Margaret Cho herself observed that she gets more vulgar with age. That was in clear evidence when she stepped on the stage for her ninety-minute set at the Wilbur Theatre in Boston. But whether she’s talking about sex with Sarah Palin, the virtues of olive oil lubricant (it’s not what you think and yet it’s exactly what you think), or lasting four days at Bonnaroo without taking a crap, she always manages to keep the audience over the edge with hysterical laughter. There’s something in her frank delivery that makes even sensitive subjects funny without treading too far into distasteful.

The thing about Margaret Cho, now 41, is that she is in great shape as a comedian (and thanks to the Dancing with the Stars, just in great shape). Having seen her stand up a few times before, this show, dubbed Cho Dependent, was far and away the best of them all.

Cho is promoting a new album of dirty pop music (well, maybe vulgar is a better word) and she played a few during the show. The delivery of the music was a little off, except for her encore acoustic performance of No Offense (sadly a non-album track because it’s amazing). Your Dick (originally featuring Ben Lee) was funny but she was on such a roll leading up to it, it just seemed out of place. And no offense to John Roberts, but My Puss was better when she performed it with comedian Diana Yanez 3 years ago.

Having said that, it’s clear that the music was largely besides the point, and more to the point, did not really detract a single speck from just how amazing her stand-up is. By now, certain topics are kind of routine for her, her mother especially, but by keeping a lot of her material topical (she touched on the recent suicides of gay teens as well as her stint on Dancing with the Stars) she keeps it all fresh and fantastic. Oh yeah, all around, she is pretty vulgar, and here’s hoping she stays that way.

John Roberts’ act, opening for Margaret Cho, was pretty straightforward. Throw on a wig, add an accent, tell a joke playing a “persona.” Most of them were stereotypical – the beauty queen, the Jersey housewife, the jock – but for the most part, the act worked. With self-deprecating asides inserted while he re-wigged, he kept the pace moving and ably demonstrated his comic skills. In other words, he was the perfect opener.

Chelsea Handler was an unbelievable treat. She was raunchy and loud-mouthed and unapologetic. The biggest surprise of her hour-long set was how far away from her show she took her live act. There wasn’t much in the way of celebrity dish (except a rant of all things against Angelina Jolie). Most of her act was made up of stories about people she met on on her book tour, guys she dated, and her family. She would nail a punchline and then pound it into the ground like a spike, often cracking herself up in the process.

Her delivery of the jokes was something to experience. She would tell a story of rubbing cake on her bedsheets and accusing her boyfriend of shitting the bed. But it’s not just the story but her acting out a scene that makes it work. Her boyfriend reaches into the bed with two fingers, rubs the “shit” and puts it up to his nose and yells at her, “It’s fuckin’ cake.” She apparently thought about breaking up with him a lot. The day she did, he told her, “You’re three weeks sober. You’re not thinking right.”

She also told the audience that she refused to apologize for her act because, in essence, she made fun of everyone. And she certainly ran the gamut of targets during her set. She talked about, then joked about, Asian stereotypes, black stereotypes, stereotypes about guys, gays and Mormons. The centerpiece of her act was dissection of the differences between the bathroom habits of men and women. She was amazing from start to finish.

For a mid-sized venue, Mohegan Sun Arena is actually a nice place to see a show. Even for a comedy show, it wasn’t so totally cavernous that you lost sight of Heather McDonald standing on stage. But it was good thing the large screens were projecting her act because there were nuances of McDonald’s performance that had to be seen to be appreciated.

I wasn’t expecting the bulk of the show to be impersonations, but McDonald’s take on various Housewives (of VH1 reality fame), the Kardashians (sisters and mother) and Drew Barrymore were dead on. She also bagged on Marlee Matlin (and chided us for laughing then panned, “She can’t hear us anyway”).

McDonald was a laugh riot. As crude as she was at times, she made you feel like just one of the girls. The rest of her 30-minute set was dishing on her family life. She deftly used physical comedy to make her point (a lot of faces, a lot of kicking) and she was amazing.

We’re all bickering on a hot street: WomanInCharge on crutches and no cabs in sight. Two of us head off towards busier corners to find a taxi when what to our wondering eyes should appear, but an oddly shaped taxicab coming so near. We whooped, climbed in and shortly realized that this was no normal taxi. It was shaped like a big box, had a stripper’s pole and fluorescent lighting. Even better, there was an interactive jukebox-style touch screen with a wealth of music videos from the 70s to 00s to choose from. 3 to 4 TV screens allowed a clear view for every passenger. The kind of random magic that only happens during SXSW… or anytime of the year for the lucky few who know to call 512-626-TAXI.

Wanda Sykes was way funnier than my wildest expectations. Her set was riddled with swears as she covered the temperature in Phoenix, the TSA and gay cruises. If the material was a little generic, her delivery more than made up for it.

I Love Margaret Cho. She comes across as very down to earth, she’s your best friend. Even standing on stage in front of hundreds of people, she managed to make the show seem like a conversation in your living room. Granted, you’re talking about her menstrual cycle, sex, penises, gay cruises, fag hags, P-Town, Asian stereotypes and her parents. Well, actually for some of us, that pretty much is a normal conversation in our living rooms.

