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Cover image credit: Promotional image via Prime Video

PsyCHO

Margaret Cho

Showtime · 2015 · 81 min

Margaret Cho channels her personal rage and grief into stand-up.

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Margaret Cho is angry, but she wants you to know she is using that anger to heal. Filmed after a particularly brutal stretch of news and the consecutive losses of her comedy mentors, Joan Rivers and Robin Williams, the set is an exercise in processing grief and rage through graphic punchlines. The standout sequence comes when she charts the twenty-year gap between her own short-lived 1994 sitcom, All-American Girl, and the premiere of Fresh Off the Boat, dryly noting that her show was such a high-profile disaster it took networks two decades to trust an Asian-American family on television again.

Recorded at the Gramercy Theatre in New York City, the 2015 Showtime special finds Cho leaning hard into the “psycho” label often thrown at women who speak their minds. Rather than dodging the tag, she claims it, using the hour to address her own history with abuse alongside international tragedies and the silence around bisexual representation. While some of the material, like her impressions of her mother or jokes about Kim Kardashian, walks well-trodden ground, the show is at its strongest when she pays heartfelt, messy tribute to Rivers and Williams, even explaining how Williams inspired her street-level homeless outreach work in San Francisco.

The set list

7 bits

  1. Creating the first Asian American sitcom and the premiere of Fresh Off the Boat

    Cho reflects on making the first Asian American TV family show 20 years earlier and joking that she messed up so badly the network had to wait an entire generation for Asian Americans to reach Nielsen voting age.

  2. Golden Globes North Korean general controversy

    Addresses outrage culture by noting that white people tell Asian people how to feel about race because they are too scared to tell Black people.

  3. Tribute to comedy mentors Robin Williams and Joan Rivers

    Shares emotional reflections on Williams inspiring her homeless charity work and recounts unreleased jokes and acidic commentary from Rivers, including a surprise punchline regarding Rivers' death.

  4. Bisexual identity and gay male friendships

    Jokes that being bisexual gives her twice the comedic material, quips that the side of her that likes dick is the inside, and mocks gay men's squeamish reactions to female anatomy.

  5. Private plane ride with Kathy Griffin

    Recounts discovering a chartered private flight with longtime friend Kathy Griffin would cost $50,000, opting instead for a $50 Southwest Airlines ticket.

  6. Caitlyn Jenner's public transition

    Pokes fun at the Kardashian media circus while celebrating Jenner's bravery as an Olympian undergoing transition in the public eye.

  7. The closer (spoiler). Show it

    Musical performance of 'Fat Pussy' closer

    Closes out the set accompanied by a full live rock band to perform an explicit musical number.

How it plays

Tone
Provocative, biting, poignant, and sexually explicit.
On stage
Frank, fearless, and provocative; unapologetically dirty and candid about personal trauma, sexuality, and social taboos while displaying warmth toward her idols.
Pace
Conversational storytelling interspersed with rapid transitions between cultural headlines, peppered with sharp facial contortions and physical mannerisms.
About
Asian American representation and race relations, Mentorship, grief, and tributes to Joan Rivers and Robin Williams, Sexuality, bisexuality, and queer culture, Feminism, sexual assault, and violence against women, Celebrity culture and media absurdity

What the critics said

Praised for Cho's fearlessness, warm tributes to Robin Williams and Joan Rivers, and provocative boundary-pushing, though several critics noted the rapid-fire succession of progressive talking points and headlines occasionally overshadowed fully fleshed-out joke structures.

In the room: Deeply devoted and enthusiastic core fanbase delivering roaring applause, frequent laughter, and a standing ovation.

Summed up from reviews, articles and listings. Sources: paramountpressexpress.com, the-numbers.com, imdb.com, thefutoncritic.com, chortle.co.uk, flavorwire.com, digitaljournal.com, exclaim.ca, time.com, en.wikipedia.org, margaretcho.com.

Backstory

Filmed in the wake of the deaths of her close comedy mentors and parental figures, Robin Williams and Joan Rivers, while navigating cultural outrage following her Golden Globes appearance and channeling grief into homeless outreach.

Details

Released
Taped
Gramercy Theatre, New York City
Runtime
81 min
Where
Showtime
Director
John Asher
Topics
Before
Adventures In Comedy (2015)

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