Review by Steve Bennett

‘Following their Carnegie Hall sell-out,’ the flyers screamed, ‘and UK tour with the Scissor Sisters...’

The audience loved this raucous character act. I did not.

Herb is a gay Jewish pianist. Kiki is a drag singer. Lots of presentation. Lots of noise. Not much content.

This probably seems a work of genius if you're drunk, but none of it holds together. Kiki was allegedly born in 1930, which would make her 75; she is clearly not.

The trouble was a constant shouted delivery into over-amplified microphones , making many of the lyrics  unitelligible. The amplification was clearly artistically intentional.

Kiki intersperses autobiographical anecdotes with songs such as You're Ugly: What The Fuck Gave Birth To You? and I'm Tired of Crying For the Underprivileged. But the best songs were Total Eclipse Of The Sun and an OTT version of David Bowie's Space Oddity.

I'm all for gay, raucous kitsch, but not for over-loud acts performed mostly at the same level throughout and at a samey pace. I got tired listening to this show after 15 minutes.

Variety allegedly called them ‘blackly hilarious’. I'd just call them loud.  If you go, take several stiff drinks and a pair of earmuffs.

Review date: 1 Jan 2005
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett