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Kenny
Mellman & Justin Bond
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Kiki & Herb,
is an off Broadway show at the Cherry Lane Theater in New York
City. I caught up with the stars of the show, Kenny Mellman and
Justin Bond, and in the lounge of their dressing room sat down and
had this
chat.
B:
Justin, who is Herb?
Justin:
An officer and gentleman? (laughs) He’s Kiki’s life long
friend and piano accompanist
B:
But who is he as a person, what drives him? What’s he about?
Justin:
I’m not sure
B:
Kenny, who is Kiki, the person?
Kenny:
Herb’s best friend and worst enemy. You do know they are vaguely
retarded, so I don’t know that they know. It’s funny, no one
ever asked us that before and I don’t know that there is anyway
to really answer it. That’s a really good question
Justin:
You know I don’t really think they (Kiki & Herb) really know
each other. They know each other’s history, they perform
together, but I don’t think they really know each other as
people.
B:
Justin, do you prefer to be referred to as he or she?
Justin:
Makes so little difference to me
B:
Does it bother you that so many of the reviewers refer to the show
as “drag?”
Justin:
No. I don’t think it’s correct, but it doesn’t bother me. I
don’t ever feel that I am in or out of drag, that’s a
category.
B:
And people love to categorize
Justin:
If I went to a themed costume party, that might be drag. Sometimes
I resent the people who are using the term. I feel that they
trivialize my work. I don’t mean that as disrespect to drag. But
when I read, “Life is a Drag for Kiki & Herb,” it’s just
so tired. It’s an illustration of people’s lack of imagination
and rigidity. So therefore, I have come to resent the use of it,
not because of the word itself, I just get upset as to how stupid
people can be.
B:
Is it accurate to say you consider yourself “gender fluid?”
Justin:
Yes. I wake up and think of myself as me, sometimes in a more
feminine way, sometimes not. I’m not polarized.
B:
Kiki & Herb, as an show, has been around a while, five years
or so. How did it start?
Justin:
Ken and I have been performing together around town, me singing
and telling stories, then I came up with this character, we
developed it and over the years it grew.
B:
Is there non-fiction in Kiki, did you draw from yourself, friends?
Justin:
Sure, I drew from things people far wiser than me have said
to me, the news, the fascists who run our government, whatever I
see, hear or read that moves me.
B:
Do you like your characters? If you met them on the street
would you engage in conversation?
Justin:
I love my character.
B:
Would you hang out with Kiki, you know kick back and have a drink
together?
Justin:
I’m sure I have, many times (laughs)
Ken:
I’m sure I have as well. I find it charming when I see little
old ladies and men that have that theatrical craziness. I always
want to go up and hang out with them, because I think that’s
what I’ll be someday.
B:
What character, are you more inclined to hang with?
Ken:
(laughing) Well, I might be more scarred of Kiki
B:
The show is being received so well. Is this the biggest gig for
you to date?
Ken:
Yeah, it’s the first time we have been in a theater
Justin:
It’s a whole lot different than the lounges we’ve done.
It’s a different thing, the way we approach it, on stage, off
stage, is different. The audience is different.
Ken:
Starting the show on a quiet moment is new to us. In a club we had
to beat people over the head to grab their attention.
Justin:
In a club, an environment like that, it’s much more chaotic,
people are drinking. There’s less control over the script, the
lights, the sound, the mood. One of my greater strengths I think
is my ability to improvise, which in the theater I don’t need to
do, because it is so tightly scripted, focused. It’s more about
technique. We have to be more true to a moment that has been
predetermined.
Ken:
We can now come out and start slow and build from a center.
B:
Do you prefer one type of venue to the other?
Justin:
No, not really. They’re each fun and challenging in their
own way
B:
Do you have any emotion for Kiki, do you feel sorry for her?
Justin:
No, I have complete love for Kiki, I think she’s fabulous!
She wouldn’t want me to feel sorry for her – she wouldn’t
want pity unless she wanted to use it to get something.
B:
So, she doesn’t want anything unless it results in something for
her?
Justin:
Exactly! That’s why she does what she does to the audience: she
manipulates them.
B:
How long have the two of you been working together?
Kenny:
13 years, I was 21 when we started.
Justin:
and I was 14 (laughing)
B:
You took the Kiki & Herb show around to different parts of
the world before doing off-Broadway. Did the audiences react
different?
Kenny:
They did. In Austria they didn’t get the humor at all. They
loved the show but saw it as a tragedy. So we didn’t play for
laughs there, we played it more serious.
B:
What’s next?
Justin:
For me, I’m planning a tropical vacation. I haven’t decided
which gay lover yet (she says with a coy smile looking towards the
direction of a tall good looking straight fellow who came through
the dressing area). Maybe I’ll get Sweetie to take over the role
of Kiki for me.
PERSONAL
QUESTIONS TO JUSTIN REGARDING GENDER
B:
On a personal note Justin, when did you realize you were
neither male nor female?
Justin:
About 6 year old I think. I walked into the kitchen and said, “I
figured it out. I’m a boy from the waist down, and a girl from
the waist up – and when I grow up I’m gonna have boobs!”
They just looked at me, and said, “go to your room.”
B:
When did it manifest itself?
Justin:
I was in the grocery store with my dad. He couldn’t find me
because I was in the next aisle where I had talked a woman into
letting me try on her shoes.
B:
When did you first go out in public as feminine?
Justin:
I got in trouble for wearing lipstick to 1st grade. I
didn’t think a lady left the house without her lipstick on. So
one day my mom said, “What’s on your lips?” “I have on my
lipstick,” I said. She told me, “you can’t wear lipstick,”
to which I countered, “but I did for the last three days.” She
sold me that I wouldn’t any more and I thought, OK, I’ll do it
when you’re not looking then. Of course my parents tried to stop
me, but I indulged any chance I got.
B:
How old were you when they stopped resisting?
Justin:
THEY LOVE ME -THEY’LL NEVER GIVE UP HOPE! (Laughing) They
put up with it because they have no choice. I had to give my mom a
lecture just this past fall about what unconditional love was.
But, it always goes back. Every few years there is something like,
“I understand you wanting to be gay, but why do you want to be a
woman? “I don’t want to be a woman,” I say. “Then why do
you dress like a woman,” she asks. “You such a good looking
boy, you should cut your hair and get a job on the soaps, then I
could see you every day.” But, deep down they know.
B:
Does Kiki have any of that wisdom on gender she disperses?
Justin:
No, I don’t think so. I think every person who goes through
those issues are going through it in a unique, individual and
personal way. That’s the difficulty, every TG person is TG’d
in a different way. The fact that there’s no way to cover it, no
mass media discussions, people hope that someone will say the
thing that they relate to. But we are all unique. Follow your
heart and try and be happy.
B:
Which sounds like good advise to me. So I will close by saying
that you have both been so open and charming, thank you for taking
the time to talk with me.
Justin
& Kenny: And, thank you.
Copyright
2003 - All Rights Reserved
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