Kitty Flanagan: Being seriously funny

The comedian has kept a high profile through stand-up comedy, frequent spots on Channel 10 news chat show The Project, last year's scripted political comedy Utopia, and was a stand-in for Annabel Crabb's weekly newspaper column. (She admits she obsessed over every line she wrote - she doesn't know how regular columnists do it.)

This year she will co-star on new ABC comedy chat series The Weekly With Charlie Pickering, alongside Pickering and fellow comic Tom Gleeson, and will start filming the second series of Utopia, where she plays oblivious government PR manager Rhonda.

Filming scripted comedy is a nice change of pace from her usual solo work.

"[Filming Utopia] was such a fantastic job, I really enjoyed it," Flanagan tells Weekender.

"It really was just a dream set to work on, a fabulous script, and nice people all day, which is fantastic for me. I'm used to working on my own, and it was really nice to do something where there were lots of other people around and everyone was finding what we were doing funny."

Somehow, with her jam-packed schedule, she's found time to work on some new comedy. Her latest stand-up set Seriously...? had a sold-out preview at the Civic Playhouse last year, now it's on its way back for a show at the Civic Theatre on March 7.

"Last time it was in Newcastle it was in pretty good shape," Flanagan says.

"I've done lots of working it up in very small 60-, 70-seat rooms in Sydney and Canberra, testing out material and stuff, so we brought out a bit of a finished product to Newcastle. I'm happy with it, it's only been getting better since."

Has the show changed since then?

"It was pretty close to fully formed, every time I go out and do it little bits get added and little bits get dropped off, so it very slowly starts to morph a bit," Flanagan says.

"You know, it just gets better and gets honed and I start finding little bits I can add here and there."

It takes skill to present a dynamic show that might be subtly different every night - but Flanagan is able to deliver. She has certain strategies to help her remember where she's at in her material.

"I try to always make it a logical progression, you know, everything leads to something else that I'm talking about so it all kind of makes sense in my head. It all leads into each other, which makes it a nice, connected narrative."

She's further helped out by prompts from the crowd.

"It's not aggressive heckling by any stretch at this stage of my career, I mean you'd hope not," Flanagan laughs. "People are buying a ticket with my name on it, it'd be weird if they turned up and went 'aw, I hate this woman, boo! Heckle!' That would be odd.

"I'm all for people who often make enthusiastic comments or answer my rhetorical questions, that's fine. It's always just enthusiasm."

There should be plenty of material to fire up the crowd. Flanagan promises the show is her "best yet", covering the topics of why dog people are the new cat people, why dating a felon is all the rage these days, and how to keep a straight face when doctors use proper anatomical words that are accidentally funny. She will be joined by her sister Penny, presenting her usual touches of musical comedy.

"She's a permanent part of my show, we always do a few songs together, and we've got a couple of new ones this time. One of my favourites, actually. We're doing a tribute to the middle-aged lady now. We figured there weren't enough songs for our demographic. They're all about young, beautiful people in love, but who is singing about the middle-aged lady? Nobody. So we're filling that gap," she laughs.

"We've already got it out on iTunes, and it's going really well."

Even if you've seen her stand-up comedy before, Flanagan promises there's something different in store this time around.

"It's the best one yet," Flanagan says.

"It's my most personal show to date. This one's the tell-all. If certain people see this show then I'm going into witness protection."

With a sell like that, how can you resist.

Kitty Flanagan plays the Civic Theatre on March 7.