Revolution

Margaret Cho walks onto the stage of the Wiltern Theatre in Los Angeles on a mission to turn personal insecurity and post-9/11 anxiety into political rallying cries. Filmed in May 2003, this performance captures a transitional point in Cho’s career where her comedy began shifting heavily toward overt social activism. She spends her set targeting the Bush administration’s “Axis of Evil,” George W. Bush’s pronunciation of “nuclear,” and the predatory nature of the beauty industry, alongside her classic, highly animated impressions of her mother. The material ranges from the political to the intensely physical, including a graphic story about a bad diet that caused her to lose control of her bowels in public. This third national tour followed her breakout successes I’m the One That I Want and Notorious C.H.O., securing a Grammy nomination for Comedy Album of the Year in the process. While fans embraced her call for self-esteem as an act of political defiance, contemporary critics noted a growing divide in her work, arguing that her focus on progressive sermonizing occasionally overtook her instincts as a storyteller.