Kiki & Herb is the creation of Justin Vivian Bond and Kenny Mellman. 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. As Kiki & Herb, Justin Bond and Kenny Mellman have dazzled audiences around the world for over two decades with their ground-breaking wildly popular cabaret shows. They have played the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Swan Theatre, the Sydney Opera House, and New York’s Carnegie Hall. The duo has also appeared at the Bonn Biennale (Germany), On The Boards (Seattle), the Great American Music Hall (San Francisco), and the historic Orpheum Theater (L.A.). Kiki & Herb have performed and toured with The Scissor Sisters and Rufus Wainwright. The duo received an Obie Award for their show Kiki & Herb: Jesus Wept, and earned a Tony Award nomination for their 2007 show Kiki & Herb: Alive on Broadway. Kiki & Herb have released two albums: Do You Hear What We Hear? featuring Deborah Harry, Isaac Mizrahi, Molly Ringwald, and Rufus Wainwright and Kiki and Herb Will Die For You, a live recording of their Carnegie Hall show.
Mx. Justin Vivian Bond (they, them, their) has appeared on stage (Broadway, Off-Broadway, and Londonʼs West End), screen (Shortbus, Can You Ever Forgive Me?, Sunset Stories), television (High Maintenance, Difficult People, The Get Down), nightclub stages (most notably, a decades-long residency at Joeʼs Pub at The Public Theater), and in concert halls worldwide (including Carnegie Hall and The Sydney Opera House). In December 2019 Mx. Bond made their Vienna Staatsoper debut as Orlandoʼs child in the world premiere of Olga Neuwirthʼs Orlando. In 2021 they appeared as the Lounge Singer in Boston Lyric Opera’s streaming opera Desert In, and made several year end “Best of” lists with their shows Only an Octave Apart co-created with counter-tenor Anthony Roth Costanzo, Zack Winokur, and Thomas Bartlett, as well as Kiki and Herb Sleigh at BAM with Kenny Mellman.
Mx. Bond’s visual art and installations have been seen in museums and galleries in the United States (Participant, Inc., and The New Museum) and abroad (Vitrine, London). Their memoir, Tango: My Childhood Backwards and in High Heels (Feminist Press), won the Lambda Literary Award for Transgender Nonfiction. They are the recipient of an Obie, a Bessie, and a Tony nomination, as well as an Ethyl Eichelberger Award, The Peter Reed Foundation Grant, The Foundation for Contemporary Art Grant for Artists, and The Art Matters Grant.
They have self-released several full-length recordings, including Dendrophile and Silver Wells. As one-half of the legendary punk cabaret duo Kiki & Herb, they toured the world and released two CDs: Do You Hear What We Hear? and Kiki and Herb Will Die for You at Carnegie Hall.
They have a master’s degree in live art from Central Saint Martins College in London and have taught performance composition and Live Art Installation at NYU and Bard College. Mx. Bond currently divides their time between residences in New York Cityʼs East Village and the Hudson Valley. Website: justinvivianbond.com
Kenny Mellman is one half (with Justin Vivian Bond) of the Tony nominated and Obie and Bessie winning act Kiki and Herb. His show Kenny Mellman Is Grace Jones toured the US, Australia and the UK and his one man musical about gay bashing and homophobia, Say Sea Boy You Sissy Boy? was commissioned by Dixon Place. He co-wrote the musical At Least It’s Pink with Michael Patrick King and Bridget Everett at ArsNova. He also, with Everett and Neal Medlyn, co-created Our Hit Parade, a downtown NY deconstruction of the pop charts which ran for 4 sold-out years at Joe’s Pub. He was in the cast and composed the music for Good For Otto at The New Group in 2018. Mellman was in the band The Julie Ruin. Fronted by Kathleen Hanna, of Bikini Kill and Le Tigre fame, they released two records and toured extensively.. He was a 2021 recipient of a Peter S. Reed Foundation Grant.