Don't Make Fun of Jesus

It has been said that laughter is the best medicine. It has not, however, been determined if said laughter must come from the patient herself, or if said patient should cause said laughter. If the latter is the case, Sherri D. Sutton must be well on the road to recovery. Blessed with the gift to look back not with anger, but with amusement, she tells the impressive story of her life in Don't Make Fun of Jesus, a one-woman show. "We have no therapy in the South," she explains early on in the show. Fortunately, Sutton has found a substitute for therapy: humor.

Somewhere between a play and a stand-up routine, Sutton's show examines and analyzes her life, from devout Baptist childhood in Georgia, to coming out, to going back in and getting married, to divorce, to joining a cult, to coming out again and finally settling down into a healthy life. Sutton has a lot to talk about, and quite a story to tell. And she tells it well. Her charming drawl belies a sharp wit and a keen eye for the bizarre or simply silly, and nothing is too holy for her scathing comments. Her journey from the Bible Belt to New York taught her much about the quirks and foibles of human nature, both positive and negative. Sutton's best material deals with these quirks– the South's culture of denial, people's misconceptions of other ways of life, or the very nature of a cult.

One memorable moment had Sutton reenacting the "Jack & Jill" nursery rhyme as people from different countries and cultures: British, German, Jewish, African-American, etc. The routine started wonderfully– one can always get laughs by mocking Nazis– but by the time she got to Jewish and Black, some people in the audience had started to squirm. And therein lies the show's greatest challenge: While Sutton makes some valid (and, more importantly, funny) comments on racial differences, her jokes about racism sometimes border on racist themselves. There is something rather unnerving about seeing a white woman speaking in an exaggerated ghetto dialect, no matter how funny what she is saying may be. Furthermore, her story of directing mentally-challenged children in musicals veered between heartwarming and offensive. While she clearly harbors no ill will or malice towards these children, using their disabilities as fodder for humor feels somehow wrong. And it was harder to laugh at her jokes about her mother after she pointed out her mom in the audience– perhaps that, ultimately, is a commentary on us, and how much easier it is to laugh at a person behind her back than when we know she is listening.

And then there's the title. In case you were worried, rest assured: Sutton does not, in fact, make fun of Jesus. Religion, yes– after all, when one has spent six years in a cult and lived to tell the tale, one earns the right to mock those who take religion to extremes.

Irreverent, occasionally shocking, and surprisingly poignant, Don't Make Fun of Jesus has plenty of laughs and lots of heart. Once its uneven spots are smoothed out, Sherri D. Sutton will have a wonderful play to match her wonderful, fascinating life.

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