We were lucky to catch up with Mx. Pucks A’Plenty recently and have shared our conversation below.
Mx. Pucks, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.
The biggest risk I ever took was signing up for a multi week intro to burlesque workshop series.
I fell in love with burlesque almost 7 years before I got up the courage to sign up for classes. I had just had my son and I had postpartum depression really bad. I was flipping through Netflix to find something to watch and I landed on this documentary called A Wink and a Smile by Deirdre Allen Timmons. The documentary gave a little of history about burlesque and also followed folks as they took an intro to burlesque workshop series. The same one I would end up in 7 years later.
As a Black, Fat, Queer, Nonbinary, and Disabled human I didn’t think there would, be a place for me. The week that I was supposed to start the workshop series I got a concussion and I didn’t think I could make through the series. I decided to come to class anyway, just to feel it and see if I could keep up. I’m glad I did.
The multi week series was emotional brutal for me. I was definitely fighting with my own demons at the time, especially surrounding my body. One of the hardest things for me that we did during the series was sit in front of a mirror to make faces. Looking at my own face was took much for me. I didn’t like myself and what I saw staring back at me in the mirror.
That was 5 and a half years ago. Because of that risk I have voted onto the 21st Century Burlesque Top 50 List twice for the past two years as one of the Most Influential Burlesque Industry Figures, I am the founder and co-producer of two festival in Seattle, and I now am the Head Mxtress of a burlesque school called #ShowTHEM Burlesque Basics.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
My name is Mx. Pucks A’Plenty and I am known as The They Them Yas Queen of Burlesque, the Michelle Obama of Burlesque and the Femme Daddy That Your Mother Did Not Know to Warn You About. I am a burlesque performer, producer, educator and consultant based in Seattle, Washington.
Mx. Pucks was created as a burlesque character in June of 2017, but really Pucks is the me I always wanted to be. I am the founder and co produced What the Funk?! An All BIPOC Burlesque Festival with sold out audiences in 2019, 2021, and 2022. I founded and co-produced of Fatlesque Fest NW in 2023. I have performed in 9 festivals, produced or co produced over 30+ shows, co founded the Seattle Burlesque and Cabaret Co-op, which runs a small theater space. I have directed and produced a music video, and was voted #16 on the 21st Century Burlesque Top 50 Most Influential Burlesque Figures of 2022. I was just recognized as Micro Business of the Year by the GSBA (Great Seattle Business Association in March of 2023 and was voted Performer of the Year by Seattle Gay News in 2022.
I’m motivated by wanting to take up space and making space for other marginalized artists. As a Black, Fat, Disbabled, Nonbinary, Queer, Kinky, Polyamorist, with zero college eduacation and no family of origin support, my work as an artist and a producer is heavily informed by my lived experience. I am only supposed to be a statistic, I’m not supposed to succeed, but have somehow found a footing in the glitter covered world of burlesque to do just that. As a Black femme, I’m not even supposed to be the protangonist of my own story. What I have done in the Seattle burlesque scene in the body that I am with the identities that make me, me… isn’t luck, it was a lot of hard work and trusting my process. I joke that I am fueled by spite, but it isn’t really spite. If you tell me I can’t do something, I am going to do it twice and take pictures. It doesn’t really come from a place of spite, it comes from this place inside of me that wants to make “IT” happen.
I am this time all of my artistic endeavors are housed under Puckduction:
What the Funk?! An All BIPOC Burlesque Fest
Fatlesque Fest NW
#ShowTHEM Burlesque Basics
Production
Consulting
Performing
What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?
I have a personal Mission Statement: I am a manifestor who is naturally innovative and future oriented. My mission is to inspire, disrupt and unite.
As well as a Personal Value Statement:
I am here to create and to make positive changes in the world around me using art, education, and my lived experiences. To nourish the communities I am a part of.
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
I had to learn how to stop comparing myself and my journey to others, especially in burlesque.
Doing so was eating away at me and preventing me from enjoying my own creative process or the art that I was making. It is hard work to unlearn something that our society pretty much has hammered into us. I struggled with finding my own magic and I found myself wanting to be thinner, more flexible or even more “conventionally” attractive. You are surrounded by so many talented folks in a green room and it can be very isolating if you are struggling with self worth, self confidence, and self esteem. It finally took the pandemic and the lock down for me to have the time to sit with myself and these feeling. There were a lot of tears and a lot to mourn during that time. It was the fear of not knowing if live entertainment and live performing art was going to be able to bounce back that was the “ah-ha” moment for me to pinpoint what I love about performing and what do I think I am good at as a performer. From there it was doing the work of falling in love who I am in this moment. Easier said than done, but it helped me to stop comparing my journey to someone else’s.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.mxpucksaplenty.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pucksaplenty/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MxPucksAPlenty
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mx-pucks-a-plenty-b31877223/
- Youtube: https://youtu.be/-T6zAZw4EX0
Image Credits
All photos, but the croissant are by Keith Johnson ( IG @paradeimages) the croissant photo is taken by R. Falk.