. “I believe that I am in search of something truer and so that's bumping up on a regular basis in life.”
Notaro says while her presence on stage is a statement itself — the hope is her show will give people a chance to take a breather from bad news.
“ There are times — even in the darkest of times — that you have to just do something that is joyful and silly. It can't all be heavy, dark, political overtones,” said Notaro. “If that is the purest engine of that drive in me — is to have a fun, silly, joyful time — it still is ultimately political or social activism."
On March 2, Notaro will wrap up her two-night stopover at Monterey’s Golden State Theatre on her “Tig Notaro: Out of Nowhere” tour.
