INTERVIEW: Kiki & Herb are ready to celebrate ‘sappy’ holiday season
Photo: Kiki (Justin Vivian Bond) and Herb (Kenny Mellman) are back with a six-city holiday tour. Photo courtesy of Eric McNatt / Provided by press rep with permission.
Kiki & Herb, the wonderfully hilarious lounge act performed by Justin Vivian Bond and Kenny Mellman, returned after a multi-year hiatus to offer some sold-out yuletide shows at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in 2021. And, thankfully, Kiki & Herb are showing no signs of stopping. This year, their season’s-greetings-festival has been expanded to a six-city national tour, dubbed Do You Hear What We Hear?, with a stop Saturday, Dec. 3 at the Beacon Theatre in New York City.
For those who are not acquainted yet with the humor and humanity of Kiki & Herb, here’s how the pair describe their act: “Kiki is a washed-up, boozed-up chanteuse, with a voice that is a mixture of Tom Waits and Ethel Merman with a dash of Judy, whose middle age passed her by some time ago. Herb, her piano-battering, lifelong accompanist provides support both musically and emotionally.”
What transpires on stage during a Kiki & Herb concert is hilarious, heartfelt and often unexpected. Kiki’s energy is nonstop, until it eventually stops. Drinks are enjoyed, and sometimes spilled. Holiday classics are sleighed. The audience usually can’t get enough of the onslaught.
These shenanigans have found great success over the years. Mx Bond and Mr. Mellman have performed as Kiki & Herb on Broadway, off-Broadway and in London’s West End. Mx Bond’s career has also included concert engagements around the world. Recently they appeared at the Vienna Staatsoper in Olga Neuwirthʼs Orlando and as the Lounge Singer in Boston Lyric Opera’s streaming opera Desert In. Their art has been presented in museums and galleries in the United States, and their memoir, Tango: My Childhood Backwards and in High Heels, won the Lambda Literary Award for Transgender Nonfiction.
Mr. Mellman has toured the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom with his show Kenny Mellman Is Grace Jones. His writing credits include the musicals Say Sea Boy You Sissy Boy? (Dixon Place) and At Least It’s Pink. He was also a member of the band The Julie Ruin with Bikini Kill’s Kathleen Hanna.
Recently Hollywood Soapbox exchanged emails with the two performers on the eve of their tour. Questions and answers have been slightly edited for style.
What prompted you to bring these wonderful characters out of retirement last year?
KENNY: Well, for me, I had a really great time when we did a run with them at Joe’s Pub in 2016, but I had missed the special feeling that our Christmas shows had. So I was thrilled when Vivian mentioned that people had been asking about it, and when it landed at BAM, it worked out perfectly.
VIV: I had been in conversation with David Binder over at BAM about some other project, and he came up with the idea to do a K&H Christmas show. After all the dreariness in ‘20, I thought it would be a great way to kick off the holiday season.
For those who saw the BAM engagement last year, will this tour be similar or completely different?
KENNY: There are some similar elements which have been part of Kiki and Herb Xmas shows for years, and we brought back some old favorites and a few new ones.
VIV: I have no idea what’s going to happen. That’s part of the thrill.
What do you love about this time of year? What do you hate?
KENNY: As a Jew, I watch every Hallmark Xmas movie and have always had a very secular love of the Christmas spirit. And you know, all the great Christmas songs were written by Jews, so I don’t think I’m the first to feel this way!
VIV: I love performing. Every year I do my shows with my band at Joe’s Pub, or Kiki & Herb, or both. I hate that by the time Christmas actually rolls around I’m a shell of a human being. No one wants to be around me on Christmas. I’m no fun. I’m too tired.
What’s the process like when you put together a show? How do you divide responsibilities?
KENNY: We get together and learn songs and bante,r and we both are very good at structuring shows. So it really is a pretty seamless process when we get together. We have such a shorthand because we worked together for so long, and the characters take us places organically.
VIV: Yep.
How do you know when a particular line or skit will be funny for an audience
KENNY: Vivian will riff while we are rehearsing, and usually something that tickles both of us will also be appreciated by the audience.
VIV: I live in the moment, and because Kiki is getting drunker as the evening progresses, the physical comedy gets more, shall we say, specific.
I find Kiki & Herb around the holidays hilarious and transcendent, but also comforting and heart-warming. Is it the goal to not only have people laugh, but also have them come together around the piano and mic (and booze) for a sense of community?
KENNY: Kiki and Herb have always been about the community that surrounds them, so at Christmas a big part of the show for me is giving comfort and community to people who may not have that in their families or lives.
VIV: We’re all in this together, and I don’t care who you are, whether you celebrate or not, love it or hate it, Christmas is in your face. We kind of try to make room for all perspectives — even the sappy ones.
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Kiki & Herb: Do You Hear What We Hear? will play Saturday, Dec. 3 at the Beacon Theatre in New York City. Click here for more information and tickets.
