March 4, 2025 • 31 mins
Join @thebuzzknight for this new episode with comedian, actress, musician and activist Margaret Cho. Margaret continues to have a legendary comedy career and has a new album out called "Lucky Gift", showcasing her talent and versatility. She takes us behind the scenes to her creative process, her influences and the love of her work.
For comments or suggestions write buzz@buzzKnightmedia.com
If you like this podcast, please share with your friends and check out our companion podcast Music Saved Me hosted by Lynn Hoffman here. here
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Taking a walk.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
Well, laughter is the unexpected breath that you take that
you didn't know you were going to take, that ensures
the next moment of life. So laughter is like this
hit of oxygen that we all need all the time.
But it disrupts your normal breathing pattern and it makes
you breathe deeper and harder. And if you're laughing a lot,
(00:21):
it's a really life affirming gesture. That's why you know,
people all you know always say it's like laughter is
the best medicine. It's true, it actually is medicine.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
Welcome to the Taken a Walk Podcast with your host,
Buzz Night. If you like this podcast, please check out
our companion podcast called Music Save Me, hosted by Lynn Hoffman.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
Where she delves into the healing power of music.
Speaker 4 (00:46):
Today.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
On Taking a Walk, Buzz is joined by the incomparable
Margaret Choe. She's a trailblazing comedian, actor, musician, and activist
known for her sharp wit and fearless approach to tackling issues.
It has been willing audiences for over four decades. She
has new music out called Lucky Gift. She continues to
(01:07):
tour the country. Here's Buss with Margaret Choe on taking a.
Speaker 4 (01:11):
Walk Margaret Choe, welcome to take it a walk.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
Thank you.
Speaker 4 (01:17):
So, since the podcast is called take out a Walk,
I wanted to ask you to start. If you could
take a walk with someone living or dead, who would
it be and where would you take a walk with them?
Speaker 2 (01:31):
I would like to take a walk with Nancy Kuan.
She's living still, she's quite old. I believe she's probably
close to ninety, if not ninety. I love her. I'd
love to take a walk around my neighborhood if she
would like to, or her neighborhood, if she would like
to just hang out.
Speaker 4 (01:51):
Just casual conversation.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
Right, Yeah, I think she's got a lot to say.
She's got great legs. She is a true pioneer an
Asian American cinema and art and entertainment, and she's everything.
She's a singer, dancer, actress, model.
Speaker 4 (02:12):
Icon, multifaceted, just like you.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
Yes, so I'd love to take a walk with her.
Speaker 4 (02:18):
That's awesome. Congrats on your new music, Lucky Gift. It's
been a long time since we heard from you with
music about is it eight years almost?
Speaker 2 (02:29):
Yes? Yes, so I'm really glad to put it out.
Speaker 4 (02:33):
Tell me how this came together and who some of
the collaborators are with you on this project.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
Well, this album I've been working on actually for the
last ten years, eleven years. Some of the songs were
written with Roger Roscha from Four Non Blondes. He is
a wonderful songwriter in a musical genius, and he and
I wrote about half of the song of the record
(03:01):
when I was working with him on my B Robin project,
which was outreach for those experiencing homelessness in San Francisco
in twenty fourteen. So a lot of the songs were
written out on the street with a band. We were
stealing electricity and playing in these encampments and also giving
out food and much needed supplies. And it was sort
(03:25):
of a tribute to Robin Williams. He was a big
advocate for the homeless with comic relief, which I got
to do for many years, and so it was a
nice way to honor his passing, but also a creative
journey for me and Roger to write a number of
these songs, including funny Man, which is all about Robin Williams.
And so it was singing out on the street, blowing
(03:48):
out my voice, stealing electricity. But we also had violin players,
and we had horns, we had saxophone players. We had
like a huge bands because everybody wanted to play with
these people, and so it was a great way to write.
But so half of the songs come from that. The
other half come from me just writing over time and
(04:10):
fitting writing songs in when I was doing other things,
like you know, making movies and TV shows and doing
stand up comedy. So and then I collaborated with Garrison Starr,
who's somebody I I've been working with on all of
my records. She's an amazing singer, songwriter and an incredible producer,
and so she produced the other half of the tracks
(04:32):
on the record.
Speaker 4 (04:33):
So tell me how your creative process differs, if at all,
between your stand up creation and your music creation.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
I think it's well, it's usually when I'm approaching dant
up comedy, like I'll try to think of, oh, I
have to write a joke about that, and I'll like
work on something and then I'll present it later that
day at a stand up comedy show. So it's very immediate.
With music, I think, oh, I should write a song
(05:04):
about that, or or I will be fiddling around on
an instrument and I'll say, oh, that actually works, and
maybe I can create this into something and it'll usually
come that way, and then I don't present it for
a long time, like nobody really hears it or sees
it until I'm ready to record it or so it's
almost something that like, uh, is isolated for a while.
(05:28):
I mean, in general, my writing process is like that
with Roger. With the b Robin project, it was a
little bit different because we were like writing songs and
then like taking them out on the street, so it
was fast. But this one was like some of the
other songs, it was a little bit of a slower
process where people didn't see them for a little while.
So but yeah, it's very different because it I think
(05:48):
stand up comedy is so much of a dialogue with
your audience because they have to laugh to fill in
the other part of the joke or to complete the joke.
Where songs, say, can exist on their own.
Speaker 4 (06:03):
Is it fair to say both sides of the equation
stand up comedy and creating music are not only a
way to you know, express love for things and the
beauty around, but also a way to kind of get
some of the pain out as well.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
Yes, absolutely, And to say things that are unsayable, or
to be a solution to a problem, you know, or
to communicate things that you really can't communicate in any
other way. Also to give people a vessel and the
way that they can communicate something that they can like
(06:43):
reield a relationship with because oftentimes music it's the way
that what it's written for isn't what it's listened for.
You know. People have all sorts of attachments to songs
that are outside of the hands of the songwriter, which
I love too, because then people can interpret and put
on the meaning that they want to put on the song.
Speaker 4 (07:04):
You play this instrument I've never heard of before. It's
the mandolin sort of double neck guitar, otherwise known as
the mandatar. Did you create the mandatar?
