This Saturday night Margaret Cho came to the Ferst Center in a hilarious whirlwind of stand-up comedy and live music. While there were a few jokes the audience could have done without, overall, the show was hilarious, and the atmosphere was jovial and good-humored.
Margaret Cho first got her start in the 1994 sitcom All American Girl. Unfortunately, the bad reviews and subsequent cancellation of this short-lived show led her to a downward spiral of drugs and alcohol. However, Margaret was able to turn things around, and now uses her bad experiences as material for her stand up comedy shows; she’s been entertaining audiences ever since.
Opening for Cho was John Roberts, a young comedian from New York. He had a huge table of wigs, and he used all of them with a frenetic energy. With each wig Roberts became everyone from a ditzy airhead to a lesbian poetry circle speaker to a stoner pot head. His imitations were spot on and had the audience cracking up. A weak point for him was his comedy song about getting high that seemed to go on forever. However, his hilarious dance moves made it bearable.
Once Roberts was done warming the crowd up, Cho took the stage. She is known for her crass, unapologetic style, and her show this weekend was no exception. To say that she spoke about sex a lot would be an understatement. She went into each excruciating detail of a few of her encounters with southern men. She also sang a full ballad about a certain appendage of the male anatomy. It was pretty awkward considering there were plenty of families in the audience, but no one stormed out or appeared upset; it was all in good fun.
There were certain points where she did veer a bit too far in the gross category, such as one segment where she was discussing her four-day stay at an outdoor concert and how she didn’t get to use the restroom the whole time because she is opposed to port-a-potties. She then went on to describe every detail of her bowel movements when she finally found a decent restroom. It was a bit unnecessary. The audience appeared very grossed out and relieved when she finally moved on to something else, but that’s Margaret Cho for you.
Cho also spoke about her experiences on Dancing with the Stars. Apparently she was the one that leaked the story that Sarah Palin was forcing Bristol Palin to do the show in an ill-conceived plan to win back the favor of America. Sarah told Bristol that it was her fault they had lost in 2008 because she became pregnant, which is completely ridiculous. Cho claimed that the show was rigged, and that the reason she was voted off was because ABC was mad at her for not retracting her statements about the Palins. It was an insightful experience to hear about what went on behind the scenes.
Cho sang several songs as part of her burgeoning foray into comedy music. She has a pretty good voice, which was surprising. However, the subject matter was questionable at best. The aforementioned penis song was cringe-worthy to say the least. Another song she sang was about a TV screenwriter she used to be in love with while she worked on All American Girl. She never told him of her secret crush, and twenty years later, she decided to look him up in order to reconnect, only to find out that he was serving prison time for bludgeoning his wife to death and hiding her in the attic. His wife was partially mummified before they found her. It was a very disconcerting and disturbing story, so it was a little hard to enjoy her humorous song about murdering people.
Cho is known for making fun of her own ethnicity, and she did so numerous times. She also poked fun at her mother, mimicking her strong accent and demeanor. It was hilarious to watch and one of the high points of the show, although a little racist.
Overall Cho’s show was a fun and humorous experience. In order to enjoy one of her shows you should have an open, liberal mind or else you would be highly offended the whole time. If you think you can stomach her crass humor and in-depth details of her sexual encounters, be sure to check her out next time she performs in Atlanta.