Comedian. Actor. Musician. Advocate. Entrepreneur. Artist. Just a few of the adjectives that describes Margaret Cho, a jack of all trades, master of many. When hasn’t Margaret and her voice been a part of our consciousness? It seems like she’s always been here, lighting the path for other women, other members of underrepresented groups, other performers, to follow. Margaret was born and raised in San Francisco, an experience that she can say with all sincerity helped to shape her world-view. “There were old hippies, ex-druggies, burnouts, drag queens, and Chinese people. It was a really confusing, enlightening, wonderful time.” Right as she was starting her stand-up career at age 14, Margaret won a comedy contest to open for Jerry Seinfeld in the early ’90s. She soon moved to Los Angeles and, still in her twenties, hit the college circuit, where she became the most booked act in the market and garnered a nomination for “Campus Comedian of The Year.” She performed over 300 concerts within two years. Arsenio Hall introduced her to late night audiences, Bob Hope put her on a prime time special and, seemingly overnight, Margaret Cho became a household name. Her groundbreaking, controversial ABC sitcom, All-American Girl (1994) soon followed. Oddly, while ABC courted her because she was a non-conformist Korean American woman with liberal views, the powers-that-be decided Margaret should “tone it down” for the show. Although she was an Executive Producer, this would be a battle she could not win. The experience was a traumatic one, bringing up unresolved feelings left over from childhood; Despite all of her successes, feeling left out and alienated are subjects still near to Margaret’s heart. She has gladly become the “Patron Saint of Outsiders,” speaking for those who are not able to speak for themselves, and encouraging people to use their voice to promote change. In 1999, her groundbreaking Off-Broadway one-woman show, I’m The One That I Want, toured to national acclaim and was made into both a best-selling book and feature film of the same name. After her earlier experiences, she made sure she would control the distribution and sales of her film, an unusual move at the time. I’m The One That I Want received incredible reviews. In 2001, Margaret launched Notorious C.H.O., a smash-hit 37-city national tour that culminated in a sold-out concert at Carnegie Hall. Notorious C.H.O., hailed by the New York Times as “Brilliant,” was released as a feature film and aired on Showtime. In March of 2003, Margaret embarked on her third sold-out national tour, Revolution. It was heralded by the Chicago Sun Times as “Her strongest show yet” and the CD recording was nominated for a Grammy forComedy Album of the Year. In 2005 she released Assassin, with The Chicago Tribune stating “(Assassin) packs passion in to each punch.”

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“What did the council decide on item 42?” — answered with the speaker and the moment.

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