Speaker 2 (07:18):
No, The mandatar comes from Bruin, which is a legendary
guitar start in Nashville, and it was a luthier who
passed away and his widow sold all the guitars that
he made to the store. So this is one of
the ones, and I've never seen anything like it. It's
a one neck as a mandolin and one neck as
(07:40):
a guitar, and the way that I wrote Lucky Gift,
which is the title track of the record, is I
used both at the same time as opposed to playing
them separately. I played them together like one long strum
and it actually worked. The way that it was tuned
worked and it worked in the body of the song
and it was pretty incredible. So I was so excited.
(08:01):
So most of the songs, the kind of acoustic side,
the more sort of country ish flavored songs are those
songs that I wrote with Garrison are from the Mando.
Speaker 4 (08:13):
Tar And how long did it take you to learn
the man guitar?
Speaker 2 (08:17):
Well, I already played guitar, so anything anything that has
fight a guitar feel, I can work my way around.
I am a multi instrumentalist, but I'm not good. So
I'm like, I can't play everything but not well. But
I can play everything enough where I can write and
show somebody else who can play well, and then I
(08:39):
can sing. I will get to the point one day
where I can play and sing at the same time. Well,
I can't do either well if I'm doing it at
the same time, so I like to just focus on
the singing. But I'm my writing is working it out
on these idiosyncratic instruments. I love idiosyncratic instruments, things that
(09:01):
are just made by luthiers or whoever. So I have
a number of like kind of weird misfit toys of
instruments that I like to write the.
Speaker 4 (09:11):
Land of Missmit Toys. I love it. Yes, who are
some of the players that you particularly admire? And then
who are some of the particular songwriters that you most admire?
Speaker 2 (09:24):
Well, I think of the old time would be Bobby Gentry.
You know that she was just such a force, What
an amazing songwriter, what an amazing singer, and also what
a great beauty. You know, She's somebody who I would
(09:44):
love to take a walk with as well. Still alive
out there, but just decided to walk away from entertainment
and is sort of, you know, out there, where is
Bobby Gentry? We're not sure? Another great songwriter asked that
question in her song Jill Sobule, one of my favorites,
also ask where is Bobby Gentry? We all want to know?
Speaker 3 (10:07):
She was, uh.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
Truly one of one one of my absolute favorites. And
of course Dolly Parton in the same vein you know,
what a what a beauty, what a singer, what a songwriter,
what an icon? You know? So many modern people. I
would say Chapel Rowan. I absolutely adore her. I love
(10:30):
the way that her songs have such drama, that there
are you start one place and then you end someplace
totally different, and I I'm really in all of that
where somebody can take chords and song structure and bring
it to life and in a way that is so
(10:51):
bombastic and exciting and new but old. I love I
love her, And.
Speaker 4 (10:57):
There's a theme there as far as your taste. You
like those that just like you are, you know, don't
apologize for anything you've done and you're saying and creating.
You just have that force behind everything that you do.
Who instilled that in you, that unapologetic attitude, I don't know.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
I mean maybe it was something that I'm just you
sort of fake it till you make it like you
just don't. You don't even know if it's right. You
just do it like you. I think, you just put
it out there. And that's kind of the way stand
up comedy is. You kind of have to put it
out there to even know if it's going to work,
and you have to be confident in your idea in
order to make an audience believe it. So you sort
(11:43):
of have to be a salesman for yourself as well.
And I think I learned that through comedy, but you know,
it wasn't ever something that I was entirely confident about.
You just have to fake it till you make it.
Speaker 4 (11:57):
That's it a little trial and error too.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
Yeah, always, always yes.
Speaker 4 (12:02):
And as a musician, what do you feel like you've
most learned over the last year of your work.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
I think that it's songs are really magic, like they
come out of thin air and that you don't really
know like and you'll be presented with all sorts of
entry points, you know, sometimes in the part of a dream,
I'll dream something and then I'll it'll it'll come into
being in like part of a song, you know, and
(12:34):
then you uh will figure things out, like it's just there.
It's so interesting and how it's like a magical stream
and then you kind of dip in and it's right there.
But if you don't dip in, it's it's gonna go
by you. So I think of what I've learned is
you've got it when you get like the sort of a
(12:55):
thread of something you've got to go and get the
whole cloth. Is you. You can build the whole cloth
from that, but it's about going to get it, and.
Speaker 4 (13:03):
It seems like it's an ongoing process of strengthening the muscles,
if you will.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
Yes, yes, which I have very much in joke writing.
So every day the first thing I do before I
get out of bed is I write a joke. And
it doesn't have to be funny, and it doesn't have
to be a whole joke, but I have to. That's
the first thing that I do as a comedian is
I make sure I have at least one formed an
(13:33):
idea that's going to be a joke later, or that
is already fully formed joke, or that came out of
a dream, whatever. It's the first thing I do every day.
I don't have that with songwriting, and I really should,
because that's the way to grow as a songwriter. I
used to be in a group of songwriters where we
would send each other songs daily that you would actually
have to write a snippet of a song every day,
(13:55):
and that was really helpful. But I don't have that
right now. I think, yeah, so in the next year,
I don't really do with resolutions. But that's probably something
I would like to do as a songwriters too. Again,
reinforce the practice of one thing a day in the morning.
Speaker 4 (14:11):
I gather you don't sit.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
Idle, no, but I also love to lay around.
Speaker 4 (14:20):
But I'm thinking if you're laying around still, you're noodling,
you're you know, you're thinking of it the next you know,
joke or maybe a song that just ran through your
head that you know made an impact on you or something.
So I think I have a feeling you're always there's
always something going on up there.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
Margaret, Yeah, I think so I'll try to fight off dementia.
You know, I'm trying to make sure that like it
still works, all those things still work. And yeah, yeah,
to me, it's creating is is is fun, It's it's
a way to keep your mind alive, and it's just
enjoyable to me. So I I just I really love it.
(14:59):
I love to buy instruments as well, so you know,
for me, it's fun to play around with the different
ways sound is made, all different kinds of things. I've
gotten really into synthesizers lately, so that's sort of a
newer passion. But yeah, I love it.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
We'll be right back with more of the Taking a
Walk podcast. Welcome back to the Taking a Walk Podcast.
