I really liked Notaro's Cancer stand-up special a few years back, but haven't seen her do anything of any real interest since, and this new show is no exception. Supposedly the first full length animation of a stand-up show, I'm really struggling to understand why it was made this way: Could they not afford to film the gig? Does she not like looking at herself? Did they need to dub in fake applause? What was the point?
The animation itself is awfully generic and unfunny, the kind of thing that would usually be used in a cereal advert, and the attempts to amplify humorous moments only weaken them throughout.
The show is basically just a few longwinded observations and shaggy dog stories that are sometimes mildly interesting as tales in themselves (the one about wisdom teeth was best) but aren't really very funny at all, just longwinded remarks over coffee. It feels a lot more like a friend telling you about their day, rather than a professional comedian seeking to entertain you or communicate anything of interest. As some kind of cut-price Spalding Gray, I guess it's not a total failure, but as comedy it's pretty poor. Would be nice for her to try work in some jokes in future.
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