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Happygrrl of the Month:
Margaret Cho...
DID YOU KNOW?
The Happygrrl of the Month title is given to a cool chick who exemplifies the true essence of being a Happygrrl. Which means that she possesses independence, a sense of humour and a slightly neurotic side.
Our Happygrrl of the Month is…Margaret Cho.
What many people may not know about Cho is that her real-life persona is calm and soft-spoken, a stark contrast to her on-stage personality, who is loud, blunt, and not afraid to offend. After almost twenty years in the business, she knows when to turn it on and when to shut it off.
Stand-up began when she was sixteen. Her first gig was in a comedy club called The Rose & Thistle, situated directly above her parents' bookstore. Her love for comedy led her to enter a comedy contest, where she won a chance to open for none other than Jerry Seinfeld. In her early twenties by then, Cho moved to Los Angeles to pursue a full-time career in comedy. She won an American Comedy Award for Female Comedian of the Year in 1994, appeared on Arsenio Hall, and was invited to perform on a Bob Hope prime-time special.
I remember watching Cho on some late-night comedy special when I was fourteen. Not many women were prominent comics then, and even fewer were of ethnic background. Not only did I think she was hilarious, I also related to her stand-up about growing up with old-fashioned Asian parents and the confusion of trying to assimilate to a new culture while retaining the old one. I immediately liked her, and thought we'd be great friends had we ever met.
In 1994, while her star was on the rise, Cho dabbled in a comedy series on ABC called "All-American Girl." The cast was mostly comprised of Asian-American actors, and the premise incorporated much of her stand-up - Cho, a rebellious and carefree Korean-American woman, lives with her old-fashioned parents, overachieving brother, and sometime crazy grandmother. The show only lasted one season before getting the axe. In recent interviews, Cho spoke candidly about that time in her life, citing creative differences between the producers and herself. She was also asked to lose weight and make changes in her life. After the show was cancelled, Cho fell into depression.
In her groundbreaking off-Broadway show, I'm The One That I Want (1999), Cho talked about her depression and her newfound outlook on life. The show was turned into a movie in 2000, and grossed $1.3 million, an admirable feat for a self-produced and self-distributed movie. The movie was then turned into a book in 2001, and landed on the National Bestseller List. That same year, Cho was also awarded the New York Magazine Performance of the Year, a MAC Award, and was listed as one of Entertainment Weekly's Greatest Performances of the Year.
She went on the road again in 2001 with another show, The Notorious C.H.O., which ended its run in January of 2002. She is currently preparing a new show and working on a second book. Not bad for a Korean girl who once dreamt of making people laugh. ¤ C.Ho.