Mini KISS


Location: New York, NY

Challenge: Little Persons

Website: minikisses.com

Mini Kiss are a high energy rock show made of little people that illuminate Kiss.

They dress in full gear and make up, and play hits from KISS and other 80s bands. Kiss was created in NYC and Mini Kiss was born in NYC.

The band started out as a novelty act as four little people dancing on a bar in costumes and make-up, lip-syncing to the lyrics made famous by their full-size original counterparts. It may have been a far cry from being taken more seriously as an actual tribute band at the time, but it beat the heck out of seasonal work as elves.

Band manager Louis Fatale says "Mini Kiss was mainly created by my brother Joseph, a 4'4" little person".

Joseph was doing work as Oompa Loompas and elves to make money when a club in Manhattan wanted to do something a little different for Halloween. My brother was a huge fan of '80s rock and Kiss in particular, so they came up with the idea of using little people and calling it 'Mini Kiss.'

According to Louis, Joseph's passion for '80s rock was the catalyst for the whole act.

He explains "I'm older than Joseph and he used to drive us nuts playing the drums,But Joseph was inadvertently driving something else. His future in show business". The Mini Kiss tribute soon had a following so big it led to a dream come true for Joseph Fatale. Being on stage with the real deal Kiss.

In 2010 Mini Kiss was in the Dr. Pepper / Kiss Super Bowl Sunday Commercial. It was a hit!! The commercial aired all year. They also have had appearances on Gene Simmons' reality show Family Jewels, Conan O'Brien, The George Lopez Show, HBO live sessions, and Thrift Hunters. They have recently appeared in the movie Mall Cop 2.

Mini Kiss have toured with A Perfect Circle, Jackyl, Blue Oyster Cult, Air Supply, Peter Frampton and many others. The have also appeared at Canoble Lake Park October screamfest. Mini Kiss tour from State to State, City to City with much success!!

Joseph Fatale died in August of 2011 and his brother Louis decided to keep what Joseph had started going.

Joseph's dream was to be a rocker, but with his size it was tough, especially when the '80s were about the pretty-boy look. Louis adds "But he got to live his dream, He pioneered the little person tribute genre and his legacy lives on."

MiniKiss use backing tracks for drum and guitar solos, but as Louis explains "Everything else is live, the pyrotechnics and the blood spitting. It's very high energy. And there's no lip-syncing whatsoever."

Current members of Mini Kiss are Zach (Mini Gene), Jeremy (Mini Paul), original member Wilber (Mini Ace), and Stevo (Mini Peter).


Mini Kiss at the California Mid State Fair