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Armed with a microphone and her razor-sharp wit, Margaret Cho is slaying audiences across the country on her “Assassin” tour. Her set includes bits about being in London, British news stories, the Spice Girls, and football icon David Beckham and his former-Spice Girl wife, Victoria. In her inimitable style she also covers diverse topics such as sex with handicapped people, the red and blue states, un-Christian Christian conservatives, former New Jersey governor McGreevey, the “second” death of Ronald Reagan, the Jeff Stryker action figure, Arnold Schwarzenegger, the FCC, Howard Stern, the pope and Björk.

As is to be expected, the increasingly political and politically active Cho includes material revolving around George W. Bush and, of course, gay men.

Gay & Lesbian Times: In the lobby of the Chicago Theater, after your show on March 11, I overheard someone say that they didn’t think it was possible, but your facial expressions have gotten funnier and even more expressive, including your impressions of ex-Governor McGreevy’s wife’s “fag hag look on her face” and your impression of Björk. How do you develop that aspect of your comedy?
Margaret Cho: I think it’s possibly a mental thing. I don’t really look at myself when I’m doing it. I’m not really sure what I’m doing, actually. I’m just kind of focusing on what it looks like to me visually in my head and I go from there. I don’t really pay that much attention to developing things – it just happens, I suppose.
GLT: You have also added a new accent to your repertoire when you were imitating the British newscasters. Do you have a favorite accent?
MC: I don’t look at them as accents. I look at them as aspects of myself, and certainly memory and things that I liked about people and the way that they spoke.
GLT: The Spice Girls jokes were especially funny. Have you heard the Emma Bunton CD? She sounds like the Spice Girl that got away.
MC: Yeah, I actually love it! I love Emma. I think she’s great [laughs]. I love them all. And Geri [Halliwell] has a new single out, but I don’t know if it got released here. It’s really great.
GLT: You also spoke about un-Christian Christians, which got a rousing response from the audience in Chicago. Does that get the same reaction in other parts of the country?
MC: Oh, yes. People are very upset about these kinds of attitudes that pretend to be Christian and pretend to be speaking for God, when really they are so incredibly not God-like at all. They are so biased and bigoted and prejudiced and grotesque and couldn’t be less like what Jesus taught. It’s infuriating to me that they call themselves Christian, because they are not.
GLT: Do you think there is any way to get through to those people, perhaps through humor?
MC: I think so. I think there is a way to possibly show people’s incredible hypocrisy by using humor. It disarms people and makes them feel not so angry and readily able to listen to you. At least some people sometimes.
GLT: One of the things that your audiences take with them, in addition to your advice about fucking ugly people, is a catch-phrase. From the “ass-master” to “is he the gay?” through “My name’s Gwen.” With the “Assassin” tour you have now given them the many meanings of “girl” in the gay lexicon. How does it feel when you are out somewhere and you hear fans doing your routines?
MC: I guess I don’t hear it much or I’m not aware of it. I don’t have a sense of whether people are doing my thing or just kind of catching on to the same idea. I hope that people get something from what I do, but I don’t count on it or think about it like that.
GLT: The “Assassin” tour has two main themes: Bush and gay rights. Could you have imagined when you first started doing comedy during the more liberal Clinton-era that things would have taken a turn such as this?
MC: No, it’s disturbing. It’s really kind of a terrible era in terms of progressive politics and human rights and equality. It’s grievous having to live in this time, but we can look to make the most of it by trying to find hope, which for me is always finding humor in situations.
GLT: The political situation in the country is getting weirder, as you pointed out, between the governorship of “Conan” and Reagan being sainted. The other day Condoleeza Rice declared that she had no plans to run for president. What if she had declared her candidacy?
MC: I still think that she will. That’s a scary thought because [people] will be elated about having the first woman president and the first black woman president, but in fact she’s neither of those things [laughs] in terms of her politics. She is not feminist – she is for herself, but not necessarily for anyone else. She is a woman of color, but she’s not political in any way that I would recognize a woman of color being. She’s kind of a shill, a robot for the Bush administration. A wolf in black woman’s clothing. You want to say, “Oh, this would be great.” But really it wouldn’t.
GLT: Both you and Bruce Daniels briefly mentioned your new movie, Bam Bam and Celeste. Can you elaborate on that a little?
MC: It’s really a very wild and fun fairy tale. It’s a coming-of-age story about people coming of age a little later than they should have. It’s hard to make a comedy that isn’t mainstream, isn’t something that the studios have seen before. If people are fans of my work, then I think they’ll definitely get into it. It’s a great project and I’m really proud of it and I’m so glad that we’re done.
GLT: Are there plans for you to film the “Assassin” tour as you did with previous shows?
MC: Yeah. I’m not sure exactly when that will be, but there are plans in the works.