The year was 1968.
And it wasn't like Cho was born in some obscure city in some obscure
country. Lucky for us (Americans in general, gays in particular), her parents
chose to procreate in San Francisco. Raised in the city considered a gay
mecca, Cho was—and still is—no stranger to gay people.
At the time of this interview, the funny lady was commuting to New York
for her one-woman show, I'm the One That I Want,
which opened at the Westbeth Theater on June 22 [1999] and is scheduled
to run until the end of July. Then on July 24, Houstonians become the lucky
recipient of her parents'...uh...love because Cho travels to the Space City
to do that same show to benefit the Montrose Clinic. "I love helping
out the Montrose Clinic," she says. "They do such great work,
and I'm so pleased to be there again."
Again? Yes, she was here last year for World AIDS Day to record her CD,
Margaret Cho Live in Houston. A portion of
the sales from the CD, which can be purchased at the concert, will be donated
to the clinic.
Though she's too busy to even think about what she's going to be
doing this New Year's Eve ("I imagine I'll be working somewhere, I
don't know."), the droll comic wasn't too busy to take some time to
talk about, among other things, her early childhood, her long-time association
with gays, and, especially, that other woman.
Blase DiStefano: Were you named
after the Wicked Witch of the West, Margaret Hamilton?
Margaret
Cho: [Laughter]
That would be wonderful. No, nothing so glamorous. Actually I have no idea.
But it is possible.
But with a last name like Cho, I guess that would make you the Wicked
Witch of the EAST.
[Laughter] The FAR East.
[Laughter] A lot of your humor comes from your family. What was your childhood
REALLY like?
It was pretty depressing. My father was deported when
I was about three days old. I did not have a complete set of parents for
many years. I would go with my father or go with my mother, or I was shuttled
back and forth between my grandparents. I didn't really have a permanent
sense of home until I was about eight or nine years old. I was a very insecure
kid, very unstable, 'cause I didn't bond with anybody. I think that made
me very much a charmer because I needed very much to gain the affections
of the person I was with, so they wouldn't send me away. That's where my
sense of humor comes from, I imagine.
And your humor is also derived from your long-time association with
gays—so you really are the "ultimate fag hag" [as she states
in her comedy act].
[Laughter] Yes. Some of my parents were gay—some
of the people I was left in the care of were different gay men and lesbians.
That is part of my upbringing, certainly, and feeling very at home within
this community. When I started doing comedy, I was real young when I played
gay clubs, and I did comedy on a lesbian cruise line—it was Olivia
Cruise, which was really a great experience. And I have always had so many
friends in the gay community—it's my tribe.
OutSmart interviewed you in October of last year, and your commitment
to the battle against AIDS was discussed at length. But I'd like to touch
on it since your upcoming show is a benefit for the Montrose Clinic. What
would you say to all those who think that AIDS is not that big a deal anymore?
Oh god. It is something that has permanently altered
my life. And something that so many of us have been touched by and in a
terrible way. And for people not to think it's a big deal, they just don't
know. They don't know the loss that has already been experienced, the loss
that we'll continue to experience.
And what about those people, especially younger ones, who don't play
safe?
I guess part of youth is to feel invincible. I'm right
in the middle of a wave of friends that are around my age who had that wave
of invincibility also, and now they are discovering they are HIV positive,
and that is a huge fucking blow to the idea of that invincibility. I think
it's really tragic, and it's hard, really hard. I know from my experience
of being friends with so many people who live with HIV every day, that now
they understand . . . but why should it take that to understand? But we
can have hope and we can have beautiful lives regardless of any of those
things. That's a wonderful miracle. The idea of prevention is so important
to these YOUNGSTERS who don't know, who think they know, and they don't
know.
I guess today it's much more serious to be sexually rebellious.
Rebellion now is deadly.
Speaking of rebellion, I interviewed Kathy Griffin, a rebel if ever
there was one. And I asked her if I could start a rumor that she and Brooke
Shields were a couple, and she said she actually made out with Brooke on
one of the outtakes for SUDDENLY SUSAN. So did you ever have a liaison
with a lady that I could have an exclusive on?
Oh yeah, I have, of course. But she was so butch,
it was like being with a man. It really made me realize that I'm probably
more straight than I would care to admit. We went all the way—we had
full-on sex. . .
Oh my God.
And she was a real bull-dagger. And of course I loved
it, and of course it was wonderful. She was more man than most men I know.
[Laughter] . . .because most men you know are gay.
[Laughter] But I think that it was great, and I am
friends with her still. I was very young, about 19 years old.
But I don't have an exclusive on that, do I? You've already told
this to millions of people.
[Laughter] I'm not sure. I talked about it on stage
a little bit. And when you tell straight audiences, they are very shocked.
I think that people aren't shocked by being gay or straight, they're shocked
by people who blur the lines a little bit. That is truly what is raising
eyebrows.
I get weird reactions when I say that I think everybody is ultimately
bisexual.
I think so. I'm like in the moment, whatever.
OK, if in that moment you woke up and everyone was gay, including
you, which woman would you hook up with?
If I could think of one it would probably be someone
real butch like k.d.lang or. . .
. . .Lea DeLaria?
Lea DeLaria, she's an old friend of mine.
I just saw HOMO HEIGHTS last night. She's a good actress, too.
And such a man. A handsome man. She's a real gentleman.
And I love lesbian comics like Kate Clinton. I had a long-standing crush
on her. So probably one of those.
Now you're stranded on a desert island, and you can have only one
person with you, and it can't be a friend, relative, or lover. Which celebrity
would you pick?
Probably Madonna. I'm sure she has a lot to say, and
we could do yoga and. . .
Do you take yoga?
Yes, I do. It's great, it's a great thing.
OK. But you're still stranded on that desert island, and you can
only have one movie.
Let's see. It would probably be [long pause] so fag-haggy,
but ALL ABOUT EVE. That's one of those things like the holy grail, you just
go back and keep watching. And every time it's different, and every time
it's so compelling. It just recharges your batteries.
There's something about Bette Davis—when I'm changing channels and
she's on, she just pulls me in.
That's how I feel about Barbra Streisand right now,
too. I think of the Barbra Streisand of A STAR IS BORN also because it's
so hideous and '70s. And she's so beautiful. I look at Barbra Streisand,
and I just want to weep. I can't figure that out. I think it's that I'm
in my 30s and I'm really starting to become a gay man.
[Laughter]
I really am. I'm starting to morph into a gay guy.
Margaret Cho's one-woman show played for one night only,
Saturday, July 24, 1999, at Houston's Aerial Theater.
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