Isaac Mizrahi talks to Margaret Cho about facial bukkake, dreaming small, why he considers her a sage and more.
Follow Hello Isaac on @helloisaacpodcast on Instagram and TikTok, Isaac @imisaacmizrahi on Instagram and TikTok and Margaret Cho on Instagram @margaret_cho.
When I did television.
I did a television show that didn't go past the season, and I was really devastated. But what made me do was force myself to go back and to like looking at my stand up comedy and looking at bettering that, and so ultimately it made me a much better stand up comedian. And I really appreciated that, because maybe if this show had been successful, I may not even be in show business today.
This is Hello Isaac, my podcast about the idea of success and how failure affects it. I'm Isaac Musraki, and in this episode, I talked to comedy icon Margaret Show.
Hello Isaac, It's Margaret Show.
I can't wait to be on your podcast, where we talk about so many things.
We're going to give the real tea on TikTok versus.
David Lee and all about feeling beautiful, love.
You, darlings. I am so excited to be talking to Margaret Show, the comic genius known as Margaret Show. It's been a minute since I've seen her. Talk to her, and I'm a little nervous because since I've seen her, the world has changed so much, and I know she's changed a lot. I feel like we've caught up to Margaret show. You know, like, I know a lot of comics are going through this thing where they have to cut jokes and they can't make certain jokes and they miss jokes and they miss making jokes about stuff. Margaret never went through that. She was always so inclusive of everything and so sensitive to cultural ethnicity and sexuality and all of it in body. She was always really really good at that. So here we go. I'm really excited. Let's get into it. Margaret Shoe.
Hi, Hello, you look great, Thank you, thank you.
You know what's going on? Girl? You look great?
I'm skin flooding?
Oh is that mean?
Skin flooding is when you it's basically like you.
BOUKACKI all of your toners and serums, like you keep on adding layers. First you start with a damp base, and then you do a toner and then you sort of like press it into your skin till dryes. And then you put on a serum and then you press it to your skin dries, and then you do your moisturizers and then also.
Then you slug it.
So wow, it's like you're insatiable for moisturize, for hydration, you know, I start my interviews usually by saying, like, surprise me, and I ask my guests to like say something surprising, like Oh, I'm wearing longline panties or something, but that was a surprise. I like facial BUCOCKI that's my surprise.
Well, it is like, you know, at this age you need some extreme measures.
Oh, darling, please please, you're a chicken. Chicken, listen. I want to start this off by talking about what I think you're really really best at, which is comedy. I think you're really a comic genius, my dear, you must say that by now.
Well, I love that, you know.
I always think there's like a lot of tragedy and comedy writing and comedy performing in one's ability to be very funny. There needs to be a good kind of tragic background to something, right.
I agree.
I think the need to cope is a trauma response. So sense of humor is actually a very deep trauma response, because you're trying to cope with all of the negative aspects of your life, and the only way that we can do it is to really laugh about it and make ourselves laugh. Anything really campy's kind of a trauma response to like a heteronormative society. You've got to like fit in by making it fun of it, right.
And so what was it about your life? Was it a defense mechanism something.
The defense mechanism for being a child of immigrants, you had to fend for yourself a lot, so like I didn't have like childcare or babysitters really, so I was alone a lot. And then when I went to school, being sort of very openly queer.
Kid, I got bullied a lot.
And I think, like, now I realize, oh, I was really very gendered on conforming, which I think I still am. I didn't have the language for it, but now I realized, oh, that's what it was. And so when you were that, you get bullied a lot. And so I would basically have to make myself laugh and make bullies laugh so I wouldn't get beat up, or I could have friends if I made fun.
Of myself and you were able to change the dialogue a little bit. But it's life saving, it is, it's life saving. While we're on this topic, I think you particularly, you've had like a really hard trajectory. I mean, there was like a sitcom for a minute, and you had like the whole Network thing. They were down on your butt. You've had fans that would mean to you. Talk about that for a second. It difficult to be a Korean woman in the world.
Well, I think it's really just about being in entertainment. The entertainment industry is very difficult for women in general. And I was a very young woman, and also being a Korean American, being queer, being not a size zero or a zero zero, and I was never really anybody that fit in, and not anybody fits in and entertainment anyway, everybody's a weirdo, but I was especially we're there, so it was hard. But at the same time, that's everybody's experience. Everybody has a hard entry into the atmosphere of entertainment.
And it's even worse.
When you have to like burn out and leave the entertainment industry at some point, when we all sort of leave at some point or we just exist within it forever, which is the hope and dream that everybody wants to But it's hard. And also in the nineties, when I was first an actress, it was very hard.
