See this story at BrooklynDaily.com.
By Jaime Lutz
Brooklyn Daily
With its elaborate costumes, shoddy acting, and bizarre storylines, professional wrestling is already pretty funny.
So Union Hall’s monthly “Wrestling Mania” show — where comedians and wrestlers riff on vintage wrestling performances, “Mystery Science Theater”-style — seems like a perfect union of the two performance arts.
“The basic idea is to gather people who like wrestlers together with some funny people onstage,” said organizer Rob Blatt, a sideshow performer who goes by the stage name of Bobby Phobia. “To take an evening to acknowledge that not all wrestling is great, but we love it anyway.”
The show is hosted by Blatt and Matt Striker, a retired pro-wrestler and current announcer for World Wrestling Entertainment, and past panelists have included comedians Mike Lawrence and Dan St. Germaine, Grantland writer David Shoemaker, and rocker and podcaster Mike Pace.
The line-up for this month’s show includes comic George Gordon along with Dan Barry, who has the distinction of being both a stand-up comedian and a pro wrestler — basically the perfect resume for a show like this.
“The wrestling we watch is for the most part bad,” Blatt said. “There’s something laughable about it — there’s something weird about it.”
“Wrestling Mania” at Union Hall [702 Union St. between Fifth and Sixth avenues in Park Slope, (718) 638–4400, www.unionhallny.com]. Dec. 23 at 8 pm, $6.