Hannah Gadsby was preparing to work in a shop after Nanette
Hannah Gadsby attends the 8th AACTA International Awards on January 4, 2019 in Los Angeles, California. (Charley Gallay/Getty for AFI)
Hannah Gadsby has revealed she was planning to work in a shop after the release of comedy special Nanette.
The acclaimed Netflix comedy special was hinged on the concept of Gadsby quitting comedy, but the out Australian comic has since confirmed she isn’t done just yet.
However, her plans to exit the stage were very real.
Hannah Gadsby: I was prepared to be poor after Nanette
In an interview with Rolling Stone, Gadsby revealed she had asked her brother for a job in his produce shop, fearing the special’s approach to misogyny and homophobia would end her career in comedy permanently.
She said: “I was prepared to be poor. That was incredibly freeing.
“If you care more about your reputation [than about telling your story], then you’re not really speaking the truth.”
Hannah Gadsby speaks onstage during The Hollywood Reporter’s Power 100 Women In Entertainment at Milk Studios on December 5, 2018 in Los Angeles, California. (Jesse Grant/Getty)
The Please Like Me star also spoke about being on the autism spectrum, and the challenge of recalling traumatic attacks as part of the comedy show.
Gadsby said: “When I think about things, I see them… Nanette was excruciating to perform. It nearly killed me.”
The comic added that “every show was alive and dangerous” due to the implicit breaking of contract between audience and performer.
Gadsby explained: “They were there for comedy and then I didn’t give it to them. That tension in the room, there’s no guarantee that I can hold it.
“There’s a fear every time I go onstage.”
Hannah Gadsby is working on a Nanette follow-up
Speaking on the Tonight Show in July 2018, Gadsby confirmed she was not quitting comedy after all.
She said: “I wrote the show because I’d had enough.
“I thought, I’ll write a bit of it and back out. It’s a quitting show. I’m quitting. I thought, ‘I’ll drop a bomb and leave’, and I really thought it would divide audiences and it just hasn’t.
“When I wrote it, it wasn’t supposed to go, ‘Oh, I’ll get a Netflix special out of this and everyone will see it,’ it was like, ‘I’ll probably get, oh, probably 12 shows and be asked to leave,’ and the plan has backfired.”
She added; “I said I was quitting, [but] if I quit now, I’m an idiot.
“If the show had gone as badly as I planned, it would have worked.
“But now, like, I’m left with the choice. I’ll either be an idiot or a hypocrite, and I’d rather be a hypocrite than an idiot.”
She is working on a follow-up show titled Douglas.
