MARGARET CHO
Posted on October 27, 2010 by HILARY HUGHES

God bless Margaret Cho’s mom. Since breaking out on the national front in 1994, the Korean-American comedienne with a penchant for dirty miming and political ranting has made her maternal impression an integral component to her stand-up routine. Mama Cho recently tagged along on her daughter’s current national tour, and she had the pleasure of crashing some on-the-road dance practices for Cho’s short-lived stint on ABC’s immensely popular ballroom cheese-fest, Dancing with the Stars. “My mother was just sitting in front of me and looking at me, saying [to Louis van Amstel, Cho's partner], ‘Oh, she never moved so QUICKLY before!’” Cho says. “She was really scared. She was worried that if I did badly and got voted off that we’d get deported.”

Though she did, in fact, get eliminated early on and thus lost a shot at the show’s mirrorball trophy, ICE doesn’t seem to mind and the Chos won’t be kicked out of the country for Margaret’s inability to tour-jeté with the best of them. Good thing, too, because to say that Cho’s schedule is packed is hardly a laughing matter.

In addition to Dancing with the Stars, Cho’s been shooting for her supporting role in Drop Dead Diva, the Lifetime network comedy following the literal trials and tribulations of a vapid, conventionally hot girl stuck in a brilliant, and plus-size lawyer’s body. Cho Dependent, her recent musical comedy album, just dropped at the end of August, and the national tour she’s on is in support of the project that gave her full license to flesh out some musical crushes in an official capacity.

“I loved the whole process and every song on it,” Cho says of Cho Dependent. With major musical (and diverse) talents like Andrew Bird, Tegan and Sara, and Fiona Apple contributing to the album, Cho’s focus with Cho Dependent was more on the music than on making people laugh this time around. “I wanted to make a comedy album that was also beautiful music,” she gushes. “I know so many amazingly talented, incredible musicians and they agreed to help me with it, so I made the album and I’m really proud of it. It’s beautiful but it’s also funny. It really is stand-up comedy, but at the same time, it endures beyond the joke.”

Does that mean that the Cho Dependent tour will feature much more music and significantly less scandalous punchlines and light-hearted jabs at her family? Not exactly … or at all, in fact: Cho confirms that a handful of special guests will make appearances throughout the tour, and that the new material she’s hitting the road with will be refreshing, though not entirely foreign for diehard Cho fans.

“[The tour material is] mostly about my family, my upbringing and the stories behind the songs [on Cho Dependent], which talk about dealing with Proposition 8 and Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” she says. “I live in the deep South a lot of the year filming Drop Dead Diva in a conservative, small town in Georgia. The album is kind of a lot about being a fish out of water.”

And what does Mom have to say about Cho Dependent? “She liked it! She always gives me advice on what to say and what I should be doing, and she’s very involved with the ideas. She loves to be a part of the show.” Even when it comes to the more controversial, dirty stuff? “Oh yeah,” Cho laughs. “She digs that.”