REVIEW: Kitty Flanagan DVD Twin Pack

It has been bloody ages since I reviewed a DVD so here’s one at last. And not just a single DVD but a mega-double-disc set, selling both of Kitty Flanagan’s two current DVDs in the one package at much the same price as the cost of either one by itself. Being a battling author and bill-bottoming comic, by default I am permanently broke so was naturally drawn to this deal.

Kitty Flanagan first came to our attention on the television yonks ago (more years than either of us would like to admit to) in Full Frontal. She then disappeared for a while, having buggered off to the UK, working the comedy circuit over there in Pommy Land.

Now I probably should point out that a) I think Kitty Flanagan is a bloody funny stand up, b) I am irrevocably in love with that gorgeous smile and c) under the stage lights her hair has a reddish tinge making us kindred gingas (yes, I used to be a ginge but after I turned grey, I used to offer to flash my pubs to prove my membership of the kindred but alas, the dreaded grey scourge has headed further south!).

The first of the featured shows, Charming and Alarming, was originally filmed at the Sydney Opera House but for serious reasons to do with disliking her outfit (just quoting here!) she went for a re-shoot at the Orange Civic Theatre. The Hello Kitty show was shot in Perth, WA. And both DVDs come with some extras.

The test of any comedy but especially stand up comedy, is the quality of the laughs. Even a dull, ordinary set can get polite titters here and there. And as a performer you soon learn to recognise that particular brief titter which only appears because a few audience members feel sorry for you. The other end of the spectrum is the big belly laugh which reveals an audience on the verge of pissing themselves. In both shows, Kitty has the fat bellies convulsing like an earthquake measuring around 5.8 on the Richter scale (piss buckets to Row Five, please!).

I found the first of the two shows, Charming and Alarming, to be slightly faster in pace and punchier but both are definitely worth watching as Kitty is in complete control throughout, with that fast-paced, piss-funny comedy she does so well. Clearly those years stumbling around the clubs in Pommy Land helped hone that comedic edge to television-ad-Wonda-Knife-that-cuts-tin-cans sharpness.

Highly recommended, kids, to the point that I am almost prepared to forgive Kitty Flanagan for being in Sydney (you can take the boy out of Victoria but you can’t take out the ingrained NSW-hating sense of Victorian superiority).