Lunchtime sex in the City from the Barbie stand-up

A City worker who lost her job in the recession has begun a new career telling jokes about the "sleaze" of the Square Mile.

Thea Montgomerie-Anderson, 32, was made redundant from her £150,000 sales job at a banking IT company just before Christmas.

Now she does a stand-up routine about the risk-taking, lunchtime casual sex and heavy drinking she says dominates the City.

Miss Montgomerie-Anderson hosts a comedy night called The Barbie Stand-Up Show at The Star pub in Bethnal Green on the first Monday of each month.

She is assisted by her Kensal Rise flatmate Charlotte Skilling, 23, a former high-street bank manager-turned-model who took redundancy last October. They are among a wave of ex-financial workers who have used redundancy as a launch-pad for completely different careers.

Miss Montgomerie-Anderson said: "Everyone loves the act, especially if they've worked in the City.

"Everyone drinks too much and everyone's brash and a bit dysfunctional. Men and women in the City book lunch-time sex sessions with strangers on the 'casual encounters' section of [internet message board] Craig's List.

"I've done it myself because the hours were too long to have a proper boyfriend." Miss Montgomerie-Anderson said they had both taken big pay cuts. "Now we probably only earn about £25,000 each, which we get by also doing online freelance secretarial work with PeoplePerHour.com. But we're having so much more fun."

Miss Skilling said: "The recession has given me a chance to pursue what I really want to do."

Miss Montgomerie-Anderson hopes to take the act to Edinburgh this year and will appear at Mayfair club Mahiki this Saturday to raise money for environmental charity WWF.

For more information visit http://earthhour.wwf.org.uk.