Beaut

[ coming out ]

For experimental performance artist Thomas Choinacky, all the world — or at least all of Philadelphia — is a stage: He's used a cramped apartment for Jason; a car for Never Been Stoked: A Traveling Bromance; commercial street corners for DANCE:31, and all sorts of off-kilter venues — mostly in North Philly — for his second annual SoLow Festival. Meanwhile, writer/actor/director/movement artist John Jarboe has made a name a name for himself (er, "selves") by pushing the gender-identification envelope in the Wilma's No Regrets: A Piaf Affair and the Fringe's Inside Julia Child. For the First Person Fest's 10th anniversary, Choinacky and Jarboe — natives of Indiana and Michigan, respectively — team up to tie together two separate, self-revelatory one-man tales that take on growing up gay and Catholic in the Midwest. Only a thin sheet separates them on stage as they perform their interwoven acts. They'll surely pull you in and keep you entranced — but in the style of Choinacky's insular, intimate performances, or Jarboe's expansive, grand gestures? See for yourself. —A.D. Amorosi

Mon.-Tue., Nov. 14-15, 8:30 p.m., $15, Christ Church Neighborhood House, 20 N. American St.

Stripped Stories

[ sexy time ]

Get ready to be scandalized: This year's First Person Fest features a night of sexy stories and raunchy adventures. Moth GrandSlam champs Margot Leitman and Giulia Rozzi, along with local storytellers Kent Dwyer and Liz Spikol, will share their most intimate, and likely naughty, tales while cabaret singer Johnny Showcase serenades. "It's like sharing your deepest secrets in front of a room full of your best friends," says Leitman. Audience members will get in on the act, too, with a participatory round of Never Have I Ever. Called "jaw-dropping" and "intentionally and deliciously awkward," the night will be a mix of high school sleepover and college experimentation. Don't come reserved. —Meg Augustin

Fri.-Sat., Nov. 18-19, 10 p.m., $15, Painted Bride, 230 Vine St.

Hillary Rea

[ hostess with the mostess ]

When festival organizers approached Hillary Rea to open for 17-time Moth StorySlam winner Adam Wade, she didn't quite get the connection. "But the more I listened to his stories I realized we have a similar sensibility," she says, referring to his style of talking "about awkward childhood experiences that shaped who he grew up to be." Since 2009, the 29-year-old storyteller and comedian has scaled the local slam ladder as the host of her own series, Crush Comedy, where she has shamelessly perfected her signature narratives about being "unlucky in love." But why all the self-deprecation? "I enjoy ... finding humor in true situations that might have been uncomfortable or difficult when they happened," she says. "And when it's all said and done, the past isn't as devastatingly awkward as it once seemed." —Josh Middleton

Fri.-Sat., Nov. 11-12, 8:30 p.m., $15, Khyber, 56 S. Second St.