She's led a "Revolution," been the one that we want, she's been "Notorious." Back in the day, she was the "All American Girl." But now she's coming back with a harder edge playing the role of an "Assassin." And, not in a Jet Li-blazing sword kind of way either.

This time around Margaret Cho is out to introduce us to her latest reinvention, her politically charged 'Assassin' tour of stand-up comedy.

David: As far as gay icons go, Madonna's got "Dita," Janet likes to be known as "Strawberry" and now Mariah wants to be known as "Mimi." Who is your alter ego?

Margaret Cho: her name is Blanche." She's kind of "Golden Girls," but more of an alcoholic, always popping prescription pills. She's very diva. Blanche is very different from Margaret in the sense that I don't drink, I mean, I used to and I used to enjoy lots of different drugs, but that's just it -- I used to.

Speaking of the different roles you play, what's going on with your new movie?

Well, the name of the movie is "Bam Bam and Celeste." Think of it as a gay "Dumb and Dumber" of sorts. It's about coming of age, feeling good about yourself. Bruce Daniels and I play this fag and fag hag who travel across the country to be on a reality show. I'm so completely excited about it. I wrote it and produced it myself and it's my baby. It took about tow years to raise the money to finance it and it was even more difficult to get a studio interested. But, we just wrapped up the principal photography and it's going into post production. I'm not sure how long that takes to complete, but it's about ready for release.

Until then, we'll just have to settle for your role as an "Assassin." You've gotten rave reviews for the new tour.

I've been having a great time with Bruce (Daniels). We've done about 40 shows and we're halfway through, I think. People seem to be liking it.

How is it different from your previous tours?

"Assassin" is based on more current events. You know, like what's happening in the media, gay rights like marriage and domestic partnerships and especially the Bush administration.

So, it's still very much politically charged?

Oh yeah, it's political. It's fun and shocking. We just have this very corrupt system and our government should be able to handle the criticism.

Your most famous role, or infamous depending on how you look at it, is your role as the gay community's favorite fag hag, queer peer, whatever.

"Queer peer," that's good. I just adore you guys and it's really a privilege for me. My entire life I was surrounded by gay men and women. They never treated me the same way they treated my brother. It's like they looked at me and said, "We're going to raise her 'cause she doesn't have a chance to know how great she is."

So they took it upon themselves -- the boys, the lesbians, the drag queens -- to teach me how they protected themselves like a family and how they grew up and how they survived. And, I got really close to them, a lot like a family. The AIDS epidemic was really difficult because it took away a lot of the closest people to me.

I think that is the number one reason why I love the gay community so much and it really is where I come from. I really do have a lot of gay friends and I'll never leave them. I keep it real.