“Zander is a master at identifying the essential weirdness of the human experience. She takes things we as a society don’t like to talk about, or only talk about in whispers – in this case, things like placentas, breast pumps, and the fact that new motherhood isn’t all flowers and unicorns – and amplifies them to the most outrageous extreme you can imagine. She’s a clown, so it’s funny, but it also has the effect of making you feel not alone in your own essential weirdness. We’re all weird. Weird is actually quite normal.”
—BroadwayWorld
“Zander is a master of physical comedy... at the same time as she's completely ridiculous, [she] is also completely vulnerable.”
—BroadwayWorld
"...Zander has eyes that pierce and the ability to register an overwhelming number of emotions at once..."
— Exuent Magazine
"Anne Zander... brilliantly portrayed the struggle between levity and darkness... particularly powerfully done, and very moving."
— Backstage Pass
"… Zander is manic, but brings a fantastic energy to the stage in everything she does."
— View from the Gods
Anne Zander (she/her/hers) is a queer, neurodivergent mother, actor, clown, and solo-character creator with an MA in physical, devised theatre (Theatre Lab) from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. She studied clowning there and beyond with her award-winning teacher, Peta Lily.
Her “painfully funny” debut solo show — JUICEBOX — took Portland by storm in 2019 and was Official Selection 2020 at Chicago Sketchfest, Dallas Comedy Festival and HBO’s Women in Comedy Festival (Boston).
The pandemic brought forth the digital works Do A Character and her longer, (in)fertility-themed Fertile Ground show, Prolific, along with multiple guest spots on Ron Lynch’s IG Live, comedy-variety Tomorrow! Show (LA).
Zander’s “raw and primal and side-splittingly funny” sophomore solo show, Anne Zander is MOTHER, shot out of her just one year after her twins. Called “poignant,” “sexy,” “genius,” and “hysterical” by audiences from New York to LA and Denver to Vegas, this outrageous, wet and messy postpartum comedy is darkly hilarious, yet undeniably familiar to anyone who has ever given birth.
This improviser-turned-clown performs regularly at comedy venues across Portland and is also the real-life mother to 3-year old twins, who made multiple stage appearances in utero but have yet to bring their own clown antics to the greater public.