NB/Trigger Warning: fat phobia, homophobia, misogyny, physical/sexual assault.
This book is the autobiography of Australian comedian Hannah Gatsby. Already famous in Australia, she exploded to international fame in 2017 after her show "Nanette". This show is unusual in the world of stand up as it contains long parts of serious and sad topics which led some spectators to praise her for having revolutionised comedy and others to attack her in the media for having broken comedy. While this books contains stories from all phases of her life, it does so through exploring what led her to create this show.
It includes description of her childhood in Tasmania, her relationships with her family and neighbours, her struggles at school, how she started doing stand up and comedy TV shows, how she found out that she was autistic (and later ADHD), the impact her neurodivergence had on her daily life and her career, and how she now manages her career to accommodate her needs and avoid autistic burnout.
While Australia is often though of as being rather socially progressive (including in relation to LGBTQ+ rights) in some parts of the country including Tasmania, being gay was illegal until 1997 and there was no law to protect against discrimination on the basis of sexuality until 1999. Growing up in this environment understandably left her with many traumatic memories and self-esteem issues. She though she had moved on from these difficulties by living in bigger cities and working as a comedian, but when the law to allow same sex marriage in Australia was put to a referendum, she realised that even in the supportive environment of a big city her sexuality and identity was still up for debate by others and frowned upon.
The month long debates and media coverage of this law contained many homophobic viewpoints, and while the law was eventually passed, it turned out that even as recently as 2017 there was still many Australians who held extreme homophobic views. This is when she made a conscious decision to never use self deprecating humour again and this is partly where the idea for her new show came from.
She built a show that not only covered difficult topics but also made part of the audience deeply uncomfortable on purpose, as a way of forcing them to confront their own discriminatory behaviours. She explains in details how she tweaked the show until she was able to perform it without risking trigger points, in the hope of finding the balance where the public would leave transformed, but not shocked.
Whilst she was thinking about quitting comedy, she thought the audience would not like the more serious tone and described the show as her 'Farewell to Comedy'. The show had immense success and she has made new shows since such as "Douglas". Both Nanette and Douglas can be watched on Netflix and many extracts and interviews are available on YouTube.
To get an idea of her comedy style (on a light topic) my favourite is where she explained one of her experiences at school related to autism: How Hannah Gadsby's High-Functioning Autism Works | Netflix Is A Joke
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