Sam Zee

Look, Patton Oswalt’s a busy dude. Of late, he’s been defending the good name of humanity against real-life scumbags in between acting stints on FX’s Justified, NBC’s Parks & Recreation and HBO’s The Newsroom. He’s a onetime SPIN columnist, occasional Spiderman villain/full-time awesome dad, and he’s probably writing another book or something. So even if you were crazy enough to write 59 songs about the guy, there’s a fairly good chance he won’t be able to perform at your super-cool fundraiser. Which is exactly what happened.

As the A.V. Club reports, their writer Sam Zelitch (lovingly identified as “some guy” in the headline) did indeed pen 59 different musical compositions featuring lyrics about Mr. Oswalt. Zelich hoped that the 44-year-old funnyman would appear at Chicago’s Promic-Con, a cosplay-themed formal dance that will raise money for Dave Eggers’ 826CHI charity, responsible for youth outreach through creative writing programs. In Tweeting nearly 60 songs at Patton, Zelich succeeded at finding out that Patton would not be available, but is still awesome.

“But what about the songs?”, you ask. Well, they’re about as good as you’d expect, but impressive in that they exist. They can be heard on Smellitch’s SoundCloud profile or below in Bandcamp album form, which lovingly plays off of Magnetic Fields’ 69 Love Songs cover art. For $8.26 you can own the whole lot of ‘em, with all proceeds going to 826CHI. To purchase tickets to main event, visit the Promic-Con site. - SPIN

Silent films that have stood the test of time often featured an iconic performer — think of Charlie Chaplin eating that shoe in 1925's "The Gold Rush" — and so perhaps not surprisingly, Chicago's Silent Theatre Company first made its reputation five years ago with "Lulu," which recaptured onstage the magic of cinematic "It Girl" Louise Brooks ("Pandora's Box," 1929).

The troupe hasn't created anything quite as successful since, but "The Better Doctor," its modestly scaled effort (a collaboration with Bootstraps Comedy Theater), has the offbeat charm of a crooked smile, and might just be the company's most cohesive and fully realized production in recent years.

Created and directed by Dallas transplant Matt Lyle, the show invents a staged silent film that is at once entirely original — and an obvious piece of agitprop about health care for the uninsured — while retaining the narrative playfulness and simplicity of films of that era. It's as if there really was a silent movie called "The Better Doctor" sitting in a dusty warehouse somewhere.

None of it would work without the right actors at its core, and Lyle has cast his wife (the winning Kim Lyle) as a tomboyish gal-pal to a trio of ailing neighborhood street urchins (hilariously named Slings, Rickets and Mumps). Strapped for cash but hoping to help the young scrappers anyway, she teams up with a nice-guy hospital orderly (Samuel Zelitch, playing a not-so-brilliant character brilliantly).

The rule of thumb in this genre is highly physical, exaggerated acting with a strong clown underpinning. If the pace here isn't quite as snappy as it needs to be, the show — with live drum-and-keyboard accompaniment — still has an awful lot going for it.

Zelitch sports a sizable Afro and Matt Lyle smartly acknowledges this natural feature by having his leading lady root around in there for house keys. Both Zelitch and Kim Lyle understand that most of their acting needs to come through their eyes, and Zelitch in particular has the uncanny instincts of Buster Keaton, injecting just the right amount of despair and silliness. Impersonating a doctor, he begins the routine with a very funny, completely nonsensical robotlike Japanese bow that encapsulates the show's high-spirited riff on the Hippocratic oath: First, make the audience laugh.

ctc-live@tribune.com

When: Through June 26

Where: Prop Thtr, 3502 N. Elston Ave.

Running time: 1 hour - Chicago Tribune

Great letter from Sam Zelitch. - Paul Gale Comedy