Real Sober Belly Laughs

You know that line people love to say, “I’m more fun when I’m drinking”? We don’t buy it anymore, and we’ve got the stories to prove why. We’re talking about the kind of laughter that actually lands, the kind you remember the next day, and why being alcohol-free doesn’t make life smaller it makes it clearer, louder, and way more connected.

We share our biggest Laughs Without Lager moments, starting with a sober retreat in Phuket that turned into a highlight reel of joy: air guitar to Sweet Child O’ Mine on a boat, ridiculous jokes shouted across the water, and the kind of confidence we used to think required a few drinks. It wasn’t all smooth either. Think snorkeling chaos, an ear infection that made balancing impossible, looking “drunk” while totally sober, and an accidental jellyfish to the face. Somehow it all becomes funnier because we’re present for it, not numbing through it.

We also get into real-life sober socializing: throwing a karaoke night without drinking and realizing you can actually read the lyrics, laughing until it hurts at a quiz night, and why the best part of a great night out is driving home with zero fear. Then we contrast it with the lonely side of drinking, the mental noise of can’t-stop habits, and how routines like “reward drinks” after chores can quietly keep you stuck. If you’re exploring sobriety, mindful drinking, or just want more genuine fun without alcohol, this one will feel like a deep exhale.

Subscribe, share this with a friend who needs a laugh, and leave a review so more people can find the show. What’s your biggest sober laugh without lager?

Contact Us: 

https://www.meganwebb.com.au/podcast-1

meganwebbcoaching@gmail.com

Ali

insta:  https://www.instagram.com/idontdrinkfullstop/

Meg

website:  https://www.meganwebb.com.au/

insta: https://www.instagram.com/meganwebbcoaching/

Connect AF: https://www.elizaparkinson.com/groupcoaching

Transcript

Singing Hellos And The Big Idea

SPEAKER_01 0:41

Megzi! Allie, how are you going? I'm good. How are you? I'm good. I love that we often sing our hellos. Um I am a hello singer. Well, when I see people I often sing. They're like, what are you doing? I'm like, singing. I'm the karaoke queen. Oh yeah, yeah. Got a story about that coming up.

Why Laughs Hit Different Sober

SPEAKER_00 1:03

So what do I what are we talking about today, Megsy?

SPEAKER_01 1:07

Well, we had a friend, Kimmy, suggest that we it was a good suggestion, therefore we're going to take it on, that at the end of our interviews we ask people what their biggest laugh was without lager. And we thought we could talk about ours, you know, because we've had a few, but there's been, you know, I guess we've both had one or two that stand out for each other. So thought we'd do that.

SPEAKER_00 1:34

I reckon that sounds like a plan.

SPEAKER_01 1:38

So I guess, you know, it's the name of our potty, Laughs Without Lager. When we met, we had a lot of laughs on our trip to Pucat. Um, I love laughing, always have, and I guess a lot of people do, but it is so different when it's authentic and no alcohols involved. Uh good, a good belly laugh's good for the soul and your health. Um, but so many, you know, it's just um it's so great when things are just really fun and funny and it's just different, isn't it?

SPEAKER_00 2:13

Oh, 100%. It's um, yeah, I just thought alcohol was making me funny. And it wasn't because I mean, look, when you're freaking six years old and you're making your classroom laugh, well, you're not drunk, are you?

SPEAKER_01 2:30

No, exactly. Exactly. It's just something that then we start to take on as a um identity, you know. I'm the funny one with alcohol, or alcohol makes me funny. You know, I hear it quite often from clients that alcohol makes me creative, alcohol makes me able to do this or that, alcohol makes me funny, and it's like actually everything it makes you, you are already. Yes, and as we know with alcohol, it can make you not funny as well.

The Phuket Boat Air Guitar Memory

SPEAKER_00 2:58

Really not funny when you think you're really funny, but you're just spitting and annoying people and yelling and uh cringe, cringe factor, cringe factor, and then you wake up in the morning and you're like, then you see a video of yourself, then you think that it's funny, but they're actually videoing you because you're fucking not funny, and they're probably giving it to you to go, honey, yeah, you know, you need to check up from the neck up. Oh um, but yeah, it's certainly I I totally had that label of, yeah, I was, or in my mind, I thought that alcohol was making me funny. And as it turned out, you know, when we met you, Megsy, and the other ladies on the retreat, um, it was clear that we all laughed without bloody alcohol. So that's also how we came up with the with the brand, Laughs Without Lager. So I really, yeah, that was a great little um suggestion that we will definitely um take on with our guests, and every time we finish our episode, we'll just have a um story or a yeah, just a funny, even just you know, sometimes tripping yourself over on that's funny. Yeah. Being able to laugh at yourself. Yes, being able to laugh at yourself without that yeah going too far down the rabbit hole of oh, you're a loser, you're just fucking drunk, and no, I just tripped it over the dog lead and ha ha ha.

