How Hannah Gadsby Turns Trauma Into Comedy

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: I mean, going back to “Nanette” which was about your trauma, which is about your isolation, which is about living on the fringes as a lesbian in a very homophobic community, you talked about same-sex marriage in that debate. Let’s go back to “Nanette” and just situate your trauma for those who don’t remember.

HANNAH GADSBY, COMEDIAN: Well, I guess, you know, Tasmania, there was a very long and drawn out debate about legalizing homosexuality, and that’s the only way homosexuality was spoken about during my childhood, which was that it was a crime and homosexuality was, you know, a criminal act. I mean, lesbians didn’t even get a look in. So, not even part of the conversation. Pretty much lesbians were just — you know, if so spoken about at all, it was in terms of, you know, they’re just ugly women that can’t get men. So that’s what I was sort of raised in. And I grew up homophobic. You know, I remember having — not — just knowing homophobic thoughts before I knew my own sexuality. And that’s an incredibly difficult thing to undo, when you’re steeped in ideas. And the same can be true with any marginalized identity. I think you grow up steeped in sort of language and ideas and hostility to the very core of who you are. And that traumatizes people. And it certainly traumatized me. To hate yourself before you even know who you are is an incredibly difficult tangle to rid yourself of, and it’s impossible to do on your own. I think that is a misnomer about trauma. They say the way out of trauma is to have a cohesive narrative. And to this day, I maintain that you need the world to also acknowledge your narrative. There’s little to no point having your own story, if the world and your community around you refuses to hear it. In fact, when people say, no, I don’t believe you, no, your pain is not valid, that retraumatizes people.

AMANPOUR: You use — obviously, many comedians do, but you use it in an amazing way — the self-deprecating humor to sort of survive the trauma that you have experienced. Let me play this sound bite.

GADSBY: I built a career out of self-deprecating humor. That’s what I have built my career on, and I don’t want to do that anymore.