Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2005. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
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Miami Herald - March 2, 2005
Steve Rothaus, srothaus@herald.com
These are four men with big hair and big voices.
"There's a lot of what we do that undermines people's expectations," said Irwin Keller, who co-founded the quartet 12 years ago with friend Ben Schatz and two others.
"Bette Midler was going to do a show in San Francisco on New Year's Eve in 1993," Keller recalled. "Ben said let's go and let's dress as the Andrews Sisters. We did. We went as the four Andrews Sisters. There weren't four, but we were four. We like to say we were the only drag queens [that night] other than Bette."
The four caused a sensation. "We were such natural hams . . . waving and frolicking," Keller said. A promoter offered them a job, if they could sing.
"We started harmonizing on the way home and we sounded great," Keller said. "What a kick to do an a cappella act in drag. We stayed up until 3 in the morning. We sang and sang and sang. We had material!"
The original deal with the promoter didn't work out, but the quartet debuted their act seven months later on a street corner in San Francisco's Castro neighborhood.
"By the time we appeared on the street corner, we had an hour of material, harmony and full costumes," Keller said.
Thus, The Kinsey Sicks. "It's a play on the Kinsey scale of sexual orientation -- people who have only had same-sex sexual experiences, they rate as a Kinsey six," Keller explained. "With that certain spelling twist. It was kind of a bad idea, but once we got started we got stuck with it. It was that or Dragapella. If we had it to do all over again, Dragapella would be our name."
Today's Kinsey Sicks consists of Keller (who performs under the drag name Winnie), Schatz (Rachel), Jeff Manabat (Trixie) and Chris Dilley (Trampolina).
"We buy and do our own makeup," Dilley said. "This is basically a four-man show. All aspects of everything we do is done by one or more of us. We will zip a dress for the other. The four of us sitting in the mirror, being responsible for the anti-beautification of ourselves. When we look hideous, it's our own fault."
They also write much of their own material. Many numbers are twists on familiar songs: AZT, an upbeat piece about the AIDS drug set to the Jackson Five's ABC, and I've Been through Parasites (But I've Never Had VD).
The quartet has recorded four albums, which they sell online ( www.kinseysicks.com) and at concerts, including a brief run Off-Broadway in 2001. They spend about half the year on the road. This will be their third South Florida appearance since 2002.
"[South Floridians] aren't nearly as appalled as other audiences are," Keller said. "We think it has to do with all the constant sunshine."
Kinsey Sicks appearances often are tied to gay fundraising events. Thursday's performance benefits the Gay and Lesbian Community Center of South Florida. Saturday night's show will be a field trip for Ruach, a gay-oriented social group at Temple Israel of Greater Miami.
"After Nov. 2 and the debacle, we have to pull ourselves up and start laughing again -- even if it is at ourselves," wrote Miami attorney Richard Milstein in a post-election e-mail to fellow Ruach members.
More than 20 Ruach members immediately signed up for tickets.
"Kinsey Sicks is a group that brings diversity and openness to the entire community," said Milstein, who also chairs the Dade Community Foundation board of governors.
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