How To Stand-Up Comedy: Margaret Cho in I’m The One That I Want, Review and Analysis

March 16, 2009 by vongsundara 

I’ll be examining the ins and outs of stand-up comedy in my new series of articles titled How To Stand-Up Comedy (and yes, I’m aware the title is grammatically incorrect).

For this opening article, I decided to dissect Margaret Cho’s first feature, I’m The One That I Want, to try and gauge what it is that makes Margaret Cho so damn successful and applying those elements to my own comedy.

I first saw I’m The One That I Want during its initial run through independent theatres across North America. I was instantly drawn to Margaret Cho’s brand of humour, as I was a huge fan of her network television show, All-American Girl. If you haven’t already seen “I’m The One That I Want,” then you need to go down to your local video store and rent it immediately. If it’s not at the major video stores then try the video store in the gay village, I guarantee they’ll have a copy.

Let’s begin by viewing the film’s trailer:

I have definitely learned a lot re-watching this comedy special. Margaret Cho has since become much more polished, but I tend to like my comedians young and raw, as I’d take passion over polish any day of the week.

The next few sections will zero in on some key tips and tricks that I’ll be trying to incorporate into my own comedy style. For a full transcript of my thoughts while watching the film, please scroll to the bottom.

How To Stand-Up Comedy: Playing To The Audience

It’s very obvious that Margaret Cho tailored this performance to her audience. Margaret has one of the absolutely most loyal audiences of any comedian in the world. She knows her audience, and she knows them well.

Margaret Cho acknowledges her fanbase very early on and speaks about her experiences around gay men and her lesbian liaison. She starts this process early and has the crowd on her side from the very start.

For a comedian starting out new, you obviously won’t have this type of built-in audience. Where I have learned from Margaret is to decide whom I’d like my audience to be and to always be aware of that while still staying true to my own style. I’m sort of lucky in that I’m both gay and Asian, which are the two most desirable demographics online currently (just take a look at the comedians dominating YouTube, they’re all either gay or Asian).

Probably to my detriment, I’ve decided to go mainstream for now and not target either gays or Asians. My mind may change in the future, though. At some point, I’ll have to target these lucrative markets, but for now I think tailoring my show too much would limit my creativity too much.

How To Stand-Up Comedy: Transitions and Story Arcs

Margaret Cho is a master at writing transitions. She starts off her set with a fluffy, crowd-pleasing joke about Karl Lagerfeld but seamlessly transitions into material about faggots.

Margaret transitions in two main ways: through pure writing and through her water bottle. The first style, through pure writing, is difficult to replicate unless you’re a great writer. I like to believe that I have fairly good transitions in my comedy as well, and this comes from my creative writing background. The second style, through her water bottle, is a tip that anyone can take. Margaret especially uses this to transition when she’s going from a funny one-liner into her serious tone of voice.

Margaret Cho spends a bit of time on gay men and lesbians before she transitions into the primary story arc of the set: her experiences revolving around her television show, All-American Girl.

The All-American Girl story arc lasts for a bit over an hour, weaving in and our while always proving context and a great narrative frame for the set. Far too often, comedy is made up of a series of one-liners, not that there’s anything wrong with that either. My style is definitely closer to Margaret Cho’s, though, as I like to have an over-arching story weave throughout my entire set.

How To Stand-Up Comedy: Character Work

Margaret Cho has a huge pool of characters from which she can draw at any time to add colour to her jokes. In this set alone, Margaret goes from ditzy girl to Karl Lagerfeld to fat straight guys. Margaret’s most famous character is of course her mother. Margaret basically invented making fun of parents on stage. Unfortunately, far too many Asian comedians have followed suit. Whereas Margaret shows depth and love for her mother, copycat comedians have missed the point and end up making fun of their heritage along with their parents on stage. It’s definitely one of my pet peeves for comedians.

I have never used characters on stage before. This is where my recent venture into improv comedy may end up helping my stand-up act. I always figured that since I never use characters when telling stories in real life that I never would have to use characters on stage. I’m still not sure if characters are a part of my style, but it couldn’t hurt to try.

