How To Own Your Story!

Whether theyre fierce, coy, silly, sarcastic or raunchy on stage, women stand-up comedians confront their past, and use their experiences to own their life and narrative. Here are some of the best (and funniest) ones you could be learning from.

HANNAH GADSBY
NANETTE (NETFLIX)

“I’ve built a career out of self-deprecating humour, and I simply will not do it anymore. Not to myself, or anybody who identifies with me.”

It’s a hell of a statement of intent by Gadsby in her recent stand-up special.

But as you watch, you realise it’s a stand-up show as well as a new kind of anti-stand-up show. It is comedy, yes – there are funny moments. She even deconstructs the nature of a joke – the set-up, the punchline – while telling her jokes. But, she says, the middle part is often elided, and that’s where the horror lives. Then she painfully and angrily uses her show to call out abusers, famous powerful men, sexual violence and discrimination. It’s psychological warfare, it’s a town hall rally, it’s inspiring and so devastatingly moving. My words will not do justice to her words.

That she’s decided to quit stand-up now, at the apex of her artistic triumph, is sad for the scene. But if this is her swansong, it’s a hell of a legacy. Good one: “I wouldn’t want to be a straight white man… not if you paid me. Although the pay would be substantially better.”

A woman, another woman, and a third woman walk into a bar… and they all do stand-up! Okay, pretty weak set-up, even lamer punchline, but hey, I’m not a comic. What I am is a huge fan. To me, there is no division between male and female stand-ups – you are either funny or you are dead to me. What prompted this round-up, though, is the recent Netfl ix special, Nanette, by Tasmanian stand-up Hannah Gadsby. She has, in one performance, completely changed the concept of stand-up comedy forever. Forever. Her transformative set is the most talked-about, dissected and cherished performance of a generation.