From Stage to Page: Anthony Salame’s Comedy and Kids Book Journey

Key Takeaways:

• Anthony Salame has successfully merged his love for comedy with his deep-rooted faith, creating content that is both entertaining and enriching.
• His children's books aim to simplify and communicate complex values in an accessible way for young minds.
• Comedians often face mental health challenges, and Anthony emphasizes the importance of a strong faith foundation to navigate these struggles.
• The discussion underscores the powerful role of humor in enhancing well-being and encouraging interpersonal connections.

Notable Quotes:

1. "When you're speaking to people purely just to make them laugh and bring them joy, it's very rewarding."
2. "The joy I received from hearing parents... that is more rewarding than anything."
3. "If we're trying every single day just to get a little bit better, we can all kind of pat ourselves on the back."
4. "God doesn't leave us. Never, not for a second."
5. "My command is this: to love one another as I've loved you."

Resources:

• Anthony Salame on Instagram
• Anthony's children's books available on Amazon
• His publishing company - jcbook.co

Join us for more enriching discussions in the upcoming episodes of "Finding Sanctuary," as we continue to explore the transformative power of faith and humor. Listen to the full episode to delve deeper into Anthony Salame's inspiring journey and be sure not to miss future episodes filled with valuable insights and uplifting stories.

For more information on the Hills Sanctuary House visit our website https://hshl.org.au/
You and your mental health is important to us.
Please visit https://hshl.org.au/wp/help-resources/ for help and resources

Do subscribe to this podcast to get the latest episodes of Finding Sanctuary.

Follow us on
Facebook - Christ the Redeemer Maronite Catholic Parish of The Hills
Instagram - @hills_sanctuary_house
Blog - https://hshl.org.au/blog/

Transcript

0:00:00 - (Anthony Salame): Foreign.

0:00:04 - (Debbie Draybi): Welcome to Finding Sanctuary. Our shared conversations into how we think and feel and how we find peace and comfort in daily life. We get together with experts to chat about all things mental health, getting insights and understanding on the struggles of life. Welcome back, everyone to our very first episode of Finding Sanctuary. We're so excited to be here for yet another season. I hope you've all had a wonderful break and some lovely celebrations over Christmas and the silly season and the holidays.

0:00:39 - (Debbie Draybi): And today we wanted to start. We're very excited. We've got a jam packed filled episode with you and we've got a special guest, Anthony Salemi. And we thought it's very fitting as we're talking about coming into a new year to talk to Anthony about his experiences of bringing people together in his incredible craft as a comedian, also an author and actor. So welcome Anthony. Of course, we've got Monsignor here with me, co hosting. So we're very excited to have you join us.

0:01:06 - (Anthony Salame): And I'm very excited to be here. Thank you for having me.

0:01:08 - (Debbie Draybi): Let's just say you're gonna set the bar very high. No pressure.

0:01:12 - (Anthony Salame): Wow. Okay. I'll try and do my best.

0:01:14 - (Debbie Draybi): You're kicking off our season and for us, I know we talked in the start, in our introduction to each other around we started this podcast about building connections and community and, you know, watching the work, the incredible work you do, not just as a comedian, but also as an author in your recent publishing. We can see you bring people together and I just wondered whether you just wanted to share with us your experiences around that and how you've come to do the work that you do and what motivates you to do it.

0:01:44 - (Anthony Salame): Well, thank you for those nice words. I truly appreciate it. You know, as a comedian, I guess people do come together to laugh. It's a very rewarding job. It is. There's not many jobs, even music artists is very different because when you're speaking to people purely just to make them laugh and bring them joy, I feel a little bit guilty sometimes when I'm on stage or when I get off stage because I get such a great feeling from doing it as well. So I'm very lucky. I thank God every day that I have the opportunities to do these things.

