‘Twas the season Monday night, when Aimee Mann and Ted Leo stopped by the Agora as part of their traveling Christmas variety show. In the vein of a true variety show, they had songs, skits, comedy, and costume changes, all with a Christmas twist.
The show kicked off with a cover of the Status Quo song “It’s Christmas Time,” and continued from there with a mix of traditional Christmas covers, like “I’ll Be Home for Christmas,” as well as a few crowd pleasers by both Aimee Mann and Ted Leo, like “Save Me” and “Can’t Go Back.”
On the third song of the set, we were introduced to the first guest, standup / voice actor / sketch comedy guru Paul F Tompkins, who was a highlight of the evening. He came out and started singing “Oh, Holy Night,” but just the “part everyone wants to hear,” before he was interrupted by Ted attending to emails on his phone. This started the running thread of the evening, which was PFT confining Ted to sever, like the Apple show. He would have a “backie,” as his backstage persona, and an “outtie” as his on-stage persona.
The rest of the show was mainly songs and skits, with this running gag/storyline working as a throughline with bookends. The funniest bits of the severed jokes were when they revealed Leo’s backie was into things antithetical to Leo’s punk image, like hacky sack and Steve Miller Band. In reality, this running thread felt a little shoehorned in, but it was funny enough that it didn’t really matter. You just found yourself saying, ‘Who cares if it’s Christmas-related or not? It’s funny!’ On that note, you didn’t have to necessarily be a fan of either artist or their collaboration, The Both, because they really didn’t play much of their own material apart from a few hits.
Next, comedian Josh Gondelman came out and did a brief, five-to-ten-minute stand-up set, again not really Christmas-related, but it didn’t necessarily matter. Gondelman joined a few times throughout the night, playing different characters, including during a hilarious parody version of “Voices Carry” changed to “This is Gary.” “This is Gary,” if I’m piecing it together correctly, is a Christmas song about kids waking up to what they expect to be Santa but is instead a drunk stepdad character named Gary, with the chorus as the title of the song. According to Mann, “This is Gary” was the real Christmas version, giving the crowd a good laugh.
There were so many standout moments of the evening. One was Mann and Leo singing just the background vocals to the Lisa Loeb song “Stay.” Another was singer Nellie McKay, whose blend of comedy, singing, and musicianship was very impressive. She and the keyboardist played a song, rotating in and out of it seamlessly. McKay and PFT definitely ran circles around Mann and Leo on the comedy routines, but that made the bits all the better. The stiffness of the duo when up against the pros was pretty funny and relatable.
After 15 mostly Christmas songs, they played a handful of their own songs, even giving Leo a chance to shred on his guitar during Mann’s “Sugarcoated.” That was followed by a parody version of the Steve Miller song “Abracadabra,” called “Never Un-Sever,” tying up the running Severed theme. Finally, the entire group came out and sang with Guaraldi’s “Christmas Time is Here,” putting a nice cap on the two-hour-plus evening.
This isn’t your Grandpa’s Christmas show. (Well, maybe it is if you’re somewhat young, because the average age was a bit older.) But the content and songs are definitely not White Christmas. It’s a fun update on the idea of a variety show. It’s especially fun for those with a short attention span, with a nice blend of comedy and music. This was the first year they brought the Christmas show on the road, and one can only hope they do it every year.
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