Douglas

I went to see Hannah Gadsby's show Douglas last night with @rdi, @50ftqueenie, @marev, L., and C., and—look. It'll be on Netflix eventually if you don't manage to catch the show, so I'm not going to give any spoilers. I had no idea what it was about going in or whether or not it was going to be traumatic (it is not) and it is better that way, trust me. I was laughing so hard at one point that my ribs hurt, which is not a feeling I'm very used to or have experienced in a long time.

Without giving too much away, there are bits about Renaissance art history in it, which pleased me greatly and which I desperately want to use in my classes, or at least up my game.

Anyway, there is something very weird about Gadsby's brand of comedy. It's not just "edgy humour that punches up"; it's that is particularly meta and deconstructionist about the form of comedy. Whether it's the devastating emotional blow of Nanette's "punchline" or, in this case, her laying out exactly what will happen in the show so that you can adjust your expectations accordingly, she's doing something interesting with the form of standup and I find it fascinating.

Also! Here's something I've never seen before. They didn't want anyone filming it, so we all had to put our cellphones in little pouches that looked like this:



Why do they look like that? That was a decision.

Also I will never be able to cope with the name Douglas again, not like I could after the last two years anyway.