YOU have to do something if you don’t have someone to distract you,” is Mx Justin Vivian Bond’s tongue-in-cheek explanation for why new show Love Is Crazy was launched on Valentine’s Day in Paris last year.

The transgender cabaret star, who has adopted the pronoun v rather than he or she to express Bond’s transgendered spirit, rose to fame as the ascerbic Kiki, one half of cult duo Kiki And Herb.

After 15 years though v felt the need to break away.

“I had expressed everything I wanted to express with that character,” says Bond. “When we first made those characters it was in the early 1990s in response to a lot of chaos and anger around us – a result of the AIDS crisis and the activism involved in it. Suddenly we were being offered gigs off-Broadway and at Carnegie Hall.

“I needed to break off into something else. It was kind of frightening, but not as frightening as the copious amount of drugs and alcohol I would have had to consume in order to stay as Kiki.”

Kiki And Herb focused wholly on covering songs – so v found songwriting a way of finding out who Justin Vivian Bond was.

“Interpreting others’ music put me off writing for a long time,” Bond admits. “I appreciate great songwriting. It’s like when you’re re-reading something and you discover something which creates clarity within you. “Sometimes you are blessed to find a song which expresses something you were searching for. Sometimes you have to write a song because nothing else is giving you clarity.

“Songwriting really helped give me freedom to step away from that character – it was the best way to focus on what I was thinking and feeling and how I wanted to express those things in my own voice. Songwriting became a journey of self-discovery.”

That has been augmented with a career in the visual arts – with v’s work going on display in a solo exhibition at London’s Vitrine Gallery in May.

“I was torn between being a performer or a visual artist,” reveals Bond, who appeared in cult film Shortbus.

“I actually studied acting because I felt like I was a better visual artist than an actor which has to be a stupid choice! I couldn’t care less about acting at this point.

“Visual art, music and writing all flow together. It’s why I love cabaret so much. It incorporates the visual, narrative, song and costume, all the elements of performance and being an artist. You don’t have to feel limited to any specific task.”

Love Is Crazy, which is on a short four-date UK tour, arose from a playlist Bond put together while in San Francisco based around the word love. Alongside v’s own songs there are selections from The Cure, The Smiths, The Divine Comedy and The Pet Shop Boys.

“I’d had some crazy romantic experiences in Paris,” Bond says, who plans to write a new album and show in 2015. “I loved the way the French phrase L’Amour Fou sounded.

“The playlist is from my own music collection. It’s such a great setlist. Even though I haven’t written all of them, they are all very personal to my experience.”

Bond is also the guest of honour at a transgender awareness show at The Marlborough Theatre, in Princes Street, Brighton, on Thursday, February 19, reading from v’s memoir Tango: My Childhood, Backwards And In High Heels. Tickets for the show, which starts at 8pm, cost £5 from www.eventbrite.co.uk.

Duncan Hall

Starts 8.30pm, tickets £14/£12. Call 01273 709709.