“I know it’s not my trademark,” concedes Hannah Gadsby with a soft laugh, “but I wanted my audience to leave the room feeling good this time around. “Conversation with the one who turned the world of humor upside down in 2018 with her subversive show Nanette and who is hosting his first gala at Just For Laughs this Wednesday.
Posted at 6:00 a.m.
So Hannah Gadsby wants her audience to feel…good? Let us specify from the outset: it is not that we felt bad after watching Nanetteon the contrary, but rather that rare are the comedy shows that generate such a torrent of vivid emotions.
For a little over an hour, the comedian recounted her youth in the heart of a stifling Tasmania, while wondering if the self-mockery in which she had taken refuge, when discovering her homosexuality, was not not, to see it, a form of violence that she inflicted on herself.
By committing the capital sin (in the eyes of many of his colleagues, at least) of questioning the saving function of laughter, the hitherto little-known artist was propelled into the heart of heated debates as to the very nature of what is a show of stand up.
“You have to admit that Hannah Gadsby is not funny”, had launched Dave Chappelle in October 2021 in the wake of the controversy caused by his show The Closercontaining many jokes deemed transphobic.
A few days earlier, Hannah Gadsby posted a line on Instagram to Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos, who in a memo sent to employees outraged by Chappelle’s show offered the presence of the work. ‘Australian on the platform as irrefutable proof of the company’s openness.
“Just a little note to tell you that I would prefer that you did not drag me into the mess you have created”, she wrote to him (our translation). “Now I have to live with even more of this hatred and anger than the fans by Dave Chappelle likes to put me through every time he gets $20 million to share his emotionally stunted worldview. »
How did Hannah Gadsby manage not to sink while all these blasters stalked her on social networks, repeating that what she does is not humor? “It was pretty easy for me, because I’m pretty sure I know more about humor than most people,” she confides on the phone, during an interview with a fifteen minutes.
And it wasn’t my first rodeo! I knew exactly what I was doing with it Nanette. I knew I was touching a very sensitive nerve, I knew that anyone who reacted strongly would dance if I asked them to dance.
Hannah Gadsby
PHOTO SARA KRULWICH, THE NEW YORK TIMES ARCHIVES
Hannah Gadsby performing in New York in 2019
“But there is a fairly simple solution to not let myself be overwhelmed by all this: disconnect, continues the 44-year-old comic. This is the great joy of success: you can choose not to get involved in debates on social networks. When you start, you don’t have much choice to be there, but when you reach a certain fame, you can afford to distance yourself. And I think that’s something a lot of older comedians should work on. »
Did Ted Sarandos apologize to him? Hannah Gadsby, a jovial interviewee who is as witty on the phone as she is on stage, giggles. ” No no no ! I bet I’m not so much his kind of comedian. »
Does she have any idea why a few very popular comedians harbor what seems like a troubling obsession for LGBTQ+ communities, especially trans communities? “I don’t know how to explain it other than to say that these individuals are deeply transphobic. I know in any case that my role is to annoy these dinosaurs as much as possible which, in any case, will end up dying quietly. »
And hope?
Hannah Gadsby had no idea how much her life would be transformed by the posting of Nanette, to which Douglas succeeded in 2020 with similar success. It is in particular in this daily life turned upside down by the stardom that draws Body of Work, a new show that she has been carrying around since July 2021 and of which we will (perhaps) be able to hear excerpts during her gala. She also recounts her recent marriage to producer Jenney Shamash, a surprisingly bright subject for a comedian who generally likes to dig where it hurts.
Why did she want her audience to leave her theaters in more perky moods than before? “It’s a combination of the current bleak state of the world and my personal state of mind. I’m a comedian who talks about deeply intimate things, but after the success of Nanette, I felt the pressure to remain in a certain type of humor. It was important for me to resist this trajectory that was taking shape and to show that I am also capable of just having fun. »
Show, in short, that she is not only this courageous comedian that her admirers have celebrated, an adjective in which she does not necessarily recognize herself.
“I understand how it all came across as courage, but as I was creating Nanette, it was out of necessity. You have to keep in mind that I was just starting a conversation with my own little audience, ”underlines the one who won her fans for a decade.
If I had known that I was revealing myself to so many people, maybe I would have considered writing it differently. Not knowing that it would be seen by so many people definitely helped me take that risk, even though I didn’t see it as a risk.
Hannah Gadsby
Among his Wednesday night guests is Maria Bamford, a venerable exponent of American alternative humor who, with her eccentric, poetic, bizarre, sometimes serious and often disconcerting monologues, is among those who most beautifully embody the idea that humor can be a medium of creation, not just entertainment.
“She has always managed to maintain a singular look, while continuing to push the boundaries of what she does. You get the feeling of knowing Maria Bamford after seeing one of her shows and that’s a rare quality for a performer. She manages to create a stage character that is at the same time astonishing, adventurous, authentic and in which one recognizes oneself. »
To recognize ? This is one of the reasons why Hannah Gadsby strongly believes that humor can fuel hope in everyone laughing in the same room, at the same time.
“It’s the same with any art form: I try to create a connection between my inner world and the inner world of the audience. It supposes an act of faith on the part of the artist, but when it strikes a chord with the public, it necessarily nourishes hope, because suddenly, you no longer feel alone. It is easy to minimize the importance of such a small thing, but it is in these small things that the essential is. »
Hannah Gadsby’s Just For Laughs gala, at Théâtre Maisonneuve on July 27