Review: Notorious C.H.O.

Margaret Cho has problems. She does not talk about them in Notorious C.H.O. While she pretends to be telling her own life story, it’s obvious that only half of it is true. Notorious C.H.O is a giant collage of sexual terms, and whatever you can think of; its there. After an hour and thirty-five minutes of continuous talk of menstruating, checking out pornography from the local video store, and ejaculation problems; my plate was full. Cho is a fat Korean woman, who does not look the part that she plays, but after you’ve seen this film, you are fully convinced that she is just as good as Martin Lawrence at talking trash. I do, however, believe every single word that she says about her parents. She blabbers on about how they came to one of her shows, and were thoroughly in shock. This is in no surprise to me, they seem like very stringent individuals, and their daughter is definitely not one bit like them. What would you do if you saw your child talking to mass audiences about getting hemorrhoids pulled, having sex, and dishing out blow jobs?

Notorious C.H.O was recorded in Seattle in front of a live audience. Most of the members, by their covers, look homosexual. Though Cho is a favorite of the gay and lesbian audiences, I don’t know how this is possible. She constantly mouths off about how sick and conceded the behavioral methods of these individuals are, yet she keeps emphasizing how nice and wonderful they are. Talk about a split personality! She has many feelings of hostility towards them, but they seemingly find her to be hilarious and continue to attend her tours and events. Most of the material is funny that Ms. Cho puts out, but it’s all just too over the top to like. I can praise a stand-up show when it has the right balance of sugar and spice, but Notorious C.H.O doesn’t. There is not one bit of humanity in what Margaret says. There is some extent of truth in relation to society in what she states but a lot of it is just crap that nobody wants to listen to. Sex, race, and culture are things we already have to hear enough of, why do we need more of it?

As a whole, Notorious C.H.O isn’t all that bad as a show, but it’s atrocious as a movie. If money weren’t an issue, this flick would have no problem going straight to video, and would’ve benefited from it. At first, it didn’t strike me this bad, but after watching moment after moment of the constant usage of raunchy, racy, sexual vocabulary; it began to wear thin, and was even painful towards the end. It was even comforting to see her take a bow at the end of the show, and leave the stage… But little did I know, she would come back later. After re-entering the front, Cho proceeds to, once again, talk about her mother; which she had already explained a million times during the “real” event. If you aren’t a fan of Cho, or any other kind of sexually demonstrative comedy, this one definitely isn’t for you. I hate the film – it’s stupid, ignorant, and most importantly; unkind to its viewers. I’m tired of Margaret Cho, and the rest of the world should be, too.

-Danny, Bucket Reviews