profeminist:

“In June, the Australian comedian Hannah Gadsby’s standup show Nanette was released on Netflix. This supposed swansong of a set had previously stunned audiences from Melbourne to Edinburgh, with its devastating twists on who and what jokes are for, and how suffering and trauma are turned into material. What begins as an apparently mainstream routine segues into a story about something troubling that happened to Gadsby as a young woman, told first one way – and then, brutally, another; it’s at once a deconstruction of the art form (her work has been billed as “anti-comedy”), and a critique of her audience – angry, smart, radical.

The writer and critic Roxane Gay, whose collection of essays Bad Feministand memoir Hunger were critically praised bestsellers, covering everything from her past as a competitive Scrabble player to overeating, and her experiences of rape, tweeted Gadsby when her set first screened: “Nanette is simply remarkable. You moved me and have really made me think about humor, the self, self-deprecation and the uses of anger. Thank you so much. It’s just brilliant.”

They met for the first time a few weeks ago, at a cultural event in Los Angeles, where Gadsby has been living. Gay has just moved to the city permanently, after a few years of shuttling back and forth between LA and Indiana, where she was, until recently, an associate professor of English at Purdue University. They sit down to talk at Gay’s new house, which is so box-fresh you can still smell the paint. In the background, a large TV is playing a crime drama on mute. Gadsby, a fan of Gay’s work, arrives brimming with sarcastic, silly wisecracks. “Personally, I get so much out of your writing,” she tells her, “because I need your perspective. Otherwise, I’d be a racist prick.”

And so the conversation begins.

Read the full piece here

Hannah Gadsby meets Roxane Gay: ‘Trolls get incensed by a woman daring to think she’s funny. I’m very funny’