Review: Pam Ann’s ‘Queen of the Skies’
From the moment Madonna’s Living For Love blasts through the auditorium and Pam Ann arrives on stage amid plumes of smoke and flashing lights in her new show ‘Queen of the Skies’ (to a cacophony of whoops and cheers from her loyal and loving gay fans) and immediately begins crawling around on the floor of the stage in her cape, you’re in for an evening of raucous, shocking and downright politically incorrect hilarity.
Pam Ann – aka Caroline Reid – is no stranger to the London stage and has been donning the trolley dolly uniform and offending her audiences with her caustic style of humour for no less than an age-defying 20 years now. But while while her cabin stewardess act has evolved in that time, her crowd of adoring ‘gays’ have stayed utterly loyal.
‘Queen of the Skies’ sees a departure from some of the more familiar characters we have come to chant for over the years, such as Lily or Helga, and introduces us to a new puppet segment in the second act. She needs no gimmicks or flight seats on stage this time around, save her trusted duty free trolley, adorned with shot glasses and vodka to hand out to thirsty audience members and a carrier bag full of ‘cocaine’ that she inhales like Cokeahontus! She delivers a routine more akin with traditional stand up comedy and whilst staying in character as Pam, Reid regales the audience with her own stories of cocaine-fuelled LA parties with Hollywood A-listers and her encounters with real life cabin crew who have moonlighted as high class prostitutes.
Downton Abbey also gets a Pam Ann spoof video interlude classic with ‘Downton Galley’, where she inserts her caustic persona and slutty, toilet-humoured character into the fold of 19th century English heritage, with genius editing that gives Maggie Smith’s Countess Dowager a real reason to raise her eyebrows.
Nothing is off limits for the sake of a laugh when it comes to a Pam Ann show – race, religion, flight disasters and terrorism are all topics of Pam’s acerbic wit at some point. While those who are easily offended might wince at jokes comparing her anus to a ‘hippo’s yawn’, you know what you get with Pam and what you get is what you’ve paid for and expect to see. Some jokes make you wonder if the character’s references to fisting, pussy, cocaine-use and a love of black c*ck are spoken from experience or to simply encourage laughter from the un-shockable legion of Pam Ann fans, but either way, the PC Police should avoid this show and leave it for the rest of us to cry laughing at her ability to turn up the volume and give her gays a hilarious night to remember.
‘Pam Ann: Queen of the Sky‘ is on at Leicester Square Theatre until November 7.Words: Marcus James