The Cho must go on

In 2004, when the election gave celebrities the confidence to go all Bill Maher on our asses, Margaret Cho blurted to a crowd of Move On–ers that "Bush is not Hitler. He would be if he applied himself." And like that, a political activist was born.

Previously known as the original fat actress (her first book and movie, I'm the One that I Want, tackled Hollywood's fatism) and the biggest fag hag on earth (Cho loves the gays, and vice versa), Cho is now spreading her political wings. This month, she releases a new book, I Have Chosen to Stay and Fight, and a DVD, Cho Revolution, and she'll tour the country to spread her fighting words. And maybe do a belly dance or two.

Time Out Chicago: So you were in Egypt.
Margaret Cho: Yeah. I was there a little while ago. I went there to study dance. I'm a belly dancer.

TOC: Egypt is such a homophobic place.
MC: I know. It's really homophobic, but all the men hold each other's hands. You walk around and it looks like gay pride. It's really weird.

TOC: As I was reading your book I wanted to ask you: Who are you writing for?
MC: I don't know. I don't—I don't know.

TOC: At one point, when you're talking about race, you write, "Don't you get tired of being a minority?" It seems there's an assumption that a lot of your readers, or most of them, are going to be minorities.
MC: Yeah, I think that's true. I mean, if not a minority in a traditional sense, a minority in that you feel a certain way that isn't supported by the mainstream.

TOC: How do you feel about the DVD release of All-American Girl? [Cho starred in the short-lived ABC sitcom in the mid-'90s.]
MC: It's interesting to watch it. There's no rhyme or reason to a lot of it, so it's kind of funny. But it's sad because the show wasn't given as good of an opportunity as it should have had.

TOC: That seems kind of rude. I mean, they cancel the show and now that you've made yourself a star they're going to profit off of you.
MC: Yeah. But it's typical. And I would rather have people be able to see it, to have a kind of understanding of it. I think that's better than caring about whether they're going to profit off of it, because they're going to anyway.

TOC: You've said you want to be a role model. Is that one of the reasons you're striving for bigger fame?
MC: Well, for many reasons, and that's one of them. And also just because it would be kind of great to break through what I perceive to be a very weird racial barrier in terms of celebrity and Asianess or otherness. It just seems that we get to a certain level and can't go any further.

TOC: So are you considering doing more acting?
MC: It's possible. I did a movie called Bam Bam and Celeste.

TOC: What's it about?
MC: It's a fag and fag hag love story.

TOC: Between the fag and the fag hag?
MC: Yeah.

TOC: Oh. Okay. [Awkward pause]

TOC: So, I read about all the racist hate mail you got after the Bush/Hitler comment. And I read some on your website, but I couldn't get through them, they were so awful. In your book, you say these things, these names, don't bother you anymore. How is that possible?
MC: Well, I think it's because I have kind of encountered them so much. There's so much racism in this country, yet so much of it is really subtle—it's mostly about noninclusion and invisibility. So it's kind of refreshing when racism becomes really blatant. And it's funny, because they can't justify arguing with my position or my opinion; they have to come at me from the racial standpoint.

TOC: As a comedian, you could say that it's your job to find things funny. Is it getting harder to do that?
MC: Well, it's not as easy to find things that are funny. It's easier to find things that are unjust, and to discuss that and the outrage of that.

TOC: But that's the opposite of funny.
MC: Yeah, but that doesn't make things less funny. The only way to survive a lot of that injustice is through humor. You have to be able to laugh at things to really transcend them.

Cho puts up her dukes at Border's Michigan Avenue store Tuesday 25 at 7pm.