{"id":243870,"date":"2010-09-17T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2010-09-17T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/funny-unpredictable-margaret-cho-still-on-top-of-her-game\/"},"modified":"2010-09-17T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2010-09-17T07:00:00","slug":"funny-unpredictable-margaret-cho-still-on-top-of-her-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/funny-unpredictable-margaret-cho-still-on-top-of-her-game\/","title":{"rendered":"La divertida e impredecible Margaret Cho sigue en la cima de su juego"},"content":{"rendered":"

Por Pat Sherman
\nAsistente de edici\u00f3n SDUN
\n<\/strong>
\n

\"Funny,<\/a>
From \u201cAll American Girl\u201d to druggie to \u201cDrop Dead Diva\u201d and now as a recording artist, Margaret Cho is a hands-down favorite among audiences. (Courtesy Bob Mahoney)<\/figcaption><\/figure>When it comes to eviscerating homophobia, jingoism and conservative hypocrisy, nothing quite slices through the rhetoric like Margaret Cho\u2019s salty tongue. <\/p>\n

For close to two decades Cho has been entertaining audiences with her brand of socio-political humor\u2014most recently, in the form of her first music CD, \u201cCho Dependent.\u201d On it, the Korean-American comedienne is joined by music powerhouses Ben Lee, Andrew Bird, Tegan and Sara, Fiona Apple, Brendan Benson, Ani DiFranco and Grant Lee Phillips.<\/p>\n

Though the CD is performed with professional musicians, Cho\u2019s wit is still in place, as evidenced on songs such as \u201cCaptain Cameltoe\u201d (with DiFranco),\u201cCalling in Stoned\u201d (with Lee and bong-toting comedian Tommy Chong) and the cabaret-crooner, \u201cEat Sh-t and Die\u201d (with Phillips). <\/p>\n

Cho\u2019s first foray onto the small screen was as a star of the short-lived 1994 sitcom \u201cAll American Girl,\u201d based on her popular stand-up routine about life in her parents\u2019 gritty San Francisco bookstore. During filming, Cho was pressured to lose weight and criticized for not living up to the producers\u2019 image of Asian stereotypes\u2014a period in her life Cho has chronicled in her routine and that led to her much publicized battle with drugs and alcohol during the mid-\u201990s. <\/p>\n

In recent years, Cho has returned to television as a regular cast member of the Lifetime Television series \u201cDrop Dead Diva,\u201d in which she plays a paralegal assistant named Terri. <\/p>\n

Cho will be in San Diego Sept. 24 for a performance at Humphreys Concerts By the Bay. She took a moment to speak with San Diego Uptown News recently from the road. <\/p>\n

Perhaps one of the most amusing songs on Margaret Cho\u2019s new CD, \u201cCho Dependent,\u201d is her countrified stalker anthem \u201cI\u2019m Sorry (I Shot You in the Face),\u201d a collaboration with Andrew Bird recorded in Nashville.
\nCho said the song was inspired in part by \u201cthe first ladies of country\u2014Patsy Cline, Tammy Wynette and Dolly Parton.<\/p>\n

\u201cAndrew Bird is the composer of that song, so he actually selected that genre for it. He heard it in the words that I wrote,\u201d Cho said. \u201cI wanted to be like a real country diva, kind of (achieve) a \u2018Coal Miner\u2019s Daughter\u2019s\u2019 realness.\u201d
\nCho enlisted professional musicians for the project so that \u201cthe music would endure the joke.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody that did it is so great and people that I love,\u201d she said. \u201cThey really helped me make this record what it is and I\u2019m really proud of it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis album is the first time that I really committed myself to singing and really worked on getting my voice to a different place, getting it to be really good,\u201d she added. \u201cI learned how to play guitar from the beginning of making the album.\u201d<\/p>\n

