I’m that guy. The guy that occasionally confesses too much to his friends – usually after an ale or seven. The guy that reveals depraved, weird or ridiculous stories about himself, usually in the pursuit of a laugh. The guy that would rather kick the elephant in the room than ignore it.

I don’t know why I do it. It’s probably the former Catholic in me. I think that despite the fact I stopped going to confession and Church all together once it began clashing with my Aussie Rules games at around 12 years old, there’s still a part of me that derives a thrill and a relief from releasing my most intimate thoughts and shames into the ether – as if saying it aloud really does cleanse you of your sins.

A.H. Cayley‘s brilliant podcast Confession Booth, however, takes the concept of my measly and drunken intimate confessions to friends at the pub and fires a bazooka up its arse, as noted Australian artists and entertainers make their deepest, darkest confessions live on stage in front of an audience.

The result is a hilarious, awkward, uncomfortable and somewhat painful experience, as people as diverse as iconic news presenter and journalist Tracey Spicer, actor/author/director Brendan Cowell, comedian Michael Hing and more, each take to the pulpit and lay all for bare.

Stories of sexual dalliances, childish pranks, embarrassing break ups and even brutal assaults, all bubble to the surface in the course of 15 minute episodes, usually leaving the listener sore from laughter, strangely comforted that they no longer have to endure the speaker’s public torment, and more than a little bit naughty.

Recorded live in Sydney, the series treads in the footsteps of other great story-telling / confessional podcasts like The Moth and Risk!, but does so from the perspective we cherish as uniquely Australian.

Here is Tracey Spicer’s phenomenally hilarious episode, in which she manages to confess her way through the seven deadly sins and comes out the other side looking not so much angelic, but infinitely more human.

Confession Booth is part of a series of new podcasts from the ABC’s First Run ten week experimental season, which is looking to generate new online audio content based on the success of subscriber numbers for its new shows.

Long story short, go subscribe to Confession Booth on itunes.