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*[http://asiancemagazine.com/200801 Margaret Cho in Asiance Magazine]
*[http://asiancemagazine.com/200801 Margaret Cho in Asiance Magazine]
*[http://inkedmag.com/inked_people/34/ Margaret Cho feature in Inked Magazine]
*[http://inkedmag.com/inked_people/34/ Margaret Cho feature in Inked Magazine]
*[http://entertainment.aol.ca/article/free-flow-with-margaret-cho/330592/ Margaret Cho Interview on AOL Canada]
*[http://entertainment.aol.ca/article/free-flow-with-margaret-cho/330592/ Margaret Cho Interview on AOL Entertainment]
*[http://www.vh1.com/shows/dyn/the_cho_show/series.jhtml The Cho Show] at the [[VH1]] website
*[http://www.vh1.com/shows/dyn/the_cho_show/series.jhtml The Cho Show] at the [[VH1]] website
* Margaret Cho's Guest DJ Set on KCRW [[http://www.kcrw.com/music/programs/gd/gd080820margaret_cho KCRW Guest DJ Set]]
* Margaret Cho's Guest DJ Set on KCRW [[http://www.kcrw.com/music/programs/gd/gd080820margaret_cho KCRW Guest DJ Set]]

Revision as of 19:55, 6 October 2008

Margaret Cho
Margaret Cho at the 1994 Emmy Awards
Birth nameMoran Cho[1]
Born (1968-12-05) December 5, 1968 (age 56)
San Francisco, California, U.S.
MediumStand-up comedy, television, film
NationalityAmerican
Years active1994—Present
GenresLiberal/Political Humor, LGBT Humor
Subject(s)Gay rights, race, liberal issues
SpouseAl Ridenour (2003—present)
Notable works and rolesAssassin, I'm the One That I Want
WebsiteOfficial Site
Official MySpace
Margaret Cho
Hangul
조모란
Revised RomanizationJo Moran
McCune–ReischauerCho Moran

Margaret Cho born Moran Cho[1] (December 5, 1968) is a U.S. comedian, fashion designer, author and actress. Cho is best known for her stand-up routines, through which she critiques social and political problems, especially those revolving around race and sex. She has also directed and appeared in music videos, and has her own clothing line. She has frequently supported gay rights, and identifies herself as bisexual.[2] She has won awards for her humanitarian efforts on behalf of women, Asians, and the LGBT community.

Early life

Cho was born into a Korean family in San Francisco, California. She was frequently called "Moron" by other children due to her Korean name.[1] Cho grew up in a racially diverse neighborhood in the 1970s and 1980s, which she described as a community of, "old hippies, ex-druggies, burnouts from the '60s, drag queens, Chinese people and Koreans. To say it was a melting pot—that's the least of it. It was a really confusing, enlightening, wonderful time."[3]

Cho's parents, Young-Hie and Seung-Hoon Cho,[4] ran a bookstore on San Francisco's Polk Street. Her father writes joke books as well as a newspaper column in Seoul, South Korea.[5] After Cho expressed an interest in performance, she auditioned and was accepted into the San Francisco School of the Arts, a performing arts high school. While at the school, she became involved with the school's improvisational comedy group[6] with Sam Rockwell.

Career

Early career

After doing several shows in a club adjacent to her parents' bookstore, Cho launched a stand-up career and spent several years developing her material in clubs. Cho's career began to build after appearances on television and university campuses. She secured a coveted spot as opening act for Jerry Seinfeld, and was featured on a Bob Hope special. She was also a frequent visitor to The Arsenio Hall Show.[7] In 1994, Cho won the American Comedy Award for Best Female Comedian.[8]

All American Girl

That same year, ABC developed and aired a sitcom based on Cho's stand-up routine. The show, All American Girl, was initially feted as the first show where an East Asian family was prominently featured.

Cho has expressed subsequent regret for much of what transpired during the production of the episodes of the show.

