Margaret Cho Named as 2024-25 Vanguard Artist-in-Residence at Joe's Pub

Joe’s Pub has named Margaret Cho as the 2024-2025 Vanguard Artist-in-Residence. This artist development program, which is a series of live performances, honors an iconic artist who has significantly influenced the artistic community of Joe’s Pub and American culture at large. Cho is honored for her groundbreaking career as a comedian, actor, and musician but also for her unwavering dedication to anti-racism, anti-bullying, and gay rights activism. She will spend a year with Joe’s Pub curating programming from artists that excite and invigorate her.
 
“I’m thrilled to introduce artists to the Joe’s Pub world who continually inspire me,” Cho says of her vision for the year. “It is an honor to finally sit in the audience after so many years of performing and I want to help create a show that makes me laugh, weep and dream. I look forward to seeing these incredible shows with all of you."
 
Kicking things off on October 25th, comedian and rock star Charlene Kaye will perform her solo show Tiger Daughter — or How I Brought My Immigrant Mother Ultimate Shame. On January 24th & 25th, 2025, Cho will host Margaret’s Children, a showcase of comedians Nori Reed, Robin Tran, and Sabrina Wu. In the spring, Cho’s curation will extend to a live recording of the Dopey Podcast, on which she will be a guest, on March 11, 2025, and a solo show from comedian Youngmi Mayer on April 4. Tickets for Kaye, Margaret’s Children and the Dopey Podcast are now on sale at www.joespub.com. More shows are to be announced.
 
Isabel Kim, Associate Director of Joe’s Pub, said, “Margaret Cho is the definition of a vanguard. For so long, she was the only Asian American comic - and certainly the only queer, female, and Asian American comic - that I was aware of. She has been bold and hilarious since the start of her career, and inspired and paved the way for today’s blossoming generation of queer Asian American comics. An activist on and off the stage, Margaret lifts up emerging artists every chance she gets. She is truly the most generous soul. We can already see how her programming and her presence are going to make a huge impact on the Joe’s Pub community and beyond.”
 
Previous winners of the Vanguard Award & Residency are singer Angélique Kidjo (2023-24), vocal instructor Barbara Maier Gustern (posthumously, 2022-23), experimental musician Laurie Anderson (2020-22), queen of folk Judy Collins (2019-20), and funk rock trailblazer Nona Hendryx (2018-19).
 

Photo credit: Alaric Campbell