Hannah Gadsby at BAM. Photo: Bryan Bedder/Getty Images for BAM “If you take one thing away from this show,” Hannah Gadsby tells an adoring crowd at BAM, “it’s this: Prepare for fame.” If you don’t, she cautions, you’re going to get galactically famous for, say, a stand-up special, wind up sitting next to Richard Curtis, then accidentally tell the writer of Notting Hill that romantic comedy grosses you out.
It’s telling how much less Gadsby there is to go around this time. Both Nanette and Douglas had long Off Broadway engagements — sit-downs that culminated in triumphant Netflix specials. She’s only doing four nights in New York on the world tour this time, and the pressure of so many people in so short a time makes the palatial Brooklyn Academy of Music creak.
So what about that fame thing? I find it hard to believe that the clumsiest thing she did as a newly famous person was being a tiny bit rude to Jodie Foster, but I’m impressed at Gadsby’s restraint in keeping those other gaucheries to herself. Refreshed by love, she seems resilient at her core here — free to tell us a bit about her spongy knees as well as her autism diagnosis and being in perimenopause.