Showing up to the November installment of the Federation of Belligerent Writers at Ralph’s Chadwick Square Diner was a bit like coming in on the last reel of a movie. It was the season finale of the offbeat improv writing competition, and it appears that a masked luchador named Malefico (played by FBW creator Ethan White) had hijacked the show, and was ruling it for … I don’t know. The forces of evil maybe? Something like that? Mostly, he was just sinister and hilariously arch.

Perhaps oddly, this was a point where I was still in familiar territory, having seen a great deal of offbeat theater and performance art. And then, when two similarly costumed writers were summoned to the stage and given three random words they had to use in a composition — which they had three minutes to write — I was still pretty much with the program, having been exposed to improv comedy and poetry slam before. I wasn’t thrown off guard until the pair sat down to write, and Taylor Swift’s “Shake it Off” started playing, and a dance party broke out.

“How fun is it to sit down and watch people write for three minutes,” says executive producer Cassie Tortorici, who also plays the part of the show’s stage manager, Basic Bitch Becky. “Why not throw things and make it more interesting?”

As the night wore on and more writers squared off, the dance parties escalated. Things were thrown, conga lines erupted.

“The whole thing really gets the audience involved,” says Tortorici. “We just want to make sure they’re having fun as well.”

You’d be correct in thinking that the Federation of Belligerent Writers is an off-the-wall experience, but it’s a fun one, and has been gaining popularity since its first “bout” downstairs at Ralph’s in February 2014, quickly growing large enough to move upstairs in July, where the mostly monthly show has remained ever since.

“We all actually have very different ways to describe it,” says Tortorici. “I call it a comedic improv writing competition, with elements of wrestling, performance art and insanity.”

Adding to the unpredictability, not all the competitors are playing the game by the same rules. Tortorici points to the character Dr. Void, played by Worcester artist Aaron White, who is a “twisted, HP Lovecraft-character,” who writes gothic verse and is not overly comedic, and Sean Costello’s character El Diablo Azul, whose writing she describes as “smart and fun.” Azul is the character that has won the competition the most. The current champion is Kyle Hargrove’s Thug Pirate Robert, whose work put a hip-hop spin on pirate shanty storytelling.

“Everyone is coming from different angles,” says Tortorici, “actors, writers, performance artists, musicians, everybody coming together to make this work. Having all these different views and angles come together makes for a more entertaining show.”

The new season of FBW begins at 9 p.m. Feb. 6 at Ralph’s, and the admission is $7. The theme for the opener is “Famous Monster's Bachelor Party,” a reference to the character played by Jeff Power, who won last September’s bout, and at the end, “jumped off stage, took his mask off and proposed to his girlfriend. Nobody knew it was going to happen. They’re getting married next weekend, and we’re throwing him a bachelor party, the only way we know how,” Tortorici said.

Evidently, the show still holds some surprises, even for those on the stage.





Email Victor D. Infante at Victor.Infante@Telegram.com and follow Pop Culture Notebook on Twitter @TGPopCulture.