After the debacle that was
her short-lived 1994 sitcom All American Girl (rent her smash
stand-up concert special I’m the One That I Want for the
details), bisexual comedienne Margaret Cho returns to TV with The
Cho Show, a pseudoreality series that premiered August 21 on VH1.
Currently touring with her latest stand-up show, Beautiful (it
hits NYC’s Radio City Music Hall on October 4), Cho gives us the
goods on her prominently featured gay Glam Squad.
HX: Are you a big reality TV fan?
Margaret Cho: I love it, but it’s fake. Of course it’s not
real. I don’t think reality even exists. Ours is basically a sitcom
starring real people. It’s along the lines of a Christopher Guest
film, where they script the situations but not the dialogue.
Was there one show that you modeled yours after?
I really love Kathy Griffin’s show, and our stand-up comedy is
similar as well, so it seemed like the right kind of format. But ours
is probably even more scripted than hers because there are more actors.
I love your Glam Squad of gay stylists: John Stapleton on makeup, John
Blaine on hair and Charlie Altuna on wardrobe. Does it really take a
gay village?
It does take a gay village. I’m super low maintenance—like
camouflage capris and crocs. My life is gross. But in showbiz you have
to put on makeup and look nice, so I do need help.
Have they all slept together?
No, and they don’t want to! I think that’s the last thing
any of them want to do.
Is each vying to be your #1 gay?
Yeah, they probably are, but they’re all very special to me in
their own way.
If a random queen wanted to be your BFF, what would it take?
You don’t really need that much. Just have drugs. [Laughs]
Do you prefer tops or bottoms?
I’m real flexible.
Which upcoming episodes are your gay fans going to go nuts for?
There’s one where I decide to get anal bleaching. It’s much
simpler than you think it’s going to be. And we also have our
own beauty contest—a Cho Universe Pageant. And I took all the
gays camping and made them go without electricity, cell phones, Blackberries
and laptops for a couple days, so that’s great. It was not cute.
Watching the show, did you learn anything about yourself?
I realized that I’m a lot thinner than I thought I was. And I
realized that a lot of times I can dish it out, but I can’t take
it. Like, after all the dirty jokes I tell, my dad tells me a really
dirty joke on the show and I totally flip out and get really Christian
on him.
Kathy’s show made stars out of her parents. Are yours ready for
the added attention?
I think so. They’re divas to begin with.
Is there any celebrity that you wish had their own show so you could
get a peak inside their life?
I don’t know who would be as fun and interesting as me. [Laughs]
The Cho Show, 11pm Thu on VH1.
