Bernhard Egger – Heidenreichsteiner will soon appear on ORF with “On the Red Chair”.

The chair was a gift. Years ago, when Bernhard Egger was searching for a name and setting for his YouTube format, the gift turned out to be a stroke of luck. Red, eye-catching, and reasonably comfortable – as far as one can judge from a distance. She was born “in the red chair.”

The format is easy to explain: guests from the cultural scene sit with the Heidenreichstein citizen and talk about themselves. He turns on the camera, cuts the material, stitches it together into a video and uploads it to YouTube. The channel currently has 47,200 subscribers, the conversation with German cabaret artist Monika Gruber has been viewed more than 725,000 times, and his videos have already been viewed more than 13 million times.

For Bernhard Egger, who now lives in Vienna after professional and private years in Germany, the next step with the “Red Chair” will come soon: as of February 15, he will have a weekly fixed spot on “Thursday Night” on ORF3.

First online, then theater, and now television

“This collaboration is a big boost,” says Iger. He has had ORF3 as a long-time partner, and aired a live show there in 2023. This year there will be two more, as “On the Red Chair” was also released in stages in 2018. “It was a great move to see what What YouTube numbers actually mean.”

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Bernhard Egger

Heidenreichsteiner will soon appear on ORF with “On the Red Chair.”.

Interview format with Bernhard Egger, who was born in Heidenreichstein, gets a permanent place in ORF3. What does it mean to him and which celebrities would he like to have as his guests.

Hirschbach's Cultural Workshop gave him the opportunity to perform, thinking it would also work live. Today Hirschbach is his living room in the Waldviertel. Iger will put his red chair there on March 9th and Hans Krankl will be a guest. After that there will be a joint concert with Monty Peyton's band Krankle. Live performances include music, and as drummer, Iger himself still plays in several lineups.

He is currently touring with Katharina Strasser and the band. On April 6th he will come to the Eagle and Weidhoven in this constellation. “I've always been fascinated by the drums, and playing the blues is what got me into music,” he recalls. Meaning: After graduating from a business academy and seven years as a bank employee, you quit your job and focus on music. “Today I say to myself: That was really brave.”

Genuine interest as a basis for discussion

When Bernhard Egger – who taught himself to play the drums – began to see music as his main profession, he was active in several bands. “He got to know a lot of professional colleagues and talked to them about their activities. At some point a friend said it should be recorded, and YouTube also appealed to me,” says Egger.

Norbert Schneider and Axel Zwenberger were the first to arrive, and have since interviewed about 170 guests. At first he had to get used to being in front of the camera, but today it has become very routine. Egger uploads between 10 and 15 videos a year; Regularity is difficult simply because of scheduling. Sometimes, those interested people reach out on their own — but for Iger, the key is that he himself likes his guest: “If the other person feels that genuine interest, nothing can go wrong.”

Initially on ORF3, he will start with five classics from his YouTube channel, which will continue to exist. Who else would like to be a guest? On the one hand, “Otto Falks or Helge Schneider, childhood heroes.” On the other hand, certainly Thomas Muster. By the way, the red chair always remained original as a gift.