Margaret Cho at The Vancouver Centre for Performing Arts – photo Christine Redmond

Bob Saget and Margaret Cho at the Vancouver Comedy and Arts Festival

If the romance and roses peddled in anticipation of Valentine’s Day last week were enough to send you reeling then the Vancouver Comedy and Art Festival had just the antidote. Two of the most anticpated events of the festival included Bob Saget‘s Nasty Valentine and Margaret Cho‘s Mother. Both were at the Centre in Vancouver for Performing Arts, Feb. 15 and 16 respectively.

Saget opened his Friday night show with an apology, warning the audience to expect the worst from him. It was a fair warning, Onstage, Saget is a far cry from the family man (Danny Tanner) he played on Full House although the sitcom is a reference point for many of his jokes.

The first half of his set focused on the subjects of diarrhea, sex, and David Coulier (his on screen costar in Full House). The night also featured comedy segments from Sam Morril, Sophie Buddle, Toby Hargrave, Patrick Maliha, and The Wet Spots. The latter (Vancouver singing duo Cass King and John Woods) was the only act to be heckled by the crowd. In this writer’s opinion, once you’ve heard one of their songs you’ve heard them all. They’re kinky and can sing, I get it. The audience got it too. And by their third song, their pleas of “C’mon everyone sing the chorus” were drowned out by a roomful of boos.

Saget, however, got it right. His second half also included three songs of his own and finished with the popular “Danny Tanner Was Not Gay”, sung to the tune of Backstreet Boys‘ “I Want It That Way”.

The Wet Spots at The Vancouver Centre for Performing Arts – photo Christine Redmond

Saturday night’s show also featured The Wet Spots. This time, their songs went down a lot better with the audience. Having Margaret Cho chime in on the last song clearly helped. Next came the comedy stylings of Mexican midget Selene Luna. If you’ve ever wondered whether midgets only sleep with midgets, what three things a person shouldn’t live without, and the big no-nos of online dating profiles then Luna has the answers.

Selene Luna at The Vancouver Centre for Performing Arts – photo Christine Redmond

The highlight of the weekend for this writer was Margaret Cho. From beginning to end, Cho had the audience hanging on to her every word. Typical of the comic, her set concentrated on issues of sexuality – from her speculations about Mitt Romey and Paul Ryan as a closeted homosexual couple to her self declaration of being a bear-hag.

When she wasn’t talking about the inner workings of a gay man’s mind she was divulging her own personal history. Despite a full house (a pun Bob Saget  didn’t warm to the night before)  an hour with Margaret Cho on stage feels strangely personal. Whether or not she really is attracted to the kind of woman who can roll her own tampon is anyone’s guess. Her stories may or may not be true but really it’s irrelevant – she leads you to believe they are, which in turn leads itself to the success of her comedy.