Speaker 4 (15:28):
I just encountered this woman named Sierra Hall. Are you
familiar with her? She's a mandolin player extraordinaire and you know,
comes really mostly out of bluegrass, which is made up
of so much improvisation. I'm thinking, once again, as a
(15:48):
comedian who's been so masterful at improvisation, you're probably pretty
good on the fly musically improvising as well.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
So I mean, I think that it goes to you
sort of like know what's going to happen. Like with music,
you kind of have an idea, and then if you
can follow the sort of chord progression and bring it
back a measure, bring it back a measure, then you
could probably figure it out. I don't know if I
could compete with the great jazz improvisers or even the
(16:19):
best of the bluegrass. Bluegrass is just phenomenal to me.
It's like calculus, Like it's like how do they even
do that? Like it's it's a musicianship, but it's also
soul and it's it's it's not phenomenal, but yeah, I
think I can improve a little bit well.
Speaker 4 (16:34):
I mean, I bet a musician would say watching your
art on stage as a comedian that they're just wowed by,
you know, the ease, how you make it look so easy, which, yeah,
it is not easy, I'm quite sure.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
Yeah, it's interesting how comedians have such a We're always
in awe of musicians, and musicians are always in awe
of can medians, and we just want to switch places,
which I get to do every once and again.
Speaker 4 (17:04):
And as I think about music and as I think
about comedy, I believe both have true healing powers. We
actually produce this music podcast called Music Save Me, which
is about sort of the healing power of music. But
can you equate in your mind how music has healing
(17:25):
powers and comedy and laughter has healing powers as well,
because I certainly think it does.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
It does well. Laughter is the unexpected breath that you
take that you didn't know you were going to take,
that ensures the next moment of life. So laughter is
like this hit of oxygen that we all need all
the time, but it disrupts your normal breathing pattern and
it makes you breathe deeper and harder. And if you're
laughing a lot, it's a really life affirming gesture. That's
(17:56):
why you know. People all you know always says like
laughter is the best medicine. It's true, it actually is medicine.
And sound. I think, well, like cats. I'm surrounded by
cats right now. They're all purring, and a cat's purr
heals bones like this, the sound frequency heals, the heal
(18:17):
helps the cat heal. He'll help you hail. So you know,
it makes absolute sense that music will do the same thing.
It's the same frequencies using to sort of mend your
bones and your body and your mind. And I mean,
I always love having music around. It just makes me
feel better. It makes me feel great, actually, like it's
(18:39):
just a wonderful thing to have all different kinds of
music and all different ways to listen. And so I
agree it's a very healing they're both very healing modalities
different ways.
Speaker 4 (18:51):
So the cats love your music. Question is how about Lucia,
your lovely dog. Does Lucia love your music?
Speaker 2 (19:00):
Loves it? She loves singing. One of my cats really
loves singing. She always if they're singing, she'll always come
in and she wants to be a part of it.
She wants to singing to happen like right in her
like around her body, because I think she likes the vibration.
Luccia just loves to be in the studio. She loves
(19:20):
just to be around musicians, and she loves people. And
she's always really like happy around any kind of musician.
She loves it.
Speaker 4 (19:28):
Oh, that's so cool. So you got a tour, Well,
you're always on tour in some ways, So you have
a tour that will be rolling out through a bunch
of cities. I know you're doing a Boston date and
Connecticut date and all through you know, the East Coast. Certainly,
will people get a taste on this tour of both
music and stand.
Speaker 2 (19:49):
Up, Well, it's hard to mix it. It's hard to
f I'm like, I'm trying to this is a stand
up comedy show that I'm touring with. Maybe you know,
I haven't really thought of, but yeah, like I wonder, like,
is it possible to tour both? Maybe? I know that
there are a couple of like music shows coming up
in around the release of the record. I'm doing a
(20:12):
musical like a show at Largo, which I do a
lot of comedy at in at Los Angeles, and it's
a very Famous Music Club, so I'd be doing that
as a music show. And then I'm doing a music
show at the Grammy Museum on April first, so those
are specifically music shows. And then you know, I wonder
(20:32):
like maybe maybe it will happen, Maybe there will be
a crossover, just a.
Speaker 4 (20:38):
Touch, right, just maybe. Yes. I mean, you know, easy
for me to say, I'm not the one executing it.
Speaker 2 (20:43):
So yeah, well I think it should happen. I mean,
I think that there should be a little bit of
crossover for both.
Speaker 4 (20:50):
I love that. Tell me about the beginnings of your
comedy career. You started out, obviously at a young age.
I think six teen as a stand up.
Speaker 2 (21:03):
Yes, well, my earliest shows were I was fourteen, but
I started like to be like professional, like at sixteen,
seventeen eighteen. I was making a living by the age
of eighteen, so, which is pretty good. You know, it's
still in the nineteen eighties, and you know, like I
was doing okay, which is like amazing, and I was
(21:25):
like doing doing television and stuff. You know. I was
on shows like Evening at the Improv and MTV's half
hour Comedy Hour and all sorts of I was on
a show with Bob Hope, the Bob Hope's Comedy Special
that he would do every year as the young Comedian
special that he would host. And so I was doing
(21:47):
comedy very young, and I just knew that was my life,
Like I just knew that's what I wanted to do,
and it just was my biggest passion since I was
about eight years old. So i knew that I would
do it, and I'm grateful that I still get to
do it. I just turned fifty six, and I really
(22:10):
love it. You know. It's a life that I I'm
so grateful to have lived. And I still have a
lot to do. You know, I still I do a
show every day pretty much of some kind. I'll do
one later today, and you know, for me, it's just
it's a lifelong passion and as.
Speaker 4 (22:31):
As it is taking its shape over the years. How
have you made living on the road, as you know,
easy as possible.
Speaker 2 (22:42):
Well, I have like a set way that I do,
like my the way that I pack. I have a
life in my suitcase that never actually comes out of
my suitcase. So like my road clothes never touched my
home clothes. I've like my whole life. It's very specific,
but I travel less nowadays. Oddly, I've been traveling less
(23:06):
since the pandemic because I've just found I want to
stay home more and also I'm pursuing more acting and
that is a little bit of different vibe as well,
so which requires travel, but it's a little different. So
but yeah, I've been on the road for so long
(23:28):
that it's weird to take time off. The pandemic was
the first time that I actually stopped traveling for about
thirty five years, and it was just such a revelation
to finally just be home. I really love being at home.
