Ursulina & Co. Put the VaVOOM In Wrestling

For burlesque performer Rita D’Albert a.k.a. Ursulina Lucha VaVOOM is “wrestling for people who don’t like wrestling.” Since the show’s incarnation eight years ago Rita’s been working behind the scenes doing everything from booking the talent, working on the show’s artwork, Rhine-stoning her own costumes, to taking the stage as Ursulina.  She’s enjoyed every part of it declaring that she loves, “seeing a new audience react to everything” and confessed she ends up “voiceless [every night] from screaming and cheering on the performers.”

Lucha VaVOOM combines Mexican-style wrestling, burlesque and comedy. It incorporates “lots of color, fun, visuals, rock n roll-like Cirque du Soleil [acrobatics]” explained the performer. It’s unlike anything you’ve ever seen and the show promoters boast it’s, “a one-of-a-kind event you’ll never forget!”

Rita D’Albert was wide awake when I called her up it was around 9am where she was and couldn’t sit still with their next performance just two days away. “I was in the middle of Rhine-stoning my costume,” she said. Aside from putting on a sassy striptease Rita oversees the day to day going-ons. She walked us through a typical show day and spoke candidly about some of the stars that contributed to Lucha VaVOOM’s colorful history.

“We keep the matches very tight but to break up the wrestling we put on a burlesque strip tease and the thing is that the girls and boys, the dancers that we hire, have to be as energetic and exciting as the wrestlers and the wrestling matches,” she explained. “While the wrestling is happening we have comedians [providing] commentary on the action and instead of being dry and just going over the action we have comedians making funny comments and doing bits,” she explained. “I like to hire comedians that are actually funny.”

Her selection has proven to be successful and has included some famous funny people. “The very first time we did a match our first cohost was Fred Armisen who after one show left to be on Saturday Night Live,” she laughed. “So then we got Pat Oswalt [and then] his career really took off so our main [past] hosts [include] Tom Kenny who’s the voice of Spongbob Square Pants he’s also a huge lucha libre fan and he’s done our shows. He’s really, really funny and energetic.” The list goes on and includes such comics as Dana Gould, Blaine Capatch, Greg Proops and Bobcat Goldthwait.

Rita also revealed that the show’s lineup changes constantly, “I like to change up the lineup for each night in order to keep the audience guessing. It keeps the show surprising and fun.” Although she admitted that performing is awesome she gets most of her kicks out of watching some of the onstage antics, “I love watching the show and I think it has to be that way in order to keep me going and doing what I love to do.”