Working hard for the laughs
All work and no play makes Hannah Gadsby… “a dull gay”. Her words, not mine.
To say the comedian is busy is understatement as she juggles her burgeoning television career and performs two separate shows for this month’s Melbourne International Comedy Festival.
“We’ve got another three weeks left, I think it’s best not to get too excited,” Gadsby told the Star Observer of her prospects making it to the other side.
“I’m too old to drink in the first week.”
Gadsby describes the Comedy Festival as a something of a marathon.
“I’m doing my show at 7pm in the evenings, I’m doing [Adam Hills in] Gordon St on my day off and art gallery tours on the weekend,” she said.
With an art history degree up her sleeve, Gadsby says her comedic tours around the National Gallery of Victoria are easier than traditional stand up.
“People expect it to be serious, so it’s very easy to make funny, especially in a gallery,” Gadsby said.
“Where as if you stand up and people are expecting to learn and you can slip in the funny, it’s easier.
“It’s much easier to be funny if everyone else is straight.”
The title of Gadsby’s new routine, Hannah Wants A Wife, is a play on popular reality television show, Farmer Wants a Wife.
“Before I was a comedian, I used to fantasise about being on Big Brother. I thought I would have done alright, but there’s too many mirrors,” she said.
“[But] wouldn’t that be nice if you had a whole bunch of people competing for you.
“I certainly would prefer that than competing for somebody, I wouldn’t do so well with that. I’d give up.”
The 34 year-old got pretty close to a reality wedding show most recently on the Gordon St set. The program held a mass illegal gay wedding where 41 couples shared their vows on national television.
“It was lovely,” she said.
“When we were organising it I thought, this was fun, but then on the night, you saw all these couples who were genuinely appreciative of being able to public about their love.”
While April 22 marks the final day for both shows in Melbourne, there’ll be no rest for Gadsby as she heads north to the Sydney Comedy Festival shortly after.
Book ticekts for Gasby’s art gallery tour Mary.Contrary and Hannah Wants A Wife online.
