Margaret Cho: If I go back and look at my comedy sets from the ’90s, my voice was all over the place. It was this confusion of, “Who am I supposed to be?” I had a hard time understanding, or committing to, artistic integrity, whereas Atsuko already has the presentation down: She knows who she is. She has a strong sense of self that took me a long time to develop.
To me, humor is the unexpected thought that comes through. Atsuko’s work is observational, but it’s delivered through misdirection. She’s big in the comedy community, in terms of both the way she works and the extent to which she works — the incredible variety of things she’s been able to do, whether it’s on TikTok or Instagram, or having the cast of “Saturday Night Live” accept one of her [social media] challenges.
It’s rare, in comedy, certainly, but in entertainment in general, to find somebody with a unique point of view that blends so seamlessly into what they do as an artist. It’s how she looks at everything — family dynamics, for example, by including her grandmother — or the way she communicates her sensibility as an Asian American: She’s got Taiwanese in there, Japanese and Californian. And that hair. Nobody in the history of comedy has had better hair.
Atsuko Okatsuka: Margaret was the first comedian I’d ever seen do stand-up. I was an immigrant living in a garage with my mom and grandma. Our world was small, and I had a hard time making friends, so if my immediate family members weren’t into something, I probably hadn’t seen it. I was at church, during a sermon, when someone passed me a DVD of Margaret’s [2002 comedy special] “Margaret Cho: Notorious C.H.O.” like it was contraband.
What I think we all saw in Margaret was confidence. I often wonder what it must feel like for her, knowing who she is since she was born. It took me probably 10 years to figure out my voice. I’ve told her, and maybe she should be reminded more often, that not only was she a trailblazer but she keeps evolving — the way she talks about things has changed with the times, too. When I say “trailblazer,” I mean that she made her mark and continues to do so. That last part I haven’t told her.
Interviews have been edited and condensed.
Production: Peter McClafferty
