Review: Tig Notaro “Happy To Be Here” on Netflix

I’ve read more than one thinkpiece (please don’t try that at home or anywhere else, for that matter) that compared Hannah Gadsby’s brilliant one-woman show, Nanette, to Tig Notaro’s performance at Largo when she first revealed she had cancer.

All of which only makes me appreciate Notaro’s own 2018 Netflix special even more.

Called Happy To Be Here, the hour finds Notaro successfully on the other side of tragedy and health scares. So, as I wrote in my review for Decider, she can delightfully return to her wickedly dry sense of humor without needing an emotionally cathartic beat. Although she may still spring one on you.

Where many comedians might tease an audience for a minute or two with a gag, Notaro goes far past the extra minute with her will they or won’t they premise. She’ll illustrate the simple pleasures of a 10-minute misunderstanding by creating a similar tension. Regardless of whether you can guess the ending, the sheer joy and delight on Notaro’s face in the end will tickle you as much as it does her.

Read my full review of Tig Notaro’s Netflix special Happy To Be Here, over on Decider.com.

Sean L. McCarthy

Editor and publisher since 2007, when he was named New York's Funniest Reporter. Former newspaper reporter at the New York Daily News, Boston Herald and smaller dailies and community papers across America. Loves comedy so much he founded this site.

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