“Really and truly my name is Goldberg, but I changed it for performance purposes a few years ago,” said singer/comic Kayla Gold. “So my parents weren’t too happy with that. They said: ‘Hey, if Goldberg is good enough for Whoopi, it should be good enough for you!'”
It will be back to Goldberg on Saturday, March 2 when Gold takes the stage in Mill Valley with her friend and performance partner, Michael McQuilkin. “I’ve built up this whole career under Gold, but Michael thought McQuilkin and Goldberg sounded funnier, so I changed it back for this act,” she said.
The career she refers to is as a singer and voice teacher. She has performed in dinner theater and at venues such as San Francisco’s Plush Room. She also is a songwriter, which she says is fun but “doesn’t pay the bills by any means.” McQuilkin is in the piano business.
“We’re both just doing our thing,” Gold said. “It all started when Michael called me one day and said, ‘Hey, I know what I want to do with my life as a performer. I want to be Victor Borge.’ And I said ‘I want to be Victor Borge, too.'”
In line with that ambition, they jump off from classical music for humor, as did the great Danish Jewish performer.
In their duo, though, “a lot of our humor comes from the fact that he’s Scottish and I’m Jewish. One part of our shtick is banter about who has the most comics, the Jews or the Scots,” Gold said, laughing. “Actually, Michael may be one of the few Scottish comedians in the whole world.”
The duo has been together for two years and has done performances for Bread and Roses, a volunteer organization that goes to nursing homes, prisons and other venues. Also involved is comedy writer Larry Williams, who directs their show. The March 2 gig will take place at the Marin Theater Company but is not an MTC production.
Now a resident of San Rafael, Gold grew up in San Francisco and is the youngest of four children, all of whom attended Congregation Emanu-El. Her parents are very involved with Jewish Community Federation, the Jewish Community Relations Council and other communal causes.
“Actually, my dad, Daniel, is doing a guest spot in the show,” she confided. “After I sing a song he comes up and sings it in Yiddish. He’s got that vaudeville spirit in him, and he actually steals the show.
“Of course, his name is Goldberg.”