Justin Vivian Bond

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 HMS President (1918) 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.

Justin Vivian Bond (born May 9, 1963) is an American singer-songwriter and actor.

Described as "the best cabaret artist of [their] generation" and a "tornado of art and activism", they 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.

Bond studied theater at Adelphi University on Long Island from 1981 to 1985.

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."

After graduation, Bond worked briefly at Details magazine with Lumet.

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, and at some point, adopted the stage name of Justin.

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."

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.

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.

In 1993, Bond hosted the first San Francisco Drag King Contest at the DNA Lounge with Elvis Herselvis.

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.

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."

Kiki's equally-damaged accompanist Herb, played by pianist Kenny Mellman, made up the other half of the duo, billed as Kiki and Herb.

Critics lauded both the performance and the edgy, eclectic repertoire.

Described in one place as "tragically hip", the inspiration arose "out of my own trauma regarding AIDS and so many people dying," according to Bond.

"All our friends were dying of AIDS, and it was a way to get out all our rage," said Mellman.

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."

The New York Times called Kiki "the town's most endearingly unhinged chanteuse", comparing Bond favorably to more conventional performers for whom "the point is never the prettiness of the voice."

Bond has said that "I think that the reason people liked Kiki so much is that she had just about everything wrong with her."

Kiki and Herb met with more critical acclaim and developed a cult following.

They received their first New York Times review for Have Another, (1999), a show that earned a GLAAD media award the following year.

They performed extensively, namely in London's Soho Theatre and Queen Elizabeth Hall and New York's The Knitting Factory and Carnegie Hall, as well as a host of other venues worldwide.

Their numerous collaborators included Debbie Harry of Blondie, comedian Sandra Bernhard, and Antony of Antony and the Johnsons.

Their recordings included the Christmas album, Do You Hear What We Hear? (2000), and Kiki and Herb Will Die for You: Live at Carnegie Hall (2005).

In 2004, Bond and Mellman did a cameo in the Sony Pictures release Imaginary Heroes, with script by Dan Harris.

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.

With a musical voice self-described as "kind of woody and full with a lot of vibration", 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.

Bond is transgender.

Bond grew up in Hagerstown, Maryland.

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."

Meanwhile, they were taking voice lessons and singing in church and in the local community theatre.

Appearing alongside Sigourney Weaver, Jeff Daniels, and Emile Hirsch, the duo reprised the Melanie Safka composition Tonight's the Kind of Night from Do You Hear What We Hear? Their stage act was captured on video in Kiki and Herb Live at the Knitting Factory (2007).

They toured twice in the U.S., including the 2007 'Year of Magical Drinking Tour.'

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.