| At the Top of the
Kinsey Scale Kinsey Sicks' "I Wanna Be a Republican" opens at the Roxie by David Lamble Bay Area Reporter January 25, 2007 |
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"Sex with
Republicans is so much
better -- people wracked with shame and guilt are ripe for a really
spicy pounding! And there's nothing hotter than somebody who'll do me
at night and publicly condemn me during the day!"
– The Kinsey
Sicks from I Wanna
Be A Republican
While nothing can top the sight of a closeted soon to be defrocked Florida Congressman bleating to be let into the Congressional page dormitory, a night of sizzling satire and sexy trash talk from San Francisco's own dragapella quartet, The Kinsey Sicks, comes mighty close. The sassy foursome's I Wanna Be A Republican filmed comedy concert (opening Friday) is a laugh out loud funny distillation of material the Kinsey's have been mining and refining since the 2004 campaign and is, to appropriate John Cameron Mitchell's pitch for Shortbus, yet another great way to get through the last two years of Bush. For those who have somehow missed the Kinsey's meteoric rise from a Castro Street corner to sold out engagements Off-Broadway and in Vegas, these boys in dresses and beehives specialize in dead on song parodies. The night I met them backstage at The New Conservatory Theatre for my old KALX radio show they treated me to a pitch perfect send up of the love song from Titanic: Why Does Celine Go On? -- wicked fun and yet retaining the sudsy bathos of the original. The new show features the brassy Trixie (Jeff Manabat) vamping her way through I've Been to Parasites (But I've Never Had VD) to the tune of I've Never Been Me. Who would have thought that an STD could top bulimia or the Scarsdale Diet. What sets The Kinsey's apart from say HBO's Bill Maher and his Bush bashing "new rules" is their divinely lewd and street gutter style banter and stage bits, sometimes with audience participation. The group's songwriting dynamo, Ben Schatz as Rachel, recalls some of Divine's prime moments as the world's filthiest woman. Early in the show Rachel -- the only group member who doesn't shave her pits – sashays into the audience to recruit a semi-willing "victim" for her stage business around the sentimental ballad, Why Can't We Fuck. The guy Rachel yanks out of the crowd – young and lanky with a sexy schnoz – winds up dancing with a full-stemmed rose between his teeth. Rachel lovingly taunts the lad using the full power of her drag office. "I know why you came to this concert. You want me don't you? Answer me fuck face!" As the above exchange indicates The Kinsey Sicks specialize in pushing the envelope of taste and tolerance even with their sold out queer audiences. You can see startled expressions, grimaces mixed with laughter as the dragapellas proceed through their list of revolting topics from "bobbing for butt hairs," to "Dragon Lady Hilary Clinton," to Trixie's mock solemn affirmation. "I'm a pro-choice Republican. We can't have any more of those back alley abortions. I've been in back allies and believe me nothing ruins the moment more than a mangled fetus." The Kinsey Sicks' greatest asset is the sly way their drag personas mix and match: from Rachel's incendiary lewdness to verbal hijinks from Trixie and Chris Dilley's silly Trampolina. At the other end of the spectrum group co-founder Irwin Keller gives his Winnie the circumspect slightly prudish air of an old maid librarian. In a low key show stopper, Clean, Winnie touts the joys of scrubbing the kitchen floor over sex. It set off a wacky long ago memory of how I once chose cleaning my toilet over a night of anal intercourse. I Wanna Be A Republican, is enhanced by fluid camera work putting the film audience in the catbird seat heightening the fun and sharpening their view of individual personalities. This is definitely a film that benefits from being seen in the company of a crowd looking for an irreverent good time and is also funnier on a second viewing when the anticipation of a saucy moment doubles the pleasure. Devotees of queer song parody and outlandish comedy may spot influences of the late Michael Callen and his beloved Flirtations or the brief run of the Jew Meat trio at Jose's Cabaret and Juice Joint. Like the later groups the members of The Kinsey Sicks manage the tricky feat of being both drop dead funny and sexy, in and out of drag. And one of them is single! Deft audience cutaways permit Bay Area film goers to spot friends attending the two marathon filming sessions at the Broadway Studios in North Beach. Director Ken Bielenberg and producer Alonzo Ruvalcaba have made good on their vow to concoct LGBT films "that don't suck" and in the process have given The Kinsey Sicks a showcase to rival the Margaret Cho franchise to say nothing of producing a comedy concert that equals the best of HBO. Later this year Bielenberg and Ruvalcaba will release their documentary look at The Kinsey Sicks on the road. The Kinsey Sicks delight not only in lampooning the age of Bush but also in taking some sneaky pokes at their own fans' sacred cows. "Do you want Democrats in office who will sodomize goats while worshipping Satan?" Well, do you? |
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©2006 The Kinsey Sicks Back to Reviews |