Some guests stroll in with a snack, a story, and a whole quiet side hustle. Then there is Supermom energy like Imee Cuison, who walks in with shrimp chips, a sparkling water, and three different careers plus a scene‑stealing kid. This episode of Snackin’ & Yakkin’ is for every mom who has ever thought, “What if I want more than one life at the same time?”

How We Met A “Cool As A Cucumber On Stage” Supermom

We first met Imee doing stand‑up at Hobcaw Brewing in Mount Pleasant. We had never seen her at open mics, only on show posters, so we assumed she was new. Then she got on stage, completely cool as a cucumber on stage, and blew up that theory in about 30 seconds.

After the show we took a “prom picture” together in front of a tassled wall that absolutely looked like a DIY backdrop. A week later we worked a food and bev appreciation show on Edisto, and that sealed it. The stage skills, the story, the grit, we knew we wanted her on the podcast.

What she did not tell us on stage was that behind all that chill confidence is a very real public speaking background, a tech career, and a whole lot of private pain turned into punchlines.

The First Comedy Gig That Was Never The Plan

Imee’s stand‑up journey started last summer, and it was basically an accident.

She is a software engineer who kept getting told she did not have “executive presence” and “didn’t look like leadership material.” Instead of shrinking, she started a public speaking business to build those skills.

Clients sent feedback for her website and kept using the same word: “hilarious.”

She thought she was just being engaging. Everyone else heard a comic. Comedy followed.

From ICU Night Shifts To Software Engineer Hustle

Before code, comedy, and casting calls, Imee spent 10 years in the ICU, heavy drinking to cope with life‑and‑death stress. She did what many nurses do after brutal shifts, she drank. Because everyone else did, it felt normal, not like a problem.

Eventually she hit a wall. Miserable, exhausted, and convinced she “wasn’t that smart,” she took a huge swing and applied to a local code bootcamp, The Iron Yard in Mount Pleasant. She got in.

While grinding through three intense months of code, she still worked ICU weekends. That job became the best motivation. Learn this new thing fast, or stay here forever.

Right after bootcamp she got pregnant, landed her first engineering job at a startup, and walked into more money but no benefits. Years of drinking meant no savings. There was no soft landing. Just a new career, a baby on the way, and a calendar full of unknowns.

Sobriety, Or Realizing “Normal” Wasn’t Normal

What finally snapped her out of the ICU drinking loop was simple: she realized ten straight years of “end of shift” drinks was not just culture, it was coping.

Some of the signs she calls out are familiar to a lot of nurses and moms:

• Daily drinking feels like part of the job
• You need a brutal weekend shift to motivate big life change

Add a surprise pregnancy, no safety net, and a startup paycheck and you get a very sober, very focused mom pretty fast.

Building Executive Presence, Accidentally Building a Comic

In tech, Imee kept hearing that she lacked “executive presence.” Nobody could define it, they just knew she did not have it. So she did what Supermoms do, she built it herself.

She started giving talks and workshops about women in tech and leadership. Audiences described her as funny, not just smart. That led her toward stand‑up, conference gigs, and more storytelling on stage.

For a deeper look at that side of her story, her profile on South Carolina Voyager fills in even more of the tech and speaking journey.

Filipino Identity, Casting, And Playing A Vietcong Soldier

On stage, one of Imee’s strongest bits is about nobody knowing what kind of Asian she is. People guess Chinese, Korean, anything but Filipino.

During the episode, the host wears a Miyagi‑Do Karate shirt from The Karate Kid, then casually clocks that she is Filipino right away. Years of training under Filipino taekwondo instructors will do that. They joke about “Filipino vs Filipina,” and Imee shrugs. She just calls herself Filipino and moves on.

That “pan‑Asian” look has actually helped her booking. She recently played a Vietcong soldier, complete with a real AK‑47 that had the firing guts removed. Not Vietnamese, but booked as Vietnamese. She has another film shooting in November, and she keeps landing mom roles alongside her daughter.

Her daughter is part Filipino, part Irish, and all charisma. That mix confuses every casting director and stranger in the grocery store, which Imee turns into more material.

A Daughter’s Heart Defect, A Missing Dad, And A Hustler Mom

Here is the emotional center of the whole episode.

