Hannah Gadsby

The breakout Australian comedian, writer, actor, and television producer Hannah Gadsby became famous overnight for her Netflix special “Nanette,” where she spent much time talking about quitting comedy. Gadsby takes issue with the very act of comedy, in fact, because so much of it has been defined by straight white guys—and arguably what she does isn’t really comedy per say. “I was breaking the contract,” she told Rolling Stone earlier this year. “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. Every show was alive and dangerous.” While much of her special dealt with Gadsby’s unique identity (aka “not-normal,” as she has called it), her new comedy tour “Douglas” focuses more on her autism spectrum diagnosis. She’s also not afraid to get into it with the most famous of white male comedians. In a recent interview with the Los Angeles Times, she called Louis C.K. “angry and bitter.” Gadsby was raised in a small town in Tasmania, which had strict anti-gay laws until 1997, a scarily recent time. Back when she was but a young and budding comic, many of her sets were “wall-to-wall lesbian content,” but more recently in “Nanette,” she riffed on being a lesbian giving fashion advice to straight white guys: “Pull your socks up,” she said. “How’s that for humiliation?” —AE