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Saturday night's alright for fighting

Saturday September 22, The East Van Pillow Fight Club returns to the Astoria for the fifth in what will hopefully be a never ending series of well padded pugilistic encounters between its highly competitive and dedicated members.

Saturday September 22, The East Van Pillow Fight Club returns to the Astoria for the fifth in what will hopefully be a never ending series of well padded pugilistic encounters between its highly competitive and dedicated members. There are more than a few really good reasons for you to check it out. For starters it's entertaining AND affordable, which in this town is saying something.  Better than that is the fact that I can almost guarantee that you've never seen anything quite like it, and speaking personally I don't know that I've been able to say that about anything in a long time

I caught up with them recently to see them practice and talk a little about the club, how they got their start, and frankly just to satisfy some of my own curiosity.

While the fighters warmed up, a process I won't go into in great detail but which was aptly described to me as "East Van Curves", I couldn't stop myself from making comparisons to all the wrestling I watched and loved as a kid. In my mind, Serbian Scrambler equals the Iron Sheik and Melitia immediately draws comparisons to Sgt. Slaughter. These comparisons make perfect sense from a performance point of view. The fighters want to entertain and the personas they assume are a big part of that. So much so, that their ability to remain in and use their character to draw support from the audience factors into the scoring system used for each fight. Inevitably, those types of comparisons raise questions about the outcome of each fight. In other words, I wanted to know if the fix was in. Having seen about 10 practice bouts I can assure you that the answer to that question is a resounding no and you absolutely have to see it to understand. The rounds run two minutes, which doesn't sound like a long time unless you spend it swinging your arms and trying really hard to deftly avoid a person who's swinging their arms at you. It's exhausting to watch, and keep in mind that these are practice fights, removed from the adrenaline which comes from being in front of an audience. Injuries are not completely uncommon and in some cases can be reasonably serious. I'm also informed that most fighters generally carry on despite the pain, which suggests a dedication to ones craft not found in many arenas.

I've always been impressed with people who have ideas about building things and just run with them. They figure out a ways to make things happen and even more than that figure out ways to persevere and make those things successful. The women who make up the East Van Pillow Fight Club are these sorts of people. In only slightly more than half a year they've taken an idea about staging pillow fights to keep the rent paid on a Gastown studio and turned it into something that's only be a sanctioning body away from becoming a fully fledged sport. That sort of dedication and innovation is absolutely worth supporting and a big part of what makes Vancouver, and East Van in particular such a great place to be.

What you need to know:

What: EVPFC V: Revenge of the Riot Grrrrls

Where: The Astoria, located at 769 Hastings St East.

When: Saturday, September 22nd. Doors at 8pm (get there early if you want to sit ringside).

Cost: 10 bucks.

For more information you can find the EVPFC on the web, as well as Facebook and Twitter.

The EVPFC would like to acknowledge the support of their sponsors at the St. Regis Bar and Grill, located in the St. Regis Hotel in downtown Vancouver.