"The only question I can’t really answer myself," says Brian Thoe, who plays Gene Simmons for a living, "is if I was an average-height person, what would I be? Would I be in the entertainment industry?"

You can see why he would ask that. But one thing's for sure. He wouldn't be in Mini Kiss, a Kiss tribute band featuring four little people that played the Arizona State Fair earlier this month.

The group was started in New York City, by Joseph James Fatale, a 4-foot-4-inch musician known to fans as Mini-Gene, who died in 2011 of heart failure.

"Joey always loved music," says Lou Fatale, Joseph's brother. "And at the age of 8 years, he was playing drums by ear. Joey never took any music lessons, but played guitar, drums, piano. He started a band with little people in the 1990s, but nothing came of it."

Nothing came of Short N Sweet, his rap gig in the '80s, either.

"He was doing local bars, pubs, venues," his brother recalls. "Joey also was doing elf, leprechaun and other mini gigs."

Then, in 1996, the owner of the Lava Lounge, a New York City club, asked him to come up with something a little different.

"As we we're moving from one house to another, we came across his Kiss 'Alive' album," Fatale recalls, "and Joey looked at me and said Mini Kiss. Bam! Magic was in the works. After we did the Lava lounge, the owner called us and said his phones were ringing off the hook for Mini Kiss."

The late bandleader wrote about that first experience on minikisses.com:

"Our first show was lip-synching (sic) to a Kiss CD and playing blow-up guitars like you see at parties. We stood on top of the bar and we sung five songs from the actual Kiss CD. WE WERE A HIT!! Cops had to come because the place was mobbed, but they loved us too!!"

The rest, his brother says, is "Mini Kisstory."

PHOTOS OF MINI KISS AT ARIZONA STATE FAIR:

In 2010, Fatale got to meet his heroes when they got a call from Dr. Pepper Cherry asking them to do a Super Bowl commercial with the members of Kiss, who shared the news of Fatale's death with fans on kissonline.com.

"KISS was saddened to learn," they wrote, "that Joey Fatale has passed away. Joey portrayed Mini-Gene Simmons in the band Mini-KISS, and he also appeared with us in our series of Dr. Pepper Cherry commercials. Joey passed away on August 7th. He was 47."

Since his brother's death in 2011, Fatale has kept Mini Kiss alive, expanding the brand in 2013 with Mini-Acts, "a full-service little people entertainment company."

In 2015, Mini Kiss were featured in Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2" with Kevin James. They've toured with A Perfect Circle, and opened up for Kiss, Peter Frampton, Blue Oyster Cult, Air Supply and Great White, among others.

They've been on "Lip Sync Battle," "The George Lopez Show," "Gene Simmons Family Jewels" and more.

"Touring with Mini Kiss is a different personality," says Mark Mingolo, the Peter Criss of their tribute show. "You go from ordinary dad, you know, kids at home, to being this rock star."

There is an element of exploitation going on here.

"You wanted the littlest, you got the littlest," their website boasts, playfully paraphrasing Kiss' own live introduction, "the hottest littlest band in the world, MINIKISS!!"

But they're in on the joke, and it's given them a level of acceptance they're not always shown without the makeup.

"You know, being a little person, when you’re walking the street, people are gonna make fun of you sometimes," Mingolo says. "Look at you a little different. But when you put that makeup on and we’re Mini Kiss, people love us."

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