Margaret Cho: CHO Revolution

It's almost impossible to avoid comparisons Cho's previous effort, her tour de force, "Notorious C.H.O." (2002). In many ways, it would be an unfair comparison. "Notorious C.H.O." was in front of a much larger audience, during what almost everyone agrees was Cho's best comedy tour ever. Cho worked almost every major theme she's ever utilized into the routine. The result was a mesmerizing foray into self-loathing, gender, femininity, weight, dieting, beauty, race, family, love, fame, television, politics and sexuality. It was cathartic for performer and audience alike. Listening to Cho discourse on her ill-fated television show while raking TV executives and weight-phobic misogynists over the coals was, and remains, something not to be missed.

It would be asking the impossible to top such a magnificent performance. And, in fact, we should not ask Margaret Cho to do so.

That said, I think that while "Revolution" is an able comedy film, it is not necessarily Margaret Cho's best work. Technical issues stand out almost immediately. Chalk it up to my bad hearing, the theater's awful sound system, or perhaps poor sound recording by the film-maker himself. Whatever. The sound quality of the film was particularly poor. This afflicts the film not only in the opening sequence (we visit with Cho and warm-up act, the openly gay comedian Bruce Daniels, in a limo on the way to the theater) but various moments in the film itself (particularly when Cho gets too close to the mike).

The other technical problem with the film is that the camera work is simply not as good as in "Notorious C.H.O." Cinematographer Kirk Miller worked the camera for "Notorious C.H.O." (both times working for director Lorene Machado). But the magic is simply not there. Perhaps that is due to the venue. The stage is much smaller, and the wings less expansive. But whatever the problem is, much of the film is a face-on film of Cho's performance. The wonderful movement and lyricism of "Notorious C.H.O." is missing here.

The content of the film is somewhat uneven as well, which is almost solely due to Cho's performance.

It's not the audience. They are in stitches, howling with laughter at even the weakest jokes and tall tales. They cheer at even the mildest political criticism. They give Cho a standing ovation at the end of her show.

The film starts out strong enough, with Cho pulling a very funny physical bit of humor with her costume.

But the show falters afterward. Comedic routines just get started, and then they are put on hold during which there are long pauses. None of the routines really go anywhere, or are linked thematically or narratively. Indeed, each of the humorous bits is very short. That's the biggest problem: They really don't build up enough of a head of steam to really get the film's audience in the mood. Just as you're working up a good head of steam for that continuous, 30-minute laugh-a-thon, Cho stops working the audience and the humor.

This is not to say that Cho is unfunny. To the contrary, she nails almost everything she does extremely well.

There is one outrageous skewering of the type-casting Cho has to confront in Hollywood. As Cho imitates the various ethnic stereotypes she's been asked to play, she mimics the physical as well as ethical contortions she'd have to go through in order to play these awful roles. It is superb comedy.

Cho's best moment, however, comes in the film lengthiest segment. Cho, who is rightly infuriated at the unrealistic and misogynistic weight-goals Western women are held to, talks about a very, very unhappy result of her six-month "persimmon diet." If you don't find the whole fifteen minutes of the bit funny, then you aren't alive.

I swear, I haven't laughed so hard since I read the "fudge-colored towels" bit in David Sedaris' "Naked" or the wedding scene chapter in Joe Keenan's "Blue Heaven."

"Revolution" ends on a really high note. It's not funny, but it is good and it ties the film together very well.

At a mere 1 hour and 10 minutes, "Revolution" is a much shorter film than "Notorious C.H.O." But that's the film's saving grace, in a way.

I recommend "Revolution" to anyone who wants to spend a pleasant hour laughing.

Margaret Cho's 2 previous filmed standup efforts - "I'm the One that I Want" and "Notorious CHO" were great fun: relevant, uproarious, uplifting and endearingly offensive. This one just does not have the charm or humor of its predecessors. The jokes feel forced, and the more vile and provocative bits of her set -- which are usually the most hysterical -- here feel too contrived and deliberate.

There are a few good laughs (detailing the expulsive results of a persimmon diet), but they are too often countered by jokes that are only mildly amusing (random catch phrases dedicated to a certain portion of the female body) or flat out dull. What's worked in her other routines is her ability -- like Richard Pryor -- to find humor in her heartbreak. Her identity and others' perception of her body have always come across as apropos and moving; that is not the case here. Even her tried and true tales of her mother's suffocating brand of love feel obligatory this go around.

Its short running time and padded jokes seem to confirm the notion that perhaps Ms. Cho needs a much-deserved break to give her time to add more depth and humor to her routine. She's been hysterical in the past and I'm sure she will again, but this one didn't do a whole lot for me.

Margaret Cho never looked better, never was funnier, and never hammered her views home on the gay situation and her own insights on the slice of life like in her stand-up comedy routine REVOLUTION. Displaying a physical grace which enhances her comic interjections, she runs the gamut from absolutely side-splitting hysterical to making you think -- even get a little angry. When talking about her own heritage she's always walked the line between poignant observations mixed with finely toned impersonations of her own relatives -- namely, her parents. The best moments in the entire show are when she talks about not being able to get a decent part in movies: never being Scarlett O'Hara, never being the heroine in a Merchant-Ivory film, but only being the sidekick or the opium smoking junkie; when she talks about how once she had the impossible urge to go to the bathroom on the middle of the road and nowhere to exit; and the definition of gay love as seen from a fisting scene. If one thing makes it a little dull is that right at the beginning she has a comic introduce her who's sleep-inducing, but other than that, she's in top form.

CHO Revolution is twenty years old and I think this is the comedienne at her best. Margaret looks positively stunning in her evening gown, but is also hilarious pulling multiple rubber-faces that are comical and downright ugly by turns, with physical comedy that gives some of the better-known classic male comedians a run for their money. Asian. Chicken. Salad.

I just legitimately find this set to be a really funny one, despite its advanced age, and I am comparing it to her more recent stuff like PsyCHO and her collaboration with Awkwafina - both are alright but just don't have the same punch as her earlier work. The ending here is also more inspiring and heartfelt.

Fundamentally, there are two comediennes who work under the name of Margaret Cho.

There is the highly verbal, acid-tongued, trash-talking woman who does not suffer fools gladly and verbally lays waste to everything in her path. This Margaret Cho appeared in "I'm the One That I Want" and "Notorious C.H.O.". She is brilliant and almost literally made me wet myself laughing.

There is another Margaret Cho who does physical comedy based on contortions, facial gestures, and making fun of accents she doesn't know that well in the first place. This Margaret Cho came out briefly in "I'm the One That I Want". Do you remember the routine where she jumped around the stage for 5 or 10 minutes, aping a black accent and saying "I'm here to wash your Va****"? Well, that Margaret Cho is back in force in this film. She probably gets the better part of an hour of the film's run time. If you find that Margaret Cho to be funny, then you'll loooove Revolution! I find her annoying. She's all right as a counterpoint to the verbal Margaret Cho, but I would be annoyed to spend an evening in her company.

Unfortunately, since the physical Margaret gets most of the stage time, that's pretty much what happened the other night.

I want to be sympathetic to Margaret Cho the artist. She probably wants to expand her routine and not put out show after show that is pretty much like the last one she put out. Unfortunately, Physical Margaret is just not a quarter as funny as Verbal Margaret. Viewer beware.