Lemondrop

Margaret Cho has been making us laugh for over a decade. While we may have gotten our first introduction to Cho on the 1994 sitcom "All-American Girl," it's her no-holds-barred and honestly crude jokes about sexuality and relationships as well as wisecracks on her Korean-American upbringing and family that make her a comic queen.

With numerous comedy albums already under her belt, she recently released "Cho Dependent" -- showing everyone her passion for music and great vocals. She also stars (and sometimes sings) in the comedic drama "Drop Dead Diva" on the Lifetime Network. She's currently on tour promoting "Cho Dependent" and sharing her new material.

Lemondrop had the chance to chat with Cho to find out find out about her new tour, what she did to maintain her funny and how to be a loud and proud woman on the stand-up stage.

Lemondrop: You released your debut album, "Cho Dependent" and are bringing your music on the road. So does this mean your tour will go from comedy show to a full-blown concert?
Margaret Cho: It's mostly stand-up, although there's a couple of songs in there. But it's mostly stand-up stuff, mostly this new material I've been writing for the last year. So I'm doing three or four songs in there, but it's still full of jokes.

Do you have any surprises up your sleeve that fans should keep an eye out for?
It'll be a lot of new stories, lots of new things about my family so I'm really proud of it.

Do you ever have moments when you feel like you're out of material?
I just write more. I never go into lulls. I never feel like there's nothing to say. There's always something to say. There's always something to talk about and always something to do. That's why I love it so much because it's limitless.

You've been in comedy for a really long time and have so much experience in the industry. How have you see the comedy industry progress or regress for women?
There's a few more [female comedians] but not as many as there should be. There's never enough women in comedy. And I'd love to see more. It's just the support of the comedy community is not there for women starting out. And so, there needs to be more. I always prefer female comics to male comics. I just always have, yet women don't have a lot of support coming up in comedy. And it's very isolating, and I'd like to see more female comics.



Being in the business for all these years, you're cited as one of the comic role models for up-and-coming female comedians. How do you feel about this role?
I hope that I am, but I don't know if I think of myself in that way. Although I hope I can inspire people to get out there and do comedy. It's a very important profession, and I really think there needs to be more diversity in it. There needs to be more women, there needs to be more people of color, there needs to be more queers -- it just needs to be diverse all the way around.

Why do you feel like there's not as much support from the comedy community for female comics?
From doing comedy for so long, I've only noticed there's mostly straight men that do comedy. When there are women around, they don't get as much support from the male comics. And there's not enough female comics to say, "Oh you did good. Oh, you were funny. "[But] the male comics, the straight male comics that I know will always watch each other and give each other pointers and will always support each other. And by support, I mean go see each other perform, give each other rides to shows, give each other moral support like "You did good." Women don't have that. Women don't have a bunch of women comics say, "Hey, you were great," which is what I mean by community support.

Male comics can get explicit with their stand-up, and everyone laughs and is not as offended. But once a female does the same thing, many times there's a backlash. What are your thoughts on this double standard?
I think it's more up to the comic. I think female comics should just do what they want and do what's natural to them and what feels right. They should worry about the status quo or what people are thinking because I think that is limiting. And I think women can get away with a lot more than men can and have the confidence to do it. I think women can say anything. It is not unacceptable as it once was. And it also depends on the skill of the comedian to do things that are crude, which I do all the time. But you can find a way to make it tasteful if you're passionate about what you're talking about.

So what advice would you give ladies who want to break into the business and become successful comedians?
I think they should just do it. They should just get up there and sign up at open mic nights and comedy clubs. Go see comedy. Go see people who you think might be interesting. Just go see everything that's involved in it. And don't give up -- that's the most important thing.