  • After network executives criticized her appearance and the roundness of her face, Cho starved herself for several weeks; her rapid weight loss, done to modify her appearance by the time the pilot episode was filmed, caused serious kidney failure.
  • The show suffered criticism from within the U.S. East Asian community over its perception of stereotyping. Producers told Cho at different times during production that she was "too Asian" and, that she was "not Asian enough". At one point during the course of the show, producers hired a coach to teach Cho how to "be more Asian".[7]
  • Much of the humor was broad, and at times, stereotypical portrayals of her close Korean relatives and homosexual book-shop customers.

The show was quickly canceled after suffering from poor ratings, and the effect of major content changes over the course of its single season.[9]

Following the show's 1995 cancellation, Cho became addicted to drugs including alcohol. As detailed in her 2002 autobiography, I'm the One That I Want, in 1995, her substance abuse so degraded a performance in Monroe, Louisiana, that she was booed off the stage by 800 college students.[10]

I'm the One That I Want

Cho's career and personal life were challenged after the cancellation of the show, but Cho eventually sobered, refocused her energy and developed new material. In 1999, she wrote about her struggles with the show in her first one-woman show, I'm the One That I Want. Cho then released her book of the same name, and the show was filmed and released as a concert film in 2000. Her material dealt with her difficulties breaking into show business due to her ethnicity and weight, and her resulting struggle with and triumph over body image issues and drug and alcohol addiction.[11]

Shows, books, music

Cho appeared in an episode of the HBO comedy Sex and the City's fourth season. The episode titled, "The Real Me," first aired on June 3, 2001, and also guest-starred supermodel Heidi Klum.

In 2002, the show Notorious CHO (the title derived from slain rapper The Notorious B.I.G.) dealt with her having been raised in 1970s San Francisco and her own bisexuality.

In 2003, she made another stand-up film, Revolution, released in 2004.

Cho doing stand-up in June 2005

In late 2004, Cho began work on her first self-written and starring film role. The movie is called, Bam Bam and Celeste, and is a low-budget comedy about a "fag hag" and her gay best friend. The film co-stars Cho's friend and co-touring act Bruce Daniels. The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, in 2005.

In 2005, Cho started promoting and touring with her new show, Assassin. The show became her fourth live concert film, and premiered on the gay and lesbian premium cable network Here! TV, in September 2005. In this DVD, she notably includes herself when talking about gays, saying, "we," and, "our community." Posters for Assassin feature Cho in paratrooper gear holding a microphone in the style of an automatic rifle, a reference to the infamous 1974 photo of heiress Patty Hearst.

Also in 2005, Cho released her second book, I Have Chosen to Stay and Fight, a compilation of essays and prose about global politics, human rights and other topical issues. Cho launched a national book tour in support of the collection. An audio reading of the book was also released. A DVD of a live taping of the Assassin tour was released in conjunction with the book.

Cho launched "The Sensuous Woman"[12] burlesque-style variety show tour in Los Angeles, California on August 10, 2007 with tour dates scheduled through November 3, as of October 10.[13] Past and scheduled tour stops after Los Angeles are Chicago, Illinois and New York, New York.[13] On August 10, 2007 the San Francisco Chronicle reviewed the show, Cho's work, key events in her personal life and characterized the show as, "In fact, as bawdy and bad-behaving as the cast gets, the whole show feels more like a crazy family reunion than a performance."[14]

The premiere performance of Cho's "Beautiful" tour was on February 28, 2008 in Sydney, Australia as part of the Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Festival. Cho was also the Chief of Parade for the festival's annual parade along Oxford Street on March 1. During her stay in Sydney, Cho was filmed shopping for parade outfits in a drag store with Kathy Griffin and Cyndi Lauper for Griffin's reality series Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List. The episode featuring Cho aired on June 26, 2008.

After same-sex marriage became legal in California in May 2008, Cho was deputized by the City of San Francisco to perform marriages there.[15]

Cho has her own reality show The Cho Show, which premiered on VH1 on August 21, 2008. [16] Cho and her family and friends will also appear in an episode of NBC's new series Celebrity Family Feud which premiered on June 24, 2008.

