By Kai Curry
NORTHWEST ASIAN WEEKLY
Comedian, actress, activist, and musician Margaret Cho has a “lucky gift” for the public: A new musical album dropping Feb. 14, her first in eight years.
Cho’s previous album, “American Myth,” received a Grammy nomination in 2016 and featured a song about late Playboy model and actress Anna Nicole Smith, who died in 2007.
Cho’s forthcoming album features a tribute to late and loved fellow comedian, Robin Williams.
“I am thrilled to share this album. …There are tributes to Robin Williams, lost love, found love, and anthems to non-binary and gender non-conforming folx,” Cho said on the album’s promotional website.
Photo by Nick Spanos. Courtesy of Margaret Cho.
The single and title track, “Lucky Gift,” was released Dec. 6. Cho wrote “Lucky Gift” on what she calls her “mandotar,” a mandolin-guitar combination. Although it’s been eight years since her previous album, we’re the only ones feeling a dearth of Cho’s music. Cho told the Northwest Asian Weekly that she does something musical every day.
“It’s a big part of my life,” she said. Some of the songs on “Lucky Gift” were written some time ago, and she has decided to compile and release them now. “I love these songs.”
Cho wrote the song “Funny Man” upon hearing of fellow comedian Robin Williams’ suicide in 2014. She described the song as an anthem for funny people “who don’t feel funny all the time.”
“Having a sense of humor is often a trauma response,” Cho reminded. “You have to be laughing or else you’ll cry.”
The song is also about Cho’s—and the world’s—relationship with Williams, who was “such a big figure” and a “great person,” Cho said. Cho knew Williams, a fellow San Francisco resident, since she was a kid. Cho remembered Williams coming into her father’s bookstore, and Williams’ signature was Cho’s first autograph, gifted to her by her father.
Cho was a budding comic by the age of 14. She used to go on stage after Williams at a comic venue called Holy City Zoo, which was located across the street from where she lived. Williams performed there frequently.
“I would have to follow him all the time,” she said, “and it was so hard.”
Cho attributes her formation as a comedian to this experience.
“Out of desperation,” she only half joked. “He had a big influence on my upbringing in comedy.”
When Cho talks about Williams, she goes starry-eyed.
“He was so special … so childlike in his approach to comedy,” she said.
When Williams passed, Cho paid tribute to him not only by creating the song, but by taking the song into San Francisco. There, with one of her collaborators, Roger Rocha of ‘90s rock band Four Non-Blondes, Cho played to the unhoused population, something that Williams had inspired through his involvement with Comic Relief, a charity organization that raises funds to provide food and supplies to people experiencing homelessness.
The video accompanying “Funny Man,” made by John Stapleton, shows Cho in a black and white filter singing oftentimes inside of an ornate picture frame, while images fluctuate behind her. Some of those images have to do with San Francisco. Others call to mind how many first met Williams through the 1978 sitcom, “Mork and Mindy.”
“Funny man/I’m your fan/When you died/Oh how we cried,” Cho sings in a style she described to the Northwest Asian Weekly as “‘90s, female-driven power pop.” (Think Natalie Merchant, Joan Osborne, Sarah McLaughlan.) If she had been putting out music in the ‘90s, Cho said, “I probably would have been part of Lilith Fair.”
Cho’s voice is strong and alluring. Her facial expressions in the video are mesmerizing. For the last several seconds, that’s all you watch and it’s abundantly satisfying. And the lyrics in “Funny Man” go straight to the heart: “You belonged to the many/Never yours never mine,” Cho sings. “Weren’t we lonely/Weren’t we sad/Weren’t we beautiful/Weren’t we bad.”
Cho’s song about Robin Williams may be one of the most vulnerable commentaries on Williams’ death thus far. “People don’t talk about him,” Cho believes, “because of the really sad way he left.”
Openness is not unusual on this album. Cho shows that she doesn’t mind sharing personal memories and feelings in her music. On the “Lucky Gift” tracklist on her website, she doesn’t hesitate to reveal the contents of each song.
Take, for instance, “Stevie,” which is about Cho’s “meditation teacher moving and not being able to take a feral cat with him” (Cho famously loves pets, especially her rescue cats and dog), or “Melinda,” about “trying to get sober with other people” and “being a witness to the journey.”
While each song gives the listener insight into Cho herself, each is at the same time relatable and emotive, capturing feelings and experiences we share.
“Lucky Gift” is available for pre-order or pre-save, both digitally and on vinyl.
Kai can be reached at newstips@nwasianweekly.com.