Viva La Cho! Political, pro-gay and funny as ever, Margaret Cho's 'Revolution' tour can enter every home this summer thanks to its debut on Sundance Channel this month, appearances at select gay film festivals, and DVD release (Aug. 7).
'Revolution,' like Cho's last couple of engagements—2000's 'I'm The One That I Want' and 2002's 'Notorious C.H.O.'—is devoted to political and newsworthy issues of the day, including the election of Arnold Schwarzenegger, and raunchier subjects like Thai prostitutes, exploding pussies, and her 'Fuck It Diet.' I spoke with Cho about 'Revolutions' and a few revolting matters just as Reagan's casket was making its 'tour.'
LF: Reagan is finally gone. How scary is it that Jesse Helms is still alive?
MC: He is?
LF: Oh yeah. He's like Imhotep or Rasputin.
MC: Forever and forever and forever.
LF: Weird they're doing a tour with the Reagan casket, isn't it?
MC: It's here, it's there, and then it's in Simi Valley. It's like Evita or Lenin. I thought they were actually going to taxidermy him and put him in the Simi Valley library, but I think that might be too scary for kids. It's a very pagan kind of ritualistic, strange, carrying the dead body all over the place. I think he's like a mummy now. Put him in a tomb with Jelly Bellys.
LF: Wouldn't it be cool to work for Jelly Belly and taste the crazy flavors they must come up with while slap happy? Would you eat an 'ass'-flavored jelly belly?
MC: It depends on whose ass.
LF: What can you say about the version of 'Revolution' we'll see on Sundance Channel and beyond?
MC: That show is now retired. That's when I usually film a show, when I stop touring and want to make it available to people who didn't get to see the tour and also ... I'm working on a new show now. 'State of Emergency.' It's all new, it's always changing because it's about what's going on in the nation.
LF: How do you look at 'Revolution' now in retrospect? Have you watched it?
MC: I watched it when I was doing the commentary track [for the upcoming DVD] but I wasn't really paying attention. I do it with Bruce and we watch the film and talk about al kinds of other shit that has nothing to do with the film.
LF: On your weblog, it says you had a terrible experience while doing a gig at an Omni Hotel.
MC: I did a show for them a while ago. I don't really take corporate gigs but I was asked specifically to do this show. So I went there and apparently the head or president of the hotels is a big George W. Bush supporter and reads the bible every day. I don't know why that has to do with anything. So [I was doing my act and] they turned my microphone off and the band rushed on stage and there were all these violinists. I was trying to be nice about it—'Hey, I'm Asian, I can play the violin.' They started playing and I was like 'oh, alright!' They started playing 'Sweet Home Alabama,' as if that would somehow Americanize my anti-American sentiments. But that's not fair because I love Skynyrd.
LF: Was this in the South?
MC: This was in San Diego! So it wasn't like ... it didn't make sense to me why they would just turn the microphone off. That situation of censorship had never been an issue, and I'm a performer and say what I like. Then they stopped payment on the check. I said I didn't want their money, but I wanted to give it to charity, so I gave it to the West Memphis Three [note: see www.wm3.org—the West Memphis 3, Jesse Misskelley, Damien Echols, and Jason Baldwin, were a trio of teens convicted for murders they possibly didn't commit]. It's so sad. I'm in the process of putting together Damien's memoir for publication.
LF: They're going to do a film about it, no?
MC: Three. One is the 'Paradise Lost Three' documentary, one is a feature film, and I think one is a film for MTV. It's incredible that a case that gets that much attention would still be in the court system. It's hideous.
LF: Have you ever been sued or been in legal trouble?
MC: No.
LF: If so, would you want to be tried on Judge Judy?
MC: Yes, because I always think she is very fair.
LF: You have shed a lotta pounds lately, young lady.
MC: I'm just moving a lot. I think it's movement and just focusing on other things. And I switched from Diet Coke to regular Coke. With Diet Coke I drink a lot of Diet Coke, but with regular Coke I drink a little bit. Something about the carbonation and the sugar. I think I need some sugar every day and if I don't get it I go crazy.
