Danny Cho wants to get one thing straight. "I'm not the funniest...but I can tell the story the best," he says confidently at Cafe Mak in Los Angeles. "Ninety-nine percent of my jokes are true, from all the bad sex stories, to my mom and dad and racism... it's all happened." (Sex stories? Note: we now have the full undivided attention of johnnydorama.) Meet the refreshingly witty embodiment of Korean-American and humor, who sat down to talk with allkpop. In 2000, on a dare from his friend, Danny took to an open mike night in South Central Los Angeles and "won the grand prize and got bit by the comedy bug." Funny man Danny Cho, 26, is marking his territory in Hollywood one comedy club at a time. "Ultimately, I want to do a show at the Wiltern or an HBO special." After deciding to pursue comedy, Danny continued to make appearances, including Kollaboration, the largest Asian American talent show in the US. After graduating UCLA, he worked as a valuation consultant for three years but it became difficult to maintain a full time job and doing stand up part time. "I was working 80 hours a week. I'd get off work, go do stand up, come back and work again and get off at four in the morning, get two hours of sleep and go back to work again." Eventually and much to his parents' disapproval, Danny quit his six-figure income job and devoted himself to his passion: comedy.
"The only thing right now that makes me completely happy is stand up."Danny wouldn't mind going into full-fledged acting. "I don't want to call myself and actor. I've never really taken an acting class before. It'd be great if I got into a movie or had my own show. But I haven't tasted the rewards of acting yet." Our conversation is sprinkled with Danny's zingers. Lines ranging from "sweating like a runaway slave" to having the "acting ability of Keanu Reeves with a mental disability." "Seriously, I don't want to be a role model, in any sense," he tells me. "Other Asian American comics would ask me for advice and stuff like that I'm always willing to do. But I want people to know that for Korean American actors in the entertainment industry that there is no set one way to do it. Most people have this image that they have to be good looking, they have to be conservative, they have to be God-fearing people, they have to be smart." Danny knows it can't be like that all the time. "I want people to know we have to have the degenerates, the criminals, drug dealers to be known as Americans. I'm Korean, yeah, but I'm just as American as anyone else." Danny tries to stay away from the Korean umma imitations, bad driving and dog eating stories. Not because it's not funny but because he wants to be true to himself, "I just wanna be me." As a Korean-American, Danny still gets his biggest laughs from watching his favorite Korean variety shows, especially '1 Night 2 Days' because of his favorite, MC Mong. For pure wittiness, his favorite goes to Country Kko Kko's Shin Junghwan. And speaking in terms of pure professionalism, Danny is all for Yoo Jae Suk. Danny has never set foot in Korea but his Korean is fluent and has received offers from a certain Korean beer company for advertising. For now, Danny has fun channeling his mother for his Kim Jong Il impressions. His Kim Jong Il Eharmony commercial was one of Youtube's featured videos and his character, Pongo, a zoned out, half mute, can be seen on MadTV accompanying actor Bobby Lee. Danny will be making his film debut in Wedding Palace, starring many Korean-American actors, such as his good friend Bobby Lee, Margaret Cho and the lead role is played by Kang Hye Jung. Danny describes Wedding Palace as "the My Fat Big Greek Wedding of our generation." Time with Danny has flown by and soon we spot Se7en coming into the very same cafe. While Danny claims his own "antis" are Korean, he wishes success for all Koreans in the entertainment business. Currently, Danny Cho's DVD, Watch Your Step, is on sale. It features music by Izreal and our own Far*East Movement friends! Danny also did a short MV for FM's 'Girls on the Dancefloor' as Kim Jong Il. If you are 18 and over and in the Los Angeles area, check out Danny's live show at the Colony Theater in Burbank on Friday May 29.
Danny gave allkpop four autographed copies of Watch Your Step to giveaway!
To enter, just send an e-mail to: {encode="giveaway@allkpop.com" title="giveaway@allkpop.com"} with Danny Cho Giveaway as the subject line and the information below:
NOTE: PLEASE SUBMIT ONLY ONE ENTRY. MULTIPLE ENTRY SUBMISSIONS WILL HAVE YOU AUTOMATICALLY DISQUALIFIED.
*Due to the content on the DVD, this giveaway is restricted to readers 18 and over.
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For more info on Danny Cho visit his allkpop Artist Profile in the allkpop Forums, as well as his websites:
www.myspace.com/dannychocomedy
http://www.dannycho.com
http://twitter.com/dannycho
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