- Title: USA: Toronto's Pillow Fight League brings its campy fun to New York City.
- Date: 26th January 2007
- Summary: L!1) NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES (JANUARY 19, 2007) (REUTERS) (NIGHT SCENES) VARIOUS OF EXTERIOR OF THE GALAPAGOS ART SPACE IN WILLIAMSBURG, BROOKLYN A SIGN OUTSIDE THE GALAPAGOS ART SPACE WITH "PILLOW FIGHT LEAGUE" WRITTEN IN CHALK ON THE ANNOUNCEMENT BOARD
- Embargoed: 10th February 2007 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Usa
- Country: USA
- Topics: Light / Amusing / Unusual / Quirky
- Reuters ID: LVA5HRPE8PRIFDQY4873FZVN6SNO
- Story Text: The "Pillow Fight League" (PFL) provides a new type of sports entertainment showing women attacking each other with the use of pillows. Originating in Toronto, the league has brought its activities across the border and was recently at a performance bar in New York. Tucked away into a corner of Williamsburg in Brooklyn, New York, the Galapagos Art Space looks fairly ordinary from the outside on a cold Friday night (January 19). The exteriors give no hint of the unusual event taking place inside; except if one were to peer at the blackboard outside more carefully, one line would stand out - "Pillow Fight League."
Within the walls of the gallery, some vicious fighting had been going on as women with names such as "Ursula Anvil" and "Carmen Monoxide" tried to wallop the daylights out of each other -- by using pillows.
The crowd of nearly 500 did little to interfere to stop the fighting, actually they more than often encouraged it. They had after all paid to be there.
Welcome to the Pillow Fight League, which has been drawing growing crowds in Toronto since it formed early last year, and has only recently exported its campy fun to New York City.
The league is the brainchild of 38-year-old Stacey Case, a T-shirt printer and musician who came up with the idea that people would pay to see young women in costumes beat the tar out of each other with pillows -- and that women would volunteer to whack each other in front of a crowd.
The idea came from a New Year's Eve show Case's band played in in a Toronto bar just over a year ago. As a local burlesque troupe entertained the crowd by staging a mock pillow fight, they were shocked when women from the audience came forward looking to join the battle.
A few ads in a local newspaper later, and Case and some friends were booking events at local bars. Now they have a stable of 22 dedicated fighters, a growing fan base, and ambitions of turning the PFL into something bigger.
When asked how he responded to the PFL being seen primarily as a place where young women in revealing costumes tussled in front of a largely male audience, Casey explained that his reasons for a women only PFL had been very clear from the beginning and he was not in the least bit apologetic about them. He said he told the women from the outset that he had no agenda and that this wasn't about gender politics or any other sexual agenda. He simply thought that pillow fighting was a women's thing and a great way for them to release aggression.
"It's my league and I don't want to watch guys pillow fight. Sue me, you know, I want to see girls pillow fight. Like when I was a kid I had three sisters and an older brother. My sisters pillow fight and me and my brother literally boxed and wrestled and that sort of stuff. That's what to me guys do, let the girls have some fun. They want to get out their aggression as well," said Case.
Case's role as league commissioner becomes part caricature once the ring lights brighten and the pillows come out. As the boss, he has to play the heel. Another cohort, Matt Harsant, becomes Matt Patterson, a throwback-style referee complete with a bow-tie and limited patience.
But it's the fighters that make the show, and they come in all shapes and sizes, with names like "Lynn Somnia", who staggers to the ring in a hospital gown with electrodes dangling, apparently released from her sleep-deprivation chamber.
Top contenders include a journalist by day and cushion-swinging housewife by night . While the personas are all good fun, the action in the ring is real, and as Case is quick to point out, unscripted.
The rules are simple: women only, no lewd behaviour, and moves such as leg drops or submission holds are allowed as long as a pillow is used. After that, it's up to the combatants.
For the fighters, there's a small stipend, and a chance of fame if the popularity of the league continues to grow. But it's also a hobby, and maybe even has a therapeutic appeal for players like "Eiffel Power" who says she is better off fighting women than taking on men.
"I like that it gives me a venue to get out my aggression that I would normally take out in normal circumstances which is kind of not in my best interests at all. I've definitely fought some boys in bars and it's better to fight girls in a regulated setting with rules," said Power whose real name is Angela Daniel, is based in Toronto and works as a photographer's assistant.
While PFL members like "Lady Die" (whose real name is Sarah and who works as a promotions manager for a radio station, also in Toronto) insist that the PFL is not set up to sexualize women in any way and that the men in the audience would understand it as a sport, some of the New York men had a different opinion.
"It's amazing watching two women go at it. There's nothing better in the world than seeing that. It's awesome," said Phil Lynch. Another New Yorker, Richard Coroselli echoed a similar sentiment.
"It's great. I love it. I've never seen nothing like this before. It's the funniest thing, girls kicking the crap out of each other," said Coroselli.
The bigger picture for the PFL involves a possible TV deal. Case says he has already turned down bids that didn't offer the mix of attention to the action and characters that he says makes the league more of a draw to the arts community than the mud-wrestling crowd. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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