Welcome to Year 6 of the Bridgetown Comedy Festival and that means dozens of comedians, from the insignificant to the insanely popular, will be prowling up and down SE Hawthorne April 18–21. I just saw headliner Dana Gould at last week's Laughter is the Best Medicine fundraiser, and he's a brilliant guy whose resume includes writing stints on The Ben Stiller Show and something called The Simpsons. Gould does a mean bit about taking anti-depressants that goes something like this:

"So I have some friends who tell me, 'You know Dana, when you take medication for depression, the feelings you have are still there, you're only masking them.' YES! I KNOW! And in the winter, I wear a coat to mask the cold!" 

Groovy improvisational maestro Reggie Watts also will be on board, along with boffo Brits Peter Serafinowicz and Robert Popper from the BBC series Look Around You, and stalwart club performers like Moshe Kasher, Emily Heller, Matt Braunger, Todd Glass, Kurt Braunohler, and Laura Kightlinger, among zillions of others. Dave Anthony and Greg Behrendt from Walking the Room, the most obnoxious podcast in the known universe, will be part of the program. And never fear, local talents including Ian Karmel, Shane Torres, Virginia Jones (OK, she moved to Los Angeles a while back, but we still have feelings for her), and Stacey Hallal will represent the home team. We'll do our best to get some Q&A time with prominent participants so stay tuned to Culturephile!