Justin Vivian Bond (born May 9, 1963) is an American singer-songwriter and actor, who is transgender.[1] Described as "the best cabaret artist of [their] generation"[2] and a "tornado of art and activism",[3] they[a] first achieved prominence under the pseudonym of Kiki DuRane in the stage duo Kiki and Herb, an act born out of a collaboration with long-time co-star Kenny Mellman. With a musical voice self-described as "kind of woody and full with a lot of vibration",[4] Bond is a Tony-nominated (2007) performer who has received GLAAD (2000), Obie (2001), Bessie (2004), Ethyl (2007), and a Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants to Artists (2012) awards. In 2024, Bond was named a MacArthur Fellow.[5]
As "a trans kid in a small town", Bond recalls feeling "I wasn't being accepted for who I was, but at the time I didn't even have the words to express who I was."[6] Meanwhile, they were taking voice lessons and singing in church and in the local community theatre.
Bond studied theater at Adelphi University on Long Island from 1981 to 1985.[7] They saw Simon and Garfunkel in concert in Central Park, but it was visiting Carnegie Hall for the first time to see Judy Collins that invoked the realization that "I had escaped my hometown and was finally beginning to live the life I'd dreamed of."[8]
Early career
After graduation, Bond worked briefly at Details magazine. Returning to Maryland, they found roles in regional dinner theaters, often doubling as a server. Bond moved to San Francisco in 1988.
Bond started out clerking in a gay bookstore,[9] and at some point, adopted the stage name of Justin.[10]
A turning point occurred when Kate Bornstein cast Bond in her play Hidden: A Gender, using the life of the French, intersex person Herculine Barbin as an autobiographical device. Bond "was not sure [they] could really pull off playing a girl," according to Bornstein, and feared the censure of "[their] gay male friends."[11] With the assistance of Kenny Mellman, they created the lounge act Dixie McCall's Patterns for Living around the persona of actress and singer Julie London.[12] The duo played a number of gigs, both in and out of character; three years after attending Pride for the first time, Bond was hosting the show at the end of the parade.[13] In 1993, Bond hosted the first San Francisco Drag King Contest at the DNA Lounge with Elvis Herselvis.[14] In 1994, they appeared on film for the first time, as Amphetamine in John Moritsugu's Mod Fuck Explosion, and again the following year in Fanci's Persuasion.
Trans-Atlantic cabaret
Kiki and Herb: 1993–2007
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 where Kiki, who had just given birth to her first child – a bastard named Bradford – was billed as "The Completely Insane Miss Kiki DuRane". In 1957 Kiki and Herb released their first LP "The Hazy Days of Kiki" to universal indifference.
— Part of the fictional biography for Kiki and Herb.[15]
Bond is best known for originating the role of washed-up lounge singer Kiki DuRane, "an alcoholic battle-axe with a throat full of razor-blades."[16] Kiki's equally-damaged accompanist Herb, played by pianist Kenny Mellman, made up the other half of the duo, billed as Kiki and Herb.[17] Critics lauded both the performance and the edgy, eclectic repertoire. Described in one place as "tragically hip",[18] the inspiration arose "out of my own trauma regarding AIDS and so many people dying,"[19] according to Bond. "All our friends were dying of AIDS, and it was a way to get out all our rage," said Mellman.[11]
Bond moved to New York City in 1994 in the midst of crackdown on queer clubs by then-mayor Rudy Giuliani. Journalist John Russell saw in Kiki "an icon to rival Hedwig."[20]The New York Times called Kiki "the town's most endearingly unhinged chanteuse",[21] comparing Bond favorably to more conventional performers for whom "the point is never the prettiness of the voice."[22] Bond has said that "I think that the reason people liked Kiki so much is that she had just about everything wrong with her."[23]
The duo traveled repeatedly to London, where Bond continued to work on an MA in scenography at Central St. Martin's College of Art and Design when not performing. London shows included Where Are We Now?, Kiki & Herb: There's a Stranger in the Manger, and Kiki & Herb Mount The President, the latter performed aboard HMSPresident in the River Thames. Bond had a Top 20 Single on the UK alternative chart and was named one of England's fifty funniest people by Time Out London.[28] The mockumentaries titled Kiki and Herb on the Rocks (2005) and Kiki and Herb Reloaded (2005) followed the pair to London and around the UK, respectively.
