Where did you two grow up?

FIFI: We were born here; our parents moved to England, went to school there, Taiwan briefly. They are animators so they traveled with their work. We have been here since we were seven.

What was it like growing up in your household? A very creative household?

FIFI: They're not like crazy liberal parents but they gave us a lot of freedom to figure out what we wanted to do. With a huge emphasis on academics and all that stuff. It was never an option to do poorly in school.

BIBI: We were very shy growing up so the stuff we are doing now really developed for me in the last ten years. Growing up we were encouraged to do this kind of stuff but I was very shy.

Where did you go to high-school?

BIBI: North Hollywood High, are you familiar with the area?

Not really but a friend I am meeting with later went to that high-school

FIFI: The most remarkable thing that happened there was that we went to school during the L.A. riots and at the time the kids at our school mimic’d what was going on outside and we had a mini riot. We had a lockdown and the National Guard came.

BIBI: There was a sniper across the school set up. A couple days later Edward James Olmos came and had a little healing prayer.

FIFI: That's what the valley was like then. A lot of gang activity.

What did you want to be when you were growing up?

BIBI: I wanted to be a writer. I wanted to be creative but nothing that would be in front of people.

FIFI: I didn't know what I wanted to do. Maybe animation. I knew I wanted to make films and I went to USC film school. I like writing and film in general. Now I am an editor.

Where did this performance art start?

BIBI: I would say the very beginning we started doing a little stuff on stage like singing. The real change was when we joined with the Velvet Hammer Burlesque troupe and we were French maids, picking up clothes between the sets. We didn't want to strip but we wanted to be involved in the show we loved so much. From there Lucha VaVoom developed, which was a wrestling show. They asked us if we wanted to start wrestling. So we said yes. Now it's been almost eight years.

What made you take that step from being fans of the Velvet Hammer to actually participating?

FIFI: At the time the show was so huge, there was no burlesque in Los Angeles. We had never seen anything like this, these women were beautiful, they were doing things we never imagined. All these girls were kind of these punk rock girls. You could kind of see yourself up there doing it too, someone that wasn't in the mainstream. It had that draw but it wasn't until we found out that we knew somebody that was associated with the show.

BIBI: I met my current husband in 2000 and he was involved in the show. He did comedy stuff and M.C. stuff for them. So I started to meet the producers of the show through him. I wanted to be involved but we wanted to do something that was not stripping. I felt it was right for us to do because we came out of the Goth scene, but you just dress up, go to a club and that's the end of it. It wasn't really fulfilling.

FIFI: It seemed like there had to be more than putting together costumes. You just go and you drink and you danced. That's it. There was a natural progression in taking it to the stage. The characters we came up with fit into the Goth theme as well. They were Edward Gorey esque.

Was one of the main draws interacting with an audience?

BIBI: Oh definitely. The very first show we did in San Diego, our job was basically to pick up clothes. You get to really interact with the audience and had an immediate impact to me.

FIFI: Another thing we wanted to explore was exploiting the fact that we were twins. We were never raised to flaunt the fact that we were pretty twins.

BIBI: We were nerds.

FIFI: There was this untapped gold mine of fun we could have using the fact that we were twins. The reaction to that was very positive. People think twins are interesting, and I am not quite sure why.

Are you identical twins?

FIFI: There are no true identical twins.

BIBI: My husband has actually blown her a kiss on accident. It really depends on the hair and makeup sometimes.

Is there closeness to you because you are twins?

FIFI/BIBI: Yes.

A six sense?

FIFI: I don't know if there is anything more than having grown up so close. We shared a room since childhood until college. We went to different colleges and we missed each other so much that we wrote each other. Now we live on the same block.

BIBI: If we walk around a store and she picks up something I would be like " I already picked that up"

FIFI: That happens all the time.

BIBI: Who knows if that is a psychic imprint or we have the same taste.

Do you ever switch places growing up?

BIBI: We did that twice, the first time was fine and the second time we got caught. But my teacher was unsure and she called me by my real name.

FIFI: We never really thought we would get away with it.

BIBI: We always thought we looked really different.

FIFI: Part of it I think was to protect our egos. You want people to think that you are separate people.

Mexican wrestling seems like such a far cry from Velvet Hammer Burlesque...

BIBI: There was a logical progression to it. When they started this new show we were given this job of picking up clothes again. They wanted to add a little bit more and that was a cat fight. That is relatively simple. But it just went from that being really popular to this wrestler who wants to train you. We started training and found a second wrestler who was really into training us. We just went from there and were training three times a week.

So you had no prior experience of training before then?

FIFI: We were always really active as kids. Our dad worked on G.I. Joe and we were very taken in by that show. Our idea of fun was beating up boys at school and jumping around like little tomboys. That appealed to us.

BIBI: We weren't really athletic and our interest in being physical is very defined in the realm of fighting. It wasn't running or learning some type of skill.

FIFI: More like scrapping. Once we met with Mysterio our trainer, a very famous mexican wrestler. He told us that we would have to train three times a week for two hours.

What is the training like?

BIBI: It is all in a ring. You start with rolls and basic techniques. You build on that.

FIFI: The first time someone does rolls they usually throw up. You are spinning your head around in ways you don't normally spin it. It is basically conditioning yourself. From there you start sequences, like a hip toss into a whatever. You do that for a bit and you go into some high flying stuff if you feel up to it. You start slow and get your head in the right place. By the end of it you are jumping off the top rope and trying some tricks.

Do you like how interactive fans get at these matches?