SPEAKER_01 4:30

Yeah, yeah. So do you want to kick us off, Allie, with one of your um funniest sober moments in the last few years?

SPEAKER_00 4:38

Yeah, well, when we talked about it with Kim, I straight away, because we had uh we caught I caught up with one of the other ladies, Shaza. Cheza recent yes, from America. Um so Cheza, Kimmy and I were sitting around having a morning stretch, and that's where it birthed. And so straight away, both me and Cheza, Shaza and I, sorry, um took us to the boat in Phuket, and there's me leading the air guitar with Guns N' Roses, Sweet Child of Mine, and then there's Shesa in the background doing the drums. Well, I was kind of doing drums and guitar, and fuck mate, we laughed and we air guitared like mofos. So that we just straight away was my first memory of Laughs Without Lager, and that was also something that stuck with us because we got off the boat, and I mean we're all sort of we're all ex-drinkers, and it was you know, especially like yes, I said to Shaza, I was like, fuck man, I've never air guitared in public. I mean, yeah, you do it at home sober, but yeah, so that was my first ever really letting my guard down, letting my hair down, had the bandana on, doing the air guitar and drums, and actually not feeling self-conscious. Yes, that was mine, yes.

Snorkel Chaos And A Jellyfish Hit

SPEAKER_01 6:06

And you know what? I can jump into that because I was on that boat trip, and so I some of my funniest moments were there as well, and and just I mean, so much fun. So when you guys were doing that, it was just so much fun for everyone. Um, but there's that's also when I'd been talking about what I want in a man, and I I'd said that I want someone that lives in a different house. And then this rando paddle boards passed us out at sea just on his stand-up paddle board, and I just called out, Do you want to live separately? It was something ridiculous like that. But we laughed and laughed, and Ellie, who was with us, still, you know, jokes about it with me. And it was just so funny. But also on that trip, and it's not, it wasn't so funny at the time, but it is funny now. Um, I went snorkeling with Kimmy to the shore, and she said, she said to me, I don't want to bring anyone that's not an Aussie, because you know, we're going over all the coral. You know, we grew up in Australia, we know what it's like. Well, what I didn't realize was I had an ear infection developing. And so we got to the corally area and I couldn't stand up and I kept falling. And I'm thinking, what is wrong with me? And I kept going, something, I'm just falling over. This is ridiculous. I kept going old age and I couldn't balance. Anyway, I cut myself on the coral. But the ridiculous thing was it wasn't till later that I realized when the pain started, oh my god, I had an ear infection. I'm not just losing the plot. You looked drunk. Well, I did, and then on the way back, actually, something really funny happened. She threw a jellyfish at my face, and it wasn't meant to hit me in the face, but it did. That whole boat trip was kind of like a comedy of errors. It was it was so I mean, obviously, getting cut by Cora wasn't the best thing in the world, but just all in all, it was the most fun I've had sober in a long time, as was the whole trip. I think for not one second I wasn't happy. Um, we were never bored. We had amazing connection, which I still think is half the reason I drank was for connection, and it was just the seeing how much more you connect without it. But we laughed, we cried, we had so many amazing moments, and it really showed me it actually made me think that even if I never meet someone, I'm gonna travel with women like that. Like, gosh, it was an incredible trip.

