Margaret Cho
Comedian

She's Performing to Sold-Out -- Audiences Across the U.S.

Margaret Cho's new autobiographical movie "I'm The One I Want" is debuting across the country.
Click here for details!

Get ready to relish the Fresh, the Fun, and the Fearless standup and television/movie performer Margaret Cho. AsianConnections caught up with this brash young comedienne just before she flew east from California, and into then Hurricane Bonnie, to appear at sold-out performances in Texas.

The image of this fresh young Asian talent, headed storm-ward for the sake of the show, seemed strangely fitting. "I think it's fortunate that I am so fearless," Cho noted during our interview.

"Also it is sometimes unfortunate because I have made a lot of mistakes." Mistakes or no, we're glad she's so fearless, too. It's brought us that many more chances to see her in action.

Perhaps you're most familiar with Cho from her starring turn as Margaret Kim of ABC's sitcom "All American Girl".

Or you might have enjoyed Margaret in the movie "Face-Off" or as a recurrent presence on Comedy Central specials, most recently the series "Pulp Comics" (following phenomenally popular "South Park"). Then again, you may have seen Margaret in photos with President Clinton at the White House or with the president of Korea.

But wherever you've seen her, however you know her, you don't forget her. She's that kind of unique.

Margaret's career from the start let her rub elbows with great names in comedy. When barely 20, Cho entered a collegiate competition where the prize was getting to open for Jerry Seinfeld. Even though she didn't win, Jerry gave her some strong mentoring advice. "He was very direct," says Margaret, and "very honest". He urged her to persevere in her efforts.

"He told me not to be discouraged by coming in second, that the real wins would come later in my career. He really encouraged me to just go for it and go be a comedian." That she did. Today, Cho is the sole Korean-American, female member of a typically white male institution, the Friar's Club headed by legendary Milton Berle. "To be included in that really exclusive fraternity, I guess, is somewhat of an honor," acknowledges Cho. She's also been tapped to do her first roast-- Drew Carey in October in New York.

Her upbringing in a traditional patriarchal Korean immigrant family seems to belie her own nontraditional pursuits. "Here I am, "says Margaret, with great success in a career that is typically characterized as unfeminine, unseemly and oftentimes crude.

"Not only am I absolutely unafraid to talk about any aspect of my life, I really challenge all of those traditional values, so it makes perfect sense to me that people would oppose what I do just by virtue of what they have had ingrained in them from society, and that's fine, because their dissent is proof that I'm right." Yet that same tradition-oriented family supports Margaret and the options opened to her in their new chosen homeland .

"They are really happy, really pleased." says Margaret, "Because America, this country that they immigrated to, accepted their child in a place that they never thought that they would see Korean faces. That for them is a great achievement and also such a comforting thought."

For Margaret, the difference between stand-up comedy and acting in movies or television is more than the exhilaration of giving everything you have before a live audience. On the road, there's also a real feeling of ownership of the material as well as a lack of censorship that makes each performance particularly electric.

The editorial control possible with stand-up, unfortunately, was missing when it came to Cho's subsequent experience with TV's "All American Girl". With its debut in 1994, "All American Girl" was heralded as a groundbreaking effortand, as the first Korean American to star in her own series, Margaret heralded as it's real life pioneer. At the same time, however, some Asian press were notably critical of the show. Says Cho, "I accept that criticism as being absolutely true." For example, some were critical that not all the actors were of Korean descent on a show about Korean-Americans. Yet from a practical standpoint, relates Cho: "There were simply not any Korean-American actors to be found, an unfortunate fact of the entertainment industry."

And what the press failed to understand, she continues, was that this type of trivial criticism obscured the real issues. Cho has come to realize that the show's problems were writing, including her own lack of editorial control, as well as its emphasis on an ethnic portrayal of her Korean-American family.

This portrayal painted the family as too different in fundamental ways from the typical American family with everyday problems and situations. Cho describes the "It must be ethnic!" dictate as "racism under the guise of sensitivity, and just as insidious." She elaborates, "My question is why is ethnic different? Why can't ethnic be somehow similar? They did us a disservice, because we were always trying to speak that ethnic voice, but that ethnic voice doesn't really exist because it's too theoretical."

Had "All American Girl" been allowed to develop using everyday problems and circumstances, more along the lines of shows like "The Jeffersons" or "The Cosby Show", the outcome could have been different. "I had a lot of power usurped from me in different ways," she explains.

For example, she says,"When I started complaining about the show, an executive came back and started talking to me about my weight. They provided pay for a trainer, pay for a nutritional analysisall this stuff to divert my attention."

Even so, the network was not the sole source of problems with the show. "I didn't understand myself as a performer as well as I do now, certainly," Cho acknowledges. "All of it had to do with the fact that I wasn't ready, because if I had been ready, I would have known and understood that they were trying to divert my attention."

Having survived her first sitcom, Cho is ready to attack television again from a completely different angle and looks forward to that occurring in the near future. She's now teamed with a comedy partner, Karen Kilgariff, to write and star in an original show. Not really a sitcom or quite like anything that's been on television before, she calls it "very new" and "very basic."

We're intrigued and can't wait for a closer look. Another recent Cho project will keep her on her feet as a dancer in the comedic movie "Triple Threat". Cho has some closing advice for Asian-Americans, and particularly those bright new Korean-American faces, looking to break into the entertainment industry. "We haven't been out there long enough. We're the first generation to be really establishing ourselves," Margaret concludes. "I failed [with All American Girl] only because I didn't believe that I could win in the first place."

"I welcome [other Asian Americans] with open arms. We need the voices out there... You've got to persevere, you've got to trust your instincts and really believe in what you can do. Don't be discouraged by the lack of Asian faces out there, because yours could be one. Yours could be one- -yours should be one and we need you." Well said, Margaret, and we need you, too still fresh, ever fun, and fantastically fearless!

- by AC Team Cherie Campbell, Greg Karns, Michael Kai and Suzanne Kai

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More on Margaret's TV, film and personal appearances click here for her 2000 schedule.
Send fan mail to Margaret Cho through AsianConnections.Com

More about Margaret Cho:
AC Team Interviews the Real Margaret Cho Summer 2000
Margaret's Movie - "I'm The One I Want"