'Nanette, Hannah’s masterpiece, saw the adored comedian take home Australia’s most prestigious comedy award ‘The Barry’ for Best Show at this year’s Melbourne International Comedy Festival.
'The world claims to celebrate individuality but Hannah Gadsby knows from experience that this is folly. All the cool kids are normal. Hannah has always dreamt of being a cool kid but she has had to accept that, just like her childhood dream of being a dog, normal is just not possible for her. Over the past year, Hannah decided to embrace solitude, determined to see what harvest may come from nurturing her left field life. And what a strange little harvest, as her new show Nanette will attest.
'This is a show about learning how you can thrive as a “not normal” because Hannah’s year of gentle exile did not just see her harvest silly projects like making homemade jam and adopting a “blue clothes only” policy. It also gave her a strength she badly needed, when she observed with increasing horror the same sex marriage debates begin to hit all the same sickening notes she’d heard as a teenager in the 1990s when Tasmania resisted the decriminalisation of homosexuality.
'At the beginning of 2017 Hannah announced that she would be retiring from the comedy world. As one of Australia’s most applauded and beloved comedians, don’t miss your chance to be spellbound by the inner workings of Hannah’s unique mind while you can.' (Publication summary)
Performed at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival for 2017.
Presented by Token Events and performed at State Theatre Centre of WA - Heath Ledger Theatre : 27 January 2018.
Performed December 2017 at Hamer Hall Melbourne.
Performed at the Sydney Opera House Playhouse, September 27-October 8 2017.
Note: This production was videoed for the Netflix release of Nanette (details below).
Performed at the Edinburgh fringe festival, 2017.
Performed at New York’s SoHo Playhouse 2018.
Ten Steps to Nanette
Ten Steps to Nanette : A Memoir Situation
Crows Nest
:
Allen and Unwin
,
2022
12247588
2022
single work
autobiography
'Hannah Gadsby always dreamt of being a cool kid, but she had to accept that, just like her childhood dream of being a dog, 'normal' isn't always possible. In the vein of David Sedaris, Hannah's memoir is a series of interlinked stories that draw together the varied funny and sometimes dark events of her life. The result is a deeply personal, astutely observed, sometimes devastating but frequently hysterically funny book.'
Source: Publisher's blurb.
'Between 2 September and 7 November 2017, a non-binding, voluntary postal survey of attitudes to legalising marriage equality was distributed to all Australians on the electoral roll. Various literatures responded to this event both directly and indirectly. This chapter considers Hannah Gadsby’s global hit stand-up comedy performance Nanette, published as a Netflix documentary in 2017; the 2018 anthology Going Postal: More than ‘Yes’ or ‘No’, a monograph collection of creative and critical responses by LGTBQISA+ writers to the Australian marriage equality survey; and Magda Szubanski’s year-long cross-platform and performative deployment of her personal autobiographical story. These texts respond to urgent social justice issues that narrate and testify to experiences of ideologically based and personally experienced conflict. These publications and performances of self and experience exist within an increasingly diverse spectrum of contemporary Australian literature and they offer a particular insight and constitute a distinctive mechanism by which individuals resist, reconcile, and articulate experiences of conflict in their everyday life.'
Source: Abstract
Ten Steps to Nanette
Ten Steps to Nanette : A Memoir Situation
Crows Nest
:
Allen and Unwin
,
2022
12247588
2022
single work
autobiography
'Hannah Gadsby always dreamt of being a cool kid, but she had to accept that, just like her childhood dream of being a dog, 'normal' isn't always possible. In the vein of David Sedaris, Hannah's memoir is a series of interlinked stories that draw together the varied funny and sometimes dark events of her life. The result is a deeply personal, astutely observed, sometimes devastating but frequently hysterically funny book.'
Source: Publisher's blurb.
'In her show Nanette, the Australian standup speaks out about homophobic and sexual violence – the set is now a Netflix sensation. She opens up about shame, rage, her autism diagnosis and the meaning of Louis CK.' (Publication abstract)
'On June 19, a stand-up special called “Hannah Gadsby: Nanette” appeared on Netflix. An Australian comedian with a role on the sweet antipodean sitcom “Please Like Me,” Gadsby was virtually unknown in the United States, and her special arrived with little fanfare. But over the past few weeks, “Nanette” has become a word-of-mouth phenomenon. In what is ultimately a testament to its widespread cultural impact, it has even generated a modest backlash.' (Introduction)
'It was only a matter of time before a stand-up comedian channeled the righteous rage of the current feminist moment.'
'In her Netflix special, Hannah Gadsby quits the self-deprecating joke.'
