Customer Reviews

Margaret Cho - Notorious C.H.O.

5 star:		(35)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(12)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I had my doubts about "Notorious C.H.O." After all, "I'm the One That I Want" is the pinnacle of stand-up: revelatory while screamingly funny, a trip through dark times to self awareness, angry without being self pitying. All served up with salty language and the kind of insight only experience can bring. And topped off with the hilarious routine about her mother looking at gay porn in their bookstore in San Francisco.

After all that, what was left for "Notorious?"

As it turns out, plenty. Margaret Cho wisely avoids the inner demons that fueled "I'm the One," and instead just piles on the laughs. There are sad moments, as when she remembers her friends who have died of AIDS, but since she recalls them with tales of their drag queen performance pieces at Baskin Robbins (you'll never look at sprinkles the same way again) and then decides they've become her guardian angels ("Girl, you're going out dressed in that?!"), there's no time for tears.

As she says in one of the features, if "I'm the One" was about coming of age, "Notorious" is about being of age. It's mostly about sex, and is quite often nasty without being offensive. Cho takes such a cheerful view of offbeat sexuality (getting fisted by a lesbian dwarf?) that there's no way to be put off by it. Yes, she focuses a lot on her gay friends and fans, but to say she shouldn't is no different from saying she shouldn't talk about being Korean. These are the people in her life, and she turns them all into memorable characters.

Finally, the commentary track by her "mother" (Cho in character) is wonderfully bizarre. It wanders a bit, especially as other people join her, but it demonstrates Cho's remarkable grasp of character. It's not always funny, but it's a brilliant acting job, and provides insight into how Cho thinks and develops her work. It's worth the price of admission.

Before "I'm the One That I Want," I wasn't much of a Margaret Cho fan. After that film and now this, I'm a convert.

I am not a big fan of stand up comedy. I find most comedians annoying and/or simply not funny. One of the few comedians I do like is Margaret Cho. I have been a fan of her since her short lived sitcom "American Girl" which was way ahead of its time for tv (and still is). At the time I didn't realize she was a stand up comedian until I saw a comedy special in the late '90s on comedy central. I never laughed as hard before as I did then. I love her irreverance sense of humor. Her humor is definitely blue but it is honest coming from her POV.

"Notorious C.H.O" is easily one of my favorite dvds of her stand up work. My favorite moments during the film was when she talked about her drag queen friends from high school at the local Baskin Robbins. I was literally laughing so hard, tears were rolling down my eyes. I also had a good laugh when Margaret discussed about her experience in an S&M club. I thought Margaret did an excellent job at weaving poignancy of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 with humor as well as with the topic of gay marriage (which was not a big issue then as it has been in the past year).

Margaret's sense of humor is not for everyone. Her humor certainly crosses over on to the raunchy side. A lot of her content on "Notorious C.H.O" is sex-related but it is coming from her own personal experiences. I thoroughly enjoyed "Notorious C.H.O". It is one of the funniest pieces of work Margaret has done in years.

Margaret Cho has been, for many years, like a great but unknown restaurant.. a movie like "My Big Fat Greek Wedding." Those who are in-the-know are in for great entertainment.. and the rest, well..

This new show, a perfect sequel to "I'm The One That I Want," is a hilarious ride through such important topics as terrorism, sexual pecadillos, weight control, colonic irrigation and other timely points of interest.

What separates Margaret Cho from your average teller-of-jokes is her sometimes shocking honesty. She is not afraid to put herself out there and let us all laugh about things that we probably all experience but are afraid to talk about. She doesn't pander to the crowd for laughs - she can practically talk about anything and find the lighter side of it to get an audience to laugh.

I suppose after being laughed AT for the better part of her childhood, she did what most people are afraid to do - she challenged people to laugh WITH her instead. The result is an hilarious comedic journey and one that, especially for the price, is well worth the investment.

YOU GO CHO!

"Notorious C.H.O." is a concert film starring the outrageous Margaret Cho. The film begins with some short interview segments with Margaret, her parents, and fans. This prelude is an effective warm-up for Cho's stage performance.

Cho starts off with an outrageous post-9/11 joke; she makes it clear that she's not letting terrorists stop her from loving life or from bringing others joy through laughter. From there she takes on a number of topics: pornography, straight sex, gay sex, eating disorders, media images of Asians, gay marriage, menstruation, and more. Her humor is in-your-face and often very political. She goes into graphic and hilarious detail about her own sexual adventures (including a trip to an S&M sex club): believe me, it's definitely not for the prudish or squeamish!

Along the way, she performs some very funny characters: a Sharon Stone-ish dominatrix, a video store clerk, and (best of all!) her own mom. As funny as Cho is, I also find her performance to be often very poignant and ultimately quite inspirational. Cho is all about coming to terms with painful episodes from one's past and using them to learn and grow; she's also about celebrating diversity and making a space for those who, for whatever reason, feel left out or abused by society. She may make you scream with laughter (as I did), but she also may make you think.

After reading Margaret Cho's autobiography, I'm the One That I Want, I knew that sex was a large part of her life. Unfortunately, I did not expect that it would in turn comprise a large part of her comedy routine in this movie, The Notorious C.H.O.

I don't have anything against it, per se, it's simply that it grew tiring over an hour and a half to hear all the ways that she has experimented with sex. From going to an S&M club to being "fisted," Cho covers it all, in fairly explicit detail. After the first half hour, I lost interest and it just stopped being funny.

