Please note that the below article was originally posted on the now closed High on Reviews:
There’s something about the awkward that is like a magnet. I cringe my way painfully through shows like The Office, Parks and Recreation and Life’s Too Short. I shout at the screen, I squeal and I groan, but do I look away or turn off? No. Because deep down inside I love the uncomfortable silences, the TMI moments and the horribly embarrassing vignettes.
So it was with great joy I finally settled down to watch my way through The Anne Hirsch Show on a quiet afternoon. She’s got all the awkwardness a girl could want by the bucket load, and she’s one of us! A local I mean. This is home-grown talent at its finest. Get the page ready now so that as soon as you’ve finished reading this you can head right over. No really, do it, I’ll wait.
I’ve watched her do her deliciously punny stand-up schtick many times and I’ve also seen her fling herself around the Theatresports stage and I honestly can’t get enough. She’s funny and silly and often extremely inappropriate. And now you can enjoy all of that from the comfort of your living room, office or even the MyCiti bus if you’ve got one of those new-fangled smartphone thingy-mabobs.
I’d been following all the retweets of people who found the show screamingly hilarious and I guess part of me was a bit worried that I’d be let down by the time I finally got around to tuning in. Oh, dear reader, how wrong I was. I smiled, I tittered, I giggled, I laughed, I guffawed and I may even have snorted.
The premise is Anne invites a local schleb to join her in studio for a chat. She’s welcomed a variety of guests from Marc Lottering and Emo Adams, to Zolani Mahola, Jack Parow, Arno Carstens and even fellow comedian Paul Snodgrass. They talk about what they’ve been up to, Anne ignores their personal space issues and they even take feedback from viewers (kind of). The episodes are bite-sized and unless you decide to watch them all in one go (you probably will) they won’t chow up too much of your day (again, they probably will – but it’s worth it).
Start at the beginning and once you’ve got into the swing of things you’ll almost certainly be hooked. The show comes with a series of quirks and gimmicks which I’m not going to ruin for you. I was thrilled that her guests were so keen to play along and loved watching how each of them dealt with her up-close-and-personal way of doing things. Poor Locnville.
Episode 16, the last of season one, went live last week and now is the perfect time to settle in with a cuppa and have a good laugh. I can’t wait to see who she has lined up for season two which starts in January. And who knows, perhaps Angie will finally swing by the studio for a catch up?
