"This is something that's top secret and nobody's heard about," says US comic Tig Notaro, then tells us she recently had breast cancer and a double mastectomy. It doesn't sound like a joke, but it is – a gig Notaro staged last summer, announcing and addressing her condition, has since attained legendary status in comedy circles.
Its success (the comedian Louis CK called it "truly masterful") has led to this, Notaro's first Edinburgh fringe appearance. It reveals a comic who – while she discusses her cancer only briefly – fully justifies Louis CK's description, even if her mastery is of the patience-testing variety.
Fans of Stewart Lee will recognise (part of) the shtick. Notaro's pacing is deliberate, bordering on static; the gig sometimes appears to be moving backwards. She's daring us not to find her pauses and repetitions funny. Her eyes gleam with mischief, she's alert to every passing moment, and she transmits an air of total control while psyching herself up, say, to make the sound of a clown's horn, or throughout a long, long inquiry into the spelling of the word "diarrhoea".
I must say that, while admiring the technique, I found these sections infuriating.
The fault wasn't entirely Notaro's: the gig was overrunning, which induces high anxiety at Edinburgh, as carefully planned schedules come to ruin. But it was more than that: the meaninglessness and fraudulence of the clown's horn routine outweighed any amusement at Notaro's milking of the audience's indulgence.
There's still much to admire, not least the oddity of a performance that combines classic bar-room standup with audience-frustrating tricks and, finally, Doctor Brown-ish physical play, as she shunts a bar stool around the auditorium. I found the first of those strands the most impressive. In her opening 20 minutes, Notaro's every word is weighted, her purpose always devious, as (like Louis CK) she exposes the untrustworthiness of the standup contract. By the end, I'd found her as maddening as she was funny, but there's no doubt Notaro is an expert and intriguing talent.
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