erin_broadley

The first time I sat down to chat with comedian and actress-turned-burlesque dancer Margaret Cho, I asked her to share some pointers on what it takes to be a sensuous woman. Without hesitation she replied, "Well, you need to have some kind of penis. That's really important. There's all sorts of different strap-ons to getthere are cute ones, like you could get a chin harness." She then went on to detail the importance of good pasty-twirling technique and the pain-free merits of shaving over waxing. While I'm all about keeping things tidy down under, and can easily imagine myself experimenting with pasties in the near-drunken future, I don't think I'm experimental enough to dabble with a chin harness anytime soon. In fact, I'm pretty sure I would end up looking more like a retarded unicorn and less like a sensuous woman.

Margaret Cho, on the other hand, can pull it off with grace, a seductive wink and nothing less than absolute confidence. From her beginnings as a teenage stand-up comic in San Francisco to her new burlesque-style variety show titled "The Sensuous Woman," Cho has been turning social and sexual norms head over heels over pasties, and in the process become a truly unique voice in the comedic world.

Cho took some time to chat with SuicideGirls shortly after returning home from tour


Erin Broadley: So lets talk about the True Colors tour that was organized by Cyndi Lauper, which you just wrapped up. How was it?

Margaret Cho: It was so fun. I loved it. I love all the people. Its really exciting to go and watch Cyndi every night. Im so in love with her.

EB: What was it like being on the road with her?

MC: Shes so awesome and shes a fun person. Shes really loving and supportive and its just exciting. Shes such an icon and Ive been a fan for a really, really long time. So its an exciting thing to be able to talk to her and just hang out. Shes totally a friend, which is awesome, you know. I really had a great time and it was almost hard to transition back into --

EB: -- Day to day life?

MC: Yeah, because when youre on tour its like rock and roll fantasy camp. All of your needs are taken care of and everybody caters to every whim and you get whatever you want. You dont have to go to the drugstore, you dont have to buy anything. Youre just kind of driven or flown or they put you in bed and they give you food. Its totally hard to transition back into regular life because it is so abnormal, like not life.

EB: I think most musicians and touring performers suffer a little post-partum depression when they get off the road.

MC: Yeah, because we dont know how to go back to living. Its a rush and its fun and its really an exciting life. I love it. I really love touring and I love doing Cyndis show because it was also so meaningful because it was a show that she was putting together to ban hatred. So working with her on this was really powerful.

EB: Any particular memory of the tour that really stands out?

MC: Well, she taught me to sing, which was really funny because I cant sing and she wanted me to sing in the finale. So she was teaching me, which was just sweet of her because Im not a singer. I felt like I was on American Idol. She was like, [in Cyndi Laupers voice] Youve got to do it like a lullaby, you gotta sing it like a lullaby, just sing it real soft. Its so funny because thats her real voice. Its not a put-on, its her. Shes just funny and shes a lot of fun.

EB: [Laughs] Any plans to do something again with her in the future? Or was the tour a one-off thing?

MC: She wants to do it next year, which I love. She wants to do it every year and to go to a lot more cities and countries.

EB: So how is your burlesque show The Sensuous Woman going? You started it in LA but youre taking it to New York, right?

MC: Yes. Im going to move it to New York. I love the show. Its burlesque, comedy, music and dance and its very wild. Its a show that I think is really amazing. I love burlesque and I love the whole experience of bringing this whole art form back. And bringing it to a new audience -- a comedy audience -- is kind of fun. I think its a really beautiful and important thing and its a very important art form. Its very political too, you know. Its exciting to perform and its something that I think is just important for women, for feminism, for a feeling of body empowerment. I mean its really powerful to do this kind of work.

EB: Right. And you organized the whole thing?

MC: Yes. Its a show that I put together. Its my favorite dancers. Ive been dancing for a couple years now so I have friends who are just amazing. People who are pretty familiar in the burlesque scene -- like Dirty Martini and Bobbi Pin -- those are some of the people in my show. It also includes a lot of comedy and a lot of music.

EB: It seems like a very different kind of performance compared to the comedy youve been doing until now.

MC: It is different but in a lot of ways its kind of the same. It is different. Its new. Its me. Its what Im doing but at the same time, people who are fans of my work are going to like it, you know. They see me in it, Im never removed from my own identity. Im completely still myself in it.

EB: Sex has always been a big theme in your work. Where do the similarities or differences lie between sex and performing or sex and comedy?

MC: Well, its not that different. In terms of sexuality, at least in burlesque you can be more overtly sexual. In comedy you can be overtly sexual but theres a little bit more of a masculine way about it. Theres a masculinization that takes over, especially when youre doing stand-up comedy. But with burlesque you can kind of tease and have fun around it. Its just a different expression but its kind of getting to the same place.

EB: I recently read an article where you talked about your interest in female machismo and feminine strength resembling brute force and things like that, which was interesting to me when I think about what The Sensuous Woman performance entails. It seems more understated than brute force but just as strong.

