SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
Winter in Fairbanks, Alaska, is brutal. Think lows in the negative 30s and sunsets in the afternoon. And winter arrives early, right around now. That is all tough for people with seasonal depression. As the Alaska desk's Shelby Herbert reports, one man in the city has a unique anecdote to his winter blues - balloon art.
SHELBY HERBERT, BYLINE: In the summer months, Bill Torgerson is kind of like a professional clown, sans makeup. For about a decade, his full-time job has been making balloon animals, ninja swords and other balloon objects for kids at birthday parties, bar mitzvahs and public festivals. At a Labor Day barbecue, he was wearing a big yellow bowtie, towering over a long line of kids that looped around his booth. He'll make them anything they want.
BILL TORGERSON: The only thing that really ever holds me back is the amount of balloons and the amount of time that I've got.
HERBERT: Ten-year-old Ellen Schreiner asked for a hamburger.
ELLEN SCHREINER: And I don't think he's, like, really made that one before because he was, like, hmm. And then - but then he made it for me.
HERBERT: But right about now, that work drops off. He still does some indoor events, but it's slow. And with snow starting to fall already in the Alaska interior, the part of the year that's hardest for him is getting started. The cold air can create a temperature inversion, trapping wood smoke and other pollution close to the ground like fog, and touching exposed metal can give you frostbite in an instant. That's when Torgerson, who lives with severe clinical depression, feels the most vulnerable.
TORGERSON: Right after, like, the holiday season, a lot of people end up getting really depressed during, like, January. And so, like, me in particular, I have a lot of struggles with that.
HERBERT: What helps keep his spirits up are bigger and wilder balloon art creations that he just does for his own enjoyment; for example, an almost 13-foot-tall Godzilla costume made of balloons that covers his entire body, or a giant balloon chandelier.
TORGERSON: And it really helps keep me going. It is basically the fresh breath of life that I'm kind of hoping to put out there that I need for myself.
HERBERT: He shows those projects off on TikTok to an audience of over 30,000 followers.
(SOUNDBITE OF TIKTOK VIDEO)
TORGERSON: Hi, everybody. I'm IncrediBilloons. I'm going to teach you how to make some incredible balloons today.
(SOUNDBITE OF BALLOONS TWISTING)
HERBERT: His most popular videos have around half a million views.
TORGERSON: I like the idea of being able to bring something so unique and so literally big to my small town.
HERBERT: This winter, he's trying to break the Guinness World record for the tallest balloon costume. This time, 15 feet tall.
For NPR News, I'm Shelby Herbert in Fairbanks.
(SOUNDBITE OF CHRIS HAZELTON'S BOOGALOO 7'S "TRU-GALU") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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