GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE

NOVEMBER 11, 1994

9

Evenings Out

The greatest Cho on Earth

by Daniel Vaillancourt

San Francisco stand-up comic Margaret Cho, the star of the new ABC comedy All American Girl (Wednesdays, 8:30 pm), elicits decidedly mixed emotions from the lesbian and gay community. Years ago, Cho was branded “not queer enough" when impresario Donald Montwill began booking her at Josie's Cabaret and Juice Joint in San Francisco's Castro; now rumors run rampant that Cho has been a lesbian all along, and that her closet door has been resolutely locked shut to better assure a long, lucrative career in network television. Not so, says Cho, who believes the lesbian label simply stems from her long-standing refusal to proclaim her heterosexuality while performing before lesbian and gay audiences.

"There's not a naughty word that can be heard from me about her," confides Montwill. "She's the best . . . and fucking funny!"

Born and raised in San Francisco's Sunset District, 25-year-old Cho has cherished dreams of an acting career since childhood. An alumna of the city's High School of the Performing Arts, Cho enrolled in San Francisco State University's theater program in 1988. Dissuaded by the dearth of choice roles for Asian actors, Cho aborted plans to study drama at Julliard or Yale and veered into virgin territory: comedy.

Culling jokes from her experience as a “second generation Korean-American raised in a somewhat liberal, yet religious household," Cho honed her act at such San Francisco venues as The Improv, The Punchline-and Josie's Cabaret and Juice Joint.

The gay and non-gay public's response was phenomenal. To date, Cho remains one of the most successful acts ever booked at Josie's. According to Montwill, in the half-dozen one-week engagements Cho has played at the queer comedy haven over the years, she sold out every show.

Relocating to Los Angeles in 1992, Cho signed a deal with Disney last year, whereby the company promised to help her develop a situation comedy based on her club act. The result is All American Girl, a show in which “cultures and generations clash as Margaret Kim, the far-from-traditional daughter of Korean immigrants, straddles the line between the customs of her old-world family and contemporary American life."

Poised on the verge of bona fide celebrity, Cho remains utterly affable, surprisingly relaxed, and staunchly pro-gay. Taking time out from her Holly-

I grew up not only with an acceptance-or not

just with an awareness-of the gay

community, but a feeling of really being part of it. And being a child of it. So, gay issues are very important to me.

wood schedule, Cho spoke with me from her home in San Francisco. What is the premise of All American Girl?

It's about a woman who is in college and who is not really sure what she wants to do with her life. She's sort of like an alternative-music-set Gidget. She's very perky and fun and That Girl, Marlo Thomas-y. But she's also a total misfit in her house because she lives in a really traditional Korean family. She's constantly battling it out with her parents, especially her mother. She has a family of friends she works with and goes to school with.

The show is about being between things, about not knowing what you want to do when you're an adult, about not knowing if you are an adult. Kind of that bridge between adolescence and adulthood. It's also about the difference between Korean culture and American culture, and about [my character's] generation, in which those two cultures completely collide with each other.

How does it feel to have the responsibility of a whole show on your shoulders?

It's stressful, but not unmanageable. I understood from the beginning that it would be this way. You just accept it. You get very, very used to being the center of attention. There's a terrific writing staff, and a terrific production staff. So I don't feel like it's all on me. And even if it is, I'm being supported by so many great people that it's fine. It feels very even. How did you become a stand-up comic?

It was really by accident. I never really planned it. I never thought I was funny. Growing up, I was never a class clown or anything like that. But I did have a strong desire to become an actor at a very early age. I was artistic as a kid. I was a dancer, and played piano. My parents really encouraged that. Then, as I got older10 or 11I decided to pursue this acting career. I started very young, grew up within this little acting community in San Francisco, spent most of my adolescence around actors, and basically identified myself as that. I became involved in improv, and got to know a lot of comedians who basically encouraged me to do it. I don't think I ever would have done it or tried it on my own. I never would have come up with the idea myself, but ii turned out to be a really great thing. [After] the first night, I never stopped. I pursued that for seven years and it's brought me back almost to the beginning.

What hopes do you have for All American Girl?

I want it to be nothing less than a gigantic hit, to really go through the roof, and be a huge success. And not just a commercial success, not just a mainstream hit, but something we can really be proud of. And it's not there yetbut something that hopefully will have a lot of social commentary and talk about serious issues.