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Hannah Gadsby

From small-town Tasmania, Hannah Gadsby began her stand-up career in 2006 when she was discovered at the Hobart Comedy Festival.

But in 2017 she announced her retirement from comedy with the show Nanette, which won both the Edinburgh Comedy Award (which she shared with John Robins), and the Barry award at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival.

Hannah Gadsby: The Evening Muse

Melbourne International Comedy Festival review

Whether because of their autism or not, Hannah Gadsby is the sort of person who likes everything to be in order, under their control. Yet the comedian’s Melbourne show this year pushes them outside of that comfort zone – let alone the comfort zone of preferring not to leave the house – with a format allowing plenty of space for spontaneity.

The Evening Muse is part stand-up, part crowd work, and part late-night talk show. Some aspects play to Gadsby’s strengths. Some, by the comic’s own admission, to their weaknesses.

Even the stand-up material is not the same each night, with Gadsby explaining that the show they had written has been split into four parts, performed across Thursday to Sunday during the festival.

This part is at its strongest playing with Gadsby’s post-Nanette reputation, discussing the comic’s relationship with the niche fame they have and joking about the trauma so bluntly exposed in that show. They also jokingly regret their decision to public assert they were going to shy away from self-deprecatory comedy for the sake of their self-esteem – robbing the comedian of two-thirds of their material at a stroke.

If you know Gadsby only from that intense, ground-breaking special – or even their ultra-deadpan early days on the circuit – you may be surprised how light and playful the comic is when not unloading a lifetime of misery. The only thing The Evening Muse has in common with Nanette is a defiance of expectation.

Some of the stand-up – or ‘bulk chat’ as Gadsby dubs it – still has a work-in-progress feel as the comedian ranges from interrogating their avoidant behaviour to wider issues such as Donald Trump, amusingly comparing him to Zeus. The President would likely see that as a compliment, though of course it is most definitely not.

The first major move into new territory comes with crowd work – dubbed, not unreasonably, ‘the death of comedy’ – but Gadsby knows they need to practise it in today’s landscape. So armed with a camera within a bejewelled skull on a selfie-stick, they engage with the front row. Gadsby was right – this isn’t a strength, and making a joke of that fact does have its limits.

The comic is much more at home in the role of talk-show host on the 1960s-style TV set erected on stage, complete with Gadsby’s Emmy perched on the desk – even if they are prone to losing focus. Sidekick Abby Wambaugh helps keep things vaguely on track – although, saying that, a performance that was 20 minutes late going up added another 20 minutes to its scheduled hour running time.

This segment was made by its guests, Abby Howells and Emma Holland. It helped that the pair are friends sharing a flat this festival, giving them instant chemistry. And that they are both damn funny in their differently quirky ways.

A volley of questions from Trivial Pursuit (1982 Australian Genus edition) led to hilarious improvised answers, while Holland’s brief stand-up section closing the show was a treasure trove of inventive one-liners.

This all had the atmosphere of a scrappy late-night show. The prestigious big room in the equally prestigious Malthouse seems a little too nice an environment – though Gadsby shifts enough tickets these days to warrant it.

Crowd work aside, this looser version of themselves works well – acutely aware of their own reputation and willing to joke about it (but not in a self-deprecating way, of course) while expanding the tone with additional comedians. The balance isn’t yet quite right between chaos and focus, but the upshot of it all is that Gadsby really ought to get out more - the results are rather fun.

• Hannah Gadsby: The Evening Muse is on at the Malthouse Theatre at 9pm on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays and 8pm on Sundays until April 19.

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Published: 3 Apr 2026

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