Tig Notaro performs stand-up set topless to show her mastectomy scars

The stand-up who made a splash when she announced she had breast cancer live on stage has done it again

The American stand-up Tig Notaro, who performed topless this week (Rex Images)

In 2012, Tig Notaro walked out on stage in Los Angeles and announced that she had breast cancer.

The set that followed went viral, with a little help from Louis CK who said it was one of the most masterful pieces of stand-up he’d ever seen.

Now quite rightly a comedy star, last week Notaro did it again. Following a routine about being frisked at an airport by a female member of staff who didn’t believe she was a woman, and a bit of egging-on from the audience, she ripped open her shirt to reveal her mastectomy scars. And she performed the last 20 minutes of her set topless. “You’re thinking, ‘When’s she gonna . . . ?’ She’s not gonna,” she said but apart from that made little reference to her nakedness.

This is typical Tig – I’ve seen her spend 15 minutes getting the audience to spell ‘diarrhoea’ and even longer pushing a chair around the stage in silence. She is queen of the ice-cool pause, consummately in control of her material and her crowd. With this latest gesture, she has made a shock move look ordinary and kept people laughing throughout. That's how you push boundaries.