0:02:17 - (Anthony Salame): And the books is kind of like a passion project that I've started in the last few years. I wanted to write one. I've ended up writing three and more to come, God willing. And that is a totally different thing because I'm reading these books for kids and I'm Writing them for kids, that's a totally different thing altogether. And can I say, probably more rewarding than the comedy. Especially when I go to school and I interact with children and just seeing their faces light up and the questions that they ask, it really opened my eyes and opened my mind to.

0:02:49 - (Anthony Salame): My son's only 18 months old, so he's just learning to talk. But when I'm speaking to kindergarten kids in grade one kids, you know, my books are faith based books and, you know, kids are saying things to me like, I went to one school and a student, it was like a Q and A. And a student just put his hand up and he goes, I don't have a question. I just wish I could take all of Jesus's pain away. I was speechless. I'm like, there's adults that have practiced their faith their whole life and probably wouldn't say something as profound and as beautiful as that, you know, so different types of audience are children for sure, but definitely the most rewarding.

0:03:24 - (Debbie Draybi): Well, just as you're talking, I can see, you know, the level of passion that you have. You, I mean, you're lighting up, just talking about the experience and sharing some of the stories of these kids and how profound it's been for you.

0:03:36 - (Anthony Salame): It has, it's been beautiful. And I never saw it going in this direction. I wrote the first book, it was like an ABC book. It wasn't on purpose that it was a faith based book. I just, for many years I'd always wanted to write a children's book and I didn't know what it would be about. I just had that fascination of I'd love to write a children's book, probably because, you know, I failed high school and kids are probably the only ones that can understand what I'm writing.

0:04:02 - (Anthony Salame): But I remember writing in my phone just a bunch of notes of different words representing the Alphabet, like thinking, maybe I'll do an ABC book. And the different words I was writing, representing the letters were all things like family and love and kindness. I mean, soon enough I realized that all these words that I've been writing, these are things that I'd love to teach my kids one day. These are all things that I learned from growing up in the Christian and the Catholic faith.

0:04:30 - (Anthony Salame): So I thought, why don't I just do a faith based children's book? And it's funny, like us humans, the first thing I thought was, it's probably not gonna sell as many copies. You know, that's just how our mind works, right? But I looked past that and Just said, no, no. This is something I'm really passionate about. And the joy that I received from hearing parents. Like, for example, the first book, J is for Jesus. There's a Bible verse, a reference to a Bible verse on every page representing that letter. And parents would come up to me and say, our kids would read this book and then come up to us and say, mum, can you get the Bible and tell us what this verse is? And that is more rewarding than anything.

0:05:07 - (Anthony Salame): I mean, I never thought these books would make such an impact, but it's been a beautiful process. It really has.

0:05:16 - (Debbie Draybi): Monsignor, what's going through your mind as you're listening to Anthony's reflection?

0:05:20 - (Anthony Salame): It's good to see you, Monsignor.

0:05:21 - (Monsignor Shora): Yeah, good to see. Well, partly the memories are coming back because I knew Anthony's family back in Adelaide, my first parish, and I was just there recently and had three days there. So it brought back a lot of memories. Yeah. And to see where you flourished from those times. The youngest of three, and then now. Yeah. Doing this, it's wonderful. And being a husband and a dad yourself, it's wonderful. And I can't wait to read the books. And then on the other side, your comedy. To see you go into comedy.

0:05:52 - (Monsignor Shora): Yeah. To break out into that area is. Yeah. Something I've admired about you, you know.

0:05:57 - (Anthony Salame): Thank you, Watson. You're an early inspiration for me. I remember your jokes during Mass. You know, you always say one joke. I would wait. I would wait for the joke, you know? Cause let's be honest, as kids, you know, church maybe is not the most fun place for kids. And they. Maybe they don't grasp and they don't really get how important and how beautiful the Holy Mass is sometimes. So I remember I used to just wait for Monsignor to say that joke. And can I just say, I pray that every person gets to experience a priest at their church like Monsignor Shore. So God bless you, and God bless your amazing talents and your personality and the way you communicate with your parishioners and with people. It's. You're truly a special man.

