Mixed Bag: A Comedy and Music Show

Doors and drinks at 7 p.m. ⎮ Show at 8 p.m.

Early bird tickets (until Jan. 31): $8
General admission (beginning Feb. 1): $10
At the door: $12

Seattle's husband and wife comedy-music duo return for another evening of sketch comedy, live music, literary arts and stop motion animation in MIXED BAG, on stage at Hugo House's Lapis Theater!

Hosted by poet and humorist Jeanine Walker and musician Steve Mauer, this episode of MIXED BAG will feature actors Amelia Peacock, Chris Walker, and Mandy Canales, prose writer Kristen Millares Young, and poet Dujie Tahat.

Mixed Bag has a track record of delivering an entertaining combo of ironic, literary humor punctuated by catchy musical numbers in the tradition of Saturday Night Live...with a decidedly Seattle twist.

Jeanine Walker is a poet who fell in love with hosting events during her four-year stint as host of Cheap Wine & Poetry and Cheap Beer & Prose at Hugo House. She was the Seattle Review of Books’ poet-in-residence for April 2018, and her writing has been published or is forthcoming in Chatthoochee Review, Cimarron Review, Hotel Amerika, Narrative, Pleiades, and other journals. She loves to teach, and she teaches poetry to elementary school students through Seattle Arts & Lectures’ Writers in the Schools program and to adults at West Seattle Library for Hugo House’s Seattle Writes program. Jeanine also works as a writing coach for individuals engaging in poetry, fiction, and essay writing.

Steve Mauer spent his teen years and early 20s lying about his age so his band could play in the dive bars of Chicago. After receiving a BA in English from Illinois State, Steve moved to Seattle where he continued playing in bands while pursuing a degree in web design at Seattle Central. Steve’s one-half of the music duo (along with Jeanine Walker) The Drop Shadows, which had its first show at the High Dive in 2013 and has played at The Comet, Tim’s Tavern, Mineral School, Lit Crawl, Bumbershoot, and elsewhere. In addition to Mixed Bag, Steve also directs short films and music videos, many of which have been featured in Mixed Bag over the years.

Amelia Peacock is thrilled to be back with her Mixed Bag family in a new creative home! A "best coast" transplant from Minnesota, Amelia received a BA in Theatre Arts and English from the University of Iowa. Some favorite University credits include: In the Next Room (Sabrina Daldry); Spring Awakening (Thea); She Stoops to Conquer (Miss Constance Neville); and Makeover: A New Musical where she originated the role of Marilyn. By day, Amelia works as the ACTLab Marketing Manager at ACT Theatre. She would like to thank Jeanine, Steve, and Chris for their constant humor, friendship, and collaboration, and her family, friends, and colleagues for all their love and support. To Albert and our cat, Fig, it is a joy to share this life with you. Thank you for your unconditional love and cuddles.

Chris Walker currently works in radio and has previously worked in books. He should. He's got the face for it. He is the brother and brother-in-law, respectively, of the world-famous Jeanine Walker and Steve Mauer, founding members of The Drop Shadows and creators extraordinaire of the variety show Mixed Bag. As such, he was reluctantly cajoled into appearing in the first ever Mixed Bag when one of the previously scheduled talents ducked out. After taking several hard falls onto concrete and reading his lines off large cue cards on the ground, Chris agreed to appear in future episodes. When, in a future episode, Chris, who had stuffed himself into a Bat Suit like a sausage, forgot his lines, he agreed to sign on to become a permanent member of the cast. Well, as permanent as one can be while we're all sliding towards the grave. He enjoys making people laugh and generally has a smart remark for every situation, even if it remains unsaid.

Mandy Canales is a Seattle-based writer focused on fiction, one-act plays, sketch comedy, and personal essays. She’s a frequent participant in improv and sketch comedy performances around the city including Sketch Month at The Pocket, Seattle Sketch Fest, Miscast, and with the improv group Bitches! When she’s not writing or geeking out on the structure of comedy or semiotics, she spends her free time volunteering at the radio station KEXP as a docent and DJ assistant.

Kristen Millares Young is the author of the novel Subduction (Red Hen Press, spring 2020). An essayist and prize-winning journalist, she serves as prose writer-in-residence at Hugo House. Her work has appeared in the Washington Post, Guardian, New York Times, Crosscut, Hobart, Proximity, Moss, KUOW 94.9-FM, and the anthologies Pie & Whiskey and Latina Outsiders. Kristen was the researcher for the NYT team that produced “Snow Fall,” which won a Pulitzer. Her stories have been recognized by the Society for Features Journalism, the Society of Professional Journalists, and the Society of American Business Editors and Writers. She teaches at Hugo House, the Seattle Public Library, and the Port Townsend Writers’ Conference.

Dujie Tahat is a Filipino-Jordanian immigrant living in Washington state. His poems have been published or are forthcoming in Sugar House Review, Nashville Review, The Southeast Review, Shenandoah, Hampden-Sydney Poetry Review, The American Journal of Poetry, and elsewhere. Dujie has earned fellowships from the Richard Hugo House and Jack Straw Writing Program. He serves as a poetry editor for Moss and Homology Lit and cohosts The Poet Salon podcast. He got his start as a Seattle Poetry Slam Finalist, a collegiate grand slam champion, and Seattle Youth Speaks Grand Slam Champion, representing Seattle at HBO’s Brave New Voices.