Margaret Cho stopped by Minneapolis at the Pantages Theatre in Minneapolis on October 15
th. I was under the impression that since it was the
Cho Dependent (named after her recently released music comedy album), that it would be mostly her performing songs from the album. That's not the case as it's 90% standup. There were songs to be sung, but we'll get to that later.
There was a lot of people out that night, and not to generalized, but yes, there were gays and dykes and transgenders and loads of Koreans. They were really dressed up, I guess I don't normally go to these sort of fancy dress shows. The Pantages, along with The State and Orpheum, are old fashion theaters, they seats, a dedicated box office, and ushers. Obviously, I don't know if you can tell, but these venues are not the sort of place that I normally go to*.
With these shows, they start promptly at 8pm, with warmup John Roberts. He entertained us with a variety of impressions and wigs. He didn't stay on stage too long, I think it was only about forty minutes before he suddenly introduced us to the main feature, Margaret Cho.
Cho came on stage in obnoxious pink sneakers, a black t-shirt exposing her abs, and cameltoe jeans (don't believe me? see photo below)+. Yes, pretty fabulous. And I'm saying that to be sarcastic, I think she look in great shape, at least from the distance I saw her.
As expected, her jokes are incredibly raunchy, lots of sex jokes and hole jokes. The family jokes, about her mother and father, were there too, but not as much from her previous standup that I've seen on Comedy Central. There were some new jokes about
Dancing with the Stars and her getting sick on set. I don't watch the show, but she joked about being voted off the show recently. I don't know if I spoiled anything for anyone, I'm sure it was already broadcasted.
As for the songs. I don't want to be rude, it it's as much fun as watching someone doing karaoke when you're sober. It's mostly just some DJ playing a CD track and Margaret Cho is singing the lyrics on stage. Three songs were performed inbetween standup blocks: "I'm Sorry"^, "My Puss" and "Your Dick". The best performance was with Roberts coming back on stage to help her sing "My Puss", as that requires dueling vocals. "Your Dick" started off normal, but by the end of the song, the curtain is lifted to reveal The Twin Cities Gay Mens Chorus, singing the chorus. Even more laughable was (I think) John Roberts in a nude suit prancing across the stage. Too funny.
With that grand finale, Cho pretends to walk off stage, then turns around and took up her acoustic guitar. Apparently she has this unrational fear that if she leaves the stage and come back on, that the audience will be gone. Cho did a final acoustic song, I don't think the song is on her album.
By the way, as told by a good friend of mine, this happened to a jazz band that left the stage and came back only to discover only a handful of people were left to enjoy the encores ... so Cho's fears are justified.
♥ Margaret Cho at the Pantages Theatre, Minneapolis (10/15/10)
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* Once a year, I reckon,
Pantages in 2008 and
State Theater in 2007.
+ Photographs were not permitted at these theaters and the only area that you can take pictures (via photo badges) were all the way in the back in the handicap area. I only had a kit lens and so the photos I took made her look incredibly tiny.
^
She tells us the secret origin of the song, "I'm Sorry", about how she fell in love with a writer from
All American Girl and try as she may, he refused to have anything to do with her. Then seventeen years later, she was curious where he is now and discovered that he murdered his wife and left her in the attic. Suddenly some of the lyrics to "I'm Sorry" made a lot of sense to me.
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