Participatory satire
Vulnerability Olympics
You’ve done ‘the work’. Now, prove it. A satirical evening of competitive vulnerability from WhimsyLab at Blank Space, November 19, 2026.
Content warning
This is the trigger warning.
Triggers will be triggered. Tears will be cried. Expletives will be uttered. Emotional capacity will be publicly objectified, judged, and scored.
This event will test emotional resilience. There will be opportunities to fail. There will be public judgment, uncomfortable interactions, and potentially harmful or triggering emotional content. Spectating does not exempt you from exposure to that content.
This is participatory satire: not therapy, a support group, or a promise of healing. We are making fun of competitive vulnerability and performative emotional evolution. That does not mean the feelings brought up will be pretend.
Please attend because this particular combination of absurdity, exposure, and emotional challenge is something you actively want to experience, not because you feel you have something to prove.
Yes, we recognize the irony.
This is the competition your therapist warned you about.
That was not intended as encouragement.
- Date
- Thursday, November 19, 2026
- Time
- 6:30-9:30 PM
- Doors
- 6:00 PM
- Late arrival
- Late arrivals may spectate but cannot compete.
- Where
- Blank Space
701 Haywood Rd
Asheville, NC 28806 - Tickets
- Lower-Barrier SpectatorAdmission as a spectator, not entry to the competition. Spectators will still encounter the emotional content.$15
- Contributing SpectatorSpectator admission at the contributing price point. Spectators will still encounter the emotional content.$30
- Lower-Barrier ContestantContestant entry at the lower-barrier price point. Counts toward the combined 25-person contestant cap. Contestants must be 18 or older.$15
- Sponsoring ContestantContestant entry at a price that helps sponsor others. Counts toward the same combined 25-person contestant cap. Contestants must be 18 or older.$35
- Ages
- Contestants must be 18 or older. A minor may attend as a spectator only when accompanied by an adult.
- Access
- Blank Space is ADA accessible, and has two bathrooms on site. Parking can be found on the street or in a paid lot directly across the street from the venue out front of the church.per the organizer, 6 November 2026
At last. Personal growth with rankings.
You’ve read the books. You’ve attended the workshops. You’ve learned to say “I’m noticing some activation” when you mean “you’re getting on my last goddamn nerve.”
But how will anyone know how evolved you are unless someone else is demonstrably less evolved?
Introducing the Vulnerability Olympics: an evening of competitive vulnerability, toxic intimacy, and emotional athletics. All the thrills of being deeply seen, with the added convenience of being publicly scored.
For one night, we’re turning the pursuit of connection into the contest it was never supposed to be. Every interaction is an opportunity to demonstrate how unarmored you are, how much you can hold, and just how thoroughly you’ve done The Work.
Faster repairs. Deeper disclosures. Almost suspicious levels of self-awareness.
Enter the arena as a contestant, or watch from the audience, at a satirical sporting spectacular where the stakes are ridiculous and the feelings may be entirely real.
The games
Competitive Curiosity
The last question left standing. Make someone feel so seen that everyone sees you doing it. A dazzling display of inquiry, interest, and the quiet conviction that your follow-up question deserves a medal.
Trauma Dumping
Your baggage, now with rankings. Why leave your baggage at the door when you could bring it to the podium? Give your emotional backstory the competitive showcase it never asked for.
Speed Repair
Tik Tok, Walk the Talk. A rupture. A reckoning. A race against the clock. Demonstrate your commitment to accountability at a pace that leaves precious little time to wonder whether you mean it.
Reflect-Offs
“What I’m hearing you say is…” Two titans of attunement. A breathtaking exchange of reflections. Will anyone feel understood? Will anyone ever finish a sentence?
Anger-Translating
Tell them how they really feel. Translate for someone else: give voice to the anger, sadness and other feelings beneath the words they’re saying. They say, “I’m fine.” You deliver the emotional subtitles.
Featuring these and other questionable applications of otherwise useful relational skills.
Come for the connection. Stay for the comparison.
Perhaps you’re ready to put your emotional athleticism to the test. Perhaps you’d prefer to watch other people make that decision. We have a ticket for both.
Contestant entry is limited to 25 people across both contestant ticket tiers. Spectator tickets are for watching, not entering the competition. Spectators will be invited to participate in a few open events, optionally.
Lower-Barrier Spectator: $15
Contributing Spectator: $30
Lower-Barrier Contestant: $15
Sponsoring Contestant: $35
Choose your role and the price point that works for you. Your ticket price is not a measure of your emotional development. We’ll be making those questionable measurements separately.
Doors open at 6:00 PM. The event starts at 6:30 PM. Late arrivals may spectate but cannot compete. Refunds may be provided at the discretion of WhimsyLab.
Questions: whimsylabnc@gmail.com
Claim your place in emotional sporting history.
Tickets from $15 • Maximum 25 contestants
Personal growth. Public standings.