Edify sat down with writer, rapper, film director, Top 40 Under 40 alumnus, Omar Mouallem to talk about his latest on-screen project, a documentary-comedy called Making Kayfabe.
You’re not a gloomy guy in general, but throughout the film you have a bit of childlike — bordering on giddy — smirk throughout.
I love to hear that, because it was a childlike experience. I’ve talked about my interest in kayfabe as a concept and philosophy, my interest in kind of journalistic performance art, observational documentary and indie wrestling, but when it comes down to it, the seed for this movie was my love of wrestling as a child and my dreams of being a pro wrestler. Like, I really did think for a time that I would grow up to be a pro wrestler. I didn’t just play with wrestling toys, and I didn’t just wrestle my brother and my cousins, and film it. I would practice moves alone. I would daydream about being a pro wrestler and escape reality because I was in my own head. And you know, this movie gave me that opportunity to genuinely live out a childhood dream.
And did it live up to the hype?
It did, but it also kind of felt like a Make a Wish Foundation experience, because I knew that it was temporary. I knew that the only reason that I got to do this was because I’m making a movie about it, and people want to be in it, they want the exposure and they want to share their stories. And so that’s kind of what’s in it for them. The people from Love Wrestling are very nice, very supportive people, but I don’t think they would have let me do this if they thought I was going to try to become a wrestler, because I would have had to train probably three times more than I did. I think, when you’re an interloper, people are very kind to you, knowing that there is an expiry date. But when you’re gone, they’re probably happy it’s over.
So, be honest: Was this all an excuse to do a training montage under a sick beat?
It wasn’t the reason to make the film, but it did occur to me pretty quickly in planning this movie that I would get to do that and how it would look. It was in the pitch for sure though, because Rocky created such a wonderful trope. But you can’t do it sincerely, it has to be satirical. And then of course the song for that kind of occurred to me much later, because I wanted to pay tribute to Cadence Weapon — his groundbreaking debut album is called Breaking Kayfabe (listen on Spotify), and I wanted to pay homage to him in a more direct way by using a track off it.
Everyone knows what’s fake about wrestling, but what’s real about it?
First of all, the challenge is real. Like, it being scripted does not preclude this from being hard. It is hard, and in ways that might surprise you. It’s physically hard, though if you are someone who’s already fit, and you have pretty good cardio, then the physical part might come easy to you. But that’s also just a small percentage of it, because then you get into the physical intelligence, which relates to the choreography. A good sense of choreography, and memorization — I think it’s the majority of the challenge for a wrestler. Most wrestlers have not been trained in dance, but if you have been trained in dance, you have a huge advantage. Because when you lift someone up and slam them down, that’s not representative of your physical strength, because that person is jumping in order to make it look like you are able to carry them, and falling in a specific way to make it look like you drop them handily with so much force. It’s a sleight-of-hand trick, and you’re selling it together.
Then the other component, is the charisma. And this is the thing that stops really great wrestlers from becoming pros. Because it’s a theatrical art. And so being able to act in a way that is appropriate and expected in the world of wrestling — which is to say, campy, really over the top, really black and white, good and evil — and then do it uniquely, that’s pretty difficult.
While watching your match in the doc, I thought about the concept of kayfabe, and how on one level, seeing adults cheer on other spandex-clad adults pretending to hurt each other is, objectively, very silly. But then I thought, there’s no other animal that can pretend like this, or embrace its most base instincts in such a performative way. So, on another level, is it sort of…the height of humanity?
There’s something kind of wonderful about it, and high-minded, too. I’ve heard kayfabe described as a social contract between the performers and the spectators, this agreement that we’re all going to pretend that what we are seeing is real and therefore, the audience is going to react as if this is real — the rivalries, the storylines, the pain is real, the surprises are real. And the performers are going to react to the audience as if their reactions are also sincere. That’s part of what makes wrestling different from other theatrical arts. Maybe the closest thing to it — and this is not going to sound like a compliment, but it is — is dinner theatre. Because when when people go into a dinner theatre venue, they’re often immersed in the world, with the waiters being in character and stuff like that. What’s different about wrestling, of course, is that the storylines never end. It’s serialized, rather than episodic. And it’s different every single day, which makes it closer to a soap opera.
I really liked your ring-side pitch meeting, when you told the other wrestlers what you wanted your “elitist, smug villainous journalist named Fake Nooz Neville” storyline to be. Because they didn’t really like your original idea, but they saw the seed of it, so they went back and forth with you and worked it out. They were like really good magazine editors, but with slightly more spandex.
Man, you should see the like 30-minute, unedited footage of that scene, because it is so awkward. It is so much more tense. I think we got that tension through, but there were some moments where I feared that I had just sabotaged the movie. Because I wanted to pitch this character of a smug interloper, but in the process of pitching this character, I became a smug interloper. And I was very married to this idea I initially had. I was drawing some inspiration from a wrestler named The Progressive Liberal (Daniel Richards) who panders to very conservative audiences by being insufferably progressive.
But it was the wrong wrestling community for that, because Love Pro Wrestling is all about good vibes and inclusivity. The only thing they want to be divisive is the storylines: It’s the fight between good and evil. I should have known that by then, but I was just very dedicated to this original idea, as you can probably relate to as a writer. But it was really cool of them, as you said, like great editors, to take the spirit of my idea, and then massage it in a way that served their audience.
Have you kept up with your back-shaving schedule?
It’s not gonna be in public anytime soon, so right now it’s not shaved. But if I end up going to a beach area in the next couple of months, then I’ll be shaving again.
Why was it important to include your ex-wife’s reaction and involvement in your wrestling journey?
The movie was premised on being a look at the private and ordinary lives of wrestlers, so I wanted to track the lives of its four wrestling subjects leading up to the match, including myself. When I became separated — after the movie was in development but before we started shooting — this big life moment tested my willingness to put it all in there. But it felt only fair to be vulnerable if I was asking for the same from my subjects. Plus, this mid-life crisis made my pursuit more intense. I actually felt more connected to my childhood dreams in a way because, as is often the case with crises, I felt a desire to do something bold. Of course I wouldn’t have done it if things weren’t so amicable between us. Thankfully, Janae appreciated and supported that approach. For her, I think, it was about the opportunity to create a record of a modern family and healthy coparenting that our kids could have forever.
Did your kids like wrestling before this? And do they like it more now that they’ve seen dad be a total heel in the ring?
I take them to wrestling semi frequently but they weren’t that passionate until the movie, especially my son. The other day he told me he wanted me to wrestle again and promised that, if I did, he would cheer for me this time.
