MULTIMEDIA personality Em Rusciano describes herself as a “walking open wound.”
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It’s a slightly grizzly turn of phrase, but the description is apt after reading Rusciano’s memoir Try Hard - Tales From The Life Of a Needy Overachiever.
Not many celebrities in this increasingly image-controlled age would openly write about their pubescent battles with body hair, losing their virginity next to a dumpster, gate-crashing a funeral to stalk an ex-lover, post-natal depression and marriage breakdown.
Yet Rusciano describes all her highs and lows in gory detail; and with plenty of humour.
“I don’t get embarrassed easily,” Rusciano tells Weekender. “I kind of feel like if I can get all the hard and upsetting parts out before someone else can find it out, I’m kind of owning it.”
The 37-year-old found fame in 2004 when she finished ninth in season two of Australian Idol. Rather than a musical path, the sassy performer built a successful radio career in Perth and Melbourne. That has since extended to TV appearances on Network Ten’s The Project and The Circle, stand-up comedy and writing online columns.
“I’m cracking the pop market at 37. I’m Australia’s Susan Boyle.”
- Em Rusciano
It sounds like an exhausting schedule, especially when you add raising two daughters to the equation, but Rusciano has always possessed a herculean drive. At school she was poised to become an Olympian in athletics and participated in plays, debates and a host of other extracurricular activities.
“I was called a try hard through high school and it was the worst thing,” she says. “I hated it. I’m trying to reclaim it.”
Rusciano despises the Australian culture of tall poppy syndrome and said part of the reason why the book is called Try Hard was to fight against it.
“Only in Australia is trying hard at things considered a negative personality trait,” she says. “It makes everyone nervous. Just being me is an effort. There’s a lot glitter involved, a lot of emotion involved.”
Rusciano’s trademark glitter will be sprinkling widely in the coming weeks. On Thursday she released her first single, Versions Of Me, which she describes as a “vagina anthem” that she hopes will have people “fist pumping in traffic at the top of their lungs.”
“I’m cracking the pop market at 37,” she says. “I’m Australia’s Susan Boyle.”
The Try Hard musical-comedy show is also rolling out across Australia in December, which includes her first visit to Newcastle.
While Rusciano constantly finds humour in the most traumatic experiences - some which include wrestling with a dry-cleaner for her own clothes – she writes honestly about many painful moments in her life. Namely her battle with post-natal depression and the multiple break-ups and reunions with her husband Scott Barrow.
She spent many nights in tears after writing the book, which Rusciano found therapeutic. Barrow only gave his permission for the book’s publication on the eve of it going to print.
“When I was by myself and we were separated and I was going through depression I didn’t see a lot of people out there reassuring me that it’s OK,” she says. “So when I got better I got it in mind that I wanted to be that person for people.
“I really struggle to fall asleep at night with anxiety, that’s when it all hits me. I like the idea that my book might be on someone’s bed-side table and they might flick it open and read any bit of it and feel better.”
Em Rusciano performs at Wests City on December 16.
