Joe’s Pub
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Joe’s Pub announces 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.. 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 25, comedian and rock star Charlene Kaye will perform her solo show Tiger Daughter — or How I Brought My Immigrant Mother Ultimate Shame. On January 24 & 25, 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).
About the Vanguard
Comedian. Actor. Musician. Advocate. Entrepreneur. Five-time Grammy and Emmy nominee. When hasn’t Margaret Cho’s strong voice been part of our consciousness? It feels like she has always been here, like a friend you can always count on, lighting the path for other women, other members of underrepresented groups, other performers, to follow.
Margaret staunchly supports the causes that are important to her: anti-racism, anti-bullying, gay rights, all while fulfilling her successful creative side with a legendary stand up career that has yielded 12-plus comedy tours. Her recent television appearances – guest star w/ Amy Schumer on Life & Beth (Hulu), guest star on Season 2 of Hacks (HBO Max) and three Netflix comedy specials: Stand Out: An LGBTQ+ Celebration, Jane Fonda & Lily Tomlin: Ladies Night Live and Outstanding: A Comedy Revolution – have expanded an already wide-ranging career, and her role as the ‘mother hen’ in the well-reviewed movie Fire Island solidifies why we all love Margaret in the first place.
Margaret, who Vogue magazine named one of the 9 best female comedians of all time alongside Joan Rivers, Gilda Radner, and Wanda Sykes, appreciates where she finds herself right now. “I think comedians in general, we get better as we get older, and we kind of get more observant, and more astute in those observations.”
Thankfully, Margaret has more stories to tell, and her production company, Animal Family Productions, has multiple scripted shows in development for 2024 and beyond.
About the Program
The Vanguard Residency, an artist development program of Joe’s Pub, is a year-long residency that celebrates the career of a singular artist who has contributed to American life and pop culture and is a part of the Joe’s Pub family of artists. This artist also sustains and leads their own artistic community while creating a body of work that stands apart from their peers. Additionally, the award is an answer to the music industry’s widening gaps in funding. Joe’s Pub offers a cash grant as well as a monthly performance series to be performed and curated by the artist.
The Vanguard Residency rounds out a slate of programs at Joe’s Pub that offer musicians alternatives of support in a constantly fluctuating music industry. While the Vanguard Residency honors an iconic artist, Joe’s Pub Working Group is an artist development program for those early on in their careers and New York Voices is an initiative that commissions established musicians to create new works with theater artists.
About the Venue
Joe’s Pub, a program of The Public Theater, was named for The Public’s founder Joseph Papp. Since it opened in 1998, Joe’s Pub has played a vital role in The Public’s mission of supporting artists at all stages of their careers with an intimate space to perform and develop new work. Joe’s Pub presents the best in live music and performance nightly, continuing its commitment to diversity, production values, community, and artistic freedom. In addition to one-night-only concerts and multi-night engagements, Joe’s Pub is home to the annual Habibi Festival, which hosts artists representing contemporary and traditional musics of the SWANA (Southwest Asia/North Africa) region, and The Vanguard Residency, a yearlong curation series that celebrates the career, and community, of a prolific and influential artist, including Nona Hendryx, Judy Collins, Laurie Anderson, Barbara Maier Gustern, Angelique Kidjo, and Margaret Cho.
With its intimate atmosphere and superior acoustics, Joe’s Pub presents over 700 shows featuring artists based in New York City and touring performers from all over the world, and hosts over 100,000 audience members annually. Beyond public performances, Joe’s Pub also leads artist development programs like New York Voices, a commissioning program that helps musicians develop new performance projects, and Joe’s Pub Working Group, an artist-led development and collaboration cohort. Current commissioned artists include Sarah Elizabeth Charles, Omar Offendum, Jake Blount & Mali Obomsawin, Dan Fishback, and Jo Lampert & Debra Barsha.
