The magnetic, prolific solo performer Marga Gomez mixes an anthropologist’s observational prowess with a musician’s ear for the funny-sounding word, often all in the same line. A classic example in her “Swimming With Lesbians” is — perhaps unsurprisingly — the word “lesbian.”
In the show, which takes place on a lesbian cruise, there’s a “lezzo deck.” The ship itself? “The Celesbian.” One of its employees is an astrologer who refers to her “lineage of lesbian prognosticators.”
Gomez, who’s now on her 14th solo show — many, like this one, performed at Brava Theater — is a San Francisco gem, one of the region’s most instantly winsome performers, with sneak-attack craft honed to batarang sharpness. Here she draws on her own work as a cruise ship entertainer in the 1990s, and the real-life experience comes through, as in this line from a ship’s captain: “We understand that many of you look forward to morning bingo.”