Their show Kiki & Herb: Alive on Broadway ran for five weeks in 2006, and was nominated for a 2007 Tony for Special Theatrical Event.[29] One critic noted that onstage they are "Alive with a capital A, with all the human vitality and fallibility that that implies."[30] A poster on tribe.net reported hearing them mentioned on an episode of Will and Grace early in 2006, noting that "now they have crossed over."[31]
After closing on Broadway, Bond returned for the final, American tour.[32] This was followed by a return to Carnegie Hall for a one-night show on December 12, 2007, billed as Kiki and Herb: The Second Coming – A Christmas Concert.[33]
Solo career: 1993–present
Bond performing in 2019 at Joe's Pub in NYC; Matt Ray on piano, Nath Ann Carrera on guitar, Claudia Chopek on violin.
Before retiring Kiki in 2008, Bond was touring nationally and abroad, appearing in film, and recording under the name of Justin Bond.
Bond's first album was the result of an improvised concert with experimental, electronic sound artist Bob Ostertag and a Japanese turntablist from the Tokyo noise underground, Otomo Yoshihide, at San Francisco's Great American Music Hall in 1997. They already appeared on two tracks ("Not Your Girl" and "The Man in the Blue Slip") on Ostertag's 1995 album "Fear No Love", sharing co-lead vocals duties with Mike Patton. Other guests on the record were Fred Frith and Lynn Breedlove. At the behest of the record label Asphodel, an album was recorded in this location and in studio at Toast, with additional tracks and musicians added later. Because Otomo spoke little English and could not understand what Bond was saying, he watched the recording engineer through the glass and "when I see he laugh, I play something funny."[34] The album was released under the Seeland label in 1999 as PantyChrist, with a European, promotional tour. Although it failed commercially, Ostertag viewed it from an artistic standpoint as "one of my most successful projects."[35]
Bond released a five-track EP Pink Slip in June 2009 featuring four original songs ("The New Depression", "May Queen", "The Puppet Song", "Michael in Blue") and a cover of Radiohead's "Arpeggi/Weird Fishes". Pink Slip was recorded at Le Poisson Rouge and Bond hoped income from the EP would help fund the recording of an album.[20] Both of the albums were self-financed, and both were the result of a collaboration with pianist/producer Thomas Bartlett of the band Doveman.[36] The first, Dendrophile (2011), contained a mix of original compositions and covers modeled on a type of "early-'70s folk-pop variety album"[36] in the spirit of Judy Collins, featuring a duet with English singer-songwriter Beth Orton.[37] Bond used Kickstarter to finance the release of a second album, Silver Wells, in 2012. The album was conceived as an homage to the 1970 Joan Didion novel Play it as it Lays.
In 2012, Bond toured nationally with lesbian-feminist, spoken-word collective Sister Spit. promoting the new album.[37] Later that year, they opened the holiday show Snow Angel.
In June 2006, Bond appeared with David Hoyle in When David Met Justin at London's Bush Hall.[38] Performing with the House of Whimsy Players at The Kitchen in October, Bond staged Re:Galli Blond (A Sissy Fix), "a self-penned musical spectacle of transgender oppression and uplift."[39] They also appeared in Paul Festa's Apparition of the Eternal Church (2006).[40]
Bond has hosted the Weimer New York variety show since its inception in 2007.[41][42]Justin Bond Is Close to You reinterpreted Karen Carpenter's album Close to You as part of Joe's Pub in the Park in Central Park in 2007, later moving to Australia's Sydney Opera House.
In 2008, the GLAAD-nominated show Lustre premiered at PS122 in the East Village, then toured the UK with stops in London and Manchester as part of the It's Queer Up North Arts Festival. In December 2008, Bond appeared at London's Southbank Centre in Sinderella, written by Martyn Jacques of the Tiger Lillies.
Justin Bond: Christmas Spells opened in December 2010 at Abrons Arts Center on Grand Street in Manhattan's Lower East Side. The two-part show included a trademark cabaret performance of holiday tunes, showcasing an original composition Could Baby Jesus in His Manger Foresee the Hate Sprung from That Night? This was followed by a theatrical adaptation of a short story by gender-theorist Kate Bornstein. In December 2015, an EP titled Christmas Spells was released, including three songs (Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, Remember (Christmas) and Christmas Spells).[43]
As for Vivian, that's my self-given middle name. Justin is a very male-identified name, and I wanted something that would balance it. I had an uncle named Vivian Francis. He was a wonderful person, but he changed his name to Victor. He didn't like being Vivian. But it's fine with me.
