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Life is a funny thing, comedienne Margaret Zhao observes. Things that are uncomfortable, embarrassing or even disastrous when they happen often become humorous in hindsight.
“In comedy there is a saying: Comedy equals tragedy plus time,” Zhao noted.
The Pleasanton resident gives examples of everyday challenges when she moved to Orange County in 1985 after marrying an American.
“In China, we stand very close, we squeeze on the bus and train,” Zhao said. “When I was in the post office there was a mark to stand behind, but I didn’t know that and I stood right close to the person at the counter. Then the person looked at me. My husband gestured me to come back.”
She stood too close to people in line at the grocery store, too.
“I had no clue,” she said, with a laugh. “It was a habit. In China we stand close to everybody.”
Her memoir, “Really Enough: A True Story of Tyranny, Courage and Comedy,” tells about her struggle in China for survival, freedom and forbidden love, as well as her cross-cultural surprises in America.
Zhao was a clerk at UC Irvine Medical Center when her coworkers learned about her Chinese traditional healing skills and sought her help with various aches and pains. Zhao realized she could support herself with her healing arts and began to work full-time doing acupressure.
Meanwhile she was catching on to American humor, watching comedians Roseanne Barr and Margaret Cho, and she began to share stories of her early life with others — with a comic twist.
“Somebody said, ‘You’re so funny, you should go to Irvine Improv,'” she said. “I called, and the manager said to come on open mike night and we will see.”
She got her jokes together, thinking she would have a tryout in his office, and was gob smacked when she arrived to find she was to perform before a live audience. When she walked onstage, she was blinded by the spotlight.
“I lost my brain for a few seconds,” she recalled. “But the surprise and shock emboldened me. I killed! Nervousness can make you do a better job.”
She continued to do standup comedy at the Irvine Improv and other venues, including the Laugh Factory in Hollywood.
Then, after 19 years in Southern California, Zhao went to San Jose to help her niece, training teachers in her massage/reflexology center. While there, Zhao met her current husband, who lives in Pleasanton, and she moved here two years ago.
Zhao immediately began her healing arts locally, teaching qi gong for the city of Pleasanton and founding the Life Renewing Center.
“I educate people to take charge of their health,” Zhao said, “with acupressure, tai chi, qi gong and exercise. People can change their inner self to make things better.”
And she mixes in humor.
“People always ask, ‘How did you come to the U.S.A.?'” she said. “I answer, ‘By airplane.’ They always laugh. I teach people healing laughs.”
Zhao, who is 60 but looks younger, has performed to sellout crowds at the Bothwell Arts Center.
“One person asked the question, ‘How do you keep the fountain of youth?’ I said, ‘One thing I do is color my hair,'” she said.
“You can find humor in everything — embarrassment, stress — then you can deal with it with a better mind and energy,” she added. “It really works, it engenders endorphins, there is a physical reaction from laughter.”
Zhao is performing with comedians Regina Stoops and Stacey Gustafson in “One Night, Three Women, Too Funny!” at 7:30 p.m. Aug. 26 at the Bothwell Arts Center in Livermore. Tickets are $20. Proceeds benefit the facility, which offers affordable space for classrooms, rehearsal, performances and artist studios.
Stoops’ perspective of life in the suburbs has fueled her comedic ramblings of a “Catholic, Democratic, lesbian, stay-at home soccer mom with an autistic son.”
Gustafson also turns everyday frustrations to hilarity as she pokes fun at kids, parents, marriage and midlife. She writes humor columns and blogs — such as detailing the horrors of being trapped inside a pair of Spanx — and was named Erma Bombeck Humor Writer of the Month.
Zhao said her goal is to spread unconditional love to everyone, including those who are not very lovable.
“I am a Buddhist practitioner, and I have the Buddhist point of view that we have enough suffering — birth, aging, sickness, death,” she said. “We don’t need hatred to add to the sufferings. I am a drop in the ocean but if we all love in this ocean, we will be in a peaceful world.”
Too funny
What: “One Night, Three Women, Too Funny!” Comedy Fundraiser
Who: Margaret Zhao, Regina Stoops, Stacey Gustafson
When: 7:30-9 p.m., Saturday, Aug. 26
Where: Bothwell Arts Center, 2466 Eighth St., Livermore
Tickets: $20; purchase at LVPAC.org or the Bankhead Theater box office. Autographed books and cash bar will be in the lobby.
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Pleasanton’s Margaret Zhao is among the comediennes performing Aug. 26 in Livermore as part of “One Night, Three Women, Too Funny!” (Contributed photo) -
Stacey Gustafson is known for turning everyday frustrations into hilarity. (Contributed photo) -
Regina Stoops is also taking the stage in the comedy fundraiser for the Bothwell Arts Center. (Contributed photo)
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