Wrong And Broken
Hannah Gadsby
The Rhino Room
Tues 13 March
Season closed


Adelaide's Hannah Gadsby has to be in the running for the title of Queen of Downplay. The mere fact that her Christian name is a palindrome, but that most of her immediate family share the same distinction is cause for mild excitement.

Born and raised in a small Tasmanian town with a name totally devoid of pronounceable vowels and full of twitchy locals, Gadsby soon moved to the mainland after realising that she was a little bit lesbian. From there she dryly tells of relationship break ups due to insignificant fibs about icecream and sharing house with an older male air guitarist with a penchant for porno films and Kenny G. Tracing her lesbianism back to having to wear her older brother's hand me down clothes and growing up around typically bogan males, of the many highlights of Gadsby's recollective apologue was her self-analysis of an actual book she wrote when she was seven years old. The book told of a genderless red goat who lived in the S-bend of the toilet, in a story where all the principle male characters met a merciless bloody end, as did any threatening, authoritarian female figures.

Incrementally breaking the news to her decidedly backwater family; at a time when being gay was still a criminal offence in Tasmania shows Gadsby to be one of the bravest comedians on today's circuit, for as much as we all hysterically laughed at (and I do mean, 'at') her, she still managed to maintain an almost dumbfounded straight face throughout the entire performance. Absolute brilliant!

Steve Jones