DAN HO
COMEDIAN, RADIO HOST AND SEGMENT REPORTER FOR COLORVISION

Q: How did you first get involved with COLORVISION?

A: I had just moved to Maine from Chicago when Annie [Moriyasu, Programming Director, Pacific Islanders in Communication] said, "You know what, there's something going on with COLORVISION. They're looking for talent." I sent Marc Johnson my reel, which is probably more embarrassing than the worst American Idol audition, and he asked me to be part of the film selection committee. Shortly thereafter, he asked me to be a correspondent, and that's how it happened.

Q: What were you involved with prior to COLORVISION?

A: I had my own radio show calledHome with Dan Ho out of WMPG, which is a community radio station in Southern Maine. The radio show was sort of a spin-off from a book I wrote about moving from a big house to a small house, dropping out of the rat race into a more normal life. I used to be in the restaurant business in Chicago, and I woke up one day (actually from a seizure), I looked at the beeswax candles, the Martha Stewart house, the 10 brands of olive oil, and I thought, "What the heck does all this mean?" Fortunately, my wife was also ready for higher pursuits than incessant gardening. I wrote a book that started out as a cookbook but ended up as a wacky lifestyle adventure.

Q: Are you still interested in radio?

A: Thank God for COLORVISION, because this is the truth: It's extremely difficult to get anywhere in public radio and - believe me - for a newbie, I got pretty far. Easier to get lunch with Donatella Versace than getting a call back from a public radio programmer in Nebraska, and in major markets, forget it! So I just switched gears. I'm still sticking with radio but looking for more commercial outlets because it's easier, plain and simple. I don't want to be the world's oldest Pacific Islander NPR victim. I'm looking at all media, actually.

Q: Tell us about the segment reports you did for COLORVISION?

A: The first one I did was for the episode called, "Where Are Our Superheroes?" For that, I went to the Big Apple Comic Book Convention for a couple of days. I talked to Marvel Comics.

I did a piece in the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, a story about the Crazy Horse Monument, comparing and contrasting it with Mount Rushmore. I was trying to exact the ironies - the Native Americans' spiritual relationship with the earth vs. the federal government's model of land equals power and money. In fact, the money is sitting in escrow somewhere. It is in the billions, I believe, at this point.

We also followed El Vez, the "Chicano Elvis" around for four days in Los Angeles. At the time he was celebrating his 15th year as this character, and the day of the celebration was also the 25th death anniversary of Elvis Presley. So keeping his commitment to "camp," he staged his anniversary as a quincenero, which is a birthday celebration for 15-year-old Latino girls.

Q: What was it like working with El Vez?

A: Like traveling with Diana Ross for four days except he was thinner! Very cool. El Vez is an entertainer with a real following and, righteously, he has an ego that is not at odds with his stature. A little bit of "red carpet syndrome," I suppose, but I can only speak for myself. It was challenging.

Q: Were there any surprises for you during this project?

A: Sure. Native Americans aren't thrilled at all about a monument to Crazy Horse - which is only one of the wonders of the modern world. They find it more of an affront to their cultural sensibilities than anything. That was quite shocking even to me as a Pacific Islander. Well, the Guam culture, what's left of it, is quite assimilated. I think the segment producers believed it would be controversial for viewers which, I think, is very good for the series.

Q: Why is this very good for the series?

A: If the intent of the series is to inform outside of an ethnographic context - and by that I mean that non-black minorities, even in public broadcasting, are still under the anthropological microscope. We're not allowed to have humor. We're not allowed to get angry. We're not allowed to narrate our own proclivities for self-deprecation. Instead, we look like friendly natives, which is not entirely the filmmakers fault. We go to that "National Geographic" zone when in front of the camera because that's how the relationship has always been.

So it's good for the series in that it will be groundbreaking. I hope it signals the propulsion of the native into the popular dialogue. It was certainly the secret note I made to myself when working on the series.

I mean, I'm a Chamorro from Guam, yes - but for Margaret Meade's sake - don't ask me "What is it like to be Chamorro in America today?" Absolutely, ask me about federal government land policies, but ask me about architecture, technology, design and Donatella Versace, too. I can give a sound byte - in 3 languages.