Poor El Jaguar, he’s trying to recover from some tough years.

DETAILS

El Jaguar Variety Show
Loose Moose Theatre
Loose Moose Theatre
Friday, June 18 - Friday, June 18 Saturday, June 19 - Saturday, June 19

More in: Comedy

It’s lonely at the top. It’s even lonelier on the top ropes. El Jaguar was once there, a mighty luchador at the peak of his career. Some bad finances, a divorce and a child took the wind out of his sails, however, and now he just wants to make a living. In comedy.

Derek Flores, a Calgarian now living in the warmer climes of New Zealand, is returning to the Loose Moose stage that gave him his start. His latest production, El Jaguar, follows the exploits of this down-on-his-luck wrestler.

True to form for a man who learned at Loose Moose and then went on to Second City in Toronto, the show is not entirely scripted and depends on the audience for how it all turns out. “If they’re [the audience] into just turning off their brain for an hour and having a good time, then El Jaguar comes out on top,” says Flores. “If not, if it’s a little bit of work, well then El Jaguar just ages a little bit.”

He says the performance has “a skeleton, but the muscle and the bones change with each show.”

El Jaguar, the character, was born of humble beginnings, hosting his own variety show for about a year-and-a-half. “There was a version of him when I was at Second City on the mainstage,” says Flores. “I did a scene with him in one of the shows and that was sort of the precursor to El Jaguar. I though ‘Well, I’ve got the mask, I might as well keep using it, keep doing it.’”

El Jaguar, the show, just premièred at the New Zealand Improv Festival and travels to Calgary due to family obligations as much as a desire to hit the Loose Moose stage again. “I was just coming home because I have a son that I’m introducing to family here and I thought, ‘Well, I’ll go back to the Moose, my old alma mater, when I’m in town,’” says Flores.

“It’s kind of like a homecoming, so I’m kind of a little bit nervous about that.”

It has been about five years since Flores was last onstage at the Moose, hosting his popular Hot Nuts and Popcorn Variety Hour.

There will be plenty of variety in El Jaguar, the show, as well. “There’s a little bit of lion taming, there’s a little bit of flying, there’s a little bit of rowing, there’s a little bit of grappling with his own low self-esteem,” says Flores. “So there is wrestling, but the only wrestling is with his limitations.”