A Casual Conversation With LA-Based, New York Bred Comedian, Writer, & Constantly Evolving Human Rebecca Rush

October 16, 2020

Rebecca Rush was on a speaker’s panel at a virtual event for Lyfebulb, an organization based in NYC whose mission is to reduce the burden of chronic disease through the power of the patient. Finding this virtual event on Instagram, I attended it this past summer and that’s how I met Rebecca. By “met” her, I mean I stalked her after the virtual event ended within minutes in all of the usual social media places. (Want to read about it? The link to that event review is here)

What do you look for in new friendships?

One of the qualities I look for in a new friend is their hula hoop skills. I have none, so I need to know if we get stuck on a game night together or some weird rehab camp with creative “sports” activities, one of us will be able to take one for the team. (I swear I have other skills I can bring to the table Rebecca LOL)

Rebecca’s Street Cred

Rebecca Rush is an LA-based, NY-bred comedian, writer, and constantly evolving human. She hosts a podcast called Comic’s Book Club and a monthly theme show called Vulnerability. She has been featured on Viceland and Funny or Die. Notable podcast appearances include YKWD, Race Wars, The Dork Forest, PepTalks, and Cumia. Her writing has appeared in numerous publications including Fodor’s Travel, Miami New Times, The Dyrt, and The Temper. She is a regular contributor to The Fix.

Rebecca’s Style

In one word Rebecca describes her comedy style as; irreverent. Yeah, that’s when I knew we were going to be friends. When our zoom call started one Friday afternoon in August 2020 and I saw her easter egg purple painted on an accent wall in her backdrop, the friend deal was sealed. I had the exact same color wall in one of my previous homes. Sober kindred spirits give me all the feels.

After the loosely formal introductory questions and pleasantries passed, we just started chatting along like two friends that were catching up after years apart, picking right back up where we left off. I got the rundown on the events that lead up to her current sobriety and gave a brief introduction of my own story and what I was trying to build with The Sober Curator.

While I am just getting comfortable referring to myself as a writer, I am not yet comfortable considering myself a journalist, which makes interview questions challenging for me. To make it easy on myself. (cue the chant in my head: “Easy does it. First things first”) I simply decided to ask her questions I would ask if we were meeting at a party, a coffee shop, or possibly outside of a church basement.

Q&A with Sober Comedian and Writer Rebecca Rush

AB: What is your favorite alcohol-free beverage when you want to treat yourself?

RR: lavender small-batch kombucha from Whole Foods and Purple Monsters 

AB: Favorite Quit-Lit Book?

RR: Sober Stick Figure a memoir by Amber Tozer

AB: Who are your comedian role models?

AB: How did you get your start?

RR: Twitter is where I got my start and things just quickly escalated from there.

AB: How do you celebrate your sobriety birthday?

(This is when Rebecca’s face lit up with pure joy)

RR: My sponsor hosted a watch party on the eve of my one-year sober birthday. We had my favorite cupcakes from Sprinkles. My sponsor gave me a medallion and an amethyst necklace. Amethyst is the spiritual stone for Hollywood Rebecca joked. My grand sponsor was there. My great grand sponsor was there. It was the most love I ever felt. I spent most of my life not knowing how to let people love me.  

As Rebecca talked, to me it sounded like the perfect pink cloud 1st year of sobriety birthday celebration with added sprinkles and accessories. That’s one of the cool things about meeting other women in sobriety, most commonly in 12 step rooms. We just help each other. No questions asked. We just show up whenever and wherever we are needed.

Comic’s Book Club

Rebecca’s podcast Comic’s Book Club is a podcast for comics, authors, and comedians who are authors and they talk about books. What’s the 411 on this podcast? She reads each guest’s favorite book before they come on and then they basically shoot the shit for around an hour.

Rebecca does this so you can listen to her podcast, get the jest of the book that is being featured, and not have to spend the time reading it yourself. Genius! She’s like the sober comic cliff notes for dummies.

Recently, one of the podcasts that I really enjoyed listening to was A Very Vanilla Kidnapping W/ Molly Sanchez Join Molly Sanchez & Rebecca as they revisit a book that scared Molly so much as a child she thought about it once a month for the rest of her life, Sweet Valley High Book 13.

Another podcast I enjoyed by Rebecca was I Have Peed in Bowls W/ Sara Benincasa. Author and comedian Sara Benincasa come on with Rebecca via Skype to discuss her first book, Agorafabulous: Dispatches From My Bedroom.

Given the fact I have been in quarantine since March 2020, I found this topic very entertaining and maybe even hitting a little too close to home. Enough so that I promptly #addtocart and Amazon Prime had it to me in two days. (Book review coming on that later, because I love to read.)

How to properly stalk Rebecca

Rebecca can be found on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. She’s a cool ass chick and I’m happy to call her a newly sober friend. Stay tuned for future collaborations we will be doing with her here on The Sober Curator.

Resources are available

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