To not be thin.
I could never diet down to the right body.
Well, we're going to talk about that in a minute. But I want to stay on this topic for a second. Are there benefits to being the loudest, funniest Korean women in the room?
Yes, exactly.
Well, yes, because I think identity is currency. So I have a lot of labels about my person that I can really talk at length about. Whether that is being a queer woman, whether that's being Asian American, whether that's being politically progressive, whether that's being older. All of those things give me things to talk about. So every artist wants that, right.
And also if someone's casting, there aren't a thousand margaret shows. You know, there are a lot of blonde, blue eyed, blah blah blah, right, and they have their pick, but they don't necessarily have a million margaret shows. And you just mentioned this. You are really political. You are a political artist, yes, But like your parents when you describe them, they were not the most political people, right or were they?
Where did you get I think I get it from my parents their need to deal with the trauma of leaving their home country and coming to a very rigid, very white America in the nineteen sixties, and then going to San Francisco and buying a gay bookstore, which is the oddest thing. But I realize, oh, that's very political because Korea is so heteronormative, so homophobic.
Such a patriarchal culture.
Yeah, so then to come to America and then buy a gay bookstore, so it's not only gay, it's also.
In the arts.
We're not even talking about academia or education, which may be somehow acceptable.
It's also like art bookstore. So they're very very politicized there.
And all the people that worked there were early followers of Harvey Milk and so, you know, very political.
You're saying the act was a sort of an example to you, the act of these immigrants coming to the country at not necessarily what they said, because when you talk about your mom and your dad, I don't get the sense that they were like out there on picket lines or were they no.
No, but the act of being political in these making the choice of we're not under the influence of our elders anymore in Korea, we can do what we want. And what they wanted was to be part of the gay society. And I mean, I'm starting to figure it out. I think my father, he's very handsome, so he loves male attention. Ah, right, everybody was in love with him at the bookstore, all of the men that worked there all fell in love with him.
Yeah, he loves it, so.
That stroked his ego a little bit. I see, I see. Well, you know, just the act of your existence is political, right, like this loud, hilariously funny Korean woman saying anything is already political. And then on top of that, the stuff you say because speaking about your sexuality for a minute, I know you from years ago as someone who is bisexual. Is that still who you are? Because you know, people find stuff like later in their life and now they're allowed to, which is something so beautiful. Yeah, we used to kind of make fun of people who didn't come out until they were in their fifties or whatever. Now it's like people are allowed to discover that they're, you know, something else besides what they've been.
I love that. I love that.
Yeah, me too, me too. I love it. And yet it's like a little scary to me because I'm not so great at talking about the subject. The only thing I know is that my heart is full of love around it, and if I make little mistakes, you know, It's like justin Vivian Bond, She's so wonderful, and she's very forgiving about someone who gets her pronouns rule or their pronounces. You know, she got me so used to calling her she, And then she turned around and said, you know what, darling, I think I prefer that. Yeah, And you know, it takes me a minute when I'm talking to them to like go them. You know, it takes everyone a minute. Yeah, right, But it's.
Fine to take the time to learn and get used to it. It's sat for all of us, which is great that we're changing.
Yes, it is. You have any advice for us, like who we're slow learners? Like, is there anything we can say?
Well, the probum thing, it's not even about getting it right. It's the asking in the first place. So that's more important than it is about like, oh, we're afraid to misgender somebody. That's not the issue. It's that we're asking society to ask everybody because we've assumed for so long that the binary was real, but in truth, there is no binary. That everybody is able to have a different gender expression. So the fact that we can ask is more the issue, rather than people being worried they're going to get it wrong. You have to ask, so I think that's really important.
Me too. It's all that you want, right, it is just to be considered. I think everybody wants to be. But speaking of what you can and can't say anymore, and speaking of comedy, do you find that there are certain things that you can't make jokes about anymore?
Yeah, I don't know. I think it's possible.
There's probably stuff like you want to be more educated before you.
Take a guess, go stab at it whatever it is.
You know, the things that we don't know about, like I would say I would be uncomfortable about things like I don't know about that I don't have any experience with.
That's more the issue. It's more we're asking society to be more mindful. How about how language affects us? That's I think what it is.
And what about subjects that you used to use as meat for comedy, like body jokes? No, I still do.
