Good News: Hannah Gadsby Isn’t Quitting Comedy

Throughout her breakthrough comedy special Nanette, Hannah Gadsby makes one thing clear: she’s quitting comedy. Self-deprecating humour is no way to deal with trauma, she says, and comedy hid her pain from the audience. But now, after Gadsby’s unimaginable success, she’s come around to the idea of doing comedy for a little while longer.

On The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon last night, this is what she said:

“I wrote the show because I’d had enough. I thought ‘oh, I’d write a bit and back out’. It’s a quitting show. I’m quitting. I’ll drop a bomb and leave. and I really thought it would divide audiences. And it just hasn’t,” Gadsby said.

“When I wrote it it wasn’t supposed to be a Netflix special and have everyone see it. It was like — I’ll probably get 12 shows and ask to leave. And the plan’s backfired,” she added.

When asked whether she had plans to perform Nanette again, Gadsby said she didn’t need to:

“It’s on Netflix now — I don’t have to do it anymore.”

And when Fallon asked if she’d do other shows, that’s when Gadsby dropped the bombshell.

“Oh yeah I’ll do something. I said I was quitting, but if I quit I’m an idiot now. If the show had gone as badly as I had planned it would have worked. Now I’m left with a choice, I’ll either be an idiot or a hypocrite.”

It’s the first time that Gadsby has confirmed she’s reentering comedy. Earlier in the month on The Project she wondered aloud whether she would continue, but stopped short of promising to do more stand-up.

“I’m either going to have to be a hypocrite or an idiot,” said Gadsby. “Well I’m an idiot, that’s well established. So I might give hypocrite a go and keep doing comedy. Of sorts.”

“I think whatever I do will involve storytelling and humour, but what that is remains to be seen.”

Since Nanette blew up, Gadsby has switched between chatting to media and slamming shitty comedians on Twitter.

Barry Humphries loves those who hold power, hates vulnerable minorities and has completely lost the ability to read the room. Thats not a comedian, thats an irrelevant, inhumane dick biscuit of the highest order.

— Hannah Gadsby (@Hannahgadsby) July 22, 2018

You can watch Gadsby chat with Fallon here: