Margaret Cho
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| Margaret Cho | |
|---|---|
| Hangul: |
조모란
|
| Revised Romanization: | Cho Moran |
| McCune-Reischauer: | Cho Moran |
Margaret Cho (born December 5, 1968) is an American comedian, fashion designer and actor. Cho was born to Korean-American family in San Francisco, California.
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[edit] Career and related activities
Cho won the American Comedy Award for Best Female Comedian in 1994.[1] That same year Cho was the first female Asian American to have a television series based around her. The show, All American Girl, was quickly cancelled after suffering from poor ratings and major content changes over the course of its single season, even suffering criticism from within the Asian American community over stereotyping. Cho's desperation to please the show's producers to make the show a success led to decisions that affected her health negatively. Her rapid weight loss in order to complete the pilot episode caused serious kidney failure. The program was also problematic because much of the humor was based on broad stereotypical portrayals of her Korean relatives and homosexual bookshop customers. (Cho went on to discuss all of these subjects at great length in her one-woman show I'm the One That I Want.)
Since then, Cho has had several successful one-woman shows. The first, called I'm the One That I Want, dealt with her difficulties breaking into show business due to her ethnicity and weight. The 2000 film version became the highest-grossing film in history in proportion to the number of prints ($1.4 million with only 9 prints).[citation needed] The second, 2002's Notorious C.H.O. (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. Both tours spawned live movie versions, albums, and books.
In 2003, she made another stand-up film, Revolution, released in 2004. She also began an internet presence with the advent of http://www.margaretcho.com and her daily weblog. 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. 2
One of Cho's core base of fans has always been the gay and lesbian community; and she is always a supportive and sympathetic advocate of that group. When SF Mayor Gavin Newsom, directed that city hall issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples in San Francisco in 2004 (until stopped by the state supreme court), Cho started Love is Love is Love, a website promoting the legalization of gay marriage in the United States.
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, West Memphis 3, initially bounced but was eventually honored.[1][2] 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 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 of 2005. This is the first time in Cho's DVD's in which she includes herself in when talking about gays, saying "we" and "our community." With Cho's outrage over the 2004 reelection of George W. Bush, Assassin features political material as the source of her comedy more so than her previous films.[citation needed] 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. The DVD, Margaret Cho: Assassin is distributed by Koch Vision, a division of Koch Entertainment.
In 2006 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.1 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 a restaurant in California. [3]. In July 2006 she directed the music video for the song "Former Miss Ontario" by The Music Lovers.
A 2006 Maxim magazine reader poll selected Cho as the "2nd Worst Comedian of All Time." Sinbad was selected as number one. [2]
She was interviewed by comedian Dawn French in her television program "Girls Who Do Comedy", which profiled 30 female comedians. 4
In October 2006 she appeared as a dominatrix in the Liam Kyle Sullivan music video for the song Text Message Breakup. 1
In November 2006, Cho joined the board of Good Vibrations [4]. She co-wrote a rap song entitled "My Puss", which was recorded by a duo called "Maureen and Angela"; she then appeared in and directed the music video for the song. 2
[edit] Personal life
Margaret Cho’s legal name is Mo Ran Cho (Cho Mo Ran). The anglicized version is Margaret. Margaret cannot speak Korean, but does understand some simple conversation.
Cho has dated Quentin Tarantino (who appeared on an episode of her sitcom), Chris Isaak, and Garrett Wang. In 2003, she married Al Ridenour, an artist involved in the creation of Cacophony Society and the Art of Bleeding; she was featured in an Art of Bleeding performance in March 2006[5].
She has three dogs: Ralph, named for actor Ralph Fiennes; Bronwyn, named for a car; and Gudrun, named jointly after 1970s West German terrorist Gudrun Ensslin and the Valkyrie Gudrun of Norse mythological tradtion[6][7][8].
Cho is openly bisexual and has been a longtime spokesperson for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender interests.[9].
[edit] Explicit material
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Cho's comedy routine is famous for being highly provocative and sexually explicit. Her favorite subjects for her standup routines include substance abuse, eating disorders, her bisexuality and fondness for gay men, politics, and Asian-American stereotypes. She has comedically mentioned her plans to "cover her vagina with leaves" because of her belief that falling into such a trap was the only way that someone would enter it. In the same vein, she has also opined that if one doesn't have sex for a long time, say two years, then one's virginity is automatically earned back. ("I have a vagina I'm not using. Would any of you like to have it?"[citation needed]) 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 as a means to expeditiously complete oral favors for men.
[edit] Fashion
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.[10]
Margaret Cho can currently be seen on the AMF Korsets website[11] modeling a "nurse" corset. [3]
[edit] Quotation
- I just don't get it. People come up to me and ask me where I'm from and it's such a loaded question. And I'll say 'I'm from San Francisco,' and they lean in and whisper 'No, I mean where are you REALLY from?' And then I have to say 'Well, my parents are originally from Korea.' And then I have to listen to stories about all of the Korean people they know, or some Korean food they ate once, or how they're not sure they're pronouncing a Korean word right. And it's like...I don't care. I don't get it! I never walk up to white people and say, like, 'Oh my God, are you from France? No, not recently, I mean like a couple thousand years ago? Oh my God, I totally knew it! I love your fries! - (On Racism, on National Public Radio)
[edit] Filmography
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[edit] Bibliography
[edit] Discography
[edit] Tours
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[edit] References
- ^ http://www.margaretcho.com/blog/theyturnedoffthemic.htm
- ^ http://www.onlineseats.com/margaret-cho-tickets/index.asp
- ^ http://margaretcho.com/blog/thesensuouswoman.htm
- ^ http://www.247gay.com/article.cfm?section=66&id=11541
- ^ http://artofbleeding.com/poison-march29.html
- ^ http://www.margaretcho.com/articles/individual_articles/newsday2_article.htm
- ^ http://margaretcho.net/blog/thenewgirl.htm
- ^ http://margaretcho.com/blog/gudrun.htm
- ^ http://www.hrc.org/Template.cfm?Section=Get_Informed4&Template=/ContentManagement/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=14042
- ^ http://store.yahoo.com/suhailaonlineshopping/margaretcho.html
- ^ http://amfkorsets.com
[edit] External links
- Official website
- Her weblog
- Margaret Cho's Marriage Equality Resource Site
- Official Bam Bam and Celeste website
- Margaret Cho at the Internet Movie Database
- Buzzflash interview with Margaret Cho
- "Saved by the Gong", Slate.com, February 23, 2006.
Categories: Cleanup from October 2006 | Articles that include images for deletion | Articles with unsourced statements | Articles lacking sources from August 2006 | All articles lacking sources | American comedians | American stand-up comedians | American film actors | American television actors | Comedians | Bisexual actors | American bloggers | Feminist artists | Korean Americans | LGBT comedians | LGBT rights activists | People from San Francisco | San Francisco State University alumni | 1968 births | Living people | The Nanny actors | LGBT Asian Americans
![[3]](http://amf.addr.com/factory/margaret-red.jpg){kind=link}