I make so many body do? I mean to me, the human body is really hilarious, and then when you have like an aging body, it's doubly fine. So to me, I think it's hilarious. I like to make jokes about my body all the time because it's so funny. To be and it's free. And I really do love my body. I really put my body through so much that I'm like so appreciative to have this body that has put up with all of this abuse. So I'm actually really fine with that. I mean, to me, it's comes from a different place that it does like, oh, our bodies should look a certain way.
It's not exactly that.
It's more about the frailty of who we are, and I enjoy that aspect of it.
Okay, So on social when you make some kind of a joke, do you get blowback a little bit by trolls or people saying, oh, you know, maybe it's not so smart to make jokes about your body or to make jokes about Koreans. In some ways, I make a million jew jokes. Amen, I make a million body jokes. Amn it. You know, are there people who don't like that that you follow you and just are mean about it?
Sure? There are.
I don't really look, I don't really know. I mean, I'm very unaware of like kind of what the response is like to me. Like something I'm doing, it's funny to me that I don't really like look at that. I think I'm so excited to have to really protect my peace in a lot of ways too, so I don't really look at like comments necessarily. The one thing I really don't like about social media is when people go uh in your feed and they go, I made this much money from this investment and.
I need to I hate that too. That is so horrible. But you know, like about three or four years ago, my manager sent me to do ten minutes somewhere in Brooklyn at this little place downstairs. It was such a cute venue. I loved it and I thought I killed it. People were screaming. It was really good. But I made a joke at the expense of someone and everybody laughed. But of course I didn't see it as a thing that might hurt. And the next day my manager called me and she was like, ugh, you maybe want to stay away from jokes about blah blah blah. And I was like, and I literally went down for like, you know, a week. I couldn't believe that I didn't see it, you know, and there was no recourse. I couldn't call this person to go, hey, man, that was awful. You know that. Has that happened to you anything like that?
I don't know.
You know, because I come from like this era of comedy where it was all about these jokes about Asian drivers. So every time I would go to a comedy club, the comedian was making jokes about Asian drivers, and then everybody would like look at me for my reaction, and so I'm so paranoid about stuff.
I never really go in the audience and sort of like make fun of people for different things.
I usually make fun of if they're like heckling or something that, I'll make fun of what they're saying. But it's a tough one because I'm so paranoid about that.
I don't know.
I think also what happens in clubs should sort of remain in the club, but things get taken out and people sort of dissect things. So I don't really know. But it's so weird. People are sensitive for all sorts of reasons, and I think it's viable to learn about what's going on, so you can be like properly intersectional and look at things, you know, in a way that we can still learn.
That's what my hope is, right, that's very very important on a daily basis for all artists. But I think especially weirdly, like stand up comics because it's so societal. It's something that gets picked apart so often, you know, and so for us to be listening, listening is really important, you know. Yes, yes, And I feel like you've done such a great job of doing that in your career.
Oh well, I think it's just to like learn to be taught. I mean, I need to learn so much from young people, and I learn a lot from TikTok and like young people people like Dylan mulvaney, who's such a beautiful example of these young transgender people coming up and telling us how to do it, teaching.
Us what's right.
And that's why there's such a huge backlash from the right that it's all about bud light, you know, like being so angry about these sort of iconic products being now touted by the transgender youth.
But I love it.
It's like such a lightning rod to change society, and to me, it's really inspiring.
And do young people ever scare you? Do you get a little scared that you don't exactly understand the young generation? Yes, because I do. I get a little scared.
Yes, And I want to learn because I want to be taught and I want to not fall by the wayside and become somebody so rigid in the way that I think about things.
Me too. I have old friends and they go, oh, the young generation, and I know that you know a lot about old movies. We have that in common. And you know, to young people, TUTSI is an old fucking movie. Now, Yeah, And I say to myself, no, no, no, no, darlings, darlings, you have to go back to you go back to Garbo, to Chaplain to Buster Keaton and they don't know what I'm talking about, and they get a little bit arrogant. So it's like, those things frustrate me. Can you think of anything like that that you get a little scared, a little frustrated.
I think what it is that frustrates me is how something like TikTok diminishes my ability to consume old media. Now I watch TikTok, it's real hard to go back and go back into David Lean. You know, it's hard to take in some Fritz Lang when you've been on TikTok for a couple of days.
I know I don't have the patience.
So think about that cumulatively, think about like where that's going to lead, Like all those people who only know TikTok, like, I don't know if they're going to be able to sit through a David Lean picture or something that moves slowly, because sometimes somebody that moves slowly is incredibly beautiful and necessary.
It's so necessary.
Yeah, it's hard though.
That's what I get really frustrated with myself about, because my limited attention span has been made worse by studying things that really affected me, and it helped me to have better attention spands. Where those old films or even like Oliver, you know, something that's like.
