John Garcia, Jan 10, 2002
 
 

Right now on broadway at the Royale Theater John Leguizamo is performing his critical and sold out smash one man show titled, “Sexaholix”. Last season was Lily Tomlin’s revival of her Tony award winning one woman play, “Search for Intelligent Life” also there was Liza Minnelli’s solo show at the Palace. Looking ahead we have Elaine Stritch and Bea Arthur coming to the great white way in their autobiographical one woman shows. So I have to ask, “When is Margaret Cho going to do her one woman show on broadway?”. I am amazed, floored, and just dumbfounded that no producer (Um...hello Weisslers!) has approached Cho and said, “Let me produce your show for broadway!”. Believe me, that production would sell out and would most likely earn Cho the TONY Award ! I have never considered Ms. Cho as a “comic”. She is just so much more than that. She is truly an actress in every sense of the word. She can make you laugh so hard that your cheeks, face, and sides ache, but then in one soft switch of her emotion and delivery, she can cause your eyes to well up in tears. Cho has done all mediums of entertainment: On TV she stole the episode of SEX & THE CITY as a fowl mouth fashion show director; For film she was both funny and moving in the under-appreciated film,”It’s My Party”, and of course she has graced the stages of comedy clubs and theaters all around the world. For the opulent Majestic Theater stage here in Dallas, she has brought her new one woman performance piece titled perfectly, “Notorious”. This show is only for adults for sure! Cho discusses such topics as colonics, Sept 11, traveling in Scotland, sex, orgasms, love, boyfriends, gay men, lesbians, her father, diets, and of course her mother! The piece is hysterical beyond measure! There one liners and punch lines that just had you gasping for air due to your lungs being empty from laughing so hard and so much. If I had to pick my personal favorite monologues, it would be her night at the S&M Sex club, her memories of her two gay best friends in high school, and the hilarious monologue concerning a late video tape and “Video Hut”. Sure there is graphic, frank talk and profane language-but it so fits what Cho is trying to say in her work. Cho had tonight’s sold out house in the palm of her hands. But this is what makes Cho stand so far apart from the word and concept of a “stand up comic”: Cho uses her face to create characters like a female Lon Chaney-she contorts, squints, and adjusts her eyes, cheekbones, everything- to create a totally new character, but then she adds a character voice to give this “role” a well rounded life. Thus you believe in her zany world of characters-its no longer Cho, but instead its the boyfriend who can’t understand his girlfriend’s needs in bed, or the air head colonic girl at “Water’s gift”. Cho is gifted in abundance in the art of comedy, these gifts cannot be taught-you are just born with them-and this girl is loaded in these gifts! She knows just how to give her comedy the right pause, pace, tone, volume, and facial expression to add that subtext layer of comedy that has the audience laughing like hyenas after they have been sniffing helium tanks for hours! Cho has a huge gay following, and she so rightly earns their respect and love. Cho is one of the few stars that wraps herself around the rainbow pride colors of the gay community. She understands the emotional fights and scars that a gay person carries. She says in her piece that she had gay friends since high school, and you honestly feel her love and dedication to them. She even says, “I learned about sex from gay men”. Where I connect so deeply with Cho is her views and life experience as an ethnic actor trying to work in a world that boxes ethnic actors in only certain roles. In “Notorious” she discusses that as a child she had no true images in film or television of asian actors in leading roles or in “non-traditional” roles that she could look upon. She said, “I mean, what did I have? I would look into the mirror as a little girl and say, ‘I want to grow up and be an extra on M*A*S*H!”. See, while you laugh out loud, you also feel the brutal honesty of that comment. So when you have another minority on stage expressing what you have gone through yourself-you feel their pain and battle even more. Cho’s final monologue is full of compassion, honesty, and heartfelt beyond measure. She spoke on her issues of self-esteem and how society is so hard on people who “don’t look like them”. She commented on how films, TV shows, songs, books, magazines, billboards, print ads, and other media outlets force down your throat on what is the “right” way to look. Cho then discusses the personal issues of how she thought that if she was thin, she would be loved by her father. She took “thin” as the right element that would earn her father’s acceptance and love. She talks about how these people who do not fit the picture of what society wants you to be and look like need to create a revolution, “and that revolution starts now!”. When she finished this monologue, the audience was completely silent. You could feel the audience take a few seconds to really soak in what she just said, and then in one large tidal wave, the audience applauded with passion for Cho! I hope you will catch Cho’s one woman show, it will make you laugh so hard, but also with her brutal honesty and rich, personal emotion she will cause you to have a lump in your throat. I honestly feel she needs to take “Notorious” to broadway, cause she would take the great white way by storm! RATING: A+ Cho’s next stops in Texas are: Jan 11 in Houston at the Aerial Theatre (713-629-3700) Jan 12 in Austin at the Paramount Theater (512-469-7469 or 888-597-7827)