Margaret Cho at the Grove of Anaheim Last Night
by Ali Lerman
OC Weekly

The Hype: Gays and straights packed the house and laughed in perfect harmony last night at Margaret Cho’s “Cho Dependent” comedy show at the Grove of Anaheim. For a Thursday “school night” the size of the crowd was pretty impressive. Then again, this is fast talking dirty girl Margaret Cho we’re talking about. And last time I checked, she’s pretty impressive herself (If you missed the show, you can always catch Margaret on TV: she’ in this season’s Dancing with the Stars and Drop Dead Diva.)

The Show: Opening the show was tour mate John Roberts and his array of wigs that all came complete with impressions. And the way he moved those hips while singing a song of his own? Well, he makes a straight girl wish she was a gay man.

Speaking of … The audience was hooting and hollering for the 41-year-old headliner Margaret Cho as she admitted she has a goal of her own. The goal is to keep having sex. Spoken as only Margaret could put it, “I want to be so old that when I’m fucking and I ask my name it’s because I really need to know my name!” I guess everyone needs a goal. ‘

With a sharp tongue and amazing stage presence, Margaret touched on subjects like politics, strip clubs, religion, and actually shitting her pants a couple of weeks ago. Hey, no one said she was lady like–but maybe that’s what draws you in to her. It was like having a conversation with Margaret Cho; I literally became “Cho Dependent” on her every word and couldn’t wait to hear what she would say next.

Showcasing music from her album also named Cho Dependent, Margaret belted out tunes like the hysterical “My Dick,” “I’m Sorry,” and a duet with John Roberts (done while impersonating their moms) called, “My Puss.”

Laughing tears came out of my eyes, it was so great. Not wanting to only shock the crowd with filthy songs and jokes, Cho’s Dancing with the Stars partner Louis van Amstel surprised and then dazzled the crowd while spinning across the floor with prop wings from DWTS, which the judges hated by the way. But not this crowd. They loved every minute of it. I

The Crowd: A lot of laughs mixed with the sounds of clapping along to parody singing. While the show was two hours in length, the crowd remained responsive and eager to hear the next bit of raunch to come out of Margaret’s mouth the whole time.

Overheard: “I can’t wait to check out that ‘Grinder’ app she was talking about for my phone!” Sorry folks, you just had to be there.

Margaret Cho takes to The Pearl (and DWTS) stages
By Don Chareunsy
Las Vegas Sun

There’s not a lot to say about a Margaret Cho standup show when the majority of the content focuses on male genitalia and fecal matter, clinical terms that aren’t used in Cho’s live show, and one works for a company in which profanity is verboten, except sparingly in Las Vegas Weekly.

The Korean American comedienne, a longtime favorite since I’m the One That I Want and seeing her live for the first time in Long Beach, Calif., in the late 1990s, took to the stage with her Cho Independent Tour stop at The Pearl in the Palms on Friday night, three nights before her debut in the cast of 12 celebrities on Season 11 of ABC’s Dancing With the Stars.

Cho’s first topic was DWTS, in which she praised her professional dance partner Louis Van Amstel and talked about her strategy for winning. She’s said it’s OK if she goes home the first week, but she’s going to showcase her showgirl style and stripper moves (“I’m magic on the pole.”) And if that doesn’t work? “I’m going to cannibalize the others! I’m going to go all G.I. Jane and shave my head!” (Many pundits had Bristol Palin or her getting the ax first, but they were safe in last night’s results show.)

Other topics included olive oil, for vocal chords, that eventually exits the body; Grinder (Google it if you must); Prop. 8 in California outlawing gay marriage; living part time in the Atlanta area; combating homophobia with The Advocate, Italian Men’s Vogue and gay porn; sending sexy messages via texting (sexting) that inadvertently are delivered to Mom; Asian Girls Gone Wild (“They aren’t studying, and they are wearing shoes in the house!”); stoners as the true Christians and Good Samaritans; and, of course, her mother, an impression in broken English that fans love and that Cho does out of love and admiration for her mother.

What was different from previous standup performances was the incorporation of songs from Cho Dependent, her first album of comedy and music released last month. Cho has a strong and clear voice, and it worked well with her acoustic guitar work and topics about killing someone, female genitalia (see the paragraph below) and male genitalia in the three songs she performed Friday night. The Las Vegas Men’s Chorus accompanied her in the final song, her finale before an encore, which was another song from the album.

John Roberts served as the evening’s 15-minute opening act consisting mostly of impressions in various wigs. His impression of a female porn star received the biggest laughs, and he returned to sing, in arguably the evening’s highlight, a song about female genitalia with Cho as Mrs. Cho and he as his Jewish mother Margie.

Check out my family friendly interview with Cho posted last week, in which she discusses her new album, Drop Dead Diva, gay marriage and living in L.A. and Atlanta.

Cho competes in Week 2 of DWTS with Van Amstel on Monday.

Margaret Cho at Dodge Theatre: Crass Comedy for a Local Cause
by Niki D’Andrea
Phoenix New Times

Poop jokes will never get old, and they will never die. But they may never be more explosive and fresh than they were in the hands of comedian Margaret Cho, during her performance at Dodge Theatre on Saturday night.

But even better than the bowel howlers, the Korean mother imitations, and the smattering of songs was the way she made a political statement without saying much. She briefly talked about the Arizona boycott and immigration rights, but her bigger statement was donating all the proceeds from her Phoenix show to Puente and Tonatierra, two local immigration rights groups.

And she kept the audience at Dodge Theatre cracking up all the way. Not just laughing, but squealing, howling, snorting, eyes-watering, cheeks-hurtin’, ribs-achin,’”oh-my-god-I-can’t-believe-she-just-said-that” laughing.

Margaret Cho’s fans are not uptight. They’re not afraid to laugh at anal sex jokes or cheer when she emulates giving a blow job. Cho does have an audience of open-minded straight people, but the gay community has made her one of its icons.

Before the show, a large, Latin man behind me turned to his friend and said, “Girl, if she comes walking down this aisle, I’m ripping off this vest and throwing myself at her.”

We lost count of the crap jokes, but one that really stood out for us was when she suddenly said, “Last week, I shit my pants.” She busted out laughing before describing the wayward turd in myriad ways, from “It was shaped like Indonesia” to “It made two-humps in my pants, like a Camel.”

She said she’d been feeling cocky that day. “Because when you’re really confident, that’s when you will shit your pants.”

Cho also invoked her mother several times, once imitating her mom trying to set up one of her friends. “This man is not good-looking,” Cho said in her mother’s voice. “But he’s very tall, so his face is reeaally far away.”

On a less humorous note, Cho announced she was donating the proceeds from her show to Puente and Tonatierra. “A lot of people are saying ‘Boycott Phoenix.’ I still wanted to come, and I decided it could benefit a good cause,” she said. “This country was built by immigrants, for immigrants, and everybody is welcome.”

After much applause, she sang a few songs from her music album Cho Dependent, and was joined onstage by opening act John Roberts for “My Puss,” a riotous back-and-forth (sample lyric: “My puss, is fine so I flaunt it/Your puss, is so old that it’s haunted”).

Her final number, after 90 minutes onstage, was the song “Your Dick,” which included a surprise appearance from the Phoenix Metropolitan Men’s Chorus. Sixty men in formal black tuxes, all swaying side to side and singing behind Cho (herself wearing a glittery silver dress with a glittery red neckline), seemed oddly epic.

After the show, Cho took photos with the chorus and did a meet and greet with about 20 lucky fans — and us. We asked about her tattoos (she has several large designs all over her body), and got a brief tour of her sleeves.