It’s been seven years since Hannah Gadbsy last stepped on an Edinburgh Fringe stage. During that time a surge in success and fame has upgraded them from a 90 to 1000-seater venue: ‘work smarter not harder’ as Gadbsy says this evening. That they do, giving us another cerebral hour of insightful stand-up that feels deeply honest and reflective of this new stage in their lives. Feminism, capitalism and the climate crisis get a lot of airtime in Woof! as we hear some hot takes on Taylor Swift, the Barbie movie and a long-term preoccupation with the fate of Cabbage Patch Dolls. But surprising tangents on grief and gender identity also weave their way in as we find out Gadbsy’s latest heavy quandaries. 

There’s a certain weight to seeing the creator of Nanette perform live, an expectation for philosophical depths and mind-blowing truths to be spat out at us amongst the punchlines. No one is more aware of this than Gadsby which has been keeping them up at night, along with a long list of other anxieties that we are willingly subjected to here. While there’s no neat resolution or twist, there’s still a strong sense of poetry to Gadsby’s latest creation. 

Hannah Gadsby: Woof! Underbelly Bristo Square, until 25 August, 5.20pm; main picture: Ian Laidlaw.