The Comedian Hannah Gadsby Renounces Comedy, and Patricia Marx Tries to Relax

The New Yorker Radio Hour

WNYC Studios and The New Yorker

News, David, Books, Arts, Storytelling, Wnyc, New, Remnick, News Commentary, Yorker, Politics

4.2 • 5.5K Ratings

🗓️ 12 July 2022

⏱️ 27 minutes

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Summary

The comedian Hannah Gadsby has been touring this summer with a show called “Body of Work.” She came to wide attention in 2018, with the Netflix special “Nanette.” It was a full-length comedy show, and, at the same time, a carefully structured critique of standup comedy which argued that comedians have to distort personal experience for the sake of a joke, inflicting a kind of violence on themselves and their audiences. Gadsby recently published a memoir about her breakout moment called “Ten Steps to Nanette.” The New Yorker’s Emily Nussbaum talked with Gadsby back in 2018, when “Nanette” had just been released. Plus, Patricia Marx tries the trendy relaxation technique called flotation therapy—formerly known as a sensory deprivation tank. But relaxing, Marx found, is just too stressful, and her microphone was the only thing that found peace.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is the New Yorker Radio Hour, a co-production of WNYC Studios and the New Yorker.
0:10.2	This is the New Yorker Radio Hour.
0:11.8	I'm David Remnik.
0:13.2	The comedian Hannah Gadsby has been touring this summer with a show called Body of Work,
0:18.4	and she's appearing in Minneapolis in Chicago this month.
0:21.6	She came to wide attention a few years ago with a Netflix special called Nanette.
0:27.3	It was a stand-up show that gave a kind of critique of stand-up comedy, and in it she
0:32.0	says that comedians have to distort personal experience for the sake of a joke.
0:37.6	And she threatened to quit comedy altogether.
0:40.7	But in fact, she didn't quit.
0:41.8	She recently published a memoir about her breakout moment called Ten Steps to Nanette.
0:47.8	I built a career out of humiliating myself.
0:50.4	I'm putting myself down in order to seek permission to speak, to take up space in the
0:56.3	world.
0:57.3	I have decided I don't want to do that anymore.
0:59.4	I will not do that anymore.
1:01.0	Not to myself, I'm thinking.
1:02.6	I mean, I'm not starting a rally.
1:05.2	I'm finished the show as a comedy.
1:09.2	But thank you.
1:10.2	The New Yorker's Emilino Spam talked with Gadsby back in 2018 when Nanette had just been released.
1:16.9	Hannah's show is very carefully structured, doing different things to the audience at different
	...

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