Kitty Flanagan
Charming & Alarming
Atheneum Theatre
April 5-10
Tickets: $25 – $34

There’s nothing really new about Kitty Flanagan’s 2011 show Charming and Alarming, which is back for a handful of performances this year, because there needn’t be.

A few updates have been inserted, her strategy for identifying the severity of a flood amongst the best: “If you look out your window and see water coming up your street you’re in trouble, but if you look out your window and see Mel and Kochie you’re fucked”. The fresh details don’t extend much further but you shouldn’t need up-to-the-minute material to appreciate Flanagan. She’s close to the most complete comedienne Australia has ever produced and it’s simply a pleasure to watch her execute her assured craft.

Her targets will be familiar to even casual fans of her 7PM appearances – young sluts, pretentious mothers, the French, male bravado – but unless you’ve seen her standup, you won’t appreciate just how magnificent her mimicry skills are. This is perhaps best conjured during her story about playing golf with a bunch of oldies. During a round with the ladies she’s advised by one of them to “mind her Ps and Qs” to which she replies “Ps and Qs? I’m gonna have to watch my Fs and Cs”.

The performance starts and ends with Flanagan’s talented guitar-playing sister Penny – they’re daughters of fantasy novelist John Flanagan in what is no doubt an annoyingly capable family. The opening number is a small test of Penny’s dignity as Kitty spends the whole time interrupting but both come together at the end to shine some light on a rather unfortunate fashion trend amongst young women (if you want a taste of Flanagan’s taste but don’t have time to see the show, click here).

While the music is no doubt an opportunity for Flanagan to work with and promote her less famous sister, the songs don’t detract from the overall performance, they enhance it. There are countless artists that shamelessly stretch the one joke over three-and-a-half minutes to pad out a portion of their show – for some, that’s all their show is – but the Flanagans’ closing number isn’t just funny from start to finish, it’s thematically inseparable from Kitty’s standup – a rhythm-sapping transition isn’t required.

Flanagan’s notoriety has grown measurably since her spot on the 7PM Project started. She’s gone from “that funny chic on Good News Week the other night”, to “Kitty Flanagan who’s always on 7PM”. It’s been a long time coming, as some may remember she started on Full Frontal back in the mid 1990s. In some ways the show was a reaction to the success of the ABC’s far superior The Late Show. While the ABC vehicle launched the unstoppable Working Dog crew, the high-rating Martin-Molloy program and arguably Australia’s most successful genuine stand up comedienne over the last two decades, Judith Lucy, Full Frontal produced Shaun Micallef, gave Eric Bana a small leg-up and not much else. While Lucy has enjoyed film roles, a radio career and a consistent standup following, Flanagan’s success has been tied to the UK.

The difference between Flanagan and Lucy (who are only born two years apart) is the personas they have had to convey to get a laugh. Lucy’s delicious sarcasm and cynicism is expertly marshalled but many if not most comediennes during the 80s and 90s tended to be either oddballs, Jewish or butch and Lucy’s act plays to that tendency. Flanagan is none of those things and it’s hard to imagine that her act would have worked in the 90s or even the early 2000s. Now however, audience prejudices are being put aside. The fabulously beautiful Tina Fey is the undisputed queen of American comedy while the unquestionably sexy (just ask guys leaving her show) Kitty Flanagan can perform uninhibited.

If you do still “have a problem” with comediennes and wish to reform your prehistoric ways, Kitty Flanagan is a gut-busting remedy.

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