Stripping down at the First Person Festival

The tales shared at a “Stripped Stories” session aren’t necessarily sexy. In fact, very few of them are. They are all, however, about sex — and quite funny, provided you weren’t in the room when they happened.

“Stories of people having a successful conquest don’t work really well,” explains Giulia Rozzi, who founded the popular storytelling night with her college friend Margot Leitman. “The football player getting the cheerleader doesn’t work. But when the nerd gets the cheerleader, that works.”

After four years of inviting their fellow New Yorkers to share bedroom — and kitchen and car and closet and desk — missteps and regrets, the duo are bringing their awkward sex showcase to Philly as part of the First Person Festival. For this edition, local storyteller and former phone-sex operator Kent Dwyer and writer Liz Spikol will provide accounts of strange encounters that could only happen here.

While the hosts aren’t shy and seem almost immune to embarrassment, even Leitman admits there are some things she holds back on. “I realize that it’s hard to share things while I’m in them. Comedy is tragedy plus time — when you’re in something it’s very, very difficult to be funny about it. But then, I have a few things, like this guy who broke my heart in high school — it’s still not funny! It will never, ever be funny.”