SPEAKER_00 8:49

A hundred yes, yes, and yes to all of that. Um, that was my first experience um traveling uh to Thailand for one. But um, you know, I think I'd had about three, four years, three years sober, and you know, a lot of my friends, Megs and my family, they drink. So um, not I know that I'll never drink, but it is a bit sort of I don't know, people kind of tune down if you're not drinking, they are. So it's kind of like that subconscious underlying thing that I'm looking at them or they don't feel relaxed because I'm not drinking. I don't know, but to actually go to on a holiday, I mean, you know, I didn't know you, I just knew Kimmy, but that anyway, just to know that we all um had drunk or drugged before, um, and that wasn't the leading thing. That wasn't like, oh yeah, you know, hi, I'm Ally and I'm a fucking alcoholic. No, it just that was irrelevant, but it was just that really authentic fun that you know, and we're still amazing friends now. It's just you know, we'll tic-tac every now and then, but it was just to go really deep without alcohol or drugs and hear about people's stories far out. You know, it was a it was a privilege, and um and you know, I know this is supposed to be a funny story, but yeah, it was just really I don't know, it really, really special. And I I I agree, I would definitely go on another trip with um sober people because yeah, it's just that different thing. You don't have to worry about you know, somebody wants to peel off and smash two tequilas before they have to get on the bar site. Fuck that. Like, because that would have been you and me, I'm sure. Yep. Yeah, we just thought we couldn't do anything without a couple of shots or you know, the to Pat the eskey far out, just that constant, you know, needing feeling like you needed to drink to have a good time. Yep. And we've got stories now that we'll we'll say every time, every two weeks, we can tell you our funny stories that we were sober.

Why Sober Travel Feels Bigger

SPEAKER_01 11:00

Yeah, absolutely. Like, how different is that? I couldn't have imagined that that's possible. So we're here to say that it is not only possible, but it is so much better. And we got up early enough that we had a full day, like we weren't wasting money on a holiday. Back in the day, I might as well have just booked a hotel in the city and stayed there because I wasn't seeing anything, you're just bloody drinking. But to actually take in everything and enjoy the whole day and go to bed truly tired is next level. Next level. I'd never want to go back to a drinking holiday. Um, but I was gonna say another um funny thing because my 50th happened two years into my sobriety. And karaoke, like you mentioned, has always been one of my favorite things in the world. And it's one of those things like your air guitar that you just think you do drinking drunk or by yourself. So singing in the car, for example, was the only time. So I took a risk and I decided to invite all my work friends to a Chinese restaurant karaoke night. Yeah. And it actually was one of the best bloody nights I've ever had. Some people drank, some people didn't. I didn't. And I got up and I realized that it's better singing karaoke sober because you can actually read the words. Now, I still had issues with reading the words. I think I was moving around too much. But when you're drinking and karaokeing, you just can't do it all. It's unless you know all the words off by heart. So it was a new experience. It was heaps of fun. We had loads of laughs that night. Just it was just so so authentic. I just, it's just so different. But it was a really massive um achievement for me to have be able to say I had my 50th, I did exactly what I love doing. I had some really good friends with me. It was one of the best nights ever. And there was no alcohol. And even the I think there was about 30 of us, even if 15 had drank, it wasn't, it just wasn't the center of it. Yeah, so it was just amazing. So that's another, and it was funny, and we took ridiculous selfies with filters, and you know, when you just cry laughing. So that's another experience for me that um was a huge laugh without lager. Do you have any other that standouts?

SPEAKER_00 13:27

Just then when you were saying about the filters, fuck. I mean, even just that, lying in bed with your kid, putting on a filter with big lips and fuck just laughing, you know, like um, yeah. I mean, actually, I also was thinking um when we had it was last year, we had a quiz night, and there was three of us that well, pretty much most of us weren't drinking, but I reckon those the the whole hall, it was in an old little hall. Mate, I was laughing so much. I was crying, like me and my workmate Donna, we were just fucking pissing ourselves, and then I ran down because I got the booby. We our table was so useless that the quiz that I had to go get that was when I won the manure and uh a bunnings thing, and I did the because it was really cold, and I did the um Tom Cruise. I ran down because it was an old hall and I slid down, I grabbed the manure, and I yeah, and they must have all thought, oh gosh, and then we I got in the car and drove, you know, and I'm sure some of the oldies must have been thinking, oh, you know, she's been drinking and she's driving, you know, and that's like la honey. Um, yeah, but you can have like a fucking laugh and a good time, yep, and then the best thing is you drive home, yeah, yeah, and it's just no stress, like you're just like fuck it, act like an idiot, yeah, because you know that's just me deep down anyway. Like, as I said, as that funny kid, I mean I used humour to um kind of you know fit in, I guess, but um, yeah, definitely I've always had that funny streak, and now I don't have the alcohol to think that I'm funny. It's actually confirmation that I um yeah, I was born this way.

