One of the more charming aspects of Kiss is that the band members’ own almost comically thick New York accents have consistently shone through the makeup, the costumes, the stage blood, and the explosions, never letting spectators forget that these alleged kabuki space demons from hell are actually just some Yankees in platform heels and clown white face paint. This endearing quality is front and center throughout “The Best Of Paul Stanley’s Epic Stage Raps,” a 21-minute compilation video by the Toledo-based multimedia firm JPA Entertainment. “Kiss frontman Paul Stanley’s stage raps are legendary,” explains the video’s creator, clearly a fan. “I put together this video to show the evolution of his concert banter over Kiss’ 40+ year career.”
Here, viewers will find very little music and only brief appearances from Gene Simmons and the other members of Kiss. It’s just the Starchild himself, both with and without makeup, communing with the audience in that inimitably screechy, gravelly voice of his while wearing studded leather vests and shredded muscle shirts. A typical Stanley gem: “Sometimes, people say, ‘Why do you write songs about women taking off their clothes?’ I thought about that, and I thought, ‘Probably because I like looking at naked women.’” Other topics include alcohol (he favors it), getting up early for work (he disdains it), the spirit of rock and roll (which is alive and well in New Jersey), and the hierarchy of hit songs (there are mere classics, and then there are classics among classics). Anecdotes about groupies, meanwhile, are not only shared but enthusiastically acted out, and the word “people” is repeated many, many times.