Hannah Gadsby: Nanette

Netflix comedy special, equal parts comedy and anger.  Hannah is a "non-gender conforming" lesbian, and her anger at being marginalized is vivid.

It's a moving and ultimately redemptive journey... but harrowing, if you're a straight white man.

Watching it a second time.  I think this is only the second time I've watched a standup routine twice.

Second time through I can see how carefully written it is.  How she sets up situations to pay off much later in the show.  How she uses the narrative to build up tension, release the tension, build it up again, release it again, until you begin to think this will be her style.

Then wham.  She hits you with the payoff, the real life facts, the truth about being a non-gender-conforming lesbian.  Wham.

It hits you like a sledge.

As it is intended.

Very clever it is.

The show has won Best Comedy at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Best Comedy Performer at the Helpmann Awards, the Barry Award for Best Show at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival and the award for Best Comedy at the Adelaide Fringe Festival.

I had to watch it a third time, because I just finished a new comedy stand-up special by Simon Amstell called "Set Free" where he spends most of the show talking about coming to grips with being gay, and getting his parents and friends to be on-board with his being gay, and the anxiety and uncertainty he feels when everything isn't aligned to the way he sees himself.

Reminded me a bit of Hannah.

Tho not nearly as clever, or angry.

Hannah still left me flopping on the floor, eyes wide open, gills moving back and forth, gasping for air.

"Douglas" was not nearly as impactful as "Nanette."  Perhaps because I knew what to expect.  Although "Nanette" stuck with me, haunted me really, "Douglas" is already forgotten.

Which is why I was so thrilled to run across Gadsby's new book "Ten Steps to Nanette," an autobiography of sorts I gather, all about the craziness of going from being an unknown New Zealand non-gender-conforming lesbian comedian to being an overnight Netflix superstar.  It promises to be good.

Opening paragraph:

Hannah Gadsby wrote:

Technically, this is my second book. But I wouldn't bother trying to find a copy of my first effort, as it was only published in an edition of one, and I've misplaced it.

Gadsby certainly has a way with words.

Hannah Gadsby wrote:

I had absolutely no idea how uneasy in my own skin I'd always felt [before trying Valium]. I am not just talking about pain, either. It's more of an extreme and everpresent awareness of my body, as if I don't quite fit myself properly, as if my flesh is a pair of underpants that is forever sliding up the butt crack of my soul.

Quote :

I have never identified with how people see me. I have a great big universe of stuff inside me. I love who I am. It's only on the other side of my skin where the pain begins. I will not negotiate anymore. I am proud to be Queer.

Once the load of my ideas was relieved of the significant burden of explaining my brain and body, that pretty much cracked the code. It was as if I had popped a thought pimple the size of my whole brain, and in almost an instant the game was on.

Quote :

I'll keep the best secrets to myself because I'm not done quitting comedy yet.

Re-watched "Douglas" after finishing the book, and although it's not as emotionally traumatic as "Nanette," it's still very cleverly written. Themes are introduced and weave in and out in unpredictable ways. Hannah does a very unusual thing, she spends the first 10 minutes telling you, in detail, what's going to follow in the show when it officially begins. Then she launches into the show, and the shock of recognition when she comes to a part she warned you about, well it just heightens the impact. It's very "meta" as she mentions several times during the show.

It would be hard--nay, impossible--to top "Nanette" for emotional impact, as Hannah herself acknowledges at the outset of "Douglas." "Sorry, all traumaed out," she apologizes. "Had I known how big a hit trauma-comedy would be, I would've spaced it out, to maybe three specials."

Sadly, these two appear to be the only two specials that were filmed, or at least the only two available online. She has at least nine more, plus a TV documentary on the history of Western Art that ought to be pretty interesting too. She took parts of THAT and imported them into "Douglas."

New Gadsby special on Netflix called “Something Special.” She promises at the outset it will be a “feel good show.”

“I owe you that much.”

It’s all about her nontraditional romance and nontraditional proposal and nontraditional marriage to her producer. She tricked a Christian baker into doing their wedding cake by telling him it was for a kid's birthday. "Christians! They'll believe anything!"

It’s funny and poignant and, as usual, extremely well written, with lots of themes weaving in and out and returning in the most unexpected places.

https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2024/mar/04/hannah-gadsby-gender-agenda-netflix-comedy-special-interview

It took me to the end of the article for it to dawn on me that "they" is Gadsby's chosen pronoun, and there's still only one of her. What a dumb fashion trend.

"Gender Agenda" is on Netflix now. A whole bunch of non-binary comedians going at it.

Not sure how I'll react yet. For some reason, trans people strike me as a whole lot less "comfortable with themselves" than gay, lesbian and drag performers.

TBH I wasn't that impressed.  She had two male-to-female transgenders, two male-to-female transgenders, and a couple of oddballs that didn't fit ANY of the stereotypes (a guy with a 5 o'clock shadow and a hairy chest, wearing a dress and loopy earrings. S/he looked like Max Klinger).

There were a lot of self-conscious dick jokes and vagina jokes, and the number of surprises was well below what I expected. One of the FTMs said she lived 30 years as a lesbian, never gave men a second thought.  Until she started taking testosterone to transition to being a man.  That made her horny, and now she finds herself attracted to men almost exclusively.

Yeah, gender is a weird human trait, and when you fall off the norms it points up some of the weirdness.