Kitty Flanagan is a woman who knows her craft and delivers. I'm so glad that she eventually decided to listen to her inner voice which repeatedly told her you can't be serious. I would have hated to miss out on Charming & Alarming.The tone of the night was set from the outset. A voice over, Flanagan, announced that there was no one to introduce her so she would have to do so herself. Poor little girl!
There is an opening act, singer/songwriter Penny Flanagan, but her performance is interrupted by Kitty's voice over asking How long before the song ends? I might want to go to the toilet … OK … it's your time... Penny's time it may be but Kitty leaves the mike on and cannot help but interject with some snide comments in response to the lyrics.
Singer and mike move off stage and Kitty Flanagan takes over, tidying up as she goes, after all she is a woman and this is one of the connecting themes of the night. As Flanagan says, women don't have seriously aggressive talk like the men, but this doesn't mean that she can't stray into the area of sexual jokes, and even better, really funny ones.
The front row were welcomed, but the fifth row were warned, and late-comers were told not to worry as no one is watching. Ultimately no one needed to worry as Flanagan doesn't need to pick on audience members to make her performance fast, furious and loaded with laughs. Her relaxed style ensures that everyone is drawn into the fun without needing to be put on the spot; the men were laughing as loudly and frequently as the women.
Flanagan had a go at the old and the young and the boring in betweens; mothers, golfers, prisoners, hecklers, drunks, men's tales of their sexual conquests, women's lib, even road safety signs and Bob Dylan were given a serve.
There was word play, mime and some great mimicry.
Kitty Flanagan's show is appropriately named – she is both charming and alarming. She draws her audience in with her charm and then has them laughing at things they know are anything but funny.
I particularly loved her take on the 35+ mummies with their special mummy voices, their pretensions (be it with their versions of their children's names or the colours of their walls – Sahrah not Sarah, magnolia not white), and their insistence on reasoning with their children. They had read the books and attended the courses and they were going to be the best mums in the world. In Flanagan's view it's better to be a teenage mum, they are instinctive. Whilst the older mums debate the pros and cons of smacking, the teenage mum is more likely to think about whether to shake or smack, deciding between the two on the basis of which will leave less evidence. I warned you.
The two songs at the end, performed with Penny, are not to be missed.
Kitty Flanagan is wacky, deliciously politically incorrect, and great fun. Catch her if you dare.
2011 Melbourne International Comedy Festival
Charming & Alarming
Kitty Flanagan
Venue: Athenaeum Theatre | 188 Collins St, Melbourne
Dates: 5 – 10 April, 2011
Times: Tue-Sat 7pm, Sun 6pm
Duration: 65 minutes
Tickets: $34 – $29
Bookings: Ticketmaster 1300 660 013 | At the venue 03 9650 1500