Amber Bixby: Anxiety Be Damned

When catch­ing an Amber Bix­by set at Spi­der­house and she gave a peek into her expe­ri­ences with anx­i­ety and depres­sion, I rec­og­nized a bit of every­one in her words. Or I saw a lot of me and I’m pro­ject­ing, but I digress. Like some of my favorite come­di­ans, she isn’t afraid to cut her pri­va­cy almost down to the bone to give a look into how she deals with the world. 

In Part one of her inter­view, we take a look at a past that we won’t quite call tur­bu­lent. Bix­by shares with Valerie Lopez how her dreams of stage star­dom were born, and the cir­cuitous route that land­ed her on the fair con­crete shores of Austin.

Amber Bix­by: The Past

The begin­nings of a com­e­dy career are rarely easy. We learn how a low point (or two or three) in Amber Bixby’s life inspired her to take on the chal­lenge of a stand up com­e­dy career. As a sin­gle par­ent, I know that time and child make for an inter­est­ing bal­anc­ing act with a pro­fes­sion that is unique­ly dif­fi­cult to sched­ule. Amber gives us a glimpse into how she jug­gles pri­or­i­ties in pas­sions and par­ent­ing. We also get some great tips on get­ting out of the house, and how to get peo­ple to have fun in detention.

Amber Bix­by: Current

When she’s not on stage (or in the gym), Amber Bix­by has a pro­lif­ic video career, like the web series Pret­ty Awful , the short film Opciono Dos (picked up by the Texas Inde­pen­dent Film Fes­ti­val), and the instruc­tion­al par­ent­ing doc­u­men­tary Flour Baby*. In part two of her inter­view, she also cov­ers how a past encounter led to open­ing for some­one amaz­ing — an oppor­tu­ni­ty that meant the world to her.

Look­ing for more of Amber Bix­by? In addi­tion to her spe­cial appear­ances, you can fre­quent­ly catch her at Sure Thing, and the show she hosts Wednes­days @ 7:30 at Austin Java, Deten­tion (See? I told you it was fun).