Liam Sullivan is a one-note comedian whose fame has spread thanks to YouTube vids of him dressed as a blond named Kelly. Liam took the opening spot on Margaret Cho’s Beautiful stand-up tour, performing first as a buxom hardcore lesbian named Susan. Then it cut to video segments (I think these are the same ones that made the rounds on the ‘net). One was Aunt Susan visiting Kelly’s house with her lesbian lover which ended with the music video Let Me Borrow That Top (which featured cameos by Amanda Palmer, Margaret Cho and Dave Navarro). The other was a skit about a couple going to a sex counselor. Parts were funny.

Then Kelly came on stage in person and sang her trademark tune “Shoes” which was flat, repetitive and and not particularly funny. It was a relief when he introduced Margaret Cho and bounced.

Kelly appears in the Dresden Dolls’ video “Shores of California” in her Betch t-shirt.

Margaret Cho started her night as hostess of the True Colors Tour subdued by saying frankly, “We’re all happy Jerry Falwell is dead.” Yes, that was subdued. Cho was happily inserted between each band while the crew changed sets behind her with marvelous efficiency, giving us small chunks of her stand-up routine that got dirtier as the night went on.

If you have never seen Margaret Cho live, she is one of the rare comedians who is not only not afraid to talk about anything, but she’s hysterically funny from start to finish. I will make it my personal mission to buy tickets to her show every time she comes to town for the rest of my life. She’s seriously raunchy, without missing a beat on topics including the Pope (she called him a queen), gay cruises “Being gay is not a choice, it’s a lot of fun,” George W. Bush, and of course, Paris Hilton, using her “I’m a prisoner” to great effect more than once during the night.

By far her shining moment was playacting a lesbian couple with comedian Diana Yanez. Cho set up the skit explaining that her neighbor had their RV towed and then wrote a song as “revenge.” But that barely gives credit to the song about pussy that followed that compared her puss to her neighbor’s in every conceivable way. Here, watch it for yourself (parental advisory warning)

Ken Reid’s Cusack Attack was sandwiched between two parts The Seans during the Comedy Double Feature at the Calderwood Pavilion in Boston, MA. The one-man power-point presentation, ostensibly highlighting John Cusack’s career, but like any good comedy show, said more about the comedian himself than anything else.

Reid perfectly laid out a series of stories centered loosely around Cusack films hitting the right notes of self-deprecation and hysteria as he told stories like finding his neighbor’s dead body:

“My father screamed, ‘Why did you tell them he was eaten by dogs!”

“I didn’t want them to think we did it!”

He deftly segued into asides about being a soda snob and getting a co-worker fired by using his corporate card to register websites with pornographic names before switching gears back to the main topic – with the help of slides – his obsession with John Cusack.

The Seans opened and closed the show with sketch comedy revolving loosely around the duo falling out over, among other things, law school, a girl, and an paid assassin.

Sean Sullivan and Sean George played themselves, and all the other roles including a lecherous law school admissions counselor, a Los Angeles talent agent, and of course, the paid assassin. In between live sketches, short films filled in the gaps of the plot with some seriously funny touches including Sullivan waking up in bed to find George face to face with him – followed immediately by a hysterical training montage in homage to Rocky – and scenes filmed in Boston that were supposed to be Los Angeles (as noted by the word “Los Angeles” digitally affixed to signs.)

The Seans’ best moments were reacting off of each other, escalating every scene into a frenzied mess – a good mess though. Towards the end, the story got away from them, but it was all in a good night of comedy.

Dave Russo was the comedian/MC of the night, even though his jokes were bad, the visual elements of his act were sort of interesting to watch. Some of the New England Patriots were around too, but mostly the crowd was into Adam Vinatieri who does the whole community hero bit to the hilt.

09.30.1995 Grand Slam for Children MGM Grand Garden Arena, Las Vegas, NV

A benefit concert staged by Andre Agassi and David Foster. It actually has been running annually since this first show, despite having competition from Tiger Woods raising money for the same cause (underprivileged children) using the same pool of superstars. This first show included a stand-up and stand-out twenty minutes of comedy from Robin Williams, a show closing, barn burning set from Elton John, Wynonna, Michael Bolton (in his operatic phase), Kenny G and Oleta Adams.

Elton John’s set began with him entering at the tail-end of a “Signed, Sealed, Delivered” sing-along led by Foster. The stage was circular and revolved to move set pieces to the front. John’s piano came first back to front, and we could see John step into the backlight while singing. He stepped on to the moving stage piece to chase his piano and was almost bodily ejected into the audience as it spun around. He managed to totter his way to the piano bench, with as much dignity as one gets in this situation, and without interrupting the song. Once properly settled, he set the house on fire with a short, twenty-minute rush of hits including “Saturday Night’s Alright (for Fighting)” and “Bennie and the Jets.”

Kenny G, who really isn’t my style, was awesome. He started at the back end of the house and played a single note the entire length of the arena floor, and when a women in the first row loge called out his name, he beelined straight for her without missing a beat, or a note.