Margaret Cho: Cho Dependent

This year marks the Asian-American comic’s second appearance at the Fringe and a decade since her last, when she "spent a lot of time in CC Blooms". Judging by the numbers of same-sex couples in Assembly—and the whoops that accompany her calls for gay marriage—Cho still has plenty of friends among Edinburgh’s gay community.

In the intervening years, Cho has built up a following as one of the most controversial, iconoclastic standups on the US circuit. She’s also appeared on Dancing with the Stars—the US version of our own Bruce Forsyth-fronted travesty—at the same time as a certain Miss Bristol Palin.

Tough, sassy Cho doesn’t pull any punches. If anyone didn’t know what a gay spit roast was before they arrived at George Square they certainly did after a few minutes in the diminutive comic’s company. Nothing, it seems, is out of bounds, whether it’s the comic’s own sexual peccadilloes or the joy of sexting.

However, as consummate a performer as Cho undoubtedly is, it’s hard to escape the sense that there isn’t really a show here, just a collection of well-told, often very funny routines about sex or right-wing American nutjobs (as well as a brief but badly misjudged musical interlude).

At one point Cho rather sheepishly confesses that she’s trying for a baby. It’s a surprisingly sensitive moment that begs further interrogation but is lost all too quickly under yet another barrage of cock jokes. Sometimes you really can have too much of a good thing.