Legend: Kenny Kerr

Kenny Kerr: Featured Legend of Red Hots Burlesque

We’re continuing to count down to the pinkest time of the year as Red Hots Burlesque tributes boylesque legend…

KENNY KERR

Female impersonator Kenny Kerr set down a glittery heel in Las Vegas in 1977 with This Is Boy-Lesque and began his journey as a drag pioneer. Singing with his actual voice, Kenny had a sharp unscripted wit that quickly made any show he was a part of a must-see experience in Vegas. Originally from Philadelphia, he was discovered at 16 for how closely he resembled Barbara Streisand: his impersonation became so spot-on over the years that the lady herself sanctioned it. For more than 11 years, This Is Boy-Lesque was the place for locals to bring their out-of-town friends. At the start of his career in Vegas though Kerr was unafraid to be a man in a dress performing, he did skirt the question of his sexuality, leading to a rocky relationship with the gay community in Vegas. In the late ’70s and early ’80s being gay was actively criminalized (sodomy laws strictly enforced), and a record meant your career was done. “It’s a question I can’t win by answering,” Kerr said in 1982. “If I said I am gay, there are an awful lot of narrow-minded people out there. And If I said I’m heterosexual, a lot of people wouldn’t believe me.” Eventually Kerr became one of the gay community’s most outspoken supporters and fundraisers, receiving the 1997 Lifetime Achievement Award at the Gay and Lesbian Community Center’s Honorarium. Kerr passed away in April at the age of 60.