I guess growing up in Athens, Georgia, makes you susceptible to Elvis. Comedian David Payle, who just moved to the Windy City from down South, has come up with a scheme to use Elvis' popularity to help save the environment. Thus comes the birth of The Green E - The Environmental Elvis. In a flashy white jumpsuit, Payle goes through a gamut of songs -- the Elvis trademark melodies, all right, but different lyrics. They're all rewritten by Payle to be environmentally conscious. It's really a stitch to hear and see because Elvis (irony of ironies) was so unconscious, driving gas-guzzling cars and shooting at TV's. But The Green E works because it's such a wacky idea -- and because it's so campy.
Preceding Elvis as a warm-up act is comedian Tony Arquilla, whose jokes also concern environmentalism. The punchlines were often obvious or obscure for me, and since I was the only audience that night, I was every comedian's nightmare. Perhaps with a larger, more responsive crowd, Arquilla would have shone more naturally.
