CityLife

Interview: Pam Ann

Pam Ann

‘OH my god there’s a guy opposite and he’s drawing the blinds with just his knickers on, just like the Coke ad! Good morning!”

It seems Aussie comedian Caroline Reid, the woman behind the delightfully monstrous trolley dolly Pam Ann, is beginning to feel perfectly at home in her new abode in New York.

Certainly the sights are proving suitably diverting. She moved over there just a few months ago, handy for the last leg of her tour which was spent, for the first time, in the States before closing in New York on the night before we chatted.

“I’ve worked in New York, Philadelphia and Los Angeles before but as a touring show it’s my first ever. It’s been amazing. It’s been crazy.

“You realise how big this place is and how you have to be on form or you can just forget about it. It’s dog eat dog. I thought the UK was full on but America… I mean it’s been incredible. I’ve had standing ovations every show, it’s been full. You really have to be on your best behaviour.”

'More research'

Now she’s just got to decide what Pam, a vision in manmade fibres and a throwback to the 1960’s hey day of plane travel, has planned for the UK leg. But with the American tour only just finished, unsurprisingly she has no clue what Pam will be up to in Britain. “I’m in such a whirlwind at the moment, I’ve just been on the US tour, it finished yesterday and now to be honest I’m just like ‘oh my god, I’m doing a UK tour next week, I’ve really got to get that sorted.”

That said, the recent increase in her overseas gigs have thrown up themes and techniques that Reid plans to use in the UK. “The US tour was very regionalized, which I want to do more of for the UK tour, which I haven’t done before. What I’ve learnt after doing Europe - through Germany and Sweden and all the Scandinavian countries, the stand up kind of changed - had to adjust to the place I’m in - to reference where I am, the language, the cultures, the airlines that fly there.

"So through doing that coming to the UK this time around I think I’ll be a bit more involved saying what happens in Manchester a bit more and talk about the airport in Manchester and do a bit more research on that. I feel I’ve got a little a bit more confident in doing that now instead of coming out and doing a stock standard script for each show, which I sort of did really. I did the improvisation but I think you’ll see more of it on the UK tour after this, it’s changed the show a lot in the way that it’s a little bit more stand up based as opposed to show pieces.”

Talking of the European tours, how did Pam and her kitsch bitch persona go down on the continent? “It was highly successful sold about 19,000 tickets before we even went out, before we even left. And I was shocked at that because if someone had said to me you’re going to be big in Germany I’d have absolutely laughed - ‘what sense of humour do they have? I’m not going.’ And for some reason my manager he had this vision. We had this Austrian promoter who toured with us through the States as well and he’s crazy! I said no it’s not going to work.

Reeling

"We went all through Germany we went to Oslo, Sweden, Denmark. I feel like a rock star when I’m there, they’re crazy for it. I just thought they were the most reserved people, and they turn out to be more bonkers than Manchester, well on a par I think.”

That is certainly true of a Pam Ann tour, the audiences are all a bit mad, often cabin crew themselves and most certainly up for it. All screaming out their airlines and eager to join Pam on stage for a bit of audience participation. “They are wild and I think Manchester would have to be, if you were talking audience wise, the biggest place for me outside of London. It’s amazing when I come up there because I sell out, it’s a great theatre. They always look after me. It’s the night I look forward to on the tour the most.”

Though, at this precise moment in time the man in his pants in the apartment opposite is forgotten and Reid, as she recalls the night before playing to the New York crowd, is still reeling.

“You should have seen New York, it was just off its face. I’ve never seen anything like it. I honestly thought I was going to die. It was just so electric, it was almost too electric...”

Pam Ann flies in to insult the lot of us in the most amusing way possible at the Lowry on November 15 and 16, 2009.