COURTESY PHOTO The many faces of Margaret Cho will have the audience laughing. The comic / activist has a blog on her Web site at www.margaretcho.com.

Killer Comedy

The always-provocative
Margaret Cho has a one-night
gig in Honolulu

When comedian-activist Margaret Cho comes to Honolulu for one of her regular stand-up gigs, it's just as much a vacation as it is "work."

'The Assassin Tour' Featuring Margaret Cho Where: Blaisdell Concert Hall When: 7:30 p.m. Saturday Tickets: $25, $35 and $45 Call: 591-2211

"It's like a vacation from America in a sense, but yet it's still America, very Asian-American. It's so exciting and interesting. Unfortunately, my work doesn't bring me there as often as I'd like, but when it does, it's a great experience," she explained early Monday morning as we caught up with what she's been doing since she played the Waikiki Shell in April 2003 as part of her "Revolution Tour."

Her latest "Assassin Tour" includes a one-nighter at the Blaisdell Concert Hall on Saturday, and fans can expect another provocative evening of outrageous comedy and pointed observations on anything and everything, from the American occupation of Iraq to perceptions of race, ethnicity and gender in the United States.

"It's a strange thing going on with our relationship with the rest of the world," she said of American foreign policy in general and Iraq in particular. "It's scary that we don't know so much, and it seems to not get better, either. It's interesting how many Iraqis have died since this whole thing began and we don't really focus on the deaths there. It's more American deaths that seem to matter. Why is that more valuable? It's all terrible."

Cho has never disappointed her fans here, and a visit to her blog on her Web site at www.margaretcho.com finds her as sharp and insightful as ever. Take, for example, an entry titled "I would love to be white," in which Cho writes that she'd like to be white "not forever, but perhaps a weekend," so that she could be "taken at face value, without having to factor in any minority sliding scale or affirmative action."

Really? She explains that although it may be politically incorrect to say such things, it's not a worry for her.

"I have a perception, which I don't know if any of it's true, that life might be easier if I were a white person. This is something that I think people are very afraid to comment on or say because of the need to constantly reinforce a sense of ethnic pride and a sense that racism doesn't exist, or that it's unimportant, and therefore doesn't affect us enough to make us want to wish for things. It's kind of a weird liberal taboo to actually wish to be something, to wish to be part of the establishment," Cho says, noting that the blog doesn't seem to have offended the self-appointed Asian-American media watchdogs who attacked her for using non-Korean actors and writers on her since-axed sitcom "All American Girl."

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"If I have been criticized (for the blog), I don't know. I don't notice anything as being criticism or not. I can't really tell. I'm sure people have, but I don't think that I take it in that way. It's all about questioning everything," she said, adding that the attacks on her sitcom by the media groups contributed to its demise, as well as the elimination of opportunities for Asian-American actors and writers to reach the mainstream.

"It's a sad thing when people believe that they're fighting for the right thing when actually they're just fighting for more invisibility."

Cho has refreshingly non-PC takes on other topics and targets. Celebrity columnist Walter Winchell, an East Coast gossipmonger and social power-broker during the 1940s and early '50s, is a liberal hero in some circles. Cho writes, however, that Winchell supported the racist "whites only" policies of the Stork Club when that high-profile New York nightclub denied service to Josephine Baker.

She also condemns Hollywood for its treatment of 1920s Chinese film star Anna May Wong. The film industry has yet to give Wong her due -- consider her disappointment of not even getting one of the major Chinese female roles in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's 1930s classic "The Good Earth," which went instead to Caucasian actresses.

"It shows how bad and twisted racial politics were at the time," Cho says, noting that California race laws of the time prohibited interracial marriages, and an interracial kiss on camera -- even between actors playing a married couple -- could have violated the race laws and public standards of the day.

Having a Caucasian woman perform in "yellow face" was Hollywood's solution.

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Wong died in 1961, and Cho said "She's very forgotten, even by the Asian-American community ... maybe because she played these very stereotypical roles, because that's all there was. She still was a great star, quite a beauty, and quite an interesting historical figure. She's just kind of forgotten ... but even latter-day stars like Nancy Kwan aren't recognized as they should be."

Cho did some pre-production work several years ago on a play about Wong's inability to play O-lan, the female lead, in "The Good Earth." (German-born actress Luise Rainer portrayed O-lan instead, and received an Oscar for her performance in 1937.) The play hasn't been produced yet, but Cho hopes that someday it will be.

In the meantime, she is stepping forward as a writer and film actress. She's finished principal photography on her first narrative movie, "Bam Bam and Celeste," with Bruce Daniels, her opening act at the Shell in 2003. The "Assassin Tour" is being videotaped as well for future release as a feature, along the lines of her previous tours.

Cho confesses to being "a little behind" on her blog entries, but enjoys writing so much that the entries don't read like something she's just posting for her fans' consumption. Some of those blogs will be included in a book she's working on that was inspired by "the last few years in politics."

She expects it will be out this fall. And it should make for an entertaining read.