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Kiki And Herb

Kiki and Herb are a popular drag cabaret duo from the 1990s. Justin Bond plays Kiki DuRane, an aging female lounge singer and an alcoholic. Kenny Mellman is Herb, a gay Jewish pianist who performs in Kiki's shows. The fictional duo was in their early fifties when the shows began in the early 1990s.

Bond and Mellman first performed in 1989 but created the characters for a show in San Francisco in 1990. The performances are a combination of musical numbers and monologues by Kiki. The duo performed a range of musical numbers and created a detailed fictional history to enhance their characters and make them more realistic.

Many Years of Success

The years 1995 and 1996 made Kiki and Herb a hit pair. They performed regularly at the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame in Texas. John Cameron Mitchell, an American playwright, actor, and director, was one of the fans who attended the shows.

As the duo gained more fame, they appeared at the first Gay Shame event organized in Brooklyn in 1998. Kiki and Herb were also a part of Scott Berry's documentary, Gay Shame '98.

The next year, they delivered weekly performances at The Fez under Time Café (Fez) in New York. This brought them their first-ever review in the New York Times.

Kiki and Herb released their first music album in 2000. Titled 'Do You Hear What We Hear?', it was a Christmas collection with an array of seasonal-themed songs.

This was followed by Kiki and Herb: Jesus Wept, the duo's second annual holiday show. The show won them the Obie Awards (Off-Broadway Theater Awards) in 2001.

Kiki and Herb made cameo appearances in feature films like Imaginary Heroes before they decided to bid adieu in 2004 with a one-night, one-show performance of Kiki and Herb Will Die for You. Of course, they had to make a comeback in 2005 for The Resurrection Tour in the US, followed by a Europe tour.

The duo made their Broadway debut in 2006 with Kiki & Herb: Alive on Broadway. They went on a couple of tours and released a DVD of their concert before retiring in 2008.

However, Bond and Mellman reentered the stage as Kiki and Herb in 2016. They have been performing on and off over the years. The characters would be in their eighties but are still going strong.