Comedy is not a universal language but a dialect formed from individual taste and experience. On occasion though, an act will transcend these boundaries and deliver a show that will bring laughter to all who see it. Kiki & Herb is not one of these performances.
Justin Bond and Kenny Mellman play the parts of Kiki and Herb, an ageing cabaret duo singing songs of life and love spanning the course of over six decades. Kiki belts out cover versions of songs ranging from ‘Last Dance’ to ‘Total Eclipse of the Heart’ in a voice borne of several years of apparent alcohol abuse while Herb pounds manically on the piano, sometimes all but drowning her out.
Drawing references from unlikely songs, Kiki sings bitter tales of parental abuse and an adolescence spent in a juvenile mental institution followed by heartbreak and hardship in later life. The sheer darkness of the material would normally guarantee a brilliant comic production, but the delivery of this material is so off the wall it manages to flatten the humour of the material completely.
That said, it is very clear that the audience was divided into two very much polar camps, those who loved the performance and those who loathed it. Within minutes of the completion of Kiki’s opening number people could be seen making their way towards the exit while others howled with laughter. This paradox continued thought the remainder of the show and by the end, though a tenth of the audience had been lost through premature evacuation, the remaining audience members gave the lounge singing duo a rousing standing ovation.
Seeing this show is a gamble and there is no guarantee that you will love or hate it, but if you like your comedy dark and your comedians manic then it might be worth the risk.
1/5
Matthew Straw
