Comedian Margaret Cho isn't shy about her minority status. Actually the 46-year-old Asian American is proud of the fact she's a minority within a minority within a minority, as she's mentioned in several stand up routines.
These talking points will also likely come up during her three-day residency at the Improv in Addison, which begins Friday, May 8. (More deets.)
But if Cho had to weigh her race, gender and bisexuality against one another, she says she experiences discrimination in most cases because she is female.
Women are not "raised to be stand up comics, raised to have a point of view," Cho said recently by phone. "You don't survive unless you're really, really good. That's why most the stars of comedy are women because they're actually exceptional. That's the only way you can get to the point where you do have recognition."
Even exceptional women, however, have a hard time tackling certain topics, Cho says. She and other women, including comedy cohort Heather McDonald, were recently hosts of a now discontinued sex talk show called All About Sex. Despite her candor on stage, Cho felt is was difficult to be open because of the hosts' gender.
Despite the trails she's blazed, Cho doesn't pretend to have the answers to the issues facing her industry, such as the backlash she received from her Golden Globes performance as Kim Jong-un or comedy's ability to dehumanize people. So when is it OK to say, lighten up people?
"I don't know," she said. "I feel like I've gotten away with a lot more because I have a lot of minority identities within me."
