Comedy comes easily to Henry Cho, headlining two shows at the Bing

Usually when someone is called an “overnight success,” they’ve really been working for years, or even decades, to perfect their respective skill or talent.

For comedian Henry Cho, his career really did come overnight.

Cho watched comedians on “The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson” growing up in Knoxville but never thought about comedy as a career or even something he could do. He was simply a fan of the medium.

Fast forward to college at the University of Tennessee – Knoxville. Cho didn’t regularly attend open mics or shows at the one comedy club in town, but the idea to take the stage came to him as a potential path to get into acting.

Steve Martin and Billy Crystal had started with open mics, he said, so why not him?

Cho entered an open mic competition at the club, assuming it would be 12 participants like himself, people new to comedy and eager to try their shot onstage. Instead, Cho found himself onstage with 11 experienced comedians.

“Told my pals ‘I’m here, so I will go up and try not to do too bad and never talk about this again,’ ” he said. “But my first joke killed, and so did the rest. I won, got hired that night, started working on Wednesday, dropped out of school on Friday.”

Yes, just days after his stage debut, Cho was a full-time working comedian, a job he’s had ever since and one that brings him to the Bing Crosby Theater on Saturday and Sunday.

Cho has been a clean comedian since day one, choosing to forego particularly raunchy subjects and cursing with topics that are universal.

In the early days, Cho would talk about being the only Asian kid in his neighborhood, dating and “all the other topics a single guy knows.” Now, he talks about being married, his children and slice-of-life stories that most audience members can easily relate to.

Cho posts new and old clips on his social media accounts and said it’s cool to see old bits that he can’t do nowadays as someone who is no longer single and no longer rents apartments.

He also notices that he speaks slower these days. When he was emceeing a show or performing as the middle act of the evening, he had a shorter time limit and would try to do as many jokes as possible.

Now, he can give himself, and his jokes, a little breathing room.

“Timing is everything, and I certainly feel more comfortable now than those early months,” he said.

Cho’s career has kept him busy on stage, though he did also make his way to acting in films and on television, as he originally sought out to do. Cho has appeared in “Designing Women,” “The New WKRP in Cincinnati,” “McHale’s Navy,” “Say It Isn’t So” and “Material Girls,” among other films and TV shows.

He also hosted “Friday Night Videos” and also co-created, co-produced and co-wrote “The Henry Cho Show” on Great American Country, now called Great American Family.

Off-screen, Cho is a regular guest at the Grand Ole Opry. He said in his early days performing at the renowned venue, he just tried to do his best so he would hopefully be invited back.

His best was good enough, and Cho has been invited back to perform more than 100 times since his debut in April 2011. In January 2023, Cho and fellow comedian Gary Mule Deer were invited to become members of the Opry, the first comedians to receive the honor since Jerry Clower in 1973.

“Being inducted as a member is still surreal,” Cho said.

Cho is still adding accolades to his extensive resume, including an upcoming special he’s working on for Netflix. Cho will run most of that material during his two shows in Spokane.

“Can’t wait for that weekend,” he said. “Thanks to all for selling out the first show so we could add another!”