This ain’t your mother’s idea of a slumber party! The Pillow Fight League (PFL) is a group of ass kickin’ gals with serious attitude! The Toronto born brainchild of Stacey Case is gaining momentum and worldwide attention. With recent appearances on Good Morning America, Howard Stern’s Sirius Satellite Radio Show, MTV Canada, and Much Music the buzz is spreading! At first glance many think the PFL is a joke – somebody must be kidding, right? However, if you enter a crowded bar and watch these ladies clobber each other in the ring, there will be no doubt that you are watching skilled, trained, women in a legitimate sport. I was fortunate to sit with two PFL Gals for yet another LoveGirls exclusive!

Polly Ester has the biggest most infectious laugh I’ve ever heard. She is a livewire! Her eyes dance as she’s speaks about her love of the PFL and the life changing positive impact in has made on her.

Carmen Monoxide is poised yet shy. Her soft giggle and the way she averts her eyes is endearing. It is hard to believe she could rip your head off with her bare hands! These gals have polar opposite personalities yet they gel perfectly in the world of the PFL!

LoveGirls: How did you hear about the PFL?

Polly: I saw an ad in “Now Magazine.” It was a two-line ad the said: Pillow Fight League WANTS YOU. Looking for women for interesting new sport. I thought it sounded interesting so I called the number and booked a time to try out.

Carmen: My friend and her boyfriend told me about it. I said, “yeah right!” I thought it was the biggest joke. One of them was wearing a PFL t-shirt and I still didn’t believe them. Afterwards I went home, looked it up on the Internet and found a website.

LoveGirls: Can you tell us a little about your tryouts?

Polly: I was the very first person to try out. I went down to their studio space. They had me do an on camera interview. They had me tell them about myself and ‘do’ different potential fighter personas. I had just come from “The Second City,” (historical Canadian comedy group) so I was like: WAAAAAAA!!! Hyper! After that they took me to another area where there was an inflatable mattress and I had to fight Hurricane Rita. They had said to bring comfortable clothing so I brought pajamas. I changed and kept calling myself Pajama Ninja” There was a panel of three judges and a cameraman. They had us kneel on this stupidly small mattress. When I got hit with the first blow I was knocked off the mattress and I screamed, jumped back on, and kept going wild! It was so much fun. Then I had to do a second interview immediately afterward. There was a lot of on camera and I was crazy! I made them laugh so hard!

Carmen: I followed the league with my friend. I kept getting more and more into it. We went to Nuit Blanche (Toronto 2006) where they were stopping at random stops and fighting. They were just going at it on the sidewalk with pillows and I knew I wanted to be part of it! I followed them around the rest of the night: to subway stations and bars then outside the museum (Royal Ontario Museum) that’s where I fought! I fought some girl in an amateur fight. It was a blast. After that I went to all their club events. I did a few more armature fights. Then one night at the MOD club Polly had cut her hand and couldn’t fight. So the PFL guys recognized me and said, “We’re screwed, Polly can’t fight. We need you to step because you know what to do.” I told him, “If I’m going to fight for you here I want to be part of it.” Then I started going to the studio of practices and I was an official PFL fighter!

LoveGirls: Do all of the PFL girls have day jobs? What do your alter egos do by day?

Polly: Everybody works regular jobs.

Carmen: I actually work in a factory. I’m a quality control supervisor. I get to walk around our factory and be really, really picky, tell people what to do and make sure things are being done right. I love it!

Polly: At the moment I’m not in the service industry (Polly worked as a waitress on and off for 20 years), I work for ZIP.ca, which is online DVD rental. So I shove DVD’s into envelopes and ship them out. When they come back I take them out of envelopes and put them back in bins... It’s Fabulous! I also run the Pillow Fight League as the General Manager and that’s EXCELLENT WOOOOOOOO!

LoveGirls: How long do you plan on being in the PFL?

Carmen: Oh God! For as long as I can! As long as it goes!

Polly: I was the first one there and I’m going to be there till I die! I’m retired now for health reasons, but I’m staying on in management forever.

LoveGirls: All of you girls seem to get along in the bar before and after the fight. So how is it you are able to beat the shit out of each other in the ring?

Carmen: Because as soon as you hear “FIGHT LIKE A GIRL” (the PFL start phrase to every match) you just fight! You want to win! We go CRAZY! Afterwards we hug each other. Last fight I got a bloody nose. I wasn’t mad I thought it was cool.

