INTERVIEW: Amazing Bi-Con Margaret Cho on Tooken and PsyCHO

Celebrated bi-con Margaret Cho has been one busy comedian-actress-presenter. Now available on Digital HD is theTaken take-off, Tooken, in which she stars as the villain, BrownFinger. Her PsyCHO stand-up tour, absorbing a number of US venues and a gig in Montreal, kicks off next month. And her effervescent hosting on both the All About Sex talk show and this year's Golden Globes is still fresh in everyone's minds… SheWired caught up with her for a chat. 

How did the Tooken role come about?

Lee Tergesen is one of the stars of the show and he's a really good friend of mine. They'd already begun shooting but they hadn't cast the super-villain yet… so he asked me. We'd worked together before and it was great so of course I said “Yes”. The movie loosely spoofs Taken but my role isn't really a direct parody of any character from that series. It's a created composite villain – a mix of the villains from all these big action films. I really enjoyed playing a man. It was great fun. Very freeing and liberating and exciting.

What are the central themes of your PsyCHO tour? 

The show is a reaction to all of the violence I'm against women, people of colour, the LGBT community. All places where I identify. The show asks how we can manage our anger and fear and resolve the situation. It's sort of a call to action. I think the role of comedy is to comment on culture and talk about the world and try and find a way to deal with it. To make the world better for everyone living in it.

You invited a lot of controversy at theGolden Globes back in January, where you pretended to be a North Korean dictator… 

It's all about having the right to talk about your own situation. For me, when I talk about North Korea, I'm talking about myself and about my family. This is something that's affected us for 65 years. It's a cathartic thing to be able to make jokes about it and talk about it. I can't imagine how it could be offensive to people.

TLC talk-show All About Sex saw you discussing sexual “taboos” such as BDSM, polyamory and bisexuality. How did you find that? 

I got a real sense after doing that show that I wanted to go into reality shows, but in more of a producer role. I have some ideas so I'm going to work on that side of my career, moving behind the camera. The show talked about all sorts of subjects which I understand but which are considered alternative in mainstream culture. It was fun to do because I got to show off my own knowledge about all that. Unfortunately All About Sex isn't going to continue but I got a good education about how reality TV works from it. 

What's your experience of being a bisexual female celeb?

Bisexuality gets really glossed over. There's this suspicion within the LGBT community that we're not actually permanent members and that bisexuality isn't a valid sexual identity. I think bisexuality is totally legit – I live it and I know it on a daily basis. For some reason we don't get the same respect or attention as the rest of the LGBT community. I think it's only a matter of time. It's one of those things. When you're on both sides of this identity you're not in or out. You're not sure of your place. It's a primary archetype in pornography where you have the bisexual woman who's very femme and very much catering for straight male desire. The truth is bisexuality is lot earthier and more complex than what's perceived in popular culture. For me it's a way of life and it has its own identities and archetypes but in mainstream culture bisexual women are very fetishized. It's very different for bisexual men. Bi men are essentially invisible. 

How does it feel defending your bisexuality at the same time as fulfilling a bi “stereotype” by being openly polyamorous? 

My polyamory and my bisexuality are really not connected. They're not mutually exclusive. Being bi doesn't mean I'm poly and vice versa. It's a very tricky thing to try and explain. I'm poly because I don't believe in monogamy for myself and my bisexuality is just a truth, the true nature of who I am. I have relationships with both men and women… with equal misery, ha ha! 

For more info on what the wonderful Ms Cho is up to, visit www.margaretcho.com

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