For $25 there’s nothing more fun in Los Angeles than going to Lucha VaVoom. Now, you may ask, “What exactly is Lucha VaVoom?” Well, it is the brilliant combination of Masked Mexican Wrestling and Burlesque dancing, otherwise known as the great blend of sex and violence. With fat sweaty men in spandex and half-naked girls in pasties, what more could one want?
Lucha first started in August 2002 as a one night show and has now grown into three shows a year (Valentine’s Day, Summer and Halloween). This February’s show “Love, Mexican Style!” had three nights of sold-out performances. After going to Lucha several times in the past few years, I can see why it has really begun to catch on. It’s an entire night of drunken madness and debauchery! I guarantee that if you go once, you’ll be hooked!
Jeremiah and I had the privilege of attending the February 15th performance, hosted by comedians Blaine Capatch, Patton Oswalt and Tom Kenny (best known as the voice of Spongebob Squarepants). Their on-the-fly commentary makes Lucha all the more worthwhile. It’s a good thing that the wrestlers already have someone to fight, because if they could hear some of the comments made about them, they’d likely drag these three into the ring. It’s all in good fun and really, what can a 40-year old man dressed in spandex and makeup say? Resident DJ, Senor Amor provides the soundtrack for Lucha and always provides some great rarities culled from his amazing record collection that numbers 15,000.
The evening was jolted into gear when part burlesque, part circus act, The Wau Wau Sisters overtook the stage on their trapeze performing to GNR’s “Welcome to the Jungle.” They were dressed in hot pink zebra print and panties that, when read side-by-side, said “F^ck Yeah.” There’s no real way to describe their amazing talent and strength, just look at the photos. They can hang upside down, open a beer with their teeth and light a cigarette all at once. Now that’s hot!
Following the sex always comes the violence, which brought up the first match of the night between White Pork and Los Chivos. White Pork is exactly what he sounds like, clad in a white pig mask complete with snout. I couldn’t tell who the real victor in this match was, but I had fun watching it anyway and so did the rest of the crowd. As the night went on everyone got progressively rowdier, mostly due to the alcohol flowing.
It’s always hard for me to decide which wrestlers are my favorites. Los Gallineros (the Chickens) have their own incredibly catchy theme song to which they bounce around on their butts and flap their arms like wings. This of course elicited bird-flu jokes from the comedian commentators. The Human Tornado is new to the scene and is very soulful for a wrestler, with great dance moves and incredible athleticism. He will be making his Hollywood debut in Jack Black’s upcoming flick, Nacho Libre, which is focused around Masked Mexican Wrestling. Cassandro on the other hand is the most flamboyant of the bunch, with his sparkle eye makeup and set hair. He wrestled this evening with two cracked ribs and a split open head which he received from the previous night’s match. Wow! Lastly, who doesn’t love Tsuki, the midget wrestler that always charms the crowd. There’s nothing like seeing a bunch of people chanting for a midget. Oh, did I forget to mention the midget wrestling match? See? You can’t help but love Lucha!
At Lucha, the sex is as fun as the violence and the burlesque dancers really add to the festivities with their performances between matches. Some of my favorites were Roky Roulette, who brings a little something for the ladies. Usually you see him stripping while bouncing around on a pogo stick, but on this evening he came out dressed as Colonel Sanders and showered the audience with feathers as he removed his attire. Michelle L’amour was amazing as well, gracefully allowing the balloons she was covered in float her clothes up, up and away above the crowd.
The evening was capped off with the Lucha VaVoom Super Estrellas that featured the wrestling royalty of Blue Demon Jr., a second generation Mexican wrestler. At the end of the night all of the dancers got up on stage as the crowd was leaving and had their own dance party, welcoming spectators to join. They were all just doing it for the fun of it, which is what Lucha is all about!
