Hannah Gadsby's Artful Storytelling
7:54:00 AMDisclaimer: I just really want to talk about the brilliance of Hannah Gadsby, all of this is purely my personal take on shit and fart.
It's the profound infiltration of stand-up comedy we didn't know we've been waiting for. And it has touched on a lot of topics people naturally, cautiously avoid: from the flaws of the patriarchy, to mental health, sexual harassment and identity.
The Quint
Go forth and discover, with a new perspective and an open mind.
I know... Not your common pick-ups for jokes, mainly because they have the tendency to induce pure tension. Hannah is fully aware of this and it's with such dignity that she cared enough to explain how she's manipulating you, the audience, as she goes along: where she sets the tension and provides the relief/ release, sometimes prolonging the first and as such affects your level of reaction, whether it is laughter or utter silence brought about by a nuclear notion.
The QuintI am not aware of any stand-up shows with a similar delivery style or truth-slap realness, but it feels like a groundbreaking way of starting a discussion. An ambush through comedy. Personally, it shook me up, but not because it was trauma-inducing but rather it served as a means to re-visit past traumas and really deal with it from a place of fighting back. Puts you in an uncomfortable situation, yes, but a necessary discomfort that pushes you to think beyond the safe zone and find something truly valuable.
So yes, Nanette was a successful Netflix show, for the main reason that it it laid out reality for all to see and deal with. Having said all that, it's not Nanette that drove me to say that Hannah Gadsby has a gift for storytelling. In fact, it's her last show "Something Special" (it's also on Netflix by the way, they've completely fenced her into their platform, lol). But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's reign it in a little..
How You Show Up (It's a pun, get it? Comedy show? ey?? eeeey?)
To appreciate Hannah's art of storytelling, you have to look at the progression of her biggest shows starting from Nanette, to Douglas and then Something Special. You'll find that in each show are multiple windows into her life as a person, not just a comedian. Flaws, quirks, fails and all. There's a hearty amount of rapport-setting throughout her shows, which increasingly assures you that she is indeed as human as you are.
The Quint
From the self-deprecating humor some comedians turn to, and what she used to do a lot of, Hannah bares shifts to presenting all her flaws in a way that says "Heyyow, this' me." It's unapologetic and self-accepting, and is kind of something we, everyday flawed humans, should learn to practice more of. There's no shaming or ill-meaning whenever she talks about the difficulties of her Autism, the way she thinks, her inabilities to adult and such. It's just laid out there as facts, that while they are difficult to navigate through, are experiences worth learning from.
Letting You In On The Joke
Comedians don't normally tell you how they'll make you laugh or how they'll be handling your emotions throughout the show. Hannah is transparent. She walks you through the process of a joke, it's as if she's letting you in on it, or taking you backstage or giving you a glimpse of the script. She beautifully executed this on Douglas.
yes, I screen-capped the shit out of this because I can't find it online
She gives you ample notification that she'll be either fucking you up or giving you a good time. You are duly informed and duly warned. Yet for some reason, it doesn't spoil the fun or the experience. It remains fresh, surprising and intimate. There's a feeling that... This person will not screw me over without my knowledge, somehow... I am safe.
Planting Ideas, Raising Awareness
It's one thing to make people feel good and laugh. It's another to find the right chemistry of comedy and raising awareness on a sensitive or unpopular, but truly important, topic or idea. When we go to a stand-up comedy we laugh at all manner of jokes, from self-deprecating, to racist, generational trauma and so on. We gather in the moment and make fun of these topics, but don't really dwell long enough to think that there has to be more to it than just a good topic for a joke, right?
Hannah dawdles around the topic, makes fun of it, sure, but then points some undeniable facts and then throws a "well, that's not right is it?". She challenges the norm by sharing the beauty of diversity and breaking the conventional. And it's very in your face but I think it has to be, because things like this, ironically, are no joking matter.
Connecting the Dots and Puzzle Pieces
Most stories are told in a linear way: it starts with this, progresses to this, ends with that. Hannah creatively defies the usual way of storytelling, she starts at the end, or the middle, yet it sets up the story very well that all the other events that follow remain relevant even though they don't seem connected.
You'll just be surprised that at the end of it you've witnessed a story coming to a full arc and you, the listener, who had been unknowingly picking up the puzzle pieces have played an important role by making sense of it all. It's that euphoria on the realization that, "I get it! I get the joke!".
Except Hannah isn't joking... she's making a point.
*Hijacking comedy to incept people with good moral values and ideas? Fucking love it.
Flight of Thoughts Ending...
"Something Special" is an altogether different tone compared to Nanette, it's definitely the feel good show that Hannah claims she "owes us". It feels light, true, but there are key points nevertheless that make you still look pause, look inward and really think. She may have dropped the "ambush anti-comedy" of Nanette that broke the public... but Hannah retains the thought-provoking factor of her show, and wrapped it in something warm, comforting and inspiring.
If Nanette debuted you to the reality of your traumas, and Douglas educated you about the anatomy of expecting what's to come, Something Special definitely cradled you into hope.
I know I was supposed to zone in on Something Special a little bit more but I feel like it can explain its own magic best by simply being watched. (and I've run on long enough, I'm getting tired of hearing/reading myself) Go. Go watch it.
Go forth and discover, with a new perspective and an open mind.
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