Review by Michelle Fisher
A predominantly intelligent hour and a bit of humour that doesn’t have to resort to excessive swearing or toilet humour that so many comedians today succumb to, Kitty Flanagan delivers a solid and fun addition to this year’s Comedy Festival in Sydney.
Stand up I think has to be one of the hardest forms of entertainment – there are no props / no set/ no music just the comedian themself and Flanagan has obviously done this for a while. It is clear she is comfortable on the stage and interacts well with her audience thinking quickly on her feet in response to audience interaction. At one stage she does enlist the help of her sister on the guitar and together they sing a humorous ode to the underpants – Not side splitting but fun and her sister Penny has a lovely voice. One song and then its back to just Kitty herself again.
Some of her material isn’t new with jokes about hospital gowns etc but she is comfortable with her audience and clever and with a good range of acting ability that means her facial expressions often form part of her jokes and have the audience pretty much roaring through her set. Somehow even with material that we may have heard elsewhere before there is a Kitty spin and her trademark wicked smile and the audience is off again.
She covers a range of topics from her diet tips for ice cream lovers to her dental visit without drugs (clearly not the way she thinks it should be done ) but perhaps my favourite of all is her sharing of her stories about her mother’s mental state. Not wanting to ruin this for anyone who hasn’t yet seen her and is going to – if you have a mother in her late 70’s / 80’s as Kitty does and I suspect much of her demographic of middle-aged audience members do, this part of the set is hysterical and alarmingly accurate. Coco, you sure made me laugh!!
Judging from those around me and the general atmosphere in the room, it would seem that many would agree with me that this was a great way to spend a Thursday night at the Enmore theatre – what can be better than to escape your everyday and sit and laugh for over an hour!
Kitty Flanagan has established herself as a darling of the Aussie comedian scene and this show is another feather in her impressive cap. Her naturalism, intellect, good spirit and clear determination not to take herself too seriously in this life make her entertaining, endearing and someone I am certainly keen to see again and again!
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