Speaker 4 (23:39):
In talking to so many musicians over the last year,
and in particular about their you know, going out on
the road and how the pandemic obviously changed everything and
really you know, stifled all that. It feels like for
so many of them, it was like cutting off their
their right arm, not being you know, able to connect
(24:01):
with their fans and play in front of people. I'm
sure you could identify with that vibe.
Speaker 2 (24:09):
Yeah, I was like, who who are we without that?
Who are we without traveling and touring and playing out
like you know, living out of a suitcase every night?
You know, Like I was, I had like a crisis
like try, like a real crisis of conscience, like who
(24:29):
are we even without this part of ourselves? And then
I realized that I'm actually a homebody, but I actually
really love being at home, and I'd never even known that,
which is so weird because I'd never been home for
more than a few days for thirty five years. And
so now when I approach touring, it's very different. I mean,
I still tour a lot, but it's a very different
(24:51):
kind of a way of going about it. Like I
don't go out for months at a time. It's just
like much more controlled, which I feel more comfortable doing.
Speaker 4 (25:01):
You've been You talked earlier about your advocacy that was
influenced certainly by your friend Robin Williams, but in general,
advocacy has been important to you. Can you talk in
some other detail about some important causes.
Speaker 2 (25:19):
Well, working in different things. I worked a lot on
the Kamala Harris campaign, and I really wanted her to
be president, and I really thought she was going to
be president. Now that is of course different. There's a
lot to do still, you know, there's a lot to
(25:39):
work around, especially protecting rights for gay people, for trans people.
Trans people in particular, that's a huge issue for me,
Like I want to be able to protect the trans community,
that gender not conforming, gender fluid, non binary people, Like
it's such a crisis now that we're dealing with. So
(26:01):
it's very I mean, you know, it's a very treacherous
time kind of trying to figure out how do we
combat these ideas of Project twenty twenty five or you know,
we're trying to protect women's rights, trying to protect trans rights.
I'm very adamant about doing that. So that's where I
think a lot of advocacy is going to be placed
(26:24):
in the near future, at least in the next four years.
Speaker 4 (26:28):
You feel over the last few years that there's a
certain amount of the population that completely lost their sense
of humor.
Speaker 2 (26:37):
Yeah, people get so defensive about these ideas of what
they want to protect and these ideas of protecting gender
or protecting like the sanctity of gender, which I think
is such a ridiculous thing, And to me, that's very humorous.
It's like a really ridiculous thing I'm trying to protect
(26:57):
or trying to protect these gives of like families or children,
trying to protect children, which is like I get that
that's kind of a noble notion. But what's harming children
is not drag queens. You know, drag queens are there's
nothing that they have nothing to do with children. Really,
it's not even a thing. You know. Maybe there's like
(27:18):
drag queens story r but that's just very innocent, beautiful
and fun. It's like clowns. It's like, when you really
look at them as clowns, it doesn't have that sort
of negating effect. But somehow drag there's a there's a weird,
sinister element that people want to put on it that
doesn't make sense to me. But yeah, it's very humorless.
Speaker 4 (27:41):
So when you think of comedians coming up the ranks
and you think of musicians coming up the ranks, is
it the same set of advice that you would give
to both if they were looking to be steered and
mentored the right way?
Speaker 2 (27:58):
Yeah? I think so. I mean, I think it's like
the same. It's just to like really understand that your
voice is the most precious thing and that you should
put your opinion of your art above others, above all else. Really,
and you haven't figured out what you're doing. You figure
it out, you know, but it's it's pretty much the same,
(28:20):
because I think what happens is when art meets commerce.
Commerce is always going to try to change you to
make you fit into what they're buying. But in truth,
you know you're you're in charge. So I would always
give like younger artists, that advice is like your voices,
that the should be, the loudest should be, that the
strongest should be the most important.
Speaker 4 (28:41):
Is there a particular moment in your career that stands
that one moment that stands out that you feel was
pivotal towards where you are now?
Speaker 2 (28:53):
I think I think it was when I was a
really young kid and I was doing comedy, and I
had a theater teacher who would always impress upon me like,
you can do anything, You're good at everything, so do everything.
And that really stuck with me. So it gave me
(29:13):
this permission to pursue all different facets of entertainment and
to really feel like it was okay for me to
do that because she kind of gave me that mode
of confidence.
Speaker 4 (29:26):
So what else do you want to pursue creatively that
you haven't pursued. You've got so many things on your plate,
but there must be other things that you have a
creative itch for.
Speaker 2 (29:36):
Well, I mean, I still want to be a better musician,
Like I want to be a better songwriter. I want
to be a better singer, like I want to actually
like work on what I have, Like what I have
is good, Like I'm doing good. But I know that
if I actually did the vocal warm ups, which I've
been told to do by so many teachers, if I
actually did all of the scales, if I did my scales,
(29:57):
I'd be so good, Like I wanted do the basics,
Like I really need to go back to the basics
because I've been in like comedy for so long and
I kind of take so much for granted as a
comedian that I feel like I never have to go
back to like basics there, But with music, I really
want to. So yeah, I do want to get better
at the musicianship. I need to drink more water like singers.
(30:19):
It's it's so weird because like you're the instrument, so
it's it's hard to for me to actually think about
treating my body with more respect in that regard, like
I'm actually the instrument. I actually need to be put
in a case like I need to actually be you know,
like dusted off and restrung. So I think I need
(30:42):
to do.
Speaker 4 (30:42):
That restrung zipped up but put in a a as
long as you can breathe.
Speaker 2 (30:48):
Yes, absolutely, Like I just need to put a new
bridge in every now and again. I really do, like
need to work with like the idea that I'm the instrument,
which I never regarded, so I have to do that more.
Speaker 4 (31:03):
Margaret Chow, it's so great to talk to you on
Taking a Walk. Thank you for this, congratulations on the music.
I'm so excited for you, and thanks for all you
give us, for your advocacy and from putting a smile
on our face and making us think and making us
dancing around with the music. This is awesome.
