BeatBoxBetty Interviews MARGARET CHO about her new comedy tour flick NOTORIOUS CHO

What the hell's a Notorious C.H.O.? Is it a new terrorist organization with comedic overtones? A fabulous drag queen who's been lost at sea for some twenty odd years? Nope. It's actually Margaret Cho’s hilarious follow-up to her hit comedy "I’m the One That I Want."

Filmed live in front of a Church of Cho Seattle crowd, this hilarious flick showcases the young comic's brutally honest one-woman show which just wrapped a thirty-seven city tour throughout North America. Recently, BeatBoxBetty caught up with Margaret to find out her take on stand up comedy, gay rights and life after 9-11.

Margaret Cho unleashes her comic genius in "Notorious C.H.O."
Courtesy of Wellspring

BETTY: Now you've been called "the darling of gay comedy" -- What other tag lines are you associated with?
MARGARET: Taboo Buster, which is sort of a spin on Sugar Buster and then I dunno, I guess everyone has a a different take on it.

BETTY: I've also heard you're the Madonna of Comedy.
MARGARET: Oh, that's a good one. I like that one. That's cool. Or the "Bjork" of comedy, that would be good too.

BETTY: But you really are the darling of gay comedy... don't you think?
MARGARET: Well this is very nice. I mean it is gay comedy. It's very queer-centric and it's focused on queer issues. It's all about different aspects on gay and lesbian and transexual, bi-sexual lives, and so it's it's very appropriate to say darling of gay comedy. I guess the darling part is that I've been very lucky in my career to have always had a special place within the community and so I really treasure that.

BETTY: I was really amazed at how honest and forthright you are about your own sexual experiences. In this world of right-winger family values, have you had any of these people attack your material -- or you?
MARGARET: Since I don't really do a lot of things in the mainstream, I've been on a level where people don't really get involved in it. It is all my own work and it's sorta of under the radar screen for some of those people.

But it's hard you know? We don't necessarily live in the best world. Even though there's lots of lip service given to the advances made by gays and lesbians in terms of entertainment and gay charactors on TV shows and stuff... there's still some things... like Nickelodeon was inundated with 100,000 emails over Rosie O'Donnell's hosting their big award show. Basicaly people were saying that allowing her to host this show is promoting homosexuality. It's crazy because she is so perfect to be around children and yet because she's come out, there's this hysteria around her trying to convert people. And it's really like the weirdest thing because she's a great mom - and yet she's not allowed to be seen like that because she's a lesbian. She's the most maternal person I know and yet she's somehow now seen as this sexual preditor.

And it's unfare and it's really ridiculous - but fortunately Nickelodeon doesn't care because she's a great host and she's gonna be great on the show, but it sends these ideas out there that even though we have made some advances it's still not where it should be.

BETTY: Do you cater to your audiences sexual preferences?
MARGARET: When I do my shows I don't really think of the fact that it's really personal or that it's necessarily revealing because I've talked about any of these topics with my friends. And I have an ease about that. And when I look out on an audience, I just see people that are my friends and they look like my friends...my friends that have given me money, I love even more. So it's good.

BETTY: Critics may say that you even go overboard with risque material, what pushes you to be so over the top?
MARGARET: I think that's it's interesting that life is not seamless and it's not easy for anyone in that we all have different things that we deal with. We've all experienced suffering and pain and hardship and when I talk about things like sadness and depression and addiction - those issues have a lot of emotional links for me. When I can share this with someone else and they agree with me… we can simultaneously let go of the pain that we have over it.

That's what I try to do in a show; try and connect with somebody so that I don't have to feel the pain over it. If something really bad happens to me, my favorite thing to do is tell somebody all about it so that I could change it a little bit and come out the hero. And then I can entertain somebody (getting them to laugh) and then I feel better because at least I'm using this horrible experience as a tool to help me get to know that other person. So there's a reason for it. I'm doing as a perfomer, just on a larger scale.

Margaret Cho surrounded by a few of her hunkier friends
Courtesy of MargaretCho.com

BETTY: What was the most profound thing a fan ever told you?
MARGARET: This woman who had a very distant relationship with her father…they were not close at all. One of the reasons wasthat he was a gay man and had her before he had come out of the closet. He had a very difficult time having a relationship with her and he had AIDS and was actually dieing. One of the last things he got to do was go see my show and he really enjoyed it. He called his daughter up just so excited saying, "Oh you have to go see her, she's really wonderful"… he was telling her the jokes from the show and they were having a good laugh over it…and that was the last time she spoke with him. He died a few days later.

She had never gone to see my show but about a year later she went to go see the film "The One That I Want" and she got to really remember the conversation that she had with her father and in the context of the film she sort of [in her way] got to say goodbye to him. She remembered how much he had laughed and she hadn't heard him laugh much because he was ill and she wrote me a letter, thanking me for giving her the ability to say goodbye to her dad. Stuff like that, it's really profound.

A lot of Asian American kids have grown up with me and thy're so excitied by the fact that I'm out there and doing what I'm doing so….I'm so different than what is out there entertainment wise, that people really latch on to me as a symbol for their growth. I'm really honored by that, I think it's really a tremendous honor.

BETTY: How do you choose the material you're going to use on your tours?
MARGARET: It takes a long time. I have a particular way about how I want a show to turn out so I have to spend a lot of time working on something and making sure that it's perfect. So it can take almost a year or more if I want it to be where it should be. I will write all the time. Things just happen and I record them in my journal and so things come out of that.

BETTY: Are than any subjects that are too taboo for you?
Margret: I don't know, I'm not sure. I haven't really come across it yet. There's nothing I've ever felt the need to repress or remain silent about.

BETTY: With this so called "War on Terrorism" and the drastic change with our rights -- does this ever find it's way into your material?
MARGARET: I think that the ACLU has been doing a great job in making sure that those rights are taken care of because whats happened since 911….what's really incedious …..is that not only was there terrible tragedy and distruction but there was this sudden paranoia of who can we trust? So suddenly all of these groups are being pulled out and held up for questioning. So many Arab Americans were affected and so many Muslim Americans just because of the way they looked. So it was really scary. It's similiar to the 1940's Japanese internment camps and yet people kept refusing to make that connection. They kept saying, "Well, its for national security."

BETTY: They also didn't have legal representation...
MARGARET: Right and people would be held for questioning for long periods of time and that's not right. I remember things like a journalist once asked me, how it felt to be part of the "Axis of Evil" because I'm of Korean decent so I'm part of the axis of evil. (laughs) What is that like Access Hollywood? That's so weird. And the funny part is that they didn't even recognize that it was a really weird thing to say…..

So there was this kinda thing where America wasn't really what it's supposed to be. Like America is not about foriengers - but the actuality is that America is about foreigners - so I think that was a really difficult thing and its still a difficult thing. I don't agree with a lot of our political action and I don't agree with the patriotism which allows all this military action to take place without questioning it. People are not questioning what's going on because their so pumped up by the flag. So much of it's about keeping America strong and undivided but it's glossing over what's really going on.

I'M THE ONE THAT I WANT ON DVD -- BUY IT NOW!