0:06:56 - (Monsignor Shora): Thank you very much. I really. Very humbled by that. I think we'll cut this out.

0:07:02 - (Debbie Draybi): No editing, please. And I think about. You know, it sounds like, Monsignor, you really inspired Anthony's journey as a comedian, combining faith with comedy.

0:07:13 - (Monsignor Shora): Yeah, it's amazing how it's come around like that.

0:07:17 - (Anthony Salame): Yeah.

0:07:17 - (Monsignor Shora): Because I used to tell a joke to make them stay in church too, as well. I'd tell the joke at the end, so it meant they would stay right till the end of Mass. They're not going to sneak out halfway or after communion. They're going to wait because they want to hear what the story's going to be, the joke's going to be. Yeah. So it was a little bit of a way to keep them in. And then here it is. It's. It's inspired.

0:07:38 - (Monsignor Shora): Anthony.

0:07:39 - (Anthony Salame): Yeah, to be totally honest, you know, my comedy was maybe not always above the belt, so to speak. Obviously, as I started when I was, you know, 19, 20 years old, around that. So obviously I was still in a young, immature state of mind, as most people are at that age. And. But my comedy has evolved and, you know, I do work clean now, and I'm very proud of that. I wish that I was always like that. But, you know, I think we all have our journeys in life and that's a part of growing as a human as well as a comedian.

0:08:13 - (Debbie Draybi): So I know we talked about that when we had our introduction around that evolution, and it's been part of our conversation here on the show around thinking about for young people who are testing something new and they're not quite there yet, they're not getting it right, and perhaps they're doing things and saying things that they're not very proud of, but being able to sit with that and to learn and, you know, I think you've been a great inspiration in how you have evolved and to reflect on that, you know, thinking about for our listeners, for some young people who are just starting out, it doesn't have to be in comedy, but in any industry, thinking about, you know, what are some of your things that kept you going. And, you know, I'm sure it wasn't easy at the beginning.

0:08:52 - (Anthony Salame): No, definitely not. I started comedy in a time where social media wasn't around. There was no YouTube, you know, we're talking early 2000s, so it was a lot harder. You really had to just rely on your craft. So I had to work three jobs while starting standup comedy just to kind of make some money. You know, I wasn't an academic at school. I kind of didn't have plans to go to university or anything like that. I didn't really enjoy the studying. And I'm sure a lot of kids can relate to that. And, you know, today there's some great options for Kids, if they want to get into a trade and stuff like that, there's those options available. But for me, maybe it's my less Lebanese background, quite stubborn.

0:09:32 - (Anthony Salame): And you can imagine telling your immigrant parents that you want to become a comedian, they'd be like, what are you talking about? This is silly talk. You know, you tell jokes, get together with your friends, this is not a career, this is not a way to live your life. And that's obviously coming from a place of love. I'm sure your parents always want the best for you. And in a time like that, when standup comedy wasn't a very common thing, you know, they were always advising me, go get a trade. My brothers are both electricians, follow their, you know, but I think it was just a passion of wanting succeed in a craft that I really loved and I was determined and you know, I may have been doing this for 20 years, but I was talking about that journey that you go on and probably not until the last few years.

0:10:16 - (Anthony Salame): I've really been proud of my work, the content and the comedy that I'm putting out. So not to say I've never been proud of some of the things I've done, but you know, I think that's all a part of the growth as well. But I think if there's young kids out there that are, that are looking to get into a left of field industry, my advice to them is just don't be silly. You still got to work hard. You know, I had to do three jobs until I was maybe just before the age of 30 where I could survive off doing confidence. That's 10 years of delivering pizzas, digging ditches, delivering dry cleaning and doing all that kind of stuff because I did see the results coming through and I did have confidence that something would eventuate from it.

0:10:59 - (Anthony Salame): But it's all in due time and it's all at the right time. And you do have to work hard and be a little bit sensible if you do have a dream that's a little bit out there, I think.

