| I am not usually much
of a fan of stand-up comedy, at least contemporary standup which posits
that a combination of attitude, vulgarity, and cynicism will have people
rolling in the aisles. Maybe so. Comedy Central seems to be holding its
own rerunning ad nauseaum college performances of modern comics, and Hollywood
has built an ever-more-fragile structure of sitcoms based on that premise.
However, while such comedy can give voice to free-floating rage, it hardly
makes for compelling theater.
Which is precisely why Margaret Cho is such a surprise. She has the vulgarity down pat, don’t worry. And she has an attitude, But, she also has a sense of theater, a wonderfully skewed perspective, honesty, and warmth. All of which combine to make her new one woman show I’m The One That I Want an insightful and heartfelt journey replete with belly laughs and shocking surprises. The centerpiece of the show is really a meditation on the television sitcom and its pernicious cultural impact. One can’t avoid the feeling that this is personal and cathartic for Ms. Cho whose disastrous experience with the ill-fated show All-American Girl provides the fodder for the much of the material, but her satire effectively casts a bilious light on the American quest for a spit-shined TV image of life. Ms. Cho had worked for years to create a unique persona, only to find that when ABC wanted to build a series around a Korean-American girl, they wanted that girl to look and act as much like, say, Heather Locklear as possible. (And these same entertainment folks would consider Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Mikado racist. Go figure.) It was doomed to fail. Essentially, the 75 min. show is a classic tale of finding oneself, losing oneself, and coming back stronger than ever. Along the way, we learn why Ms. Cho won’t drown her dating sorrows in trips to Chippendales (“I can get gay guys to dance in my apartment for free”), why “fag hags are the backbone of the gay community,” and why lesbians love whale watching (“It must be the blow holes.”). Ms Cho is definitely the voice of experience, and she tells it all with such a charming warmth, one can’t help but be captivated by her and her stories, even when her take on things is a little bit, shall we say, “out there.” That’s precisely why it all works; Ms Cho wades in on her platform shoes where few others would tread. Her ability to shock without offending or losing the connection with the audience is her unique magic. Some of the best material in the evening is familiar territory for Ms. Cho. Her mother and their sometimes testy relationship have been part of the act for years. Some of the new stuff is really good and speaks to all of us whose parents love and support us, mostly, but don’t really get what we’re up to all the time. Near the end of the show, Ms. Cho talks at length about the problems she faced within the Korean American community for not being the type of sanitized role model that makes for ideal PR. In one of the most feeling moments in the piece, she acknowledges that she is a “trash-talking woman,” not the ideal, but she also wonders about the young girls watching her who don’t fit the ideal either. She goes on, she says, because “I know someone out there needs me now.” It’s not just young girls, though – our entire culture needs Ms. Cho’s fearless honesty. |