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Hannah Gadsby: 'You don’t do a show like Nanette without a tough shell'

The Australian standup feared she would spook audiences with her frank examination of trauma, but it made her a star. With new show Douglas on Netflix, she’s taking risks of a different kind

Soon after she opens her new standup comedy show, Douglas, the Australian comedian Hannah Gadsby challenges the audience by asking: “If you’re here because of Nanette, why? What the fuck are you expecting of this show? I’m sorry, but, if it’s more trauma, I’m fresh out.”

Douglas, now available on Netflix, is Gadsby’s follow up to her global standup phenomenon, Nanette. Nanette was a scream of visceral soul-baring, with Gadsby venting her rage and pain about being a woman, being gay, about homophobia (recounting how she’d been beaten up in the street), institutionalised misogyny, and more, all the while deconstructing comedy itself. By the time Nanette aired on Netflix in 2018, Gadsby, now 42, had been performing standup for more than a decade, as well as acting and writing, but her blistering honesty, and refusal to let audiences off the hook, hit a universal nerve. Nanette was hailed as a #MeToo-era comedy game-changer, garnering awards including the (shared) best comedy prize at the 2017 Edinburgh fringe, introducing Gadsby to America and a wider international audience, and winning fans such as Roxane Gay, Monica Lewinsky and Emma Thompson.

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from Culture | The Guardian https://ift.tt/2zKZcLn
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