“When a parent dies, a lot of memories of you that you don’t have go with them,” the comedian tells us
In Hannah Gadsby’s new comedy show, every performance is different.
The stand-up comedian — who uses they/them pronouns — is currently performing WOOF! at the Abrons Arts Center in New York City for a limited run through Oct. 27. This comes after having successful engagements at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland and other locations worldwide.
In an exclusive interview with PEOPLE, Gadsby, 46, talks about how their show — which sees them “learning how to process the new world, with all its catastrophes and hypocrisies, from a new perspective” — changes every single night. “That’s the beauty of stand up,” the comedian says. “It is kind of like Lego. You can just keep changing and moving the little pieces around and building new meanings.”
The concept of the show began when Gadsby was on stage in December 2023 reading letters to Barbra Streisand in an attempt to unpack the idea of parasocial relationships — which is a term that refers to a one-sided relationship, like one between a fan and their idol.