Light Hustler: Making Your Mess Into Your Message

Arlina Allen is many things. A Silicon Valley executive, she is also a writer, the host of The ODAAT Chat podcast and the founder of Sober Life School. Sober since 1994, she's been married for 21 years and is the mother of two teenage boys.   In her own words...   "When I was 25 I hit rock bottom.   I had managed to alienate my family and all my friends. Although I was ambitious, my drinking and using was getting the way of my sales career. My heart was broken after ending a relationship and I had no evidence that I would ever feel different.   I stood at the abyss and I had to make a decision.   Through a series of fortunate events, I managed to find a community of people who had overcome their addictions and were willing to help me do the same.   These people changed the entire trajectory of my life.   I started out feeling lost, full of self loathing, demoralized and hopeless. But after a short time, my life began to transform. I felt a new zest for life. I began to see life beyond addiction.

Anna David is a NY Times bestselling author, journalist, occasional TV talking head, coach, creator of this podcast, CEO of Light Hustle Publishing and the person typing these words.   This story involves the time she opted to respond to a missive from a stranger that read "I'm hot and you're hot; plus, I'm sober and you're sober."   But was he sober? Well, that's something she found out more about when he moved from LA to New York to be with her. Just how did this love story end? You're going to have to listen to find out.

Bucky Sinister s a stand-up comedian and author of nine books, including Black Hole: A Novel and Get Up: A 12-Step Guide to Recovery for Misfits, Freaks and Weirdos.   He's told many stories at numerous shows—including one where he brought a now-deceased friend (in an urn) up on stage with him—but it's safe to say this is the most graphic tale he's told at a Light Hustler show.   Just how does a story about dating a mysterious woman with a mohawk get graphic? Let's just say it has to do with a tattoo of hers he discovered in an intimate moment.   Want to know what in God's name that means? You're going to have to listen.

Lauren Wallet is an award-nominated actress and director who starred on the South African reality show My Top Billing Dream, has been interviewed on national television since she was nine years old, and ran Star Quality Performing Art School and Fame Academy in South Africa.   The story she told starts off innocently enough—a nice night out in South Africa with a few new friends but quickly devolved into flying across the world for a romantic adventure with a guy she met in a blackout.  

Matt Lieb is a comedian, writer, and actor from Los Angeles. As a stand up comedian in San Francisco, he was named one of the “2016 Best Comedians in the Bay Area” by SFist and has performed at the Bridgetown Comedy Festival 2017, SF Skecthfest 2013-2017, and the 10,000 Laughs Festival in Minneapolis.   Matt’s comedy has been featured on the VICELAND, Hulu, SeeSo, and Gabriel Iglesias’ “Stand Up Revolution Radio” on SiriusXM. Currently, Matt is a correspondent on Emmy Nominated short form series The Star Wars Show, a writer/performer on Newsbroke on AJ+, and staff writer for Audible’s original series Bedtime Stories for Cynics with Nick Offerman, where he has written for David Spade, Tommy Chong, Nick Thune, and more.   In this story, he talked about an attempt to get clean from heroin which ended with a realization that he could get high one last time, in his childhood bedroom, if he was willing to use a turkey baster to inject drugs into a place that sun doesn't shine.   Yep, that place.  

Matt Gallagher is an actor and comedian who has performed all around New York and Los Angeles. His work can also be seen on CBS, ESPN, The History Channel, and MTV. He created and starred in the popular live storytelling series THE STORY CELLAR with Jessica Wood, and you can see his first one hour special, A Stumble in the Woods, on Amazon now.   In this story, Matt delves into a night he decided to try acid. And then decided to do more acid. And then decided to get into a cage with a bull. Yep. It's all true. Listen and you'll find out.   If you want to find out what happened, you have to listen.   SHOULD YOU BE SHARING YOUR STORY? CLICK HERE TO FIND OUT!

Anna David isn't just the person writing these words. She's also the NY Times bestselling author of seven books, TV talking head, journalist and blah blah.   In this episode (taken from the Light Hustler live storytelling show), she/I tells/tell a story about an early sobriety "date" with a movie star, who taught her/me that the glamorous life may not be all it's cracked up to be.

Kane Holloway is a Seattle native who resides in sunny L.A. Kane is a nationally touring comedian, podcast host and he has performed on "Laughs on Fox." He has appeared on VH1's "Walk of Shame Shuttle," "FNX Comedy Experience" and started the Podaholics comedy network. You can hear his comedy album "See What I Did There?" On iTunes.   In this episode, he talks about a night he and his friend stole his dad's car but also delves into a potential answer to the age-old question: what happened when you see your friend wearing his pants as a shirt?

A native of West Texas, Debi Hall has appeared on film and performed in Dallas as well as in Story Salon, BackStory, I Love A Good Story in Los Angeles. She’s written story collections for performance, a collection of screenplays and several novels.   In this episode, she tells a story about the surprising way she found to handle a low point in her sobriety.

Eddie Pepitone has appeared on numerous hit TV shows, including It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Sarah Silverman, Jimmy Kimmel, Last Comic Standing, Chappelle’s Show and Law and Order. He’s performed at some of the biggest venues in the comedy scene including The Improv, Caroline’s on Broadway, Largo at the Coronet, and both the LA and NY Upright Citizens Brigade Theaters. He hosts the popular comedy podcast Pep Talks and is the subject of The Bitter Buddha. In this episode, he touches on adult coloring books and a number of other non-sequiturs but ultimately zeroes in on his favorite topic: the fact that we're living in the end of times. If you want to hear him speculating on the sort of shares people might have in meetings when they've had to fight for their lives to arrive there (and you do), you have to hear this one.

