This week US President Barack Obama threw his support behind gay marriage. Coincidentally, also this week Australian comedienne Hannah Gadsby took to the Jack High Large Stage of the Perth International Comedy Festival with her sold-out show Hannah Wants A Wife. No, this isn’t some new reality show that the networks are trailing, instead an hour long comedic meditation on everything from the intricacies of renaissance art to the overwhelming disappointment of M&M world.

Some of you may know Hannah from the comedy circuit, whereas some of you may recognise her, as Adam Hill’s sarcastic and self-deprecating sidekick from Gordon Street. Though really sidekick is a poor term to describe Gadsby, she is, after all, incredibly funny in her own right. For the most part the jokes that formed part of the show were new to me, though there was a few that appeared on Gordon Street, obviously successfully. The fact that they had been heard before did nothing to dent their humour.

Hannah Wants A Wife, in part, tackles some tough and very relevant topics. Poking fun at the ironies and inconsistences in the anti gay marriage campaigns. Gadsby approaches the argument from a very personal level, and arguably that is why her show works so well. Unafraid to be the butt of her own jokes, Gadbsy litters her show with choice anecdotes and funny vignettes from her own life that form part of a persuasive and funny argument. There was a little bit of banter between the audience and Gadsby throughout the show, especially with those poor individuals unfortunate enough to need to use the toilet during the show.

Gadsby closed the show in understated style, opting to avoid a big finish, whilst ironically wrapping the show to the strains of Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture and fireworks projected onto the screen. A very funny and thought provoking show from a rising star of the Australian comedy circuit.