Margaret Cho: CHO Revolution (2004 Video) User Reviews

A letdown

[Schmeez · 6/10 · 7 June 2004]

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.

Quintessential Cho!

[nycritic · 8/10 · 12 April 2005]

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.

Never laughed so hard at dieting before!

[tevanson · 4 June 2004]

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.

Another Fabulous Film from Margaret Cho

[jiffyxpop · 10/10 · 2 June 2004]

As a first generation, similarly "inappropriate" Asian American who grew up in a predominantly white city never quite feeling as "Asian" as other people seem to view me, there is no other comedian I can identify better with than Margaret Cho. Her range is fantastic - she can do hilarious impressions of everyone from asian "old school" relatives to George Bush and Condoleeza Rice, gay men to snotty 14 year olds, Japanese film samurai to Ukiyo-e pictures. I admire her tremendously - a brave, intelligent woman who manages to utilize her own closely-observed experiences of racism and sexism to educate the audience about it. An example - "Whenever I go to a dinner party, inevitably someone tells me 'Too Much Information,' and, 'Don't Go There.' -- Problem is - I live there. I bought a house there. I'll TAKE YOU THERE!'." She wisely advocates the need for constant communication and discussion to bring about the "CHO REVOLUTION."

disappointed

[wusmmik · 1/10 · 19 June 2004]

Revolution is revolting. It's revolting to see a comedienne with such talent and a natural ability to make people laugh release a film so utterly devoid of humour. Don't get me wrong, I'm not one of these people who gets offended easily and turns it off, this movie is offensive because of how she wastes her talent by recycling the same bits from previous films for her beloved cult audience. She stretches every bit until it is completely numbing and therefore dangerously unfunny. She gets off to a good start with some mild political humour before falling back into silly vulgar humour that makes her look uninspired. I only wish that she could get back to the concise humour that made her earlier humour so insightful and dangerous, these new bits are her simply resting on her comfortable laurels.

The Revolution Has Been Postponed

[benc7ca · 4/10 · 27 August 2004]

Margaret Cho's `Revolution' falls apart right from the beginning; her opening comments seem scattered and unfocused. She relies far too much on mugging and draws out her routines far too long, not to make a point, but to fill in time, as if she hadn't prepared enough material. The by now infamous `Persimmon Diet ` routine starts funny, progresses to disgusting and ends up boring. She is at her best( and her very best was her first effort `I'm the One that I Want') when she makes her mordantly funny, touching, FOCUSED observations on life among the marginalized (insert whatever marginalized group you identify with here). Save for a few bits that feel like preliminary sketches for what one hopes will become fully realized pieces, this is not worthy of her. Is she now a `victim' of her own success? Is she so secure in her following that she will serve up anything and call it dinner? As a once and future fan, I hope not.

I was so disappointed...

[jdb1000001011 · 2/10 · 22 October 2004]

Margaret, what happened? I loved your standup in the 1990s and I adored "All-American Girl" for its short life. I loved 'I'm the One that I Want' and quote it near-daily. I enjoyed 'Notorious CHO.' But I couldn't sit through this one. To date I've only watched maybe half of it, I just can't stomach it. Between discussions of bodily function and soap-box style pronouncements, it doesn't make me laugh, it makes me cry.

Perhaps I'm being too critical. After all, life is different now than it was before, so her comedy should evolve. It's just my opinion that it's evolved away from a place where I want to be.

Hopefully, Margaret, for me at least, the next show will be back to form.

A Transfixingly Awful Train-Wreck...

[turing77 · 1/10 · 28 December 2005]

I just watched this on the Sundance Channel, and it is awful. I actually felt embarrassed for Cho at times. Histrionics outweigh material. Her co-option of a black accent is grating and unfunny. She spends more time making weird faces than in delivering solid jokes. The people that rate this work highly have drunk the Kool-Aid....they're the ones Cho's baton-waving is meant for. Fans of stand-up comedy, who enjoy the artistry of a comedian in getting an audience to laugh, will be stone-faced...but it is rather interesting to see in a "How bad can it get?" way. It can get plenty bad. At times I wondered if Cho was having a nervous breakdown on-stage...at other times, I wondered if she'd ever heard of a thing called "timing." Whatever you do, don't pay good money to see it; but if you do catch it for free somewhere, give it at least five minutes.

