RENE FOSS
in
Around the World in a Bad Mood!

Daily Breeze
Torrance, California
October/November 2004

AROUND THE WORLD IN A BAD MOOD!
Confessions of a Flight Attendant

Flying unfriendly skies with Rene is a crack-up. Flight attendant successfully merges real-life job and theatrical aspirations in a one-woman comedy at Hermosa Beach Playhouse.

By JIM FARBER
Theater Critic

Once you've seen Around the World in a Bad Mood! Confessions of a Flight Attendant performed by real-life flight attendant Rene Foss, flying will never be the same.

It may not make you take the train instead of the plane or cut up your frequent flyer card, but it will make you think twice before you complain about your seat assignment, the stale peanuts or those new security rules that won't let you near the bathroom.

Foss opened her show Thursday at the Hermosa Beach Playhouse before an adoring audience that must have included every flight attendant currently on layover at LAX. She may have been preaching to the choir, but they loved it.

Much of Foss' performance seems to be modeled on the type of sketches you see on Saturday Night Live. But while the message is pure comedy, the credibility of the messenger is unimpeachable. For 20 years (including a flight out of New York on the morning of 9/11) Foss has flown the less-than-friendly-skies as a loyal flight attendant for Northwest Airlines.

Foss' big secret is that what she really wanted to do with her life was fly on stage not in the air.

It was her father, she informs us, who insisted his daughter was not going to become an actress. She was going to get a "real" job, "WITH BENEFITS!" And in the end that's exactly what she did. Foss followed in the footsteps of her mother, who was a stewardess (not a flight attendant) for Northwest Airlines in the days when air hostesses wore white gloves and iron girdles, learned to serve lobster thermadore, and took courses in small talk.

Chipper. That might be the best word to describe Foss.

You could also include charming, funny, clever, witty, caustic, snide and sarcastic. It's actually surprising she never made it as an actress — she's certainly got the charisma. Whatever the reason, this show certainly allows her aspirations to take flight.

Around the World in a Bad Mood! actually began its life as a small off-off-Broadway musical. Then it evolved into a book, and finally into the one-woman show Foss is now performing between flights, as she remains a full-time flight attendant.

The show, like her book, is divided into chapters. Some are autobiographical. Others are more generic. And since Foss wants to continue to collect those benefits, none of her comedic barbs are aimed specifically at her long-time employer. Her on-stage-employer is WAFTI (We Apologize for the Inconvenience) Airlines.

Foss’ rapid-fire performance (skillfully directed by Ross Meyerson) is accompanied by a succession of humorous projections, including a clip from As the World Turns in which Foss played, you guessed it, a flight attendant. She also incorporates a playful array of props into her show, including a chorus line of inflatable dolls who dance the "Safety Demonstration Shuffle," and a cast of barf-bag puppets that offer an in-flight performance of Macbeth.

The sketches are consistently funny (especially for frequent flyers). My favorite revelation was Foss' explanation of "the secret language of flight attendants." Now I know that when the flight attendant comes down the aisle, flashes her glued-on smile and says, "Your trash?" I'll know that what she's really saying is,"YOU'RE TRASH!"