Margaret Cho
©“In Bed with Ima Guetenbed”

This month I had the absolute pleasure of interviewing The Grammy Nominated Margaret Cho, for her new CD “Cho Dependent”. So sit back and enjoy this interview, I hope you enjoy it as much as I did doing it.

Ima: First, I have to congratulate you on your being Nominated for a Grammy for “Cho Dependent”. How amazing was it to get nominated for a Grammy?

Margaret: Thank you, it was cool, you know I’m so proud that it’s a music album. I have a long history with music; I was actually in a band before All American Girl, when I lived in San Francisco. So it’s a great thing to have/had been in a band, and then to have gone and done Standup Comedy, and then to go back to music, and make an album and get nominated it’s really AWESOME!

Ima: Well Lyrics aside, your voice is AMAZING and I was so taken a back when I heard that voice and how amazing it is.

Margaret: Well, Thank you, I work on it a lot with some great people who I’ve sung with and they have encouraged me, like Cyndi Lauper & Fiona Apple, who have, like helped me work on my voice, and so I have good, good friends who have helped.

Ima: Now, had you worked with Tegan and Sara or anyone else who you work with on “Cho Dependent”?

Margaret: Yeah, I been singing with Fiona at Largo which is just this club that I go to out in LA, and then Tegan and Sara, like I was just a fan for such a long time, so we got together and made a song and it was really exciting. So a lot of the people on the album I knew, and there were a couple that I met through the process, like Andrew Bird, but like Ani DiFranco, I toured with her and done shows with her so, its like a lot of really good friends on there.

Ima: I know you are trying to get ready for your European Tour. How is the packing going for your trip?

Margaret: I just started to like, put some stuff together, but I don’t know I am trying not to pack so much shit. I have a tendency to always bring too much shit. But it’s really cold there so I’m afraid I’m not going to bring enough stuff.

Ima: Now, did I hear that you were nominated for an Emmy for your role as Kim JongII?

Margaret: No, I think that is a rumor, but that would be HOT! It’s a hard job because there is no recorded footage of him and image is really tightly controlled so you can’t really see what he sounds like for real.

Ima: Exactly, so how did you come up with that voice?

Margaret: Umm, it’s just that I kind of thought about what he looked like, and he kind of sounds like my mom a little bit, and it’s a great thing.

Ima: Now, I read that your dad does little parodies and stuff in Korean, is that true does he write books?

Margaret: Yes, He’s and author, and a joke writer, and so it’s part of my history.

Ima: So how different are his jokes compared to yours?

Margaret: His are really conventional and really like stories but like little, I don’t really understand if they are really fable like oriented, like I really don’t get it. But it’s cool it’s his little thing and he’s really super proud of me and loves that I do what I do.

Ima: I am so happy to hear that you share that together and have that history to share with him. Ok, I have to mention one of the songs off “Cho Dependent” and you know which one I am going to ask about and that is the one titled “My Puss”. I know you been down that avenue, my neighbors are lesbians and they say that really good “Pussy” tastes like Cheerios. Now I have to get your take on that?

Margaret: I don’t think that has been my experience, but then maybe I’ve just never had any really good “Pussy”. LOL, Yeah, I don’t know about Cheerios, I think everyone sort of tastes different but then I don’t know.

Ima: I figured I better ask that question, for my neighbors. The will enjoy that LOL.

Margaret: That’s really funny.

Ima: Another thing I heard that I didn’t know about was that your grandmother had an orphanage in Sole Korea; can you tell us about that?

Margaret: Yeah, my grandfather, or one of my grandparents had like a lot of adopted kids and cause they umm, you know were super Christian, and my grandfather was a minister, and there were a lot of orphans during the war so he took them all in.

Ima: Now, are your grandparents still alive or have they passed on?

Margaret: No their all dead, umm, my mother’s parents died like pretty much right before I was born and then my fraternal grandparents who I was really close to died like when I was in my early teens. So yeah they have been dead a long time.

