Geek Theater: Vampire Cowboy’s Fight Girl Battle World Rocks My Frickin’ Geek World

by Jenn Kim

Sigh. This week has been hard. Since last Friday, I’ve been assaulted with articles, pictures and video feed of what I’ve missed at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con that took place a whole 2,831 miles away from my home in New Jersey. (Yeah, I google mapped it.)  I may or may not have spent this week sobbing quietly in front of my computer, my haunted eyes watching the likes of Joss Whedon (my HERO), Misha Collins (at least Jared and Jensen weren’t there) and Nate Fillion (SIGH!!!!) via frickin’ youtube instead of at a huge convention hall with tens of thousands of like-minded, awesome peeps in cosplay.

But as I curse California, stupid California, for its sunshine and humidity-less weather and its beacon of nerd-dom and being 2,831 miles away, I’m comforted by the fact that we here on the east coast are far from barren of geek talent and charm. In fact, we here in New York (okay FINE, we here who are a Port Authority bus ride away from New York; GEEZ) have amazing theater troupes like Vampire Cowboys to assuage this broken geek heart of mine.

So I’m going to take this time to do something I so rarely do. I’ve never been good with expressing my “feelings” or so-called “emotions” or whatever, but damn it, if there’s anything I’ve learned during this past year of unemployment and self-imposed solitude, it’s that life’s too short, and when you’re as emotionally dead as I am, you need to grab and embrace anything that remotely resembles sentiment and just put it out there. So here goes: *sharp inhale. Vampire Cowboys…I’m kind of TOTALLY IN LOVE WITH YOU.

I know. You can’t really go back once it’s out there. I’ve waited a long time to say it, and I think this very may well finally be the start of a healthy and totally normal relationship.

It all started with witnessing your awesome production of Soul Samurai this past March. The writing, the fighting, the vampire-slaying, and the Asian-American lesbian protagonist…it all spoke volumes to my soul. You kind of opened my eyes to a world I didn’t know existed; a world where sexual and vampire politics crossed with geekdom and manifested itself in the form of funky-fresh independent theater. It was a whirl-wind first encounter, and while it left me glowing and smiley, my latent relationship-wisdom taught me to temper my expectations. You couldn’t possibly be as cool as that first encounter indicated.

And then you came along with Fight Girl Battle World.

Your production of FGBW, created by Qui Nguyen and Robert Ross Parker, ran for the second time at NYC’s HERE Arts Center and followed the epic journey of E-V, the last human female in a post-galactic war-torn universe. E-V, filled with self-hate and sad solitude over her human state, makes her living by fighting various galactic creatures at the underground fighting ring of Battle World.  She eventually encounters General Dan’H, the war vet responsible for the genocide of humans. In his attempt to make amends for essentially wiping out her entire race of species, General Dan’H offers to lead E-V to the last human man in the universe. Aided by a gender-ambiguous alien spaceship pilot and a snarky malarky robot, E-V and the general embark on their quest to save the human race (with the hopes of making human babies!)…before impending galactic forces destroy them ALL.

Like Soul Samurai, FGBW can proudly claim great fight choreography, a stellar cast, awesome puppetry and nerdalicious writing. Yet while Soul Samurai’s tone was dark and heart-breaking (like most vampires are), FGBW breezes in with confident charm and geeky cheek. Though impressively touching upon some seriously heavy themes like war, terrorism, and (cross-galactic) racism, FGBW ’s self-aware humor never fails at providing the audience with a guiltless excuse to laugh.

This, of course, has no small part to do with FGBW’s awesomely talented cast. Melissa Paladino’s brings warmth and humor to the bad-ass character of E-V, while the attractive and diverse ensemble cast of Elena Chang, Jason Liebman, Kelley Rae O’Donnell, Andrea Marie Smith, and Temar Underwood all generously perform with refreshing energy and charm.  Meanwhile, Soul Samurai alums Jon Hoche, Bonnie Sherman and Paco Tolson serve warm jolts of welcoming familiarity while simultaneously proving a wide and diverse range. Mr. Hoche plays the character of President Ya-Wi with delightful villainous attitude, while Ms. Sherman’s hilarious depiction of the gender-bending alien pilot J’an Jah had me in near tears. Meanwhile, Mr. Tolson’s portrayal of the insightful, sarcastic robot LC-4 had him once again playing endearing sidekick to the protagonist, but leading man in my HEART. (That was pretty smooth, amIright?? Ehhh? Yeah, almost as smooth as my failed creepy drunk charming attempts to speak with him after the show.)

*Cough, anyway, to conclude…Vampire Cowboys, you make my life complete. You create amazing lead roles for women. You effortlessly address social issues with hilarity and grace. You write about vampires and galactic space and alien encounters.  You’re damn smart, ridiculously innovative, and in sum…pretty much everything I’ve ever looked for in life. And MORE. Thank you for making this shriveled up heart love again. *Sniff. Call me?

Photo credits: Image one: (Left to right): MELISSA PALADINO (E-V) and TEMAR UNDERWOOD (General Dan’h Madrin). Image two: (L to R): ANDREA MARIE SMITH and KELLEY RAE O’DONNELL as Zimlek, a two-headed lizard alien. Image three:  PACO TOLSON (LC-4, a robot) floating in space.

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About Jenn Kim: When she’s not questioning her decision to enter lawyer-hood-dom, Jenn enjoys stalking celebrities and getting over her totally rational fear of zombies. She also idolizes Joss Whedon, and is crossing her fingers that Nathan Fillion and NPH will accept her friend requests.

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