MARGARET
CHO chats with DANIEL OU about her parents meeting the President and the
possibility of hosting her own talk show.
Margaret Cho is proof positive that nothing succeeds like failure. Many Asian Americans know her life story by heart: She was born in 1968, grew up in San Francisco, started doing standup at 16 in a comedy club upstairs from the bookstore her parents ran, worked her way up to the college circuit, followed by the talk-show circuit, and then finally became the first Asian American to star in her own TV series. All-American Girl, Cho’s short-lived ABC sitcom, which debuted in 1994, was notorious for its unfunniness and, as many Asian Americans might painfully remember, its un-Asian Americanness. After the show was canceled in 1995, Cho plummeted into the proverbial downward spiral of drugs, alcohol and depression.
But hey, that’s show business. And like any true Hollywood hero, Cho proved resilient enough to bounce back—and fight back—by emerging in the summer of 1999 from the threat of obscurity with a hugely successful one-woman show called I’m the One That I Want. The riotous, yet poignant, tell-all was met with universal critical acclaim, garnering best-performance awards from New York magazine and Entertainment Weekly. In case you missed Cho’s tour, which ended in June, don’t despair. I’m the One That I Want, the movie filmed during a sold-out live performance at The Warfield in San Francisco, has already started its slow-burn release at theaters all across the country. Her self-penned memoir is due out next year on Ballantine Books, followed by a new standup tour in the fall.
Is this the second
coming of Margaret Cho?
I think so. A second
time around. But I’ve always worked and enjoyed [comedy] and been around
for a long time. It’s just the way that things are going now. I have a
different attitude towards it all, so it’s good.
I don’t think I
read one bad review on your standup show I’m the One That I Want. Do you
read them yourself?
You know, I don’t
really pay too much attention to them just because I know that is not really
what the show is about. For me, the show is really about connecting with
the audience and giving them what they’ve come for. Being someone who loves
to go to shows, I feel that the audience’s role in all that is so important.
That participatory feeling, wanting that connection... I just try to deliver
that every night.
Do you feel gun-shy
about talking to the Asian American media?
I have been both praised
and criticized by the Asian American community with equal measure. I think
that sometimes even the praise is preceded by a “No matter what anyone
else says...” It does not make me feel any way in particular. I love what
I do. That’s enough for me. I’d like to inspire other Asian Americans to
go forth and make a difference in the world they live in, to pursue their
dreams, no matter what anybody else says...
You have to constantly
do back-to-back shows. Do you ever feel un-funny?
Yeah I can, but that
doesn’t have anything to do with the show. I’ve been doing it for so long,
so it gets to the point where it’s work and I know how to go about it.
But the show is special because it has a lot of really positive messages
in it that really go beyond just jokes. There’s a lot more there. So I
feel like I have a real responsibility to it and to the audience, to make
it as good as I can every time I do it... I feel really satisfied with
what I’m doing so it doesn’t get to be a drag, ever.
After I saw the
show in New York, I walked out rolling on the floor. But I also got a message
out of it. It was poignant and mature.
It was really important
for me to bring that across, what I went through—all the tragedy and pain
really was self-inflicted. Yes, I had some hard times, and things that
happened to me were not my fault, but I took them to a way deeper level
than they should have gone. So in a way, I did a lot of damage to myself
because of what I believed about myself and the world and my career, and
all these things that I thought would somehow fix me. When the reality
is that there was nothing wrong to begin with... It [was] a real growth
experience, learning about who I was as a performer and as a person. I
really needed to grow up a lot.
Do Asian Americans
ever come up and talk to you after the shows?
The Asian American
fans have a lot to say and are frequently very emotional. I have spoken
to lots of Korean adoptees who live in remote areas of the US, who have
limited contact with other Asians and have subsequently found their racial
identity to be an isolating thing, and they tell me that seeing me on television
has helped them a lot with coming to terms with their Korean-ness. That
is such an amazing thing. There are also a lot of artists who are inspired
by me and want to go in the same direction. I love that very much.
