Dialogue with LIFE+DOG: Margaret Cho

LifeandDog | June 26, 2011

Catch Margaret Cho on Lifetime’s Drop Dead Diva on Sunday nights at 9/8C. In a recent edition of TV Guide, series creator Josh Berman gushes that “This is really Margaret Cho’s year to shine.” Check your listings for Lifetime stations.

Margaret Cho, one of America’s most popular comic talents, has been living her life in the public eye for nearly 30 years, during which she has shared her triumphs and tribulations with the world, garnering laughter and adoration from her dedicated fans each step of the way. Through her stand-up comedy routines, she has lightheartedly addressed everything from her struggles with weight and fame to her stance on important social issues of our time, always seeming to unknowingly educate her audience through one of the most universal forms of expression . . . laughter.

In a career that began, unofficially, when she was 16, Margaret has done it all. She has traveled the world with sold-out stand-up routines, starred on both the small and silver screens, authored numerous books and even recorded her own album of original material, which was nominated for a Grammy this past February. She is currently starring in Lifetime’s critically acclaimed Drop Dead Diva, which kicked off its new season on June 19.

Many readers may remember Margaret’s groundbreaking 1994 television sitcom, All American Girl. The show was a landmark in that it was only the second American sitcom centered on a person of Asian descent. It also had an impressive list of guest stars, which included Oprah Winfrey, Jack Black, and Quentin Tarantino, to name a few. Cho quickly learned that her real life was not imitated by her art, as had been her wish. She was pressured to be “less Asian,” criticized for her “round face,” and she suffered from a serious eating disorder that caused kidney failure and almost cost her her life.Needless to say, the entire experience, and ultimate cancellation of the show, left Margaret with a bad taste in her mouth.

Not one to wallow in pity, the determined Cho took that experience and added it to her hilarious stand-up repertoire. She was naturally a hit on tour, especially on college campuses, where she took her anger and frustration and used it to make audiences laugh until they hurt. It wasn’t long until she was starring in a one-woman, off-Broadway hit, I Am the One That I Want, which became a tour, a feature film, and a best-selling book. She went on to produce and star in the hit tours The Notorious CHO and Revolution, the latter earning her her first Grammy nomination, for the 2005 Comedy Album of the Year.

Margaret’s star kept climbing. Next was her hit stand- up Assassin; touring with the legendary Cyndi Lauper; performing in a vaudevillian burlesque comedy show; starring in VH1’s The Cho Show; another hit tour, Beautiful; and her current role on the hit Drop Dead Diva. Oh, and there is that little show called Dancing with the Stars.

Her success and constant ability to remain relevant, marketable, and, most of all, funny is a testament to the hard work and business sense Cho has developed in her nearly 30 years of comedy. Her passion for performing came from her desire to escape painful childhood experiences of bullying. Her uniqueness often made her a target for bullies and has led her to become the “Patron Saint of Outsiders.” Her protective nature and outspoken protection of individuals underrepresented not only pertains to humans, but also to animals. The proud mom of two rescued pups, Margaret understands the benefit of adopting a dog in need. Her personal adoption journey started when she met her beloved canine companion, Rafe, a shelter pup who was in bad shape and was not expected to live. Cho knew in her heart that Rafe would survive and nursed the young guy back to life, building an unbreakable bond that remains with her even after his passing last year. Her love, appreciation, and dedication to Rafe led Margaret to adopt her two current canines, Bronwyn and Gudrun, who live with the comedienne and her husband in their Hollywood-area home.

We were thrilled to get the chance to visit Margaret at home, meet her pups, and talk about her LIFE and her love of DOGS. On a warm Los Angeles afternoon, we arrived at her house and were immediately greeted by her polite pack who showed us around and gave us a solid sniffing while we waited for Margaret to join us. This is the second time I have met Margaret, the first encounter being at an event in Houston in the late nineties. In the nearly 14 years since we first met face-to-face, Cho has matured into a seasoned entertainment pro, and looks better than ever. At home, Margaret is much more subdued than often seen in the media. She has a softness in her voice that reflects her maturity, and her small, toned frame reveals the benefit of her recent stint on Dancing with the Stars. Her home, like many of ours, is a reflection of her life, her travels, and her personality. Unique art and Hollywood memorabilia deck the walls and halls, while her peaceful garden area feels like a sanctuary in the middle of the nation’s second-largest city. We sat down with Margaret in her cozy kitchen, jumping right into our conversation as her hair and makeup was being done for our photo shoot. I was impressed with her ability to be fully present in our conversation while puckering, blotting, and having her hair styled. Polite, charming, and sincere, it was a pleasure getting to know the real Margaret Cho.

On LIFE:
LIFE+DOG: What do you feel has been your biggest personal accomplishment so far?

MARGARET CHO: I think just continuing to be able to work doing what I love and being able to enjoy an artistic life for so many years now.