Speaker 2 (31:21):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (31:23):
Thanks for listening to this episode of the Taking a
Walk podcast. Share this and other episodes with your friends
and follow us so you never miss an episode. Taking
a Walk is available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
and wherever you get your podcasts.
Taking a walk.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
Well, laughter is the unexpected breath that you take that
you didn't know you were going to take, that ensures
the next moment of life. So laughter is like this
hit of oxygen that we all need all the time.
But it disrupts your normal breathing pattern and it makes
you breathe deeper and harder. And if you're laughing a lot,
(00:21):
it's a really life affirming gesture. That's why you know,
people all you know always say it's like laughter is
the best medicine. It's true, it actually is medicine.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
Welcome to the Taken a Walk Podcast with your host,
Buzz Night. If you like this podcast, please check out
our companion podcast called Music Save Me, hosted by Lynn Hoffman.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
Where she delves into the healing power of music.
Speaker 4 (00:46):
Today.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
On Taking a Walk, Buzz is joined by the incomparable
Margaret Choe. She's a trailblazing comedian, actor, musician, and activist
known for her sharp wit and fearless approach to tackling issues.
It has been willing audiences for over four decades. She
has new music out called Lucky Gift. She continues to
(01:07):
tour the country. Here's Buss with Margaret Choe on taking a.
Speaker 4 (01:11):
Walk Margaret Choe, welcome to take it a walk.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
Thank you.
Speaker 4 (01:17):
So, since the podcast is called take out a Walk,
I wanted to ask you to start. If you could
take a walk with someone living or dead, who would
it be and where would you take a walk with them?
Speaker 2 (01:31):
I would like to take a walk with Nancy Kuan.
She's living still, she's quite old. I believe she's probably
close to ninety, if not ninety. I love her. I'd
love to take a walk around my neighborhood if she
would like to, or her neighborhood, if she would like
to just hang out.
Speaker 4 (01:51):
Just casual conversation.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
Right, Yeah, I think she's got a lot to say.
She's got great legs. She is a true pioneer an
Asian American cinema and art and entertainment, and she's everything.
She's a singer, dancer, actress, model.
Speaker 4 (02:12):
Icon, multifaceted, just like you.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
Yes, so I'd love to take a walk with her.
Speaker 4 (02:18):
That's awesome. Congrats on your new music, Lucky Gift. It's
been a long time since we heard from you with
music about is it eight years almost?
Speaker 2 (02:29):
Yes? Yes, so I'm really glad to put it out.
Speaker 4 (02:33):
Tell me how this came together and who some of
the collaborators are with you on this project.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
Well, this album I've been working on actually for the
last ten years, eleven years. Some of the songs were
written with Roger Roscha from Four Non Blondes. He is
a wonderful songwriter in a musical genius, and he and
I wrote about half of the song of the record
(03:01):
when I was working with him on my B Robin project,
which was outreach for those experiencing homelessness in San Francisco
in twenty fourteen. So a lot of the songs were
written out on the street with a band. We were
stealing electricity and playing in these encampments and also giving
out food and much needed supplies. And it was sort
(03:25):
of a tribute to Robin Williams. He was a big
advocate for the homeless with comic relief, which I got
to do for many years, and so it was a
nice way to honor his passing, but also a creative
journey for me and Roger to write a number of
these songs, including funny Man, which is all about Robin Williams.
And so it was singing out on the street, blowing
(03:48):
out my voice, stealing electricity. But we also had violin players,
and we had horns, we had saxophone players. We had
like a huge bands because everybody wanted to play with
these people, and so it was a great way to write.
But so half of the songs come from that. The
other half come from me just writing over time and
(04:10):
fitting writing songs in when I was doing other things,
like you know, making movies and TV shows and doing
stand up comedy. So and then I collaborated with Garrison Starr,
who's somebody I I've been working with on all of
my records. She's an amazing singer, songwriter and an incredible producer,
and so she produced the other half of the tracks
(04:32):
on the record.
Speaker 4 (04:33):
So tell me how your creative process differs, if at all,
between your stand up creation and your music creation.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
I think it's well, it's usually when I'm approaching dant
up comedy, like I'll try to think of, oh, I
have to write a joke about that, and I'll like
work on something and then I'll present it later that
day at a stand up comedy show. So it's very immediate.
With music, I think, oh, I should write a song
(05:04):
about that, or or I will be fiddling around on
an instrument and I'll say, oh, that actually works, and
maybe I can create this into something and it'll usually
come that way, and then I don't present it for
a long time, like nobody really hears it or sees
it until I'm ready to record it or so it's
almost something that like, uh, is isolated for a while.
(05:28):
I mean, in general, my writing process is like that
with Roger. With the b Robin project, it was a
little bit different because we were like writing songs and
then like taking them out on the street, so it
was fast. But this one was like some of the
other songs, it was a little bit of a slower
process where people didn't see them for a little while.
So but yeah, it's very different because it I think
(05:48):
stand up comedy is so much of a dialogue with
your audience because they have to laugh to fill in
the other part of the joke or to complete the joke.
Where songs, say, can exist on their own.
Speaker 4 (06:03):
Is it fair to say both sides of the equation
stand up comedy and creating music are not only a
way to you know, express love for things and the
beauty around, but also a way to kind of get
some of the pain out as well.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
Yes, absolutely, And to say things that are unsayable, or
to be a solution to a problem, you know, or
to communicate things that you really can't communicate in any
other way. Also to give people a vessel and the
way that they can communicate something that they can like
(06:43):
reield a relationship with because oftentimes music it's the way
that what it's written for isn't what it's listened for.
You know. People have all sorts of attachments to songs
that are outside of the hands of the songwriter, which
I love too, because then people can interpret and put
on the meaning that they want to put on the song.
Speaker 4 (07:04):
You play this instrument I've never heard of before. It's
the mandolin sort of double neck guitar, otherwise known as
the mandatar. Did you create the mandatar?
