I need a hero

The other week, I got a phone call from Rawbean -

"Hey? Are you gonna watch the Cho Show? It's on at 11," she blithely informed me at 10:58 - at which point, we proceeded to talk for the next two hours. Bleary eyed and dazed the next day, I all but forgot about the Cho Show, but figured that I would catch one of the multiple reruns VH1 was sure to show.

When I was 15 years old, Margaret Cho was my hero. I even wrote a paper about her and her show, "All-American Girl" citing the fact that only in America could a show like hers even have come to fruition. I caught bits and pieces of her standup on Comedy Central and HBO-but it was mostly made for network tv material, cleaned up and polished. Although, I still remember the special where she came out on stage wearing a patent leather catsuit. It wouldn't be til college when I listened to her seminal first cd, 'Drunk With Power' in all its alcoholic, foul-mouthed, beautifully truthful glory that I got it.

See, there were plenty of Asian American role models for me to follow, in those days: Connie Chung, Amy Tan, Maya Lin, Maxine Hong Kingston - plenty of Asian American women were coming to the forefront of popular culture as educated, well-spoken and worthy of notice. But Cho spoke to the darker side of me. The side that desired tattoos and screaming my anger and frustration and my burgeoning love of gay male companionship. The side that didn't want to be the 'good girl' any longer, didn't want to have to be good at math or the violin or be the picture of virtuous grace. The side that wanted to RAGE.

Well, my hero is back. And madder than a heart attack. I love the set up of this show; it's sort of like Run's House-where she provides running commentary after each event as well as interviews and interaction with her sidekicks and 'Glam Squad'. The first episode shows Cho dealing with her parents and accepting an award from the Korean Community as 'Korean' of the year.

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