From the sixties, I guess it's so great, so.
Great, But again I can't sit through like an overture or intermission.
You know.
It's a very tough thing.
So I have to like spend more time with old movies as opposed to consuming so much social media.
So let's get back to this for a minute. Because we're both a certain age. You're younger than me, right, we're at this age you kind of look back and you go, did I do what I set out to do? Did you achieve what you set out to do? Oh?
Yes, much more.
I had very low expectations for what I was going to accomplish. So I've done much more than I ever anticipated, so I'm way ahead.
Wow, well, Darling, I saw myself as Alexander the Great or something, because I think of myself as being the biggest loser. I'm not kidding. I don't know what it is, but I think of myself as not having achieved it, not having the time at all left in the world to achieve what I set out to do.
Oh my god, that's so bizarre, because you're so iconic, you've done everything.
Please, I don't want to do everything. I just want to be in show business. Yes, I just want to run away and join the circus. That's what I want to do. So when you were a kid, what did you think you were going to be.
I thought I was going to maybe be a local comedian that lived by the comedy club that I could go and host on the weekend, maybe once or twice a month. That I would maybe work a little bit for the newspaper and do little stories. Maybe I would be like a weather person on like a local news channel. I dreamed a very localized, minuscule fame that I might.
Get like a free coffee at the coffee shop.
Sometimes, or I might cut the ribbon at a super market something like that. That's, to me was the ultimate. Oh that's all I need. So that's what I had projected for myself.
When did this huge kind of wave of Margaret Chow the Margaret show that we know? When did that grasp? When did that take over? How did it happen?
I don't know.
I still don't know. I'm just kind of like along for the ride. I just really like what I do. Wow, this is because I just keep going and I love doing movies and TV, and so I just get jobs and I keep going.
So to me, it's all about that.
So you don't lie awake at night going oh shit, man, I can't believe this isn't happening. I can't believe I didn't get that job or this or that. Well.
I do get disappointed about different jobs and different things. These are jobs I didn't get. I was not cast in Clueless I auditioned for it. I was not cast in Roman Michelle's High School Reunion. I didn't get cast in Michael Man's Heat.
Oh.
I didn't get cast in Wayne's World.
You're at the park, so many, so many things, but you know, you you take what you can.
How do you deal with rejection? Like, how do you deal with your age? What do you go through?
Oh, you get very philosophical, Like I'm like, well, you know, the right thing will come, Like I get upset about enough, but I'm also too busy to hang on to the thing, you know, like, cause I will get disappointed, but then there's something else to fill that in.
And then I have so many different.
Jobs that there's always something to be done, and you know, there's great disappointments. Like I was working on a film with Leslie Jordan and it was a film that was made of a song that I wrote, and he was the star of the music video. And we'd been working on this film for years to get it made and rap funded, and then he passed away. But now John Cameron Mitchell stepped in to play the character. So it's an incredible way to honor the memory of what Leslie did, but also a new way of looking at the film entirely. So that kind of thing happens a lot where if something doesn't work out, something else well.
So I realized there's a lot.
Of things that happened for reasons I have no idea why, but they.
Do it's cultural. I think you don't internalize this rejection. Yes, and somehow you were able to ascend. First of all, how did you support yourself? Like you know, you need the fucking check sometimes.
Right, Yes, well I did stand up comedy throughout, which is always a wonderful way to make money for me. It's always been an incredibly lucrative career. Yeah, incredible calling.
That's great. It's great because you don't think of that as being, you know, the thing that makes people a lot of money, unless you're the most famous. Eddie Murphy probably makes it right.
But it's a good living.
Like in show business, it's like the workhorse, sort of the stables. We're like the mules. We dragged everything and we're always in the mix. You know, you always need comedians, like when they film, like television shows, they always have to have a comedian out in the audience trying to make you know, the thing happens. I see, you need comedians for night clubs everywhere. You need comedians for comedy clubs everywhere. You need comedians for any kind of event.
Needs a host.
So there's always room for us in all sorts of very workaday levels. And also you might I say, you're the queen of the tour. Yes, you will do a tour. She will do it to a lot of people. Don't love doing that, and you love it.
I love it is that, but I will always do it.
Okay, tell me what you love about it.
I love going to different places and performing. Like to me, I love hotels.
I love that, right. Yeah.
I love a flying moment. I love an airplane. I love an airport.
It's weird.
Who are you? You're an alien? This is an alien alien topic.