Speaker 2 (07:18):
No, The mandatar comes from Bruin, which is a legendary
guitar start in Nashville, and it was a luthier who
passed away and his widow sold all the guitars that
he made to the store. So this is one of
the ones, and I've never seen anything like it. It's
a one neck as a mandolin and one neck as
(07:40):
a guitar, and the way that I wrote Lucky Gift,
which is the title track of the record, is I
used both at the same time as opposed to playing
them separately. I played them together like one long strum
and it actually worked. The way that it was tuned
worked and it worked in the body of the song
and it was pretty incredible. So I was so excited.
(08:01):
So most of the songs, the kind of acoustic side,
the more sort of country ish flavored songs are those
songs that I wrote with Garrison are from the Mando.
Speaker 4 (08:13):
Tar And how long did it take you to learn
the man guitar?
Speaker 2 (08:17):
Well, I already played guitar, so anything anything that has
fight a guitar feel, I can work my way around.
I am a multi instrumentalist, but I'm not good. So
I'm like, I can't play everything but not well. But
I can play everything enough where I can write and
show somebody else who can play well, and then I
(08:39):
can sing. I will get to the point one day
where I can play and sing at the same time. Well,
I can't do either well if I'm doing it at
the same time, so I like to just focus on
the singing. But I'm my writing is working it out
on these idiosyncratic instruments. I love idiosyncratic instruments, things that
(09:01):
are just made by luthiers or whoever. So I have
a number of like kind of weird misfit toys of
instruments that I like to write the.
Speaker 4 (09:11):
Land of Missmit Toys. I love it. Yes, who are
some of the players that you particularly admire? And then
who are some of the particular songwriters that you most admire?
Speaker 2 (09:24):
Well, I think of the old time would be Bobby Gentry.
You know that she was just such a force, What
an amazing songwriter, what an amazing singer, and also what
a great beauty. You know, She's somebody who I would
(09:44):
love to take a walk with as well. Still alive
out there, but just decided to walk away from entertainment
and is sort of, you know, out there, where is
Bobby Gentry? We're not sure? Another great songwriter asked that
question in her song Jill Sobule, one of my favorites,
also ask where is Bobby Gentry? We all want to know?
Speaker 3 (10:07):
She was, uh.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
Truly one of one one of my absolute favorites. And
of course Dolly Parton in the same vein you know,
what a what a beauty, what a singer, what a songwriter,
what an icon? You know? So many modern people. I
would say Chapel Rowan. I absolutely adore her. I love
(10:30):
the way that her songs have such drama, that there
are you start one place and then you end someplace
totally different, and I I'm really in all of that
where somebody can take chords and song structure and bring
it to life and in a way that is so
(10:51):
bombastic and exciting and new but old. I love I
love her, And.
Speaker 4 (10:57):
There's a theme there as far as your taste. You
like those that just like you are, you know, don't
apologize for anything you've done and you're saying and creating.
You just have that force behind everything that you do.
Who instilled that in you, that unapologetic attitude, I don't know.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
I mean maybe it was something that I'm just you
sort of fake it till you make it like you
just don't. You don't even know if it's right. You
just do it like you. I think, you just put
it out there. And that's kind of the way stand
up comedy is. You kind of have to put it
out there to even know if it's going to work,
and you have to be confident in your idea in
order to make an audience believe it. So you sort
(11:43):
of have to be a salesman for yourself as well.
And I think I learned that through comedy, but you know,
it wasn't ever something that I was entirely confident about.
You just have to fake it till you make it.
Speaker 4 (11:57):
That's it a little trial and error too.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
Yeah, always, always yes.
Speaker 4 (12:02):
And as a musician, what do you feel like you've
most learned over the last year of your work.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
I think that it's songs are really magic, like they
come out of thin air and that you don't really
know like and you'll be presented with all sorts of
entry points, you know, sometimes in the part of a dream,
I'll dream something and then I'll it'll it'll come into
being in like part of a song, you know, and
(12:34):
then you uh will figure things out, like it's just there.
It's so interesting and how it's like a magical stream
and then you kind of dip in and it's right there.
But if you don't dip in, it's it's gonna go
by you. So I think of what I've learned is
you've got it when you get like the sort of a
(12:55):
thread of something you've got to go and get the
whole cloth. Is you. You can build the whole cloth
from that, but it's about going to get it, and.
Speaker 4 (13:03):
It seems like it's an ongoing process of strengthening the muscles,
if you will.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
Yes, yes, which I have very much in joke writing.
So every day the first thing I do before I
get out of bed is I write a joke. And
it doesn't have to be funny, and it doesn't have
to be a whole joke, but I have to. That's
the first thing that I do as a comedian is
I make sure I have at least one formed an
(13:33):
idea that's going to be a joke later, or that
is already fully formed joke, or that came out of
a dream, whatever. It's the first thing I do every day.
I don't have that with songwriting, and I really should,
because that's the way to grow as a songwriter. I
used to be in a group of songwriters where we
would send each other songs daily that you would actually
have to write a snippet of a song every day,
(13:55):
and that was really helpful. But I don't have that
right now. I think, yeah, so in the next year,
I don't really do with resolutions. But that's probably something
I would like to do as a songwriters too. Again,
reinforce the practice of one thing a day in the morning.
Speaker 4 (14:11):
I gather you don't sit.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
Idle, no, but I also love to lay around.
Speaker 4 (14:20):
But I'm thinking if you're laying around still, you're noodling,
you're you know, you're thinking of it the next you know,
joke or maybe a song that just ran through your
head that you know made an impact on you or something.
So I think I have a feeling you're always there's
always something going on up there.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
Margaret, Yeah, I think so I'll try to fight off dementia.
You know, I'm trying to make sure that like it
still works, all those things still work. And yeah, yeah,
to me, it's creating is is is fun, It's it's
a way to keep your mind alive, and it's just
enjoyable to me. So I I just I really love it.
(14:59):
I love to buy instruments as well, so you know,
for me, it's fun to play around with the different
ways sound is made, all different kinds of things. I've
gotten really into synthesizers lately, so that's sort of a
newer passion. But yeah, I love it.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
We'll be right back with more of the Taking a
Walk podcast. Welcome back to the Taking a Walk Podcast.
