Margaret Cho: The Girl With the Genteel Tattoo
By Barbara Chai
Comedian and actress Margaret Cho stopped by the WSJ Studio to talk with Speakeasy’s Barbara Chai about her new DVD, the coming season on Lifetime’s “Drop Dead Diva,” and her freshly-inked tattoo.
Today is the day! Get your copy of Margaret’s 6th concert film, Cho Dependent, filmed at the Tabernacle in Atlanta, GA!
Order the Cho Dependent DVD HERE
Get a digital copy of Cho Dependent (Live in Concert) on itunes HERE
A note from Margaret…
My new DVD Cho Dependent is out finally and I am so excited! I filmed this show at the Tabernacle in Atlanta where I have performed many times and gone to see such diverse acts as Elvis Costello in a country music guise (where I marveled at the man who I have hugged without the English restraint you need when you hug on some English people – they get scared so please approach them sideways like a crab and hug very quickly on the side or just prepare them in advance for the hug by telling them it is coming and wait about 3 minutes before you do it) and his impressive catalogue – as he has so many songs that he can just pick a genre he wants to do or revisit whether it’s the attractions or country or Juliet letters with strings and tour that – unbelievable – Elvis is the MAN and 30 Seconds to Mars which was probably the most unified front I have ever seen in live music. The entire audience knew all the lyrics to all the songs and Jared only had to lift his fine angelic hands and they knew what to do. It was similar to and rivaled only the great Neil Finn and Crowded House shows I have seen in the United Kingdom. Neil only had to raise up his hand, perhaps an opening guitar riff, and we all knew exactly what song it was and what part harmony we would be singing.
The Tabernacle is an old place, but it’s got banging new sound and a hotshit crew that took good care of us. Many of the people filming this show worked on Drop Dead Diva, and so there was family all around. We parked the beloved tour bus in the back of the theatre, and Al, my darling husband came to join the party, as we were set to leave on a long pasta eating excursion to Rome the next day. It was the last day of a long tour, and I needed my man and I needed a break and I needed carbs and in their most potent form, pasta. Mmm. We drove in from sunny, alabaster bright Miami, and I had gotten a Snooki-style tube dress at a South Beach tourist trap, so we were unprepared for the weather. It was actually snowing, tiny flakes of newly frozen water that melted as soon as it hit your bare skin – yes we didn’t even know to put jackets on – we weren’t ready for the surprise that Hotlanta actually gets really fucking cold sometimes.
My voice was in a good way, which is pleasing and not always the case, and I had a smashing set, even though it’s disorienting to film these shows, even though I have shot many of them now, and am accruing quite a library of standup comedy shows on DVD, VHS film – I am up for it all and I love it. Let’s shoot one with a shoebox camera. When you shoot a comedy show, the audience is illuminated, as they are the stars of the film too, as are you. We are all stars. I saw all my friends in the audience, my Atlanta heartthrobs and heroines, and we stayed late at the Tabernacle afterwards with wine and cheese from my prodigious tour rider which is basically a breakdown of what is happening in the cheese world today. Bring on the dairy. If it’s a party, I want to get drunk on dairy. The wine is just to cut the richness, but seriously you could leave that off. I don’t care. I just want cheese.
I am proud of this show because there are lots of surprises, lots of variety elements, songs I love to sing and exciting new material which after months of touring is tight as a drum and I wanna bang it like a gong. Lorene did an awesome job yet again, as we’ve fallen into a familiar rhythm with these. We enjoy it and we come back and do another and another and it feels great. Now this is number 6.
I wanted to shoot in the great city of Atlanta because it is my second home, where I actually spend the most time during the year in one place. My friends there are tremendous, and I miss them during the times when I am off on the road laying awake in hotel beds with my frenemy that gruesome bitch Insomnia. Ms. Insomnia = who I don’t want to be with. My friends from Atlanta = who I do want to be with. And you = who I want to get with. And you + my new DVD Cho Dependent = me happy.
-Margaret
Photo by Lindsey Byrnes
Few people have the supernatural powers of persuasion of Margaret Cho. After collaborating on music for Cho Dependent, she got me to strum the very exotic and scatological “Shit-Tar” in her music video Eat Shit & Die while three dancing turds did high kicks about the stage. This summer I found myself in a small cage dressed in leather, on a sushi table wearing an octopus and finally with Margaret, reenacting scenes from Miss Saigon on a dolly. That’s just one day in the life with Margaret.
As a professional, I had certain concerns before I went in. I asked if my hair would be ironed. Margaret assured me that it would and we were good to go! I never had it done before but this was going to be a big video production with dancers and smoke and catering. They’d definitely have a flat iron on set. This obsession began months earlier when Margaret casually mentioned wanting to make a video for Asian Adjacent and that I could be the Ryuichi Sakamoto character, like in Madonna’s Rain video. That guy’s got amazing hair. Damn him! This was going to require some incredible acting on my part to summon that kind of whale bone straightness. A wig was never an option for a Method guy like me.
