HW: Why do people have such violent reactions to you and your work?

MC: I dunno. I think it's weird, 'cause I think I'm just sort of right (laugh). I think it's just about being rational, and about being realistic, and about being compassionate towards people and the world. I think people can't understand, or they can't tolerate reality, or they can't tolerate this idea of compassion, or something. It is very odd, but I don't really care.

It's strange; I don't really have the same kinds of things, same kinds of feelings as other artists. I can embrace an artist and not necessarily agree with his political views, and not like them, and still enjoy their work. I don't really know. I think it's a very extreme reaction; maybe it's because of my ethnicity, because of my gender, because of my identification with the gay community, because of a lot of factors which make my existence kind of an extreme idea when in reality, it's not very extreme at all.

HW: In an interview I read of yours, you mentioned, briefly, the power that you derive from your position in life. Where do you think that power comes from, as it certainly doesn't come from mainstream society?

MC: I think it comes from working as a comedian for so many years in a stark and unfunny world. I think it comes from that weird profession that I do have, which is an interesting thing, I mean, I do enjoy comedy although it is quite a fighting sort of existence, but that could be where I derive power.

I also have a great satisfying personal life which has a lot of aspects to it and a wide, varied number of different types of activities and interests. It takes real precedence out of my career and into enjoying myself. I have a lot of fun things that I do that I don't really care what anybody says or what happens. I don't get a lot of my personal self-esteem or whatever from my work necessarily anymore; I think I used to, but now it's not really like that. That's given me a lot of strength.

HW: In one of your blog entries you say that, "the society that we live in is blatantly and unapologetically misogynist." How do you see the feminist movement of today working towards changing that, and how do you envision your place in the struggle?

MC: It's just a continual struggle. The feminist movement is something that I believe is getting stronger and more powerful. The longer that it really comes together, the more opinions that form there, the more that we get to do, the more that we accomplish within this idea of feminism - it's for everybody's sake; it's not just for women, it's for men too. It's also this idea that it's not just an issue for women, feminism is an issue for everyone, then I think there's going to be much more accomplished. I think the state of feminism is great, and it's only going to get better.

HW: Many of your blog entries focus on very serious topics, for example white oppression, menstruation, and the horrors of what is happening in Iraq; while these topics are also addressed in your performances, they are always shielded by the veil of comedy. Does having a reputation as a comic ever make it seem like people have a hard time taking you seriously, or lose interest when you take a serious slant?

MC: No, I've been really lucky, because I can really move between worlds, maybe because of who I am, because of what I've been doing. It's such a weird mix of everything. It is comedy when I perform, and I do write comedy to an extent, but I'm also allowed to change and shape shift. I think that anybody can do that, but people choose not to. I don't know if it's very different or unusual. To me artists are far more interesting if they have a range of emotions that they inspire. I think I wanna be like that.

HW: Referring to the protesting of author Michelle Malkin, you said, "The protests are counterproductive, because the right wing loves it when the left gets angry" (http://margaretcho.net/blog/indefenseofmichellemalkin.htm). Does that attitude apply to other acts of protest by left? In which case, how do you feel about events like the March for Women's Lives?

MC: It's not like protests in general are counter-productive; it's that that particular protest was counter-productive. But it was actually great to see. There's nothing bad about being counterproductive, about being something that the right wing would view as angry; I think it's great. I don't think that everything that's counterproductive is necessarily negative, and it certainly didn't mean to sound negative.

Like, all those protests for the war, certainly the Women's Right to Life march; collectively the idea of protest is very important and an essential part of society. The right wing has very little to protest, they don't have much of a portfolio for protests or famous protests, because I feel that the right wing are very embarrassed about their view and cannot speak publicly or cannot march in public about it. I've never seen an anti-abortion rally, maybe because I live in the wrong place. The frequency of liberal protests, the frequency of liberal anti-war movements, those types of public protest, I think they greatly out number the conservative ones. That makes me think the conservatives are just ashamed of their beliefs.

HW: What power do you feel that the genre of comedy holds for reaching people and engaging them in discussions?

MC: I think it holds a lot because it's such a charming kind of a thing. Most comedians are really just charming people, they're easily believed. I think that something there in comedy, something there about humor, really is very close to seduction. It makes ideas and concepts seem very attractive. So, there is a certain measure of power that comedians have over certain ideas and concepts that maybe other artists don't, or other artist who don't incorporate comedic views. I think there's a very great power of persuasion there. Often you can convince people of things that they may not believe in or may not be ready to believe in, and you can convince them because you are entertaining them in a way that is rare, and difficult to define. It's a very powerful thing.

HW: Given the rather depressing state of America at the moment, and the lurking evils of the re-introduced Federal Marriage Protection Act, the continuation of the war, the list goes on, have ceased to find humor in the current administration, yet you have said, "It is vital to mourn for the victims of this government but not at the expense of losing our sense of humor. Our ability to laugh coincides directly with our ability to fight. If we can make fun of it, we can transcend it." How do you keep your sense of humor and do you have any suggestions for the rest of us?

MC: I think that what's humorous is that, to me, the presidency is utterly joyless. I know that Bush does not seem to feel like it's a victory in the least, certainly during his inauguration, there's so many people protesting, so many incredibly angry people out there, and there are so many different views that are united against Bush. The one thing that really unites them is that they just hate George Bush. It's got to be an incredibly difficult place to be. That to me is very funny, because he deserves that.

Ultimately, we can't lose our sense of humor, because the funnier it is, the worse it gets. In order to survive it, we need to maintain levity about what's going on. It's really important to keep a sense of irony about it, keep a sense of hope about it, keep a sense of humor about it, because that keeps us alive.

HW: What projects are you currently working on, or is there anything in particular that you would like to promote?

MC: This new tour is exciting and fun, it'll be great. "Assassin" will go all over the place, all over the world. I started to work on it in England. I was there over the winter and it's really interesting because British politics are so different. I learned a lot and I think that's gonna be fun to incorporate, and a foreign view of what America is. It's interesting to see what they see. The new tour is great, the new show is great.

I'm working on a film called Bam Bam and Celeste, which is exciting. It's a script that I wrote and I'm producing and starring in. It's a comedy about very, like, mystic gay kids, which I think is exciting and cool.

My book is coming out later this year, called State of Emergency.

There's a lot of projects happening and there's always my website and blogging when I can.

To find out when Margaret Cho's "Assassin" tour may be attacking a city near you, visit her website at http://www.margaretcho.com/.

Buy the DVD

Margaret Cho: Revolution: Available online at Amazon.com

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