September 2- 8, 2004

art

Kiki and Herb

Interview by A.D. Amorosi

Since first teaming up under their real names, Justin Bond and Kenny Mellman for their debut performance at the Strand adult theater in San Francisco in 1989, they have made beautiful music together. Upon "becoming" the ageless chanteuse "Kiki" (Bond) and her piano-pounding partner "Herb" in 1991, they took the performance-theater world by storm with productions small (a dozen different shows at their second home, NYC's Fez) and large (Pardon Our Appearance) — not to mention solo efforts like Justin Bond: Uncorked! and Kenny Mellman's Three Tenors with Magnetic Fields' Stephin Merritt. Now, after Obie Awards and sold-out shows at London's Soho Theatre, Kiki and Herb are retiring their wigs and ruffled shirts. So they say. They conference-called from Manhattan where they're rehearsing their grand finale at Carnegie Hall.

City Paper: The last time you played Philadelphia was right after 9/11. What do you remember most?

Justin Bond: The Friday after 9/11! That was so intense. It was magical — probably because we were so unsure whether or not we should go on or what we should do.

Kenny Mellman: The show isn't depressing. But it's also not exactly "Kumbaya." We were freaked.

CP: How did you meet?

KM: It really was one of those things where a friend of mine said "Hey, I know someone who sings. You play piano. You should get together." The funniest part of that is I used to see Justin riding the subways when he was going to his job at Adrienne Vittadini. "Hmm. Who's that?" That sort of thing. So we got together in my apartment and sang and played Jacques Brel songs. It became, very quickly a "why not, let's just do this" thing. So we did. And that's how history was made.

CP: What made you realize you were on to something?

JB: For me, it all just felt immediately relaxed. There was no chomping-at-the-bit showbizy-ness about him. We were just enjoying the music and hanging out. So when we went from his bedroom to the stage — by the way, the piano was in his bedroom — it felt as natural and easy as it sounded.

KM: It's also that we were both in-league politically — the whole ACT UP/Queer Nation protest-in-the-streets of San Francisco. I think we knew that with me, a classically trained pianist, and him, this singer-actor, that we'd wind up doing something different.

JB: Being that we were both classically trained, we both rejected the material we were trained to perform. But we brought all the skills with us.

CP: What signified the click, the moment Kiki & Herb became clear?

JB: We happened onto "Total Eclipse of the Heart." That took us into a different phase and place. Kenny really wanted to do the song. I liked it but thought it was overplayed. But once we got the song on stage, I think we were able to wring something poignant from it.

CP: Beyond all the drag elements and camp, Kiki & Herb eschews the expected kitsch semantics. How have you managed that?

KM: We take everything we do, once onstage, with integrity. All of it has integrity. Neither one of us may have ever been Britney Spears fans. But when we're doing "Baby One More Time" we're in that moment. An audience may point at us and think "ha-ha." But there's no "ha-ha" for us.

JB: There's never been any wink-wink, nudge-nudge to what we do. "Kiki" has conviction in everything she says and does. In inhabiting that, I do the same. For Kiki & Herb, it's our truth. Done any other way it would be boring to do.

KM: Plus, we started working together during the start of the AIDS crisis. We never intended it — them — to be purely funny. Rather, it was a vehicle to say things we couldn't necessarily say in our own voices and be heard the same way.

JB: I chose to play a 70-year-old alcoholic woman because she could get away with saying things a 20-something gay man couldn't.

CP: So what should we expect from the goodbye?

JB: It will have things from the past, our faves, like "Total Eclipse." I personally can't wait to see what the RNC brings. It'll be so much fun.

CP: If you're having so much fun as Kiki & Herb, why stop?

KM: Because it just sounds so wonderful: "Goodbye."

Kiki & Herb, Thu., Sept. 2, 8 p.m., $13-$18, The Trocadero, 1003 Arch St., 215-922-LIVE.