Confessions of a Pop Fan

Friday, September 24, 2004

I STARTED A JOKE

Margaret Cho is currently on her "State of Emergency" tour, going to swing states and getting people fired up about the current political situation. Topics ranged from same-sex marriage to the war in Iraq to John Kerry's resemblence to the tree people in the last Lord of the Rings movie. Given the fluid nature of her presentation, she was even able to work in new material about Cat Stevens being booted out of the country and Jimmy Swaggart being an insane old asshole. There was also time, of course, for a couple of jokes about her mother and dildoes, just to remind us she's the same old Margaret.

Needless to say, I laughed hysterically. Cho was focused and hitting her targets with laser-point precision. Having only seen her on DVD before, sometimes in the old shows I found the commentary elements, where she pauses for a moment to talk seriously about an issue, a little disjointed from the humorous narrative; there was no such problem last night, as everything was integrated perfectly.

It's terribly hard to writer about comedy and make it sound interesting instead of academic. I could run over some of her jokes, but that would fall flat. So, just take my word for it, if she's coming to your town, GO! You can see her tour dates here, and then look at this picture of Margaret on Sesame Street. I so want to be on Sesame Street.