PRIVATE SESSIONS

Lynn Hoffman has been breaking ground in the interviewing category of television with her show private sessions which runs on the A&E network.  The show premiered on July 22, 2007 which featured singer Avril Lavigne.  Since that beginning Hoffman has had guests from all genres of music as well as actors.  Some guests such as Vanessa Williams are able to show that they are not just a pretty face with a voice.  Vanessa in particular showed immense intelligence, an articulate way of telling a story and gave this writer a new perspective on the artist.  Hoffman at times reveals her personal enthusiasm for her guests.  This flows out to the audience that peaks your attention quickly.  Her biggest negative is often finishing sentences of her guests or interjecting a few words while the interviewee is in mid-sentence.  It was the downfall of Sharon Osborne’s short lived talk show and the reason Ellen DeGeneres exploded into the talk show realm with immense success.  As the seasons go on though, Lynn has been able to move away from this kind of interviewing and build a more appealing style of questioning without losing her delight for the guests.

Some of the stars she has interviewed were: Ringo Starr, Jon Bon Jovi & Richie Sambora, Maroon 5, Duran Duran, Mary J Blige, Barenaked Ladies, Seal, James Blunt, Ann & Nancy Wilson, Blues Traveler, Toby Keith, Goo Goo Dolls (from my hometown), Queen Latifah, Pat Benatar & Neil Giraldo.  Hoffman has interviewed actors such as: Michael Douglas, John Cusack, Anthony Hopkins and Kevin Bacon who played a few songs with his brother Michael.  The bacon brothers in my eyes really rocked the set with the titles they chose to play from their five album discography.

Looking forward to the interview and performance of Rob Halford and Meat Loaf, I found myself disappointed that they chose not to perform live on the set and the audience had to be subjected to a previously taped live show.  Hopefully, there was a good reason and they will come back and perform a short set and put the studio on fire.

Lynn is an avid tweeter on Twitter so hook up with her to get the latest information on upcoming shows.  She has at time tweeted while a guest was performing just to give us a scoop on what amazing things are being recorded.  Lynn Hoffman and Private Sessions have replaced my Sunday morning paper.