Addiction is no joke. Margaret Cho wants to show that people in recovery should laugh anyway

Comedian Margaret Cho has spoken candidly for years about her experiences with drug and alcohol addiction — both on and off stage.

This Saturday, she and a lineup of comedians will continue that very personal work when they perform at the El Rey Theatre in Mid-Wilshire. Ticket sales and sponsorships will benefit Phoenix House California, an organization that offers treatment and prevention services to thousands of Southern Californians.

“It’s the least we can do for all the damage we’ve done in the world,” Cho joked.

She added that many comedians have struggled with substance use.

“We’re, like, all in different stages of recovery ourselves,” she told LAist. “And so we’re trying to work off all of our terrible bad acts that we’ve committed over our destructive lives, myself included.”

More than 48 million Americans live with a substance use disorder, according to data from the federal government. But not everyone gets the help that they need.

The most recent data from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, or SAMHSA, shows that in 2023, about 17% of Americans 12 or older had a substance use disorder, but only about one in four who needed treatment received it.

Cho said she was happy to support an organization like Phoenix House, which serves about 3,000 people a year in residential treatment. Phoenix House has facilities in Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties.

“If you don’t have the resources to go to a fancy rehab, this [Phoenix House] is a really great option,” she said. “And it’s a really important part of what we’re doing as the recovery community.”

De-stigmatizing addiction

The comedy show "has this environment that’s really unique where something that is usually a very stigmatized topic, and shameful and not discussed, is brought into the light,” Alice Gleghorn, president and CEO of Phoenix House California, told LAist.

“People can relate to each other about this topic in a way you really don’t see anywhere else,” she said.

Gleghorn added that the comedy fundraiser is happening during a “great time of uncertainty” for organizations in the addiction recovery space.

The Trump administration has made significant staffing cuts at SAMHSA, which allocates billions of dollars to states for life-saving mental health and substance-use disorder programs and oversees the national 988 mental health crisis lifeline. The Trump Administration discontinued about $1 billion in SAMHSA grants, the New York Times reported.

While it’s unclear if or how federal funding cuts will affect Phoenix House, Gleghorn said she was planning for the worst and hoping for the best.

“All of these changes, whether real, projected or just being discussed, do have a destabilizing effect. And people who need help — people who need life-saving services — are going to suffer,” Gleghorn said.

Comedians in recovery

Dustin Ybarra, one of the four comedians in recovery participating in this weekend’s fundraiser, agreed with Cho that many comedians are able to lift up people in recovery because they know addiction so well themselves.

“You write what you know,” Ybarra said. “Because, I mean, if you hang out with, say an alcoholic locksmith, eventually he might talk about it. But comics, I guess we’re just more apt to being honest.”

During his own recovery, Ybarra said, he remembers thinking: How am I going to have fun again? How am I going to laugh again?

Ybarra said it’s important to show people in recovery that you can still have a good time. The hope is that Saturday’s show will do just that.

“I’ve had shows where people come up to me and say, ‘I haven’t laughed since I got sober, and you made me laugh,’” Ybarra said.

Phoenix House’s second annual Sober & Standing (Up!) comedy show is at 7 p.m. Saturday at the El Rey Theatre, 5515 Wilshire Blvd.

More information is at the Phoenix House website.