Margaret Cho - Ken Phillips Publicity Group
Transcription
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. BEAT TV: BEST BANDS IN THE WORLD AROUND AT OURS? CHECK. WWW.BEATTV.COM.AU Beat Magazine Page 35