While pregnant, Imee got the call no parent wants. The baby had a serious heart defect. Doctors warned she might not survive. Her daughter had open‑heart surgery at one week old, it did not go well, she had a stroke, and hospice was called.

Today that same kid is a thriving 9‑year‑old actress who can cry on command.

Her father, a half‑Filipino, half‑Irish trust‑fund kid with millions behind him, bailed. No diapers, no midnight feeds, no hospital visits. He simply disappeared.

Most people say, “Forget that guy.” Imee goes one step further. She calls his leaving a gift. No dead weight, no addiction drama, no one tugging her attention away from a very sick baby.

She ended up on food stamps, in a new career, parenting solo, and she turned into what she calls a “serious hustler.” Engineering job by day, auditions, self‑tapes, and mom life by night. She will do pretty much anything honest to build a good life for her kid.

Kid Actors, Therapy, And Why Comedy Hits Different

Imee did not get into acting first. Her daughter did. Casting directors kept asking mom to read with her, then booking them both. Mother and daughter acted in a film together where Imee played, of course, the mom.

When they lost a commercial she thought they would book, Imee did what moms do, she blamed herself. That guilt pushed her to study acting more seriously so she would never cost her kid a job.

Behind the laughs there is real trauma work. Imee was molested at four years old, and in her culture you simply do not talk about it. After her daughter was born, she decided she could not be the mom she wanted to be while that was locked up inside. She went to a trauma therapist and did EMDR, the eye‑movement based therapy that helps process PTSD.

Her therapist kept pointing out how many comics mine tragedy for jokes. Pain in, punchline out.

The host shares his own story too. In 1995, his father murdered his 7‑year‑old half‑brother, then killed himself. Five years later, on what would have been his brother’s 12th birthday, he tried stand‑up comedy for the first time. Stage time finally gave his grief somewhere to go.

Comedy becomes a kind of DIY cognitive behavioral therapy. Instead of staying stuck in the worst memory, they both look for a way to twist it, question it, and sometimes laugh at it.

Snacks, Sparkling Water, And Awkward Men At Bars

Since this is Snackin’ & Yakkin’, we have to talk snacks.

Imee brings shrimp chips made with wild‑caught shrimp. They look like veggie straws, puffed and airy. They taste like a softer version of Irish Tayto prawn crisps, which the host used to inhale in Ireland. He teases her that the Irish version is stronger, but he still crushes a handful on camera.

To drink, she asks for sparkling water, so they go with orange LaCroix, “naturally essenced.” They joke that it tastes like someone shouted “orange” from another room, although this batch actually has more flavor than anyone remembers.

In Edisto, at that food and bev show, a very enthusiastic front‑row guy decides he is going to be the one to break Imee’s 10‑year dating streak. She shuts it down onstage with one line: the only man in her life is Jesus. He keeps flirting anyway, then spends most of the post‑show telling the host how funny she is instead of actually talking to her.

Classic bar guy misfire.

A Supermom Who Refuses To Pick Just One Path

Online, Imee chronicles all of it, single mom life, tech career, acting gigs, running, powerlifting, and heart‑warrior parenting. Her Instagram bio literally reads like a Supermom checklist. You can see it all on Imee on Instagram.

Consultants have told her to pick one niche if she wants more followers. Only talk about mom life. Or only talk about tech. Or only comedy.

She ignores that. Her brand is her. Engineer, comic, homeschooler, CHD mom, gym rat, actor. Real Supermoms do not live in one tidy content bucket.

If you want more of this kind of honest chaos, behind‑the‑scenes family podcasts, and extra episodes, the Snackin’ & Yakkin’ crew hangs out with supporters over on the Snackin’ & Yakkin’ Patreon, where even more snack‑fueled stories live.

Final Bite

Imee’s story hits every nerve for those of us juggling school runs, careers, side hustles, and secret dreams. She shows that a Supermom can start over at 30, 40, or whenever, learn to code, quit drinking, raise a medically fragile baby, and still step on stage like it is nothing.

If you have ever been told you lack “presence,” or that you need to pick one lane, we hope this episode gives you permission to ignore all that. Watch the full conversation, follow Imee, and then go chase the thing that scares you a little. The universe might already be lining up the next gig.

More episodes on the blog!