The Fearless Personal Inventory, a review of David Nadelberg’s MORTIFIED: Real Words. Real People. Real Pathetic. and discussion of the grassroots stage phenomenon that inspired the book.
Mortified is part of what Dave calls “urban archaeology,†where meaning is pieced together from genuine personal artifacts. He feels a special kinship with the Web site Overheard in New York, and with Found
Magazine, which also does extensive live tours. As theater has become mostly irrelevant for the post-boomer demographic, Found and Mortified and comedy-essay shows like Sit ’n Spin have brought people back into seats for a more personal, direct kind of storytelling.
This is all a natural outgrowth of the times. In our post-postmodern confessional reality, rituals of public intimacy are part of the culture. Third person is dated. After the Me Generation, expression shifted to the constant, solipsistic but tangible “I.†MFA programs are bursting with memoirs. Everyone under 30 diarizes online. And half of prime time is people talking directly to the camera.
But what appears on Mortified was never meant to be revealed, which means it’s more genuine than the “revelations†on Top Chef or hotchick.blogspot.com, all of which have become burnished, media-savvy performances for projecting an intended image rather than truthful portraits. Mortified stories retreat to a time when self-exploration was not public. This is most clear in the Mortified book, which reads like a collective memoir from what will surely be the last generation of honest Americans.
That second [quoted] paragraph above is worth noting.
The show currently runs in LA, San Fran, NYC, Chicago, and Boston. Not Cincinnati, not yet, she (I) says with hope… because — it’s now official — I am moving there quite soon. Like how I slipped that in? Now I’m out to enjoy the weather which, while not that of Charleston’s, will likely be remembered this time in a month or two as downright balmy.