A warmer Cho gets hot about politics

CONTENT IN HER PERSONAL LIFE, CHO TAKES AIM AT THE STATE OF THE UNION

By Nerissa Pacio

Mercury News

On stage, Margaret Cho's irreverent, raw comedy has proved to audiences for years that she wasn't afraid to let it all hang out. Offstage, though, she held it in. Her tummy, that is.

``The stomach for me had always been a shameful thing,'' Cho writes on her blog (www.margaretcho.com), ``the dead giveaway that I was never going to be the ethereal and frail love object, the movie star's girlfriend, the chic and popular model, but merely a fat and unchangeable human being. In ballet I was always admonished for not pulling it in tight enough.''

The comic, who brings her solo ``Assassin Tour'' to Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco tonight and to the Mountain Winery in Saratoga on Saturday, has used her constant battles with weight and eating disorders as fodder for her act.

But since overcoming alcohol addiction, settling into married life two years ago with artist and writer Al Ridenour in Los Angeles and developing a healthful passion for belly dancing, Cho seems to have found inner peace and comfort in her own skin.

``Belly dance is so much fun, and there's so much to it,'' Cho, 36, says by phone from Austin, where she's nearing the last leg of a four-month national tour. ``It really celebrates women's bodies. So many things in our world don't. So I needed something physical that was also a celebration, as opposed to a punishing workout.''

Cho's life changes have affected her work onstage. In her latest show, her comedy takes a turn from the intensely personal to the definitively political, skewering what Cho sees as the current sad state of the union.

``It's about what was happening at the time,'' Cho says of putting together ``Assassin.'' ``Things like Gavin Newsom letting some 4,000 lesbian and gay couples get married in San Francisco, the Iraq war, the rise of the Christian right, political mobilization of these Christian groups and their association with the right wing. All of this stuff was happening at once. I wanted to write about it and try to use my opinions to fuel my comedy. I wanted to use my work as a platform for my political views.''

For a woman whose often raunchy, sometimes physical comedy has touched on everything from sex and race relations to incontinence and the quirks of her Korean-American family, the new show is a departure that resulted, in part, from her domesticated lifestyle. She's even entertaining thoughts about having kids.

``I used to go out a lot and be really social,'' says a soft-spoken Cho. ``Now I prefer to stay home. I have my family, my husband, my dogs, our home, and that's really important to me. . . . A lot of my comedy before came out of dissatisfaction with my personal life. Now that I'm satisfied, I can look elsewhere for different sources of material.''

Cho, who admits that her boisterous onstage persona is nothing like her ``shy'' real-life demeanor, grew up in San Francisco and performed her first open-mike gig at 16 in a club above her parents' bookstore on Polk Street.

``It wasn't great, but it wasn't terrible,'' says Cho, recalling that introduction to stand-up. ``It was something that made sense to me, that I wanted to figure out. I knew if I kept trying, it would become worthwhile.''

Cho was right. Though she saw ABC pull the plug on her sitcom, ``All-American Girl,'' in 1994, by 1999 her solo show ``I'm The One That I Want'' was playing off-Broadway. It later became a bestselling book and a feature film. Her second show, ``Notorious C.H.O.,'' toured 37 cities and was released as a CD and a feature film in 2002. The next year's ``Revolution'' tour grossed more than $4 million in ticket sales, played in more than 60 cities and was released on a CD that received a Grammy nomination.

In addition to her comedy, Cho maintains a Web site advocating for gay marriage (www.loveisloveislove.com). Her next project, ``Bam Bam & Celeste,'' is a movie written by and starring Cho and comedian Bruce Daniels, who opens the shows on this tour. Now in postproduction, it is expected to be released late this year.

For now, Cho says she's keeping her focus on the dual roles of social activist and entertainer.

``It's an unfair time -- an unconstitutional, very racist, very homophobic time. We've lost our way as a country, and it's very frustrating. But I'm an entertainer, and I know a lot of times that anger doesn't translate well into good performance or good writing. You have to have a measure of humanity. I want to have a good show. And I want to do something with it.''