Bond starred as Warhol superstarJackie Curtis in Jukebox Jackie as part of the 50th anniversary season of La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club between May and June 2012. "I've always been really interested in Jackie, Holly Woodlawn, and Candy Darling," they recounted in an interview at the time, "because they, along with Renée Richards and Christine Jorgensen, were the first famous trans people. When I was young, they were really the only trans people to which I had been exposed."[37] According to Bond, the project originated as a revival of one of Jackie's "crazy, amphetamine-fueled" plays, but Bond (and director Scott Wittman) "couldn't really make sense of them" and turned to reportage instead. "I always liked Jackie," they said, "because Jackie wasn't willing to say 'I am a woman trapped in a man's body,' she'd say 'I'm trans, I'm not a man. I'm not a woman. I'm Jackie.' Which, by the way, was the last line of the show."[37]
Bond's show Mx America was slated to open in Australia in February 2013.[44]
In December 2014, Bond's performed in Star of Light! An Evening of Bi-Polar Witchy Wonder, which opened at Joe's Pub on Lafayette near Manhattan's Astor Place.
Jake Shears, lead singer of Scissor Sisters, has cited the Kiki and Herb Christmas Show as inspiration. Bond and Shears became friends, with the Scissor Sisters fronting for Kiki and Herb at The Knitting Factory.[7] Bond appeared in the 2017 Music Box Theatre performance of the Tales of the City musical, with score by Shears.[46]
In 2008, Bond participated in a Christmas show at the Knitting Factory that included Rufus Wainwright, members of Wainwright's family, Emmylou Harris, Lou Reed, Velvet Underground, and performance artist Laurie Anderson. Revelation Films released the concert DVD in November 2009 under the title A Not So Silent Night (Kate & Anna McGarrigle/Rufus & Martha Wainwright).[47] In May 2011, they appeared with various artists in A Celebration of Kate McGarrigle at New York City's Town Hall to commemorate the passing of the Wainwrights' mother, who had succumbed to cancer the previous year. A DVD was released in 2013. In August 2012, Bond officiated at Rufus Wainwright's Long Island wedding.[48]
Activism
Bond performing with Nath Ann Carrera on Central Park's Great Lawn following the 2019 Queer Liberation March in NYC
Bond participated in the original Gay Shame event in New York in 1998, performing as Kiki and Herb and recorded in the Scott Berry documentary Gay Shame '98. On September 25, 2012, they hosted a special edition of Weimar as a fundraiser for the reelection of U.S. President Barack Obama. In November, Bond announced a performance to benefit the Ali Forney Center for LGBT youth in the wake of Hurricane Sandy.[49] Ahead of the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, they appeared in a video by Brooklyn-based Potpourri of Pearls, protesting Russian mistreatment of LGBT persons.[50]
Other projects
In July 2009 Bond made an appearance on the Logo TV comedy series Jeffery & Cole Casserole, playing a Catholic nun who serves as the principal of the show's all-girl Catholic school.[citation needed]
In 2012, Bond announced the creation of a signature fragrance by Ralf Schwieger, a "trans-scent" for all genders named The Afternoon of a Faun after the French poem and modernist ballet of the same name, and issued under the French label État libre d'Orange.[51] It was launched in February 2013, at Manhattan's Museum of Arts and Design on Columbus Circle.
Bond received a 2012 Lambda Literary Award for the memoir Tango: My Childhood Backwards and in High Heels. Also in 2012, powerHouse Books released Susie Says, a picture book combining Gina Garan photos of the 1970s fashion doll, Susie Sad Eyes, with bon mots from Bond's Twitter account.[52]
Bond is transgender and has said, "for me to claim to be either a man or a woman, feels like a lie. My identity falls somewhere in the middle and is constantly shifting."[55] They undergo feminizing hormone therapy to appear more feminine,[56] and reported feeling great as a result, noting that "I like the way my body looks. Emotionally, it's evened me out."[19] They do not intend to undergo sex reassignment surgery, explaining that "I like my penis, and I am keeping it, but I am creating a transbody—a physical record on my body and a medical record that I am a transgendered person."[7] In 2011, Bond adopted the middle name of Vivian, identifying as Justin Vivian Bond instead of Justin Bond.[56][39] They use the gender-inclusive honorific Mx. (in place of Ms./Mr.) and neopronoun v (with vself instead of her/himself), a reference to Bond's middle name.[56]
In concert at the end of 2014, Bond disclosed having received an invitation to return home for Thanksgiving, conditional upon leaving behind "that fake woman." Acknowledging that "a lot of trans-kids get kicked out of their homes," they mused. "I didn't until I was 51. So I think I'm gonna make it."[57] Elsewhere, they have said that "if it wasn't for my family and the rage they engendered in me, I wouldn't be here."[11]
↑ Bond uses the neopronoun v/v's/vself as personal pronouns. This article uses they/them pronouns for simplicity and understanding.
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