Three Professional Comedians to Perform at SalusCare Comedy Night

Tickets Now on Sale
FORT MYERS, FLA., July 16, 2018– Three nationally recognized professional comedians will bring more fun to the stage on August 18 when they perform at the fourth annual “Laughter Is the Best Medicine Comedy Night” to benefit SalusCare, Inc.
Professional comedian Michael Palascak returns for the fourth time and will serve as emcee for the evening as well as perform his stand-up comedy routine.  Fellow professional comedians Pat McGann and Dwayne Perkins also will perform.
“We are thrilled to have not just one – but three professional comedians join us for our signature event.  This is in addition to our four celebrity comics who will be performing and competing for two awards chosen by the audience,’” said SalusCare Development Committee Co-Chair Marc Collins.
Tickets are now on sale for the event at the Broadway Palm and may be purchased at www.saluscarecomedynight.org.  Tickets are $150 each, including heavy hors-d’oeuvres, drinks and the show.
All three professional comedians have earned kudos for their stand-up routines.  Michael appeared on The Late Show with David Letterman, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson.  He also has performed at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas, won HBO’s Lucky 21 Stand-up Contest, and was a finalist in NBC’s Last Comic Standing.  Michael was one of 12 comedians in America to debut his half-hour special on the inaugural season of Comedy Central’s The Half Hour.
Pat created and hosted the Emmy-nominated television show The Chicago Stand Up Project.  He appeared twice on The Late Show with David Letterman and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, and has been invited to appear at The Great American Comedy Festival, Laugh Fest and The Lucille Ball Comedy Festival.  He has been heard on the nationally syndicated The Bob & Tom Show as well as seen on AXC-TV’s Gothem Comedy Live.  His debut comedy album Sounds Good can be heard on Sirius/XM radio.
Dwayne is a new addition to the comedic line-up this year.  His one-hour special, Dwayne Perkins: Take Note, debuted on Netflix to rave reviews and became one of the top Netflix comedy specials of all time.  He has appeared several times on Comedy Central and Conan O’Brien and had a recurring piece on The Jay Leno Show entitled Great White Moments in Black History that was a viewer favorite.  He also is the author of Hot Chocolate For the Mind, a collection of humorous essays.
Four local celebrities also will perform a five-minute stand-up routine for event attendees who will “vote” for the best comedic performance.  An award also will be presented to the celebrity comic who raises the most money for SalusCare. The local celebrities who will exchange laughs for votes are:

• Gina Birch, Radio-TV personality and wine aficionado
• Dr. Michael Martin, Florida Gulf Coast University President
• Eric Raddatz, Fort Myers Film Festival founder and Florida Weekly Presentation Editor
• Amy Bennett Williams, News-Press staff writer

“Laughter Is the Best Medicine Comedy Night” has the greatest sponsorship support in its four-year history.
The Title/Presenting Sponsor is Mr. Greens Produce, a Miami-based produce distributor with a distribution center in Fort Myers that specializes in servicing restaurants, hotels, country clubs, and other food service establishments.
The Showcase Sponsor is The Richard and Vicki Pitbladdo Foundation Fund, a fund of the Southwest Florida Community Foundation.
Other major sponsors are B&I Contractors, Bill Smith Appliances, Broadway Palm, Park Royal Hospital and T3 Communications (Headliner sponsors); Leading Edge Benefit Advisors and Siesta Pebble, Inc. (Grand Finale sponsors); Lee County Sheriff’s Department, Lykes Insurance, Millennium Physician Group and Altered Tattoo Company (Monologue sponsors).
Florida Weekly and The News-Press Media Group are the media sponsors.
Funds raised at the event will be used to provide outpatient psychiatry and therapy to children and adolescents in our area whose families can least afford it.   One in 10 children has serious mental health problems severe enough to impair how they function at home, in school, or in the community, according to the National Center for Children & Poverty at Columbia University.  Left untreated, mental illnesses can lead to more difficult to treat illnesses and to the development of co-occurring disorders.
For more information, contact Vice President of Public Relations Todd Cordisco at (239) 791-1575 or at [email protected] .
 
About SalusCare, Inc.
SalusCare, Inc., is the most comprehensive mental health and substance abuse treatment program in Southwest Florida, serving more than 16,000 people per year of all ages from seven locations in Lee County.   The non-profit organization offers crisis stabilization, outpatient and residential treatment and an Employee Assistance Program for about 50 area companies. The majority of programs are accredited by CARF, the Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities.
SalusCare services are not free.  A sliding fee scale is available for most services, based on family income.  In many cases, private insurance is accepted.  SalusCare is a United Way partner agency.