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To say that comedienne Margaret Cho likes to ruffle a few feathers is an understatement. The Korean-born spitfire, known for her biting wit and no-bull honesty, has been rousing the rabble for more than a decade. If she’s not creating a fantastic uproar about gay rights, Cho is raising her voice against political correctness. She got down and dirty this past August when she opened her State of Emergency tour in New York City on the same night as the launch of the Republican National Convention. State of Emergency is nastier and foxier than last year’s Revolution tour; it’s not only classic Cho comedy, it’s also her demonstration against the secrecy of American government, so people, gather ‘round. “I went to the big protest in New York City, and it was amazing how many people were there,” exclaims Cho. “I’ve been to so many of these events and there was so little media coverage. The police presence was pretty alarming, however. I went to one protest that was only 50 people. It was mostly environmentalists and kids in their 20s, but they were flocked by 100 police. It looked like something in a war-torn area where police are surrounding it—kind of like Tiananmen Square or something of that magnitude. In NYC, the streets were all barricaded. It’s scary and I wondered, ‘What does this mean?’ We can’t protest? We can’t do anything? We can’t get together to decide that we don’t like the fact that this convention is here?” Cho found it odd that the Republicans would hold their convention in a traditionally Democratic city like New York, but the events in town just fueled her fire. As an activist and performer, she’s been frank from the start, from her battles with drugs and alcohol and a chronic eating disorder to the ups (and precipitous downs) of becoming a television sitcom favorite. Laughter and sensitivity have always been at the heart of Cho’s work, and The State of Emergency isn’t any different. Cho feels as if it’s her duty to speak out. “Mostly it’s an opportunity to do good work,” says Cho. ”To me, it’s about using what I do as a way of exercising my own opinions. It’s my responsibility to talk about things I believe in. It’s personal and it’s also on principle that I want to do it.” In State of Emergency, Cho touches upon the tragedy of September 11 while sharing her own ideas about our present administration. It’s not pretty. “I
think that the world is on the verge of some very terrible, terrible
stuff,” says Cho. “For so long, America didn’t
know what the American government was up to and now we’re
starting to find out. The stuff that happened on 9/11 didn’t
happen randomly. The government chose not to disclose such things
to the public, and this level of not knowing really reaches out
so far. We need to rectify it, change it or stop it. The media,
too, only gives us part of the story. It’s just not right.” “Marriage equality became important to me when I got married (in June 2003 to Los Angeles artist Al Ridenour),” says Cho. “Being married for about a year now made me see that it is different. There’s a permanence that I give to my husband that I wouldn’t necessarily have with a partner, but there is something about marriage that makes a difference so I think that should be available to everyone who wants to be married or acknowledge his or her relationship in some way. To say it takes away from the institution of marriage is ludicrous, it’s impossible.”A2P Margaret
Cho performs at the Michigan Theater on Saturday, October 9 at 7:30
p.m. 603 East Liberty St. in downtown Ann Arbor. Tickets are $29.50
- $39.50 and are available from the Michigan Union Ticket office
(734) 763-TKTS or Ticketmaster at (248) 645-6666.
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