Margaret Cho - Ken Phillips Publicity Group

Margaret Cho
BY ADAM MCKENZIE
Margaret Cho is one of America’s favourite comedians. That’s no small feat in a
country where every man and his dog seem to be grabbing for the microphone. To
truly become an icon is hard work. Homer Simpson said it best when he was asked if
he was a comedian: “Well I’m no Margaret Cho...”
Margaret is candid and unapologetic. She talks
about issues that are important not only to her but
to people who are not represented in George Bush’s
Official Image of America. She’s a fierce campaigner
for gay rights and is much loved for it. At the start
of her stand up DVD I’m The One That I Want, three
butch, leather clad bikies all sporting t-shirt’s saying
“ASS MASTERS” sum up how the gay community feels
about her: “There are three things that we love: Ass,
Judy Garland and Margaret Cho.”
Margaret is coming back to Australia with her brand new
show Beautiful. She wants to explore what it means to
be beautiful in a world that has strict ideas on the word.
“Beauty is a very important motivator,” Margaret explains
over the phone from her office in L.A. “I really think it’s
important for people to feel beautiful. The show is about
confronting those standards of beauty and looking at why
they’re there.”
Watching Margaret’s comedy you get the feeling she
genuinely cares about the issues she chooses to talk
about. “I used to think that people told you that you were
beautiful. Now I know that you can just tell people that
you’re beautiful and then they don’t have a choice. You can
just claim beauty. You just have to own it. Screw everyone
else right?” Margaret is coming to Melbourne after a
tour to Sydney as part of the Gay and Lesbian Mardi
Gras, which she sees as the perfect place to start her
world tour. “It’s hard to be a gay man and not feel beautiful.
If you’re a gay man and don’t feel attractive you’re doomed
to a life of Wizard of Oz and hanging out with your mum.
Self esteem has a lot with what you do in the world, how
you tackle your life.”
Let’s face it, it would be naive to say that the world at large
has a healthy attitude towards beauty. Margaret couldn’t
believe what she was hearing during an interview on an
American radio station. “The DJ asked me, ‘If you woke
up tomorrow and you were beautiful, what would
you do? If you were, blonde, blue-eyed, 5 foot 11, and
weighed 100 pounds, what would you do?’ I was like,
I am beautiful you asshole.” Margaret laughs as she
relives the moment in her head. “That’s the perfect
example of why I’m doing this show,” she continues,
“It’s about what it feels like to be included, to be accepted
for who you are and not what you look like.”
Speaking her mind has never been a problem for Margaret.
She started performing stand up when she was just 16 at
a comedy club above the bookstore that her parents ran.
She must have been a pretty sassy kid because soon after
she won a stand up competition where the first prize was
opening for Jerry Seinfeld. In the ‘90s she moved to Los
Angeles and lived in a share house with a bunch of other
comics, a time she reminisces about in her blog: I moved
out because I wasn't the most famous. If the Manson
Family had come, I wouldn't have been Sharon Tate; I
would have been one of the supporting victims, and
who wants that? Janeane Garofalo moved into my
old room. Anyway, 'Cho' written in blood on the wall
doesn't look as cool as 'Garofalo'.
When she isn’t spruiking for gay rights on stage, she
spends much of her time protesting against Bush,
and who can blame her. With the 2008 Presidential
election only months away, things are looking up for
Margaret. “We democrats have a hard time at the moment
choosing between Obama and Clinton. They’re both great
candidates. It’s a good position to be in, choosing between
a woman and an African American. As a nation we’re
now talking about race and gender issues, which is great.
Whoever we choose we have to do it soon too because all
the republicans are rallying around McCain.”
Margaret puts her money where her mike is when it comes
to politics. During the last presidential election she took to
the road with a sold out American tour of Assassin, an in
your face look at Bush’s first term in office and a comedic
plea for sanity. Also she made a point of starting that
tour with a string of dates in the conservative southern
republican states, more commonly referred to as the bible
belt of America. Now a new election looms and she hopes
that America has finally got the message. “I just think it’s
time to kick Bush out, just like you guys kicked John Howard
out. We need to have a look at how you guys did that. How
did you guys do that? Well done by the way.” She is not one
to use popular topics to sell tickets; these are all issues she
cares about deeply. “Everyone has their own ideas, what
their own art is to their personality. It was a personal choice
for me to talk about my political views and the issues that
affect me. “
This will be Margaret’s third time to Australia. “With
the world now all on the internet, we get our news the
same way now, whether you’re in California or Melbourne.
Culturally the frame is the same for all of us, which makes
my job such a pleasure.” There is one part of Melbourne
that Margaret is excited about visiting. “I’m really looking
forward to going to the kylie statue. I’m going to make a
pilgrimage out there for that one. I think it’s awesome.”
Margaret Cho plays the Palais Theatre, St Kilda, this Friday
February 29, at 8pm. Tickets through Ticketmaster.
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Beat Magazine Page 35