Aphone call with Margaret Cho one week before she hits the road finds her on the move. Yet, despite the bustle, Cho stays focused and has plenty to say. The latter is a quality people have come to expect from the outspoken comedienne. She will once again share her unbridled views in comedy clubs and other forums nationwide and abroad over the next several months.
Her new comedy tour, “Fresh Off the Bloat,” is a play on the name of ABC’s popular TV sitcom, Fresh Off the Boat. That’s because, as Cho professes, she loves a good pun. At the same time, the show is also among the first to feature an Asian American family on American primetime programming. Cho’s own sitcom, All American Girl, which aired in 1994 was actually the first. It is widely known that her experience in its one season was terrible. The demand of that show resulted in kidney failure, which turned out to be the prelude to her drug and alcohol addiction. In spite of all that Cho points out that the experience also gave her material for stand-up.
“I think there’s something great about taking what is personal and making it political; taking what is painful and making it funny. I think that’s like a really magical thing that we’re able to do as comedians. So, I’m very lucky.”
It’s not luck that’s sustained Cho’s 25-year career. She helped blaze the trails for women in comedy, and her unique style and bold delivery earned her a spot earlier this year on Rolling Stone’s list of the “50 Best Stand- Up Comics of All Time.” Still, Cho remains humble and gives credit to those around her.
"I always lean really hard on my female comedian friends…we’ve always been close, and we’ve always really, really taken care of each other.”
She advises other women looking to break into the “vast, very male-dominated field” of comedy to
“… find your own community, find your own support."
Cho, who identifies as bisexual, also finds support among the LGBT community and she's always working towards equal rights. This year, her participation in the Resist March, which replaced the annual Los Angeles Pride Parade, extended to equal rights for all. Current politics drew in people of all genders, races, nationalities, faiths and sexual preferences. Cho walked the entire route and addressed the crowd at the end where she was alongside Congresswoman Maxine Waters, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and fellow comedian Chris Rock. For Cho, it was a “really meaningful” experience.
Over the past year, Cho has also been vocal on the issue of “whitewashing” Asian characters in TV and film. Her e-mail exchange with British Actress Tilda Swinton on the subject of “whitewashing” became public when she pointed out that Swinton’s character,“The Ancient One” was, in the original comic books, an Asian character originating from Asia’s Himalaya Mountains.
“I mean, it’s a good thing to talk about just the way that people of color have been marginalized in the entertainment industry. Now, things are changing, and things are getting a lot better. That’s really powerful. I love that I’m around and alive during a time when that’s happening.”
Cho’s positive statement comes on the heels of TNT Network’s order of a pilot for her new TV project, Highland. The comedy-drama follows a Korean- American family who gets stuck in the middle of the big marijuana boom in California.
“It’s a passion project for me. It’s truly reflecting what’s happening in real life here in L.A. There’s a green rush with marijuana becoming legal, and it’s a very strange time. This family is an Asian-American family, the kind we haven’t seen before. They are not a model minority. They are totally different, and I love it.”
The family in Highland reminds Cho of her own family, who “had a gay bookstore in the 70s.” She says the two households break their own rules and branch out in areas in which you wouldn’t expect to find immigrant families. Cho will star in the pilot of Highland, as well as serving as co-writer and executive producer. Viewers may see some crossover between her personal life and her performance, such as they do with her comedy.
Cho can also be seen in the upcoming Netflix original movie, Bright, a blockbuster starring Will Smith. Yet, of all her accomplishments, which include five Grammy and Emmy nominations, she still holds comedy as “the main focus” of her life.
“It’s what I do more than anything else. I think that’s what I will always do. And, I keep that one thing as close to my heart as I can.”
Hear Cho bare all that’s currently in her heart, from politics to Asians and her experiences in Hollywood, on a stage near you. Visit www.
Barrett Barrera Projects, a St. Louis-based multidisciplinary consulting company specializing in arts, culture and contemporary fashion, is returning to Miami Art Week to present Fantich & Young: Apex Predator | Darwinian Voodoo as one of the art installations the company will unveil in Wynwood during Art Basel from December 7 to 10, 2017.
Creative Credits
- Written by
- Jessica Catignani
- Photography
- Albert Sanchez
