Review: Margaret Cho's Revolution
I saw Margaret Cho's Revolution last week as a sneak peek at the Siskel Film Cener here in Chicago.

For those that don't know, Revolution is a stand-up movie along the lines of Kings of Comedy, except that instead of five black male comics there is one Korean female comic.

This review may contain trace amounts of spoilers. Consult your physician.

Margaret Cho fans will like it because it's a whole lot more of why they like Maragret Cho, in short: highly emotive facial expressions are sustained for great lengths (to the obvious approval of the movie audience); hi-larious gestures, nee, pantomimes, of uncomfortable situations (e.g. pulling placenta off of her forehead after her friend in childbirth's pussy explodes); lots of yelling and loudness; ethnic jokes about 1. Korean foibles, 2. misconceptions about Koreans, 3. endearing traits of her Korean parents; general fag-haggery; when not making jokes in a campy Korean accent, makes jokes in a campy ghetto girl accent.

Margaret Cho is funny, but if you've seen one half-hour of anything she's ever done, don't expect Revolution to venture into any new or more mature territory. Margaret Cho is loud, obnoxious, sexy and funny, but very repetitious, like Carrot Top, or Jeff Foxworthy. Instead of "stupid prop gags," or "stupid Redneck eccentricities," she gives us, "stupid Korean errata." Over and over again.

One thing that I did enjoy about this show was that she seemed to get a bit more personal with regards to her inner self; the "whys" of why Margaret Cho is ibid. Although I did not find it especially appropriate for her to seek to enlighten us about why she's an obnoxious and unattractive ethnic fuckup, it was interesting to see regardless. She's brutally honest, and you could tell that it was a heartfelt and authentic.

Her best joke was the "shitting her pants while driving" joke, which came in the middle of the show. It was a long joke--about twenty or twenty-five minutes of milking an awkward situation--complete with all of the Margaret Cho trademark humor. When she's up there on stage, wearing her flapper slip, telling about how she went on a diet that then caused her to spontaneously shit herself while driving to a friend's house one day, she is masterful at capturing the audience and bringing them along with her. However the joke is misplaced in her set, because nothing that followed came close to matching the intensity of that bit.

The last quarter of the set was mostly devoted to political posturing, largely among her core fanbase of gay and lesbians. It was in the format of "set up a political position and knock it down with a joke." I especially enjoyed when she talked about the "dont' ask, don't tell" policy of the military, lambasting the government for asking people to die for their freedom, yet denying that same freedom. The punchline, paraphrased: "We need gays in the military. How the hell are we going to win any wars without dykes?"

She wore a vintage flapper girl slip throughout the show. She made her entrance with one of those cleopatra hair pieces (think: beaded bangs), a princess crown, and thigh-high psychadelic boots, all of which came off within ten minutes of the beginning of her set.

I think Margaret Cho is hot, and I would totally hook up with her. Actually, we have a posse that would get down with her. Margaret, this is an advertisement. Call me.
- posted by frank crist @ 11:59 AM