Yes, I love a liminal space, like a space that is like full of other people and then you're trying to create that nest for yourself in your mind throughout it. To me, I really love it. I think it's really interesting.
Wow, that is so shocking to me because I've been on the road a few times with my band, and I love that. I hate a hotel. I hate an airport. I don't mind flying, I just hate being in airports. I just don't like it. I feel like I've given over control of my entire life and they do not have the propriety or the urgency that I have in my life. They don't care. It's like you'll get on the plane. When we say you're gonna get on the plane, we will take off when we say so, you're gonna have to give it up. Now give it up. You don't mind that, No, I don't.
I don't.
I love that, Like we're just carried along and then maybe something's gonna happen, like if there's a weather delay and then you have to be stranded in the town, and so then you just try to find a place like a hotel in the concourse, and then we'll just see what happens.
To me, it's like, oh, this is very interesting.
This is unbelievable. You are a shaman of some sort of d I can't believe. I mean, I love being with my band and I love being Like one of my favorite gigs was of all places in Indianapolis because there was literally one hotel and I stayed in this adorable hotel that I didn't hate, Like it was a cute hotel. And you know what, sometimes like fancy hotels are more loathsome than like, you know, a holiday inn or something, because they're trying to be fancy and they still smell like room freshener and they're still horrible. You know. But this place was really great, and it was so incredible to like go downstairs to breakfast and just see them all there. But you don't tour with a band? Do you have people with you?
And I have my opening act. Sometimes I have a tour manager and that's it, and then I just go. I've toured with like other groups of people, and I prefer it just sort of scale down. I think it's simpler.
I see, do you like actively collect and write jokes all the time? Because I do? Yeah? Yeah. Do you see that incredible article about Joan Rivers and her sixty five million jokes in a catalog? Yeah? Do you have something like that?
I don't.
I have a lot of books have filled up like writing and stuff in my computer, but I don't have a huge like card catalog. That would be great, But I don't have that kind of like I don't have the organizational skill in my mind, I don't think.
About that right. So now I want to ask this other question. Can you think of one example or a few examples of a time in your life when you felt that you had failed and that you learn so much and you went on and got something great out of it.
Well, when I did television, I did a television show that didn't go past the season, and I was really devastated. But what made me do was force myself to go back and to like looking at my stand up comedy and looking at bettering that and so ultimately it made me a much better stand up comedian. And I've really appreciated that, because maybe if this show had been successful, I may not even be in show business today. I may have like tapped out of it at some point, gotten really sick of it. I'm not sure, but I think failure it's like it's just another layer in the journey. It's another step in the journey, and it doesn't necessarily look like failure when you look back at it, like it's kind of like, oh, that was just another experience, and I put an emotional attachment to it that I shouldn't have. Maybe, so I think it's interesting.
Right, But let's go back to that for a minute. I did this panel talk with Debbie Messing the other day and Eric McCormick and bunches of people from Will and Grace, and she was talking about the fact that she got a few notes like can we pad your bosom and how she dealt with that it was a very interesting story. What was that like for you? Did you get notes from the network about your body or about your hair? Oh?
Yeah.
They were very concerned about the fact that I was too fat, and so I had to lose a lot of weight in order to just even be on screen.
And that was really scary.
And I look at that now and I don't blame the network. I don't blame the producers for that. They were just responding to the era and the way that we watched television, the way that we view women in television. So they wanted the show to be successful and they were trying everything they could to make it. So, I mean, that's our fault as a society for not allowing differently shaped bodies to appear. That was the nineties.
So yes, it's really sad.
Actually it's sad. I mean because we've known each other for a minute. We did my TV show, We've seen each other at parties. We're not intimate friends, but we know each other. And I remember, like you would walk in and it would be like, oh, there she is. You used to come across as like this confident, kind of like bisexual person, you know, And now I feel like you come on almost as this kind of like sage or something. And why is that? Is that just age? I think it's age.
Also, I'm sober, so that might be it too. I'm sober that right, So I've been sober for about almost seven something years. I have quite a long.
History with that.
But that beautiful. Yeah.
Yeah, I think when you allow yourself to be sober, then you kind of figure out who you are a may So that's a big, big thing.
That's an answer. That is an answer, honey, Yeah, you know talk about not being sober. Was it a huge thing? Yes? Yes, well I was it was it liquor? No?
Well, yes, and everything. It's alcohol, I mean, benzodiazepedes, it's opiates, opiates is and I have a big problem. So I'm glad I got out when I did because most of the people that do that now are dead or they're dying, people who really had everything to live for. It's very sad, especially if you go to treatment and you're in like a fancy rehab with lots of fancy people.
