“I wanted to give them a space to do everything that is too weird for other venues,” Sarah Galvin says. This is her governing concept for Ugly Time: A Cabaret which premieres at Re-bar on Thursday, January 30. She thought about giving it a theme, she says, “but I hate writing to themes.”

The venue had been looking for someone who’d pull people for a show and chose Galvin, who in her smart, hectic writing has a strong claim to being the funniest poet in Seattle. She gets rooms properly laughing—not just the respectfully appreciative chuckles that often accompany comic poetry.

So, as host, she reached out to performers who, “no matter the circumstances, just rock every time.” To that end, Clyde Petersen will show a leather-bar themed short film, “Cock Tails.” If Galvin is a poet with the soul of a comedian, Emmett Montgomery might be the opposite; he’ll do his strange and verbally deft standup (if you like his Weird and Awesome shows at the Annex Theatre, this is inspired by them, in part). Rachel Kessler will put on a “probably musical act involving grandmas, bad jokes, caftans, scrolls, comix, and snacks.” Writer Adrian Ryan will read a piece called “Confessions of a Reformed Creeper.” Also on the bill: singer and actress Ade a Connere, visual artist Tara Thomas, filmmaker Webster Crowell, and musician Marcus Wilson, who’ll close out the night with a DJ set. 

Ugly Time: A Cabaret
Jan 30, Re-bar, $10