Melbourne Reviews

About three-quarters of the way through, Kitty Flanagan’s Good Friday show abruptly stopped, and house lights went up for a medical emergency. Turned out the guy was just jetlagged and had fallen asleep. No ambulance or even doctor was required.  

No stranger to the surprises of comedy, Flanagan handled it all in stride, letting us know she’s had an actual heart attack during one of her Canberra shows. So really, this guy didn’t rate. 

Medical emergencies may be a hazard of Flanagan’s shows. Her crowd skews middle-aged and upwards with a lot of bald heads and greying coifs filling the packed stalls of the Athenaeum.  

The rest of the audience stayed enthusiastically awake, hanging onto her every well-crafted yarn and observation. Topics flowed seamlessly from a dental experience that didn’t provide the expected drugs, to the embarrassment of backless hospital dressing gowns (bum COVID, anyone) and some prescient philosophizing on the appeal that iPads have only to toddlers and seniors. 

Even with the unexpected show-stop, Flanagan was in total control and great form from go to woah, with laughs a plenty through the well-honed segments, including a guest appearance from her guitar-playing sister, Penny, for a love duet to a particular kind of underpants beloved to middle-aged woman and a case for mandatory vasectomies for men over fifty.  

Flanagan is just such a talented comic that she elicits huge laughs and fresh takes on what are, essentially, well-worn topics. In her hands even something as mundane as dog owners who don’t pick up their poop at the dog park becomes comedy gold.  

As always, she is a super solid festival choice in a show that does not disappoint. A totally entertaining hour of deliciously crafted and superbly delivered stand-up.