I have recently become smitten with the monthly stage show Mortified Live, billed as a "comic excavation of teen angst artifacts as shared by their original authors before total strangers." So, it was fitting that I spent my Valentine’s Day at their "Doomed Valentines Show" in Los Angeles. The night only made my heart grow fonder. One by one, brave men and women took the stage to share their torrid teen tales of failed relationships and crushes gone awry. A few included some hilarious visuals such as drawings (think stick figures intertwined in a Honeymoon "Sweet" with a heart-shaped bed, jacuzzi, and fireplace) and video confessionals (a high school senior sporting a mullet and yellow trenchcoat lip-synching "Wait" by White Lion in the hopes that it will win over the girl of his dreams. Watch it here).
Of course, the night had me thinking about my own teen crushes and how thankful I am that those diaries are long gone, never to be read again (you’re welcome, former object of my affection, T.C. Smith). Which makes Mortified all the more enthralling. How do these people bare their souls and expose, as Marcia Brady would say, their "innermost secrets" to a public who will only laugh at their past misery? There are even two Mortified books: the new Love is a Battlefield and Real Words, Real People, Real Pathetic, where individuals offer up their embarrassing journal entries and include photos from their teen-angstiest times.
Please don’t let this stop you from confessing anything crush-cringe-worthy in our comment section. I guess we’ve all been there and are finding comfort in the humor that was our youthful past. I look forward to next month’s edition and hope the show will "promise to never forsake me (ahahah, okay, that last portion was ripped off from an e-mail a boy once sent me. A boy who TOTALLY forsook ME)". Mortified’s monthly events run in various cities across the U.S. Be warned: tickets, like young love, go fast!
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I had a crush on a guy when I was in junior and senior high school – yeah, six long years of unrequited love. 30 years later, I was so glad to see he was fat and balding, and not the brightest bulb in the chandelier. Sweet!
I sent “Secret Admirer” notes to my 10th grade crush, and his obnoxious friend somehow found out and yelled it out all over the bus one day. That ended in tears. Mark Edwards, where are you now? But my constant high school crush was Simon Le Bon – I even wrote long, involved stories about he and I met and fell in love, had fights, got back together, the whole soap opera. Those stories would fit perfectly in the Mortified series.
its so funny, i spent like an hour on that website this afternoon after linking from passiveagressivenotes.com
I spent all of Jr. High and part of high school crushing on one guy. he was nice to me but was clearly not interested. I used to ride by his house on my bike just to catch a glimpse of him. One day he was playing football in his yard with friends and I was so engrossed in watching them that I smashed into a parked car. Mortified is an understatement.
I never kept a diary in high school, but felt compelled to point out that the past tense of ‘forsake’ is ‘forsook.’
Not only did I keep diaries, journals, notes, pictures, etc. from high school…I managed to find and keep random notes that strangers lost in classrooms and hallways. Almost 20 years later, I still have all that stuff. Neatly organized. I am now an archivist, by the way. I get paid to read other people’s diaries and love letters. Awesome. I gotta wonder about kids nowadays with email, social networking sites, etc. Will they be able to resurrect those awkward artifacts even 10 years from now?
yes, that is it! thanks for the catch.
I was there. So funny. My favorite was the guy who wrote the script were he was trapped on an island with Lisa Bonet. The most I’ve ever laughed.
I’ve seen that guy on TV before, really entertaining.
that’s funny… i just started a blog on a similar topic! check it out http://islandcomplexity.blogspot.com/
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