Beer, Blood and Cornmeal: Seven Years of Incredibly Strange Wrestling by Bob Calhoun

From the Publisher

Delving into the organized insanity of Incredibly Strange Wrestling (ISW), this memoir takes a look at the bastard offspring of post-punk garage rock and masked Mexican wrestling. Fielding a cast of crazed characters with names like El Homo Loco, Macho Sasquatcho, and El Pollo Diablo, the show lived up to its name. And if that wasn’t enough, cult bands such as NOFX, The Dickies, and The Donnas provided the raucous rock and roll in between the highflying mayhem. ISW emerged from the back alleys and seedy clubs of San Francisco’s South of Market scene to headline the historic Fillmore and barnstorm North America on the Van’s Warped Tour. At the height of its popularity, Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong and Metallica’s James Hetfield could be seen tossing tortillas (which the promoters supplied) at ringside with the rest of the hell heads, boozehounds, and tattooed party girls.

San Francisco Chronicle

A behind-the-scenes look at one of the best oddities to come out of the Bay Area over the past few decades.

Scripps Howard News Service

For seven years, Calhoun tried to help ISW break through to the mainstream . . . [and now he] chronicles that unsuccessful quest-as well as the twisted characters he met along the way.

am! Sports

Well-observed and sharply funny. [Calhoun's] characterizations nicely communicate the wrestlers' addiction to performance and risk-taking in and out of the ring.

Metro Silicon Valley

Just makes you want to don a leopard skin and get paid 20 bucks to go in the ring and beat up a dude in a chicken suit.

Ottawa XPress

Calhoun's reflections on his time in ISW make you feel as though you are ringside. . . . His insightful social commentary adds an unexpected dimension as well, enlightening outsiders to San Francisco's rich history and extremely unique culture.

Bombin' Magazine

Describes what can happen when wrestlers are unable to distinguish fantasy from reality.

Maximum Rock & Roll

This book was like candy-I could not stop eating it up. . . . A great read.

wired.com

A breezy and hilarious read, Beer, Blood & Cornmeal tells how a loose group of musicians, horror movie fans and a few actual professional wrestlers pushed lucha libre beyond the limits of taste and safety.

Recommended Readings (Butler University)

Calhoun intricately traces the developmental trajectory of [Incredibly Strange Wrestling] . . . the book gives readers a look at a formerly shadowed part of non-mainstream culture. Highly recommended.

World Wrestling Insanity

Calhoun does an excellent job capturing the promotion's bizarre history, its rabid, ECW-like fans, the death threats he received over the Counte Dante name, and even backstage politics . . . At times, it reminded me of reading something out of Rolling Stone.

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