Cringe nights in London

Participants reading out their excruciating teenage diaries to a crowd is the latest social craze to hit London.

LONDON: Cathryn Skerry stands on a brightly lit stage holding a little purple book in her trembling hands. She turns to a passage she wrote at age 11, “April 1999: I am ashamed. I am such a bad kisser.”

Welcome to the latest social craze to hit London – “cringe nights”, where participants read out their excruciating teenage diaries to a crowd assembled for laughs and mutual embarrassment.

“I really want a boyfriend. I want someone to think I am sexy and funny and talented,” wrote Emily Lawler when she was 15 in 1999. “I hate my family. I want curly hair and to be happy. Suicide is the only way.” Some of those performing get into their former angst-ridden roles with gusto, such as Claire Rose, an exuberant redhead with great comic timing.

Although the concept may seem to many shy teenagers like their worst nightmare, organiser Ana McLaughlin described the appeal.

“When you are a teenager, you are the centre of the universe and what is happening to you is probably the worst thing that’s ever happened to anyone and that kind of level of drama really is just hilarious,” she said.

Because the diaries are normally secret, “you are completely honest”, McLaughlin adds – unlike modern methods of social sharing such as Facebook updates or a blog which are designed to be read by other people.

Better than therapy and far more fun, the key to the amusement is the time lapse. For most of those taking part in cringe nights, at least a decade has passed since they wrote the diaries.

“Enough time has passed to find it funny and ridiculous rather than upsetting,” said Skerry, a therapist.

Meanwhile the watching public feel empathy with the readers because their diaries address universal themes – unrequited love, relationships with parents and friends, drinking, depressive thoughts and obsessions.

It’s quite an unnerving experience,” Rose said, but added: “I see why people come back and do it again, you get quite an adrenalin rush. It’s a supportive crowd, everybody laughs.”

Cringe nights began in the United States in 2005, and made their way over the Atlantic to Britain in 2007, although it was not until recently that regular nights were held.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 15^th, 2011.