1.) HBO's Comic Relief with the amazing young trio of comedy : Billy Crystal, Robin Williams and Whoopi Goldberg, and
2.) Billy Cosby's 1983 stand-up show: Bill Cosby: Himself-
with other occasional stand-up moments sprinkled in of Roseanne Barr and Richard Prior.
But, truth be told, it was not me who was the real stand-up comedy fan, it was my older sister.
I was just kind of tagging along for the ride because she was watching the only television in the house aside from the little black and white with the hanger for an antennae that was kept in the kitchen for the must-see 6:30 CBS Evening News with Dan Rather and the occasional Saturday morning cartoons while eating breakfast.
So I watched it with her because:
a. She scared me, and I would not have dared to change the channel,
b. I desperately wanted her to like me so showing interest in her interest seemed like a good tactic, and
c. I secretly did love the frequent swearing and adult themes that seemed to be a staple of stand-up comedy.
However later, as an adult, comedy did not have much presence for me- aside from the occasional SNL (Saturday Night Live) skit that went viral on the internet.
In fact, if anything, comedy seemed to be a source of sorrow for me as the parade comedians who were familiar to me passed away: Richard Prior, Gene Wilder, John Candy, Chris Farley, Robin Williams, Bernie Mac, and it seemed as if their deaths were so often in sad, sudden and unexpected ways.
So it was with pleasant surprise that my path recently crossed with someone who actually is an aspiring stand-up comedian in her own right, and she recommended that I watch the stand-up comedy show "Nanette" by Tasmanian Comedian, Hannah Gadsby that is currently on Netflix.
And thankfully, I did.
As Hannah Gadsby explains it herself, Tasmania is on the “ass-end” of Australia surrounded by the Pacific Ocean, and Hannah herself grew up in the Bible Belt in the northwest corner where it was still illegal and an actual “crime” to be gay until the 1970’s.
In her comedy special, Hannah Gadsby, born in 1978, shares her perspective, insight, pain, and of course wit that grew out of her experiences as a gay woman in Tasmania and later in comedy.
She shares moments like this one when her mother who, lets just say never picked up the book The Dummies Guide to Helping Your Chikd Come Out of the Closet, most sincerely says to Hannah when she is well into adulthood already:
I wanted you to change because I knew the world wouldn’t.
The show is actually only one hour long, but it is so jam packed with hilarious one-liners and poignant and thought-provoking storytelling, that I was forced to frequently use my remote control to pause and rewind (an advantage of Netflix) so that I could take it all in.
A few memorable moments from the show that I jotted down are the following:
We think it’s more important to be right than it is to appeal to the humanity of the people we disagree with.
Hindsight is a gift.
There is nothing stronger than a broken woman who has rebuilt herself.
Your resilience is your humanity.
And here comes my personal favorite...
Why is insensitivity something to strive for? I happen to know that my sensitivity is my strength. I know that. I know that it’s my sensitivity that helped me navigate a very difficult path in life. So when somebody tells me to ‘Stop being so sensitive,’ I feel a little bit like a nose being lectured by a fart. Not the problem.
Before watching Hannah Gadby’s stand-up show, if you had asked me where I might find or encounter hope, I would not have considered comedy.
Because in my mind comedy was reserved for either cynical satire or pure entertainment- neither of which prompted hope in me.
However now, seeing comedy instead through the lens of artful (and funny) storytelling which is able to offer its audience an inconvenient truth about the world, I can absolutely, and gratefully, find the small helping of hope that I have been looking for.
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