Tuesday, 09 August 2011 12:30
Edinburgh Fringe: Margaret Cho/ The Wheel/ Jessica Forteskew
Written by Veronica Lee

Margaret Cho, Assembly ****

Margaret Cho is back, and how. Ten years away from the Fringe, the American-Korean bisexual - “I'm just greedy, I guess” - is a little softer around the edges maybe, but still as funny. With her lefty humour, punctuated by lots of adult content, she is waspish, but definitely not Waspish.

As ever, the gynaecological and scatological material makes an early appearance - oh, about two minutes into the set - but this is surprisingly classy stuff and the shock value never too painful. She talks about a potential lover who was perhaps put off by her unevenly cropped anal hair, or fantasising that, if she were a gay man, she would want a spit roast every day (use your imagination, or look it up at whatfootballersdointheirsparetime.com).

But her lust for life, men, women, who knows who or what, is gloriously realised in her comedy, and Cho is unafraid to reference her ethnic background for the sake of another joke. (Her liking for spit roasts is “because us Koreans love a barbecue”.)

Since she was last here, Cho has been on Dancing with the Stars on American television, where Bristol Palin was a fellow contestant, and this is some of Cho's stronger material, gossipy and deeply political at the same time. Imagine, she says, meeting the daughter of the woman of whom she has said, “I want to lick Sarah Palin's pussy from behind.” Never has a potty mouth been quite so entertaining. Until 29 August