Pam Ann (aka Caroline Reid) celebrates her 20th anniversary by opening the show with a compilation of old clips. This sets the tone for the evening: recycled material of varying quality and intelligibility which goes on just a tad longer than it should.
Pam is very strong when picking four hapless audience members out for a song and dance routine to Spice Up Your Life. After they are mercilessly teased and interrogated, of course. The interaction here is priceless, and Pam’s ability to think on her feet as she sparks off her “volunteers” is truly impressive. A stand up section (mainly focusing on different types of planes) follows, although this starts to drag and becomes unfocused. Things get back on track with a parody of the Great British Bake Off, with Pam spliced into the footage. Cue the usual jokes from our sex mad, drug loving, caustic air hostess.
The second act opens with another Great British Wank Off clip, and a truly hilarious sequence choreographed to Sia’s Chandelier. In a sparkling red dress and looking like a drag act gone badly wrong, ever bigger bags of cocaine are pulled from the food trolley. These end up strewn over the stage as Pam crawls in coke to satisfy her cravings. It’s a very satisfying moment, with Reid seemingly more confident behind this rather more OTT version of her persona. Things become rather unfocused and rambling again when dolls are produced to represent some of the various cabin crew Reid has embodied over the years. This section goes on too long, with all the predicable jokes about sex and so on cropping up. At times it veers into rather questionable territory with comments about Malaysian airlines being impossible to find. Having said that, it does feature one of the few topical jokes in the whole show about United Airlines. After another clip and costume change, Pam returns to the stage to the tune of We Are Family. This celebration feels rather awkward and something of a lame, tacked-on conclusion to the show.
On the whole, there is a sense throughout that this is rather old, tired material spread too thinly. When she is sparking off members of the audience Pam excels, but flounders in rather lengthy stand-up routines. Does she have any more mileage? Not unless the material is updated and becomes far more topical.