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It's important that when you do standup, you do small places like coffee shops and also big places like colleges. It helps you find the little nuances in your set that don't work, and you can shave off the excess.
Tig Notaro
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Interpretation

What this quote means

Performing in various settings helps comedians refine their material.

Tig Notaro emphasizes the importance of performing stand-up comedy in both intimate venues like coffee shops and larger venues such as colleges. This variety allows comedians to discover the subtle elements of their performance that may not resonate well, enabling them to refine and enhance their comedic sets by removing unnecessary parts.

Themes

ComedyPerformanceRefinementNuancesStandup

In practice

Example use cases

During a comedy workshop, I mentioned how performing in small venues and large settings can refine one's act, quoting Tig Notaro.

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Before I had a double mastectomy, I was already pretty flat-chested, and I made so many jokes over the years about how small my chest was that I started to think that maybe my boobs overheard me... and were just like, 'You know what? We're sick of this. Let's kill her.'
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People have responded to my stories so well. They come up after a show and say things like, 'Your album really helped me,' or 'I have stage four cancer. I'm terminally ill.' Somebody told me it gave them the courage to die.
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