Has anyone ever
proposed to you in a fan letter?
I do not get proposals
in fan mail. Many admirers, all very cute and polite. Alas, I am spoken
for.
Would you date an
Asian American man? Korean?
I love Asian men and
would totally date them. Especially Korean guys, except they are mostly
spoiled because their moms treat them like babies.
All your jokes about
your mother, they are hilarious! Are they true, and doesn’t she mind that
you’re airing dirty laundry about your family?
She really loves it,
and she’s really supportive. She’s amazing. She’s just so in love with
my career and what I’ve accomplished and what I get to do. She loves when
I talk about her. And it is true, all the things she has said. I think
what it comes from is I used to tell my friends when I was growing up all
the things my mom said and we would laugh and laugh about it.
Were your parents
always so supportive of you?
No, they were not
supportive for a long time and not until I achieved quite a large level
of success. They really weren’t happy with me as a teenager at all, and
I wasn’t a good kid. I was pretty rebellious, and I was a bad student and
didn’t want to be in school. I didn’t go to church, which was a huge thing...
My parents were really ashamed of me. They talked about my brother a lot
because he did very well in school and was very involved in the church
and in the Korean community. I really didn’t care. I went out and had fun.
That was the beautiful thing about the way I was brought up. For some reason,
I just didn’t care. I had this trust that I could do what I wanted to do
and that I had the ability to do it. What they were feeling for me had
a lot to do with what they thought. They didn’t see any Korean American
people on television in the capacity that I wanted to be on it. They didn’t
see any of that as being a possibility, not because of any lack that I
had, but mostly because they just didn’t see a place for it in the culture.
So their fears were totally justifiable, but I felt like I could do anything.
I didn’t care if I made money or if I was successful. I never dreamed that
it would lead me to where I am now or to the places that I have been, I
was always satisfied just doing it. I
mostly want to be
successful so that I can inspire other people who feel like they do not
have a voice to come forth and use it and to feel free enough to do something
better than I’ve done. That is my goal.
Are you comfortable
with being a role model?
I hope that I am,
in that I want to inspire Asian American women to go out there and pursue
their dreams no matter what. In that [sense], I think being a role model
is a very valuable thing. I’m really glad that I live my life in such a
positive way now and if I can inspire other people to do it, then I think
their lives would be better.
There’s talk about
you hosting your own talk show...
That’s something that
I’m thinking of. I’m so busy right
now with other projects.
But when things settle down, that’s what I would like to do. [If I do a
talk show], it would be directed to people who I feel are not represented
in the media and feel like they don’t have a voice in our culture and yet,
at the same time, are really involved in it. I’m such a big consumer of
pop culture. I am a big participant and yet I don’t see a lot of people
of color—I don’t see people that are gay, I don’t see a lot of diversity.
And so I want to pull that out of what I do see and focus on the really
different and diverse people that are out there in the entertainment industry
and beyond. I think it’s time.
In terms of format,
would it be more Jerry Springer or Oprah?
It would probably
be closer to something like Arsenio or the Chris Rock show where you have
a guest and you have a musical guest. That kind of format is exciting.
And sure, I would do stand-up. I would really love to do that. But there’s
some time before that will happen.
What was it like
having dinner with President Clinton and the President of Korea? I would
have been mortified.
It was really okay.
I met Gemma Kahng there, which was great because we became good friends
after that, and she made a lot of clothes for me and she’s a wonderful
designer. That was one positive thing that came out of it. It’s one of
those things that you say
that you did, that
you had a state dinner at the White
House. It really wasn’t
that exciting.
Did you get to meet
President Clinton?
Yeah,yeah.
Did he comment on
your work?
No, but I know that
Hilary Clinton is a big fan of mine and I actually went to a big party
for her birthday when I was in New York. You know she wants to be Senator.
I think she’s great. She’s kind of into me. I’ve never met Chelsea.
And did you say
“Ahn nyung ha sae yo?”’ [”Hello, how are you?”] to the President of Korea?
Yes, and we sort of
bowed. He’s cool.