I had no idea there was an auditorium down in the basement.
I’d never heard of Tig Notaro but my sister is a fan and when she heard that Tig was coming to town, she sent Youtube clips along with the suggestion that we make a night of it.
six of us met at Katie’s house for dinner before the show, including the fabulous Liz who came all the way in from the far western suburb of Ritzyville. I’m not saying that’s where the money is but the halls of the high school out that way has crystal chandeliers to light the hand carved mahogany lockers. I was out that way years ago when Tyler worked a basketball camp on the premises. I walked in and stopped dead in my tracks, certain that I had accidently wound up at a Byerly’s. The absence of a grand piano in the foyer is what convinced me I wasn’t at the grocery store.
That paragraph will make no sense to anyone who doesn’t live in Minnesota but trust me; the natives get it.
We had lots to celebrate; one of us had recently landed a job in her chosen field and another had gotten everything she wanted in a divorce settlement that could have been long, drawn out and messy but instead was quick and clean and another had been notified days earlier that a royalty check she’d given up on was on the way. Best of all, we hadn’t all been together in a year or so, so it was a good night before anything else even happened.
After dinner, we took two cars downtown where Katie P was meeting us. Thanks to the miracle of technology, we were in constant cell phone contact with Katie P who, because she works downtown arrived early at the venue and found out where we could park for free.
Katie P had been in Chicago the previous weekend. I asked her how it went and she said “It was great! I fell out a second story window!”
“Were you very drunk and that’s how you fell to no apparent damage?” Her solicitous mother asked.
“Pretty much!” she affirmed.
“So you just went through and disappeared?” We asked her.
“Yep.”
“What did your friend do? Was she freaked out?”
“She laughed really, really hard.” Katie explained. “So did I.”
Seems she had been to a concert with friends, had used the ladies room at intermission so when her friend said she needed to use the facilities on their way out, Katie thought she knew the way but the door she confidently strode through the door to the ladies room it had somehow had been replaced by night air. She Wile E. Coyote’d and landed on a roof or something six feet below the door to nowhere.
It’s a miracle she wasn’t hurt!
That there was a second story door to nowhere left unlocked in a building during a public event is perplexing. They’re lucky a lawyer didn’t fall out! Oh wait…
We were a little confused when we got inside because Katie had been told it was general admission. This was not true, which one look at our tickets would have told us. Not only did we have assigned seats but they were in three different rows on two far sides of the auditorium. We split up into groups and took our seats.
Fran and I had to squeeze past a very fat couple who gave us both the stink eye even though there was plenty of room and the show wasn’t due to start for a half hour.
After we were all seated, Katie did a bar run so those of us who weren’t driving could enjoy further beverages.
The place filled up and it was pretty much the crowd you’d expect for a live NPR recording session. Lots of very interesting people with lots of piercings and unnaturally colored hair cut into severe styles. I guess they have to have aqua hair so you get just how interesting they are. I used to do stuff like that. For like a week. Then I realized I don’t want to be noticed by strangers. It’s annoying enough getting noticed by friends.
This was definitely a crowd for whom ‘Diversity’ and ‘tolerance’ were the highest values. I’m glad they didn’t know a clutch of Catholic Republicans was in their midst; they’d have chased us out, throwing rocks.
We mean you no harm, NPR people!
The warm up act was some guy named Kjell who seemed to think he was funny based solely on his name. He would have been the seventh funniest person at dinner that evening.
Then Tig came on.
I’ve only been to see a few comedic performances in my life. I saw Gary Shandling at the Carleton Celebrity room back in the very early eighties. No one had heard of him yet but he was so funny that Jay and I were not surprised that he went on to be famous. Then in the early 90’s, we saw a comedy showcase starring three amusing guys and Louis Anderson, who was leaving for LA and stardom the following week.
Tig Notaro was every bit as funny as Shandling and Anderson. Her delivery is squeaky clean and so dry as to be impossible to copy and I laughed until tears streamed down my face through her entire routine.
Afterwards, Fran, MJ, Katie and Liz all bought cds and had their pictures taken with Tig at the merchandize table. We were some of the last fans to leave the building but even so, we were home by 10:30.
It was a good night.