Margaret Cho used characters very effectively to break up some heavy, heavy moments in this act. I’m not sure how else she would have broken up all those moments, as this act is absolutely full of heavy moments.

How To Stand-Up Comedy: Truth and Sincerity

Truth and sincerity of voice is where Margaret Cho really inspires me. Everything in this act with the exception of the Karl Lagerfeld joke are from her life and are real. Now, I’m not sure if everything is real, but she presents it as so.

Writing from her own experiences adds a layer of depth to her comedy that I absolutely love. I know that everything that comes out of her mouth is something she has lived through or believes in.

I’m not a big fan of the “What If” premise, which Margaret only uses once during the Karl Lagerfeld skit (can you tell that I don’t like that joke?). A “What If” premise is when a joke starts out like, “What if Karl Lagerfeld was in jail?” and then continues on and on about this false premise. I get so bored of these types of jokes, but they are quite popular, so who am I to say? Luckily, Margaret Cho avoids these jokes for the most part.

How To Stand-Up Comedy: Facial Expressions and Hand Gestures

Margaret Cho has a great ability to add facial expressions to punctuate her jokes. She’s also great at using hand gestures to get across her point.

I’m not sure if this is something that can be practiced, but luckily for me, I naturally am very animated with both my face and hands when I speak. Unfortunately for me, I have not been able to translate this to stage. Once I have a microphone in my hands, my facial expressions disappear and my spare hand goes into my pocket.

I definitely have to practice my expressiveness since it’s a great tool to bring out and definitely adds depth to the performance.

