October 20, 2025 • 31 mins
Margaret Cho joined Buzz Knight on the Takin A Walk podcast some months ago and we share this on Comedy Saved Me to showcase the power of laughter.
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Comedy Saved Me.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Well, laughter is the unexpected breath that you take that
you didn't know you were going to take, that ensures
the next moment of life. So laughter is like this
hit of oxygen that we all need all the time.
But it disrupts your normal breathing pattern and it makes
you breathe deeper and harder. And if you're laughing a lot,
(00:24):
it's a really life affirming gesture. That's why you know,
people all you know always.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
Says like laughter is the best medicine. It's true, it
actually is medicine.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Hey there, amln Hoffman, and welcome to Comedy Saved Me,
the podcast where we shine a bright light on the
incredible power of laughter. Now, from time to time we
like to turn you on to other great podcasts that'll
keep you smiling. And today I got a good one
for you. It's from our companion podcast, Taking a Walk,
hosted by the one and only Buzz Night. And in
(00:54):
this episode, Buzz chats with the hilarious musician comedian total
like con Margaret Choe. Her stories are wonderful, they'll make
you laugh, they'll lift your spirits. Buzz is such a
great host. You're going to enjoy every second of it.
So go check it out right now, grab it on Spotify,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Keep smiling
(01:15):
and we'll see you next time. Right here on Comedy
Saved Me.
Speaker 4 (01:20):
Taking a Walk, Margaret Chow, welcome to take it a walk.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
Thank you.
Speaker 5 (01:25):
So, since the podcast is called take out a Walk,
I wanted to ask you to start.
Speaker 4 (01:29):
If you could take a walk.
Speaker 5 (01:31):
With the with someone living or dead, who would it
be and where would you take a walk with them?
Speaker 2 (01:38):
I would like to take a walk with Nancy Kwan.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
She's living st She's quite old.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
I believe she's probably close to ninety, if not ninety.
I love her. I'd love to take a walk around
my neighborhood if she would like to, or her neighborhood,
if she would like to just hang out.
Speaker 4 (01:58):
Just casual conversation, right, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
I think she's got a lot to say. She's got
great legs. She is a true pioneer in Asian American
cinema and art and entertainment, and she's everything. She's a singer, dancer, actress, model.
Speaker 4 (02:19):
Icon, multifaceted just like you.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Yes, so I'd love to take a walk with her.
Speaker 4 (02:26):
That's awesome. Congrats on your new music, Lucky Gift.
Speaker 5 (02:30):
It's been a long time since we heard from you
with music about is it eight years?
Speaker 4 (02:36):
Almost?
Speaker 2 (02:37):
Yes? Yes, So I'm really glad to put it out.
Speaker 5 (02:40):
Tell me how this came together and who some of
the collaborators are with you on this project.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
Well, this album I've been working on actually for the
last ten years, eleven years. Some of the songs were
written with Roger Rosha from Four Non Blondes. He is
a wonderful songwriter in a musical genius, and he and
I wrote about half of the songs of the record
(03:08):
when I was working with him on my B Robin project.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
Which was outreach for.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
Those experiencing homelessness in San Francisco in twenty fourteen. So
a lot of the songs were written out on the
street with a band. We were stealing electricity and playing
in these encampments and also giving out food and much
needed supplies. And it was sort of a tribute to
Robin Williams. He was a big advocate for the homeless
(03:36):
with comic relief, which I got to do for many years,
and so it was a nice way to honor his passing,
but also a creative journey for me and Roger to
write a number of these songs, including funny Man, which
is all about Robin Williams. And so it was singing
out on the street, blowing out my voice, stealing electricity.
(03:57):
But we also had a violin players, and we had horns,
we had saxophone players. We had like a huge bands
because everybody wanted to play with these people, and so
it was a great way to write. But so half
of the songs come from that. The other half come
from me just writing over time and fitting writing songs
(04:19):
in when I was doing other things, like you know,
making movies and TV shows and doing stand up comedy.
So and then I collaborated with Garrison Starr, who's somebody
i I've been working with on all of my records.
She's an amazing singer, songwriter and an incredible producer, and
so she produced the other half of the tracks on
the record.
Speaker 5 (04:41):
So tell me how your creative process differs, if at all,
between your your stand up creation and your music creation.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
I think it's well, it's usually when I'm approaching dant
up comedy, like I'll try to think of, oh, I
have to write a joke about that, and I'll like
work on something and then I'll present it later that
day at a stand up comedy show. So it's very immediate.
With music, I think, oh, I should write a song
(05:12):
about that, or or I will be fiddling around on
an instrument and I'll say, oh, that actually works and
maybe I can create this into something, and it'll usually
come that way, and then I don't present it for
a long time, like nobody really hears it or sees
it until I'm ready to record it or so it's
almost something that like, uh, is isolated for a while.
(05:35):
I mean, in general, my writing process is like that
with Roger. With the b Robin Project, it was a
little bit different because we were like writing songs and
then like taking them out on the street, so it
was fast.
