Admit it. In junior high, you scrawled prose on the pages of spiral-bound notebooks to divulge your innermost thoughts: the longing for your crush, the fact that you hated school…or, if you were me—bad, original rock lyrics that made Poison ’s seem profound. To 12-year-old you, these words made perfect sense. But if you were to uncover these relics as an adult, you would cringe and then, try to recall whether or not you had been huffing paint at the time.

Dave Nadelberg has taken these mortifying teen mementos and turned them into relatable brilliance. His creation is Mortified Live—an on-stage show where adults from various cities across the country share their painfully embarrassing letters, poems, songs, and journal entries in front of an audience of total strangers. Cities include Austin, Boston, Chicago, San Fran and more. Like a clammy, acne-riddled teen in braces, it’s not pretty. But it is pretty funny. Tonight is the first of two Mortified LA shows at King King.

King King, 6555 Hollywood Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90028