Hannah Gadsby performed her final stand-up comedy show Nanette around Australia earlier this year, and a recently released Netflix special has got everyone talking about her powerful performance.
In the show Gadsby deconstructs comedy explaining the very simple process that comedian go through of creating tension and release, a set up and a punchline.
The popular comedian explains her role is to ask a question and then provided a surprising and unexpected answer. Gadsby admits her type of comedy is self-depreciating.
In her final tour she explains why she has come to the point where she can longer continue performing comedy, because she is not part of the mainstream.
“Do you know what self-deprecation means coming from somebody who exists on the margins?” she asks. “It’s not humility. It’s humiliation. I put myself down in order to speak. In order to seek permission to speak. And I simply will not do that anymore. Not to myself or anyone who identifies as me. And if that means that my comedy career is over, then so be it.”
When Gadsby spoke to OUTinPerth’s Annique Cockerill earlier this year she said a lot of the newer material in the show had grown out of last years’s same sex marriage postal vote. While Gadsby doesn’t mention the survey in the routine, she does speak with brutal frankness about how minorities are treated.
“Understanding who my audience is and how to speak to them is getting quite difficult. So I decided to write a show where I just wanted to say exactly what I thought and screw everybody.” Gadsby said.
When Cockerill saw Gadsby deliver the show at Fringe World this year she praised it’s powerful message, calling it “brutal but forgiving”.
One of the downsides of the performance was on some level Gadsby was preaching to the choir.
“Looking around I saw the audience was mostly women, many who seemed to be queer in some capacity, and whilst some of the stories she told were hauntingly familiar they would have more of an impact on the people she’s addressing. That being said, the nuance of idea’s she dealt with went far beyond what you would see in even some informed discussions.” her review lamented.
Now the performance is available on Netflix a while lot of people are hearing Gadsby’s powerful story. It’s not a stand-up comedy performance, it transcends the boundaries of comedy.
Nanette is Gadsby’s testimony, it’s a line in the sand, and a powerful wake-up call. You just have to watch it.
Graeme Watson
