Kitty Flanagan is an Australian comedian, working primarily in Australia and the UK. Understandably, Hello Kitty Flanagan contains some pop cultural references that go over my Canadian head, but for the most part, this is a comedy special with themes that resonate cross-culturally, especially for a girl like me whose friends are all getting married and having children while she's out shopping for kitty litter. That's because Hello Kitty Flanagan is the story of a single, childless woman in her 40s who is a-ok with that fact, although nobody else around her seems to be.
Flanagan humorously tackles the common misconception that if a woman is middle-aged and single, it must be against her will. Watching her friends struggle with howling babies and ungrateful teenagers, and with her own arsenal of dating horror stories, Flanagan let's us know that she's doing quite alright thank-you-very-much.
Flanagan is fiercely independent. She knows what she likes and what she doesn't like, and she's not afraid to let you know. Flanagan is not willing to put up with other people's quirks, bad habits or shit. The audience gets first-hand experience of this when a heckler tries to chime in and Flanagan cuts her off with a "shush now, my show" and continues to finish her sentence without missing a beat.
Throughout this special, Flanagan is hilarious in the wryest way possible. To end off the show, Flanagan is joined by her musician sister Penny Flanagan to perform two sarcastic numbers, and just like the rest of the show, Kitty gives it her all. Her active stage presence seems to draw from an endless reserve of energy, at one point even breaking into a spot-on cabaret impression, belting it out and kicking up her legs to uproarious applause. Definitely not something someone could accomplish if they'd been up at 3 a.m. with an angry baby.
Toward the end of the show Flanagan tells a story about being interviewed for a piece about women role models, only to have her part deleted and be told that she needed therapy. But even if those magazine editors disagreed with her view, Flanagan is merely just calling it as she sees it. If anyone can teach us to be unapologetically ourselves, Flanagan would be it.
Exclaim! is reviewing every standup comedy special currently available on Netflix Canada, including this one. You can find a complete list of reviews so far here.
Flanagan humorously tackles the common misconception that if a woman is middle-aged and single, it must be against her will. Watching her friends struggle with howling babies and ungrateful teenagers, and with her own arsenal of dating horror stories, Flanagan let's us know that she's doing quite alright thank-you-very-much.
Flanagan is fiercely independent. She knows what she likes and what she doesn't like, and she's not afraid to let you know. Flanagan is not willing to put up with other people's quirks, bad habits or shit. The audience gets first-hand experience of this when a heckler tries to chime in and Flanagan cuts her off with a "shush now, my show" and continues to finish her sentence without missing a beat.
Throughout this special, Flanagan is hilarious in the wryest way possible. To end off the show, Flanagan is joined by her musician sister Penny Flanagan to perform two sarcastic numbers, and just like the rest of the show, Kitty gives it her all. Her active stage presence seems to draw from an endless reserve of energy, at one point even breaking into a spot-on cabaret impression, belting it out and kicking up her legs to uproarious applause. Definitely not something someone could accomplish if they'd been up at 3 a.m. with an angry baby.
Toward the end of the show Flanagan tells a story about being interviewed for a piece about women role models, only to have her part deleted and be told that she needed therapy. But even if those magazine editors disagreed with her view, Flanagan is merely just calling it as she sees it. If anyone can teach us to be unapologetically ourselves, Flanagan would be it.
Exclaim! is reviewing every standup comedy special currently available on Netflix Canada, including this one. You can find a complete list of reviews so far here.
