To a certain way of thinking, the New York International Fringe Festival, with its dozens of struggling artists desperately scrapping for attention, is all about the self in its rawest, neediest form. Therefore, it seemed only appropriate that, coming to the end of a Saturday of theater-hopping, I suddenly realized I had spent the day viewing nothing but autobiographical solo shows.

Perhaps a savvier critic would have actually planned it that way – productions with shared characteristics make for a more thematically cogent article. Naive me, I had only scheduled attractions that I thought might actually be interesting. The first was to have been “SUV: The Musical.” But I arrived 10 minutes late for the noon curtain (stupid “necessary track work”) and was met at the door by a man who looked suspiciously like one of the show’s creators, former New York Post columnist Gersh Kuntzman. He told me there no intermission and no late seating at the two-hour show. My stated purpose in being there moved him not a jot. Such upright punctiliousness is rare at this loose-limbed festival. After all, they have late seating even at “Primo”; how sacred could “SUV: The Musical” be?

Still, I was not too put out over this setback. A good day at the Fringe should always involve chance. So I quickly glanced at my festival guide and found another show, “Surviving David,” opening at the Flea Theater at 12:30. Striking a brisk pace, I took my seat with five minutes to spare.

“Surviving David” is Kathryn Graf’s confessional tale of the rocky personal road that followed the sudden death of her husband, “Police Academy” actor David Graf. I remained at the Flea to watch the theater’s next offering, Cynthia Silver’s “Bridezilla Strikes Back!” and the best way of explaining what Ms. Graf does wrong in relating her tale is to point out what Ms. Silver does so right.

As the title hints, Ms. Silver, a New York stage actress of some skill but little reputation, signed on for Fox TV’s unctuous bride-eviscerating reality show “Bridezillas.” At the time of the filming, however, she had convinced herself she was taking part in a high-brow BBC documentary on the creation of nuptials, Manhattan-style (like “‘Nova,’ but about weddings,” she tells her skeptical fiance). She admits the idea that television time, however prurient in form, might spark her flagging acting career flashed through her mind (as did the prospect of couch time on “Oprah” and friendship with Jennifer Aniston). What happened in the end – and what maybe served her right – is that the filmmakers sold the footage to Fox, which diced and spliced it into the sensational horror that was “Bridezillas.” Fame and Oprah, needless to say, did not come a-callin’. Infamy and shame did.

“Bridezilla Strikes Back!” is less an expose on the moral morass of reality television (what’s left to expose?) than an unflinching and hilarious peek into the breathtakingly single-minded self-absorbtion that clouds the mind of every aspiring actor. Ms. Silver paints herself (she wrote the script with Kenny Finkle) as possessing equal reserves of ambition, delusion, and self-pity. Particularly remarkable is her ability to quickly erect a new fantasy once gritty reality has sent a former delusion smashing to the ground.

Ms. Silver has an immensely appealing presence, and her particular achievement in “Bridezilla” is that she remains sweet-hearted, genuinely pathetic, and, yes, real – even as she comes clean on numerous acts of vanity and subterfuge. She is also a talented performer, able to nail deft impersonations of Oprah and the duplicitous English filmmakers who followed her every step for a year. Paul Urcioli’s brisk and witty staging is also to be applauded.

To hold onto the affections of the audience – the first order for any solo artist – is what Ms. Graf does not do in “Surviving David.” Like Ms. Silver, she is guilty of some less attractive human tendencies. Following her husband’s death, she did not exhibit strength, fortitude, and compassion, but instead plunged into a slough of panic, decadent despondency, and sexual hysteria. In able hands, such brutal honesty about her failure to play the model widow could have translated into bracing theater. But Ms. Graf the performer cannot make Ms. Graf the person seem anything more than vain and petty. (Her impatience with her frightened children and unwavering preoccupation with being bedded are particularly unsavory.) And, unlike Ms. Silver, her imitations of the other people in her life are sarcastic, without being funny.

Lastly I was able to take in “Jesus in Montana.” Barry Smith, the author and performer of the show, further proves the soloist’s need to find the right mix of authenticity and personality. Mr. Smith’s story of his bizarre immersion in a Montana cult, which accepted an 80-year-old convicted pedophile as the returned Jesus, is captivating. But the flip and ironic way in which Mr. Smith tells his story, while entertaining in many ways, makes us wonder how real this detour was to him in the first place. His performance is too manipulative, of his history and of us.

“Surviving David” will be performed again August 17, 20, 23 & 26; “Bridezilla Strikes Back!” on August 16, 20, 23, 25 & 26; “Jesus in Montana” August 19, 21, 25 & 28 (212-279-4488).