Margaret Cho Won’t Be ‘Intimidated Into Invisibility’

The Last Laugh

The Daily Beast

Comedy Interviews, Comedy, Interviews, Tv & Film, Society & Culture, Tv, Movies, Film

4.6 • 661 Ratings

🗓️ 19 November 2019

⏱️ 53 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

25 years after starring in the first major sitcom to center on an Asian-American family, Margaret Cho is more “hopeful” than ever about the opportunities for Asian-American comedians. In this episode, Cho talks about how she would approach that sitcom differently today and tells stories about dating director Quentin Tarantino and acting opposite Nicolas Cage and John Travolta. She also weighs in on Dave Chappelle’s recent jokes about the bisexual community and reflects on the backlash she received after portraying an exaggerated North Korean character alongside Tina Fey and Amy Poehler at the Golden Globes.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	I've kind of deviated from the path of Asianness, of Koreanness.
0:05.0	I went into comedy.
0:07.0	I went into comedy in a way that was very sort of different.
0:13.0	I went into a very young.
0:15.0	I told my mother when I was 14 I wanted to be a comedian.
0:19.0	And she said,
0:20.0	Oh, maybe it's better if you just die.
0:27.0	Hello, and welcome to The Last Laugh.
0:29.7	I'm Matt Wilstein from The Daily Beast,
0:31.7	and my guest on this week's show is the legendary comedian Margaret Cho.
0:36.2	I have been a fan of hers for as long as I can remember dating back 25 years to her ABC sitcom All-American Girl.
0:43.7	That was the first and only sitcom to center on an Asian-American family until fresh off the boat premiere just a few years ago.
0:51.5	Margaret is still on the road performing stand-up all over the country, and she recently
0:55.8	launched her own podcast called The Margaret Show, where she talks to comedian friends like
1:01.2	former Last Laugh guest Kathy Griffin, as well as her former hairstylist and current Queer Eye
1:06.2	co-host Jonathan Van Ness. We get into a lot of interesting territory on this episode, including
1:12.4	Margaret's relationship with Quentin Tarantino, the anti-Asian racist slurs that got comedian
1:18.1	Shane Gillis fired from S&L earlier this year, Dave Chappelle's controversial bit on bisexuality,
1:24.0	and a pretty insane story about working with John Travolta and Nicholas Cage on the movie Faceoff.
1:30.5	I think this is one of our most fun episodes yet. Which ones have been your favorite? Let us know by leaving a five-star rating and review on Apple Podcasts. But for now, let's hear me and Margaret Cho.
1:43.7	Does Lucia have a lot of podcast experience?
1:46.2	Yes.
	...

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