Q: Growing up in San Francisco in the 70s and 80s, was activism second nature? 
Margaret Cho is insanely funny and totally political. She got an early start in comedy, performing stand-up at the tender age of sixteen at The Rose + Thistle comedy club above her parent’s San Francisco bookstore. Since rebounding from her ill-fated 1994 sitcom, All-American Girl, Cho has performed to critical raves and sell-out houses with her one-woman shows I’m The One That I Want, Notorious C.H.O., and Revolution. Though she has been compared to Lenny Bruce, she cites Li’l Kim and Missy Elliott as inspirations. On stage she is fearless and brash, throwing herself into diatribes on race, sexuality, and politics. In person, she is thoughtful and surprisingly quiet, though she does describe herself as a “Korean-American fag-hag, shit-starter, girl comic, trash talker.”
Q: Growing up in San Francisco in the 70s and 80s, was activism second nature?
A: Actually, I didn’t really understand what activism was…because I think when you grow up in San Francisco like I did at that particular time, activism is a very natural outgrowth of survival and so to me activism wasn’t clearly a separate job unto itself it was just another thing that was an aspect of my life.
Q: Needless to say, you have never been a wallflower when it comes to your beliefs. I saw you perform at a MoveOn benefit, and you were hilarious and pretty in your face. Then came the backlash after the Drudge Report printed a highly edited transcript of the event. There was a lot of hate mail. How did you respond? (Sample email sent to Margaret: “You are not good enough to be the puss in a boil on George Bush’s ass, you scabbed up scumbag. Go back to Korea!”)
A: My response is really joy and elation over the kind of anger and frustration that I became the target of. It’s a great thing to inspire people with such hatred because obviously you’re really dismantling their point of view and showing the cracks and mistakes in their thinking – that is what makes them so defensive. I look at Michael Moore and the amazing backlash that he received and I think he’s doing the work of a really great American and a great citizen and a great political figure and artist – and he has received an amazingly hostile reaction. It is a great thing when you can inflame people that much.
Q: Do you ever regret anything you’ve said?
A: No.
Q: How did you feel after so many states passed anti-gay marriage amendments?
A: There is all of this incredible animosity towards change and this is viewed as a major change, but in a way it isn’t because it follows the natural American sense of progress, it is equality for all. It just makes sense logically. There is this resistance towards it, as if it will alter the actual daily lives or marriages of heterosexuals in some way. But of course it can’t. I think it is an indication, better than an SAT score, of where our country’s intelligence level is and that’s kind of really depressing because you see how dumb people are.
Q: The gay marriage issue was a cornerstone of the “moral values” debates this election. How do you respond to that debate?
A: I’m actually a very religious person and I really do feel that it’s appalling that the right wing would use religion to support their views. What is Christ-like about slaying Iraqi citizens? What would Jesus say about the Iraq war? There is nothing spiritual about supporting Bush and negating gay rights and women’s rights. There is nothing spiritual or Christian about killing. That’s so infuriating when they sort of bring down this morality speech on liberal comedians or liberal politicians and talk about how we have no morals – it is so ridiculous and so wrong.
Q: In the future, do you want to remain in comedy? Would you be interested in being more politically engaged?
I am not sure – but I don’t think I will run for office anytime soon! I would love to make films…just keep on doing what I am doing now.
Q: What are the last five songs you listened to on your Ipod?
I am really into Punjabi MC’s Beware of the Boys. The other favorite songs right now are: The Pretender’s Mystery Achievement, Bjork’s Big Time Sensuality, Blue Oyster Cult’s Burning For You, and Helm’s Raqs Tabla.