Flight attendant's show looks at the comical side of flying

For more than 20 years, Minneapolis native Rene Foss has been a flight attendant for Northwest Airlines, but before she followed in her mother's footsteps, she aspired to become an actress.

Now, with her own one-woman touring show, Foss is tackling the comedic aspects of flying — but without commenting on any airline in particular.

"Around the World in a Bad Mood" is scheduled for a four-week engagement in the Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center's Leona Wagner Black Box Theatre, and Foss stopped by the Deseret Morning News to chat about it.

Seeing her big, happy smile, you wonder where the "bad mood" part of the show kicks in. (One Los Angeles reviewer quipped that her last name should be Floss, not Foss.)

"Anyone who has traveled even once by air will enjoy this," she said, "but others can also relate to it."

Her show is a humorous look at the airline industry at large — an industry that has changed considerably from the "glamour days" of the 1950s, when her mother was a stewardess for Northwest Orient Airlines. "Back then they were wearing white gloves. There were preflight cocktail parties, and the in-flight meal might be lobster thermador."

And the art of self-defense has replaced the art of polite conversation. "I always wanted to be an actress, but my dad wanted me to have a day job with benefits. I am a member of the Screen Actors Guild, but I haven't done anything recognizable, which is what spurred me to write 'Around the World in a Bad Mood."'

What eventually evolved into the current one-woman comedy began as a five-person musical revue, with roles featuring some of her friends, and piano accompaniment by Michael McFrederick. Then Disney's Hyperion Books approached her about penning a book based on the play (it was published in 2002).

In the meantime, Richard Frankel Productions, which has produced such Broadway blockbusters as "The Producers" and "Hairspray," suggested she turn the revue into a one-woman play. The retooled version made its debut at the renowned Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland, and it's also played in Melbourne, Fla., and at the Minnesota Fringe Festival in her hometown of Minneapolis.

Foss said that her touring schedule is flexible enough that she can schedule shows around her full-time airline job. "I had so much fear and pressure (when she initially contemplated performing a one-woman show), and the show has continued to evolve. It changed a lot after 9/11. But I'm having a lot of fun with it. I can get away with things onstage that I can't do on the plane. It's therapeutic."