Hannah Gadsby Hopes to Map the 'Absurd Grieving Process' in New Comedy Show “WOOF!” (Exclusive)

"When a parent dies, a lot of memories of you that you don't have go with them," the comedian tells us

<p>David Urbanke</p> Hannah Gadsby

David Urbanke

Hannah Gadsby

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.

<p>David Urbanke</p> Hannah Gadsby

David Urbanke

Hannah Gadsby

Related: George Clooney, Denzel Washington, Robert Downey Jr. and All the Stars Heading to Broadway

The work eventually transformed into what it is now, with the comedian noting that the first time they performed the current iteration was in March during a weeklong run of performances in Sydney.

The dramatic change was sparked by an "infamous panic attack" that Gadsby experienced while enroute to Sydney from Adelaide, Australia, where they were visiting their mother. "The show was pretty much about that panic attack and I talked at length about the panic attack," Gadsby says of their Sydney show. "And now there's just a small piece of that [in the current version]."

The show offers an intimate look into Gadsby’s mind as they navigate their relationship with the world, social media and their fame, as well as their experience with grief after their father’s death. "It is not my first grief rodeo, of course," the Emmy winner says. "But dad was there from the beginning. So it is a much larger grief. When a parent dies, a lot of memories of you that you don't have go with them."

They say that they addressed those complicated feelings in the early versions of the show but it "was a bit more glib, in a way, because, as I talk about in this show, I hadn't uncovered how I wanted to talk about it or even let alone think about it."

Related: Jonathan Groff Is Bobby Darin in Just In Time, New Broadway Musical Based on Life of Legendary Singer

As their show changes, so does their understanding of what grieving entails. "Grief is less of a process and more of a discovery because life isn't a straight line. It is an unraveling,” Gadsby shares. "I feel quite interested in the fact that I get this time to spend talking and thinking about this over the course of a year as an artist."

In the end, Gadsby feels that performing the show each night will give them a better understanding of how they are navigating their own grief. "As an experiment, I've been recording the audio all the way through the tour," they say. "So I look forward to looking back with clearer eyes to see if I can map some kind of absurd grieving process."

The new work isn't entirely about Gadsby's loss and their father. The comedian also delivers clever criticisms of Taylor Swift, the 2023 Barbie movie and Netflix, where their previous stand-up specials — Nanette, Douglas, Something Special and Gender Agenda — are currently streaming.

"I'm not saying anything cruel," they say of addressing such powerful pop culture figures. "Often a criticism of Taylor Swift or Barbie is misogynistic, and that's not how I'm coming. It is more of a playful 'I don't fit in.' There are a few little textures, but I don't think anything that makes so much money off us should be uninterrogated."

Related: Hugh Jackman Announces 2025 Radio City Music Hall Concert Series in Amusing Video with Ryan Reynolds

In fact, their exploration of the seemingly prohibited topics play into the overall goal of the show. "My purpose isn't to tear anything down," they continue. "It is just to shift people's perspective slightly, and then they go home and have something to chew on. I don't think I have that much power to do anything, so it always bemuses me when people take me so seriously to the point that they feel anger."

When it comes to Netflix, they feel that their long standing criticisms of the platform's elevation of transphobic comedians, which was addressed in Gender Agenda and is mentioned in WOOF!, "won’t be a problem for them."

"I don't know what the relationship with Netflix can possibly be," they say of their current relationship with the streamer. "It is a data farm. They made it quite clear that they stand on the side of absolute freedom of speech and any jokes are fair game. There are no real world consequences."

An array of different topics are welcomed to the stage in Gadsby’s show, but they say that it is "less about them" and more about how the world has changed over the last 15 years. "Is this sustainable? How do we have a private self? Do we have a private self?" they ponder. "I think I don't necessarily have any answers and nor should I. I'm just a single person who's essentially a clown."

Gadsby adds, "I just like stirring the pot and shifting a perspective or two."

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer​​, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

Tickets for WOOF!'s run at Abrons Arts Center in N.Y.C., as well as information about upcoming performances, are now available.

For more People news, make sure to sign up for our newsletter!

Read the original article on People.