Frameline 29: Kiki and Herb on the Rocks

Hey, you know that cabaret-drag performance duo, Kiki and Herb? Oh, you don't? Well, then, you might not really care for , which comes off feeling like a tribute mockumentary laden with in-jokes. Kiki and Herb, for the uninitiated, are two clever fags who've created jaded/damaged lounge-performer personae, a cross between the Edie Beales of Grey Gardens and Penn & Teller. (Thx to friend-of-SFist Jessie for originally making that spot-on comparison.) Loud, boozy Kiki hollers outlandish reimaginings of bizarrely related songs and regales the audience with sordid stories and shocking comments. (Upon being told of a skyscraper in London that's shaped like a pickle, she muses, "let's see them fly an airplane into THAT;" of her sister, dying of cancer, she says, "it humbled her. She's a lot more fun. ... I think more people should get cancer.") Meanwhile, quiet Herb holds things together behind a keyboard, leaking out snippets of songs for Kiki to accompany that slide unpredictably from "Rock to the Boat" to Radiohead's "Creep". Click here for a far more literate examination of their act than we are capable of writing.

Sounds like it would make a great live show, right? Well, it probably would. Doesn't do much in mockumentary form, though. At Wednesday night's showing at The Castro, audiencemembers familiar with the duo ate it up; those lacking a prior introduction could only really enjoy a confused giggle. On the Rocks follows the Kiki and Herb characters as they arrive in London and prepare for a gig. Kiki scorns London's landmarks, sarcastically cooing at Big Ben, "ooh, a clock...the biggest clock in the world," and generally harasses her handlers and onlookers. Her tragic cruelty makes for fun company; but without much of a story to sustain it, the movie doesn't pack nearly the punch that its stars deserve.