[Maritime Q-Scout]

They say comedians suffer disproportionately from depression. If you think about it, that makes a lot of sense.

In order to be funny, I mean truly funny, top of your profession, house hold name, touring with your name bigger than the venue's; funny… it means you can exaggerate life's little foibles. You truly see the world differently, and focus on what's odd, strange and wrong with society, and then point it would with wit, and impeccable timing.

Imagine living your entire life constantly seeing the problems, issues, and annoyances of life. Always obsessing about them. How awful would that be? It would undoubtably put you in a dark place.

Now imagine being able to go from obsession on what's wrong with everything, going from that dark place, and then going on stage in front of hundreds of people and making them laugh for an hour and a half. That's great, an incredible high after an extreme low.

Then back to your lonesome self, seeing the wrong side of everything, alone in a hotel room.

Depression? Yeah, it's not surprising at all.

It saddens me to add Robin Williams to a list with Greg Geraldo, John Pinette, and Richard Jeni; legendary comedians who were some of my personal favourites and succumb to their depression in one form or another (drugs for Geraldo, over eating for Pinette, and you really don't want to know how Jeni died).

If you have never seen Robin Williams' standup, go to YouTube, then be sure to check out Live on Broadway, or Weapons of Mass Destruction. The man was a genius and I will always think of California as God's Etch-a-Sketch because of him.