In September 2008, Cho released her first single "I Cho Am A Woman" on iTunes. The song, produced by Desmond Child, will be on her debut album due out in 2009.[17]

Nature of material

Cho performing burlesque at the 2006 Miss Exotic World Pageant.

Cho's comedy routines are often explicit. She has covered substance abuse, eating disorders, her bisexuality and fondness for gay men, and Asian-American stereotypes, among other subjects, in her stand up.

The poster for her first one-woman show (and film), I'm the One That I Want, featured her holding her arms out as if gripping a steering wheel but with her index finger extended, an allusion to a long joke she tells involving the rides home after using digital rectal stimulation while performing fellatio in order to expedite her partner's orgasm.

Cho also became well known for portraying her relationship with her mother in her work, particularly in imitating her mother's heavily accented speech. Her depictions of "Mommy" became a popular part of her routine.

Political advocacy

Cho's material often features commentary on politics and contemporary American culture. In addition to her shows, Cho also developed an additional outlet for her advocacy with the advent of Margaretcho.com and her daily weblog.

A substantial segment of her material and advocacy addressed gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender issues. When San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom directed that San Francisco's city hall issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples in San Francisco in 2004 (until reversed by the state supreme court), Cho started Love is Love is Love,[18] a website promoting the legalization of gay marriage in the United States.

Cho has also been outspoken about her dislike of current President George W. Bush. She began to draw intense fire from conservatives over her fiercely anti-Bush commentary; a live performance in Houston, Texas was threatened with picketing. Although protesters never showed up, she held a counter protest outside the club until security told her she had to go inside.[19]

In 2004, Cho was performing at a corporate gig in a hotel when, after ten minutes, her microphone was cut off and a band was instructed to begin playing. Cho claims this was because the manager of the hotel was offended by anti-Bush-administration comments. Cho's payment, which was issued by way of check directly to a non-profit organization, a defense fund for the West Memphis Three, initially bounced but was eventually honored.[20]

In July 2004 during the Democratic National Convention, Cho was un-invited to speak at a Human Rights Campaign/National Stonewall Democrats fundraiser out of the fear that her comments might cause controversy. In November 2005, she campaigned to pardon Stanley "Tookie" Williams, an early Crips gang leader, for his death sentence for four murders. On December 13, 2005, after exhausting all forms of appeal, Williams was executed by lethal injection at San Quentin State Prison, California.[21]

She emceed the multi-artist True Colors Tour,[22] which traveled through 15 cities in the United States and Canada. The tour, sponsored by the Logo channel, began on June 8, 2007. Headlined by Cyndi Lauper, the tour also included Debbie Harry, Erasure, The Gossip, Rufus Wainwright, The Dresden Dolls, The MisShapes, Rosie O'Donnell, Indigo Girls, The Cliks and other special guests. Profits from the tour helped to benefit the Human Rights Campaign as well as PFLAG and The Matthew Shepard Foundation.

On January 25, 2008, Cho officially gave her support to Illinois Senator Barack Obama for the nomination on the Democratic ticket for the 2008 U.S. presidential race.[23] After Republican Presidential candidate John McCain announced his running-mate, Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska, Cho said of Palin, "I think [Palin] is the worst thing to happen to America since 9-11."[24]

Other projects

In 2002, Cho founded a clothing line with friend and fashion designer Ava Stander called High Class Cho. The company eventually went defunct due to lack of consumer interest[citation needed]; however, in 2006, Cho introduced her own line of belly dancing belts called Hip Wear.[25]

In 2004, Cho took up bellydancing and started her own line of bellydancing accessories (sold through her website). She also had extensive tattooing done to cover the majority of her back.[26] She co-wrote and starred in a sitcom pilot based around the "Mommy" character of her stand-up, but it was not picked up. She began releasing comedic rap animated videos on her website under the moniker "M.C. M.C." (MC Margaret Cho) including the tracks "Finger" and "Roofies".

