Kiki & Herb

Kiki & Herb are the creation of Justin Bond and Kenny Mellman. Kiki is a washed up, boozed up chanteuse whose middle age passed her by some time ago. Herb, her piano-battering, lifelong accompanist provides support both musically and emotionally.

The demented duo perform gutsy renditions of songs popularised by artists such as Nirvana, Kate Bush, Radiohead, Amy Winehouse and The Gossip. A singer with maniacal energy, Kiki’s voice is a mixture of Tom Waits and Ethel Merman, with a little of Judy Garland in her last days. Herb’s musical arrangements are less than traditional.

At any given moment the duo are likely to twist and warp a tune until Kiki is screaming the lyrics and Herb is pounding the piano keys with a vengeance. Interspersed with the songs are Kiki’s hilarious and often tragic monologues about her life, her career and anything else that happens to be on her mind. Show business has destroyed them, but they can not live without it. Among the shell-shocked onlookers spotted in Kiki & Herb audiences: Vivienne Westwood, Kylie Minogue, Radiohead, Lou Reed, Michael Stipe, Bjork, Sir Ian McKellen, Tilda Swinton, Siouxsie Sioux and Gloria Steinem, to name a few!

As Kiki & Herb, Justin Bond and Kenny Mellman have been dazzling audiences around the world since 1989. They first joined musical forces in San Francisco before heading east to take New York by storm with shows such as the Obie-winning Kiki & Herb: Jesus Wept (Westbeth Theatre, New York 2001). In 2002, Pardon Our Appearance played Philadelphia’s Wilma Theater and D.C.’s Woolly Mammoth Theater (where Bond and Mellman were nominated for Helen Hayes Awards). They also became a sensation in London with both Where Are We Now? and There’s a Stranger in the Manger selling out at Soho Theatre in 2002.

In 2003 Kiki & Herb conquered the legitimate stage with Kiki & Herb: Coup de Théatre, winning rave reviews at Off-Broadway’s Cherry Lane Theatre. They returned to London for Kiki and Herb Mount the President (2004) performing on-board the cabaret cruiser HMS President in an extended eight week run, they then moved on to the hallowed halls of the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Swan Theatre in Stratford-Upon-Avon.

In September 2004 Kiki and Herb performed a critically acclaimed, sold-out show Kiki and Herb Will Die For You at New York’s legendary Carnegie Hall. 2004 ended with Bond and Mellman receiving a Bessie award honouring their body of work. In 2005 they played 4 sold out performances at the Bloomsbury Theatre in London with their valentines show Losers in Love, made their Edinburgh Festival debut, embarked on their major US ‘Resurrection’ tour and ended the year with two sold out concerts at The Queen Elizabeth Hall on London’s South Bank.

In 2006 they performed a sell-out three week run at the studio of the Sydney Opera House and made their Broadway debut with Kiki and Herb – Alive On Broadway which ran at the Helen Hayes Theatre and for which they were nominated for a Tony award for Best Special Theatrical Event. They ended 2006 in London with a run at the Reindeer Theatre of their new festive show ‘Christmas Happens’.

In early 2007 Kiki & Herb took up residency at Joe’s Pub (part of the Public Theatre) in their home town of New York. They embarked on their Year of Magical Drinking Tour performing runs in Boston and San Francisco before taking the tour to Australia, making their debut at the Melbourne International Arts Festival and a return run at The Sydney Opera House. They will end the year with a concert at the 2000 capacity Sheperd’s Bush Empire in London and with a triumphant return to Carnegie Hall.

The duo have also appeared at the Bonn Biennale (Germany), On The Boards (Seattle), the Great American Music Hall (San Francisco) and the Knitting Factory (L.A.). Kiki and Herb also toured the UK with the Scissor Sisters on their UK autumn tour 2004 performing in venues such as The Royal Albert Hall and Brixton Academy, They have also opened for Rufus Wainwright in New York.

Kiki and Herb have released two CD’s - ‘Do You Hear What We Hear?’ featuring Deborah Harry, Isaac Mizwahi, Molly Ringwald and Rufus Wainwright and ‘Kiki and Herb Will Die For You’ a live recording of their first Carnegie Hall show. Their debut live DVD, recorded in May 2007 at The Knitting Factory in New York, will be released later this year.

Justin Bond received a BFA from Adelphi University and trained at the London Academy of Dramatic Arts. He has appeared in NY with Hidden: A Gender, Theatre Couture, the Tiny Mythic Theatre Co., Big Art and Tweed. Bond was nominated for a Bay Area Critics Circle Award for Dixie McCall’s Patterns for Living and has received many honors for Kiki & Herb. In 2004 Justin’s solo show, Justin Bond: Uncorked! played at the Ars Nova Theatre.

In 2005 his second solo show Justin Bond and the Freudian Slippers – Glamour Damage opened to critical acclaim at London’s Soho Theatre and was most recently presented in an expanded and updated guise at London’s notorious cabaret venue The Soho Revue Bar and at The Reindeer Theatre. In 2005 Bond relocated to London and studied at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design for his MA in Scenography. Now back in New York Justin is currently working on a cabaret talk show for US television called TALK/SHOW. Feature film credits include Fancy’s Persuasion directed by Charles Herman-Wurmfeld, Imaginary Heroes starring Sigourney Weaver and a starring role in the critically acclaimed Shortbus from John Cameron-Mitchell (Hedwig and the Angry Inch) which premiered at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival and won rave reviews world-wide. The film has recently been released on DVD.

Kenny Mellman studied music composition at UC Berkeley and poetry at San Francisco State University. He has performed with artist John Kelly on the West Coast and in England. He has appeared in Underground Goddess (HERE) at the Nuyorican Poets Theatre and shared the stage or recorded with artists including Bob Mould (Husker Du, Sugar) and The Magnetic Fields’ side project The Three Terrors, among others. His solo show Kenny Mellman Is Grace Jones has been performed in London, Portland and New York. In 2006/07 he wrote and performed in a hit run of At Least It’s Pink with Bridget Everett at the Ars Nova Theater and Aspen Comedy Festival. In 2006 he wrote the music for Soho Theatre’s children’s Christmas show ‘That Pesky Rat’. Kenny is currently working on another new project with performer Neal Medlyn.