Comic Michael Colyar on How His Mother Inspired Him to Get Sober

Guideposts Video: Inspiring True Stories

How did my mother inspire me? I’ll show you my mama right there. That’s my mama. I’m currently doing a show right now called “Michael Colyar’s Momma.” 

And it’s about love and it’s redemption and it’s about coming back to yourself. And the two reasons that I love who I look at—I love myself when I look in the mirror—it’s because of my mother and God. So how has she inspired me? She inspired me in every way. 

When I started wanting to be a comedian, she came to every show. There wouldn’t be but six people in the audience, and my mom would be there. She’d sit over there for a while and laugh. She’d get up, she’d move over there, sit down and laugh. She’d get up move over there, sit down and laugh. She made it feel like a crowd. She was not just inspiring then; she’s inspiring me now. 

She transcended seven years ago, and she is still enhancing my life. Because this play I’m doing called, “Michael Colyar’s Momma,” is going to go to 100 cities. We already shot 14 shows, then we shot it for Netflix six weeks ago, so we’re editing it for that, and we’ll go around the world with it. I’ll probably do this show 700, 800 times. So, yes, she inspires it. 

All I want in life is that my mother and God are proud of me. It’s true. I did crack for 23 years, and I have seven years of pure sobriety as of March 1st. My mother never mentioned my addiction. I never got high around my mother or came around her, but she knows. She’s your mama. You know what I’m saying? 

But she was starting to become ill, and it was time for me to put down toys and be more serious about life. I wanted to be there for her. It was time to just straighten up and fly right. And I always wanted her to be happy with me. I never wanted her to stumble across that news in some bad way. 

And I guess how she influenced my addiction is that she was just a great human being that made me seem like my life had worth and value. And I didn’t want to let her down in that respect. Gratitude is everything. That’s what it is all about. 

I love God without caution. I don’t love God and sort of trust him or sort of hope it’s going to be OK. I know it’s going to be OK because it’s God. And gratitude is the thing that we’re saying that we realize we are blessed, that we have something. 

The Buddha had said that we should wake up in the morning and be grateful because we have a lot. Even if we don’t have a lot, at least we have a little. Even if we don’t have a little, at least we ain’t sick. Even if we are sick, at least we ain’t dead. So be grateful. 

So I’m always living my life in gratitude. I get up in the morning, first thing I do is I say a prayer, and—well, I brush my teeth first because I don’t talking to God with a dirty mouth. So I say a prayer, but my prayer is not about “Oh, God, give me this, give me that.” I know God wants me to have what I want to have. 

My prayers are prayers of gratitude. Thank you, God, for this and thank you, God, for that because I know everything is a blessing. In fact, everything is either a blessing or a lesson. And sometimes, if you’re really lucky, it’s both. So I walk through this life being grateful, giving to others, trying to help others because all my stuff are gifts. 

Being an addict for 23 years, I could have been dead. I could have been in jail. Any number of things could have happened to me, and here I sit—whole, happy, functioning, in love with a great queen. I have a great God that I think digs me. 

How can I not be grateful? How can I not live with an attitude of gratitude? And that attitude is what resonates everywhere I go. So it allows me to shine my light, which gives others the opportunity and permission to shine their light too.