I don't watch many stand-up films (the last one was Eddie Izzard), so when I do, I want them to be really hilarious--and varied in subject matter. So, since generally I'm pretty picky, I guess I just lost out this time. I'll probably look out for Margaret's next film, though, just in case, because she is one of the funniest comics working today.

Love that cover shot.

Margaret Cho is a distinctive, unapologetic, and at times spot on talent that dares to go where few comics have gone before. I almost don't want to call Ms. Cho a comic. She's more like a Korean Karen Finley with a sense of humor.

Racey? Oh yeah, I would find it hard not to see anyone blush at least once during this amazing performance. But thats the draw and talent that Cho encompasses. No apologies, no blushing.

This is the perfect next step after I'm the One That I Want. Touching on the familiar topics of identity politics, sexuality, societal dislocation and of course Cho's Mom. (Who is interviewed at the start of the show, which is worth the price of admission itself. "Yes she's really like that.") Cho doesn't ask you to fasten your seat belt, warning of a bumpy night. Nope, here the safety bar goes down and your locked in to a fascinating and utterly enjoyable ride. And a high-colonic too!

In "I'm the One That I Want" Margaret Cho combined her raunchy humor with an empowering reminiscence of her failed sitcom, subsequent breakdown and journey back to mental health. In "Notorious C.H.O.", she mostly ventures completely into adult territory, graphically, and hilariously, discussing a variety of her sexual experiences. Some topics include insensitive male partners, sensitive gay male friends, her period, her venturing into the BDSM scene, and sexual experiences with women. The result is not just raunchy fun (although it is that), but also political, honest, and empowering. Margaret Cho is such an important performer because she speaks for so many minorities who rarely really have their voices heard: female, asian, gay, etc. And she has the guts to put herself out there in such an uncensored and often unflattering way, that it's no wonder her fans feel such a connection with her.

Margaret Cho once again proves why she's one of the funniest stand-up comediennes of our time. Deft, dramatic and zany like always, "The Notorious Cho" is a perfect follow-up to last year's phenomenal "I'm The One that I Want." Where that movie provided more belly-laughs than this does, "Notorious" offers a deeper, more personal recipe for laughter. Cho skips easily from one raunchy topic to another sounding off on all sorts of themes - from her bisexual exploits to her Korean parents to her drag queen best friends, watching from heaven as she tears the roof off the concert hall. Her best bits here revolve around her dead-on imitation of her mother. Cho's followers have come to know and love the parent with a unique opinion on everything and viewers get the chance to meet both her parents in pre and post-concert interviews that accompany the movie. This behind-the-scenes look at her parents only make Cho's bits about her family more hysterical - the touching and funny story she tells in full mother character about her "dad-dee's" gay friend is a showstopper, while mom's ride atop a camel will leave you howling! The raunchy riffs about oral sex - both straight and gay - are inspired, even when she relates her "volunteer" work at Ground Zero in the opening monologue. "I'm the One That I Want" was a more accessible film - sort of an intro to this Korean comic genius - while "Notorious" is a more personal and intimate portrait that some folks may find too sleazy. In any case, it's a whirlwind of hysteria and fun, especially for us CHO fans. This woman tells it like it is, and mature audiences will relish the concert, the interviews and all the extras on this DVD. Buy it and LAUGH!

I just warn you that there are lots of sexual content, homosexual content, and other content that some people may find "TOO HONEST." And since I don't have any problem with uninhibited expression of actual life, I like it. But I also know that some people may not like this type of show.

Through I learned a lot of slangs that my friends don't teach me.

The comical tone changes into a serious talk about humanity and self-esteem. I find some things she said there about homosexual matters profound and moving. I am not homosexual but whether or not you like this film may depend on how much you support different sexual orientations than yours.

It is an oft-quoted saw that all humour comes out of pain. Watching this concert performance, you can sense the emotional anguish Margaret Cho experienced while growing up as an overweight Asian "girl" in the land of dreams. Her triumph is that she has turned that pain into raw material for her comedy routine (as have so many great comics), but she is accomplishing much more than just personal catharsis. She is a woman on a mission to incite social change, as evidenced by her closing monologue. The closing litany of people for whom her message has particular relevance stands as her manifesto for the marginalized. As she makes it abundantly clear, a person of intellect IS in a minority in the USA today. Some would say she's preaching to the choir, that midwest trailer trash likely wouldn't be among her audience, but having her concert performances available on VHS and DVD certainly broadcasts her message to a wider audience. The language on the DVD is salty, to say the least. Margaret Cho has said that even Phyllis Diller sprinkles profanities liberally throughout her shows (on meeting Ms. Diller, Cho told her audience in Provincetown in 2002: "I was afraid I'd snag a thread and her whole head would come off"). The language is certainly secondary to the message converyed by that language, that is is more than "okay" to not conform to the norm, and it is necessary to resist the whittling-off of the margins in society. It makes her Valley-girl characterizations that much more hilarious, as in the "I totally ate Carla" routine. Her material is full of little nods and winks to the gay community, who have long comprised her core audience. Margaret Cho doesn't set out to offend anyone except the prim and proper, the self-righteous, the moral paragons of society--the rest of us can just sit back and enjoy.