0:11:09 - (Debbie Draybi): Thanks. Anthony. I was thinking about what you said earlier around. You get so much out of this and almost feeling that level of guilt that you enjoy it. I was wondering about that in terms of what is it, what is it that you get out of it? What do you notice about your audiences as, as you're up there on the stage?

0:11:27 - (Anthony Salame): Yeah, it's as a comedian there's different things that bring you joy. For me, the most joy comes from a few different things. Number one, when you're trying new jokes for the first time. And they go really well. Because the evolution of a joke could take three to six months maybe, before it's really. Before you've got it where you are. It takes time. Doing shows and getting up in the comedy clubs and trying it out, and then you record it and you feel something's missing and you add to it and you take from it.

0:11:59 - (Anthony Salame): So when you try something for the first time, it really goes well. You're like, I've got something really special here. So that's one thing that as a comedian, I really find joy in. The second, obviously, you know, when everybody's laughing, it's a beautiful thing. But the third, people come up to me these days, for a lot of people. Cause I work in comedy clubs a lot. And the comedy industry is one of the most secular industries in the world, where, you know, people are constantly trashing religion 99% of the time, the Christian faith and Jesus.

0:12:32 - (Anthony Salame): And it's heartbreaking for me to sit backstage and hear that. But then when I go on stage and I do my comedy and then people come up to me afterwards and say, we love that. You weren't dirty, you were clean. And it's just, you know, observational comedy. And everyone could relate to it and everyone can listen to it. When people say those kind of things to me, it makes me feel maybe not just a comedian, but that I've grown as a human and that I'm doing better every single day. And that's what we, I think, have to strive to do. We have to try to be better every single day. I think if we're trying every single day just to get a little bit better, we can all kind of pat ourselves on the back and say, you know what? We have to acknowledge that we are trying to do better and be better. And, you know, I love hearing those things as a comedian, too.

0:13:18 - (Debbie Draybi): That's incredible. Just hearing you, you know, talk about your evolution and being able to take some risks, try some jokes that perhaps sometimes work, sometimes don't, and then to think about them differently, reframe them, and then come up with something, you know, that lands differently.

0:13:35 - (Anthony Salame): Yeah, yeah, exactly. It's all part of the process, you know. Yeah, it's enjoyable. It's very enjoyable.

0:13:41 - (Monsignor Shora): I was thinking too, of, you know, when. When you do watch a good comedy and it isn't trashing and it isn't vulgar, if I could say that, when it's laughing about things in life. I think you said observational. You know, I think you remember it and you laugh in a More healthy way. You're not putting anyone down. You walk away from an event like that or an experience like that and you carry it with you.

0:14:04 - (Monsignor Shora): Too many times I've seen comedy that is, we might say, trashy or very negative or a lot of swear. I don't think you walk away feeling that, you know, you might have laughed at a few things. But I like watching sometimes to confess sometimes some of the old comedians that you know, Bob Hope, and then you see some of the ones where they're roasting each other. I remember one of the comedians or someone saying something to them and just saying to them, look, in our troubling world, you do something great, you help people to laugh and you help people do it in a great way. And it was sort of talking about people's well being, you know, that it's something positive, something good in what you're doing.

0:14:41 - (Monsignor Shora): Even us as priests, when we're sitting together for a time and we're doing a time of humour will come up and something funny will come up and it really. We're in often very stressful job and humour is a great way that helps relieve that stress a little bit for.

0:14:55 - (Anthony Salame): Us, you know, I could imagine. I'm sure a lot of people don't take that into consideration because when every interaction with a priest usually is at the holy mass or at a funeral or at a wedding where they're more serious times. So. Yeah, that's. That's actually a great point. Yeah.

0:15:12 - (Monsignor Shora): I remember there's one retired bishop now and he's Lebanese with the Roman Catholic Church and he was an hour late coming for a wedding of one of his relatives and I was hosting him for the wedding. I was a priest waiting for him. Bishop Jared Haddon. I hope he won't mind me mentioning. But anyway, they had to fly. It was the time of bushfires, so he couldn't drive from Armidale. The roads were closed, the airports were closed. The only way he could get down was by helicopter.

