Em Rusciano and the Riverina go way back.
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"I LOVE ALBURY-WODONGA!!" she exclaims straight off the bat in a recent phone interview.
Rusciano, a performer, writer, singer, stand-up comedian and podcast maven, spent her school summer holidays staying with her grandparents at Berrigan.
Her grandmother was the kindergarten teacher there for 35 years, her uncle a school bus driver and later her cousin ran Evans Butchery for years.
"Riverina represent!" Rusciano says.
"My childhood is filled with memories of staying with my grandparents.
"We went yabbying and spent the hot summers by the Berrigan pool!"
Those family bonds and cherished rituals may have even helped hold Rusciano in good stead as she processed diagnoses of ADHD, autism and early menopause, all within the narrow window of the past five years.
With only Bart Simpson and Dustin Hoffman in Rain Man (1988) representing ADHD and autism in the mainstream media respectively in her mind, Rusciano says she initially struggled with her own diagnoses.
She says autism in women is much more nuanced than in men or children.
"It all came totally out of left field," she says.
"I was an exhausted 42-year-old woman who didn't have anything in common with Bart Simpson.
"Then throw in early menopause, which exacerbated my ADHD."
However, after two years of soul-searching and gathering information Rusciano re-gained her sense of self and found a new purpose.
She gave a powerful speech in 2022 to the National Press Club of Australia on the subject of ADHD and her son's autism.
She was widely praised for it and the effect it had on helping to remove the stigma around neuro-divergence.
"The last five years have been brutal, beautiful and bonkers," Rusciano says.
"They challenged everything I ever believed about myself to my core.
"I'm finally limping out the other side of it now with way less oestrogen and as a newly-crowned neuro-divergent double threat!"
Naturally, Rusciano quips, now feels like the right time to return to the stage.
Together with Frontier Touring, Rusciano has announced a 15-date Outgrown tour for July-August (including Albury Entertainment Centre on Sunday, August 18).
Outgrown is billed as a hilarious, searing and multi-sensory look at the beauty that can emerge after everything has been burned to the ground while Rusciano herself describes it as "a big hug and a love letter".
Her first big national tour since her successful Rage and Rainbows tour in 2019, Rusciano says she is still angry but at least now she understands its source.
She says information about menopause and perimenopause (the transitional period before menopause) is widely lacking in the media.
"Kaz Cooke and Judith Lucy (Menopausal Night Out) and Menopause The Musical have done a lot of work but it's still not considered a sexy topic in the mainstream media," she says.
"I was really angry during my last tour and now I know why.
"As an eldest daughter, people-pleaser and perfectionist who could be prone to depression, it all really burnt me out."
Rusciano's best-selling first book Try Hard: Tales from the Life of a Needy Overachiever went to the top of the iBook charts before it was even released.
Her podcast Emsolation was picked up as Australia's first ever Spotify exclusive and came second in the Australian Podcast awards in the People's Choice category.
Still struggling with rest and recuperation, Rusciano says she now uses her five senses to ground herself in the present moment as well as exercising even more often.
"My bones were like chalk because of menopause," Rusciano says.
"Eight months ago I was told to exercise and I did go to the gym.
"I want to age powerfully so when I need to rest I exercise!
"But I've got a sensory pod at home and I climb in and put my headphones on and look outside too."
Balance is everything.
Tickets: frontiertouring.com/emrusciano