FIFI: That is the best thing about these matches. It is the worst when the audience isn't interacting.

BIBI: The great thing about these shows is that you can just call out certain quiet people in the audience and tell them to clap. A lot of times people just need permission to interact, especially new crowds. They don't know what they are watching, they don't know what they are supposed to be doing. But as soon as you tell them that they can clap and cheer they just go crazy.

FIFI: You basically need that O.K.

BIBI: That's why Lucha VaVoom is such a great live show. The best part is being in this live show. I don't know any other show where somebody might land on you. Yell at you or whatever.

FIFI: If you are sitting around the ring there is a chance that you could get hurt. Lot's of things could go wrong and do go wrong. Almost all the time it doesn't but there is still a chance.

What are these other wrestlers like?

FIFI :With women, everyone comes from a different place. Men come from a working class background from Mexico. Wrestling in Mexico is like you are a superhero. It's a lifestyle. You are dedicated to it.

BIBI: They are very very serious about what they do.

FIFI: It is a way to escape maybe. If you grew up in poverty.

BIBI: For training people drive from Santa Monica rush hour traffic to be there three times a week. Even if they don't end up doing a lot of shows they still train because this is so important to them. It's their secret identity. It is literally their secret identity.

Do they ever take off their masks?

BIBI: No. If they agree to do a mask versus mask fight there is a lot of stuff at stake. There is money at stake and your career. You are not supposed to wrestle without a mask.

FIFI: For Mexican women it is probably along the same line. It is a lot harder for women to get into it. There is a ton of chauvinism and it is a huge battle. I would never say that before but we have come across it a lot recently. Normally I would never say anything bad about it. It is a secret society and I would not talk about it. But lately the chauvinism has made it really hard for us. I think because when a woman gets in the ring they automatically attract more attention because they are a female. There's some resentment against them. I have my hats off to the Mexican women who do this because they have more struggles. Women in America have different reasons for doing it. It is empowering or they start off in martial arts, or it's sexy.

Do you have a day job?

FIFI/BIBI: Yeah

Do you see the performances will evolve into something else?

BIBI: We do other things besides this, like we have comedy shows and our own at the Steve Allen theatre. We do this bizarre offshoot. We saw this kissing booth and Barbara thought up the idea of doing a punching booth.

FIFI: One thing that we always tried to do as performers is take away the sexiness associated with being a twin. Whenever we do burlesque show we always end up in more clothing than we started or in some sort of grotesque state.

BIBI: You think we are sexy! We are not sexy, we are gross!

FIFI: A kissing booth isn't our thing at all but a punching booth...

BIBI: That evolved into a slapping booth, and we had people actually come over and give money to be slapped.

FIFI: Another thing I can't believe is that people liked that!

BIBI: We call it the Le Slap Booth Show

Where do your ideas come from?

FIFI: We have a very rich inside joke history with each other. A lot of characters and idea come from that.

BIBI: Some of our characters are French and their sayings come from our brother's broken English when he was two years old. All of our ideas stem from something that made us laugh.

Your characters, mood, and costumes seem very specific and not thrown together. It is almost like your own world that you have created.

BIBI: Absolutely.

FIFI: It is completely unique to us. All of the stuff we find funny we play it out with her husband to see if he finds it funny.

BIBI: It really is because we have been together so long and we do have this little world. When you perform it is almost a little window into that.

FIFI: I don't know if we would be doing the same thing if we weren't working together. We are not trained improve artists but we have those skills because we can work off of each other so well.

Have you ever been hurt with the wrestling?

FIFI: The worst I have been hurt was up north with a girl that didn't like me. She took it out on me and I ended up with a concussion. Now every time I hit my head it is much easier to get a concussion. I think a lot of people don't realize how physical and real the wrestling is.

BIBI: I think people see these sequences and think it is fake and it is not. Just because people know what they are doing doesn't mean that it's fake.

FIFI: If you get hurt while you are wrestling you just work through it. You don't have a choice. So a lot of times people do get hurt but they just go on.

BIBI: It's a big taboo to stop. One of the first matches we did was with a girl who hit her nose and blood was pouring out. You can't just say “I gotta go." You have to keep going. In October someone landed on my head and smashed it. The only thing I could do was finish the match. I didn't know what damage was done but you have to keep moving.

FIFI: Luckily there was a lot of adrenaline going through your body so you can get through it anyways.

If I saw you on the street like I did today I would not have known you have this secret life. Do you do normal stuff like go to Ralphs?

BIBI: No, we have our butler do those things.

FIFI: If we do go to Ralphs we wear our masks.

What is a normal Sunday for you two?

BIBI: What do you do Barbara?

FIFI: Oh jeez...

I mean do you buy like cleaning supplies?

FIFI: (laughs) I have a self cleaning mansion.

BIBI: You have one of those?

FIFI: We do all the normal stuff.

BIBI: We do a lot of rehearsing and all that of stuff too.

FIFI: When I tell people whom I work with, now I am working at a corporate job, they think it is out of the ordinary. They have the same reaction you do; "you look so normal, this is your life?" We have interesting lives.

BIBI: It doesn't get apparent until we talk to people not in this realm or environment.

Did performing add color to your lives?

BIBI: My life is unrecognizable from before I started. I don't see how I could ever go back to just working full time. You have to have something on the side.

FIFI: It's always evolving for us too, so that is exciting.

BIBI: It is kind of addictive to have a creative output.

Find out when the twins are performing next here.

Photos by Bob Derbis, Sye Williams, and Lucha VaVoom.