Q Comedy

Margaret Cho is, quite simply, a living icon of the stand-up comedy world. More than a comedian and entertainer, the San Francisco native is a strong-voiced activist for womens’ rights and the rights of gays and lesbians. And now the power she wields will only grow as her new VH1 reality show, The Cho Show premieres this week.

It’s difficult to tap into something unknown about a comedian that even your mother has heard of, but someone like Margaret Cho is nothing, if not an endless well of interest and creativity. Beginning in 1995, with the debut of her ill-fated star-vehicle sitcom All American Girl, Cho burst onto the scene as a fiery force of unforgettable, wholly enduring comedic appeal.

Sold-out concert tours and feature films soon followed; the first of which, I’m the One That I Want, famously documented Cho’s account of her sitcom’s implosion and subsequent alcoholism - painfully hilarious routines that pushed the seasoned stand-up veteran from household name to bona fide superstar.

As a celebrity, Cho, 39, is best known among her devoted legion of followers as a versatile Jill-of-all-trades, having spent her career wearing the hats of comedian, actress, political activist, feminist, and even burlesque dancer. Over the phone, she’s at once friendly and affable, treating the occasion more as a conversation than an interview. And with a brand new tour (aptly titled Beautiful) and an upcoming reality show The Cho Show premiering on VH1 on Aug. 21 , Cho is the miraculous breath of fresh air that the oversaturated Heidi Montag and Dina Lohan-market has been waiting for.

You’ve been a stand-up comedian, a writer, a political activist, a burlesque entertainer, and now a reality TV star. What job would you absolutely not be able to do?
Um… surgeon? [Laughs]. Although, I could assist, because I was in nursing school; I went to nursing school for quite a while, when I was very young, so I could probably assist in a surgery, but I could not perform a surgery. I mean, I could probably pull it off, but I don’t think anybody would want me to do that.

So you could hand the scalpel, but…
Yeah, I could hand-off shit.

What drew you to the world of reality TV?
Well, I just wanted to do the show and I really love VH1, and I’ve worked with the executive producer for my show, Rico Martinez - we’ve been writing partners on some other stuff - and we just thought this would be the right thing to do. It’s just the right time, and so we made it happen.

How did you get your parents to go along with it?
Well, I said, ‘It’s either this, or assisted living. You decide, or I’ll choose for you. Think fast.’ And that’s how it happened.

Really? Verbatim?
Yeah. [Laughs].

In the first episode of The Cho Show, we get to see some of the tension between you and the audience when you’re talking about the Virginia Tech shootings. When you decide to put potentially taboo subjects into your comedy act, how do you decide what’s going to work and what could possibly backfire?
Oh, you never know. You never know: it could totally backfire, at all times, and it’s sorta like you just gotta wing it. Everybody, all comics just have to wing it, and you have to figure out what you can do, and it just has to be like a leap of faith, you know? Sometimes you fall right on your fat face, and it really sucks.

What sets apart the Beautiful tour from the previous tours you’ve done?
It’s all new material. And it’s good because I took kind of a long break from doing a lot of stand-up shows; I was doing burlesque last year with Sensuous Woman [Cho's 2007 tour, a hybrid of stand-up and burlesque dancing], and I was doing the True Colors tour. I was still doing stand-up in those shows,

The interview continues here…

The Cho Show premieres Aug. 21 on VH1. For more info, check out the show’s site and margaretcho.com.

Tags: margaret cho, Queer Friendly