I loved it. Buuuut I felt like the comedy didn’t exactly match up with the style of animation. I can hold both things to be true. I think I wanted something closer to timing and tone of the material. The stand-up special is built around audio recorded in live performances. Then artists went to work.
I loved it. Buuuut I felt like the comedy didn’t exactly match up with the style of animation. I can hold both things to be true. I think I wanted something closer to timing and tone of the material.
The stand-up special is built around audio recorded in live performances. Then artists went to work. Sometimes they took her bits far beyond what she expected.
Tig Notaro’s ‘Drawn’ Explores Strange New Worlds: Animated Ones, By Gabe Cohn
It was definitely farther than I expected. I felt like it was probably the wrong direction for much of the bits. I enjoyed the animation for animation’s sake and the use of different animation styles. I enjoyed the creativity of taking the bit further than what Tig wrote, maybe a way of seeing inside HER head for the troubling thoughts she is having, being famous for her gallows humor and wild take-aways. There were moments where the visuals go so much further than Tig’s words that I was distracted and turned off by the The Ren & Stimpy Show over gross-ification. But overall, I think it’s important (if you care about the stand-up comedy scene) to watch this stand-out special for the value of experiencing a new iteration of stand-up.
Emmy® and Grammy®-nominated comedian, writer, and director Tig Notaro returns to HBO in this first-ever fully animated stand-up special in which she recounts a high-school talent show gone awry, a road trip with Dolly Parton, and more. NOW STREAMING.
In some ways, Notaro’s deadpan style might seem like an odd fit for animation. (Indeed, “deadpan” and “animated” are nearly antonyms.) But Notaro saw the illustrated approach as a tool to help viewers digest her personal, sometimes deliberately uncomfortable anecdotes. The visuals do some of the same work that a club or theater setting does, easing audiences into a state of mind that allows them to laugh at a detail that, in different circumstances, would make them recoil.
“The animation really elevates it to this fun — obviously cartoon — version of what really happened,” Notaro said. “I think it’ll help make people not feel as sensitive to the material.”
Tig Notaro’s ‘Drawn’ Explores Strange New Worlds: Animated Ones, By Gabe Cohn
