But the excitement in her voice is obvious when the 43-year-old performer starts talking about the honorary doctorate she is set to receive from the University of Tasmania early next month.

“I don’t get excited, but maybe a little bit about being a doctor,” she says of the accolade which will be presented in Hobart on Saturday, August 14.

“I feel really great about that, I’m going to change all forms, I’m going to be known as Dr Gadsby,” she says.

“It’s also a great way to avoid Miss, Ms and Mrs – none of them are quite adequate, so I’m taking Dr … I’m taking it for all it’s worth.”

The award, which will be conferred by the university, is the honorary degree of Doctor of Literature honoris causa.

Gadsby was made aware she would be receiving the honorary degree by then chancellor Michael Field last month.

Field said the honour would be provided to her in recognition of her outstanding work as an international ambassador for LGBTIQ+ people and her profound impact on contemporary popular culture, especially her unique take on interweaving her Tasmanian upbringing into her work and stories.

“Hannah’s ground-breaking stand-up show Nanette shone a light on homophobia, sexism, violence and misogyny and continues to resonate and touch millions of people worldwide,” Field says.

“These important works represent all that the University of Tasmania’s Ally Network is striving to stand for and we applaud her contributions to these important issues.”

On a more serious note though, Gadsby says she feels honoured that her work – including her powerful and evocative live show Nanette which won an Emmy Award in 2019 and has attracted widespread praise for its raw storytelling and insightful social commentary – has been recognised by academics in her home state.

“What I did with Nanette, I don’t think is too far off a PhD thesis,” Gadsby says of the show in which she speaks of her own personal trauma and explores issues around sexuality, mental illness and abuse.

“There are certainly people who contact me from all around the world who are writing academic papers on it, so I don’t think it’s a ruse.”

Gadsby already has an Art History degree – she graduated from Australian National University in Canberra in 2003 – and admits she thought of doing honours at the time.

But she was deterred by learning difficulties – which she now knows were a result of autism which she was only diagnosed with more recently.

“The way my brain works, I’m a creator, not an academic,” she says.

The challenges Gadsby faced growing up in Smithton, in Tasmania’s North-West have been well documented through her comedy.

But despite her struggles as a young person trying to understand her own sexuality and find her place in the world she still speaks fondly of her home state and the honorary degree being bestowed upon her.

Only a handful of honorary doctorates are awarded by UTAS each year.

Previous Tasmanian recipients include former premiers Michael Field and Jim Bacon, economist Saul Eslake, former governors and legal professionals Sir Guy Green, Peter Underwood and William Cox, winemaking pioneer Claudio Alcorso, authors Christopher Koch and Margaret Scott, composer Peter Sculthorpe and marriage equality activist Rodney Croome.

“I love that it’s from Tasmania, it’s nice full-circle,” Gadsby says of the doctorate.

“I am very proud of where I’m from. Tasmania has done a lot of growing up since I’ve done a lot of growing up.”

Gadsby was in Canberra – to perform her new show Body of Work – when she spoke to TasWeekend, but was looking forward to heading to Hobart and Launceston soon after for the eight shows she will perform across Tasmania from August 4-17.

She admits touring during a pandemic had been “a bit stop-starty” but she is keeping things in perspective, saying life would be far tougher if she had chosen to work in the field of aged care instead.

“I’ve been looking forward to coming to Tasmania since the tour was announced,” Gadsby says. “I get to spend a little bit more time there than usual, so I’m quite keen.”

Gadsby sent fans into a spin when she posted a Tasmanian photo on Instagram in April to announce she’d married her producer Jenney Shamash in January.

It pictured the happy couple clutching ice creams inside the Van Diemens Land Creamery punt at Hobart’s Constitution Dock.

“I am full of positive feelings,” Gadsby said in the post. “This is a nice story. My heartfelt thanks to everybody who voted for marriage equality.”

Since returning from Los Angeles when Covid hit, Gadsby has been living happily in regional Australia, drinking cups of tea, pottering in her vegetable patch and hanging out with her beloved dogs Douglas and Jasper who she says are “just cool little guys”.

The lagotto romagnolo dogs appear frequently on her Instagram account which has 388,000 followers.

Gadsby says she’s “chuffed” to be married, even though not much has changed.

“Married life has always been a mystery to me as a gayer,” she says.

“But it really isn’t any different. We’re a really good team, that’s the big thing … if you can’t be in a good team then it’s not a great relationship. We’re both very committed to our work and that suits us.”

Gadsby has a couple of friends she’s keen to catch up with during her time in Tasmania, but apart from that she’s hoping to enjoy the fresh air and keep things pretty low key.

“I’m on crutches, I just had a knee reconstruction,’’ she explains. “So I won’t be going overland on the Walls of Jerusalem.”

The knee injury was a result of Gadsby’s short-lived attempt at playing Aussie rules.

“I tried to play football, but I didn’t even get out of training,” she says. “I was going to be Plugger Lockett up on the forward line.”

Her Body of Work show was written during Covid.

“The world is in a bit of a shit-fest at the moment so to speak, so I’m trying to create an escapist show,” Gadsby explains.

“This one is warm … it’s more of a hug than a punch in the guts like Nanette was.”

Gadsby will do five shows in Hobart and three shows in Launceston. She says including regional centres in her tour is important.

“I’m from the regions so I feel like it’s fun for people not to have to travel,” she says.

While she enjoys performing, Gadsby admits touring can be gruelling, particularly for someone with autism, and she reached a point where she didn’t feel like she could do it any more.

She had planned to retire from comedy after Nanette, with the show initially billed as her last hurrah.

However, the international success of that show made her rethink her retirement plans.

“The thing about being successful is you get to choose,” says Gadsby, whose comedy career kicked off after she won a national Raw Comedy competition in 2006. You get to have control over what you do and when you get to do it a bit more.

“When you make money a lot of people are invested in helping you keep going.”

She says having more choices and a supportive team around her has been great, but it has made her more aware of how much support she was lacking at other times in her life when she really needed it.

Gadsby also feels she has an obligation to be an advocate for autism, particularly as women on the spectrum are often not understood.

“It’s never going away, I’m always going to struggle with things,” she says of her autism.

Gadsby says there’s a “lot of grief involved” in a diagnosis.

“But it has lightened the burden so far as I’m not as hard on myself,” she says.

“I’m aware that what I thought were character flaws were just me in deep distress. It has helped reframe things … I’m much better at keeping myself out of distressing situations.”

Gadsby plans to tour Australia with Body of Work until the end of November and then her show is scheduled to head to New Zealand and Europe.

She has also written a book – Ten Steps to Nanette – which is due out later this year or early next year and, of course, she’ll be picking up her honorary doctorate so she’ll be busy changing her name to Dr Gadsby on all her paperwork.

And then she’ll need a rest.

“Touring is really hectic and draining,” Gadsby says.

“I have to retreat like the Mole from The Wind in the Willows … I have to stay home and then I can come out into the world again.

“I’ve never been someone who can keep going and going, I’m not an Energizer Bunny.”                                                                                      ●