It's like, it's really.
Awful, right, It's terrible, And you know, I have to say, it's like I have shame when I talk about like the iaz of PAMs that I take, or like if I have a little extra to drink or something like that. I mean, do you feel shame about the subject that you were addicted to substances?
No?
No, because I'm really amazed that I survived.
It's grateful.
And if I can like help anybody else who's like going through, you can get away from that stuff. You don't have to let that stuff define you. It's tough too, because bars are such a safe space for gay people. It's like a big part of who we are as a community as we come together in bars, and a lot of are coping with homophobia and the world is through substances and alcohol and all of archetypes like the alcoholic sort of like hag, which I love being. I can still be a hag, though I don't have to drink.
To do it.
Right. Oh that's funny. You know. I have to tell you something. My whole life is a performer, which I did way before I was a designer. And then, you know, while I was a designer for twenty five or thirty years, I've been working with the same band leader, you know, and they were always drinking before gigs, and I was like, well, I don't know how they do it, and I can't do that. But then recently I started, you know, have a little rose spritzer. Okay, I'm a lightweight, and it would make this kind of difference, Like I understand it's so easy to go on stage. Do you have stage fright? No? Not really you do you have any flaws? Oh?
I have a lot, a lot of flaws, I think, like procrastination and disorganization, things like that, which I could really benefit from some help with. But one time I had stage fright. I had to do a show for Billy Wilder's birthday.
Oh my god.
He had a party at the Director's Guild. So the table was like Billy Wilder, Francis Ford, Coppola, Martin Scorsese, all of the and I was with Ted Quentin Tarantino, and he was like sitting at the edge of the table trying to like egg me on, going like Eddie Murphy's one of his movies, Hercules, Hercules, He's the only one laughing.
Billy Wilder is like just scaring nobody's laughing.
It was so horrifying, more scary, And I got off the stage and Carl Reiner's backstage he has to go out.
He's like, oh, kid, I'm so glad I'm not too, And so it's like, yeah, that was the most staged, right.
Can you imagine bombing in front of Billy Wilder for his birthday?
No? No, So I think of you as a comic, right, yeah, But I think of you as a writer. But I also think about you as a pretty damn good actor.
Thank you?
How did that happen? Did you take acting classes? See you? What? Yes?
I took a lot.
I studied it in school and then I went to a performing arts high school, and I have taken classes throughout my comedy career, something they've always done. And now the world of acting has opened up a lot more because there's a lot more parts for Asian American actors, a.
Lot better, which is really really great. So I enjoy it.
Did acting class help you? Because I find sometimes it really depends on the teacher, doesn't it. Yes, Because sometimes there are teachers who try to mystify the whole thing, yes, and then there are others who just help. Yeah.
But also going to lots of different teachers helps, and also like playing lots of different roles, all of the input helps so it's also you just going and learning lives and being and slipping into somebody else's persona. As much as you can do that, the better you are. No matter what the teachings are that the more that we do it, the better that we.
Get at it. Right. Are there things that you don't like about the job of like say, acting or appearing. Is there any drudgery to your life? Is there anything that you just get really sad and black about.
Well, I think it's.
More when you know something's not working, like if I'm trying to work on jokes and it's not working and the audience doesn't understand. Sometimes it's like very tough.
And then also just like.
The physical impossibility of it always being great, sometimes it's not. Sometimes you're kind of confronted with an audience that really doesn't get it. Sometimes they get mad too.
That's really frustrating, that's upsetting.
It's very scary, like they think you're making fun of them as opposed to we're trying to do the all together. And that happens more often than we'd like. You know, So it could be a challenging job. But for the most part, comedy audiences want you to be funny. They want to make sure that their ticket money isn't wasted. They want to have a good time, so you got to work with that. But I don't like.
Performing, say at.
Festivals, where people are coming to see a million different things and then they're overwhelmed for choice with entertainment. Very that's a little tough.
That's hard.
And never do a party like a gala party, because people do not want to listen to you, no matter who you are. You say the world.
I do them all the time, but I hate it.
You can never get their attention.
They pay so well, but I hate it.
Or when you're doing it for because it's a good cause, I hate it that day.
No, I because they don't want to listen to you.
Right anytime they're serving dinner while you're talking.
Oh, don't do it, don't do us.
It's the Carlisle, which is my room, and it's the greatest show in the world. I'm telling you that.
It's like a supper club in that's and they're.
