La ImproLucha takes the stage

BY MARIA GALLUCCI
The News
Sept. 10, 2009

"Uno! Dos! Tres! Cuatro! Cinco! Improoo Luchaaa!" the hysterical crowd shouts, pumping their fists in the air with each count.

Every last wire-framed seat in the Mexico City arena is filled as men, women and wide-eyed children circle around small, square wrestling stage.

They've all come out to see the Thursday night fights - La ImproLucha, that is.

La ImproLucha is a hysterical blend of improvisational sketches and simulated fights set inside the Foro Shakespeare theater in the city's Condesa neighborhood.

Once a week, the event adds a very Mexican twist by placing theatrical comedy in the context of Lucha Libre, the infamous wrestling routine that puts big-muscled men into tiny spandex leggings and sparkly facemasks.

Now just a month into its fourth season, the comedic competition is set to finish with a final fight in mid-December.

"It's kind of cathartic," said program director José Luis Saldaña. "People yell at us, they scream, shout, laugh and literally go crazy."

Saldaña said he and co-creator Omar Medina developed the idea for ImproLucha after learning about the comedic "Catch" format at a 2005 international improvisation festival. The format pairs two groups of actors against each other, with a referee selecting scenarios and determining a winner and loser between the dueling duos.

"We decided to do this, but `a la mexicana,'" he said. The event is carried out under the direction of the theater group Complot/Escena.

The project's first run in 2006 took place at Teatro La Capilla in the Coyoacán neighborhood. The creators added a professional Lucha Libre ring to the mix, and, rather than just parody the set-up, they hired trainers to actually teach the faux-wrestling tactics to the actors.

They then incorporated live music, now offered by the three-piece band Los Sin Cara, a group that adds suspense and comedic relief throughout the 90-minute show.

After the first run, however, the ImproLucha show outgrew the 100-person theater, finding more ample space in the Foro Shakespeare for the second season - a 225-person space that has since sold out nearly every event in the current season.

AT THE SHOW

[Warning: Non-native Spanish speakers might laugh with the audience but not know why, as the actors' language is fast, jumbled and very "chilango"].

This season's ImproLucha roster includes 16 actors - six pairs of two teammates and four referees; most actors are involved in the event's production.

Three teams battle each Thursday, with the final victors returning to compete in the next week's fight. The rotation continues for 16 games until the first semifinal on Nov. 26, ultimately concluding with a final championship game on Dec. 17.

Actual Lucha Libre wrestlers sit in the audience at each game as the invited guests of honor, joining the crowd while donning their trademark headgear.

A recent Thursday evening event started with a packed theater as stagehands toted buckets of 20-peso beer to the crowd. The scrawny referee, El Contador Anónimo (The Anonymous Accountant), played by Juan Carlos García, approached the stage dressed in an excessively nerdy ensemble.

Then began the heckling.

As the charmingly tacky referee attempted to spell out all the event's rules and guidelines, boisterous audience members screamed at him to shut up, get off the stage and other unprintable unpleasantries. Yielding to their not-so-subtle requests, the referee welcomed on stage the first pair of "luchadores," Los Reyes del Swing (The Kings of Swing).

Wearing a skintight, strikingly red dress, actress Maricarmen Núñez descended the theater staircase amidst clouds of smoke and a loud band introduction as Claudio Lafarga followed her down the steps in a sparkly gold top with black pants and suspenders.

Next on stage was the 2007 ImproLucha champion team played by - naturally - co-creators Saldaña and Medina. Staying true to Lucha Libre's cheerful employment of tongue-in-cheek stereotypes, their team Inmolación Talibana (Taliban Immolation) approached the stage in long robes and flowing headscarves before ripping back the fabric to reveal wrapped skirts underneath.

The referee reached into his facemask-adorned bag and removed a slip of paper, revealing the night's first sketch: "abuelita," an affectionate name for little old ladies. Given a choice between comedy and tragedy, the audience opted for the latter, casting their final votes with a flat palm for the Talibana team or a closed fist for the zoot suiters.

"This year, none of the games will repeat themselves," Saldaña said in an earlier interview. "In the past, we had a list of more than a hundred games that were repeated many times. Our intention now is that the actor is in risk the whole time, `risk' meaning the sensation of not knowing where the sketch will go or what is going to happen.

After a flurry of five scenarios, or rounds, at the Shakespeare theater, the Talibana duo was ultimately voted to victory, and the teams broke out into an acrobatic, overdramatic Lucha Libre brawl.

Following an incredibly short intermission, a second team, Cópula Violenta (Violent Copulation), joined the first-round winners in a match. Nearly an hour and multiple sketches later, the effeminate Leonardo Ortizgris and his partner, an androgynous substitute for actress Dione Rubio's character, ceded defeat to the returning champions.

At the end, the audience erupted into applause, both cheering on and badgering the actors in the same screeching breath.

While the on-stage word battles might seem effortless to audience members, in reality the actors are challenged with constantly creating new material and characters to keep the ImproLucha fresh, spontaneous and unpredictable.

"It's more than a challenge, it's our obligation to make sure people who come back always see new things and, year after year, say that they like it even more each time," Saldaña explained.

Another objective, he said, is to attract fans of the theater to Lucha Libre, and to draw wrestling enthusiasts into the theater.

"People here like two things," Saldaña said.

"They've never seen improvisation like this, and they're always going to see new stories told in different ways by different actors."

"This makes people want to return, and they always come back at least two or three times," he said, adding that the comedy routine has had so much success that organizers will be seeking a larger arena for the fifth season.

"The idea is to continue growing, to keep improving `luchísticamente,' theatrically and logistically, so that each time more people attend."