In his new travel show Riding Shotgun With Zach Anner, web celeb Zach Anner and three of his pals pile in a van to see America (and a soupçon of Canada). Anner’s the first to admit: “We have no fucking clue what we’re doing.”
The first episode of the online show premiered yesterday, and it only reinforces what you already knew: Anner – the UT grad who won over millions when he auditioned to host a reality show for the Oprah Winfrey Network – is a supremely likable dude.
The Chronicle’s Dan Solomon spoke with Anner in August about his Oprah experience and the new web show:
”I didn’t know that [my audition tape] would affect people until the audition video blew up – I’d just been trying to follow my passion. There’s a part of me that’s so proud of that,” he says. Which leads to the central conflict of being Zach Anner, hero to Reddit weirdos and inspiration to Oprah-lovers both. “I want to make sure that people know that I can only be myself – I can’t be a spokesperson for people with disabilities, because everybody has a completely different experience. I’m glad that I’m able to inspire parents to see one way to deal with it, but at the same time, I tell a lot of dirty jokes.”`
Episode #1 is embedded below; go here to check out more episodes and to subscribe to the series.
This article appears in October 19 • 2012.
