Justin Vivian Bond (born May 9, 1963) is an American singer-songwriter and actor, who is transgender. Described as "the best cabaret artist of [their]<!-- MOS:GENDERID --> 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. 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. In 2024, Bond was named a MacArthur Fellow.
Early life
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.
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."
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, 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.
Trans-Atlantic cabaret
Kiki and Herb: 1993–2007
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. 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. 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. 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 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. 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. One critic noted that onstage they are "Alive with a capital A, with all the human vitality and fallibility that that implies". 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".
After closing on Broadway, Bond returned for the final, American tour. 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.
Solo career: 1993–present
alt=band playing on darkened stage; illuminated at the center is Justin Vivian Bond, a tall femme-presenting sing with blond hair in a lacy black dress|thumb|upright=1.45|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." 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".
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. The first, Dendrophile (2011), contained a mix of original compositions and covers modeled on a type of "early-'70s folk-pop variety album" 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. 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". They also appeared in Paul Festa's Apparition of the Eternal Church (2006).
Bond has hosted the Weimer New York variety show since its inception in 2007. 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).