Karaoke Night That Works Sober

SPEAKER_01 15:24

Oh yeah. Well that reminds me of did I have I spoken on here about the hookah party I went to? No. Oh my friend's so my friend's surname's hookah, and um it was their anniversary, so it was a hookah party, and I did this was last year, and I did actually dress up as a hookah, and I I wore my daughter found me some purple wedges to wear, heels, like not heels, wedges, but really high. And I have my you know, those stockings that are what are they called? The ones. Yes. So and I look like a hooker. I got a few comments saying you'd be a great hooker. Like, so I did I the you know, I achieved the brief. I look like a hooker, but I'm the first one that fell over. So now I cried laughing because I I my friends obviously knew I wasn't drinking, but for everyone else, I thought they all think I've had too many, and it's 6 p.m. It was six pm. Oh shit, I was down. You're preloading, mate. But I couldn't get up, and then I'm laughing because I'm like, I think my dress is above my butt, and I could not stop laughing to the point I just kept bursting out laughing all night, but it was so much fun, and it's just things like that that prove to us that this is the best choice ever. Like, because then, like you said, I got to drive home. I I took my UG boots with me and swapped into them because I was in agony after two hours of standing. But I got to drive home and go to bed and wake up and remember everything, have a good laugh at remembering everything, and recognizing that I again, even though people were drinking, I connected more with the people I wanted to because it wasn't just people yelling at each other and you know, just um so it's just proof that this is just the best.

Quiz Night Madness And Falling Over

SPEAKER_00 17:17

So yeah, 100%. My 50th, on the other hand, I was it was middle of COVID 2020, and I did have a parte, and it was it of course rained um middle of winter, but honestly, Meg, it was a completely different story. I stayed up till uh I think it was 3:30 a.m. with one of my brothers sitting around the fire. Um, you know, and then woke up fucking I had other family coming actually on the day the next day, and you know, part of me was thinking, why did I arrange, you know, a breakfast? And um it was just you know, and then I just spent the rest of the day day drinking, mostly on my own. Like, how fucking sad's that? Yeah, trying to ring people. I mean, COVID, you couldn't actually just have a full-on fucking party because you know, you had to only have 20, I think. But I mean, that compared to you know, just every other birthday since. Yeah, um, yeah, gone out for dinner or gone to a I went to a nightclub on one of my birthdays. I'm like, fuck it, you know. Um, dance like it's you know, like I was pissed. But yeah, you're in a nightclub, no one gives a shit. Yeah, you know, you can still do these things, obviously, after time. I mean, you I wouldn't suggest to do that if you're fucking newly sober and stuff, but certainly once you get your runs up, um you can laugh again and you can go to a nightclub or you can get on a boat and go on a holiday and and it just uh just yeah, as we know, life's so much more fulfilling without the bloody drink.

SPEAKER_01 19:05

It so is, and you know, for people uh just you know, we were talking about this before we came on here, and it for me, you know, putting down the alcohol, I did that, and it it then became about work and not just work, trying different things like we're saying, you know, fun things, but sussing out what I liked, um practicing things like socializing in little amounts until I could then because it was like two years into my sobriety, go to people's 50ths and actually be confident. But that took practice to work up to that, definitely but that's okay, you know, sussing out what I liked.

The Drinking Birthday Contrast And Loneliness

SPEAKER_00 19:44

So I you know, I might go home before at 10 o'clock if if I'd had enough, doing those kind of things and experimenting um with socializing, but also recognising the whys on why we drank and yes, you know, early sobriety, that you know it is you know, people think oh, when they um you know like I I did a video quite a while ago and it went viral, and the comments were all about, oh yeah, you know, I think I mentioned cone and and drinking and you know mowing the lawn and you know the comments straight away, there's a zillion comments, oh yeah, it's better to mow the lawn and drink, drink and smoke cones and then mow the lawn. And I'm like, duh, that's what I did for 40 years, you fucking moron. Like I've like, hello. Boring. Why are you even on my page? But it's like boring it. I did it all, and it's to to then like not do that. Um and that's the that's the crutch. And it wasn't because I fell in a ditch and you know, went to jail or had these horrible, you know, things. It was just like I was sick and tired of feeling sick and tired. Oh, and to even just the simple things like gardening, I used to do it stoned, I'm not gonna lie, and then I'd crack a drink because you know there's my reward. Oh, I've just made the lawns and fucking pulled the bin out. Oh, I need a drink. Like honestly, that's how my brain operated. Whereas now, I mean, those aren't triggers, obviously, but it's so I for example would then do the gardening in the morning, yeah, because I would never smoke cones during the day, it just was a thing, you know, or have go for a walk or you know, and then but yeah, just find out the whys on why you want to ditch the booze because the pros and cons, yeah, mate, yeah, like that 50th, I was fucking so alone and lonely, yeah, yet I was masking it by oh yeah, you know, but uh in true, I was sitting like once everyone left, mate, I was sitting there with my fucking vodka. But how fucking sad's that?

