Kiki & Herb Seeking Asylum at Joe's Pub

Kiki & Herb returned to Joe's Pub this week, so I went with a friend to celebrate my birthday, just two days afterwards. As par usual, they were side-splittingly funny and very entertaining generally.

Kiki & Herb: Seeking Asylum is a wonderful addiion to their body of work. Over the years, they've lost none of their edge. In fact, they've gotten edgier.

Justin Vivian Bond is Kiki and Kenny Mellman is her pianist and comic straight man Herb. They work  well together, very well indeed.

Kiki & Herb have released a few albums though there's nothing like seeing them live. They've toured in the USA and in Europe.

I first caught their act, Kiki & Herb Will Die for You, at Carnegie Hall many years ago and immediately became a fan. However, there is nothing better than seeing them in the relative intimacy of a club like Joe's Pub in the East Village. What a great way to celebrate my birthday! Welcome back, Kiki & Herb!

Darlene Love at Joe's Pub

It was the summer of love. At least it felt like summer and Darlene Love was putting on a show. This is a performer who never disappoints and her current show was as easy, breezy and as warm as today's weather.

Joe's Pub is under construction but, beyond taking the bar out of the cabaret room, and placing it in the kitchen to add more seats, I don't see what's all that new. Anyhow, Joe's is an intimate venue in the East Village (part of the Public Theater, in fact), so different from seeing Miss Love at B.B. King's in Times Square. "Here, I don't have to be the Christmas Queen," she quipped, in reference to her annual Christmas shows at B.B. King's. (Nonetheless, she'll be returning this December.)

Darlene Love announced she will be 71 years young later in the year, and she rocks with the energy of a 25-year-old.  She is a 2011 inductee into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Asked recently if Phil Spector, famously the producer of the '60s records that introduced her as a solo artist, congratulated her on that, Miss Love laughed, "He's in jail, child!" What about Ronnie Spector? "No," she remarked, "And everybody says that's weird!"

But other divas have congratulated her and sung her praises, namely Dionne Warwick, Cher, Gladys Knight and Nancy Sinatra. "I was also truly thrilled (and a little bit jealous!) to see her get into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame," said Nancy. Maybe more than a little bit? But, basically, an honest account, no doubt.

Darlene Love is a diva's diva and I have been a life-long fan. Tonight's show was a relaxed workshop of sorts with off-the-cuff patter (including a mention of Donna Summer, whose voice Darlene acknowledged as phenomenal); fleeting, last-minute huddling with her musical director on-stage; and careful movements across the small, cramped stage. Choreography of any sort would be out of the question.

Darlene sparkled in a glittery black jacket with chiffon sleeves and glittery shoes as well. Her back-up singers also sparkled (although Darlene eschews the word "back-up," having been one of the hardest working back-ups in the business herself). They included Ula Hedwig (one of the original Harlettes with Bette Midler).

Said Ula: "I have been singing background vocals for Darlene Love for 30 years.... It's great fun to be on the stage with her because we are not just 'the back-up singers,' we are right there with her and a part of the show."  The two other backing singers were Elaine Caswell and Milton Vance who impressed during the duets with Darlene.

The set began with the new "If You Believe in Me," those background singers a heavenly chorus for certain. It was followed up with a medley of "Wait till My Bobby Gets Home"/"Da-doo-ron-ron;" included a loving and lengthy Marvin Gaye tribute. Darlene's other Phil Spector-produced classics, "Today I Met the Boy I'm Gonna Marry" and "He's a Rebel," were included, as was "A Change Is Gonna Come," from her Broadway role as Motormouth Mabel in Hairspray, before she ended the show with "River Deep, Mountain High," the song in which Spector replaced her, as lead vocalist, with Tina Turner. Darlene always reclaims this as her own.

A couple of Joe's Pub's killer cosmos, a nice perch at the back of the room (table for two), good company, great show, let out into the warm, clear night on a high from such a perfect performance. Indeed, my Summer of Love has begun!

Darlene Love & Bette Midler

Next weekend, I look forward to seeing Darlene Love again, this time in the intimacy of Joe's Pub where she is scheduled to perform. In anticipation, I post here her duet with Bette Midler from the 2011 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. "He's a Rebel," with Paul Schaffer and band, plus Bruce Springsteen on lead guitar and performed at NYC's Waldorf Astoria, is just a little bit of fabulousness for us all to enjoy.

Cold Mess

On an unusually leisurely mid-week morning, I went down to my friend & neighbor, Kevin's, apartment for a bite of breakfast, luvs, and two cups of java. We watched Wendy Williams' tv show. Wendy looks and sounds like RuPaul but that's not such a bad thing, necessarily. She was quite the trendy creature of fashion, I must say, in a striking black outfit courtesy of Lord & Taylor. I suppose her producers can splurge on Miss Williams' talk-show glad rags by inviting B-list people as her guests, desperate to advertise their latest commercial ventures for scraps. Today's top-billed guest: Sandra Bernhard.

Now, as a talent, I love Sandra to death. But when she showed up (late) for Wendy's interview, plugging both her gig on Hot in Cincinnati and her upcoming annual holiday show at Joe's Pub in New York December 28 through 31 (New Year's Eve Show), she looked more Halloween-appropriate. For one thing, her hair was a mess, as if she'd rolled out of bed, put on designer clothes and make-up, and stalked onto the set. For another thing -- more strikingly -- Kevin and I noticed she appeared to be missing teeth. She absolutely leered like a jack-o-lantern as she laughed and kibitzed with Wendy.

It wasn't just her trademark David Letterman-like gap. She appeared to be short of some lower teeth as well. Wendy paid no mind, however, but Kevin and I certainly did! Sandra proudly announced that her girlfriend did her hair for this appearance. But, embarrasingly, the producers signaled Wendy to ask Sandra to fix her hair while live, on the air, during her interview! Oh, my! I mean, how often are interviewees on talk shows asked to fix their appearances in the middle of a shoot? Like never?

Wendy complied with the direction. Sandra reached up and fluffed and patted the auburn rat's nest that was her coif for The Wendy Williams Show, which Wendy's producers were obviously in a tizzy over.

If I were Ms Bernhard, I'd (a) ask Santa for dental implants, and (b) stop using her gf as a hairdresser. Our Sandra might be hot in Cincinnati but, as Kevin remarked, she was a cold mess on morning tv in the rest of America.

(Off-topic p.s.: Does everyone already know that Halle Berry has 6 toes on one of her feet? E-eeww! Just heard about it. Please never wear open-toe shoes, Halle! Bleccchh!)