Oh, Cho!

Taking up more or less from where her last concert film I’m the One That I Want (2000) left off, Margaret Cho continues her exploration of the outer limits of raunch with considerable brio. Like every female stand-up since the dawn of time, Cho’s humor is derived from this disparity between what the culture expects of her and what she’s actually capable of doing. But unlike her comedy predecessors, Cho declines to make herself the butt of her jokes. Rather she highlights the culture’s failings to deal with women of size, color and sass. Filmed by director Lorene Machado on direct video, it’s a visually primitive affair. But you’re not likely to care, given the chance to witness Cho’s often incisive, but never hectoring, take on life as she’s lived and observed it. In an especially telling bit she lists all those who–like her–are considered to be society’s “minority.” Cho knows no one needs any further prompting to realize that “minorities” are in fact the majority of the population.