Group therapy for one.

[Blueghost · 10 January 2005]

Straight to the point; most of the material in Cho's new act is not funny. She can turn an occasional observation, and get a laugh, but most of the material on this DVD was just not humorous.

Which is too bad because there's some real material that Cho could've worked with and taken the distance, but, unfortunately never fully explores the actual issues she wants to put on the table. Instead she vents her personal frustrations, and, like a lot of her ilk, passes it off as comic phrasing.

One of the problems with performers on the comeback trail is that they're so blinded by their personal struggles that they forget that it was their ability to pull away the serious curtain on everyday life that made them funny and popular. Instead indulge in a kind of self-help prattle that's better left in a doctor's office. Cho is no exception, and occasionally does this on this DVD. Though much of the time she's just delivering blue statements she believes are undeniable truths, for which, for some reason, her devout fans cheer her on.

I'd say I barely cracked a smile through three-quarters of this thing, and as offensive and idiotic as I believed a lot of the material was, and is, I sat through it to give the thing a chance. And I have to admit that I did laugh about three or four times. But most of the material is predicated on the assumption that Cho's observations are fact, when in fact they're just her opinions recited to her audience as fact. And because she asserts them as facts, even though they aren't, she garnishes a loud cheer from people who really don't know a whole lot about Cho's issues, including Cho herself.

It makes you feel sorry for her at times. Here's this comedienne who's doing her best to give a good performance, yet the material comes across as a self help session, factually wrong, disgusting at times, and with the audience trying to help her to the next "break through." It's like a therapy session gone bad. I'll bet Cho'll look back at this DVD in thirty years with embarrassment, but that itself is assuming she grows from this experience.

Now, if you can get by all that, then you might like this DVD, but be warned, Cho's material is heavy on the blue-side, and not for the feint of heart. On the whole it's not worth it. If you're an Amer-Asian with leftest politics, and "gay" friends skirting the fringes of edge-driven society, then you might want to spin Cho's DVD.

Otherwise skip it, if you can help it. It's a waste of money.

Definitely not her best work

[ja-111 · 5/10 · 9 March 2008]

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.

It made me laugh

[cwfultz · 1 October 2004]

"Cho Revolution" features Bruce Daniels as an opening act for the beautiful Margaret Cho. Having seen "I'm the One That I Want" and "Notorious C.H.O.", I knew what to expect. And without a doubt it was delivered to me on a silver platter shaped disc that was "Cho Revolution". I love Margaret's comedy, even though it is extremely vulgar. I am a Christian. I am also considered a hippie. I never repeat anything Margaret says without editing. I do agree that gays should have equal rights, though. That's what the revolution is all about. Margaret Cho is a great example of love. Love for yourself. Love for your race. Love for others. Cho, in my eyes, is equality. I admire her for having the courage to speak out when no one else will. I think that Margaret Cho is a sign of hope for gays and lesbians. Cho should feel really great about herself. In this movie, she continues to discuss sex, eating disorders, equality, and her wacky mother. I rate this 6/10 because of vulgarity. Bruce Daniels was somewhat lame so I rate him 5/10.

"Oh girl, we almost got lost in the Bermooda Triangle" - Margaret Cho

Cho's getting too preachy

[kolyanbogie · 30 August 2004]

I have always been impressed with Margaret Cho as a performer. She's funny, irreverent, with dead-on and hilarious impressions of her mother, etc. Unfortunately, she has become too preachy for me. She needs to get off her soapbox and stop whining about being Asian and female and her fluctuating weight. I don't watch stand up comedians to get a lecture about how to be more politically-correct. Her performance has become a vehicle for her agenda, and it's gotten old. And Margaret, stop blaming the media for getting fat! You are an adult - the only one who makes decisions for what you put in your mouth. I wish I could keep renting Cho's concerts, because she can be extremely funny, but I've had enough, at least for now. An honorable mention is deserved by Tony Daniels. I predict he will become a star in his own right. His low-key comedy complements Cho's over-the-top style.