Louis CK did a wonderful thing when he released his last comedy special on his site; he opened the floodgates of evidence that self distribution is entirely possible. He's now taking that success and spreading it around a bit. He recently just released a 30 minute audio stand-up special from Tig Notaro. Here's why..

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.

It's $5 and part of that goes to charitable means. You can read more about it here, here. Basically, it's an incredibly raw and seriously funny bit of a comedian working out her personal strife in front of an audience. It's worth every penny.