Hannah Gadsby’s third comedy show on Netflix, Something Special, opens with good news: “I got married!” says an Australian comedian who uses their/their pronouns.
The crowd applauds as Gadsby proudly displays his wedding ring and says, “I know! Cute. I like it.”
“That’s what this show is going to be about,” Gadsby tells the audience. “Yes, it will be an enjoyable show because I feel that I am indebted to you. I dragged you through my shit over the years and you stayed with me. Very obligated, but it’s time to pay.”
Gadsby’s first two comedy specials weren’t exactly “good”. The first, “Nanette”, went viral after it debuted in 2017 and was described by critics as “international sensation“and show that”completely upended what could be a special comedy“. In it, Gadsby jokes about their upbringing, coming to terms with their sexuality, and even Pablo Picasso (they studied art history in college), but then makes an emotional indictment of homophobia, gender-based violence, and conventional comedy.
Gadsby’s sophomore special, “Douglas,” was notably less trauma-focused, but the comedian continued to criticize sexism while also talking about his autism diagnosis.
‘Something Special’, which was filmed at the Sydney Opera House last year as part of a world tour and debuted Tuesday on Netflix, focuses on queer joy, telling the story of Gadsby’s engagement and marriage to Jenny Shamash, who is also their producer. .
It was a deliberate choice, Gadsby told NBC News in a video interview Thursday, because they toured last year, still mostly during the pandemic, and they could tell people were nervous and “hungry for joy” – especially LGBT people who In the past three years, the United States has seen a surge in legislation against their rights.
“That feeling of unease in the room was what really moved me,” Gadsby said. “The only thing that doesn’t help anxiety is more anxiety. I wanted to go on stage and just pour into the room what we already know, at that moment it will no longer help. I did make a conscious decision to say, “I want a reprieve for my people.” Other people who are not in the community, it’s not for them – they can enjoy it, it’s possible – but it’s for us.”
At the start of “Something Special”, after it is revealed that they are married to Shamash, whom they affectionately call “Jenno” in their Australian accent, Gadsby jokes about the couple having “a very steep learning curve for the two of us to organize engagement” because “heterosexual people have great feelings for weddings.”
Gadsby said the couple made many “mistakes” at their wedding, such as choosing an unusual “shark pie” for the reception. While heterosexual couples typically have figurines of the bride and groom on their wedding cakes, Gadsby and Shamash chose two otters swimming on their backs and holding hands — right in front of a shark emerging from the icing with its mouth open, showing two rows of sharp teeth.
“But we had a good reason for the unusual cake,” Gadsby explained in the comedy special. “We wanted to trick a Christian baker into baking a gay wedding cake, and it worked. I’m like, “No, buddy, that’s not a wedding cake. I’m turning 10.” Easy, so gullible, they will believe everything, Christians.
Gadsby shared a photo of the cake on Instagram on Wednesday, the day after Something Special premiered on Netflix.
The joke reflects the theme of the entire show: glorifying Gadsby’s relationship with Shamash through stories about their past, spiced with jokes about sexism and heterosexual relationships. (Gadsby defiantly follows their heterosexual jokes: “I didn’t say who this show would be in a good mood for.”)
On their US tour, Gadsby recalled on Thursday, they could tell the audience was “shell-shocked” by the difficult political environment. They were in the country at the time of the cancellation of Roe v. Wade, which they accidentally called “Grief vs. Reid” and then joked, “Though it looks like it is now, doesn’t it?”
“It’s really depressing here. It seems pretty intimidating,” Gadsby said of the US. be.”
Gadsby said they have new material related to the political climate in America, but instead they decided to focus the show mainly on their relationship with Shamash, to give people a break from the news, and because, as an autistic person, they like to talk about their “topics of special interest”.
“I want people to love what I love, and that’s a special moment,” Gadsby told NBC News. “I want people to love what I love, and this is a moment in my life, this is Jenno, and this is my ability to manage interpersonal relationships. And it’s also my ability to experience joy, which I historically couldn’t do.”
Gadsby has said in other interviews that “Something Special” was not the show’s original title. When they were on tour it was called “Body of Work” to reflect how their work evolved from “Nanette” to what it is now, but Netflix didn’t like the title. In desperation, they jokingly said, “I’ll just call it ‘Something.’ “Something special”, they told them.
Some reviewers have criticized this evolution and Something Special’s lack of cultural criticism at a time when US state legislators have introduced more than 450 bills targeting LGBTQ rights, including a law banning drag performances in front of minors, gender-affirming care for trans youth and bars in schools with books on LGBTQ and race, according to the American Civil Liberties Union.
But Gadsby said they think the expectation of them continuing to deal with trauma and social and political controversy is limiting.
“I think being a queer person expressing joy on stage is a subversive political act in the current climate,” they said.
Gadsby added that it’s unfair for people to expect that they, someone who has experienced trauma, will continue to be a comedian who deals with traumatic events.
“It’s like they’re expecting traumatic porn,” they said. “It’s not me. I am a person whose work expresses where I am at any given moment in time.”
“The fact that I was able to overcome the injury is of great importance,” they added. “In this climate right now, what is happening to our community is traumatic. People go through trauma. It’s very close to what I experienced growing up and I’m trying a different side of it and I think it’s constructive.”
In addition to Something Special, Gadsby is working with Netflix on a special comedy series that will showcase a group of comedians of different genders. Gadsby has also partnered with the Brooklyn Museum for an upcoming exhibition titled “It’s Pablomatic: Picasso Through the Eyes of Hannah Gadsby“, which will “examine the artist’s complex legacy from a critical, contemporary and feminist perspective.” The exhibition will open on June 2.