Polly: It’s Awesome! I always like to get the crowd involved as much as possible. I only won three fights so for me it was never about wining. I want to entertain. If I loose I don’t care. I’m there to give the crowd a good time. That’s why I always yell at them! Everybody loves the BITTER WAITRESS! Yelling FUCK YOU at 500 people is SO amazing! Then I get on the mat and I’m looking over at my friend and it’s like: NO. Not friends... Polly is ready to kick some fuckin’ ass! They call the fight on and you dive and you get in the zone. Stuff happens at lightening speed. You just hope that all the stuff you trained in practice comes through your sub conscious. There’s just this primal instinct to attack.

Carmen: at the same time you know the girls are going to protect each other. We’re not going to bounce each other’s heads off the concrete. We’re there to win but we follow the rules. There are rules so nobody gets seriously injured.

LoveGirls: Have you been injured?

Polly: I’ve had three black eyes and the last one lasted for over a month! I didn’t want it to go… my badge of honour! If you’re not scarred or bruised after a fight it’s a huge let down. I bruised my lung in the New York fight. My ankle is pretty much screwed. I had an asthma attack in the middle of my fight with “Digit Jones.” Digit also landed full weight on my nose and almost broke it. It was AWESOME!

Carmen: I get banged and bruised all the time but my worst injury was at practice. I was sparring with “Kill Kelly.” I love to fight her because she FIGHTS! We were wrestling around and my arm twisted back with my weight and her weight on it. It swelled up and I couldn’t do anything. I was disappointed it happened at practice. If it had happened at a show it would have been cool. If you’re afraid to get hurt you can’t be a part of the PFL.

LoveGirls: How many girls are in the Toronto branch of the PFL?

Carmen: Right now there’s only a Toronto branch. There are about 20 girls.

Polly: Yeah, 20-ish we were at 24 and lost some but got some new girls.

LoveGirls: What’s the age range of the girls?

Polly: I’m the oldest at 36. It was so funny: last year the ads said 19 to 35. Then they said 19 to 36! They want to make sure they cover me! We had a lot of girls that were 19 & 20, but a lot of the girls are mid 20’s now.

Carmen: I’m 22.

LoveGirls: Are the owners thinking of opening franchises anywhere else?

Carmen: That’s the plan. We don’t want to fight ourselves all the time. When we went to New York in January it would have been nice to fight a New York team. It’s still new and growing so hopefully it will happen.

Polly: There are interested parties in South Korea, and New Zealand. When we were in New York media from all over the world came to interview us. There were three Japanese stations; I did an interview with a Spanish journalism show. It was INSANE the amount of press that we got. “Sarah Bellum” was on CNN. Six of us were on Good Morning America. We brought two of our dirt stained, blood stained pillows to the show. They had set up these gorgeous mats and brand new pillows that they’d bought and they gave them to us. We were looking at the pillows afterward and they were “Laura Ashley”! I turned to one of the show executives and said, “This pillow cost more than everything on my person right now!” SO FUNNY!

LoveGirls: Do you have groupies?

Carmen: There are a few people who come to every show, and a few who keep leaving comments on our Myspace pages. There is one guy from the US that has come to Toronto for our shows.

Polly: Sarah and I went to New York before everybody else to do a media blitz. I did several radio interviews and after that I had so many Myspace messages from people who heard me on the radio. After the MTV appearance I got 1400 hits on Myspace.

LoveGirls: How does it feel when the ref holds up your hand at the end of a match and declares you the winner?

Carmen: I don’t know. I start jumping around and screaming!

Polly: It’s awesome because it’s always a surprise for me. As I said, I’ve only won three fights. I think it’s more fun to be pissed off and screaming. In my last fight at the MOD CLUB with Lynn Somnia I went psycho and I bit her (against the rules) and had to be pulled off of her and it took three buffers to carry me out of the venue! I prefer that to be the end of my fight as opposed to being declared the winner.

LoveGirls: What difference, if any, has the PFL made in your life?

Polly: When I first got the call that the PFL wanted me I was thrilled. I was talking to Commissioner Case and he said, “I want to bring something up and I don’t want you to be offended.” And he mentioned my teeth because they’ve always been askew. I was always picked on in school over it. Him mentioning it in the beginning and saying don’t change, allowed me to get out of my head about it and not be self-conscious. I went crazy at the tryout and they liked me for who I am. For the first time in my life I felt fantastic! Through the Pillow Fight League, at 35, I finally found my self-confidence.

Carmen: I found a real sense of family being with so many good people. I love it! It’s helped me to be less shy.

Polly and Carmen are just two of the great women of the PFL, to learn more about the other gals and see some wild video check out their web sites. Maybe it’s time to start a UK franchise of the PFL! [ Ed - and if any ladies want to come round mine tonight to practice you're more than welcome! ]

Myspace - http://www.myspace.com/pillowfightleague
Official Site - http://www.GoPFL.com