Last Thursday night, on our friend Marisa’s recommendation ^[1], a few friends and I (including fellow NYC authors Melissa ^[2] and Atom ^[3]) went to see Margaret Cho’s show, the Sensuous Woman ^[4]. We all like Margaret Cho and think she’s hilarious, and were all curious to see what was up with the new show, which features burlesque performances by Margaret (Ms. Cho if you’re nasty) herself as well as a slew of other interesting performers. We expected it to be good, but didn’t really know what to expect besides some burlesque stuff and, of course, Ms. Cho’s comedy. We didn’t know it would be a true variety show – comedy, singing, dancing, sketches, and of course, sassy burlesque performances.

We were cracking up pretty much from beginning to end. The show opened with a short burlesque number, followed by Margaret performing some stand-up, which was decidedly raunchy. (Basically, don’t bring mom and dad to this show unless they are okay with people talking about eating ass. Fo’ reals.) This was followed by some song-and-dance numbers, some burlesque numbers including two by Margaret herself, in which she shows off her ability to twirl her tassels as well as any seasoned burlesque performer, and some stand-up. All the performers were good, but there were some standouts, including Liam Sullivan as “Kelly”, who you’ve probably seen on YouTube performing the “Shoes” ^[5] song. As for the other standout performances, let’s just say this – I don’t know if they do this particular performance every night, but if you hear the beginning of Michael Jackson’s “Dirty Diana”, pay attention, because the performer dancing to that song will blow your freaking mind. I’ve had that song (and the accompanying dancing!) going through my head ever since.

After the show, the cast goes into the theater’s bar to chat with theatergoers, so you can say hello and heap praise upon them after laughing your ass off. It looks like they’ve extended the run of the show, too! This week, there are performances scheduled tonight through Saturday night – and if the show we saw last week was any indication, I bet the Halloween show tonight is going to be amazing. (And there are still tickets available for tonight’s show, which starts at 8 PM.)

Margaret Cho’s the Sensuous Woman is at the Zipper Factory ^[6] Wednesdays – Saturdays through November 17. See the Zipper Theater site for information on tickets and showtimes.