In April 2006, Cho started "The Sensuous Woman," a monthly burlesque/comedy/bellydancing show at Largo, a restaurant in California.[27] In July 2006, she directed the music video for the song "Former Miss Ontario" by The Music Lovers. In October of that year, she appeared as a dominatrix in the Liam Kyle Sullivan music video for the song "Text Message Breakup"[28] and has a cameo appearance in Sullivan's "Let Me Borrow That Top" clip.[29]

In November 2006, Cho joined the board of Good Vibrations.[30] She co-wrote a rap song with fellow comedian Diana Yanez entitled "My Puss", which was recorded by the duo as "Maureen and Angela"; she then appeared in and directed the music video for the song.[31] In December 2006, Cho appeared on the Sci Fi Channel (United States)'s miniseries The Lost Room as Suzie Kang, a tough, chain-smoking independent operator who will sell information to anyone about the motel room's Objects — for the right price.[32]

In 2007, Cho appeared in The Dresden Dolls' video of their song "Shores of California", which was MCed by Amanda Palmer[33] and in The Cliks' video for "Eyes in the Back of My Head", in which she played Lucas Silveira's lover.[34] She also voiced a character, Condie Ling, on the Logo animated series Rick & Steve: The Happiest Gay Couple in All the World. Her episodes began airing in 2007.

Recently on an episode of The Hour with host George Stroumboulopoulos, actress/comedian Cho mentioned that she loved Broken Social Scene and wishes to be a part of the band (offering to play the rainstick or the triangle). On air, Stroumboulopoulos called Kevin Drew from his cellphone and Cho made her request to join the band via his voicemail.

Personal life

Cho married Al Ridenour, an artist involved in the production of Cacophony Society and the Art of Bleeding, in 2003.[35] Margaret was featured in an Art of Bleeding performance in March 2006.[36]

Cho began getting major tattoo work done in 2006 and has become an enthusiast; as of March 2007 she estimates that 15-20% of herself is currently tattooed.[citation needed] She was interviewed by comedian Dawn French in her television program Girls Who Do Comedy, which profiled thirty female comedians.[37]

Commendations

  • In 1999, I'm The One That I Want won New York magazine's Performance of the Year award and was named one of the Great Performances of the year by Entertainment Weekly.[38]
  • In 2000, her "E! Celebrity Profile" won a Gracie Allen Award from the American Women in Radio and Television organization acknowledging its "superior quality and effective portrayal of the changing roles and concerns of women."[38]
  • In 2000, the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) awarded her with a Golden Gate award and described her as an entertainer who, "as a pioneer, has made a significant difference in promoting equal rights for all, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity."[39]
  • In 2001, she was given a Lambda Liberty Award by Lambda Legal for "pressing us to see how false constructions of race, sexuality, and gender operate similarly to obscure and demean identity."[40]
  • In 2003, she received a "Justice in Action" award from the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund.[41]
  • In 2003, she was given an Intrepid Award by the National Organization for Women.[42]
  • In 2004, she was awarded with the First Amendment Award from the American Civil Liberties Union.[43]
  • In 2007, she won for Outstanding Comedy Performance in AZN's Asian Excellence Awards.[44]
  • April 30, 2008 was declared "Margaret Cho Day" in San Francisco, CA.[45]

Filmography

Bibliography

Discography

Tours

  • "I'm the One That I Want" (2000)
  • "Notorious C.H.O." (2002)
  • "Revolution" (2003)
  • "State of Emergency" (2004)
  • "Assassin" (2005)
  • "True Colors" (2007)
  • "Beautiful" (2008)
  • "True Colors" (2008)