MC: I think its a little more understated but very, very strong. Theres some stuff in it thats just wild. The show is so wild that it is almost like brute force. It really takes people aback. Some of the stuff that I do in the show is way more shocking than anything Ive done in stand-up.

EB: Really, like what?

MC: Well, I cant even describe it. Youll just have to come. There are lots of surprises. I guess a clue would be gender swapping. Theres a lot of gender play and stuff that just doesnt find its way into comedy because no stand-up comic is that brave.

EB: Has your performance style always been really blunt and raw from the beginning when you started doing stand-up around 16-years-old? Or is it something that you developed overtime based on the challenges you faced?

MC: I think that it developed with age. I mean I think thats something that happens as you get older and as you come to know yourself. It wasnt something that was innate in my personality because Im not really like that. Its just something that kind of happened as I got older and I came up. It was also because of the way the business is and how I had to alter my personality based on what I was experiencing. All the people that I met were all guys and I had to maneuver in this world of guys so I had to become a lot tougher than I may have been normally or may have really felt.

EB: I always wonder if sometimes women have to develop these really strong or annoying, bitchy voices just to be heard. Like, women have to teach themselves to shout to be heard over the other louder voices.

MC: Well, because sometimes guys dont hear voices that are at a higher register. In fact its not that they dont recognize female voices, they just dont hear them. Its very frustrating so youve got to be louder. Or youve got to be more abrasive or more powerful because they just dont hear.

EB: Would you say youre more comfortable now in your own skin on stage than you were when you started in San Francisco?

MC: Oh yeah, definitely. Im way more comfortable and way more powerful and aggressive. I can definitely hold my own anywhere. But, it was certainly a challenge when I was a kid coming up and trying to figure out what I was going to do and who I was.

EB: When you told people you were taking up belly dancing, did anyone say, Wait, youre the shit talking sweetheart -- what are you doing taking up belly dancing?!

MC: The belly dancing is kind of badass too so there wasnt a whole lot of problem there.

EB: A lot of comics must feel pressure to up the ante with each new performance and each new book or DVD. Have you ever gotten to a point where you felt over-exposed? Did you ever worry that sharing your sexual adventures with the public in your performances would risk becoming too personal?

MC: Well, the only thing that [I felt misunderstood about] was really that people thought I was a top.

EB: I have no idea what that is.

MC: Oh, like a dominatrix.

EB: Ah, okay.

MC: Because Im not. Im such a submissive person. Im actually kind of a meek, shy person. Thats something that was so funny for me -- that people assumed that I was a top and they still do. I guess because, you know, comedy is such a dominant kind of thing. Women who experience or display any strength are immediately looked at sexually, like sexualized.

EB: Yeah. Have you ever been misunderstood in personal relationships because of how sexually open you can be on stage?

MC: Yeah, I guess. Its also weird too if youre a performer or in the public eye at all when it comes to relationships or sex. Its different for guys because when theyre in the limelight, its like a huge, powerful, erotic charge. They have something about them; theyre like rock stars and its totally exciting. But for women who are performers or who are rock stars, we dont really have that kind of cache. Its a very different kind of quality. Not that its better for guysits just kind of a weird situation no matter what.

EB: What led you to openly discuss so many of your personal demons and battles during your performances with strangers hanging onto your every word? Did that happen by default or did you purposefully just want to put it all on the table?

MC: Well, to me its just whats interesting. To me thats whats fun about life.

EB Public discourse?

MC: Yeah, its public, it is funny and it is fun. And to me its what makes life interesting so I just like it. I just think its cool.

EB: I know theres this whole double-edged sword where performers or artists want to stop drinking or want to stop drugs but theyre afraid to put that stuff to bed because then what are they going to write or perform about, you know? Like, what stories are they going to have to tell if they dont have these traumatic or shocking things going on about them? Have you ever felt that way?

MC: Not really because I have a lifetime to draw on of those kinds of shocking things. I think that most of my stories and my experience doesnt come from living crazily. Thats just the experience in it, you just feel it. Its just the storytelling -- the part of you that tells stories is not activated by the crazy antics. If youre a storyteller, youre always going to be able to be a storyteller. I have a lifetime of crazy stuff that Ive done that I dont need to do anymore. Im not worried about it.

EB: How have things changed for you being a female in the comedy circuit in the past ten or so years since "All American Girl" back in 94?

MC: Yeah it was a long time ago. Things have changed. The challenges now are different. I dont really look at it as being challengingits just more like, How is this going to happen? What am I going to do? Now Im transitioning more into a music thing where Im going out with bands and even doing a little bit of music myself. So its more like, How do I keep it interesting? How do I make it fun? Thats an easy challenge to take on. Thats an easy thing because Im just expanding into other stuff. To do music or burlesque or comedy and all that is real expansive and I love that. I like to enjoy myself and open up new areas of life that are exciting to share with my audience.

For more information go to margaretcho.com