Melanie Vessey co-starred with Jim Carrey in Man on the Moon and performs all over at major comedy clubs and festivals. Her comedy special/album #WildAnimal will be available in November.   She is also a fierce talent who has been sober over two decades—a fact she shares about in ways that may make you pee your pants. To hear her story about long-term recovery, which includes performing for naked Trump supporters, download this episode ASAP.

Anna David is, well, someone who writes about herself in the 3rd person out of the misconception that you will believe someone else is writing this. She writes books and articles, talks on TV and stages and tells stories about things like relapsing on 4.5 hits of ecstasy, which you can hear here...

Kristin Casey is a recovered alcoholic and addict who’s survived clinical depression, numerous addictions, the panhandle of Texas and 17 years of Catholicism. Her first book, Rock Monster, documents a tumultuous six-year relationship with rock legend and Eagles guitarist Joe Walsh, their drug-fueled train-wreck breakup and her ensuing suicidal spiral. Unlike every other affair-with-a-rock-star book I’ve ever read, however, it is as literary and poignant as it is salacious and gripping. In addition to writing for The Foliate Oak Literary Magazine, The Nervous Breakdown, From The Asylum, $pread, and elsewhere, Kristin works in the field of sex therapy as an intimacy coach and IPSA trained Surrogate Partner Intern. In this episode, we talked about letting go of resentments before writing a book, what exactly an intimacy coach is, why the writers who succeed are the ones who keep going in the face of rejection and who, really, was the monster in her story, among many other topics.

Annie Grace is the bestselling author of the hit book, This Naked Mind: Control Alcohol, Find Freedom, Discover Happiness & Change Your Life as well as the just-released The Alcohol Experiment: A 30-Day, Alcohol-Free Challenge to Interrupt Your Habits and Help You Take Control. Her unique approach has helped thousands of people change their relationship with alcohol by looking at their subconscious beliefs about drinking that are at odds with their conscious desire to live alcohol free. In this episode, we discussed how her book became successful, what sobriety really means and what it all has to do with a famed back doctor, among many other topics.

Amy Dresner is a former professional stand-up comic, having appeared at The Comedy Store, The Laugh Factory, and The Improv. Since 2012, she has been a contributing editor of the online addiction and recovery magazine TheFix.com. She’s also written for the Good Men Project, The Frisky, Refinery 29, and has been a regular contributor to Addiction.com and PsychologyToday.com, where she has her own addiction blog entitled “Coming Clean.” Her first book, My Fair Junkie, was released in 2017 and is now available in paperback. In this episode (from the Light Hustler live storytelling show in LA), Amy tells a very funny story about how she met a woman at an AA meeting who made her think she was gay. Spoiler alert: she’s not. How did she realize that? You’re going to have to listen to find out.

Once upon a time, I wrote a book called Party Girl. I was very proud of it and had high hopes it would be made into an audio book and movie. Alas, those dreams were dashed. But just like the proverbial phoenix rising from the ashes, the dreams are now alive! It’s actually not nearly that dramatic. But there is renewed movie interest in the book (optioned by Martin Scorsese’s producer!) and I decided to make my own dream happen by getting the audio rights to the book back from HarperCollins and recording and releasing it on Audible myself. And now! I’m giving the first bit of it exclusively to you guys in this episode. I do hope you like it. And then I hope you’ll go pick up a copy of the audio book. If you’re not an Audible subscriber, it’s free!

Today’s episode features the very funny Jessica Sele from one of my live  storytelling shows. In her own words, Jessica Sele is a “deeply weird human being and stand-up comedian.” She’s performed at the Bridgetown Comedy Festival and SF Sketchfest and was described by Bitch Magazine as a “hilarious and talented queer woman.” The story she tells has to do with a fire, a crack addict just trying to be helpful and a very special cat. How do these things tie together, you ask? Well, you’ll have to listen to find out.

Matt Gallagher is an actor and comedian who has performed all around New York and Los Angeles.  His work can also be seen on CBS, ESPN, The History Channel, and MTV. He created and starred in the popular live storytelling series THE STORY CELLAR with Jessica Wood, and has just completed filming on his first one hour special, A Stumble in the Woods, which will be available for streaming soon. While this episode is from his first time appearing in my storytelling show, it certainly won't be his last. In it, he tells a seriously disturbing and yet unabashedly hilarious tale about getting deep into hard drugs. Warning: it is a bit graphic so if you're new to sobriety, this may not be for you. If you're not in danger of getting triggered, however, be prepared to laugh your ass off.

Dana Bowman speaks and writes about recovery, momhood and beating the perfection myth. An English teacher for over 20 years, she decided to take up a writing at momsieblog.com while mothering two babies. A chance submission to Glennon Doyle watched her blog go viral and she promptly landed a book deal. Her first book, Bottled, was selected as a Kansas Notable book in 2016. Her second book, How to Be Perfect Like Me, was released in August 2018 and landed her on The Today Show. In this episode, we discuss imposter syndrome, directional dyslexia and being a recovering perfectionist, among many other topics.

Kristin Casey is a recovered alcoholic and addict who's survived clinical depression, numerous addictions, the panhandle of Texas and 17 years of Catholicism. Her first book, Rock Monster, documents a tumultuous six-year relationship with rock legend and Eagles guitarist Joe Walsh, their drug-fueled train-wreck breakup and her ensuing suicidal spiral. Unlike every other affair-with-a-rock-star book I've ever read, however, it is as literary and poignant as it is salacious and gripping. In addition to writing for The Foliate Oak Literary Magazine, The Nervous Breakdown, From The Asylum, $pread, and elsewhere, Kristin works in the field of sex therapy as an intimacy coach and IPSA trained Surrogate Partner Intern. In this episode, we talked about letting go of resentments before writing a book, what exactly an intimacy coach is, why the writers who succeed are the ones who keep going in the face of rejection and who, really, was the monster in her story, among many other topics.