Margaret Cho - Assassin

By the time Assassin rolled around, Margaret Cho had completely mastered the art of walking onstage, saying the thing everyone else is too nervous to say, and somehow making it hilarious. Filmed during her 2005 stand-up tour, the show finds Cho taking aim at politics, sex, religion, celebrity culture and the general weirdness of being alive in the modern world, all with her trademark combination of sharp observations and fearless honesty.

What makes Assassin work so well is that Cho never sounds like she's delivering a carefully polished lecture. She feels like the funniest person at a dinner party that has gone completely off the rails. Her stories bounce between the personal and the political, often veering into territory that would make other comedians nervous, but she handles it with such confidence and wit that the audience happily follows along. Equal parts provocative, insightful and laugh-out-loud funny, Assassin captures Margaret Cho at the height of her powers, armed with a microphone and absolutely no intention of playing it safe.