Why did you decide to do Cho Dependent?

Well I wanted to do a comedy album that was made of great songs. So it was jokes, but also set off by beautiful music. And I worked some of the greatest musicians out there to make it happen. I worked with Ani DiFranco and Patti Griffin and Fiona Apple and ... just amazing, amazing people. I'm really proud of it.

How did you go about finding these musicians?

Everybody was really open to collaborating with me. I had known a couple of them for a long, long time. Ani and John, I had known for many years. Some people I had met through the process. Like Andrew Bird, who was really excited to be a part of it. I think most comedians want to be musicians and most musicians want to be comedians. It's a very common theme. There's a lot of people who want to do a little of both, so that's where I really wanted to go.

How does writing music compare with writing comedy?

It's different from writing comedy. You have a little more freedom in comedy because you're not bound by structure, but also there's certain things you have to be conscious of like rhythm and brevity of words -- that's all important. Those things are good for song writing.

Who's on your collaboration wish list?

I want to work with like David Bowie and Linda Perry. Hopefully that'll be on the next album.

I heard there's a story behind your song, "I'm Sorry." What is it about?

That's a song about somebody I used to really love and then he turned out to be a murderer, which is a really weird feeling when you actually like somebody and they turn out to be someone you didn't think they were. This is an extreme case of that. I wanted to write a song that kind of works out my feelings about it. Sometimes when you're faced with something horrible, they only way through it is using dark humor. That's certainly what helped me to do that.

Is there a lot of music on your latest tour?

Not that much. It's mostly a stand-up comedy tour, just material that I have written over the last year. And I've been dying to get out there and do it. But I do sing a few songs in the show.

How have you been balancing your practices for "Dancing with the Stars" with your tour?

Well I'm rehearsing on the road. I'm dancing while I'm touring, so I like that. I think it's been really exciting and fun and I love my partner (Louis Van Amstel), so we've been having a blast.

You have a lot of tattoos – tell me about why you got interested in them?

I grew up around a lot of people who were tattooed. My parents employed a lot of artists at their bookstore when I was a child. And they employed a lot of patrons and artists and these people were really tattooed and they were all getting tattoos by Ed Hardy in the '80s. So when I was growing up, I wanted to be fully tatted.

I started it off with a huge back piece and stomach and rib cage from Ed Hardy, who had kind of gone into retirement and then came out of retirement so that he could tattoo me. He's phenomenal. I'm really lucky to have gotten tattooed by him.