When you first picked up that chintzy journal with the (easily-picked) lock in sixth grade, you probably never dreamed that one day you might be reading aloud from it to a guffawing audience of your peers. But that's what happens at the Salon of Shame, where performers read their adolescent musings aloud for communal ridicule. Obviously, the concept is ripe with entertaining possibilities. But even though it's funny to hear someone read about their social ineptitude and unrequited crushes, what's really poignant about the show is this: After all the time we spent throughout adolescence certain we were the only ones fretting over how we could fit in better, feel more sure of ourselves around the opposite (or same) sex, or hell, just cope with the hyped-up emotions that adolescent hormones saddled us with, it turns out that almost every single one of our peers was privately going through the same thing. So even though it's hysterical when someone gets up there and reads 9th-grade diary entries that all conclude with Sarah McLachlan quotes, it's also incredibly cathartic to finally realize that we're not the freaks we once thought we were. But if you read this and decide to attend the next show on Sept. 16, be sure to get to Theatre Off Jackson, the bimonthly show's new location, early: Salon of Shame pretty much always sells out.—Sara Brickner
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