A Pair of Jokers — Margaret Cho & Bobby Collins

Margaret Cho and Bobby Collins split a half-hour of stage time at the Comedy and Magic Club in Hermosa Beach for Showtime’s early-nineties showcase series. The format gives each performer just enough room to run through their tightest material before handing off the microphone. Cho opens the show on the brink of wider television fame. Her set centers on her family, detailing her Korean mother’s specific behavior and her ex-stoner brother’s recent conversion to Christianity.

Collins takes the back half, delivering an animated set grounded in geographic culture shock and domestic life. He works through the contrast between Manhattan and the rest of the country, the reality of visiting his aging parents down in Florida, and the quiet guilt of disappointing his dog.