Pam Ann

Pam Ann
Birth name Caroline Reid
Origin Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Occupation(s) Comedian, Actress
Years active 1996–present
Website www.pamann.com

Pam Ann is the air hostess alter-ego of Australian comedian Caroline Reid. Performances focus on the nuances of air travel, identifying the individual quirks of some of the biggest international airlines and their media stereotypes. Her style leans towards camp humour, in the vein of Dame Edna Everage, Kathy Griffin and Chelsea Handler. The character of Pam Ann has developed a cult-like following and fans include Madonna, who describes Pam as "cruelly funny".

Pam Ann nickname generally, as most of her shows are based on the airlines related topics humor. The name itself is a play on words from Pan Am. In her shows, she refers to the so-called memories of the "Golden Age of Aviation" (for her, the period between the late 1950s and early 1970s when the jet airplanes entered widespread use), often contrasting it with modern times, and visual/social changes like the lack of knives and glass on the board. Overall, she also plays with the stereotypical views of airlines, like Virgin Airlines with model-nymphomaniacs, Alitalia with "they think they are all driving Ferrari". Also generally she has at least "peek inside" into the current aviation industry, like commenting accidents or airline retakes. She usually likes to play live with smaller public - for example pub size, and treat guests like passengers of different classes. However her humor is sometimes strongly adult oriented - for example she wasn't afraid to literally "show how to use the button", or getting spanked during it.

Appearances

Pam Ann has been featured in an advertising campaign for British Airways with over 1.25m views in a 6-week period. Qantas have Pam Ann’s Live DVD ‘Come Fly with Me’ in their in-flight programming. Most recently Pam Ann has been working closely with JetBlue and will be performing on their first ever JetPride flight which is a first on any US carrier operating from San Francisco to Long Beach for the Long Beach Pride. On 21 April 2010 she was the featured entertainment at JetBlue's party to celebrate the launch of their new Sabre reservation system, held at JetBlue's hangar at JFK Airport. Pam Ann also made an advertisement for Scandinavian Airlines, showing how she wants to make Pam Ann Airlines more like Scandinavian.

In Australia, Pam Ann starred in her own television talk show, The Pam Ann Show on the national Foxtel comedy channel. She also hosted Australia’s live broadcast of Mardi Gras 2009, airing in over 2 million households. She also appeared on the TV shows Project Runway UK and Britain’s Next Top Model.

From a sellout worldwide tour in 2009 covering Europe, UK, Iceland, Canada, Australia, and the USA Pam Ann continues to sell out tours globally and will commence another worldwide tour in 2011.

Pam Ann has performed at the highly acclaimed London Palladium (two sellout solo performances) and two sold out shows at the London Hammersmith Apollo. In 2010, Caroline Reid prepared to expand Pam Ann’s notoriety state-side relocated to NYC.

A proud Australian, Pam revealed in a UK interview that she no longer would want to live in Australia. “Well, I loved being back there, and I’ll probably get killed for this, but I don’t think I could live out there anymore!... Don’t get me wrong, it’s so nice to go home and spend time there, but after living in London and New York, I think my attention span has been shortened--I need more.” [1]

Characters

Acting

Caroline makes an appearance in the British comedy film Confetti, as a judge called Minky.[3]

Friends and acquaintances

Pam Ann performed in-flight entertainment for the 40th birthday of David Furnish, partner of the musician Elton John. Reid has said guests such as Victoria Beckham and Lulu loved being barked at to sit down, teased that they were going to a different destination, then warned the aircraft was going to blow up. “It went down so well because they’re used to people licking their arses,” she said.[4] She also accompanied Cher on her Farewell tour.

Notes and references

  1. Cohen, Yoni (3 August 2012). "Flights of fancy". The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 27 December 2013.
  2. "Caroline Reid, IMDB". IMDb.com. Retrieved 2014-06-06.
  3. "Steve Dow, Journalist". Stevedow.com.au. 2013-01-25. Retrieved 2014-06-06.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Pam Ann.
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