References

  1. ^ a b c Rebecca Donohue and Jen Kirkman. "Know Thyself, Love Thyself: An Interview with Margaret".
  2. ^ "5 Questions for Margaret Cho". Retrieved 2008-04-06. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
  3. ^ "Biography". Margaret Cho: Official Site. August 15, 2008. Retrieved September 20, 2008.
  4. ^ "Margaret Cho Biography". Film Reference. Retrieved 2007-12-29.
  5. ^ "Margaret Cho Biography". Yahoo! Movies.
  6. ^ Dann McDorman (2001-11-08). "As Nasty As She Wants to Be".
  7. ^ a b No Laughing Matter - Margaret Cho sounds off on political correctness, Asians in the media, and defying her parents
  8. ^ TheEnvelope.com. "Margaret Cho search results".
  9. ^ Margaret Cho's Asian sitcom. - By Sam Anderson - Slate Magazine
  10. ^ Margaret Cho’s mix of raunch and self-help conquers America
  11. ^ Miserandino, Dominick. "Cho, Margaret - Comedienne, Actress". The Celebrity Cafe.
  12. ^ "The Sensuous Woman". Margaret Cho official site. Retrieved 2007-10-10.
  13. ^ a b "The Sensuous Woman Tour Dates". Margaret Cho official site. Retrieved 2007-10-10.
  14. ^ Yang, Jeff (Oct. 10, 2007). "ASIAN POP / New tricks". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 2007-10-10. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  15. ^ Malkin, Marc (July 10, 2008). "Deputy Margaret Cho Performing Gay Marriages". E! Online. Retrieved July 13, 2008.
  16. ^ "What We're Watching This Fall". AsianWeek. {{cite web}}: Text "accessdate2008-09-15" ignored (help)
  17. ^ "Comedian Margaret Cho has released a single on iTunes". PerezHilton.com. Retrieved 2008-09-18.
  18. ^ Love is Love is Love
  19. ^ Protest This an entry in Margaret's blog
  20. ^ They Turned Off the Mic an entry in Margaret's blog
  21. ^ Save Tookie an entry in Margaret's blog
  22. ^ True Colors Tour | Home
  23. ^ Cho, Margaret (2008-01-25). "America's Next Top President". Huffington Post. Retrieved 2008-05-02.
  24. ^ Cho, Margaret (2008-09-19). "Honoring Cho". Washington Blade. Retrieved 2008-09-19.
  25. ^ http://store.yahoo.com/suhailaonlineshopping/margaretcho.html
  26. ^ Some of Margaret's tattoo photos as shown on her website
  27. ^ Margaret Cho Blog » Blog Archive » The Sensuous Woman
  28. ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcidD2HFK8M You Tube
  29. ^ YouTube - Let Me Borrow That Top
  30. ^ 247Gay.com - Margaret Cho Joins Sex Toy Retailer's Board of Directors
  31. ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10i17NNujDE&eurl= You Tube
  32. ^ SCIFI.COM | The Lost Room
  33. ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Awnjw36mNEs You Tube
  34. ^ YouTube - The Cliks Eyes in the Back of My Head
  35. ^ Louie, Rebecca. "For Edgy Wit, It's Cho Time". Daily News. October 8, 2003. Retrieved September 20, 2008.
  36. ^ "Art of Bleeding Live Ambulance Shows". The Art of Bleeding Foundation.
  37. ^ "Girls Who Do: Comedy". IMDb.
  38. ^ a b Comedian Margaret Cho to perform at Augsburg College
  39. ^ Margaret Cho, Billie Jean King, E*TRADE's Kathy Levinson and Dennis & Judy Shepard To Be Honored At GLAAD's Washington, DC and San Francisco Media Awards Ceremonies April 26, 2000
  40. ^ Cho Nuff: Outspoken comic brings her all-inclusive act to Charlotte by Karen Doyle Martin, April 24, 2002
  41. ^ Fearless and Funny Women Reign Supreme at AALDEF's Year of the Ram Celebration in NY by Lia Chang, February 16, 2003
  42. ^ NOW's First Annual Intrepid Awards Gala: Margaret Cho
  43. ^ ACLU News: ACLU/SC Honors Civil Liberties Advocates At Annual Garden Party
  44. ^ LOGOonline.com: NewNowNext Blog: True Colors Interview: Margaret Cho's Gay Agenda
  45. ^ Last Night: Margaret Cho Day at City Hall, sfweekly.com
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