Contact: 								FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Corey Pandolph 252-7964
Fake Rock Star Productions  

COMEDY PROS TURN TO DOCTORS
TO CURE WINTER DEPRESSION


PORTLAND, ME It's a well-known fact that comedians feel 
winter--and summer--depression more deeply than their audiences. And depression 
can threaten first mental health, then physical health, while laughter, 
studies show, lowers blood pressure, reduces stress hormones, boosts 
immune function, even releasing endorphins--nature's natural 
painkillers--increasing our feeling of well-being. So when comedy 
writers/performers Dan Bernard and Corey Pandolph found themselves watching gloomy, 
cold-war era Polish films while overeating, overdrinking and sleeping 
excessively, they consulted a doctor.

Not just any doctor--a whole clinic. 

And this panel of medical experts diagnosed the two with "winter 
depression," or "seasonal affective disorder," though one claimed 
they were "simply babies." Their advice to the comics? Full comedy 
immersion. Don't just write funny; perform it, share it, connect with 
your community, they prescribed. Thus was born a program that is like a 
legal pharmaceutical.

Pandolph and Bernard, under the guise of their "Fake Rock Star 
Productions," (www.liveimprov.com) corralled a wide range of talents for 
their February 6 show, "The One More for Johnny Freestyle Comedy 
Night." Per their doctors' advice, they and their colleagues, hailing 
from Portland, New York City and beyond will bring their audience the 
deepest funny material from deep within their troubled psyches. Stand-up 
and sketch comedy will meet music, improvisation and a closing radio 
theater piece by award-winning radio scribe Bernard. They hope to cure 
their own intolerable cold-weather depression along with the audience of 
the St. Lawrence Arts Center (www.stlawrencearts.org). The funny will be 
broadcast later on local favorite, WMPG.

XXX