Jay Rayner + Jon Ronson at Waterside Arts Centre in Sale

To borrow a German word, we as a species seem to revel in schadenfreude – and two guests at the Waterside Arts Centre will be examining just that in two very different ways. Highly revered restaurant critic Jay Rayner (pictured) looks back at the most revolting edibles he’s had to endure and invites the audience to review his performance in real time on Twitter. Rayner has been in the game for over a decade so no doubt has some sorry tales to tell. Secondly, Jon Ronson, author of The Psychopath Test, spends an evening sharing his three-year experience observing the public shaming of others, and our part in it. It’s about that offensive joke someone probably shouldn’t have told on Twitter because of the resulting angry mob. And there we all are, watching closely with a bag of popcorn. This show coincides with the publication of his new non-fiction book, So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed.

Thu 5 Mar (Jay Rayner) / Thu 19 Mar (Jon Ronson), Waterside Arts Centre, 1 Waterside, Sale M33 7ZF, Tel: 0161 912 5616, 7.30pm (Jay Rayner) / 8pm (Jon Ronson), £12 – £14, www.watersideartscentre.co.uk (Jay Rayner) and www.watersideartscentre.co.uk (Jon Ronson)