Pam Ann, or Flying Off the Handle
Do you know Pam Ann? I didn’t – not until a certain December evening. A friend of mine told me he bought me a ticket to her show and that we were going. I fell in love with her from the very first minute. What was so great about her show was that you couldn’t tell what would come next. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
Pam Ann is a stage name of an Australian stand-up comedienne, Caroline Reid. This attractive artist, 45 years of age, impersonates stewardesses of various airlines with a great sense of humor and complete lack of humility towards anyone in the room. She ruthlessly exposes all deficiencies – not only of the said arilines, but of every poor sucker in the audience who will become the focus of her attention.
Lack of humility is one thing, but Pam Ann also disregards political correctness and politeness – as well as sexual inhibitions. I’m pretty sure she never even heard of the word „prude”. Pam Ann doesn’t know of the existence of the phrase „uncalled for”. In her book, everything is allowed. She lacks inhibitions and gives special treatment to no one – she has no tolerance for sacred cows. One Asian guy who had the bad luck of sitting close to the stage got a real „racist” rant from her. She mock-pronounced his name, adding it didn’t matter anyway, since „you guys all look the same”. After that she mocked his language – and she was just getting started.
One British guy got disregards for his accent, a group of Scandinavians heard nasty stuff about their airlines, and every single black man Pam spotted from the stage got her full attention and an invitation to her bed. She unabashedly admitted to enjoying sex with black men and told us which positions are her favorite. When she asked if there were any foreigners in the room, my friend Mariusz said Poland was represented, too. Pam Ann reacted in a heartbeat, explaining to everyone that our lines are called LOT, which stands for „Lot of Trouble” and started recounting a landing in Warsaw. I was laughing so hard I cried.
What I liked most about the show was that the artist was measuring our distance towards ourselves and the world. If you have a problem with that, facing Pam can be realy uncomfortable. For me, an evening with Pam Ann was like a refreshing breeze. She says everything we are afraid of saying, or don’t even know yet we are afraid of saying. Pam swears like a sailor, discusses penises, offends people and mocks everyone in sight – and does all that in a fantastic way. At times her show really flies off the handle: she describes sex in tiniest detail, as well as demonstrates what she would like to do with her mouth… and to whom. Personally, I was laughing my head off and admired her for her courage and incredible, camp sense of humor. She looks campy herself: at times a sexy brunette, at times a „well-made” transvestite.
Interestingly enough, Caroline Reid was never a stewardess and never worked for any airlines, but thanks to her show she already starred in a couple of ads for arilines, such as British Airways, Scandinavian Airlines or Jet Blue.
Here’s a little sample of what Pam does. Still, in order to really fall in love with her, you should see her live. Her next shows – 30th and 31st December and 2 – 5th January 2014 at Joe’s Pub (425 Lafayette St at Astor PL). As soon as she comes back in NYC, I will let you know and will attend the show again myself. I cannot wait to do it.
