Humor with heart: Naperville doc organizing Comedy Night benefit
Edward Hospital physician David McElligott is a man who takes his humor seriously.
The founder of the hospital's annual Comedy Night, McElligott takes a week's vacation before the event to write his material and spends 50 or 60 hours in the two weeks before that to write and coordinate the video segments.
This year's two shows of "Still Funny After All These Years," set for 7 and 9:30 p.m. Friday at the Hilton Lisle/Naperville, will include an Olympic moment of gurney racing, spoofs on health-care TV commercials, a quiz show in which participants can earn Edward "health bucks," and McElligott's own stand-up routine and comic news report.
"I do think it's something people look forward to," said the Lemont resident, who has been an Edward Hospital physician for 25 years.
While the Comedy Night draws mostly Edward Hospital staff and spouses to see the show, some patients come just to see their doctors perform. McElligott, a pulmonary critical care physician, said many of his patients don't know he can be funny.
"They can't believe I have a sense of humor in some cases. They come just to see if that's possible," he said.
The Comedy Night is a fundraiser for the Edward Foundation humor therapy program that McElligott helped get off the ground 16 or 17 years ago. The program provides humorous videos, books and games at no cost to patients in the hospital.
The proceeds from this year's show will go to establish a pediatric humor therapy program. McElligott said he envisions bringing in clowns and magicians for patient visits, and purchasing AV equipment and video games to provide comic relief to young patients.
Laughing medicine
Humor does more than take patients' minds off their less than ideal circumstances, he said. Studies have shown mirthful laughter can reduce stress, lessen the need for pain medication and boost the immune system.
"The old adage 'laughter is the best medicine' has some truth for all of us," McElligott said. "When we are happy, when we laugh, we all feel better."
His own wish for the humor therapy program is that it would not just make patients' hospital stays more palatable, but actually change their lives.
"They need to leave the hospital with the idea I need to laugh every day," he said. "That would be what I hope humor therapy would impart."
Alter ego role
McElligott - who enjoys David Letterman, "Saturday Night Live," "The Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report" - calls himself a frustrated performer.
He acted in theater in college and exercised his humor at banquets and roasts in medical school.
He remembers giving a humorous presentation at a Edward Hospital retreat, and maybe that's how Janet Haines, the former director of the Edward Foundation, got the idea he would be the person to approach about starting a humor therapy program.
The Comedy Night got started shortly after as a fund-raiser for the program.
"I do enjoy making people laugh. That is something pleasurable to me," he said. "Which is how I guess I got roped into doing this for 15 years in a row."
This year's show will feature professional comedians Borth & Ellen, along with Dan Ottolin of Naperville, the son of an Edward Hospital physician and the high school winner of the 2008 Illinois State Speech Competition in stand-up comedy.
McElligott and a regular core of Edward Hospital administrators, physicians and staff fill out the comedic roster.
Bill Kottmann, vice president of physician integration at Edward and president of Edward Health Venture, has been involved with the show from the beginning. He sings and plays the guitar, as does Dr. Alan Brown.
Kottmann called McElligott a witty, but compassionate guy who isn't afraid to laugh at himself. In the past, McElligott has donned a patient's gown, woman's clothing and an adult diaper as part of the show, although an injured leg will keep him from climbing in and out of costume this year.
"He never fails to be willing to subject himself to what would be a humiliating situation to someone else," Kottmann said. "He does it with such aplomb."
Edward's president and chief executive officer Pam Davis also has been willing to take on comic roles. McElligott said this year she'll tape a crime stoppers segment, in a takeoff of her role in gathering evidence against Stuart Levine, a former member of the Health Facilities Planning Board and key witness in the Tony Rezko corruption trial.
Dr. Mike Fitzgerald, a neonatologist who owns a video company, produces the video segments of the show.
McElligott said the hospital often has held the show in February, and when it was moved to May this year, people stopped him at the hospital to inquire about it.
"I was actually pleasantly surprised," he said.
Nancy Boecker, office manager in the medical practice in which McElliogott is a partner, said she goes to the show every year.
"I look forward to it. He's so unique in how he prepares for this," she said. "He catches you off-guard."
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