Kiki and Herb: Alive On Broadway: Dead Funny

If reading didn't take up so much valuable time that could be better spent drinking cocktails and surfing MySpace, I might be tempted to do a little research on the psychology of, for want of a better term, offensive humor. Under what conditions does an otherwise sensitive person laugh at jokes about cancer, alcoholism and mental retardation? Lenny Bruce freely used censored language to protest the power we give to words and today he's considered a free speech pioneer. Andrew Dice Clay mocked insensitivity and misogyny by embodying it in a ridiculous caricature and he's usually remembered as a hatemonger. Richard Pryer, Sarah Silverman, Don Imus, Tammy Faye Starlite and others have all tested the public's willingness to laugh at ideas they would never speak of seriously, producing both guffaws and outrage.

And then we have Kiki and Herb, the pseudo lounge-singing act making their Broadway debuts at the Helen Hayes in Kiki and Herb: Alive On Broadway. Creations of Justin Bond (Kiki) and Kenny Mellman (Herb), their act is either horribly distasteful or a brilliant parody of horrible distastefulness. Whichever you decide, you gotta admit they do what they do very well.

Kiki is the self-important, pontificating chanteuse whose look and voice somewhat resembles Jayne Meadows doing an Eartha Kitt impersonation. Wearing a psychedelic bell-bottomed pants suit that looks like she just rolled around in a still wet LeRoy Neiman portrait (costumes by Marc Happel), she sings covers of artists such as Radiohead, The Scissor Sisters, Mark Eitzel and Dan Fogelberg (I really have no idea who these people are but my guest assured me they're famous) while discussing her career, her personal life and whatever thoughts about politics and religion that pop into her brain.

"If you weren't molested as a child you must have been an ugly kid."

"Between AIDS and Alzheimer's we haven't got a fan left over forty."

(On President Bush's recent birthday) "He's a cancer."

She also tells us of a cow who has lived for over 2,000 years because she ate Jesus' afterbirth and of her own experiences dancing in a burlesque theatre alongside Maya Angelou.

Herb, the quiet one, is her boyish mascot of a pianist, looking a bit like a Goth Liberace.  As Kiki explains, he's mentally retarded. They both are, actually, being childhood playmates at an institution. And to be completely truthful, the word she uses to describe the pair is "retards." ("We own the word!") Septuagenarians both, the far younger Bond and Mellman paint lines on their faces suitable for a high school production of On Golden Pond with Jeff Croiter's harsh lights enabling us to see every broad stroke. Scott Pask's set consists of a leafy band shell and a large tree trunk that becomes surprisingly functional.

If, like me, you're a newcomer to Kiki and Herb (yes, I know… where the hell have I been) there's a bit of history you'll have catch up on, mainly concerning their anticipated death after their 2004 Carnegie Hall performance. Oh, but heck, let's not get too bogged down by the plot.

Kiki drinks effusively throughout the performance, a source of comedy that's fallen out of favor since the glory days of Foster Brooks, and the show takes an interesting turn during Act II, where the punch lines come less frequently and the social commentary grows bitterer. She equates America with South African apartheid in its attitude toward gay civil rights. And though she's against the war in Iraq she knows darn well she's not going to do anything about it except use it as a reason to sing "One Tin Soldier."

Throughout Kiki's antics Herb is a fascinated and fascinating observer, silently commenting on the self-destruction he sees his partner going through nightly. But though both characters may be marginally talented losers, the passion that Bond's Kiki gives to her performance, seeming possessed with the need for approval during an encore of "Total Eclipse of the Heart" makes her almost tragically empathetic.

I had a fun time. You may want to walk out before intermission. Choose wisely.

Photos by Joe Oppedisano--Justin Bond as Kiki and Kenny Mellman as Herb