Cho Reveals Her Fighting Spirit
reviewed by Dawn E. Bell

I worry for Margaret Cho. I didn't use to. I was comfortable knowing she was out there speaking loudly with great humor as she unloaded her boisterous brand of comedy on an ususpecting public that has grown to love her outrageousness. But after reading her new book, I have Chosen To Stay And Fight, I fear for her life.

Hard as nails and soft to the core. Scraming banshee bitch and political irritant. Lover of life and art, swooning with love and spouting prose. Unstoppable foul-mouthed, angry righteous woman. These are only some of the elements that make up that magnificent Margaret Cho. Love her, or hate her, but you can never deny her existence. She has spent her whole life making it impossible to ignore her. Those who have witnessed her stage presence think of her with smiles of awe for her mind-bending, line-crossing humor. But to read Cho is another thing altogether different. The voice is familiar for the most part, alternately raw and nasty and just plain funny as hell. But a more potent Cho speaks throughout her new book.

The first part of the book is Cho as Cho. Someint I "got" from her performances. She takes well-aimed shots at the "old white men" in power in a way we have learned to expect from her (and apprecite). She speaks about being Korean, a minority, a woman and unbeautiful. But keep reading. Like a rocket that needs to burn hot fuel before lift off, she shoots into the stratosphere and takes us along for an unprecedented ride. There is much here that should be plastered on billboards and t-shirts.

When she begins the segment about her personal icons the gloves come off and her fierce heart speaks louder than we have ever heard before. I defy anyone to read her letter to Richard Pryor and not to shed a tear. She touches every subject with skillful, intelligent words, turning a phrase about hate crimes into something hot with passion and fear for us all. Of course for every intelligent thought and heartfelt plea for peace she liberally sprinkles urban euphenisms and expletives. It wouldn't be Cho without them. They all work together to present her deeply held beliefts about racism, feminism, family values, Spike Lee, the shame of menstruation, hate crimes, Michael Jackson, George Bush, and general stupidity.

Her ego is boundless. It has to be. She is brave and foolish because like a skilled Amazon shooting her arrows, her words hit many targets, splintering them into piles of useless debris. She terrifies the right and maternally embraces the left. And like a mother, will protect them to the death. Let's just hope she doesn't have to do it alone. By the timeyou finish this book you will want to join the Cho army. If each of us took a share of the responsibility to express our outrage at being discriminated against, railed against an establishment that has accused us of being un-American, sacrilegious and misdirected, then perhaps I wouldn't worry that some day some crazy, terrified white guy would pick Cho off with a single rifle shot.

We need to channel our anger. We need to focus and unify our strength and do what Cho has done - "Chose To Stay and Fight."