LF: I read an online news report yesterday about how sugar and food doesn't affect behavior. Like 'if kids have birthday cake, they get excited because of the occasion, not the sugar!' Do you think the article was commissioned by a bunch of seven-year-olds?
MC: Maybe, because they wanted their cake. They bribed some focus group scientists just to get better results.'
LF: You're married! How is it?
MC: It's exactly like living with somebody. There's something actually different, better about it. That's why I'm so involved in gay marriage. I didn't realize how important gay marriage was until I got married—there's a difference in how you relate to the person, There's something really beautiful about it. Weddings are fun. It's just a celebratory thing, a celebration of loving somebody else and having all the people you love around you. I never thought I would get married or care, but now I care and I want it available to everybody.
LF: Did your 'Revolution' spark a revolution with your fans?
MC: I hope so. They write and say ... I helped them come out of the closet or helped them able to become friends with their parents because they found something to agree upon. That's beautiful.
LF: What's the zaniest or scariest act of revolution you seem to have inspired?
MC: People who dress as me in drag. It always goes awry. I love a drag queen as me but it seems very hard ... I couldn't lip sync my own routines onstage!
www.margaretcho.com
Die Mommie Die!
(Sundance Channel), DVD/VHS
Gender-bending actor/playwright Charles Busch (Psycho Beach Party) is always dressed to kill—but this time he actually does it! The campy, vampy 1950's/'60s-style (a la Far From Heaven gone insane) murder mystery Die Mommie Die!, adapted from Busch's stage play of the same name, stars Busch as Angela Arden, a has-been Hollywood star/singer. Determined to rid herself of cantankerous hubby Sol (Philip Baker Hall), she slips him—literally—a poisoned suppository. The murder enrages their daughter Edith (Natasha Lyonne), family servant Bootsie (Frances Conroy), and confuses dimwitted hottie son Lance (Stark Sands), a scantily clad, baby-smooth wannabe hippie-artist twink. Will Lance support beloved mommie or side with angry Edith and try to dig up their mother's long-buried, sordid secrets? Meanwhile, Angela's studly affair, Tony (Jason Priestley), begins seducing the entire household a la Terrence Stamp in 1968's Teorema. Things only grow more dysfunctional when another dead body turns up and shocking revelations unravel ... .
When director Mark Rucker caught the 1999 Los Angeles stage production of Die Mommie Die, he approached Busch, of whose work he had been a long-time fan, with hopes of directing a film version. Those hopes came to glorious fruition. Busch won a Jury acting prize at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival for his hysterical turn in the film. His attention-craving, demented has-been diva Angela speaks with a twangy/clenched intonation you may find yourself imitating (like many butch crew members did on set, we learn from the commentary) after watching the film, and she's lovingly photographed through an extensive variety of filters and lighting effects—all the more amazing considering the shoot's tight budget and 18-day schedule.
Sands—since seen in HBO's Six Feet Under—is pure eye candy, a could've been Mel Roberts model. Lyonne is—like the rest of her costars—is smolderingly heightened in her acting (sample dialogue: 'Why can't you accept that mother is a murderess and a whore?'), just a hair short of John Waters. And Priestley is having great fun as a smarmy bisexual creep, a perfect foil to Angela.
A lovingly campy homage to women's films (think Far From Heaven gone homicidal), this is a sunny addition to one's home video library, and Sundance Channel's release includes a bushel of extras. Disposable are a hideous 'music video,' which seems created for background play in a bar during a 'Mommie' promotional event or cast party, and a cheesily edited 'director's introduction.' Best are Sundance Channel's documentary 'Anatomy of a Scene,' a brief deleted scene, and a commentary track featuring Rucker, Busch, and Priestley. Some of their chatter is dry, technical, and obsessive (particularly Busch's extensive notes on wardrobe), but there's also tasty anecdotes and dishing—revealing that Busch was covered in ham to try and (unsuccessfully) coax a pair of especially stupid dogs into obeying direction, incestuous subtexts, and a tragically lost shot of Priestley jumping naked into a pool. Ultimately, a killer diller package.
— Lawrence Ferber