Paying three trillion dollars. Yes, speaking of jobs where they get mean. I just have one little story to tell you, and I want your reaction. One of my best friends, Sandra Bernhard. I know that were like very good friends and we love each other. Anyway, she was one of the entertainers on a gay cruise Darling. She got thrown off the boat.
Oh no, that's amazing.
They actually like took her out on a dingy off the boat because they were so mad at her. I don't know what she said, but you know, it's like, is there something like that? I don't know if you could ever top being like dingied off an actual cruise ship. But because you said that, when they get mad, it's like scary. Is there something that?
Oh?
Yeah, it was in Scotland and they got so mad and I don't know what happened, but they got so mad, and Neil Gaiman and Amanda Palmer were in the audience. They got me and they actually had to put me a horse drawn carriage. It was that bad to get me out. They were trying to get me out as quickly as possible and that was like at one in the morning, so not as bad as a digging, but it was quite.
Ah, but it's pretty damn great dramatic.
That's sorry, rest Gate, but a horse drawn carriage.
Let's go back to this if you don't mind because I feel like this is a real kind of issue for people to talk about and to hear about, which is that of body. Yes, okay, I was just thinking and talking to my husband about this last night. No matter how much body fucking positivity we sit through, I don't think I will ever feel great about my body. I was a very fat kid, and I lost a ton of weight when I was about thirteen or fourteen, and I gain and I lose and I gain it. But I always think of myself as a fat person. And I'm not really sure what the right word you're supposed to use. Are Are you supposed to say fat? Are you supposed to say big? I don't know what you're supposed to say.
Well, I think fat is the right term, because fat is just a descriptor, like it's a judgment that we put on fat, But fat doesn't necessarily have to have a negative connotation over the one that we put on it as a society. So hard and as I get older, I look back at my life and the fat not fat whatever, and I realize like I never appreciated the beauty, and I'm very saddened by that. So now I really try to appreciate the beauty as opposed to being so angry about the size, because I realized none of that is my take at society's pressure.
Right, there's that thing about how you look at pictures, right, Oh God, and then three years later you go, Jesus, what was I thinking? I looked so good?
Yeah?
Yeah, I think I've made some kind of crazy ass breakthrough recently because now I look at pictures and I've learned all these years to like not expect to see, you know, ben Affleck. When I look at pictures, I expect to see myself looking okay, you know, not looking great, looking fine, you know. But now I look at pictures and I think, you know, for a fat old queen, I look cute. I look kind of cute. I swear to God. Is that crazy?
No, it's great.
It's to enjoy ourselves, Like I really enjoy the way that I look so much more now than I ever have.
And it's really comes down to.
Like, I just need to appreciate myself for once in this life. I got to stop trolling myself, because if we don't stop, we'll never have any kind of peace. So I've been able to make some good strides with that, but it's hard. It's a challenge.
It's a real challenge. You still live in San fran Right.
I live in La I live in La.
Oh you live in La. Are you happy living in La? Fine? I love you?
I love it. I love it?
Right? What about it? Do you love?
I just love the glamour the idea of Hollywood.
I don't like Hollywood the city or the streets of Hollywood, but the idea of Hollywood I just love. And you know, when you can go drive.
Through Beverly Hills and you can see the Beverly Hills Hotel and all of these like landmarks.
It's very glamorous, it really is.
I love a day of the Locust kind of Hollywood.
I love those weird like apartments that are very day of the locusts, or you think Karen Black's going to be inside.
When I used to go out, I saw Karen Black's One Woman showed sitting next to Tony.
Basil in the audience, and it was like Diane Cannon and.
You know, people like it was just so funny.
So like, I love like the remnants of old Hollywood that I get to see.
I love that.
Like when I came here, I was part of old Hollywood too, Like I would go to parties like with Milton Burle would be at or like wow, Steve Allen and Jane Meadows something, you know, it's incredible.
So I love that.
I used to go to parties and see people like that. That was found. I have to say. The other thing that like everybody is allowed to do, like if they want to cancel, that's whereas in Darling, if you cancel in New York, like you'll never have lunch in this town. You're not gonna get booked. So like part of me kind of loves that now, Like I love being in Los Angeles for a few days or a few weeks or something like that at a time because I love my hotel there, and I like that people go, oh, you know what, I don't feel like seeing you today, so I'm going to cancel. You know. That was one thing about COVID that I think I really liked. I learned how to cancel. Yeah, and I don't mind being in LA now. I did a book tour when I had my memoir right, and I did this big event in New York with a few people and was great and I got like this wonderful person to do the interview and it was sold out. And then I got this really great gig in LA and I had like literally eight people who said they were going to do it, and eight people canceled. Oh my god, I promise you. It's like that one canceled, then I've got someone else. She canceled, then that one canceled, then he canceled. Was crazy. I ended up doing the talk myself. Wow. It was like a little upsetting and it was kind of fatuous. Yeah, okay, guess what I'm doing from now on? If I don't want to go to a gig, I'm just going to canc Yeah you know, yeah, are we allowed to do that? Really?
