By ERIC C. MARKOWITZ
“90 minutes of fleshy hilarity that will make you turn to your neighbor and whisper, “Oh my God, is this really happening?”
Throughout Margaret Cho’s career as a stand-up comedian, she has always operated under one guiding principle: If she shocks the hell out of you, you will laugh. Well, that principle stands in “The Sensuous Woman,” which is a wickedly funny, self-proclaimed “burlesque-style variety show.” No stereotype goes unexploited and ridiculed, from hot Latino cleaning ladies to Cho’s nasal impression of her own Korean mother.
The central theme of the show according to Cho, however, is much more personal and deep. “I have suffered from eating disorders and a horrendously distorted body image for my entire life and I think the biggest reason is a lack of images of real women’s bodies,” Cho said about the show’s inspiration.
Yeah right, Margaret.
Everyone knows you just wanted to get naked on stage with nipple tassels and do a dance with giant peacock feathers. “The Sensuous Woman” celebrates human sexuality with refreshing vulgarity and flaunts the female body in all its naked glory.
While the show is propelled by the blunt force of Cho’s enthralling comedy, sideshow acts feature a roster of other stand-up comedians and burlesque dancers. First up is the Los Angeles belly-and-burlesque dancer Selene Luna. At 3 feet 10 inches tall, she “is a small package with a big presence,” according to her bio. Correct that – she’s a huge presence and owns the stage during her 5-minute romp.
Sketch comedians Diana Yanez and Kurt Hall of the Gay Mafia comedy troupe do a rap on being a “sexual homo,” which wasn’t nearly as bold as New York icon Miss Dirty Martini’s act. After a strip show where she pulls dollar bills out of every orifice imaginable, you’ll see a woman’s body in a different way. Liam Sullivan, of recent (some may say last year’s) YouTube fame, makes an appearance as Kelly, doing a live rendition of both “Shoes” and “Let Me Borrow That Top.”
Don’t get the wrong idea – the show isn’t just one long nudie-fest, though it began to feel like that at times. Cho has always been an outspoken political and cultural mouthpiece, candid in her contempt for the Bush administration and really anything conservative. She even opens the show with Larry Craig, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Britney Spears jokes. So what happens when Cho combines the debauchery of burlesque humor with political humor? The love child “Chairman MeeOw” is born (an homage to Mao Zedong, former president of China) doing an awkward half-nude ribbon dance.
The show has received a strong response from the gay community, which has long been supportive of Cho’s stand-up routine. The show even brought out notable stars, such as Rosie O’Donnell, whom Cho toured with earlier this summer on the True Colors Tour. Cho is open about her bisexuality and her affinity for gay men. She’s now married to a man, but that doesn’t mean she is afraid to talk about “doing it with a guy whose balls were so long it could whip a cigarette out of [her] mouth.”
The show is abrasive, and it gets a little too in-your-face at times. Literally. One audience member had the distinct honor of receiving a facial lap dance from “Dirty Diana,” an ’80s-themed drag queen. The show also begins to get repetitive. How long can you watch women wearing nothing but g-strings and nipple tassels prance around stage, anyway? The show is saturated in the idea that women can be beautiful without being skinny, and the shock value eventually wears off and becomes trite.
But in the end, the show accomplishes what it sets out to do – 90 minutes of fleshy hilarity that will make you turn to your neighbor and whisper, “Oh my God, is this really happening?”
Eric C. Markowitz is a staff writer. E-mail him at theater@nyunews.com.