‘Life is a Coffin Drop’ Darby Allin, Sally Bowles and YOU
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My favourite film is the 1972 musical Cabaret. I love Cabaret in its many forms, from the original 1939 book to the 50s straight play to all the different productions on the west end and Broadway, but nothing beats the film. Directed by the goat, Bob Fosse, it’s set in 1931 Berlin and tells the story of an American cabaret performer, Sally Bowles, and a British academic, Brian Roberts, as they deal with the rising tide of Nazism. We will get to Darby Allin at some point; just let me talk about musicals for a bit. To me the film is really about two things: how the rise of fascism infects all parts of society, even an entertainment industry that seems to go against everything the movement stands for, but also it’s about Sally Bowles and her attitude towards life.
This is shown in my favourite scene in not just this film but any film, the performance of the title number ‘Cabaret’ sung by the stunning Liza Minnelli, that’s Liza with a Z, as Sally Bowles. She sings a song that is essentially about not talking life too seriously, to live in the moment and have fun damn the consequences. If you were to crudely oversimplify Sally Bowles as a character you would say her attitude on life is, “I’m here for a good time not a long time.” There lies the comparisons with Darby Allin, I told you we’d get to him. Darby has made a career of death defying spots, so much he now has a genre of match called ‘darby death.’ If you look at his most recent match against Andrade he dove headfirst into Andrade posing on the middle rope and he recreated the infamous Samoa Joe stairs bump. That’s not even all of it. These spots would not be performed by someone unconcerned with a long career or, slightly more grim, a long life.
My points of comparison go beyond that. Sally and Darby both like to ‘live in the moment’ and don’t care about consequences. I’m a hack, but not that much of a hack. The song has one part where Sally describes a former friend/roommate she had who lived that party, substance abuse lifestyle, the Cabaret lifestyle. Elise dies very young due to this way of living. In this sense Elise is all those wrestlers who came before Darby the Hayabusas, the Dynamite Kids and even if stylistically different the Misawas of wrestling’s past. Those who took the risk Darby has and paid the price for it. It doesn’t have to be that morbid. You can look at someone like the Amazing Red who’s had a long career and is even still active but whenever you watch him walk it looks like he’s in a minimalist saw tap. The song says on Elsie’s death ‘The day she died the neighbors came to snicker: Well, that’s what comes from too much pills and liquor.’ from this we have the so-called ‘safety police’ . It can feel odd making fun of people who call for safety when discussing wrestlers who died, but these are the type of fans who say a suplex is too much of a risk. The type of fan who really respects the Miz. These fans don’t understand how captivating seeing someone risk it all for this beautiful dumb fake sport is. But I get that, I hope you get that, Darby gets that and Sally gets that.
You’d think Elsie’s death would be a wake up call to Sally to clean her act up. But as she sings ‘But when I saw her laid out like a queen She was the happiest corpse I’d ever seen’ and then in the best line in film history Sally loudly declares her binding philosophy of life ‘When I go, I’m going like Elsie’ its a line that has stuck with mr from the first time, I heard Liza echo it out, I hope it stays with me my whole life. Sally knows what this life will lead to and she doesn’t care. She would rather go out like Elisie than live to be old and boring. And so does Darby, I’m sure he would be the first to tell you this style isn’t kind on his body but he’d rather have a short career wrestling his own style than be the Miz. That in a harrowing way is beautiful.
Now to be fair, there is more to Darby than the bumps. There have been wrestlers who have taken bigger risks than Darby and have less than a sixteenth of his talent. I suspect even without the crazy moments Darby would still be a good wrestler if not the best in the world contender he is right now. But why do we like watching Darby wrestle the way he does? Why do I love Sally Bowles? Maybe we’re just sick fucks who like seeing scary shit happen, sure I won’t rule that out but i think there’s more going on here. Cabaret the show has plenty of sad songs, another Sally number ‘Maybe this time’ being first among them, but I don’t find Cabaret the song (yes, I know it’s confusing the show and the song have the same name) to be sad in a way I find it to be harrowing, but also inspiring. I don’t feel sad when I watch Darby Allin wrestle. If I had to use one word to describe Darby it would be ‘fun’. The song starts with the line ‘What good is sitting alone in your room? Come hear the music play’ I typed this piece sitting alone in my room, I’m going to wager if you’re reading this you’re reading it sitting alone in your room. Sally and Darby listen to the music, they live the life we’re too scared to live. I spend my whole day, every day worrying about this thing or worrying about that thing. I wish that even for a second I could listen to the music. I want to go to the cabaret, but I don’t, and I don’t think I ever will. So, I get my thrills through them. I think the success of stuff like Jackass or extreme sports are for the same reasons. Darby Allin is Sally Bowles who in turn is Ryan Dunn. Maybe they’re sick or maybe I am. The truth probably lies somewhere inbetween.
Life is a stair bump, life is falling from a ladder through a glass pane, life is being thrown from the ring onto the commentary desk, life is a flaming table, life is a coffin drop, life is a cabaret and I love a cabaret. Or at the very least I love those who love a cabaret.
