Hannah Gadsby: Something Special ~ The Jester’s Privilege
“Hijacking a story plane and landing it on their face.”
Yes, an actual quote from Hannah Gadsby, and an apt descriptor of this special as a whole.
Now, if you’re even a casual fan of comedy, the name “Hannah Gadsby” may cause some hesitation, perhaps some PCSD (Post-Comedy Special Disorder), because of their work named “Nanette”. If you haven’t seen it, I do suggest you watch it (I recollected on it briefly last year), and then I say to you and all the people still wide-eyed and frozen in trauma: relax. This is not “Nanette”.
That was seven years ago now, and seven years later, in their triumphant return to the Sydney Opera House and third stand-up for Netflix, Gadsby believes they owe you one. It’s a special all about their relationship to their partner, a romantic comedy, if you will. No twist, no gut punch, just a feel-good show all around.
Wouldn’t you know it, by the way, that their comedy skills are not limited to harsh social criticisms and tear-inducing stories? Turns out, when you’re just good at commentary and storytelling, creating an emotional audience and engaging in sensitive topics tend to work out in your favor, no matter how many Twitter users say otherwise! I apologize, my salt will cease now, and I will just talk about how special “Something Special” is.
Rather, I’ll say that it really isn’t crazy special, in regards to their talent and body of work. A master of words and anecdotes, Gadsby weaves together wedding grievances, parental humor, and witty puns and callbacks together in perfect fashion. Tangents seem to lose its track every now and again, but we always find ourselves right where we need to be, thanks to the seamstress of narration we have at the microphone.
I will also say as a side note, the reason I found myself lost sometimes is because Australian expressions to be the only dialect of English I struggle with when it comes to slang. If an American from the south told me they had a “hankerin’” for something, I know exactly what they mean. If an Irish person told me to “feck off,” there isn’t much nuance to be had there. But when someone says that we need to, “call a cabbie for Shaz because she’s maggot and lives out in the bush,” that might take me a few Google searches.
To be clear, I have practically no qualms with this show. Even the slight problems I had added to something else I loved about the show. Losing myself in the Australian-ness of Gadsby made for the added necessity of charm and intelligence on their part to bring me back into the stories they were telling, which they deliver on. The fact that it was more traditional special with no gritty and stark commentary meant that Gadsby needed a new way to end a show that would showcase their sense of humor and brilliance in writing, which they do spectacularly. The reason I say the “hijacking a story plane and landing it on their face” is a great way to describe Gadsby in this special is that on the surface, that phrase means virtually nothing. However, after an hour of laughs, punny eyerolls, and anecdotes with off-the-charts secondhand embarrassment, at the end you can’t but think:
Boy, did they hijack that story plane and land it right on our fucking face.
9.5/10
