Louis CK, Tig Notaro, kuolema ja nauru
Sain viime yönä viestin koomikko Louis CK:ltä. Tai siis olin tietenkin yksi tuhansista hänen sähköpostilistalleen ilmoittautuneista, mutta kuten CK:n kirjoitustyylistä näkyy, hänen massaviestinsä tuntuvat aina jotenkin henkilökohtaisilta.
En osaa muuta kuin laittaa viestin tähän kokonaisuudessaan.
Suosittelen ostamaan äänitteen, josta CK puhuu viestissään ja joka on viestin lopussa linkattuna. Etenkin, jos on joutunut viime päivinä enemmän tai vähemmän miettimään kuolemaa.
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"Greetings to the people and parts
of people that are reading this. Hi. This is Louis. I'm a comedian and you
bought a thing from me. Well, I'm writing to tell You that there is a new thing
you can buy on my website louisck.com. It's an audio standup set by not me but
another comedian named Tig Notaro. Why am I selling someone else's comedy on my
website?
Well, Tig is a friend of mine and she is
very funny. I love her voice on stage. One night I was performing at a club in
LA called Largo. Tig was there. She was about to go on stage. I hadn't seen Tig
in about a year and I said how are you? She replied "well I found out
today that I have cancer in both breasts and that it has likely spread to my
lymph nodes. My doctor says it looks real bad. ". She wasn't kidding. I
said "uh. Jesus. Tig. Well. Do you... Have your family... Helping?".
She said "well my mom was with me but a few weeks ago she fell down, hit
her head and she died". She still wasn't kidding.
Now, I'm pretty stupid to begin with,
and I sure didn't know what to say now. I opened my mouth and this came out.
"jeez, Tig. I. Really value you. Highly.". She said "I value you
highly too, Louie.". Then she held up a wad of note-paper in her hand and
said "I'm gonna talk about all of it on stage now. It's probably going to
be a mess". I said "wow". And with that, she went on stage.
I stood in the wings behind a leg of
curtain, about 8 feet from her, and watched her tell a stunned audience
"hi. I have cancer. Just found out today. I'm going to die soon".
What followed was one of the greatest standup performances I ever saw. I can't
really describe it but I was crying and laughing and listening like never in my
life. Here was this small woman standing alone against death and simply
reporting where her mind had been and what had happened and employing her
gorgeously acute standup voice to her own death.
The show was an amazing example of what
comedy can be. A way to visit your worst fears and laugh at them. Tig took us
to a scary place and made us laugh there. Not by distracting us from the terror
but by looking right at it and just turning to us and saying "wow.
Right?". She proved that everything is funny. And has to be. And she could
only do this by giving us her own death as an example. So generous.
After her set, I asked Mark Flanagan,
the owner of Largo (great club, by the way) if he recorded the set. Largo is
set up for excellent recordings. He said that he did.
A few days later, I wrote Tig and asked
her if I could release this set on my site. I wanted people to hear what I saw.
What we all saw that night. She agreed. The show is on sale for the same 5
dollars I charge for my stuff. I'm only keeping 1. She gets the other 4. Tig
has decided to give some of that to cancer research.
Tig, by the way, has since undergone a
double mastectomy. She is doing well. Her doctors say her chances of survival
are excellent. So she went there and came back. Her report from the frontlines
of life and death are here for you to... Enjoy.
Please go to my site louisck.com and buy
her show. You can buy it here:
Thank you. Have a terrific afternoon.
Louis C.K."
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