Just Say Cho
An Interview with Funny Lady Margaret Cho
by Loren King
Margaret Cho was honing her stand-up comedy act in the gay clubs of San
Francisco long before she was old enough to drink in them. Growing up in
the city's vibrant Polk Street neighborhood in the 1970s -- "a wonderful gay
Mardi Gras all the time," she recalls -- Cho's charged and campy comedy
took root.
Before she became a fixture on the college comedy circuit and on David
Letterman, Rosie O'Donnell, and Politically Incorrect,
Cho was a precocious 16-year-old performing on the stages of bars and
comedy clubs of her native city. It was a natural progression to gay
pride events and even an Olivia cruise. Lesbians are among Cho's loyal
following, but she admits that "gay men are my true audience."
"Growing up on Polk Street shaped my worldview as dramatic, spiritual, and
sexualized," says Cho, now 31 and a self-proclaimed "fag hag." "It was a
very free, celebratory kind of atmosphere."
That atmosphere is front and center, she says, in her one-woman show,
"I'm the One that I Want," currently on national tour. A recent
performance at the Warfield Theater in San Francisco
was filmed for theatrical release. "It's the perfect marriage of live
performance and what you can do with film," she says. "I'm the One That I
Want" earned raves during its off-Broadway run. Entertainment Weekly
named Cho's biting, soul-baring, seriously funny account of her personal
and professional ups and downs -- including battles with weight and drinking,
and the severe depression that followed the cancellation of her 1995 TV
series -- one of the "great performances of 1999."
Cho's love for the live stage helped her use her comedic voice as a way
to understand what happened to her and to bring the audience on the
journey with her. "It wasn't all painful, or wasted," she says of her
four-year depression after the disaster of her short-lived, heavily-hyped
TV show, All-American Girl. "It brought me to more happiness and success.
'I'm the One That I Want' is about self-love, reliance and awareness."
It's an anthem to survival, some reviewers have said, and Cho is proud
that she emerged from the show biz wreckage of All-American Girl scarred
but eager to share her experience with a live audience. "Show business is
hard. You are always being judged. It is a hostile atmosphere for women
and people of color," she says. "I was fortunate that I was a comedian
and relied on my voice. But the TV show destroyed that. I no longer had a
voice -- it was all about how I looked, not about what I had to say. It was
very demoralizing. I felt very alone and not good enough."
In addition to touring the country (she'll hit Europe sometime this
summer) with her cathartic live show, Cho is also writing a book, due out
from Ballantine in the fall, about her life, career, and her time in
sitcom hell. She's still a popular fixture on all the TV talk shows -- she
covered the Super Bowl for Politically Incorrect -- and still pledges her
time and talent for AIDS benefits. She just hosted a major fundraiser
for AmFar at the Sundance Film Festival. "AIDS is a big part of my life;
it's taken a lot from me personally," Cho says. "Many people I've known
and loved have died and many are living with it now. So it's important
for me to be of service whenever I can. I'll always do that."
Cho is grateful for friends in the entertainment industry who provide her with
inspiration and serve as her role models. "Madonna is my spiritual mother. I get
so much from her. And I love Rosie O'Donnell; she's helped me in my career, and I
love that she's so successful," Cho says. She gets plenty of TV and movie offers,
she says, but prefers right now to limit her time on outside work in order to
focus on her own projects. "I'm the One That I Want" -- on stage, in film, and on
the page -- has given Cho the thrill of shaping her own comic vision, retaining
control over it, and sharing it with her fans. "The show is a reflection of my
life," she says.
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