The Kinsey Sicks, a “dragapella®” beauty-shop quartet, recently celebrated its 20th anniversary of serving up music and comedy to audiences all over the world.
The group was founded in 1993 by Benjamin Schatz (who plays “Rachel”), a Harvard-trained civil-rights lawyer, former director of the National Gay and Lesbian Medical Association and one-time presidential advisor on HIV issues, along with Irwin Keller (who plays “Winnie”), a lawyer, linguist and former director of the AIDS Legal Referral Panel of the San Francisco Bay Area.
Schatz said what started out as something to do for fun with a group of friends quickly snowballed into a career that has seen the group perform on Broadway, record and release eight albums and appear in two feature films.
“I never had any idea that there were so many people in America with bad taste and discretionary income,” he joked of the group’s ongoing success. “It’s been an amazing ride. I always thought that we were pretty fantastic. The chances of having any kind of successful career in the arts is miniscule. Add to that being out and queer which, until the last year or two, was definitely not a marketing tool. Then being political and controversial in our content, the odds against us were extremely high so I am incredibly proud of and constantly filled with delight.”
Other members of the group have come and gone since the group formed but their appeal has continued to grow.
Schatz said the Kinsey Sicks attracts people far beyond fans of the average drag show.
“Our audience is ridiculously diverse,” he said. “Sometimes we do an early show and a late show and if you took a picture of the two crowds, you’d be convinced that they certainly aren’t there for the same show. We have a large gay male following, a large lesbian following, a bear following, but we also have a cappella lovers, Jews, people who are outsiders from society and people who like political humor. So we get an extraordinarily broad range of people, which is very flattering. A lot of other drag performers, 90 percent of their crowd is gay men. Our crowd is anywhere between zero and 100-percent gay men, depending on the show.”
Even though he has long since stopped practicing law to focus on performing, Schatz said he’s still bringing a message to people through the group’s performances.
“When I was a movement activist or a talking head, I found that in general the people I was speaking to were already inclined to agree with me,” he said. “A lot of people come to our show not knowing much about us. They’ve never seen a drag show before — and once you’ve seen our show, you still haven’t seen a typical drag show — or they just want to see something funny. The combination of music and comedy and absurd larger-than-life characters that are loveable and also people to make fun of but relate to, it opens people up. We’ve performed in places like Idaho Falls and Salt Lake City. We did a county fair in Kansas several years ago, and we had articles in the press about people protesting us being there. Over a couple of days we had four sets. By the last set on the second day we drew the largest crowd that they had ever had. We were singing songs about gay marriage but we were loveable. People didn’t take it as a political speech. They wouldn’t have come if they had thought that’s what we were doing. So I feel like I’m just as much as an activist now but I’m reaching a broader audience and having a lot more fun.”
The Kinsey Sicks perform through June 8 at the Rrazz Room, in The Ramada New Hope, 6426 Lower York Road, New Hope. For more information or tickets, call 888-596-1027 or visit www.kinseysicks.com.