Live Review, Micro-Blogging Transcript

# I haven’t seen this performance since its initial theatre run when I was just out of high school.
# It’s great that Margaret Cho is filming this in her hometown of San Francisco.
# Margaret Cho’s parents are awesome. I don’t know if I would be able to perform well in front of my own parents, especially if I did impressions of them.
# Margaret Cho jumps on to the stage with a lot of energy and a big wave. The energy in the room is amazing.
# Margaret Cho sure knows her audience, mentioning PETA right off the bat.
# Margaret’s first joke about Karl Lagerfeld isn’t her best, but I think she was trying to open with a current joke. It’s a little fluffy but definitely a crowd pleaser. This is one of those “What If”-style jokes that I’m not too fond of. She’s definitely taking this premise all the way, spending quite a few minutes on it.
# Haha: “Bitch, it’s not that hot, what you doin’?” Okay, the entire buildup was worth it for that punchline.
# Good transition with “faggots” into “fag hags,” directly addressing her current audience.
# “Fag hags are the backbone of the gay community.” It’s a great premise, and it’s the type that I really enjoy since it has its roots in reality unlike the “What If” jokes.
# Margaret Cho has great facial expressions. Haha: “I don’t want no scrubs, okay . . .” She’s making great use of the entire stage.
# She’s really great a playing to the audience: “Thank God for gay men.”
# Margaret Cho does a great job at impersonating drunk girls, haha. She repeated the joke to make sure the audience got it before moving on.
# Haha: “You need to suck cock to get that kind of muscle definition.” I like how she plays off innocently after delivering that type of line.
# Even Margaret Cho’s impression of fat, straight guys is hilarious. I need to develop some characters for my act.
# “Lesbians love whale watching.” Hmm, I never knew that.
# Margaret Cho really uses her hands well to express herself. I think I do that in real life but not so much on stage. She’s also doing a great job of punctuating her lines with facial expressions.
# Wow, Margaret Cho even has an English lady character. Who knew?
# Haha: “Am I gay, am I straight? . . . I’m just slutty. Where’s my parade?”
# Margaret Cho is incredibly dynamic. The way that she acted out her night with a lesbian lover was great. I’m not really sure whether I’m physical enough to try out that type of comedy. Oh wait minute, I am an athlete after all. Maybe I should just go for it.
# Here comes Margaret Cho’s signature character: her mother. She’s totally brave to do this impression with her mom in the audience. Her Korean accent is absolutely spot-on. It’s amazing to have a signature character that’s built up with an entire fan base.
# She’s staying in character through all the laughs.
# Great transition to her material about “All-American Girl.” I grew up watching that show. It was a huge moment for me because I never saw an Asian on television before.
# She’s kid of trailed off into a skit about the KKK but somehow is able to get back to the story about the networks rather easily. I didn’t think the audience would be able to hang still during such a lengthy detour, but I was wrong.
# Margaret Cho has such great emotion during this time. She adds needed laughs with her character work during a very tense sequence. I’ll have to add this my list of to-learns.
# Margaret Cho is talking about her insecurities. I can’t believe how well she’s able to switch between deep emotion and hilarious laughter.
# Wow, Margaret Cho lost 30 pounds in two weeks. It’s great that she recovers with “. . . the network now thinks that my face will fit on the screen.” Without this line, the entire sequence would be way too deep for the audience.
# Margaret Cho’s got a southern character named Gwen in her repertoire as well. She’s repeating the joke quite a bit: “Hello, my name is Gwen. I’m here to wash your vagina.” Her throat voice in this sequence reminds me a bit of Canadian comedian Nikki Payne.
# Now Margaret Cho is going super hardcore with repeating the joke will running across the stage. I’m not sure I really understand or enjoy this sequence, but at least she is using the stage well and has lots of energy.
# This Gwen sequence is taking a very long time. Margaret is definitely taking a huge detour. Margaret is now repeating the line again over and over. At last count, it’s been nearly 20 times of hearing the same line. I don’t get it, but the audience is laughing, which is the main purpose I suppose.
# Here comes her serious voice again. To transition to her serious voice, Margaret Cho took a break to sip her water.
# Wow, Margaret Cho didn’t feel acceptance from other stand-up comedians? That’s kind of way tragic.
# I never knew a water bottle would be such a great way to transition into depressing material.
# What? Margaret Cho dated Quentin Tarantino? “Don’t let them take away your voice.” Great advice Quentin.
# Margaret does an incredible job of adding a funny line right after a depressing line: “I was so hungry.”
# I need to work on my facial expressions. I have quite a range of facial expressions in real life. Why can’t I bring these on to the stage with me? Seriously though, Margaret’s expressions are fantastic.
# It’s interesting to hear how Margaret Cho weaves the All-American Girl storyline across the entire hour and a half.
# Margaret Cho is finishing with a flurry. It’s great that she’s brought the story to a close by talking about her moment of realisation. It has a huge pay-off because the build-up has been well over an hour.
# Wow, huge, huge laughs and applause. If I were Margaret, I may have ended the set right there. She tags on a joke about her dog that doesn’t really add too much to the set.
# Margaret leaves the stage and comes back to thunderous applause. This show was absolutely amazing. The writing in the show is spectacular; mixing serious depth with hilarity is incredibly difficult.
# Oh nevermind, Margaret Cho has come back for an encore.
# It’s great that the encore joke has nothing to do with the set. It’s almost like a bonus track on an album.
# I believe her encore joke is from a previous set, as the entire audience seems to know about it. There are even audience members with Ass-Master shirts on.

Related Posts
  1. Ricky Gervais in HBO Out of England The Stand-Up Special, Review and Analysis
  2. My first new stand-up comedy routine in six months almost ready
  3. Stand-up offers full creative control, improv offers collaboration
  4. Blogging With Kerry gives great updates on Calgary’s stand-up comedy community
  5. Shooting video is very much different than performing stand-up comedy
  6. Business humour is difficult to grasp compared to stand-up comedy
  7. Learning the comedy business is starting to get very expensive
  8. I’m not sure if this comedy is allowed, but I’m going to try it anyway
  9. Comedy is king on the Las Vegas Boulevard Strip, Louie Anderson Rita Rudner
  10. Improv class at Second City has taken over my Sundays, goodbye football

Filed under: Performing
Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Join The Discussion On The Comments and Message Board

Feel free to leave a comment...
and oh, if you want a pic to show with your comment, go get a gravatar!