todd1007 Review of Margaret Cho: Notorious C.H.O.

Margaret Cho: Notorious C.H.O. (2002 TV Special)

very poor material

[2/10 · 7 February 2006]

i rented "notorious cho" because i enjoy stand up comedy so much. i had not had much exposure to cho before renting "notorious", but i reasoned that anyone who reportedly delves into sex with as much zest as cho does, there had to be quite a few laughs to be had. it was not even close. first, cho shows up for the concert dressed like she is going to paint her garage or give her dog a bath. we see her parents dressed very nicely giving a short impromptu interview about margaret as a child, but they seem to be the only members of the cho family who have a sense that good appearance can be helpful when doing video. i understand that cho is making a statement to deliberately be sloppy so that she does not feel she has to conform to anyone's standards but her own, but it does not work. she seems like she is going for a garafoloesque presentation, but she ends up just looking like a frumpy middle aged overweight Asian woman who is too lazy to change out of the clothes that she used to go grocery shopping in. second, cho's delivery is poor at best. she never picks a tempo to bring her audience into her stories. she talks spastically for short periods, followed by long long long long long long pauses. (im sorry, did it seem like i was adding too many "longs"? my sense dragging out a single idea is pretty close to what cho does) and she repeats her punchline over and over and over and over and over and over (if i write "and over" ten more times i can catch up with cho) finally, her material is awful. she mocks her mother with the contempt and malice that you commonly find in four graders teasing fat kids. she seemingly tells each story to mock anything and anyone that is not gay and then tries for laughs after the fact. her stories are so flat and uninspired by comedy that you understand in short order that cho is really just telling her audience stories that are developed just to make the non-gay community seem stupid and boring. like a fifth grade girl who makes herself feel better by degrading all that she is not, cho repeatedly bashes all that is not gay orientated. yeah, its that monotonous. view this only if your only other choice is "you got served"