Welcome to our new series Tragedy Plus Time. Each segment will focus on a particular ‘life crisis’ — sometimes globally tragic, sometimes more of a personal affair — and we’ll explore how many of the comedians we know and love have dealt with it.
Cancer is the disease that perpetually reminds us that we are all a bunch of vulnerable, fleshy meat sacks, and that everything we touch, eat, breathe or spend too much time standing near is eventually going to kill us. It affects millions of people every year. A late diagnosis is effectively a death sentence, and the variety show of pain it has provided humanity [...]
Comedian Tig Notaro received a great deal of praise from the comedy community in August for a performance at the Los Angeles venue Largo in which she announced she had breast cancer and spoke honestly about the news (and some other personal hardships) in a hilarious, insightful, and heartfelt set. The set was recorded by the venue's owner (who records most performances there), and Louis C.K. just released it today on his website for $5. It's well worth the price to hear this noteworthy performance, in which Notaro gives a tragic, funny, and moving account of her diagnosis, her mother's tragic death, breaking up with her girlfriend, [...]
"And so I was in New York and I met with [Ira Glass] and I had like ten pages of start to finish every detail of horrible stuff that had gone on and he read it and he said 'Ugh, this is so depressing.' And I was like 'Yeah, I know it’s my life, Ira, I don’t know.' And he said 'You need to work this out in stand-up, you know, not in just a written piece of tragic stuff.' He said, 'Your power is on stage so you need to utilize that. There’s nothing funny right now.'” – An excerpt from Tig Notaro explaining the entire story of her [...]
Yesterday, the 74-year old Chong announced that he has "slow stage one" prostate cancer. He intends on treating the disease with hemp oil. Chong blamed his nine-month stay in prison eight years ago for why his health took a turn for the worse. Regardless if that was truly the cause or not, this news is definitively shitty and we wish Tommy the best.
