Margaret Cho will be in rare form tonight when she takes the stage at Zanie’s Comedy Night Club for several weekend performances. She will be without her voice.
Cho is under doctor’s orders to rest her voice since nodes were discovered on her vocal chords last month. Like a true professional, she decided to reinvent her show instead of canceling. Cho describes her new “Beautiful” show in an unedited Q&A - via email, of course.
O&AN: So, have you already heard “The Cho must go on” or any other puns about losing your voice?
Cho: of course i have used the pun already. i love puns
O&AN: What was it like to re-vamp your show to its current stand-up/burlesque/music/sketch format to save your voice?
Cho: well, it's not really fun to lose your voice, but it did force me to be a lot more creative, and it turned out so good that i will likely keep some of the elements in the show that i am currently writing.
normally i just do standup, and i was going to do some songs too, but when i lost my voice, i had to get really inventive and use the text to speech feature on my computer and other people's voices. it was very interesting and fun.
O&AN: The comments from your last show in Provincetown, MA, were great. Are you excited to do more shows in this new format?
Cho: i don't know if i will do shows like this again unless i lose my voice again. but i do think that it helped me to understand some different things about myself as a performer and i want to keep learning!
O&AN: How does it feel to be performing in Nashville again? What should the crowd expect this weekend?
Cho: i don't even know what to expect from myself. i just have had absolute silence for an entire month - i haven't spoken a word at all for a whole month - so who even knows what is going to come out!
O&AN: Wikipedia tells me you’re a “gay icon.” How does that make you feel?
Cho: i love it! it makes me proud and happy...