Fag hag. Shit Starter. Girl Comic. Trash Talker. Film Star. Television Actress. Bestselling Author…
Standup comic Margaret Cho brings her complex persona and standup comedy this Saturday, April 27, to UNC-Charlotte’s McKnight Hall. Cho’s performance is a benefit show sponsored by Time Out Youth and UNC-Charlotte PRIDE (People Recognizing Individual Differences and Equality), and all proceeds will go to the nonprofit organization Time Out Youth (www.timeoutyouth.org), which, since 1991, has provided support, education, advocacy, affirmation and empowerment to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning youth, ages 13 through 23, in the greater Charlotte area. Part of the group’s mission is to reach more youth who seek its help, in order to try to end their sense of isolation and confusion, and to expose and eradicate the discrimination they face.
Time Out Youth holds a special event every year, typically a goods and services auction, to raise funds and awareness. “This year, we wanted to do something to get more widespread attention, and draw a larger audience,” explains Joy Pugh, the group’s director of development. “This is probably the biggest event we’ve ever put on.”
Last autumn, Time Out Youth contacted Cho’s manager to ask for autographed books and videos for a silent auction fundraiser. With that door open, the group then called Cho’s agent to ask if she’d bring her act to Charlotte. They negotiated an agreement for Cho to perform at less than her usual $20,000 appearance fee (although Pugh is obligated to not reveal the exact amount).
Cho, 33, is the first Korean-American to have her own (albeit short-lived and controversially cancelled) sitcom, and has been performing standup since she was 16. At the age of 23, she was asked to play herself in ABC’s All-American Girl — herself, only “more Asian,” and 30 pounds lighter. In her first film and book, both titled I’m the One That I Want, she describes the hell she went through to make herself conform to some plastic Hollywood ideal — including hospitalization for quick weight loss-related kidney failure — until then-boyfriend Quentin Tarentino warned her that network execs were trying to take away “her voice.”
During her career, Cho has received numerous awards, including the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD)’s first-ever Golden Gate Award, honoring her as “an entertainment pioneer who has made a significant difference in promoting equal rights for all, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity.” 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.” Last year, she was awarded a Lambda Liberty Award by the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund for “pressing us to see how false constructions of race, sexuality, and gender operate similarly to obscure and demean identity.”
Onstage, Cho openly talks about having male and female lovers, her “great appreciation for drugs and alcohol,” being sexually harassed by men in power, and her one-time promiscuity. Perhaps because of her openness, her performances attract large numbers of gay fans, yet her themes are universal: self-doubt, fear of rejection, loneliness, love of family. “She really does so much for so many communities,” Pugh says. “Plus, she’s hilarious.”
Cho’s most recent tour, “The Notorious C.H.O.,” ended in January. She’s currently reprising parts of that show on the college circuit, including her upcoming appearance at UNCC. We caught up with her by telephone just before her appearance at Florida State University in Tallahassee.
Creative Loafing: The name of your tour — “The Notorious C.H.O.” — seemed to be a take-off of the name of the rapper The Notorious B.I.G. What does it really stand for?
Margaret Cho: Well, that’s what it is. I mean, it’s just a joke, taking on kind of a rapper identity and the ludicrousness of all that. It’s mostly (named) after the Notorious K.I.M. CD, which was by (rapper) Lil’ Kim, who I really adore. It’s a kind of a rap moniker that started as an inside joke among my friends and then it became a really appropriate title for this show — which is not about rap at all! (laughs)
We understand that when the Time Out Youth organizers were negotiating with your management team, they sent a packet of information — including letters to the editors of our local newspapers — showing the attitudes that some people in Charlotte have about gays, and gay teens especially. Did you get to see those?
Oh no! What did they say?
Well, people in Charlotte sometimes can be less than tolerant about homosexuality. Some people feel that an organization like Time Out Youth is just promoting homosexuality as a cause or something…
Well, homosexuality is a cause and should be promoted. I think it’s fabulous. I think everyone should be homosexual — then there’s more (partners available) for me! I think people that are homosexual really help out straight people in that they… sort of make the playing field more interesting. You want variety in life, and variety in the world. The fact that we’re all different is a beautiful gift… There’s so much morality tied into sexuality. People are often expressing their religious views about sexuality, and they’re expressing their political views about sexuality, and, you know, they have no right to extend their views over other people — most of all, (over) young people who should have the freedom to do what they want to do. To have an organization that actually promotes homosexuality is a great and valuable thing, because what they are promoting is bigotry, obviously —
The people who are opposed to such an organization, you mean?
Yeah! And, well, they don’t have to join! (laughs) It’s not like we’re going door-to-door selling cookies so they can join. It’s not a recruitment kind of thing.
Your fan base certainly isn’t entirely gay, but you draw a large gay audience. And you have said in previous interviews that you’re very comfortable around gay people. Would you please explain?
Well, I grew up in San Francisco. I grew up right in the midst of the really vibrant culture that was San Francisco in the 70s. It was a city very populated by gay men, where gay men ruled — we had gay men in (political) office. We had incredible culture surrounding the neighborhood that my parents lived and worked in. So I grew up around gay men and knew them, at a very young age, very well. I always felt that was my family, that was my crew — and I feel the same way today. That’s a support network that I have in my life that I really treasure, and it’s not like I constantly seek it out, it’s just the reality of my life. I really enjoy having that kind of comfort level, and having a kind of intimate connection with this community. And it’s a community that’s close to my own community as well. So it’s an important thing (to me).
What sorts of topics can the Charlotte audience expect you to cover?
There are going to be some new things, and that’s part of it — I don’t really know yet. The “Notorious C.H.O.” show largely deals with sexuality, and largely deals with the subjects of heterosexuality, homosexuality and the fluid nature between them. It’s about being a single woman and taking an honest, hard look at that, and what does that mean in terms of society? How do I relate to men? How do I relate to women? How do I relate to myself? So it’s about sexuality. It’s a very sexually driven show, but it’s not, like, a sex show — it’s about these topics that I think are really important… It’s also about finding our own destiny and freedom and our own vision of happiness, whatever that might be.
Do you still talk onstage about your experience in Hollywood, starring in ABC’s All-American Girl? That seemed very painful for you.
No, that was really covered in the last show, and the book… I don’t know how much more there is to say about that. (This tour is) more about who I am now.
Yet you don’t shy away from TV; just last night, I saw you on a rerun of Sex and the City. Will you continue to do TV?
I think television is great, and there are a lot of shows I’d really love to do.
What are you working on next?
I’m working on a new show right now… and I don’t really know what it’s going to be called. I’m still in the writing stage. My new film is coming out July 4, which is the film version of “The Notorious C.H.O.” My book is coming out in paperback in June, and then I have a record (The Notorious C.H.O. at Carnegie Hall) coming out in June as well.
Over the years, you’ve described yourself as a fag hag, a trash talker and a slut. Has anything changed?
I don’t think I’m so much of a slut these days. It’s like, I was really much younger then. Now it’s much too tiring. I’m too old; I can’t deal with it anymore.
Margaret Cho will appear at UNC-Charlotte’s McKnight Hall at 8pm on Saturday, April 27. Tickets for UNCC faculty, staff and students are available for $35 by emailing PRIDE at PRIDE@email.uncc.edu or by calling Regina Young Hyatt at 704-687-3181. Tickets for the general public are available at the $50, $100 and $200 levels. The $200 level includes a pre-show cocktail party at the University Hilton and a private, post-show reception with Margaret Cho. For more information or general public tickets, call Time Out Youth at 704-344-8335. For more info on Cho, visit her website at www.margaretcho.com. *
This article appears in Apr 24-30, 2002.