SPEAKER_01 22:02

And you know what? I still, every time I have a social gathering in the day, because we have you know family things, I still finish up and you know my cleanup, and I still um take the time to acknowledge that in the past I would have kept drinking and and literally I would have been on the lounge calling out to the kids to have leftovers and then woken up the next day, right, in my clothes. Now people can go home, I can have it cleaned up, and I can tell you now there's nothing better than waking up to a clean bloody house after that. I can be productive, um, do whatever I want. I can go for a walk with a friend or I can get lunch for the week ready for work. Oh my god, to and I really yeah, I think of how I would have just spent after people left just drinking myself into oblivion.

SPEAKER_00 22:50

What the fuck? And I know it was just oh I I because we had the can't stops. Like that's the other thing people said on my my thread is like, oh you know, we're you know, now there's another social per uh person on the internet saying how you can't fucking drink or whatever. And it was like, again, why are you on my page? But it's like the can't stops, like one, yeah, I could do one. Look, fuck, you know, we're not just it wasn't like I'd have one drink and then I was that was it, you know, a blackout. It was but it was just that mind that mind noise going you can't have another one because you've got to drive, or I'll just have a couple and then I'll drop and then when I got home, then it's like fuck yeah, I'm gonna have a cone and then drink. But just all that shit in your head, yep, is like um yeah, that's what I don't know why.

SPEAKER_01 23:46

Yeah. The thinking about drinking, it's hell, it's hell on earth, and once you take that away, oh my god. But you know, for anyone that say commented on on that post and and said, you know, you should be drinking and have a cone to do the lawn mowing. Well, come back to us when you've given it a good try without and then tell us your comparison. But like you said, you've done both, you're over you're over the um the old version, and same with me for other things. I I never mowed the lawn, but I did a lot of things drinking that and I now don't, and it is much better not to.

Triggers, Beach Freedom, And Closing

SPEAKER_00 24:23

Um, you know, and even going to the beach like the other day again, you know, it was stunning day, and I just honestly I just felt it in my heart that it would I've I've because March is a beautiful time of year, there's no wind, and it's a bit stormy and warm. Anyway, I got in the car and you know, got down the beach, and Meg, it was fucking gorgeous. And I just thought, wow, you know, like I always would come home, have a beer because I'd finished work. Well, it was the cone that really fucked me over because then I just wouldn't drive, but then I would have the cone and then have a drink, and then I would sit in my backyard looking out and going and imagining what the beach would look like because I knew what it would look like, and I'd be thinking like so annoyed at myself for like, why didn't you just get home and quickly put your bathers on? But you know, when you got a partner that drank, like yeah, it was my reward, it was our connection, yeah. Or I would think, oh, maybe he could drive, but then I'd get home and he was fucking three sheets of the wind. So I would just join them, and it's just so limiting, like your your world shrinks, and so anyway, I did that that post, and um, you know, I just felt so um smug, you know, because people were saying again, oh yeah, this would be a perfect yeah, which I agree, like yeah, go down and fucking have a cone and watch the sunset. But mate, I did that for 40 years, and I actually enjoy it more sober because I can actually go, wow, enjoy it authentically and again drive home.

SPEAKER_01 26:07

Yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_00 26:09

And get some fish and chips or something, you know?

SPEAKER_01 26:11

Yes, and that how good is that for a reward? Get fishing chips.

SPEAKER_00 26:16

Yeah, just um, yeah, it's funny how you where what people say, and it's a reflection of obviously of them and their drinking and stuff. So we've just gotta stay in your lane. And I did it, you know, it's not a race, it's not a competition. We're just putting it out there that you can have laugh without the lager. And I guess on that note, Megsy. Um, you know, we'll leave it for another day, and we'll, you know, have a guest on, I think, in the next couple of episodes. We've we've been branching out and hope everyone's been enjoying um our guests that we've had on. And don't forget to rate and subscribe and follow us. Yes, please.

SPEAKER_01 27:04

Thank you, everyone. Thank you for listening, and yeah, we'll see you next time. Thanks, Ali. Great to chat. Yeah, thanks, Megsy. See you soon.