Imagine famous pop-culture figures duking it out on stage in a “life-or-death” tournament bracket.
That’s what the 13th annual Elvis’ Birthday Fight Club is all about. The evening of combat returns to GALA Hispanic Theatre in D.C. on Friday, Jan. 5, and Saturday, Jan. 6, followed by a run at the Creative Alliance in Baltimore on Jan. 12 and Jan. 13.
“Elvis’ Birthday Fight Club is things and/or people that you’ve always wanted to see fight each other in big, fake, glorious fashion, interspersed with burlesque,” femcee Jei Spatola, a.k.a. Kittie Glitter, told WTOP.
Glitter provides colorful commentary with co-host Jared Davis, who portrays Elvis. When the show began at the now-defunct Warehouse Theater in D.C. back in 2011, the producers were assigned a date that just happened to coincide with The King’s birthday on Jan. 8. So, they invented a story that Elvis’ dying wish was to create a commemorative nightclub, only for folks to mishear him to mean “fight club.”
“The actual backdrop is a giant, velvet Elvis painting,” Glitter said. “Then on the left and right of the stage are cages that the fighters will come out into when we describe each of the fighters during ‘The Tale of the Tape.’ Elvis will describe, ‘In Cage No. 1!’ … Then the person comes out from behind the curtain and reveals [themselves], then I say, ‘In Cage No. 2!’ Then we ring a bell and they come out and they fight.”
Produced by Astro Pop Events, the tournament features eight costumed “fighters” in four first-round matches, two semifinal matches and one championship bout, meaning seven total fights.
“People are very invested in it,” Glitter said. “When it starts happening, people will pick a side and we’ve had years where people got really upset that somebody didn’t move forward or something terrible happened. We had Dolly Parton vs. The Tiger King, and not surprisingly, The Tiger King killed Dolly Parton because he’s such a terrible person, of course he would do that, and people were upset like, ‘No! Dolly!'”
This year’s roster of fighters is top secret, but past years have seen all sorts of pop-culture characters.
“We’ve had Freddy Mercury from Queen fighting the Queen of England, we have had Sarah Palin vs. a giant drag queen,” Glitter said. “Last year, we had Count Von Count from ‘Sesame Street’ vs. Count Chocula. We go back to the Muppets a lot, actually, we also had Waldorf & Statler fight The Golden Girls. … Other past matches include The Supreme Court vs. The Supremes, Bridezilla vs. Godzilla and Congress vs. The Clown.”
As you can imagine, it takes a lot of teamwork backstage to pull off such a production.
“There’s actually specific sound effects for each blow that happens and we have specific commentary that happens for each blow,” Glitter said. “It is a completely scripted show and we very carefully choreograph our fights and dancing. … It’s a big, beautiful, semi-chaotic but always entertaining production.”
The grand finale is a big coronation of the winner.
“There is a giant celebration and confetti cannons,” Glitter said. “Elvis himself pulls out a suitcase that carries the very expensive and fancy belt — not really, it’s plastic — but Elvis puts that on the winner … then the next year they actually get to have their likeness and name emblazoned on a banner. We now have 13 banners that hang all around the venues that show all the winners we’ve had for every single year.”
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