LOS ANGELES — Comedian Hannah Gadsby calls "Body of Work" the feel-good show she owes her fans. At the Theatre at Ace Hotel, where she performed Friday and Saturday, Gadsby made good on the promise.
"Feel-good" is certainly not the way anyone would characterize her last two shows, "Nanette" and "Douglas," both of which became Netflix comedy specials of a peculiarly dark and disquieting order. "Feel-uneasy" might be a more accurate label.
In "Nanette," Gadsby announced that she was giving up comedy. She couldn't help being funny, but she wanted the world to understand how joke-telling can distort and censor reality. To prove the point, she brought in her personal history as a lesbian who had been sexually abused as a child, raped as a young adult and brutalized in a hate crime that she courageously made the center of her act.