0:15:41 - (Monsignor Shora): So he's flying by the helicopter and he's telling us the story about. His auntie was with him, just praying the rosary. She said, auntie, don't pray too hard, we might go all the way to heaven.

0:15:51 - (Debbie Draybi): I get too close.

0:15:52 - (Monsignor Shora): Lady's telling me this before the wedding and he's already hour late. And I'm trying to explain to him what we need to do. He said, don't worry, don't worry. If anything goes wrong, we'll just stop and all say, God save the Queen. That's all. So like he just knew how to relieve the stress and the pressure with that little bit of humour, you know? Yeah.

0:16:08 - (Debbie Draybi): We have lots of conversations on the show around mental health and wellbeing. And we're thinking about, as Monsignor's talking about, that relationship between humour and comedy and wellbeing. You know, I'm wondering from your experience, how you've witnessed that, how humour brings joy and alleviates some of that pain and brokenness that you mentioned.

0:16:27 - (Anthony Salame): It's kind of a strange thing because a lot of people see comedians as darker people or people that they say humour comes from pain, humour comes from those awkward moments in life, is where you find the best jokes from. Cause they're so relatable and everyone kind of goes through them. So a lot of comedians definitely do suffer with mental health issues. And probably, you know, there's a lot of competition in that kind of industry.

0:16:53 - (Anthony Salame): And imagine going up on stage and you don't do too well, you don't get many laughs. You could go back and if you live on your own, you're in your own head all night. And so I can imagine a lot of people would deal with that. That's why I think it's so important to have that foundation of your faith to help you in those times where you are feeling a little bit down. And, you know, growing up in a Lebanese household, mental health was something that we never spoke about. You know, I think God bless our parents and all parents and. But especially immigrant parents that had to come over. Like, my father left school in the fourth grade to go help the family to get a job, you know, so it was a totally different experience for him. So growing up, we kind of learned to just get on with it because that's what we saw our parents do. They were not as fortunate as us to grow up and have the things that we needed. And it's not really spoken about in the Lebanese community, that's for sure.

0:17:52 - (Anthony Salame): But I think people are shocked, shining a light on that a lot more today. And I just really believe that having those foundations in your faith, no matter what you're going through in life, will definitely just get you through for sure. For sure. God doesn't leave us. Never, not for a second. And I truly believe God makes good from everything, even from the bad. So that's why it's so important to have that faith and just to keep going and keep praying.

0:18:23 - (Debbie Draybi): It's really giving you that purpose and that meaning in life and almost redefining suffering to know that there's a reason for It. And it does enable you to grow and evolve and do better.

0:18:37 - (Anthony Salame): We are all told to carry our cross and follow Jesus and whatever that cross may be. I think we all have to do it with humility, and we all have to do it where we're not kicking and screaming all the time. We all can kick and scream because we're all humans. You know, we all complain. And if there are parents listening, it's so important to build that foundation in your children because, you know, as a comedian, I may have stepped away from. I didn't step away from the faith, but there was a time in my 20s I wasn't going to regular Mass. You know, I'm on tour, you know, comedy club at night. I can't wake up and go to. You know, my priorities weren't in order.

0:19:14 - (Anthony Salame): But, you know, I thank God for my parents every day that, you know, they dragged us to Sunday Mass. We prayed the rosary as a family every night at home. You can fall away from that, but, you know, you'll come back home one day. I think that's the most important thing because, you know, I know it's an analogy that's been used a million times. You build a house on a foundation that's not solid. It's going to fall. It's going to crumble eventually, but when that foundation is solid, that house will never fall down.

