Photo by Sergio Garcia via margaretcho.com
Margaret Cho
Margaret Cho
Margaret Cho doesn't exclude the mainstream from her comedy. But for the outsiders, those on life’s margins, her humor aims for such folks’ sweet spot.
“Being an outsider, has always been my experience,” Cho reflects, “and so I think my work is geared to those who feel outside the mainstream, which is really everyone. No one feels like they fit in. It’s part of our humanity.”
Cho brings her celebration and criticism of humanity to The Improv (20111 W. Bluemound Road, Brookfield) for four shows, on Friday April 1 at 7 and 9:30 p.m. and Saturday April 2 at 6:30 and 9 p.m. COVID-19 and its social aftereffects, especially as they relate to those of Asian heritage, figure among the critiques she articulates in some of her latest material.
“It’ll be a lot about the anti-Asian hate during the pandemic and coping with that, the history of my family with pandemics like AIDS compared to the current one,” Cho, who is Korean American, says in regard to the subject matter informing her current show.
Laughter from Serious Subjects
Though Cho can elicit laughs from serious topics, she feels essentially no different about her life and career than when she first plied her talent for stand-up as a teenager in the 1980s. “I still feel like the kid I was. I don’t think I’ve learned or changed much, which I think is the function of art. It keeps you young, which is good and bad in life, but great in art,” she observes.
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Cho’s lifetime of artistry encompasses not only stand-up comedy, but movies chronicling her routines, a one-woman Broadway show, book authorship, fashion design, music and television in both reality and scripted series formats. And in those avenues of expression where she can be funny, she summons chuckles when she keys in on people's commonality.
“It’s all about finding the places where we agree. Humanity is vulnerability, and comedy is the heightened examination of that fallible experience. Where we agree is where the joke exists,” she remarks as to making her humor accessible to as many people as possible. Yet, Cho isn’t about to deny her prerogative to be a political firebrand who champions causes dear to her. Her approach, however, may change as the zeitgeist leans toward her preferred left or rightward.
“It’s easy and hard because the struggles remain the same even though the topical changes. Existential arguments are always along the same lines. It’s all about finding what those lines are and messing with it," Cho offers. Whether people see Cho for affirmation of their worldviews or an evening of humor regardless of partisanship, she’s glad they are making it out to see her after the forced hiatus from nightlife. “Everyone is extra happy to be out and at shows, and we hope it keeps going. Who knows what will happen? I’m grateful for now.”
Here Cho reveals a great expanse of her heavily-tattooed frame and tells of how her ink played a part in a spa day gone awry ...
