‘but l feel like it‘s a way to make people think and in some cases heal a lot of strange emotional wounds and maladies. I feel in a sense sometimes not just a comedian but a spiritual physician.‘
This is group-sharing en masse: private lives are prohibited and personal vanities swept aside. At once therapeutic. invasive and downright terrifying. (‘ho has come to terms with her private life being gossip column fodder and her history being the subject of her cutting self-ridicule.
And it‘s not just her own life which is laid bare. Her family don‘t get off lightly either. (‘ho bases much of her act on her relationship with her mother. and although they were cautiotis before (‘ho became a national celebrity. her parents are now just as excited about her work. 'I think it speaks to them as evidence of a new changing consciousness. They‘re not demonstrative in the way that they live their lives. Korean culture is really repressed and treasures silence about problems and about our emotional life. I was brought tip with this silence and this need for silence. and because my existence and my work is about shouting — it‘s not silence. it‘s a scream — they can‘t believe it‘s happening.‘
Now 32. Cho enjoys the Hollywood lifestyle and lives and loves to tell the tale. She‘s dated Quentin 'l‘arantino and Chris Isaak. starred in John Woo‘s Fare/Off. dined at the WhiteHouse with Bill and Hils. and more recently starred in the opening episode of the latest series of Sex And The City (which she describes as like watching ‘gay men play with dolls‘).
This will be her first time working in Europe. and The Notorious (‘.H.(). has all Cho‘s trademark ballsy. bolshy. riotous takes on relationships. race. gender. sexuality. porn and even colonic irrigation. employing all the savvy and attitude of American female rap artists. According to (‘ho. it brings existentialism and spiritualism into pop culture in a way that hasn‘t been done before. ‘The main theme in the show is how I take short cuts to everything in my life and how they don‘t work for me any more. Short cuts like I think that if I‘m thin I‘ll be happy. I think if I get married I‘ll be happy. I think ifl have thisjob I‘ll be happy. and it‘s trying to circumvent all of the work it takes to actually be happy and concentrating them all in one thing — the idea that something I can get or some material object will give me joy in my life.
‘The show is very Buddhist. the idea of constantly chasing happiness without realising that happiness lies within us all. So that‘s really what the
show is about and making comedy of
that is not an easy task.‘ You‘ve got to question. is it ever?
The Notorious C.H.O., Pleasance, 8-27 Aug, 1 1 pm.
14 THE LIST FESTIVAL GUIDE 2~9 Aug 2001
Say my
Grandma Pat gives Geor e Bush mar 5 out of ten
v. .7 u
fl.
‘I wake up in the morning and I say to myself, you don’t know what the fuck you’re doing.’
Like a hybrid cross of Marge Simpson, a Goodfellas wife and Supergran, PAT CANDARAS bridges the generation gap with Iashings of her razor-sharp tongue. Words: Maureen Ellis
at (‘andaras flirted with the idea of calling her show '(irandmother l"ucks‘. But. according to the fiftysomething New
Yorker. that would be plain absurd. ‘I mean first of
all grandma is not running around fucking.‘ says (‘andaras. ‘it‘s ridiculous. And if she is. bring it home. you know. get it home. She‘s gonna get herself hurt: it‘s chilly out there.‘
It‘s 9.30am and (‘andaras is agitated. She‘s in her Brooklyn apartment with her ‘cuoiffee‘. going over the script for her Fringe show (1‘I'undmollie/j/iu'ker (which she is working on with Resident Alien creator Tim l"ountain). and is a little perturbed about a news story. ‘()ur president came to New York (‘ity to the St Patrick's cathedral to give a medal to our former archbishop or whatever.‘ she explains. ‘All the politicians gathered and they were clapping. and George W. Bush. in that speech. what he said was. “we have to protect the right of the unborn child“. There‘s a lot of poverty in New York: you can‘t get computers in public schools and you‘re up there with all these guys on Fifth Avenue talking about some children who haven‘t even been brought into
this world and you have children in the city starving. Shame on you.‘
(‘andaras finds humour in challenging authority. plain and simple. And over the years. she‘s had plenty of authority figures in her life. One of seventeen children. (‘andaras was raised in Brooklyn. she married young. had three children and was abandoned by her alcoholic husband. She remarried. her children grew tip and left home. her second husband died. she lost her job of 23 years and only then decided to fulfil her lifelong ambition of becoming a stand-up comic.
But it wasn‘t plain sailing. (‘andaras was told she was too old to be a comedian. that she didn‘t belong on stage. that grandmothers shouldn‘t be funny. that she should open an antiques shop instead. Nevertheless she persevered. and hasn‘t looked back since.
Now something of a cult figure in New York from appearing in comedy clubs. colleges and senior citizens‘ centres. is (‘andaras concerned about becoming the authority figure she derides'? ‘Never. Because I fight it all the time. I don‘t want to become a spokesperson for anybody. I wake up in the morning and I say to myself. “you don‘t know what the fuck you‘re doing. Not the guy next door. not the guy across the street. you Pat. what are you doing?“ I don‘t have the answers. but then you get up and you proceed and what else can you do‘."
Grandmotherfucker, Assembly Rooms, 3-27 Aug, 10pm.