0:19:41 - (Anthony Salame): So I think that's very important. And that's. And that's. I mean, bringing it back to my books, that's my goal with these books, to help kids with that foundation. Because I know as a child, as good as your parish priest is, when you're a child and as much as your parents try and teach you about the faith, a lot of it can go over your head, a lot of it can be overwhelming. And that's. I just try and simplify it and help kids to build that foundation.

0:20:08 - (Anthony Salame): And you know what? Like, I can sit here and I don't want to sound like, oh, I. I do this and I do that. No, 100%. All for God's glory and all to bring children closer to our Lord and Savior. For sure. Like, there's no ego in this. I just really love that work that I do.

0:20:27 - (Debbie Draybi): And, you know, what I'm hearing is this theme of whether it's through your stories and your children's books and your comedy, being able to simplify the things that are complex in life, the things that get in the way of joy and connection and to each other and to God. And I think it's Just such a powerful message and just witnessing that as you're talking about it.

0:20:49 - (Anthony Salame): Thank you. Life's tough, you know, Life's tough. Life's not easy. As a parent, life's not easy. Having my first child at 40 wasn't easy. Like, I can't even go close to my son at night because my knees click too loud. You know what I mean? Like, it's. But in all honesty, I know parenting isn't easy, but when I can go on stage and talk about being a parent and going through the motions and. And all the things it means and. And then compare it to my upbringing, and then when people relate to that, whether they take something away from it or they just walk away feeling like, oh, yeah, like, you know, it's not too bad, you know?

0:21:30 - (Debbie Draybi): Yeah. I think that's incredible. I've. I've watched some of your sketches, the videos online.

0:21:35 - (Anthony Salame): Yeah.

0:21:36 - (Debbie Draybi): Around. When you do that comparison, I mean, it's almost like you give permission through your humor to think about, you know, our parents did it differently. We're maybe not parenting in the same way. You still pay respect to that, but you bring in that humor to just normalize that it's okay to do it differently. And.

0:21:55 - (Anthony Salame): Yeah, totally. And we're all different. I mean, yeah, we do take from our parents and we learn from them, but we all have different life experiences. And. And my wife obviously has things that she thinks is the right way to do things. And, you know, as a couple, you gotta come to that agreement. And anyone that's married knows, at the end of the day, whatever your wife says is the right thing.

0:22:18 - (Debbie Draybi): Hence why you have a successful marriage so far.

0:22:22 - (Anthony Salame): Thank God. Thank God. No, she's a beautiful woman.

0:22:25 - (Debbie Draybi): Yeah. Monsignor, do you have anything that's coming to mind? I can hear you ticking away there.

0:22:32 - (Monsignor Shora): Yeah, look, the books. I think it's good, that simplicity. It's an art of communication. It's something we as priests have to. You know, like, you're talking about, you know, planning your jokes and, you know, for me, when I have to tell a story or communicate an experience to start a homily, I've got a real thing. How do I. How. Well, what's the best way to say it? I've got it in my mind. But hang on. Is that gonna come across that way? How's it. You know. Yeah. And some I just could relate to a little bit how you said, because how you actually say something, put something else in, can actually add that extra punch into what you're doing, and they get the point across.

0:23:05 - (Anthony Salame): So, you know, to be honest, I know we joked earlier and said, you're my inspiration for comedy, but honestly, like, as a child, there was no. I didn't go to any live performances. You know, there were no. My parents weren't sending me off to concerts, you know. Well, Sunday mass was the only person I saw speaking to a microphone for the first, you know, maybe 10, 15 years of my life.

0:23:29 - (Debbie Draybi): Yeah, I think that's a beautiful analogy. Just thinking about, even for yourself, watching your. You don't know who you're inspiring in terms of people in our community who are thinking about whether it's your craft or other. Other areas to connect with people and tell their story, you know, in different creative ways. And I think that's just such a powerful experience that you do that and you role model that.

0:23:53 - (Anthony Salame): Thank you. Yeah. Like I said before, I'm very lucky to do what I do. I thank God every day and, you know, I'll keep doing it for as long as I can do it. And if one day I gotta go and get a normal job, I gotta go get a normal job. But until then, I'll just keep putting my faith in God and putting one foot in front of the other, and hopefully we can keep doing what we do.

