Ever wanted to put your pillow fighting skills to the test in front of a live audience? Here's how to break into the Bedlam All-Girl Pillow Fighting Revue.
Bedlam All-Girl Pillow Fighting Revue‘s second event, BASHED, is this Saturday at Lee’s Palace, and we wanted to know how exactly how an aspiring fighter is chosen and trained. We met up with new recruit Cookie Crumbles after a Bedlam training session, as well as veteran Bedlam fighter Stella Lugosi, and Bedlam co-founders & ringside commentators Crystal Clear and Shirley Knot, to find out how one learns to lay a (not so fluffy) smackdown in the ring.
1. Show some personality
Bedlam was founded last year by Toronto pillow fighting league alumni, and there’s a renewed focus on the entertainment aspect of their events—that’s why it’s Bedlam Revue, not league. “We wanted to incorporate other types of entertainment into the shows,” explains Clear. “There’ll be dancers from Great Canadian Burlesque, Chris Mysterion the Mind Reader, and an opening set from stand-up comic Suzan Mazur. Other organizations have invited us to make appearances at their events, and we want to do the same—be a part of the entertainment community, and make our show a more all encompassing entertainment experience.”
The focus is still on the pillow fights, though, and when recruiting, they’re looking for more than just bruisers. “A lot come to us with no fight training at all—like Cookie,” says Knot. “The main thing we look for is is not the skills they have, but the drive and dedication to learn.” Crumbles, who’d been a baker for a number of years, says, “This is more physical than I was used to, but it’s really just a different way of using my strengths.”
2. Learn to take a hit
“We bring in trainers with Brazilian Jiu-Jutsu experience, and I have a background in amateur wrestling,” says Clear. The early focus is on teaching breakfalls and blocks. “Safety is a real focus in our training, so they’re not needlessly hurting each other—we don’t want anyone breaking an arm.”
Bedlam’s new recruit Cookie Crumbles is ready to step into the ring.
Photograph by V. Aislin.
3. Get the pillow involved
“There’s a combat technique with pillow fighting that’s evolved over the years—like chokeholds that are more effective, and ways to throw a punch with a pillow that’s legal,” continues Clear. “One of the trickiest things to learn is how to get the pillow integrated into your moves—it can be a real hindrance.”
4. Keep your cool
“We have referees, and Crystal and I are watching all the time (as commentators), and we have guys on hand to step in and break it up when it gets out of hand,” says Knot. “It often gets out of hand,” says Lugosi with a toothy grin.
5. Commit to your character
Like the WWE, Bedlam and its fighters commit wholly to their characters in public. Lugosi, for instance, insists that she “Doesn’t go out in daylight, or have a day job, any of all that.” New recruits like Cookie put a lot of thought into their costume before their debut—though again, safety comes first. “Our refs make sure there’s nothing that gives you an unfair advantage,” says Clear. “There’s been incidents in the past—like a bottle of whiskey in a pillow,” says Lugosi.
Asked what they get out of Bedlam, the ladies’ responses range from the dramatic (“I like being around the living, and feeding off their energy, as it were,” proclaims Lugosi) to the pragmatic. “I don’t have a lot of violent impulses,” says Crumbles, “but I’m really enjoying the fitness aspect, and empowerment—I really want to go in to the ring swinging.” Clear and Knot, retired as fighters, enjoy “being puppetmasters” ringside, but it goes deeper, says Clear. “Pillow fighting is a vocation for us, and making this happen is incredibly fulfilling.”
