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Review

Korean-American comedienne Margaret Cho funneled a lot of personal issues into her 1999 one-woman show/CD/film, I'm The One That I Want. And although guffaws were liberally sprinkled amongst cathartic confessions of drugs, drink, eating disorder and deathly depression, Cho felt it wasn't a "stand-up" production. Her new concert film, Notorious C.H.O., is, and returns Cho to the world of laugh-till-it-hurts comedy she does so well. Raunchy, raucous and – c'mon, this is Margaret Cho, after all – queer as all heck.

Director Lorene Machado captures the Cho's 37-city tour with her stop at Seattle's Paramount Theatre. There she shamelessly ruminates on visits to Los Angeles S&M clubs, colonic irrigation, looking for her elusive G spot, teen drag queen friends, lesbian turn-ons, what kind of woman turns her on ("a bull dyke who looks like John Goodman"), doing her part at Ground Zero (blowjobs for firemen and cops), and, of course, her beloved mother and the "Ass-Master" fan club. Speaking of Mom and Dad, they make an appearance in the film, caught at Margaret's San Francisco engagement and yes, Margaret does a dead-on imitation!

Lawrence Ferber