IT was a Sydney performance by Scottish comedy star Billy Connolly that persuaded Kitty Flanagan to dip her toe into the uncertain waters of stand-up comedy.
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“I walked out thinking, ‘My God, that looked like the best fun ever’,” she says.
“I just thought he looked as though he was having the best time — he was telling stories and everyone was just sitting there just loving it.”
Flanagan fulfilled her ambition after a five-year stint as an advertising agency copywriter, creating campaigns for products like Quik chocolate drinking powder.
“Probably if I watched it back now I’d go wow, what a terrific surreal piece of art, but I’m sure for selling chocolate powder to stir in your milk it didn’t exactly do the job,” she says.
“I was fired shortly after that.”
Her first stand-up appearance, in her 20s, was in a Harold Park Hotel comedy competition won by Carl Barron and soon after she landed a job on the hit Seven Network TV sketch show Full Frontal.
The Logie Award-winning series was a stepping stone for a host of stars including Eric Bana, Shaun Micallef, Julia Morris, Glenn Butcher, Kym Gyngell and John Walker, who now lives in the North East.
Now back on the road with more stories, physical comedy and a swag of funny songs courtesy of her favourite musical guest, her sister Penny, the comic will perform her Hello Kitty Flanagan show at the Albury Entertainment Centre on Saturday night and at the Wangaratta Performing Arts Centre on Sunday.
In her show, Flanagan asks all the difficult questions: What’s wrong with teenagers, is it really OK to take hot beverages into the dunny and are all women who own cats mental?
Flanagan lived and worked in Britain from 2001 to 2009 and did stand-up shows in France, Germany, Holland and Japan and at major festivals including Edinburgh Fringe and Montreal Just For Laughs.
She also starred in the hit British TV program The Sketch Show alongside top British comics Lee Mack, Jim Tavare and Tim Vine.
When: 8pm Saturday
Where: Albury Entertainment Centre
Bookings: Phone (02) 6043 5610