Hello Again

In Hello Again, her sixth standup special, Tig Notaro returns to familiar subjects like health struggles, celebrity encounters, and family for her stories, but manages to infuse them with unexpected twists and turns. In the three years since her previous special, the fully animated Drawn, she started another podcast (Handsome) and continued to win acting roles (TVs The Morning Show), but Hello Again focuses on the misunderstandings, embarrassments, and absurdities of her everyday life -- although that sometimes involves things like a Los Angeles party attended by Adele, P!nk, Oprah Winfrey, and others ("Hello") or "A Meeting with Reese Witherspoon." The latter event, which took place between Notaro and her wife Stephanie Allynne (who directed Hello Again) and Witherspoon and her producing partner, involves Notaro mishearing a name, leading to confusing comments that essentially take the air out of the rest of the appointment. (She and her wife piece together what happened upon leaving.) Elsewhere, something similar goes down between Notaro and an airline agent ("Make Believe Lounge"). After having back surgery, she has an allergic reaction to painkillers with absurdly funny results, then she sees a physical therapist, who proves to be an example of "people who talk to one another" -- a term coined by Allynne for those with no sense of humor. Throughout, Notaros relatability and trademark masterfully paced delivery do much of the lifting, transforming setups and punchlines into suspenseful, serpentine stories. When she brings a piano onstage for the last third of the show, its not (exactly) for comic songs but to illustrate anecdotes and deliver mischievous sentiments like "When I tell people that I cant play the piano and I have a terrible voice, they assume…that I cant play anything. Its the opposite: I can play whatever I want." ~ Marcy Donelson