By Marcia Blondin***New York comedian Susan Jeremy made her Puerto Vallarta debut with her one-woman show, Robert Will Show You the Door: Tales of Being… Fired (RWSYTD), in the tiny theatre at Art Vallarta. The stage could hardly contain the number of characters that sprang from this production, which heads fro
m here to London, England.
Starting with the unmistakably New York accent, and bouncing through various inner-city barrios with lightning speed and perfect clarity, we watch a 60-something woman become a 17-year-old hip-hop gang-banger. It’s an extraordinary revelation! RWSYTD takes us on an innocent journey through Jeremy’s life, starting at about age 16 when she gets unceremoniously canned from her first job at a fish and chips shop. Circumstances always just beyond her control make for funny situations that she acts out brilliantly.
Spontaneous, appreciative applause occasionally stops the show in its tracks, but Jeremy is never derailed. A quick bow of acknowledgment, and she’s right back in character. Her detailed look at teaching a few young mentally-challenged teenagers in a locked hospital psych ward quickly brought the mayhem of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest front and center. That 
vignette right there could be the beating heart of a brand-new show. In retrospect, it is curious that Jeremy never lays the blame on her unfortunate job endings on anyone else and intuitively understands that each time she was fired put her closer to what ”God’s Plan” for her was, bringing an audience to life through laughter, by acting out our worst fears on stage and landing a happy ending. Her comedic timing is flawless, and her ability to mimic anything and anybody—birds, machinery, and people like Joan Rivers, Tina Turner, Carol Burnett, Mick Jagger and her mom, are perfectly and eerily executed. Susan Jeremy is never mean, and she sure could be given any circumstance surrounding losing a job.
Another breath-of-fresh-air aspect of Jeremy’s life, her gayness, is revealed slowly and succinctly in a few paragraphs scattered throughout her monologue, with not an ounce of angst, or tears, or needing sympathy, or acceptance. It was a revelation to her, to us, like the need to find another job. A reality that didn’t need fanfare, trauma, or explanation.
Before Jeremy and her partner (and publicist), Joy London, head to England to perform Robert Will Show You the Door … she has two more shows at Art Vallarta, on Friday and Saturday, March 6 and 7. Show times are 8 PM. As always, check with VallartaCalendar.com for more information and tickets.
