Living with no hope

Day 18 / 365

On August 3rd, 2012, Tig Notaro was sitting backstage at a comedy club in LA, waiting to get on stage to do some standup comedy. Life had been rough for her recently. During that summer, she lost her mom and got out of a long-term relationship. But that was not all, moments before going on stage, she gets a call from her doctor who informs her that she has cancer.

I think most people at that point would have broken down, gone back home, and start their grieving process. But not Tig. Instead, she stepped out on stage and began her set with the now-famous line

“Good evening, hello. I have cancer. How are you?”

You can watch the whole set in the video linked above. Tig not only keeps her cool, but she also manages to get some laughs as well. She turned her tragedy into dark humor.

To be stoic is to not care about things that are not in your control. Some people can reach it by sheer willpower. But sometimes it takes a major live event to force you into a stoic mindset.

Oscar Wilde, the writer, was imprisoned for being gay back in the 1800s. But his letters from prison would still be full of puns and humor. He knew there was nothing he could do to change his situation, and he chose to live whatever version of the life he had left free of any worries.

Luckily for Tig, things ended well. She beat cancer and has been cancer-free since then. But it was the set she did that night, that changed her life. The set was later released as an album called “Live,” which received widespread critical acclaim and helped to establish Notaro as a comedic force. It was named one of the best comedy albums of the year by multiple publications and it helped Notaro to gain more recognition from the public and the industry.