The CD, Cho said, is her tribute to the \u201cDivine Miss M.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m really inspired by Bette Midler and this idea that cabaret is still going strong and, you know, that these sort of funny, bawdy, sexy songs can be found in piano bars all over the world,\u201d she said. \u201cThis is my total tribute to that kind of culture.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite Cho\u2019s enthusiasm for the project, she said she\u2019s not inspired to pull a Sandra Bernhard, crooning through the entire performance. Since her last stop in San Diego, Cho has amassed a lot of comedic ammo and will likely only perform two or three songs, to give fans a taste of the CD, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am dying to do standup and that\u2019s kind of what I do,\u201d Cho said. \u201cI\u2019m not used to switching over that much\u2014plus I have all this new material that I wrote that I really want to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

The show will include plenty of material about the immigration debate, Proposition 8 and, of course, Cho\u2019s mother\u2014who was fodder for her shows long before Kathy Griffin introduced her boxed wine-tipping parental figure.
\nAsked how her mother compares to Griffin\u2019s, Cho responded with a laugh, \u201cMy mom\u2019s a lot younger than Maggie\u2026(but) I think they would hit it off well. I wonder if they\u2019ve met. I feel like they have, actually. I can\u2019t remember. But I know Maggie very well and I love her.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cho and Griffin were contemporaries in the 1990s, working their way up the comedic ranks in hot, sweaty LA comedy clubs. However, asked for a juicy memory, Cho said the specifics are a bit hazy.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hard to remember, because of all (my female contemporaries) I\u2019m the one that did the most drugs,\u201d Cho said. \u201cI\u2019m the most brain-damaged one. (Kathy Griffin) probably remembers everything \u2019cause I don\u2019t think she\u2019s ever drank or taken a drug in her life. I remember nothing\u2014and I\u2019m the biggest whore. But we all sort of started together. Her and me and Janeane Garofalo. We were just all hanging out and we were just kids.\u201d<\/p>\n

A portion of the proceeds from Cho\u2019s tour will benefit Gulfport, Miss.-based Institute for Marine Mammal Studies, which has been working to save marine mammals and sea turtles affected by the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
\n\u201cI thought that it was just a really important charity,\u201d Cho said. \u201cThey\u2019ve got to make sure that the ecosystem is back where it was, and that\u2019s making sure the animals are okay. That\u2019s definitely a major concern and I think it\u2019s a very worthy organization.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked for her assessment of President Barack Obama, whom she championed on the campaign trail, Cho said she still stands by him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think people should give him a chance because, anyway, he\u2019s so much better than McCain,\u201d Cho said. \u201cIf McCain had won, first of all, he would have died before anything happened. Then Sarah Palin would be president, and then where would we be? I think people need to just calm down about it and give Obama a chance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked for her take on a Palin presidency, Cho said, \u201cWe gotta make sure that she doesn\u2019t take over that office\u2014ever\u2026because she just wants to take away women\u2019s rights. She\u2019s just so wrong for this country.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cho\u2019s tour will continue through December, after which she will return to Peachtree City, Ga., for more tapings of \u201cDrop Dead Diva.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI really love it,\u201d Cho said of the show. \u201cIt\u2019s a lot of fun and it challenges me. I get to have sort of a dramatic role on that sometimes. It\u2019s all about self-esteem and body issues, which I\u2019m so down with, you know. It gives that subject a lot of, I think, hope and love and heart.\u201d<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Pat Sherman SDUN Assistant Editor When it comes to eviscerating homophobia, jingoism and conservative hypocrisy, nothing quite slices through the rhetoric like Margaret Cho\u2019s salty tongue. For close to two decades Cho has been entertaining audiences with her brand of socio-political humor\u2014most recently, in the form of her first music CD, \u201cCho Dependent.\u201d On […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1310,"featured_media":243871,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11555","_seopress_titles_title":"Funny, unpredictable Margaret Cho still on top of her game","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11549,11551,11555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-243870","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-entertainment","category-news","category-uptown-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243870","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1310"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243870"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243870\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/243871"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243870"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}