{"id":628,"date":"2025-11-06T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-11-06T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nickzainofreelance.com\/?p=628"},"modified":"2026-09-27T00:11:14","modified_gmt":"2026-09-27T00:11:14","slug":"aimee-mann-and-ted-leo-bring-their-annual-christmas-show-back-to-town","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nickzainofreelance.com\/?p=628","title":{"rendered":"Aimee Mann and Ted Leo bring their annual Christmas show back to town"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Mass. native Josh Gondelman joins the tour again this year.<\/h2>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">By Nick A. Zaino III Globe correspondent,Updated November 6, 2025, 6:00 a.m.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Silly and earnest never mingle quite so freely as they do during the Christmas season. And for more than a decade, the Aimee Mann &amp; Ted Leo Christmas Show has embraced that mix, featuring cozy renditions of favorites like \u201cThe Christmas Song\u201d and \u201cI\u2019ll Be Home for Christmas\u201d along with sketch and stand-up comedy, and usually a story arc where Leo learns a holiday lesson.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The show is back in Boston at the Chevalier on Dec. 6 with musician Nellie McKay and comedians <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bostonglobe.com\/2025\/04\/25\/arts\/paul-tompkins-varietopia-boston\/?p1=BGSearch_Overlay_Results&amp;p1=Article_Inline_Text_Link\" class=\"\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Paul F. Tompkins<\/a> and Stoneham native Josh Gondelman.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cTed is very funny and a really good actor,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bostonglobe.com\/2025\/06\/04\/arts\/aimee-mann-lost-in-space\/?p1=BGSearch_Overlay_Results&amp;p1=Article_Inline_Text_Link\" class=\"\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">said Mann<\/a>, speaking by Zoom with Leo, \u201cand it is really fun for me to interact with him onstage. And every concept for the theme of the show we come up with is always really dumb. There\u2019s a dumbness factor that, for me, is a real attractant.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Christmas comedy can be wrought with cynicism for tidings of good will hollowed out by ads for cars and appliances. To Leo, that\u2019s not what this show is about. \u201cIt\u2019s not an anti-holiday show, it\u2019s not an anti-Christmas show,\u201d he said. \u201cWe might absolutely sneak in our sentiments about commercialization, hardening of religious traditions that we don\u2019t necessarily agree with, but dare I say, the spirit of Christmas, the holidays in general, it is absolutely something that I think everyone involved is invested in.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bostonglobe.com\/2025\/11\/05\/arts\/aimee-mann-ted-leo-christmas-show\/?p1=BGSearch_Advanced_Results\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.bostonglobe.com\/2025\/11\/05\/arts\/aimee-mann-ted-leo-christmas-show\/?p1=BGSearch_Advanced_Results\">Click here to read the full story on www.bostonglobe.com. <\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mass. native Josh Gondelman joins the tour again this year. By Nick A. Zaino III Globe correspondent,Updated November 6, 2025, 6:00 a.m. Silly and&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":38,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-628","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nickzainofreelance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nickzainofreelance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nickzainofreelance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nickzainofreelance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nickzainofreelance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=628"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nickzainofreelance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":629,"href":"https:\/\/nickzainofreelance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628\/revisions\/629"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nickzainofreelance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/38"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nickzainofreelance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nickzainofreelance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nickzainofreelance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}