About this episode

Corey Ryan Forrester discusses balancing his stand-up career with parenting and the emotional challenges that come with it.

On this episode of Parenting Is a Joke, Corey Ryan Forrester talks about recalibrating a 22-year stand-up career around raising his almost three-year-old son, after years of touring 45 weeks a year led to panic attacks, canceled shows, and a long-overdue start in therapy before becoming a parent. He explains how COVID-era podcasting, Substack writing, and an unexpected book deal from HarperCollins created a financial cushion that let him stay home for his son’s first year, and why he still resists returning to full-time road work despite loving stand-up, calling live shows “the result of the work” and travel the real cost. The conversation moves through the physical and emotional crash that follows weekends on stage, the strange relief of having a kid who will lie beside him for hours watching all four Toy Story films in a row when he’s depleted, and the way parenting heightens everything from crying at commercials to worrying about how your choices look to other parents. Forrester also reflects on being raised by a deeply private father who never showed emotion—yet shaped his values around loyalty and caring for family—and shares how that legacy now shows up in small, repeated…

People in this episode

Host: Ophira Eisenberg

Guest: Corey Ryan Forrester

Topics covered

• parenting
• stand-up comedy
• mental health
• family dynamics
• creative work
• COVID-19 impact

Keywords

• parenting
• stand-up comedy
• mental health
• COVID-19
• family
• emotional well-being
• creative work
• Toy Story

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: HarperCollins

Books & works: Toy Story, Tim Wilson CD

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