The other thing you realize when you make a music video is how you really feel about a song. You’re going to lip-sync to it a few thousand times before you’re allowed to take off whatever harness you’re hanging from and they give you food. It helps to love the song. I LOVE Asian Adjacent. The fact that it was inspired by Margaret’s mistaken assumption that I was of some Asian ethnicity ( I’m actually Creek ) makes it all the more genius and flattering. It’s a seductive recording that could hold it’s own on any dance floor. Margaret delivered an incredible vocal to begin with. It’s was a dream to write with her and a delight to produce the track. Carmen Rizzo also brought it up to a whole other level, with his beats and exotic textures. Enter Tani Ikeda who directed the video. Tani found in Asian Adjacent equal portions of beauty, absurdity and bite. She even cut out my fat parts! If you’re going to spend a day in cage you couldn’t find funnier, harder working people to share it with.
Adjacently yours,
Grant-Lee Phillips
Margaret Cho – Asian Adjacent – featuring Grant Lee Phillips from Margaret Cho on Vimeo.
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“Asian Adjacent” is from Margaret’s Grammy-nominated comedy music album, “Cho Dependent.”
Get the song on iTunes here.
Get it on CD or Vinyl with automatic download of the whole album, from Margaret!
This gem of a video was directed by Tani Ikeda and stars me and Grant Lee Phillips and some amazing dancers! We shot this in downtown LA in July on a single soundstage – really like an old school MTV music video and it was very exciting to be styled in all these incredible looks and costumes. I really love when Grant is in the cage – very goth and ominous! During the sushi scene I ended up eating a piece of tuna that had been on my leg for several hours, and it had warmed up to my body temperature. There was no soy sauce on it or anything, and it seemed to have my body odor as well as some lotion and glitter on it, and I ended up eating it and then I couldn’t think about anything else for the entire day except that I ate it. I didn’t actually get sick from it, but it was a pretty intense fish experience. I haven’t had sushi since. But I love this video and this song. Much thanks to the incredibly talented Tani and Grant and everyone in this video!
Margaret Cho – Asian Adjacent – featuring Grant Lee Phillips from Margaret Cho on Vimeo.
————————————————————————————————————————————————————————-
“Asian Adjacent” is from Margaret’s Grammy-nominated comedy music album, “Cho Dependent.”
Get the song on iTunes here.
Get it on CD or Vinyl with automatic download of the whole album, from Margaret!
The Long Beach Q Film Fest is screening Margaret’s new concert film, Cho Dependent! Details below.
Filmed during a live performance at the Tabernacle in Atlanta, Georgia, “Cho Dependent” features Margaret’s uncensored uproarious views on sex, drugs, and rock & roll. Margaret skewers the Palins, Dancing with the Stars, “sexting,” her beloved mother, online porn, and marijuana in a gut busting performance of all new stand up and comedy songs from her Grammy-nominated album, “Cho Dependent.”
CHO DEPENDENT LONG BEACH Q FILM FEST SCREENING
Saturday, September 17 – 7:30pm
Tickets HERE
After three exciting screenings in Honolulu (at the Rainbow Film Festival), San Francisco (at the Frameline Festival) and Los Angeles (at Outfest) we are honored to bring Margaret’s new concert film, “Cho Dependent,” to NewFest in NYC on July 22nd!
Filmed during a live performance at the Tabernacle in Atlanta, Georgia, “Cho Dependent” features Margaret’s uncensored uproarious views on sex, drugs, and rock & roll. Margaret skewers the Palins, Dancing with the Stars, “sexting,” her beloved mother, online porn, and marijuana in a gut busting performance of all new stand up and comedy songs from her Grammy-nominated album, “Cho Dependent.”
CHO DEPENDENT NEWFEST SCREENING
Friday, July 22 – 5:30pm
SVA 1
Tickets HERE!
Margaret is having a 3-day sale of her Grammy-nominated album, “Cho Dependent” and you can name your own price!
The “Sexting Bundle” includes the entire Grammy nominated album, plus 2 bonus tracks (”No Offense” and “Mazel Tov” – both featuring Garrison Starr). If you like what you hear, tell your friends: if 500 people participate in the next 3 days, everyone will also receive a copy of the new unreleased song “Sexting – featuring Margaret Cho” from the fabulous Sherry Vine!
Pay what you want for the whole package. 20% of the proceeds go to support ImMEDIAte Justice, and the top donor wins a role in “Asian Adjacent,” Margaret’s next music video!
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