Posted on 05 September 2011

The excitable crowd of gays and those who love them who packed into the Sydney Opera House’s Concert Hall for Friday night’s Margaret Cho show got extra bang for their buck, in the form of support act and YouTube favourite John Roberts.

You might not recognise his name, or even his (very handsome) face, but as soon as Roberts donned a red wig and oversized sunglasses there was a collective squeal of delight from casual fans who’ve enjoyed his series of YouTube videos in a character loosely based on his own mother. Roberts’ brief set was entirely wig-dependent, as he clutched at the various barnets laid out before him on a big table and gave us short glimpses of the many characters who live inside his head.

He could easily sustain the laughs over his own one-man headlining show — something to keep in mind for next year, Just For Laughs organisers.

When Roberts had exhausted his wig collection, Cho took to the stage looking very svelte (thanks to a recent stint on Dancing with the Stars) and launched into a very funny 90-minute set with a healthy focus on all things sexual.

Any cynicism that her much-vaunted bisexuality might be ‘all talk’ — an attempt to ingratiate herself with her queer fan base, perhaps — soon faded once Cho got going, peppering her set with ribald anecdotes about her own sex life.

It was refreshing to see such brazen pansexuality on display: girl is cock crazy (describing her appetite for the appendage as “like a dog trying to get its mouth around a sprinkler on a summer day”), but she’s also got a weakness for women. She spoke about her intense attraction to butch dykes and F2M trans men, and about how she and her gay male friends fantasise about tricking straight men into sleeping with them (Cho seemingly not realising that, as a woman, there’s not a whole lot of trickery she’d need to do). As she explains it, she identifies with just about every letter in the LGBTI etc community.

Cho played unashamedly to her queer devotees — one riff about her belief that gay men are in “the highest state of being” (she believes we’re in “the final stages of our reincarnation cycle”) was hilarious, but she also lovingly poked fun at some of gay men’s less appealing traits, including the “c**ty gay face” (her words!) she sees on her gay friends when they’re acting particularly vain or entitled.

We were even treated to a couple of songs from Cho’s recent comedy album, including the dark country ballad I’m Sorry and the showstopping Eat Shit and Die. But it was the hilarious mock rap battle My Puss, reinvented as a duet between Cho and Roberts in full mum-drag garb, that really brought the house down.