LIFE+DOG: You started working in entertainment when you were 16, right?

MC: Professionally, yes. Acting is something I’ve been doing my entire life, so there’s never one achievement or time that stands out; it’s more of a collective experience. It’s really a huge gift to be able to work and enjoy it. It’s a big part of what I do to always keep things fresh and still enjoyable and fun.

LIFE+DOG: It’s so nice to be able to avoid a burnout in your career; how have you managed that?

MC: Oh absolutely. You know, you do different things, challenge yourself, step outside of your comfort zone.

LIFE+DOG: Who do you look up to the most or aspire to be more like?

MC: As far as my career, I really love Joan Rivers. I think she’s incredibly relevant and what I love about her is that she’s still going just as strong as she always has been. She is 75 and still super active and on the road all the time, and that’s really inspiring to me. I’d love to be doing shows as often and as successfully as she does.

LIFE+DOG: And we would love to see that, too! So, when are you at your most creative?

MC: It’s never really a specific time. My goal is to be able to be creative all of the time. It does get a little harder when you’re very busy, working on different kinds of projects, but you have to be able to turn anything into your inspiration. Work can inspire you, too.

LIFE+DOG: You spend a lot of time traveling and visiting cities everywhere; what’s your favorite thing about being on the road?

MC: I love the total immersion of it. There is this constant emotional connection to the material because while you’re on tour, your sole purpose is to just go out there and do shows and virtually all the other aspects of your life are taken care of. There isn’t another time in your life when things are like that. I am very lucky!

LIFE+DOG: You don’t have to go to the grocery store, plan your meals, or any of the other chores of daily life?

MC: No, it’s very, very nice.

LIFE+DOG: What do you like the least about life on the road?

MC: I think that it is the constant motion—going to a new city each and every day. When on the road you are always working, there isn’t any time to play, and in that way it’s actually pretty tough.

LIFE+DOG: What have you found to be your favorite city in the U.S.?

MC: The best part of touring to different cities is that you get a feel for what each city has to offer. Of course I love my home in Los Angeles, which is ideal for me, but that’s not always where I get to be. I work in Atlanta for five to six months out of the year and I love it, too, so Atlanta also has become my home.

LIFE+DOG: So, what makes you laugh?

MC: I always laugh! But I would have to say the people around me. Like John Roberts, who is here now, he is my buddy. He travels with me on the road, and we make each other laugh all the time. Today we were laughing at my dogs acting shady in the downstairs of the house. They’re always up to something! We also laugh at his dog. We call her Drewbacca, because she looks like a cross between Drew Barrymore and Chewbacca.

LIFE+DOG: What makes you cry?

MC: Anytime I see that Sarah McLachlan commercial for the ASPCA. The photos of the dogs are so heart-wrenching, almost to the point where you feel out of control. I know Sarah, and she said that she cried so much when she made that commercial. She is such a genuine animal lover and true advocate, which you really see from that video. I think that’s one of the reasons that commercial still resonates with people after all of these years.

LIFE+DOG: Recently, you were a contestant on Dancing with the Stars. Can you tell us a little bit more about your experience?

MC: It was really hard! The difficulties of balancing my tour schedule with the show production schedule almost became too much to handle at times. I would be in three cities a week sometimes, with two days of filming, and each week there was a new dance routine to learn.

My head was busting! I remember when we were in Houston for one of my shows, Louis and I actually did a bunch of rehearsing at every opportunity we had. It was wild, fun, and exhausting. While I totally loved the glamour of the whole experience, it turned out to be quite a challenge!

LIFE+DOG: Did you become close with Louis?

MC: Of course! Louis was an incredible teacher, and we spent so much time together. Louis actually was on tour with me because there was no other option to learn all of those routines. Since the show, I’ve tried to keep up with the dancing and have been attending some of Louis’s classes.

LIFE+DOG: How has the dancing been going?

MC: I’ve found a new way to stay active! It’s really great. The entire dance community is so large, and it has been so exciting to be able to get to know all the dancers and people involved in the show and the art!

LIFE+DOG: Did you bond with any of the other contestants?

MC: I think my favorite people to get to know were Jennifer Grey and Cheryl Burke. They’re awesome. We became really good friends while on the show.

LIFE+DOG: So tell us about your current hit show on the Lifetime network, Drop Dead Diva.

MC: Drop Dead Diva is a total blast. I love my job! The show is so well written, and it’s really all about women and body image and feeling beautiful. How cool is that? We have some really incredible guest starts like Paula Abdul and Liza Minnelli, and Rosie O’Donnell is a regular on the show, too.

LIFE+DOG: There is a lot of buzz about your performance and how much audiences are relating to your character, Terri. Can you tell our readers a little more about her and why you think she is so relatable?

