Science is rarely funny and comedy is rarely scientific, but
Sherry Hilber’s nonprofit organization Rx Laughter hopes to
link the two.
With support from cable network Comedy Central, sitcom stars Ray
Romano (“Everybody Loves Raymond”) and Kevin James
(“The King of Queens”) will appear with other comedians
to do stand-up at Royce Hall tonight at 8 p.m. to raise funds for
Rx Laughter, a project that hopes to scientifically prove the
healing power of laughter and provide comedy therapy for
patients.
UCLA alumna Hilber spent 10 years as a programming executive at
ABC and CBS overseeing such shows as “Home Improvement”
and “Roseanne.” But two years ago, she decided to
devote her talent at programming comedy for kids who were
undergoing painful operations. Her guiding light is “comedy
plus compassion equals Rx Laughter.”
“I have always felt that comedy was an emotional
healer,” Hilber said. “After being a prime-time network
executive, I wanted to use my knowledge and experience to devote my
career to the medical uses of entertainment for seriously ill
patients.”
Hilber founded the project and convinced doctors Margaret Stuber
and Lonnie Zeltzer, in association with the UCLA Jonsson Cancer
Center, to lead research into discovering whether laughter helps
people physically heal. Indeed, preliminary results of the study
show that after patients laugh watching comedy, their pain
thresholds (the amount of pain they can withstand) double, which
could potentially help patients with disorders such as arthritis,
or that require chemotherapy, dialysis or burn treatments.
“I hope that we can learn more about exactly how humor
might change the body’s chemistry,” Hilber said.
“Then we can prescribe comedy programs in specific ways much
like medicine.”
Comedian Wendy Liebman, who is also performing tonight, found
out about the project after reading about it in a Writer’s
Guild of America newsletter. After calling Hilber, Liebman, who
formerly considered being a psychologist, got involved.
“I believe it theoretically, that laughter helps heal, but
here I saw these people studying it, and I wanted to get
involved,” Liebman said. “A cable subscription (for
Comedy Central) is cheaper than medication.”
Finding funding for the project was a major concern. Comedy
Central had been involved with charities through its similarly
titled “Comedy Rx.” When Hilber told Comedy
Central’s Tony Fox, executive vice president of corporate
communications, Fox could see the writing on the wall.
“People looked at me like this guy is nuts,” Fox
said. “We’re a television network, not a research
institute. But when I got the president and CEO off to the side, I
said, “˜Larry, imagine if in five years time we can prove
through science that Comedy Central is good for you.’ He
looked me straight in the eye and said, “˜Write the check
today.'”
The first check was for $75,000 in 2000, and a second was made
the following year for $20,000. However, times are tougher in the
advertisement market and Comedy Central felt that a fundraiser
would be more appropriate.
The goal of Hilber’s study, however, is not to simply find
proof of comedy’s healing powers, but to eventually provide
comedy therapy to patients through a comedy channel that would be
available on hospital televisions. She wants patients to watch
shows (Comedy Health Education Videos, which she is currently
developing) that help eliminate the fear of being in a hospital as
well as classic comedy skits of Abbott and Costello, the Marx
Brothers, and others. In addition, she wants to minimize loneliness
through an interactive component, which will allow patients to
communicate and share their experiences.
Being an established television network, Comedy Central hopes to
be a part of Hilber’s in-hospital comedy channel. However,
the current UCLA study is focused on children and would require
age-appropriate comedy, but Hilber hopes to expand the program to
other hospitals around the country and for patients of all
ages.
“There’s some real interesting possibilities for
Comedy Central down the road if it does bare out that laughter is
physically good for you,” Fox said.
Hilber herself graduated from UCLA with a degree in
communications studies. She first thought about comedy as therapy
when she read Norman Cousins’ book about comedy as a healer.
When it came time to find a place to initiate her plan, she looked
to her alma mater. In addition, UCLA is located close to the
entertainment industry, which is important for bringing comedy,
especially in the form of sitcoms or movies, to patients.
As a veteran network executive, Hilber was able to find contacts
for an advisory board that consists of such people as Charlie
Chaplin’s son and daughter (Christopher and Josephine),
Buster Keaton’s daughter Melissa Talmadge Cox, Harpo
Marx’s son Bill and Lou Costello’s daughter Chris. Such
support allows Hilber the ability to use classic comedy bits from
their families on her in-hospital network.
Though she hasn’t yet retired from network, Hilber is
currently involved full-time running her project to allow for low
overhead. Without children of her own, she hopes her project will
help kids be less scared during hospital trips.
“Children in chemotherapy are traumatized,” Hilber
said. “If they know there’s comfort, they’ll be
less traumatized. This is a way of helping them do that.”
Tickets can be purchased through the UCLA Central Ticket Office
at http://www.cto.ucla.edu or 310-825-2101. For more information
about Rx Laughter, please go to www.rxlaughter.org.