The Kinsey Sicks - Members and Roles

Members and Roles

Since its initial formation, the lineup of the Kinsey Sicks has undergone several changes and iterations. Schatz and Keller have been the group's only constant through all incarnations. Each member of the group performs a fully realized character, and as new members have joined, they have been encouraged to personally expand and develop their own "history". The members of the group over the years have been:

Current members

• Ben Schatz as "Rachel" (1993–present) – Schatz, a Harvard-trained civil rights lawyer and former Director of the National Gay and Lesbian Medical Association, created the first national AIDS legal project and authored Bill Clinton's HIV policy during the 1992 presidential campaign. He is now a full-time performer as a member of the Sicks. His character, "Rachel", is loudly feminist, angry, and an activist noted both for her diminutive stature, muscular build, and her refusal to shave her underarms.

• Irwin Keller as "Winnie" (1993–present) – Keller, also a lawyer, received his law degree from the University of Chicago and was the former director of the AIDS Legal Referral Panel of the San Francisco Bay Area. Keller authored Chicago's gay rights ordinance, passed into law in 1989. By 2002, Keller had ceased practicing law to perform full-time. His character, "Winnie", is Jewish, a lesbian, and motherly with an old-fashioned sensibility.

• Jeff Manabat as "Trixie" (2004–present) – Manabat, a professional musical theater-performer and graduate of UC-Berkeley, was discovered by the then-current members of the group while performing in a production of When Pigs Fly at the New Conservatory Theatre Center in San Francisco. The Asian American Manabat's casting as Trixie means that the character has actually had three ethnicities over the years. Manabat's Trixie retains all of the original elements of the character, but has, at Manabat's insistence, stopped wearing platinum blonde wigs and is more easily identifiable as Asian. Since joining the group, Manabat is responsible for musical arrangements, Trixie's inordinate glamour and soaring counter-tenor, as well as the entire group's hot couture. Manabat's "Trixie" is glamorous, and somewhat conceited, frequently referring to the other members of the group as "backup singers".

• Spencer Brown as "Trampolina" (October 2008 – present) – the Kinsey Sicks were joined in October 2008 by Spencer Brown, a Kansas City-based actor and singer, already known for his drag character Daisy Bucket (pronounced "bouquet"). His character, "Trampolina", is dim but sweet and sometimes slutty.

Former members

• Abatto Avilez as "Begoña" (1993) – Though Avilez was present at the Bette Midler concert that led to the formation of the Sicks, and appeared with them at their first performance, he quickly dropped out of the group. Avilez died in 1995 and the song "Begoña's Song" was written to honor his memory and was frequently performed in concert by the Sicks.

• Jerry Friedman as "Vaselina" (1993–1999) – Friedman, former Director of Audiology at the San Francisco Hearing Center, was the son of a piano teacher. "Vaselina", said to have been born in a trailer, was trampy, sweet, and not particularly bright. Friedman, Avilez's life partner, died on May 17, 2002 in Omaha, Nebraska of lymphoma. Friedman has been memorialized by Ben Schatz's song "Jerry's Song", which the group has performed in various shows and also appears on the album and film of I Wanna Be a Republican.

• Maurice Kelly as "Trixie" (1993–2001) – Kelley, a former project manager for Levi Strauss Corp, created the role of "Trixie"and her original platinum blonde coiffure.

• Chris Dilley as "Trampolina" (1999–2007/2008) – Dilley, an actor-musician, joined the Sicks as understudy for Friedman's "Vaselina". Trampolina was originally referred to as Vaselina's illegitimate daughter, but those references were phased out after Dilley became Friedman's permanent replacement. Like Vaselina, Trampolina filled the "dumb and slutty" stereotype of the group. After joining the group full-time, Dilley became one of the principal arrangers of the group's music. Though he retired from the group in the summer of 2007, he came back to play "Trampolina" in the summer season of 2008, and filled in for Manabat as Trixie in spring 2011.

• Kevin Kirkwood as "Trixie" (2001–2003) – Kirkwood is a professional actor-singer-dancer who was understudy for Kelly and Dilley in "Dragapella!" and was then announced as Kelly's replacement for six months while Kelly took time off. After Kelly decided not to return to the group, Kirkwood remained in the role for an additional year. Kirkwood's version of Trixie was introduced as " long-lost identical twin sister, Trixie" — an absurd comment on the fact that Kirkwood is African American and Kelly is white. Aside from the racial differences, and the occasional "Trixie Houston" reference, Kirkwood's persona as "Trixie" was largely faithful to the character's original conception.

• Charles Romaine as "Trampolina" (2007–2008) – Romaine, a Los Angeles-based performer and graduate of New York University, joined the group as Dilley's understudy and, in the year after Chris Dilley's August 2007 retirement from the group, played Trampolina.