Margaret Cho has never been one to shy away from taking on any subject matter in her stand-up shows. Her no holds barred attitude has crossed over into another aspect of her career as well, that being her music.
For those of you who may not be aware Margaret started exploring her hidden talent of expressing herself through song with her freshman CD Cho Dependent released in August of 2010.
Her sophomore effort American Myth drops this Friday, April 29th 2016. On it Margaret is as fearless as ever!
So, without further hyperbole, here to discuss Anna Nicole, Sexual Abuse, Sex Workers, Movie Titles For Your Butt Hole and last but not least, the American Myth is the one and only Margaret Cho!!!
MS: That meme you posted on Facebook the other day about movie titles for your butt hole got a lot of mileage.
MC: I laughed so hard over those! My favorite was "Three Men and a Baby!"
MS: A friends of mine saw that I participated in it and insisted that I post it to her page.
MC: Did you have a favorite?
MS: Other than mine? I thought mine was pretty good.
MC: Which one was yours?
MS: "Something Wicked This Way Comes."
MC: Oh, that's a genius one! That's really genius. I laughed so hard all day at the great responses! "The Color Purple" kept coming up a lot, that one is classic.
MS: You have a video for the song about your late friend Anna Nicole Smith, titled "Anna Nicole" off your CD "American Myth."
MC: Yes.
MS: Expand on a statement you made about her: "some people are too good for this world."
MC: That's why my album is called "American Myth." It's the idea that certain people are too beautiful for this world. Whether that's Marilyn Monroe or James Dean. Anybody in the twenty-seven club like Kurt Cobain or Janis Joplin. But it also relates to something that's inside of yourself, sometimes innocent parts of ourselves die off because this world is too terrible and cruel to sustain it. There's different levels, thing like being too precious to survive, only the good die young kind of thing. It's not just people, it's elements of our own beings that can't live, it's too hard.
MS: There was an innocence and sweetness about Anna Nicole.
MC: Yes,and given the circumstances around her death, she had just lost her son. He died in her hospital room. She had just had a baby almost immediately after that, so she had grief and postpartum depression combined. It's a miracle she lived as long as she did through all that incredible suffering.
MS: This is your second CD. How was working on this different than the first?
MC: On this album it was the first time I had input on composing. There's a few songs that I composed entirely. There were some different artists helping me out, for the most part it is an album that I composed which is exciting.
MS: I want to bring up the song "I Want To Kill My Rapist," which was the first video off of "American Myth." You tackling the subject of rape has brought a lot of mixed reaction to say the least. I remember you did make a joke at The Wiltern that made the audience groan. I can't remember it, do you remember what it was?
MC: The one about my uncle who raped me, is the one I think it was. When I said "but I don't want to see him again, because I don't want to fuck him again. Because that's what would happen because we never broke up." That one makes people so upset, but it's me trying to lighten the mood. (laughs) The thing is if we don't make it OK to talk about and joke about sexual abuse it's going to continue happening. Look at fucking Dennis Hastert Speaker of the House, he's allocating fund in order to buy the silence of these young men, who are now grown men, who still have to live with the suffering and the shame of it. Sexual abuse is something that has long been considered a woman's issue, but really it's a global one, for men as well it's something we need to deal with.
MS: Having been molested I tend to be sensitive to the subject. However I think it is important to have an open dialogue and be able to joke about it as well.
MC: It's hard as survivors. We're meant to stay silent about certain things. Breaking the silence and allowing survivors to speak will help protect the innocents of this generation. Silence and shame are accomplices to a predator. It shouldn't happen like that, that's something that we can control.
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| Troubadour Margaret Cho Photo: Dusti Cunningham |
MS: You also have a song titled "Come With Me" about sex workers on the album.
MC: It should be decriminalized it would make it easier for people to work in the sex worker industry to report crimes that are committed against them. People who work in the industry don't have the ability to prosecute because they are afraid of getting arrested themselves. We have to improve the way society thinks about sex work. The song came from when I was recording in El Paso and I saw a lot of young male prostitutes. I wanted to take one to an amusement park. Because they were the age of a son I would have, if I had children. That is totally a legitimate reason to hire a sex worker, you want to have that love experience of being a mother with a son. The video is set, it will be out sometime soon. It is really a way to have people acknowledge that sex workers are also somebody's children. It's not about rescuing them because they are doing something wrong, it's that they are also kids.
MS: This country is way to uptight about sex. Yet, murderers and criminals become stars and make money. There is something off about that.
MC: I know, I know.
MS: Isn't it the worst?
MC: It really is!
Get Mythical With Margaret at:
http://margaretcho.com/
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