MC: She is just like most women. It is just a very important thing for women to understand that there are different forms of beauty in the world, and I love the way the tone of this show has a huge amount of respect for all beautiful women everywhere. I feel like Terri is so classic and real, like someone that every woman would have an instant connection with.

LIFE+DOG: Who’s your favorite celebrity guest on the show thus far?

MC: I loved working with Liza Minnelli. What an icon! I think she is phenomenal, and we had a great time with her. All of our guest stars are fun to have on because they’re fans of the show, too!

LIFE+DOG: Do you ever get starstruck?

MC: Sometimes. I think that since I’ve met a lot of people (I guess because I’ve been around for a long time), it happens less often than before. I would say sometimes I get excited to meet people who I think are so influential . . . like Liza Minnelli!

LIFE+DOG: What do you hope viewers will come away with after each episode of the show?

MC: I hope they just feel good about themselves. I hope that they feel beautiful. I just want them to feel good in their own skin and come away with a positive image.

LIFE+DOG: What new projects do you have in the works?

MC: I’m writing my next album, which just got started. There are some things that I had already recorded that I didn’t have space for on this last album, so I’m going to put them on this new one as a follow-up. I’m also getting ready to tour England and Australia, and then I’ll work on my next show.

LIFE+DOG: And how were the Grammys? What is it like to garner your second nomination?

MC: This was my second nomination, and I was just as excited. It’s a huge honor! I worked really hard on this album and even learned to play guitar, banjo, and the dulcimer. It was an amazing project, and everybody who worked on it put incredible energy into it. Each of them deserves so much recognition.

LIFE+DOG: You truly are a Renaissance girl! Did you just pick the guitar right up and start strumming?

MC: No, no, it took a long time! It was good for my older dog, who recently died, because he was in a lot of pain and the vibration from the guitar really, I think, soothed him. So I would sit in his dog bed and play to him to help ease his pain. I wrote a song about him, and so I would sing it to him and he would get really relaxed. It made me feel like I had helped him in some way. I think musical vibrations absolutely have healing powers for animals.

LIFE+DOG: The amount you have accomplished, in just the past couple of years alone, is really impressive. Do you feel like you are constantly on a personal mission to learn and experience?

MC: Yes. Well, I feel like there are so many great things to do and you should just do them. I am not shy about learning new things, and I love that.

On DOGS

LIFE+DOG: What is your first memory involving dogs?

MC: When I was a young child, I was actually afraid of dogs. I didn’t have the opportunity to really connect with a dog until I was 27 and met Rafe. He was my big boy, my big dog love. He was the absolute best, and he died just last year. Rafe’s death was the hardest thing I’ve ever lived through. I’ve lost people who were really important to me in my life, but it never upset me like losing that dog. I had this level of communication with him that I don’t have with my other dogs,and I don’t know if I could ever have it with another dog. There was something about us that—when we would just look at each other, we knew what the other was saying. We didn’t have to train at all, we just kind of like had a “thing.”

LIFE+DOG: How did that relationship change you?

MC: It was really special; it’s still really special. And it’s hard to think about not having him anymore. Of course I love my current dogs, but Rafe taught me what it meant to be “man’s best friend.” He was from the West Valley Animal Shelter, and he had a slim chance of surviving when I first brought him home. My vet wasn’t convinced that I could do anything for him. But I knew he was not going to die. I nursed him back to health, and the vet didn’t recognize him when we went back.

I was so proud of being able to help and care for him, and I just built my life with him.

Now I have my other two great dogs, who I’ve had with me for a long time. Bronwyn, the Australian Cattle Dog mix, has been with us since 2000, and Gudrun, our Chihuahua mix, has been here for five years.

LIFE+DOG: What do you think humans can learn from dogs?

MC: I think humans can learn everything from dogs. In general, it’s important to have some connection to animals in your life. It’s a lot of work to care for them properly, so it may not be for everyone, but you should be connected to them in some way. We live on the same planet incidentally, and it’s like you have to have some connection to the natural world in order to be a full human being. So to me having a dog is essential. I miss them so much when I am in Atlanta.

LIFE+DOG: So you don’t get to tour with them?

MC: No, they don’t make the trip. They have a great life here in L.A. My husband is here all the time and works out of the house, so he’s always here with them. The road would just stress them out. When I am gone, I miss all the small things, like when you’re in the living

room with the dogs and they start breathing audibly so you can hear them, like they just want to remind you that they are there. I always think they’re snoring on purpose, but it always makes me smile.

LIFE+DOG: If you could describe the way your dogs make you feel in one word, what would that be?

MC: Warm. Warm.

LIFE+DOG: Perfect, perfect.

—Ryan Rice

To learn more about Margaret Cho and to keep up with the busy Diva, visit www.MargaretCho.com. You can also follow Margaret on Facebook and Twitter.