‘I owe you one’: Hannah Gadsby feels chipper in Something Special

Hannah Gadsby is sitting in a glowingly lit Los Angeles studio reflecting on the vast fleet of interviews already completed since waking. “You’re number 23,” Gadsby says. “So you’ll probably get the scoop.”

There is a scoop but it is not about the Emmy and Peabody Award-winning comedian’s recent live show Body of Work, their critically acclaimed global tour, Gadsby’s published memoir or their new TV special Something Special just released on Netflix.

Hannah Gadsby’s new show Something Special centres on happiness.Credit: Ben King

Nor is it about Gadsby’s next Netflix TV project, a special featuring six international, genderqueer comedians invited to perform by Gadsby and recorded in the UK. Or their curation of upcoming Brooklyn Museum exhibition It’s Pablo-matic: Picasso According to Hannah Gadsby, which opens in June. It’s not even about the lengthy rest Gadsby is so close to enjoying back home in regional Victoria.

It is about spoons. Specifically, teaspoons and the grounding nature of them on a world tour that has lasted 18 months and spanned 55 cities, some of it while enduring a broken leg fractured in two places while visiting Iceland.

But first, Gadsby’s latest work. Something Special is their third Netflix special, following the Emmy and Peabody award-winning Nanette in 2018 – the blisteringly honest and soul-baring work that transformed live comedy and changed Gadsby’s career – and Douglas in 2020.

“I wanted to call it Something Special because it sounded sort of Australian and American. Like, you know, somethin’ and special!”

Centring mainly on happiness, and directed by producer Jenney Shamash, Gadsby’s “spouse lady”, it is a stand-up show heralded by the statement, “I owe you one”.

“For my whole career, even pre-Nanette, or PN as we like to say over here – we don’t, I just made that up, and I will probably never use it again – I’ve always been talking about where I am in life,” Gadsby says. “And my shows are built around whatever I’m thinking about at the time of conception.

“There’s a world in which, after Nanette, I could have been a particular kind of comedian. But I thought it’s disingenuous to not tell people that, ‘Hey, remember, when I was deeply unhappy? I’m over that, I’m through the other side of that.’

“And that’s part of what I meant by, ‘I owe you one’. You could probably edit that answer down a lot. I didn’t get there quick.”

Gadsby has been in the news of late. After accepting the Barry Award for most outstanding show at the 2017 Melbourne International Comedy Festival, they made critical comments about comedian Barry Humphries (whom the award became synonymous with). A subsequent tweet in 2018 went further in condemning Humphries. The tweet re-circulated after Humphries’ death last month, creating a maelstrom of debate.

Commenting on the debate on ABC News Breakfast on May 17, Gadsby held firm, while not throwing further fuel on the fire. “You know this is a very big conversation, way bigger than me and any individual that I call out. This is about who we want to be. You can’t change the past but I think this conversation is incredibly important because it’s going to inform how we move forward. How do we celebrate so-called ‘genius’? Does the end justify the means? I think it’s an incredibly important conversation to have and I think it will continue to be. It feels like a real backlash moment.” Gadsby declined to comment further.

Something Special is many things. It’s a tale of past relationships, of rabbits, parents, nuptial administration and the peculiarly artificial traditions of proposals and pre-wedding hoopla historically. It’s about being in love, seeing your world through the eyes of a partner and marrying Shamash, whom Gadsby wed in 2021 in a ceremony featuring a shark cake with hand-holding otters in the front yard of their home in regional Victoria.

But today, Gadsby can only dream of such environs. Los Angeles, although more common ground since their global success, remains unusual territory.

“Yeah, look how shiny I am,” Gadsby says, glancing around their sunset-like lit background. “Of course, I’m in LA.”

Hannah Gadsby performs Nanette at the Sydney Opera House.

What is it like to be in the US? “It’s a dumpster fire over here,” they say. “They’re really on the struggle bus. Fingers crossed they work it out. You know, I toured the US and, particularly on the back of the overturning of Roe versus Wade, and the anti-LGBTQ bills that are just constantly being pushed through various governments throughout America, there’s a lot of tension.

“I noticed it on my tour with my audiences. And you know, it’s a divided place. I like that I live in Australia.”

Gadsby, despite reports, is not swimming in a constant sea of celebrities in LA. “I do have occasions where I am in the same room as celebrity people,” they say. “But what throws me is that the celebrity people know who I am. That’s where I’m like, awww, that doesn’t feel right. I feel like I’m on safari watching other people on safari.”

For anyone watching Something Special, which was filmed at the Sydney Opera House in 2022, the show emanates wide-ranging themes.

“I can’t control people’s responses,” Gadsby says. “But joy’s the overriding idea behind the show. At base level, I’d like people to feel slightly better than when they began.”

Are people needing that now particularly? “A hug, yeah. People like to feel good. I think it’s surprising that I’m the one who’s attempting that but, I think so. I think especially my community, it’s quite stressful. You know, our identities are constantly under attack in the media, particularly over here.”

Gadsby, who studied art history as an undergraduate, has presented several art documentaries and has rigorously unpicked the objectifying male gaze in art history in stage and TV shows, is a month away from It’s Pablo-matic: Picasso According to Hannah Gadsby opening at the Brooklyn Museum.

Hannah Gadsby in Something Special at the Sydney Opera House.Credit: Jess Gleeson/Netflix

“Ever since 1973, this year was going to be Picasso’s 50th anniversary of his death, because that’s math, as they say here. But that’s maths for your readers. The world is going to be full of people celebrating Picasso because that’s what they aim to do, they approached a lot of institutions around the world to put on exhibitions celebrating Picasso.

“So Brooklyn approached and said, ‘Do you want to rain on that parade a little bit with us?’ And I said, ‘Yes’. I’m really excited about the exhibition. We’re pairing his work with a lot of feminist artists, people I studied, the feminist art movement was a really incredible one in the 20th century.

“And I feel that’s worth remembering. That feminism has happened, while also trying to celebrate Picasso. So, it’ll probably ruffle some feathers, but I just don’t care. It’s great that people go to galleries, people are still engaging. I think the art world is still working out how we’re telling stories now. It’s changing, shifting.”

Despite a year and a half of touring across Australia, New Zealand, Europe, the UK, Canada and the US, Gadsby has not been adding new works to their longstanding art collection back home.

“You know what I have been doing?” they say. “Collecting spoons from fancy hotels. Spoons. I don’t know why. I’ve become a klepto. Sometimes I’m like, ’That’s a nice spoon, I want it.”

Gadsby reckons their spoon-love is about craving consistency. “Every day is new cutlery,” they say. “I have to learn how to use light switches every day because every day is a new light switch. New lighting system. So then I’m like, I’m gonna take this spoon.”

So that’s 55 spoons. “From 16 countries,” Gadsby says.

What will Gadsby do after this interview? “Probably think about what to do with all these spoons.”

Gadsby is also preparing for the recording of their next Netflix special, a line-up show of genderqueer comedians being recorded in the UK, which they will host, and considering being in a position to instigate bigger and ever more wide-ranging projects.

“I’m there,” they say. “That’s a real privilege. I really want to keep doing surprising things and keep working in the live stand up area. But I am sick of touring.”

The future is a dazzling prospect. “It’s just a matter of time. I’ll be a monster. I’ll take dessert spoons. Then it’ll be a knife. And then it’ll be ‘arrested at the airport’. You know?”

Something Special is streaming on Netflix.

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