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Entertainment

07th Jul 2018

Netflix have added a stand-up comedy show that is probably the most important thing you’ll watch this year

Rory Cashin

It is only an hour long, but it might forever change how you see comedy shows.

In the last few days, Netflix added a new stand-up comedy show that was recorded in the Sydney Opera House back in 2017.

It is performed by comedian Hannah Gadsby, who doesn’t really have much of a following in this part of the world.

Her new show Nanette kicks off regularly enough, as she comes out on stage and begins to go through the reaction to her most recent tour, in which she was told by a paying customer that there “wasn’t enough lesbian material”, to which Gadsby perfectly responds with “But I was on stage the entire time”?

It is a clever, and seemingly off-the-cuff remark that actually sows the seeds for the direction the rest of the show will go in, one that ultimately ends with Gadsby announcing that she will be quitting comedy forever, as her life’s calling needs her to do more than tell jokes.

Over the next hour, Gadbsy lays bare her soul, and her past: coming from Tasmania, where homosexuality was illegal until the very end of the 1990s. Where, in her neighbourhood, seven out of ten people had voted that homosexuality should remain a crime. And further personal revelations that will genuinely have viewers in tears.

Gadsby also comes knocking on the door of Straight White Men, to hammer home the fact that while she is aware that now is probably the worst time in all of history to be a straight white man, they are still in the most powerful position out of everyone:

In the days since the show has been released on Netflix, the huge landswell of support both it and Gadsby has received is almost unparalleled, because not only does she not forget to bring the funnies, but there are also so many incredibly powerful messages being delivered in such a short amount of time.

It truly is incredible, and deserves as large an audience as it can possibly get.

Nanette by Hannah Gadsby is available to view on Netflix right now.