Ariel Meadow Stallings

Salon of Shame milks teen diaries for laughs
By Blythe Lawrence

Hormone-filled teen musings become more hilarious with age, Stallings realized in 2005 after her friend Sarah Brown established the Cringe show in New York City, an open-mic reading for people to read their old journals, love letters and school papers. With Brown’s permission, Stallings began Salon of Shame, a Cringe-style show for Seattle.

“Despite my immediate interest in Cringe, I’d never attended a diary reading show and had no idea how it would work or what kinds of readings would be funny,” Stallings said. “I just wasn’t sure where the line was between entertaining and pathetic/self-indulgent.”

Salon of Shame meets every other month at Theatre Off Jackson, which seats 150. During the past three years, it has developed such a cult following that tickets usually sell out within minutes of becoming available.

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My work

• Author/Writer
• Web Publisher
• Commentator
• Marketer/PR Strategist

Recent appearances

• CNN.com, July 2010
• Seattle Times, April 2010
• Seattle Times, August 2009
• Houston Chronicle, June 2009
• Microsoft’s Channel 9, December 2008
• Today Show, August 2008
• CNN.com, June 2008
• ABC World News, May 2008

My websites

• Offbeat Bride
  With 200,000 unique visitors each month, Offbeat Bride is the web’s most popular destination for nontraditional brides.
• Offbeat Mama
  My daily celebration of nontraditional motherhood.
• Salon of Shame
  My bimonthly comedy/reading event in Seattle