Speaker 4 (15:28):
I just encountered this woman named Sierra Hall. Are you
familiar with her? She's a mandolin player extraordinaire and you know,
comes really mostly out of bluegrass, which is made up
of so much improvisation. I'm thinking, once again, as a
(15:48):
comedian who's been so masterful at improvisation, you're probably pretty
good on the fly musically improvising as well.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
So I mean, I think that it goes to you
sort of like know what's going to happen. Like with music,
you kind of have an idea, and then if you
can follow the sort of chord progression and bring it
back a measure, bring it back a measure, then you
could probably figure it out. I don't know if I
could compete with the great jazz improvisers or even the
(16:19):
best of the bluegrass. Bluegrass is just phenomenal to me.
It's like calculus, Like it's like how do they even
do that? Like it's it's a musicianship, but it's also
soul and it's it's it's not phenomenal, but yeah, I
think I can improve a little bit well.
Speaker 4 (16:34):
I mean, I bet a musician would say watching your
art on stage as a comedian that they're just wowed by,
you know, the ease, how you make it look so easy, which, yeah,
it is not easy, I'm quite sure.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
Yeah, it's interesting how comedians have such a We're always
in awe of musicians, and musicians are always in awe
of can medians, and we just want to switch places,
which I get to do every once and again.
Speaker 4 (17:04):
And as I think about music and as I think
about comedy, I believe both have true healing powers. We
actually produce this music podcast called Music Save Me, which
is about sort of the healing power of music. But
can you equate in your mind how music has healing
(17:25):
powers and comedy and laughter has healing powers as well,
because I certainly think it does.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
It does well. Laughter is the unexpected breath that you
take that you didn't know you were going to take,
that ensures the next moment of life. So laughter is
like this hit of oxygen that we all need all
the time, but it disrupts your normal breathing pattern and
it makes you breathe deeper and harder. And if you're
laughing a lot, it's a really life affirming gesture. That's
(17:56):
why you know. People all you know always says like
laughter is the best medicine. It's true, it actually is medicine.
And sound. I think, well, like cats. I'm surrounded by
cats right now. They're all purring, and a cat's purr
heals bones like this, the sound frequency heals, the heal
(18:17):
helps the cat heal. He'll help you hail. So you know,
it makes absolute sense that music will do the same thing.
It's the same frequencies using to sort of mend your
bones and your body and your mind. And I mean,
I always love having music around. It just makes me
feel better. It makes me feel great, actually, like it's
(18:39):
just a wonderful thing to have all different kinds of
music and all different ways to listen. And so I
agree it's a very healing they're both very healing modalities
different ways.
Speaker 4 (18:51):
So the cats love your music. Question is how about Lucia,
your lovely dog. Does Lucia love your music?
Speaker 2 (19:00):
Loves it? She loves singing. One of my cats really
loves singing. She always if they're singing, she'll always come
in and she wants to be a part of it.
She wants to singing to happen like right in her
like around her body, because I think she likes the vibration.
Luccia just loves to be in the studio. She loves
(19:20):
just to be around musicians, and she loves people. And
she's always really like happy around any kind of musician.
She loves it.
Speaker 4 (19:28):
Oh, that's so cool. So you got a tour, Well,
you're always on tour in some ways, So you have
a tour that will be rolling out through a bunch
of cities. I know you're doing a Boston date and
Connecticut date and all through you know, the East Coast. Certainly,
will people get a taste on this tour of both
music and stand.
Speaker 2 (19:49):
Up, Well, it's hard to mix it. It's hard to
f I'm like, I'm trying to this is a stand
up comedy show that I'm touring with. Maybe you know,
I haven't really thought of, but yeah, like I wonder, like,
is it possible to tour both? Maybe? I know that
there are a couple of like music shows coming up
in around the release of the record. I'm doing a
(20:12):
musical like a show at Largo, which I do a
lot of comedy at in at Los Angeles, and it's
a very Famous Music Club, so I'd be doing that
as a music show. And then I'm doing a music
show at the Grammy Museum on April first, so those
are specifically music shows. And then you know, I wonder
(20:32):
like maybe maybe it will happen, Maybe there will be
a crossover, just a.
Speaker 4 (20:38):
Touch, right, just maybe. Yes. I mean, you know, easy
for me to say, I'm not the one executing it.
Speaker 2 (20:43):
So yeah, well I think it should happen. I mean,
I think that there should be a little bit of
crossover for both.
Speaker 4 (20:50):
I love that. Tell me about the beginnings of your
comedy career. You started out, obviously at a young age.
I think six teen as a stand up.
Speaker 2 (21:03):
Yes, well, my earliest shows were I was fourteen, but
I started like to be like professional, like at sixteen,
seventeen eighteen. I was making a living by the age
of eighteen, so, which is pretty good. You know, it's
still in the nineteen eighties, and you know, like I
was doing okay, which is like amazing, and I was
(21:25):
like doing doing television and stuff. You know. I was
on shows like Evening at the Improv and MTV's half
hour Comedy Hour and all sorts of I was on
a show with Bob Hope, the Bob Hope's Comedy Special
that he would do every year as the young Comedian
special that he would host. And so I was doing
(21:47):
comedy very young, and I just knew that was my life,
Like I just knew that's what I wanted to do,
and it just was my biggest passion since I was
about eight years old. So i knew that I would
do it, and I'm grateful that I still get to
do it. I just turned fifty six, and I really
(22:10):
love it. You know. It's a life that I I'm
so grateful to have lived. And I still have a
lot to do. You know, I still I do a
show every day pretty much of some kind. I'll do
one later today, and you know, for me, it's just
it's a lifelong passion and as.
Speaker 4 (22:31):
As it is taking its shape over the years. How
have you made living on the road, as you know,
easy as possible.
Speaker 2 (22:42):
Well, I have like a set way that I do,
like my the way that I pack. I have a
life in my suitcase that never actually comes out of
my suitcase. So like my road clothes never touched my
home clothes. I've like my whole life. It's very specific,
but I travel less nowadays. Oddly, I've been traveling less
(23:06):
since the pandemic because I've just found I want to
stay home more and also I'm pursuing more acting and
that is a little bit of different vibe as well,
so which requires travel, but it's a little different. So
but yeah, I've been on the road for so long
(23:28):
that it's weird to take time off. The pandemic was
the first time that I actually stopped traveling for about
thirty five years, and it was just such a revelation
to finally just be home. I really love being at home.
