Margaret Cho In Concert

Ornate Bronze plated columns. Large, vaulted ceilings with chandeliers. Statues of Greek gods overlooking the audience. And a woman on the stage, screeching about the plasticity of female genitalia when describing Thailand's red light district. This was a view of Margaret Cho's Revolution tour at the Boston Symphony Orchestra last Friday. Seemingly out of place among the classically beautiful hall, Cho managed to deliver a funny performance, but fell short of hilarity.

The opening comic was Bruce Daniels. Speaking in a deep monotone, he addressed standard comedian fare, such as racial differences and homosexuality. The set was unimpressive due to his long pauses between jokes. Another factor was his unchanging voice; he did not use it to his advantage like comics such as Steven Wright, but instead used been-told-before material with no interesting inflection.

Once Daniels' brief set was over, Cho took the stage dressed in high heels, a frilly red dress and a flower in her hair. She immediately kicked off her shoes, took off the wig with flowers, and proceeded to talk. This set the tone for her blunt style of comedy. Her subjects ranged from current events to family disputes to scatological humor. She spoke about every subject bluntly and honestly, reinforcing her fearless, anything-goes reputation.

Cho had some great pieces in her act. Her face could twist into all sorts of contorted expressions, as if it was made directly from Jim Carrey's skin. This unusual ability added to the comedy and served as the punchline for many of her jokes. Aside from the face, her stand-up routine was solid. Her material on childbirth provided many genuine laughs. The best moment of the night was when Cho vividly described herself battling with a bowel movement while stuck in L.A. traffic.

Despite the high point of the show, Cho's act failed to be as funny as it could have been. Her act consisted of a pretty funny joke, a pause, a funny face, and a pause. Repeat this process for two hours. The pauses destroyed any sense of rhythm to her act, making her jokes funny, but not uproarious.

Also, Cho interspersed her stand up act with serious talk about her life. Cho described her battle with eating disorders, her mentally deteriorating grandmother, and her broken relationship with her father. During these bits, there were long bouts of respectful and dramatic silence from the audience. The silence was appropriate and Cho provided some interesting insight into her life. Although it interrupted the humor of the show, it kept her jokes in perspective, and she struck an excellent balance of interspersing gravity with humorous outbursts. This brought the entire act to a higher level, where comedy and serious problems met.

Cho was very adept at playing to her audience. She has a large fan base of gays and lesbians, and when she would make mention of homosexuality, the crowd would roar with approval. By the same token, the audience seemed to over enjoy her stand-up, laughing riotously at even mildly funny throwaway jokes.

The greater theme of her act was one of uniting all minorities. She spoke out against racism and homophobia and called for the unheard people to gather together. Her Revolution tour is about a social revolution, and an end to racially motivated violence. The message did seem a bit out of place when next to all of Cho's toilet humor, but nonetheless, it was an important message.

At the end of her performance, Cho said, "People say 'Don't go there.' Well, I live there. I have to go there," and that for her "silence is non-existence." There was potential for tear-inducing hilarity in her act, so let's hope Cho stays there and never stops speaking.