If you’ve ever shared a traumatic event in your life but, even though it was tragic, you treated it like comedy so everyone laughed, you’ll understand why Gadsby transformed her comedy in Nanette.

Nanette has won multiple awards and brought Gadsby international fame. But far from being an overnight success, it is the culmination of a lifetime of pain, humiliation and trauma.

In this distressing, yet sometimes very amusing memoir, Gadsby’s conversational style takes us from her protective bubble of childhood into the agony of her adolescence, her enthusiastic art study, and finally how she re-shaped comedy with Nanette.

Before Nanette, she always had a gift of swiftly turning shame into comedy. For example, her body was a source of shame so she made ‘fat jokes’ her speciality, while humiliation was tearing her self-esteem to shreds. As people laughed with her, they were connecting with their own body trauma.

After her diagnosis of ADHD and autism, she learns to modify her environment to decrease her meltdowns and social struggles. I found her struggles painfully informative.

Compounding these problems were the dramatic consequences of growing up in homophobic Tasmania, where homosexuality was illegal until 1997. She regretfully hid her sexuality and her traumas of violence, abuse and rape from her mum and grandma, ashamed of who she was. The theatrical plebiscite debate on gay marriage reminded her of those 1990 debates on whether to legalise homosexuality that made her hate her young self so deeply.

Nanette revealed that authenticity is the secret ingredient of successful comedy. Gadsby still loves the jokes that have given her the self-acceptance she now possesses. But she rejects using humour to hide her anger for the comfort of her audiences. She tells the truth whatever the cost and her audiences love it, except perhaps a few heckling men.

Including tender, heart-warming stories of her family’s trustful support, her memoir is compelling, enlightening and entertaining.

Reviewed by Judith Grace