If there’s one thing I can count on when it comes to nerds, it’s that we’re inherently curious. We seek knowledge; hoard it like dragons, wear it like armor. Even though I know you can tell me every detail about your fandom, I also know that you’ve held space for fandoms beyond your comprehension, science beyond your understanding, and human experiences that exceed your own lifetime.
We want to know it all, or at least some of all of it. That’s why, when we find a new avenue of learning that combines thoughtful insight with humor and unique storytelling, we’re all in. And my friend, have I got something new for you.
There seems to be renewed interest in mysticism in America. Hell, I heard an ad on the radio for the Psychic Network last week, perhaps for the first time in thirty years. We seem to be, collectively, looking beyond ourselves to make sense of the world around us. It is with that in mind that ETCH Productions and Anarchists United have joined forces with Australian comedienne Cassie Workman to bring us “Cassie Workman is Witchy AF,” an adult comedy series premiering weekly on YouTube.
Shot in an occult bookstore in Asbury Park, New Jersey, as well as its adjoining bar, Georgie’s, Cassie tells us each week about a different, fascinating aspect of mysticism along with her co-host, King Grimskwawk. “My manager Lawrence said ‘You know what we need, Cassie, is a puppet co-host.’ I had some time when I was at the Comedy Cellar in New York; they have these tables upstairs where you wait before you go on. They’re sort of blackboard tables and they give you chalk and you can just doodle, so I doodled this little guy who was like a raven with baby arms and a crown, and that was the very first drawing of King Grimskwawk. I took a photo of that and we made a puppet of him.”
A show with this sort of format doesn’t work if your host is either unlikeable or unknowledgeable. Luckily for us, Cassie is neither of those things. Originally hailing from Perth, Australia, Cassie has cut her teeth with award-winning comedy and one-woman shows, so she’s funny and naturally attuned to public speaking. Furthermore, the show is well-researched and she actually has an interest in the subject matter; she’s not just a show pony. “For probably 25 years, I’ve been practicing Western Esoteric ritual and Qabalistic ritual.”
Combining Workman’s research and humor with puppetry from Direct Message, practical SFX makeup from Monster in My Closet, and a blistering opening track from Ostraca, “Cassie Workman is Witchy AF” manages to be both informative and entertaining. Think “Beakman’s World” or Alton Brown’s “Good Eats” if they opened every episode with “Hail Satan!” Profiling notable mystic figures like Anton LaVey, Aleister Crowley, and Vlad Tepes (aka Vlad the Impaler), as well as interviewing demons in her upstairs apartment, Cassie bounces around the set and nearby bar to deliver her insight directly to the viewer. She frequently draws parallels from her history lessons to conditions in the present day, explaining “In a sense, there is no past; it’s all the same thing again and again, right? To me, whenever you’re talking about history, you’re talking about the present. That’s the important thing about history, right, is that it’s human beings screwing each other over for hundreds of years, and you can learn so much from that because we’re still doing it.”
I also took the opportunity during our interview to ask Cassie for some advice on the Ouija Board I’d found in the back of the closet in the house I purchased four years ago. To her credit, she was very understanding of my fears and put me at ease, despite the fact that in Episode Three she says, repeatedly, “Do not use a Ouija Board. Seriously, if you take nothing else from this series, take this: Do not use a Ouija Board.”
“Cassie Workman is Witchy AF” is free to view right now on YouTube, with eight episodes in its first season, four of which have already aired. If you like all things witchy, demonic, or just plain weird, you’ll love Cassie Workman’s explorations of this often secretive corner of our boundless world.
Cassie has since moved back to Australia, but admits “I miss the States. I love the States. I really, really deeply love the United States.” Maybe, just maybe, that means we can get her back here to shoot a second season of this delightfully unconventional show.
So, what are your thoughts on “Cassie Workman is Witchy AF?” Have you seen it, would you like to see it, or is all that “Hail Satan” stuff just a bridge too far? Sound off in the comments below and, as always, check back here at Nerd Initiative for all of your film, comics, streaming, and gaming news.
