Laurie Fierstein and Kelly Kight Review by Caprishus, video 1993, Women's Physique World. This is a video for those who savored every Mary Roberts pic they could find back in the 1980s, who cheered every time Cathy Butler crushed her AAU competition, who wished Claudia Mountfort had taken her development truly to the limit. This is for you who love the short woman-big muscle combination. They don't get much shorter than Fierstein or Kight, both around 4-10. Nor does musculature get much bigger than with these two. But here's a caveat about this video -- should you buy it, fast forward about 50 minutes through the Fierstein stuff and watch the Kight stuff first. Why? Because WPW goofed on the order of how they placed the shootings. At bodybuilding contests, be the classes broken down by height or weight, the greater size classes go last. Not only does it keep the fans of big muscle in the audience through the smaller classes, but it's fair to the smaller classes. If you saw the heavyweights first, the middleweights would look somehow unimpressive and less commanding than a bodybuilder should be. So it is here where the tape leads off with Fierstein, 140 in contest shape and around 170(!) offseason, and goes to Kight, 125 in contest shape and around 140 offseason. Even though Kight is (as the WPW article on her was titled) thick as a brick, she looks small after watching Fierstein's mind-boggling mass. Good editing would've opened the video with Kight contest shape, then Kight offseason shape, then the Kight interview (which was done after contest shape shoot) and gone on to Fierstein contest shape, offseason shape and interview (also done in contest shape). That aside, let's go to the videotape. We open wth Fierstein in a two piece posing suit in contest shape working out in the gym. The lifting shows the muscles working and her posing after each exercise is fine, but there is a feeling of disappointment that we don't get to see her seriously sling the iron. After reading in Mass Muscle Magazine of the stupendous poundages she's capable of moving, I wanted to see her throw down on a few exercises. Sigh. Could've done without the music in the gym, too. I like to hear the sounds of the gym. We go to the pool area for some bikini and dress posing. Laurie's thickness and mass are undeniably impressive in both the fuschia bikini and the white sun dress. Her hair is down for the former, up for the latter. In the dress, her upper body seems to dominate. Ah, but the best of the contest shape stuff comes next -- Laurie in a black one-piece mini dress in what looks like a hotel room. Her symmetry seems perfect and the closeups of her arms and legs are intense. When she sits down and flexes those big forearms and short, bulbous biceps, you can feel her energy. Her legs seem perfectly thick and defined and she actually has trouble crossing them when she sits on the couch. Then, we went to Laurie in offsesaon shape, one of the most phenomenal things I've ever seen. Her limbs, especially her arms, appear as if they'll just bulge out of her skin and the three outfits she wears (one blue leotard, glittery gold one piece dress, off the shoulder top with black skirt). Her face has rounded out fully. She's actually thick waisted, which isn't surprising nor unattractive and is hard to notice when she's expanding that six-lane wide back at the camera. There's no music with these sequences, just the cameraman's requests, Laurie's answers and the sounds of filming. The leotard gives her arms that look of power that baseball slugger Ted Kluzewski liked to evince by wearing sleeveless uniforms back in the 1960s. The gold dress gives the best overall impression of how dense her musculature is. The best of the third outfit are the most muscular poses -- with the top being off the shoulders, her monstrous traps and sledgehammer forearms are highlighted brilliantly, especially when the camera closes in. Also, the back shots are slightly different, featuring her incredible upper back muscles. Watching these scenes of Laurie, I was reminded of the Jim Priest story (JIMP #13, I think) about the short mother-in-law who developed immense muscular size and strength, then used those assets to intimidate, seduce and dominate her son-in-law. It was easy to imagine Laurie Fierstein, a woman in her 40s, old enough to be a mother-in-law or grandmother, as that character. The interview follows, during which Laurie comes off as low-key and thoughtful. For those who appreciate intellect as well as extreme physical fitness, it was a nice interview. Kelly Kight's portion opens with her in offseason shape on a patio or balcony. There's no music, just the interaction between the photog and Kelly. First, there's posing in a short-sleeved black top and black hot pants. Kight's strengths are her biceps, the broadness of her chest and upper back, excellent shapes and blonde good looks. The hot pants help make her thighs look good and her biceps are great as always. Next, she poses in a gray leotard, which showed off the width of her back well, but didn't do much for her legs. Then, there's a sexy piece of full-body lingerie that featured strictly upper body posing. Though she's in offseason shape, her arms and chest have enough definition to cause an intimidating ripple of muscle through them when she repeatedly brings her arms down in front of her chest as if she's doing single and double cable crossovers. Inside a hotel room we go for a few minutes of Kelly in a pleated skirt that ends just above the knee with a black strapless top. Her legs look great here as she poses in a chair, on a table, standing up. Her upper body is impressive again, too. This, the early part of the black outfit and the lingerie outfit are the best of the offseason stuff. Then, it's to Kelly in contest shape around an indoor pool, first in a strapped black top and white skirt, then in an animal print leotard. Good enough, although I found the best part of this when they just have her walk around the pool area in the leotard, showing off tremendous legs. Back in the hotel room, Kelly poses in a glittery gold dress, seemingly the same one Fierstein so filled out earlier in the video. The interview is interesting because it reveals a very vulnerable and physically powerful woman honestly hurt by low contest placings and comments lik "you should take off your shirt and compete in the men's division." Unfortunately, she was competing in the 16 months that followed the 1991 Ms. Olympia, during which contest judging at all levels slanted toward the leanly muscular woman, even if the heavily muscled woman had just as much symmetry. Give it four reps out of six.