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Brick Wall Comedy

Notorious C.H.O.

Margaret Cho

Wellspring · 2002 · 1 h 35 min

An explicit victory lap full of queer culture and bodily functions.

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Margaret Cho opens this set with a deeply profane, supportive joke about providing oral sex to 9/11 rescue workers. This follow-up to I’m the One That I Want ditches the career-retrospective framing of her previous tour to focus squarely on filth, bodily functions, and queer culture.

Filmed at Seattle’s Paramount Theatre, Notorious C.H.O. captures the comic leaning fully into the explicit persona that endeared her to alternative audiences in the early 2000s. She spends significant time evaluating the inherent gayness of Bette Midler’s Beaches character, running through a lengthy treatise on the indignities of a colon cleanse, and explaining how men’s apartments would look like murder scenes if they got periods. While her last film dug into the trauma of her short-lived ABC sitcom, this hour operates as a pure, boundary-pushing celebration. The film occasionally cuts away to short interview segments with Cho’s parents, who discuss their daughter’s graphic material with a mix of genuine pride and polite embarrassment.

The set list

8 bits

  1. Gratitude to World Trade Center rescue workers

    An irreverent opening bit proposing an outrageous sexual service to Ground Zero rescue workers to do her part after 9/11.

  2. Mother discussing father's past gay experience

    Cho impersonates her thickly Korean-accented mother recounting the father's encounter in Scotland, which Cho dubs 'the gayest thing ever.'

  3. Colonic irrigation clinic visit

    Recounts a mortifying experience at a Los Angeles clinic named Water's Gift where Enya played and medical procedure met entertainment.

  4. Returning 'Beaver Fever' to the video store

    Details public humiliation and awkwardness when returning an overdue adult videotape to her neighborhood store.

  5. Hypothetical scenario of men having menstrual periods

    Riffs on how society would change if men had periods, quipping that bachelor apartments would look like murder scenes.

  6. Unsuccessful search for the G-spot and visiting an S&M sex club

    Chronicles her ongoing personal quest to locate her G-spot and an awkward excursion to a straight S&M club.

  7. Teenage drag queen friends Alan and Jeremy

    Reflects on high school friends in San Francisco who taught her how to be fierce and fabulous, dubbing them 'Crouching Drag Queen, Hidden Faggot.'

  8. The closer (spoiler). Show it

    Eating disorder trauma and body acceptance closer

    Delivers a serious monologue addressing the trauma of growing up with an eating disorder and societal pressures equating thinness with self-worth, urging self-love.

How it plays

Tone
Irreverent, raunchy, sexually explicit, and politically provocative with a sincere, affirming conclusion.
On stage
Raw, profane, bawdy, self-described 'fag hag' and 'queen of overstatement' known for unabashed, uninhibited identity comedy.
Pace
Casual yet precise comedic timing punctuated by physical mime, animated facial expressions, and suspended character transformations.
About
sexuality and bodily functions, gay and lesbian culture, Korean-American family dynamics, eating disorders and body image, post-9/11 cultural climate

What the critics said

For those who enjoy raunchy humor, there are a lot of laughs to be found in Cho's second concert movie.

In the room: A dedicated, diverse, and largely LGBTQ audience responding with uproarious laughter and deep adoration.

Summed up from reviews, articles and listings. Sources: variety.com, rottentomatoes.com, frameline.org, metacritic.com, latimes.com, chortle.co.uk, slate.com, slantmagazine.com, en.wikipedia.org, nypost.com.

Backstory

Filmed approximately two months following the September 11 terrorist attacks, during the culmination of Cho's 37-city stand-up tour.

Details

Released
Taped
2001, Paramount Theatre, Seattle
Runtime
1 h 35 min
Where
Wellspring
Director
Lorene Machado
Topics
Before
I'm the One That I Want (2000)
After
Revolution (2003)

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