Review: Tig Notaro: Drawn

Stand-up comedies have been one of the popular forms of entertainment for as long as we can remember. Sure, there’s nothing to them besides someone standing in front of an audience telling jokes and sharing their personal, humorous experiences. However, they have a sense of charm and energy that keeps them relevant to this day. The latest addition to this lineup appears to be no different, but it has a new coat of paint to make this experience more distinctive than the other ones.

Tig Notaro has made a name for herself this year after replacing Chris D’Elia in Zack Snyder’s Army of the Dead via green screens and CGI and helping its all-star cast lead the Netflix film to success. Now she’s looking to continue her booming trend by bringing her brand of humor to the world of animation via a stand-up routine. As someone who watched some of Kevin Hart’s stand-up comedies, I couldn’t help but be curious to see how they translate a live performance into a cartoon. I also only saw the comedian in Army of the Dead, which I thought was a fun watch, in my opinion, which makes this special my second experience seeing her upfront. I went into this expecting to have a great time listening to her stories and laughing my ass off, and to the surprise of no one, I was not disappointed.

The point of stand-up comedies is to let loose and have fun laughing at jokes and stories that are either risqué or bizarre or both. Tig Notaro: Drawn is no exception as the stand-up comedian managed to provide hilarious deadpan humor with infectious charm and surreal shocks. Whether it’s about the Kool-Aid Man, her wisdom teeth surgery, or being “cool” in front of people, Notaro had a pretty unique way of delivering some consistent energy into her jokes. Speaking of which, let’s talk about its animation.   

Instead of filming the routine in front of a live audience, the HBO special took the animation approach to visualize the comedian’s jokes and experiences. Each story that Notaro told in her performance resembles a different animation style, such as 2D, stop-motion, and even CGI. What I liked about this approach was its sense of variety. The special allowed these styles to let her imaginations (and ours) run wild while staying true to its stand-up comedy roots. As a result, it wound up being a series of colorful and eye-popping misfortunes that Notaro went through in her early days. Of course, some of the animation styles weren’t 100 percent perfect, but I would give the animators credit for putting plenty of effort into them, especially for Notaro’s Van Halen story.

Overall, Tig Notaro’s latest stand-up performance was a blast to watch. Not only that, but it also served as a great introduction to the comedian and her brand of humor for newcomers like myself. Her jokes were hilarious, the animation styles looked fantastic, and her charisma was an absolute treat to witness. This is such a unique way of showcasing what makes a stand-up comedy routine special in the first place, and I would love to see more of that in the future. As for Notaro, I would say that I hope she continues to impress me in her upcoming projects.