It’s been said that you should never meet your heroes. However, as a workaholic Asian-American trying to make her way in the comedy world from the heart of Iowa, I’ve never been one for listening to the word “should.” So, when I had an opportunity to have a conversation with comedy icon Margaret Cho, I had to go for it.
Cho has been touring since the fall with her new tour, Choligarchy. She will be performing at the Englert Theatre in Iowa City on Friday, March 27, with plans to bring some of her proudly outspoken political views to the stage.
“When I go to conservative areas, I think it’s a message that people want to hear because they’re bombarded with things that they don’t believe in constantly,” Cho said in an interview with Little Village. “So, the audience that I attract in general are people that are open-minded, or they want something different from what they’re receiving constantly.”
It was refreshing to connect with Cho, who understands the challenges that come with performing as a racial minority and as a female artist.
“I think it’s really about overriding their sense of fear about the other, whether that’s if you’re a woman, if you’re a person of color,” she said. “That’s almost looked at as two strikes against you, and you have to override the identity fear that people have about somebody that’s not them.”
Despite her success. Cho has had her fair share of negative feedback. She described her first face-to-face death threat in her 40-year career.
“Somebody came to a show and had to be physically taken out of the showroom because she was threatening me, and she caught me in the lobby and threatened to shoot me then, after that, report me to Homeland Security, which I’m like, why would you shoot me and then report me? You would do one or the other,” she recounted.
“I’ve gotten online death threats since the Bush era. Those don’t phase me, but the face to face ones are really shocking, because people do have guns.”
When it comes to polarizing viewpoints, sometimes the call is coming from inside the house. I asked Cho her thoughts on the rise of conservative comedians, and what it’s like to work alongside them.
“It’s important. It’s part of the times, and a lot of those guys are my good friends, and so it’s awfully disheartening to know that people that I legitimately love don’t believe my existence is valid as a queer woman from an immigrant family.”
In addition to writing a little bit every day, Cho encouraged aspiring stand-ups to let themselves be bad at something and to learn from that. Comedians call it “bombing,” and I do it all the time.
“You learn so much more from bombing than you do from killing, exponentially more. The best people bomb because they’re stretching the parameters of what they believe is right for the stage,” she told me. “So don’t take an audience’s reaction towards you as a reflection of how good you are as a performer. Don’t be afraid to be bad. That’s good.”
