Anybody at The Toad in Cambridge on Sunday night can now say that they saw Ronald Reagan—Boston’s premier 80’s saxophone duo—as they MC’d a comedy night, fresh off of their country-wide tour with Amanda Palmer. The dynamic duo opened with a quick-paced wordless saxophone piece, only pausing for the audience to sing “Take on Me,” then continued with Cindy Lauper’s “Girls Just Want to Have Fun.”
The first comedian up was Mehran Khaghani. He explained to a roaring crowd how it was growing up Iranian and gay. The man had a great stage presence—comfortable and able to work with the audience and was amusing both on stage and off.
Ronald Reagan took the stage once more to play Starship’s “We Built This City (on Rock and Roll)” and Eurythmics’ “Sweet Dreams” before introducing Evan O’Television. Mr. O’Television’s act was an argument between him and an old recording of himself—in this case, a recording taken before the election who was worried about spoilers. It was very clever (and a little meta). Ronald Reagan played The Twins’ “Love in the Dark” before intermission.
Alec Spiegelman and Kelly Roberge were inspired to begin an 80’s pop music saxophone duo one summer while listening to Cindy Lauper records. Kelly is currently working on a project he called “All of Us Solo Quartet,” in which he performs as all four members of a band that met online from various places around the world. He opened the second part of the night as the quartet with their different accents and mannerisms.
Tom Dustin stepped up next. His jokes had the audience laughing and cringing from their inappropriate content. He read a very amusing, over-the-top dating profile he made and talked about the reactions people had to it.
Pointing out that it wouldn’t be an 80’s night without some Michael Jackson music, Ronald Reagan went up one more time to play “Beat it” and then finished the night strong with “Don’t Stop Believing.”
