Artist

Kiki and Herb met in the Eerie Childrens Institute in Western Pennsylvania in 1934. By the time they were in their late teens they were playing professionally on the Burlesque Circuit. In 1957, Kiki and Herb released their first LP The Hazy Days of Kiki to universal indifference. In the summer of 1967 Kiki and Herb made their European debut at the Grand Casino playing a Bastille Day Ball thrown by the crown princess of Monaco, Princess Grace. Life's trials took both performers in different obscure directions leading them to a disastrous turn working for the Princess Cruise lines. Kiki and Herb were "rediscovered" by a new generation in the early nineties in San Francisco. Since then they have performed around the world as a sort of freak show for the post-modern set. They released a Christmas album Do You Hear What We Hear in the summer of 2000 and made their off-Broadway debut at the Cherry Lane Theatre in 2003. In 2004 they were the hit of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and delivered what was to be their "farewell" concert at Carnegie Hall but have continued on for their fans. Kiki & Herb are the creation of Justin Bond and Kenny Mellman respectively. Obie-winning performer Justin Bond received his BFA in theatre Arts from Adelphi University and trained classically at the London Academy of Dramatic Arts. He has appeared in New York with Hidden: A Gender (P.S. 122), Theatre Couture, the Tiny Mythic Theatre Co., Big Art and Tweed. He was nominated for a Bay Area Critics Circle award (San Fran) for Dixie McCall's Patterns for Living, and has received numerous honors and accolades for work on Kiki and Herb around the world over the past five years. Recently in New York, Justin Bond Uncorked!, an evening of song by, for and about Trannies, Hustlers and Drug Addicts, played at the Ars Nova Theatre. Beginning in September, Justin will pursue an MA in Scenography at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in London. Kenny Mellman studied music composition at UC Berkeley and poetry at San Francisco State University. In addition to his longtime collaboration with Justin Bond, Mellman has performed with artist John Kelly on the West Coast and in England. He has appeared in New York in Underground Goddess (HERE) and 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 Tenors, among others. Recently, he musical directed At Least It's Pink with Bridget Everett at the Ars Nova Theatre.