Victoria Montalbano’s The Princess Strikes Back makes its Missouri debut tomorrow at KC Fringe

Courtesy Sarah Elizabeth Larson

Chicago-based comedian and actor Victoria Montalbano’s The Princess Strikes Back: One Woman’s Search for the Space Cowboy of her Dreams will make its Missouri debut at the KC Fringe Festival tomorrow.

Since the show’s premiere in 2021, Montalbano has taken her Star Wars-inspired, autobiographical comedy across the Chicagoland area and Fringe Festival circuit.

Having studied theater in college and harbored a long-time crush on Han Solo, Montalbano’s solo storytelling show is for the theater kids and Star Wars nerds at heart.

The Pitch sat down with Montalbano ahead of her KC Fringe debut to discuss everything from her theater days, to The Princess Strikes Back—and characterizing Tinder dates as Star Wars characters.

Courtesy Peter Serocki

The Pitch: This will be the Missouri debut of the show KC Fringe. Can you tell us a little about the show as you get ready to bring it here?

Victoria Montalbano: It is a solo storytelling show about how my childhood crush on Han Solo and Star Wars has affected the rest of my dating life. It’s very comedic and it follows me from age 13—when I first saw Star Wars, had this huge crush on Han Solo and wanted to be Princess Leia—to me as an adult always looking for men that fit that Han Solo trope. It follows me as I grew up.

Why do you choose to characterize it as a “storytelling show”? What should audiences expect?

I call it a solo storytelling show instead of saying one-woman show because when you hear that descriptor, you get an idea in your head of just a middle-aged woman in all black who’s like hating men on stage. I just sort of want to get that picture out of people’s minds. But I call it a solo storytelling show since I’ve developed it through storytelling. It’s an art form kind of similar to stand-up comedy, as in when you do it, you’re just standing by yourself with a microphone on stage and talking directly to the audience. But instead of telling jokes, you tell a story, a narrative story with a beginning, middle, and end. And maybe there are jokes in there. Mine are funny, so I do have jokes in them but they don’t have to be.

What themes do you explore in the show? What is your history with Star Wars and how it inspired the show?

I’m a big nerd. So that’s the first thing. I love Star Wars and I’ve been a fan since I was a teenager. It actually came about because I had been storytelling, and I knew I wanted to use storytelling to create a solo show. But I was having trouble landing on an idea. And I knew I had a lot of dating stories. But I sort of felt like, well, that’s been done before. There’s like a million, white women with no real trauma or problems that are like, “Well, let me just talk about my dating and stuff.” I just didn’t want it to be like every other one-woman show.

So I got the idea to look at it through the lens of Star Wars when the Disney Plus streaming service became available because then I just went and watch the original Star Wars trilogy for the first time in years. I had been a fan, but for a long time, it wasn’t available if you didn’t like already own it on VHS. When I watched it again and I got to the relationship between Han Solo and Princess Leia, it sort of took me being an adult and in my 30s to realize, “Oh, that’s what I based all of my relationships on.”

What has it been like taking The Princess Strikes Back on tour?

I live in Chicago, so that’s where I premiered it. And I made it with the idea that I would take it on the Fringe Festival circuit, so I just started applying to festivals right away. Being at a Fringe Festival with all these other artists that have all just put their show up independently is such a fun atmosphere. I love that Fringe Festivals celebrate individual artists over big companies, which is so exciting. It’s just really a chance to do what you want. I feel so just like free and open when I’m at a Fringe Festival.

What are you expecting from Kansas City as you look forward to bringing the show here?

Well, Kansas City’s Fringe Festival is so established. It’s been around for nearly 20 years, I think. I’m really looking forward to meeting the regulars, the audience that lives locally and comes out to the Fringe and has been following it for a long time.

You mentioned studying theater in college. How did you get started in comedy from there?

I moved to Chicago in 2006. And I moved here to do comedy; I moved here for well-known to improv programs like those at Second City and iO. I studied theater in college and have a very serious theater degree. But I sort of talk about this in the show

Courtesy Sarah Elizabeth Larson

as well, about how I never felt like I quite fit in in that world. I love it and still love doing like Shakespeare and Chekhov and all of that stuff. But I just never quite fit in.  Then I stumbled upon a student improv group and that was a thing that I enjoyed and I did really well.

A lot of people I went to school with, who were amazing actors and got leads and everything and are now well-known, respected actors couldn’t do improv. So I was like, “Well, this is the thing I can do. So  I’m going to do it. And I like it.” So I moved here, and then the economy tanked.  I couldn’t afford improv classes. I moved here to do it, but then couldn’t afford to do it. I sort of circled back to it in my late 20s.

What would you say inspires your comedy?

I would say my sense of humor is it’s kind of situational. I’m a little bit self-deprecating, but I try not to be—I try and save that for only when the joke’s really good. All of my comedy comes from the situation that I’m in. I tell personal stories, I’m not talking about other people really.

I try and tackle bigger themes. This show is about looking for love which is pretty universal. Everyone knows what that’s like. But what inspires the comedy is really just, it’s back to the story—each individual story is what is inspiring the comedy, as far as larger influences. There’s a comedian that I love named Mike Birbiglia who also does storytelling one-man shows, but he comes from stand-up. He was the biggest influence when I started storytelling, in the way he works his comedy into his stories. And also Phoebe Waller-Bridge from Fleabag. Fleabag started as a one-woman show that she wrote and performed.

What else would you like Fringe audiences to know about your show?

One thing about Fringe is I know there will be a lot of theater people, whether they are also artists or they’re just in the audience. But this show is really for theater kids. If you were a theater kid, you’ll love the show. Yes, it’s about dating and Star Wars and nerd stuff. But so much of my life is growing up in the theater, and that’s very much in this show as well.

Another thing to note is that you do not have to be a Star Wars fan to enjoy the show. That’s very important. I will explain any Star Wars reference or anything else needing explanation. Everything you need to know is part of the show and I do it in a funny way. So you absolutely do not need to be a fan to enjoy it.

Montalbano has five showtimes for The Princess Strikes Back for KC Fringe, set to perform July 22, 23, and 27-29 at The Black Box. You can get your tickets here.