”I Never Met a Jerk I didn’t Like”

By
Samantha Simmonds-Ronceros
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A NoHo Arts theatre review of Tiffany Phillips’ ”I Never Met a Jerk I didn’t Like
A NoHo Arts theatre review of Tiffany Phillips’ ”I Never Met a Jerk I didn’t Like"

A theatre review of Tiffany Phillips’ ”I Never Met a Jerk I didn’t Like,” directed by Kimleigh Smith, produced by Nunoon Productions, Embrace Your Cape Enterprises, performed at Whitefire Theatre’s Solofest.

Tiffany Phillips is a tour de force!  ”I Never Met a Jerk I didn’t Like” lays it all on the line. Bold, brash, hilarious and very, very truthful.  Tiffany Phillips takes us on a history of her dating life, from early teen years as an ambiguously beauty, surrounded by jealous skinny white girls and hapless boys, through various hopeless relationships up to the present dramas.  All this while fully admitting to her penchant for the bad guy, the loser, the unmitigated asshole.  Nice guys don’t stand a chance!

Tiffany quite brilliantly exposes the deep psychosis behind low self esteem, a preference for men that treat you badly,  friends who betray you and an urge to be loved.

A NoHo Arts theatre review of Tiffany Phillips’ ”I Never Met a Jerk I didn’t Like"
A NoHo Arts theatre review of Tiffany Phillips’ ”I Never Met a Jerk I didn’t Like”

Hence, her career choice as an actress! But seriously, figuring out the why and the wherefore of our own often disastrous romantic choices is a lifelong occupation. So, Tiffany Phillips is clearly way ahead of most of us!

All this with skillful and fluid characters, notably opening with the slimiest boyfriend you could ever image…and candidly, I have no need to imagine. 

Tiffany flits around her life with a masterful and nuanced performance.  She is funny and clever and darkly perceptive. 

A NoHo Arts theatre review of Tiffany Phillips’ ”I Never Met a Jerk I didn’t Like”

She seems to have no ego when it comes to her romantic history, fully able to both learn from and entertain us with one hilarious anecdote after another while still pivoting around epiphany. 

 “I Never Met a Jerk I didn’t Like” is a brilliant and highly entertaining show performed by a wonderful actor. The story is beautifully balanced and fully real. Like the most honest and unfettered conversations with your best girlfriends.

A NoHo Arts theatre review of Tiffany Phillips’ ”I Never Met a Jerk I didn’t Like"
A NoHo Arts theatre review of Tiffany Phillips’ ”I Never Met a Jerk I didn’t Like”

The humour is laced with realism and sauce and graphic descriptions while still bathed in painful memories.  We know how it is to be a woman, so happy to be loved and needing to be relevant, important and cherished. We are often willing to go to some depths to feel secure and safe in love, even being paradoxically unsafe and insecure.  It’s always the highs balanced against the lows, isn’t it?

I loved this show. Tiffany Phillips is an accomplished career actress and brings all her experience and talents and natural storytelling skills to this truly excellent show.  We laugh with her as we nod our heads in full understanding of every single moment she recounts.  She unwraps herself, unafraid and unyielding. A warrior. Bearing her scars with pride and love.  And like the very best kind of solo show we leave with a deeper understanding of ourselves, as we laugh in camaraderie with such a phenomenal talent. 

“I Never Met a Jerk I didn’t Like” is available online for a few more weeks, so please do yourself a favour and click this link: https://vimeo.com/ondemand/nevermet