Ima: I’m so sorry to hear about that but, so happy to hear about your family history and how strong of a family background you have.

Margaret: Yeah I never got to know my maternal grandparents but losing my fraternal grandparents was really hard.

Ima: Your mom was arranged to be married to someone other than your father correct?

Margaret: Yes, then she decided to marry my dad, he was a musician and played in churches like all over, and she would like follow him around to all these churches, like she was one of his groupies and they ran away together and it was a really romantic thing. But that’s like a time where everyone was arranged and no one fell in love.

Ima: You get to Minneapolis a lot and I try to see you every time you get here, do you enjoy Minnesota?

Margaret: Oh thank you, I always have a really good time when I am there and I really like the music that comes out of there, not only like Prince but Bob Molden, and those people that I really love and so it’s always amazing to go there and be a part of what is historic and important.

Ima: I heard you always wanted to be older as a child and I had the same issues of wanting to be older to help the kids that were being picked on and all that, so do you feel you have accomplished what you set out to do with helping young kids being bullied and teased?

Margaret: Oh yeah, for sure, I definitely feel proud to be an elder and help people and I love my age and I love really taking advantage of what I have learned.

Ima: I want to mention Kathy Griffin and all you do with her?

Margaret: I’m so in love with her and such a Role Model for me.

Ima: You know when Rosie O’Donald met Mary Tylor Moore? Well that is what this interview is like for me to be able to interview you.

Margaret: Oh that’s so kewl, thank you.

Ima: What is Skankin’ and Pickle?

Margaret: They are a really cool band out of the east bay in San Francisco, and I’m friends with them and Mike Parks a singer with them that was meant for my TV Show, but never got to do. But I been on the road with them and really miss them and everything, I have not seen them in a long time.

Ima: How about Chris Isaak?

Margaret: Chris and I dated a really long time ago, like 94 or 93, I was super young and he was like my first real boyfriend.

Ima: So were you acting at the time and he was singing or how did you meet?

Margaret: Yeah, we actually met in LA, while I was working on my first TV Show and he was singing and all that.

Ima: What is being at Laura’s Parents house?

Margaret: That is like this apt. that Laura’s parents owned and she lived there with this really HOT detective, and we would have this penthouse apt. in Russian Hills, and I remember we also lived in LA at the time and we saw the Army or National Guard walking down the road and thought FUCK we gotta get home. So I remember watching the Rodney King trials from there. It was really intense intense.

Ima: How about Salina Luna?

Margaret: Oh My God, I started getting a new tattoo of Salina’s face actually on my stomach and it really hurts. I just started it yesterday and so it really hurts but its Salina’s face with a crown of snakes around her head and it’s really cool.

Ima: I heard you wanted to shave a portion of your head to get a tattoo on there?

Margaret: I have to figure it out because I work on Drop Dead Diva and I cannot cut my hair and so I have to figure out if I can wear a wig or how I can go about doing it where it wouldn’t show.

Ima: How is it working on Drop Dead Diva?

Margaret: I LOVE IT, I love Atlanta and I love the cast and I love my life in Atlanta because I have a place there too and a ton of friends there and so I really love it there.

Ima: How about your new show “Cho Dependent” on Showtime?

Margaret: Yeah it starts October 15th and goes through November or December and it’s partially my album and standup comedy and was a blast to film in Atlanta because a lot of my friends are in the audience and it was really fun to film. It’s all new material and so we just had a blast there.

Ima: What do we need to do about Bullying?

Margaret: I love the whole like “It Gets Better” campaign and giving ourselves over to the LGBT and mentor the young and doing what we can to help.

Ima: What does the future hold for Margaret Cho?

Margaret: Well I’m going to France and going to do some shows in Caan, and then hang out in Paris for awhile, and do a bunch of shows in London and in Brighton, and Glasgow, and then come back here and I am finishing recording and working on a new record and then I go back to filming Drop Dead Diva and working working.