Comedy Festival 2018: Kitty Flanagan nevers skips a beat in the flawless Smashing ★★★★★

KITTY Flanagan at the top of her game as she smashes this one out of the park in a supremely tight and honed show. Home run!

WHEN Kitty Flanagan started winding up her show, exactly 55 minutes into the hour, a punter called out, “stay”. Smashing is such a smashing show - the entire audience would have happily hung back and watched Flanagan weave more comedy gold for well past her allotted Athenaeum slot.

With a shiny cabaret backdrop and some fairy lights strewn across the floor, there was a sparkly vibe in the house. But Flanagan, in black blazer, white blouse, black jean combo, was no-nonsense and smart. In control of the full house from go to woah, she never faltered and there were no lulls in proceedings.

ZOË COOMBS MARR: THIS CROWD RELATIONSHIP GOING THE DISTANCE

NO ONE SAFE AS HELEN BIDOU RAISES THE BAR A NOTCH

From the moment she walked on stage, tempting with door prizes and riffing on smashing being the only verb modern humans now need (it’s so ubiquitous — you can smash a coffee, cocktails, work, even a shower), she had the audience eating out of the palm of her hand.

If, as Flanagan suggests, you can smash anything, Flanagan smashed this performance in all aspects — content, physical technique and elocution.

Kitty Flanagan hits the ball out of the park in Smashing.

All stars aligned in a show that is, essentially, about familiar, even pedestrian, subjects. But with Flanagan’s framing, topics as well-worn as generational differences take on new depths, especially relatable for the Gen X and Baby Boomer crowd.

Springing off with the vacuous reality-television definition of” journey” and working through bad sex, internet porn and her mother’s browser history, Flanagan mined material with great timing and pace.

SAM CAMPBELL: DEVILISH GENIUS SOARS TO LOFTY HEIGHTS

AUNTY DONNA: POWDER KEG TRIO A CLASS ACT

A theory about reverse online dating profiles (so you can bond with people over things you both hate) segued into trigger words and places, which led into an analysis of the esoteric narratives of Cirque de Soleil that is worth the price of admission alone.

Without skipping even half a beat, Flanagan intertwined references, threw in accents and climaxed with a finale song (accompaniment by Joel Salom and Penny Flanagan) that pulled it all together.

Smashing is slightly edgy, but not gratuitously crass, awkward enough to make great comedy and committed to the relatable, rather than the obscure.

Flanagan is at the top of her game with this supremely tight and honed show. She could have talked about the history of buttons for an hour and Smashing would probably still be a five-star review.

Go watch Kitty smash it.

Kitty Flanagan, Smashing

Athenaeum Theatre, 188 Collins St, until April 22.

comedyfestival.com.au