These sisters got their start singing in church.

Holy Moly, have they changed their tune.

Instead of hymns, Damaris "Iris" Haviland and Roxy "Rose" Keller sing about sex.

"Straight sex and gay sex and old-people sex," says Damaris. "Nothing is sacred. We make fun of it all. All we want is to make people laugh."

By week, the duo run a Colorado Springs painting business, Just Faux Fun, specializing in new home construction. On weekends, Iris & Rose - aka Wild & Thorny - are naughty bawdy singing tavern wenches at the Colorado Renaissance Festival in Larkspur.

"Our job is to get them intoxicated," Damaris says, "and we do a very good job of it."

She married a guy in a kilt from the audience two years ago. Roxy, the big sis, is a divorced mother of four children.

"We're professional flirts," says Roxy. "Part of the character is you're ageless, timeless and always available."

Fans give them personalized bloomers.

The choirgirls from the tiny southwestern town of Arboles credit a strict church and family upbringing with making them what they are today.

"We sang A Cappella. We learned harmonies," Roxy says. "We owned a restaurant growing up. We learned really young how to get those tips, to bat those eyes."

"Mom used to say ‘sparkle-farkle,'" says Damaris.

The sisters got into show biz after a summer gig slinging beer at a Texas Renaissance fest.

"We were in a remote part of the kingdom," Roxy says. "When the cannon blew to let everyone in, it took an hour to filter down. So we sang songs, told jokes, played games to keep ourselves entertained."

People lined up to watch. "We heard over and over again, ‘Y'all girls are funny, y'all should be on stage,'" Damaris says.
An act was born.

They have five Iris & Rose CDs, songbooks and a line of Wild & Thorny tank tops. They perform at two Texas faires every year. They've been a highlight for 11 summers at the Colorado fest, staying overnight in a travel trailer. It's a family affair. Damaris' husband manages the show. Her teen stepson and Roxy's teen daughter work for other vendors.

The sisters like the extremes of their jobs.

"One we dress up girly - we've got the feathers and the ruffles and lace and the flowers and the skirts and the cleavageand the wow," says Damaris.

"Monday through Friday we've got our nasty painting clothes. We're carrying 5 gallon buckets of paint, 55-pound ladders, we're walking around on stilts. Little children are always like, ‘oooouw, you're dirty."

Weekends, it's more like "ahhhh, you're dirty."

"It's an art finding a good dirty song," says Roxy. "I can't begin to tell you the research it takes. We have to go back hundreds of years. I have used my English degree a lot."

Damaris has college degrees in anthropology and nutrition.

"We're women entrepreneurs," says Roxy. "The empowerment is huge, and I think that shows up on stage a lot."

Their fame follows them even when in lay clothes.

"I was at Best Buy buying a computer and the guy was like, ‘Are you Iris?' I was recognized on a golf course by an 11-year-old girl and I was in a visor and sunglasses," says Damaris.

"Why was an 11-year-old at our show?"

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