Well, there's a casualness that exists that doesn't exist in New York.
It's very different.
People are much more self involved here and they have other more important things or whatever that they think they have to do. Right, So that's just the nature of the mindset.
Tell me something, do you have like hobbies? You cook or nitch?
I cook a garden, I have many mini cats. Of course I have a dog, so like big part of my life is sort of the animal thing. I have to cut seventy two nails a week because they all eat raw food.
So I've got to make that. Oh my, so there's a lot, there's a lot.
Do you still eat raw food? No?
No, no, Every once in a while, I'll do it.
Do it.
They have many.
Different ways to make it that I don't have to make. It's actually such a hassle to make your own raw food.
Yes, I know, I know. So are you vegan? You're not vegan? And all right, so you're a veg? Do you eat fish? Everything? I do it all you eat everything. One of the times that you were on my show, you did this whole demonstration about raw food and I kept saying, it's okay, but everything tastes like cashews.
It is all cashew. It's all cashews.
The burger tastes like cashews, The ice cream taste like cashes, every single aspect.
Of it because it's all cashews.
Because it's all just cashews with different flavorings exactly. So are you dating somebody right now? Do you want to tell us about? Oh?
No, I'm actually not.
You're not.
I'm single.
Should we being for you? Are you interested?
Kind of? We'll see.
I have been known to pimp some Yeah, why not people? All right? I'll keep you in my Please do my book.
I'm available.
Okay, So this is my last question for you. You're one hundred and two and you die. Okay, what does your o bit saying? What's the headline? And then what is the essence of the obituary?
She had the best time because I'm having the best time. I'm so happy with life. Fifty four, so the next fifty four will be fabulous.
I'm good.
I'm shitting for one hundred and eight. I think that's a good Buddhist number.
Does it change every year when you get older? Like, oh, maybe I'll go to one hundred and ten because now I'm fifty five.
Oh no, maybe that would be cute. Though.
Maybe I'll move to Okinawa and be like the really like old people there.
So fabulous, Yeah, so fabulous. So do you want to promote anything?
I'm on tour so people can come see me on my Live and Livid tour. I'm all over the place and you can get tickets on Margaret Show dot com.
Great, I'll come. Are you gonna be on the East Coast?
I will be yes, I'll be there in the fall.
Okay, can't wait. I love you.
I love you. I love you.
That's incredible what we learned today. I love it. Ye, all right, thank you, thank you, Oh my gosh, can you believe Margaret Show. What I'm learning is that you know, no matter what you do in this world, no matter what you think you're going to prepare, no matter where you think you're gonna go, you're not going anywhere unless the universe agrees with you. And I think she really exemplifies that, you know, even more than some of my other guests who have also been proving that point again and again, but especially Margaret Show. I love hearing people talk about how they had these very very little, meager expectations and then they ended up kind of skyrocketing without like pushing and pushing and pushing. So, darlings, stop pushing. That's the lesson I'm learning from everything. Right now, Stop pushing, darlings. If you enjoyed this episode, do me a favor and tell someone, Tell a friend, tell your mother, tell your cousin, tell everyone you know. Okay, and be sure to rate the show. I love rating stuff. Go on and rate and review the show on Apple podcasts so more people can hear about it. It makes such a gigantic difference and like it takes a second, so go on and do it. And if you want more fun content videos and posts of all kinds, follow the show on Instagram and TikTok at Hello Isaac podcast and by the way, check me out on Instagram and TikTok at. I Am Isaac Msrahi. This is Isaac, Missrahi, thank you, I love you and I never thought I'd say this, but goodbye Isaac. Hello Isaac is produced by Imagine Audio, Awfully Nice and I AM Entertainment for iHeartMedia. The series is hosted by Me Isaac Msrahi. Hello Isaac is produced by Robin Gelfenbein. The senior producers are Jesse Burton and John Assanti. It is executive produced by Ron Howard, Brian Grazer, Cara Welker, and Nathan Kloke at Imagine Audio, Production management from Katie Hodgens, Sound design and mixing by Cedric Wilson. Original music composed by Ben Wilson. A special thanks to Neil Phelps and Sarah Katanak at im Entertainment