INSTANT chemistry and a decade-long friendship was all it took to amass a 20,300-strong following and soon, Leigh Sales and Annabel Crabb will bring their show to Orange.
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The ABC’s leading ladies will record their podcast, Chat 10 Looks 3, live at Orange Civic Theatre on Saturday, May 26.
The podcast, which is a conversation about whatever they are currently reading or watching, started in late 2014 as an excuse for the friends to spend more time together.
Sales, who hosts 7.30, said the pair first came into contact when Crabb, then working for Fairfax, rang her for advice about moving to the ABC.
“I remember we decided to have a catch-up for morning tea and we stayed there all day – it was five o’clock in the afternoon and we’d barely left the kitchen table,” Sales said.
“We’re quite different in a lot of ways and that’s part of our chemistry – she’s incredibly smart and funny, and her turns of phrase are so entertaining.”
While the pair have politics covered – Crabb hosts Kitchen Cabinet on the network, which features politicians in their homes – Sales said Chat 10 Looks 3 was different.
“My job is pretty serious so I really enjoy getting to talk about other things and having a laugh,” she said.
With requests mounting from listeners to form a community, the pair started a Facebook group in July.
Sales described the discussion it had generated since as incredible, with ‘chatters’ supporting each other in everything from dealing with depression to one woman who queried how dressy a white tie function was.
“She didn’t feel like she had anything to wear and then someone asked her what size she was so they came to the Melbourne show and one woman handed a dress to the other woman, stuff like that,” she said.
“Someone put up that they had to go to a funeral after their friend’s three-week-old baby died and they had no idea what to read and people were saying the most amazing stuff.”
The pair started live shows in August so they could meet some of their audience.
Orange will be their first regional show, chosen because it was still reasonably close to their busy work and home schedules – Sales also has friends between Orange and Bathurst. They also expect to take a tour around Millthorpe and seek out the best bakery goodies during their visit. Tickets are on sale through Ticketek.