Speaker 4 (23:39):
In talking to so many musicians over the last year,
and in particular about their you know, going out on
the road and how the pandemic obviously changed everything and
really you know, stifled all that. It feels like for
so many of them, it was like cutting off their
their right arm, not being you know, able to connect
(24:01):
with their fans and play in front of people. I'm
sure you could identify with that vibe.
Speaker 2 (24:09):
Yeah, I was like, who who are we without that?
Who are we without traveling and touring and playing out
like you know, living out of a suitcase every night?
You know, Like I was, I had like a crisis
like try, like a real crisis of conscience, like who
(24:29):
are we even without this part of ourselves? And then
I realized that I'm actually a homebody, but I actually
really love being at home, and I'd never even known that,
which is so weird because I'd never been home for
more than a few days for thirty five years. And
so now when I approach touring, it's very different. I mean,
I still tour a lot, but it's a very different
(24:51):
kind of a way of going about it. Like I
don't go out for months at a time. It's just
like much more controlled, which I feel more comfortable doing.
Speaker 4 (25:01):
You've been You talked earlier about your advocacy that was
influenced certainly by your friend Robin Williams, but in general,
advocacy has been important to you. Can you talk in
some other detail about some important causes.
Speaker 2 (25:19):
Well, working in different things. I worked a lot on
the Kamala Harris campaign, and I really wanted her to
be president, and I really thought she was going to
be president. Now that is of course different. There's a
lot to do still, you know, there's a lot to
(25:39):
work around, especially protecting rights for gay people, for trans people.
Trans people in particular, that's a huge issue for me,
Like I want to be able to protect the trans community,
that gender not conforming, gender fluid, non binary people, Like
it's such a crisis now that we're dealing with. So
(26:01):
it's very I mean, you know, it's a very treacherous
time kind of trying to figure out how do we
combat these ideas of Project twenty twenty five or you know,
we're trying to protect women's rights, trying to protect trans rights.
I'm very adamant about doing that. So that's where I
think a lot of advocacy is going to be placed
(26:24):
in the near future, at least in the next four years.
Speaker 4 (26:28):
You feel over the last few years that there's a
certain amount of the population that completely lost their sense
of humor.
Speaker 2 (26:37):
Yeah, people get so defensive about these ideas of what
they want to protect and these ideas of protecting gender
or protecting like the sanctity of gender, which I think
is such a ridiculous thing, And to me, that's very humorous.
It's like a really ridiculous thing I'm trying to protect
(26:57):
or trying to protect these gives of like families or children,
trying to protect children, which is like I get that
that's kind of a noble notion. But what's harming children
is not drag queens. You know, drag queens are there's
nothing that they have nothing to do with children. Really,
it's not even a thing. You know. Maybe there's like
(27:18):
drag queens story r but that's just very innocent, beautiful
and fun. It's like clowns. It's like, when you really
look at them as clowns, it doesn't have that sort
of negating effect. But somehow drag there's a there's a weird,
sinister element that people want to put on it that
doesn't make sense to me. But yeah, it's very humorless.
Speaker 4 (27:41):
So when you think of comedians coming up the ranks
and you think of musicians coming up the ranks, is
it the same set of advice that you would give
to both if they were looking to be steered and
mentored the right way?
Speaker 2 (27:58):
Yeah? I think so. I mean, I think it's like
the same. It's just to like really understand that your
voice is the most precious thing and that you should
put your opinion of your art above others, above all else. Really,
and you haven't figured out what you're doing. You figure
it out, you know, but it's it's pretty much the same,
(28:20):
because I think what happens is when art meets commerce.
Commerce is always going to try to change you to
make you fit into what they're buying. But in truth,
you know you're you're in charge. So I would always
give like younger artists, that advice is like your voices,
that the should be, the loudest should be, that the
strongest should be the most important.
Speaker 4 (28:41):
Is there a particular moment in your career that stands
that one moment that stands out that you feel was
pivotal towards where you are now?
Speaker 2 (28:53):
I think I think it was when I was a
really young kid and I was doing comedy, and I
had a theater teacher who would always impress upon me like,
you can do anything, You're good at everything, so do everything.
And that really stuck with me. So it gave me
(29:13):
this permission to pursue all different facets of entertainment and
to really feel like it was okay for me to
do that because she kind of gave me that mode
of confidence.
Speaker 4 (29:26):
So what else do you want to pursue creatively that
you haven't pursued. You've got so many things on your plate,
but there must be other things that you have a
creative itch for.
Speaker 2 (29:36):
Well, I mean, I still want to be a better musician,
Like I want to be a better songwriter. I want
to be a better singer, like I want to actually
like work on what I have, Like what I have
is good, Like I'm doing good. But I know that
if I actually did the vocal warm ups, which I've
been told to do by so many teachers, if I
actually did all of the scales, if I did my scales,
(29:57):
I'd be so good, Like I wanted do the basics,
Like I really need to go back to the basics
because I've been in like comedy for so long and
I kind of take so much for granted as a
comedian that I feel like I never have to go
back to like basics there, But with music, I really
want to. So yeah, I do want to get better
at the musicianship. I need to drink more water like singers.
(30:19):
It's it's so weird because like you're the instrument, so
it's it's hard to for me to actually think about
treating my body with more respect in that regard, like
I'm actually the instrument. I actually need to be put
in a case like I need to actually be you know,
like dusted off and restrung. So I think I need
(30:42):
to do.
Speaker 4 (30:42):
That restrung zipped up but put in a a as
long as you can breathe.
Speaker 2 (30:48):
Yes, absolutely, Like I just need to put a new
bridge in every now and again. I really do, like
need to work with like the idea that I'm the instrument,
which I never regarded, so I have to do that more.
Speaker 4 (31:03):
Margaret Chow, it's so great to talk to you on
Taking a Walk. Thank you for this, congratulations on the music.
I'm so excited for you, and thanks for all you
give us, for your advocacy and from putting a smile
on our face and making us think and making us
dancing around with the music. This is awesome.
Speaker 2 (31:21):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (31:23):
Thanks for listening to this episode of the Taking a
Walk podcast. Share this and other episodes with your friends
and follow us so you never miss an episode. Taking
a Walk is available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
and wherever you get your podcasts.
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