Friday, Sept. 24, 2004 | 9:05 a.m.
"It's just like pro wrestling," Margaret Cho summarizes of the down-and-dirty politics that have marked this year's presidential campaign.
President Bush and Sen. John Kerry are "almost screaming in the camera at each other," she says. "It's just escalating to like this death match."
Where's a steel cage when you need one?
If comedian-turned-political/social activist Cho -- whose "State of Emergency" stand-up tour stops tonight at UNLV's Artemus Ham Hall -- has it her way come election day, Kerry will drop-kick Bush and the Republican party right out of the Oval Office.
But first: "I'd love to see an Edwards-Cheney face-off," she joked recently from her Los Angeles home, of a fantasy bout between the Democratic vice-presidential candidate and the incumbent: "You'd have this super-young guy (versus) the oldest man in the world."
For one reason or another, Cho was being uncharacteristically understated in ripping on the race for the White House -- particularly in the case of Bush, whom she typically ravages on- and offstage.
Last month the Web site AlterNet.org quoted her as saying: "Everything (Bush has) done has been a grand disaster, a total failure. It's almost worse than if he had set out to fail, because he did put across the appearance of a politician trying to succeed. But his administration is so rife with lies, scandals, betrayals and cover-ups that it is fast approaching being utterly unforgivable."
Cho is on her own campaign trail of sorts, bringing the rage-heavy, politically charged tour -- which kicked off Aug. 28 at New York's Apollo Theater -- through swing-vote states, including Nevada.
Nevertheless, "I don't see Las Vegas particularly as any sort of Republican stronghold," she says. "Even the Republican strongholds that I have been performing in, there's an overwhelmingly fantastic response because people want to hear a different message."
"It's amazing how much people really are very concerned about politics, and very concerned about the way the nation is going, and what will happen in the course of the election, and what will happen in the world, and what kind of effect it's gonna have on their lives," she explains.
"It's like we are just getting used to the idea of politics affecting our daily lives, and in a way that I think has never been really realized before, so it's a kind of urgency or immediacy that I feel people are very adamant about -- knowing what they want from their politicians and knowing how to go about getting it."
The challenge for Cho is in presenting the topics and still garnering laughs. "It's got to be tempered with a sense of good humor and levity," she insists. "I mean, it's still got to be entertainment, and I really want to appeal to people who maybe don't agree, because that's really valid, too."
"State of Emergency" follows on the heels of last year's politically fueled "Revolution" tour, the CD for which earned Cho a Grammy nomination for Best Comedy Album. The film version premiered in June on cable's Sundance Channel, and was released in August on DVD.
To keep up with the intense mudslinging and finger-pointing that has characterized the presidential campaign, San Francisco-bred Cho is allowing herself the opportunity to ad-lib more onstage during this tour, and includes zingers that are ripped from the headlines. "It's more just about being able to have the freedom to do that -- to add things, to take things," she says.
At least through November, she'll likely be talking about "the whole, like, crazy atmosphere" of the upcoming election: "Like Dick Cheney saying that if Kerry's elected, that there'll be terrorism again. Like, how does he know? Is he gonna make some calls and, like, hook it up?"
Cho's take on the Republican party: "They don't really care if they ever appear to be off-base or off-color. They have an incredible arrogance and confidence about the way that they are bigoted." Meanwhile, "I really encourage that the Democrats have the same kind of swagger and kind of confidence."
"State of Emergency" will head overseas next year for shows in England and Australia -- nations that have been the United States' allies in the war on terror -- where Cho expects it to be well received by audiences. "People are very tuned into American politics because it's global, too. What we do affects the world, so people are watching us constantly."
But not everyone is laughing with Cho, who also fervently supports gay rights, women's rights and abolishing the death penalty, among other issues. The comedian received an invitation to perform this summer at a large gay civil rights event in L.A., which was timed to coincide with the Democratic National Convention. The invite was later rescinded by the Human Rights Campaign organization, reportedly because of concerns over the potentially incendiary and generally raunchy nature of her material.
"For me, it was like they didn't want me to be at the event because they didn't know what would happen," she explains, "when really it shouldn't matter what happens because I'm gonna be on the side of the Democrats no matter what." Still, "I'm not going to say that the HRC is bad."
Earlier this year, 35-year-old Cho founded the Web site www.loveisloveislove.com, which provides "up-to-the-minute updates" on legislation and education surrounding the hot-button same-sex marriage issue. She also created a same-sex wedding dress as an addition to her existing clothing line, High Class Cho.
"I designed it during the time in San Francisco when a lot of gay and lesbian couples were getting married, and they had to do it at City Hall," she explains of the dress's origins. "You can't wear the big gown; you have to wear something that's sort of smart but also very elegant and speaks matrimony, so it's a little kind of cocktail dress that is ... still gleamingly bridal."
The marriage issue hits particularly close to home for Cho, who last year wed artist Al Ridenour. "People say, 'Oh, it's just a piece of paper; it doesn't matter,' but it does matter, and my relationship feels much more solid and permanent because of this kind of contract. It is a tradition and to me, it should be available to all people who have partners or who want to be married, and to deny that to anybody is outrageous."
Cho, who in the mid-'90s starred on her own short-lived ABC sitcom "All-American Girl," is preparing to step back into the acting arena: She'll co-star in the self-penned "Bam Bam and Celeste," a comedy flick that is in pre-production, which she describes as "a gay 'Dumb and Dumber.' "
Looking back, Cho recalls her sitcom days as being "like another life." The experience was a tough one for the comedian, who fought a life-threatening battle with her weight and butted heads with the network execs over the series' ethnic depictions (the premise played off her Korean heritage) during its brief run.
"I just don't have any kind of connection to that period of my life -- or even yesterday," she says. "Everything is always about ... the present, and what I have to do today."
Out for laughs
Vinnie Favorito is a busy guy: Through Sunday he performs "The Comedy of Dating" -- stand-up shows sponsored by Yahoo Personals and The Improv chain, in honor of National Singles Week -- at 8:30 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. at The Improv at Harrah's.
Beginning Oct. 5 Favorito headlines his self-titled stand-up show inside Benny's Bullpen at Binion's Horseshoe. Show times are 8 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday; and 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday (dark Sunday and Monday). Tickets are $29.95; call 366-7344.
Winners of the local auditions for the Laugh Across America contest, held Sept. 12, have been announced: Ryan Hamilton dominated the Mainstream Stand-Up category; Comedy Club Pick went to Rocky LaPorte; Jeff Chesler took the Variety/Parody division; and Perry Bruno got the nod in the Youth category. The contest is being held in conjunction with the Las Vegas Comedy Festival, scheduled to run Oct. 13 through Oct. 17 at Golden Nugget.
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