0:24:15 - (Monsignor Shora): Yeah. Using a good tool, that creativeness. And it's. Yeah. I think it does have that impact of helping life to be lighter for people, you know, especially when there's pressures when they can laugh and see a bit of a lighter side of a.

0:24:29 - (Anthony Salame): Totally.

0:24:30 - (Monsignor Shora): Yeah, It's. I mean, I know the impact it has on me, and I know for others. Yeah. So it's. It's. Yeah. And just. I commend you what you're doing and how you're leading it in this way.

0:24:40 - (Anthony Salame): Thank you, Monsignor. I appreciate that.

0:24:43 - (Debbie Draybi): So, Anthony, just as we're wrapping up, I wondered whether there's anything that. Any other parting wisdom you'd like to leave our listeners with.

0:24:50 - (Anthony Salame): Well, I've never been told I'm a wise person, but I think there's incredible.

0:24:55 - (Debbie Draybi): Wisdom in the jokes. Like, there's such a profound message in a lot of them around your journey and the incredible stories and how you bring them out. So I'm not gonna let you get away with saying you're not wise. Sorry.

0:25:07 - (Anthony Salame): Thank you. But I know I've spoken about my faith a lot today. I try and do that daily. I was never always like this. You know, like I said very early on, I look back at some of the things I've done in My career. And I think to myself, you know, I wish I didn't do that. I wish I didn't say those things. But I've got a Bible verse engraved in my wedding ring. My wife and I do. And it's John 15:12. My command is this, to love one another as I've loved you.

0:25:34 - (Anthony Salame): And that's impossible, to love anybody the way that our God, our Lord and Saviour loves us. But if we can try to do that every day, you know, like someone cuts you off in traffic, you know, your kids are making you want to pull your hair out, your neighbor, whatever, they didn't cut your little part of the grass. Why didn't they just cut that, you know, when they were cutting their. Whatever it may be. Just, you know, we just gotta. I think we just take a step back and just realize, you know, we're all one family, we're all humans. We're all just trying to do our best in life and, you know, don't sweat the small things and just, you know, try to love more.

0:26:11 - (Monsignor Shora): I like that.

0:26:12 - (Debbie Draybi): I think that's a beautiful message and I think the way you spread your joy with your humor and with your stories is really profound. And we just want to say thank you for coming on and starting us off in the year in such a beautiful, powerful message.

0:26:27 - (Anthony Salame): Thank you very much.

0:26:27 - (Debbie Draybi): It's been wonderful talking to you.

0:26:28 - (Anthony Salame): Thank you. Thank you very much. Can I just give a quick plug to my books as well?

0:26:32 - (Debbie Draybi): Absolutely, yeah.

0:26:32 - (Anthony Salame): So if you want to grab them, you can just type my name on Amazon or jcbook Co, which is the company that publishes it. And I hope your kids love them. And if you want to come to a show, just follow me on my social media on Instagram.

0:26:48 - (Debbie Draybi): All this information you will find in our show notes. And Anthony, I just have one final question. What's your Instagram handle?

0:26:54 - (Anthony Salame): It's just my name. Nthony Salemi. Anthony Salameh. Just, you know, I upload comedy videos and things about my books all the time. So follow me on there. But thanks for having me.

0:27:12 - (Debbie Draybi): I hope this episode has helped you find sanctuary in this exciting journey of life. All of the resources we've mentioned in this episode are found in the podcast Notes. If you need some assistance with any of the topics discussed in today's episode, then please Visit our website, HSHL.org au if you have any thoughts, comments or ideas, please leave us a comment on Spotify. Alternatively, send us an email at admin@hshl.org

0:27:43 - (Debbie Draybi): au you and your mental health matters to us and we hope you get one step closer in finding Sanctuary. Bye for now.