About Nikki & Co
Nikki Nightingale & Co started together in 1998, originally the act was male/female and started off as a ‘visual interpretation act’, this was when ‘lip syncing’ had a bad rap – thanks to Ru Paul’s Drag Race this is no longer the case. The basic premise of the act was that they went for numbers that even an agent wouldn’t book them to even audition. The classic examples of this were ‘Barbie Girl’ and a few Grease numbers.
At some point, ‘Co’ decided to go female, and Nikki Nightingale & Co became a drag duo but tried to do something new, by having a storyline to the act. However, they were a bit ahead of their time on the gay circuit (20 years too early to be exact), but found a strong 7-year career on the hen night and working men’s clubs. It was not unusual of being booked twice a week over a 7-year period, to run for 7 years straight with this amount of gigs is quite uncommon.
The act consisted of 14 costume changes in 45 minutes, however to circumstances beyond Nikki Nightingale & Co’s control, the act went on a 15-year hiatus (as one pundit said, just a short hiatus!) – and when it came time to perform again, the original act was too much, also the late nights that usually come with an adult orientated act didn’t appeal – they have had their fair share of eating half cold breakfasts at 6am in the morning!
One classic story is the Millenium, their agent called them, negotiations were done with one in the bath and one on the phone, and were told ‘There will be children, but they will be on the bouncy castle’. Imagine the shock when they were in their dressing room (in a hallway cornered off) hearing 6-year-olds saying ‘they are putting boobs on’ and ‘they are putting on makeup’. If that wasn’t enough when Nikki Nightingale & Co went on stage the entire front row consisted of children, jokes were sanitised to child-friendly words or spelt out, and the choreography was changed on the fly, for example, Judy’s basket had a dildo in, which stayed firmly(!) in the basket, and Barbie & Ken’s simulated sex had to be changed too. The parents thanked them. But in true gig fashion, they were still on the road when it came to midnight – so celebrating the Millenium in was a bottle of Budweiser and a party popper nicked from the party on a layby on the A21!
They are still taking bookings, but the show is much shorter – and in Freemason fashion, in order to book Nikki Nightingale & Co – you need to find a friend of theirs or someone who has booked them in the past – OR if you have crossed paths with them outside of drag – you might have got their business card…!