Margaret Cho isn’t one to shy away from topics that some comedians wouldn’t touch with a long pole. The Korean-American comedienne has made a name for herself covering topics from George W. and Laura Bush to queer politics and imitating her mother onstage for laughs.
Growing up in San Francisco, Margaret Cho had a unique upbringing. While coming of age in a city renowned for its cultural diversity, Cho witnessed some of the defining moments of the Gay Rights movement of the 1970s.
“I saw Harvey Milk, I was around all those really early queer politics, and I think that helped to shape me,” Cho said. “But I witnessed a lot of death. That was the era where we lost a huge amount of people to AIDS, and it was a very sad time as well.”
After being kicked out of her first high school for poor grades, Cho went to a performing arts high school where she began work in an improvisational comedy group.
“I don’t know what I would’ve done if I hadn’t gone there. I was pretty desperate, seeing as I was kicked out of school, and it was a great way to learn about what eventually became my profession.”
While Cho enjoyed the transition to this new school, her parents weren’t as supportive in the move. She noted that her parents were “shocked and scared,” and that it was difficult for them to understand her choices, but she continued working toward her goal.
“I managed,” Cho said. “I just wanted to be a comedian.”
Even though her parents weren’t behind her in her choices to move towards comedy as a profession, Cho said her relationship with her mother has changed since her teenage years.
“We’re good friends, and I think that’s the biggest change,” Cho said. “Going from a parent-child relationship to being a peer, it’s a totally different thing.”
Cho has been in the public eye for almost 20 years now. She got her first major start as the focus of a sitcom, “All American Girl,” in the mid-1990s, but soon shifted toward stand-up comedy though she continued acting. After releasing her first comedy special, Cho started touring through the early and mid-2000s.
After garnering notoriety through her comedy, Cho took up a supporting role in the Lifetime series “Drop Dead Diva,” and was a contestant on the ABC reality show “Dancing with the Stars.” Cho talked about her experience on “Dancing” in her 2010 special, “Cho Dependent.”
Cho has started to integrate music into her shows, and released her first album, also named “Cho Dependent,” in 2010. Cho said she got to work with some of her favorite artists, like Tegan and Sara, Andrew Bird and Fiona Apple, who Cho admires for her “exuberance.”
As a prominent voice in queer comedy, Cho recognized the impact that other comedians have had on her performance. She admires Lenny Bruce, Richard Pryor and Amy Schumer, and also noted in a recent podcast the groundbreaking work that Joan Rivers did in the 1960s and 1970s. Above all, though, Cho recognized Jerry Seinfeld as someone who “legitimately helped me move my career.”
“Everyone thought I was funny, but he recognized the talent I had and wanted to helped me in anyway he could,” Cho said.
For someone who may have never seen her comedy, they can expect Cho will be talking about how to solve the problem of violence against women and gays, and how to gain the power to “use our voice to help those in need.”
She will perform at The Comedy Club Oct. 16 and 17 at 8:00 and 10:30 p.m.
