Getting musical
EDGE: You’re performing in Provincetown and you’re also doing more music now, too, right?

Margaret Cho: I’ve sometimes been doing separate music gigs from stand-up gigs and combine them a little bit but it will be more stand-up in general. I like that. I do the writing on the album on comedy songs and it’s kind of like Weird Al Yankovic. He’s my idol so I’m trying to be like that, but I’m writing with serious musicians like picking the most serious musicians and doing comedic songs.

It’s a fun idea so I try to find the most serious and beautiful and sad people. Patti Griffin is somebody I really like a lot and Andrew Burch and Grant Lee Phillips and Jon Brion and all these really incredible musicians. It’s a fun record and it’s going to be really great.

EDGE: Do you get a different buzz from doing music than you get from comedy?

MC: It’s different because you have to also play... I play the banjo and guitar so that whole journey has been really hard. Stand up comedy is really not as hard, if you think about it. Well, it’s hard too but if you play music and sing and talking... there’s just so many things happening so it’s really hard. I’m going to do a little bit of my comedy too to make it more simple.

Coming home to Ptown
EDGE: You’ve been to Provincetown before but how are the audiences different there?

MC: To me, it’s so much like coming home where we’re all on vacation so it’s different. It’s a much more relaxed environment. It’s much more laid back and it’s a good place for writing for me. That’s where I do a lot of writing. I’m really excited because I haven’t done a stand-up gig in a little bit because I’ve been working so much on this show Drop Dead Diva so I’ve taken a little break so it will be really nice to get back to it.

EDGE: Everyone loves you - not just the gay community - does that mean you have to work harder or does it make things easier?

MC: Oh, you have to work harder. With stand up, you can kind of get people’s attention because they know you but you have to deliver when you’re onstage. You can’t just play the hits. You always have to do new things and that’s very different from music because when you’re a musician people want to hear the songs they’ve heard before but with jokes, they don’t want to hear the jokes again so it’s really hard.

EDGE: How did the Unzipped cover come about?

MC: I loved that! I was asked by Unzipped to do it and I was absolutely so into it and I handpicked Ricky Sinz because he’s my favorite porn star so they hooked us up. It was so fun. He’s such a sweet guy and really shy, which is cute!

I had a really great time with him and I was very proud to be the first woman on the cover of that particular magazine. I think the first woman to be on the cover of a gay porn magazine. You can’t ask for anything better than that?

EDGE: Did you folks see it?

MC: They loved it, yes. They loved it!

What’s scary about Ptown?
EDGE: You seem so fearless with everything you do but is there anything that just scares the hell out of you?

MC: The mosquitoes in Provincetown! [laughs] I’m really scared because I’m allergic to any kind of insect bite so all my skin swells up. It’s really messed up. It’s horrible. I’m very scared of that. Any kind of insect bite is instantly bad so that’s my main fear, which is kind of a funny fear to have but it’s based in truth.

EDGE: Let’s talk about Drop Dead Diva. I feel like each episode has more of you coming out in your character. Is that right?

MC: Oh, yes. Absolutely. There is going to be lots more of me coming up in the second half of this season, which is great. I love the show and I’m really excited about it and we’re having so much fun. And it’s a big hit, which is really exciting, too. I’m really, really happy. I think Lifetime is so great and they just make great, great stuff.

EDGE: How is it for you being one of the supporting characters as opposed to the lead?

MC: It’s easier but, yes, it’s a different experience because I’m used to carrying the whole Cho Show but now I’m so happy not to. It’s a real vacation. Well, I still have to work but I just feel really comfortable and I love the part and I love the show so I’m having a really great time with it.

EDGE: Like the premise of the show, if you could come back in anyone’s body, whose would it be?

MC: I don’t know! I think I like mine although Ricky Sinz’s body would be good to come back in. That would be a really great body to come into it. He’s so darling! He’s my boyfriend!

EDGE: I think it’s even sexier that you told me he’s shy.

MC: I know! That’s what’s so hot about him is he’s so shy, which is so cute!

EDGE: Your bio says that you’re a ’shit starter.’ Have you always been a ’shit starter?’

MC: I’ve never been one but I think I just started to become one as a performer. You know, when I started, nobody took me seriously because I was this 15-16 year old girl who was super quiet, super shy. Nobody took me seriously, so I had to find a way to really stand out and to get noticed in TV. So I had to become really fierce -- I became the really hard core side of myself. I become really fierce -- that’s how I became a shit starter.

Turning 40
EDGE: Did the tattoos help in the sense that you felt more liberated?

MC: Actually, that started much later. I started getting tattoos until I was 35, so the tattoos are relatively new additions to my life but I’ve always wanted to be tattooed. I grew up in San Francisco around a lot of queers who were getting really heavily tattooed in the 90s so that’s what I wanted to go for.

EDGE: Are you still getting tattoos?

MC: I’m on a tattoo hiatus just because I have very little room left. Also I’m trying to do acting, so you can’t really tattoo your lower arm or neck or face and that’s kind of all I have left.

EDGE: You’ve always been a big supporter of gay rights and equality. What’s it going to take for the civil rights to finally grab hold?

MC: I think it’s just going to take some more time. think it’s going to take us not becoming discouraged or disappointed. That’s really hard because I’m extremely disappointed by Prop 8. I’ve been on the issue since 2004 solidly because it’s a very, very important thing and I think it’s just about fighting and not feeling like it’s not going to happen, or just fighting off this feeling like it’s an uphill battle. What we want is the right thing and I think for humanity it’s the right thing and for the world it’s the right thing so just making sure that it happens.

EDGE: You turned 40 recently. Was that difficult for you?

MC: It’s fine! I don’t really think of my age as a barrier or as a problem or something that is a bad thing. I look at age as being very positive and as I get older, I feel like I get better as most stand up comics do. I think it’s fine. I saw Joan Rivers perform and she’s 74 and she’s awesome. She’s just so raunchy dirty and just killing it every night. That’s so inspiring -- she’s my role model. I want to be doing it and kicking it at 74 and being a bad ass. I want to be like that.

EDGE: Who makes you laugh right now?

MC: I really love Kathy Griffin. I really love Flight of the Conchords. I love Wanda Sykes. These are people that I know and who I am very, very fond of. There’s a lot of great comedy happening. I’m also excited that Selene Luna is going to be with me in Provincetown. She was on my show, The Cho Show, and she’s an amazing stand-up comic so she’ll be there and so people will be excited to see her, I’m sure.

EDGE: Is The Cho Show coming back?

MC: I would love it to, but it will probably come back in some form somewhere else, either online or somewhere else. We love it so much and we want to do it again so somewhere. I refuse to say that it’s done because it’s not. Everybody wants to do it and we’ve got to figure out where.

Margaret Cho appears at The Vixen in Provincetown from August 31- September 6. Note: these dates are rescheduled from August 24 - 31. Cho’s website posted the following information: "We know what a big inconvenience this is for those of you who already purchased tickets and we’re sorry we could find no way around this.

If you purchased tickets already and would like a refund, or to exchange tickets for one of Margaret’s new P-Town show dates, please contact the Vixen at 508-487-6424.

Drop Dead Diva airs every Sunday night at 9/8c on Lifetime. Margaret will also appear on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon on September 8th. For more on Margaret Cho, go to www.margaretcho.com.