AHEAD of her show at Monmouth’s Savoy Theatre in May, Angela Barnes has explained if you’re not interested in coming for laughs, then at least come for the curiosity factor of watching a 48-year-old woman having a mid-life meltdown on stage!

“My whole career can be viewed as one long mid-life crisis!” Joked the award-winning comedian, who added, “Which in retrospect was handy preparation because my current show is all about approaching that period in your forties where you have two choices - laugh at the absurdity of it all or succumb to the never-ending horror!”

The ’Mock the Week’ and ’Live at The Apollo’s’ tour kicks off in February, and heads to Monmouth’s Savoy Theatre on May 10.

It’s called ‘ANGST’ and it’s all about finding the humour necessary to survive in the age of anxiety!

Angela told the Chronicle, “If you’re not anxious in this day and age, you’re not paying attention, but you know, there are jokes to be made in anything, and laughing is the best tonic.

"So if seeing a middle-aged woman like me on stage rambling about her insecurities, failures, and hang-ups doesn’t make you feel better about yourself then nothing will!”

Angela explained that she originally wanted to call the tour ‘Torschlusspanik’ but ‘Angst’ scanned better and was a safer bet with the promoters.

“‘Torschlusspanik’ is a German word!” Explained Angela. “And it translates as something along the lines of, ‘panic of a closing gate.’ The Germans have great words for things and I think ‘Torschlusspanik’ is a perfect way of summing up getting to that age where you think, ‘Oh god! Where did it all go wrong!’”

During the show, Angela threatens to tell stories of success and sound logic, but mostly she admits it’s stories of unmitigated failure.

“Mid-life hell is something everyone my age has been through and is very relatable. That’s not to say the show is just for middle-aged women. I’ve no real wisdom to impart!” She admits. “And the show is not nostalgic in any shape or form. I learn more from Gen Z members of the audience than they do from me, but if you come along with the mindset that I’m a warning of what could happen if you don’t pay attention, then you can’t go far wrong.”

Angela attributes her ability to find the humour in any situation from her years spent working in the health and mental care sector.

She told the Chronicle, “In those sorts of roles you need to adopt a gallows humour mentality or you won’t last long. And it’s those sorts of experiences that continue to shape and influence my material to this day.”

As a previous visitor to the Savoy Theatre, Angela is keen to return to a venue she finds ‘refreshingly atmospheric’ but as usual, she isn’t looking forward to all the traveling being a stand-up comedian entails.

She explained, “Long car journeys on motorways in the dead of night and cups of industrial strength coffee in service stations aren’t exactly the glamourous life of the international jet-setting celeb, but I guess when you get on stage and everyone’s laughing at you, it makes it all worthwhile!”

Angela Barnes will be appearing at Monmouth’s Savoy Theatre on Saturday, May 10.