Kiki and Herb

So I saw Kiki and Herb. And here's the thing: why has no one has ever explained to me that Kiki is just one big Bambi Lake impersonator? The act should be called "Bambi-esque" or "Night of a Thousand Bambis" or some such. The mannerisms, the tweaker gestures, the distinctive style of racontage—even the signing voice was basically just lifted straight from Bambers. Except when Bambi does it, it's not a joke.

During intermission, I tried to explain this to my companions—and then I was validated in the second half of the show, during which Kiki spent, like, 20 minutes actually just doing an avowed Bambi Lake impression, reënacting a phone call from Bambi describing her recent arrest after calling in a bomb threat to the "Backflip" [sic; recte "Bambuddha Lounge"] when the Rolling Stones were having a party there. (Can anyone tell me if this actually happened? I must admit, it rang true.) Anyway, the point is that the whole thing looked to me like a Bambi Lake show manquée, just missing the one element that makes Bambi transfixing: her absolute, utter conviction, her (dare I say it?) authenticity.

So, yeah, it kinda made me uncomfortable. Not least because I couldn't shake the feeling that if Bambi HAD seen herself impersonated in this way, and described in such unflattering (if perhaps honest) terms, then SOMEBODY would be getting a stiletto heel through the eye-socket right about now...

Over dinner afterwards I tried to recall as many memories of Bambi as I could, and I realized that she is, against all odds, implicated in a number of my most treasured memories of the City. This includes even moments when, at the time, I wished I could've been somewhere else...

Tonight: Colloquium at Cambridge! Which is sort of like drag cabaret, but different!