Margaret Cho: gay man trapped in woman’s body

Steve Rothaus, August 23, 2001
 

Margaret Cho is perhaps the gayest straight woman in comedy. Cho even describes herself as a gay man in drag. “I really do feel like a gay man. That’s the queerest thing I can visualize. It’s not really a joke -- that’s who I am,” says the comedian, whose Notorious C.H.O. tour kicks off Aug. 30 at the Jackie Gleason Theater of the Performing Arts in Miami Beach. Much of Cho’s comedy revolves around sex and sexual orientation. From her 2000 performance film, I’m the One That I Want, which is being released Oct. 9 on video and DVD: “So I had sex with a woman on this cruise and I went through this whole thing -- am I gaaaay? Am I straaaaaight? And then I realized: I’m just slutty. Where’s my parade?!” Cho, 32, knows her audience and has carefully cultivated it. “No matter where I go, I attract the same people. The crowd always seems to be the same -- a lot of gay men, a lot of lesbians, a lot of women. People of color. Old people, young people. Hip theatergoers. A lot of artists come. It’s like a really good party. “I’m really content with that, but I want more, always. Being more mainstream would be great to me, but what I’m doing now is really great, too. Being more mainstream means more people get the message.” Cho, who is pictured with Rosie O’Donnell on the September cover of Rosie magazine, grew up in San Francisco, the daughter of Korean immigrants. She discovered she was different at the age of 5. “I really loved television and watched it constantly,” Cho recalled. “I realized I didn’t look like Cindy Brady. It was really shocking to me.” Years later, Cho starred in her own TV show, All-American Girl, on ABC. The 1994 series about a young Korean and her family failed after the network watered it down. “Too ethnic,” TV executives told Cho. Since then, Cho has concentrated on promoting her film, written a book also titled I’m the One That I Want and done several notable TV guest spots including one this season on Sex and the City. Her passion, however, remains stand-up comedy. “It’s the most important thing I do, the most fun, the most rewarding. I make the most money from it. I find it the most empowering,” Cho said. The Notorious C.H.O. tour “focuses on the journey of self-discovery,” Cho said. “It’s about sex and finding sexual happiness and definition within singlehood. It’s a really feminist show, but it’s also a show about the gay male experience. “It’s about being the other, and being angry about being the other. It’s really personal and political material.” After 16 years of performing, Cho has learned a lot about herself. “I’m willing to do things that other people aren’t, willing to disclose things about myself that other people aren’t,” she said. “In this show, I talk a lot about going into sex clubs and having sex in sex clubs. That’s an odd thing for a straight woman to talk about publicly -- I would rather go into a sex club than endure the embarrassment of a first date.” She frankly describes her own sex-club experiences: “I was doing activity that was so safe, almost not sexual. I didn’t view it as sexual. I’m just afraid of boredom and loneliness. More than death.” Eventually, Cho stopped going: “It was boring and I got lonely. I was lonely there. I was around people there who were not interesting. Just because you are a sexual libertine doesn’t mean you are great conversationalist.” That’s classic Cho -- being able to speak about her darkest fears and still be funny. Still, her life is not a series of one-liners. “She’s not always on,” said Scott Dill, former news assignment director at WAMI-Channel 69, who spent time with Cho last year when her film debuted in Miami Beach. “She’s saving it for the stage. She’s quiet, polite and a little bit reserved.” Cho, however, is not reserved about her political activism. She has offered her performance next Thursday as a major fundraiser for several South Florida gay organizations: the Dade Human Rights Foundation, the Dade Human Rights Foundation’s Women’s Fund and the South Beach AIDS Project. The best house seats are being sold through those groups, and these higher-priced tickets include a post-concert party with Cho. “I’m always looking to try to work in some form of activism in every gig that I do, every show,” Cho said. “When we’re united, we’re the majority. That’s my basic mission. Then, of course, I try to be funny.”     MORE ABOUT NOTORIOUS C.H.O. Margaret Cho’s 2001 concert tour opens 8:30 p.m. Aug. 30, at the Jackie Gleason Theater of the Performing Arts, 1700 Washington Ave., Miami Beach. Regular ticket prices are $28.50-$36 and are available through Ticketmaster, 305-358-5885 in Dade and 954-523-3309 in Broward. Tickets including a post-concert reception at Rumi in South Beach are $75 each and available through the Dade Human Rights Foundation, 305-572-1841.