Speaker 3 (05:45):
But this one was like some of the other songs.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
It was a little bit of a slower process where
people didn't see them for a little while. So but yeah,
it's very different because it I think stand up comedy
is so much of a dialogue with your audience because
they have to laugh to fill in the other part
of the joke or to complete the joke. Where songs
say can exist on their own.
Speaker 4 (06:10):
Is it fair to say both sides of the equation.
Speaker 5 (06:12):
Stand up comedy and creating music are not only a
way to you know, express love for things and the
beauty around, but also a way to kind of get
some of the pain out as well.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
Yes, absolutely, and to say things that are unsayable or
to be a solution to a problem, you know, or
to communicate things that you really can't communicate any other way.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
Also to give people a vessel.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
And the way that they can communicate something that they
can like bield a relationship with, because oftentimes music the
way that what it's written for isn't what it's listened for.
Speaker 5 (06:59):
You know.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
People have all sorts of attachments to songs that are
outside of the hands of the songwriter, which I love too,
because then people can interpret and put on the meaning
that they want to put on the song.
Speaker 5 (07:12):
You play this instrument that I've never heard of before.
It's the mandolin sort of double neck guitar, otherwise known
as the mandaitar.
Speaker 4 (07:22):
Did you create the mandatar?
Speaker 2 (07:25):
No, The mandatar comes from Bruin, which is a legendary
guitar start in Nashville.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
And it was.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
A luthier who passed away and his widow sold all
the guitars.
Speaker 3 (07:40):
That he made to the store.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
So this is one of the ones, and I've never
seen anything like it. It's one neck is a mandolin
and one neck as a guitar. And the way that
I wrote Lucky Giff, which is the title track of
the record, is I used both at the same time,
as opposed to playing them separately. I played them together
like one long strum and.
Speaker 3 (08:01):
It actually worked.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
The way that it was tuned worked and it worked
in the body of the song and it was pretty incredible.
Speaker 3 (08:07):
So I was so excited.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
So most of the songs, the kind of acoustic side,
the more sort of country ish flavored songs are those
songs that I wrote with Garrison are from the mando.
Speaker 4 (08:20):
Tar And how long did it take you to learn
the man guitar?
Speaker 2 (08:24):
Well, I already played guitar, So anything anything that has
fight a guitar feel, I can work my way around.
I am a multi instrumentalist, but I'm not good. So
I'm like, I can't play everything, but not well. But
I can play everything enough where I can write and
show somebody else who can play well, and then I
(08:46):
can sing.
Speaker 3 (08:47):
I will get to the.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
Point one day where I can play and sing at
the same time. Well, I can't do either well if
I'm doing it at the same time. So I like
to just focus on the singing. But I'm my writing
is is working it out on these idiosyncratic instruments. I
love idiosyncratic, odd instruments, things that.
Speaker 3 (09:08):
Are just made by luthiers or whoever.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
So I have a number of like kind of weird,
misfit toys of instruments that I like to write The Land.
Speaker 4 (09:19):
Of Missmit Toys. I love it.
Speaker 5 (09:21):
Yes, who are some of the players that you particularly admire?
And then who are some of the particular songwriters that
you most admire?
Speaker 3 (09:31):
Well, I think.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
Of the old time would be Bobby Gentry. You know
that she was just such a force, What an amazing songwriter,
what an amazing singer, and also what a great beauty.
You know, She's somebody who I would love to take
a walk with as well. Still alive out there, but
just decided to walk away from entertainment and is sort of,
(10:01):
you know, out there, where is Bobby Gentry? We're not sure?
Another great songwriter asked that question in her song Jill.
Speaker 3 (10:09):
Sobule, one of.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
My favorites, also asked, where is Bobby Gentry?
Speaker 3 (10:12):
We all want to know.
Speaker 5 (10:14):
She was.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
Truly one of one, one of my absolute favorites, and
of course Dolly Parton in the same vein you know,
what a beauty, what a singer, what a songwriter, what
an icon? You know, so many modern people, I would
say Chapel Roan.
Speaker 3 (10:34):
I absolutely adore her.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
I love the way that her songs have such drama,
that there are you start one place and then you
end someplace totally different, And I'm really in awe of
that where somebody can take chords and song structure and
bring it to life and in a way that is
(10:58):
so bombastic and exciting and new but old.
Speaker 3 (11:02):
I love I love her, And there's.
Speaker 5 (11:04):
A theme there as far as your taste. You like
those that just like you are, you know, don't apologize
for anything you've done and you're saying and creating. You
just have that force behind everything that you do. Who
instilled that in you, that unapologetic attitude, I.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
Don't know, I mean maybe it was something that I'm
just you sort of fake it till you make it
like you just don't.
Speaker 3 (11:31):
You don't even know if it's.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
Right, You just do it like you I think you
just put it out there, and that's kind of the
way stand up comedy is.
Speaker 3 (11:39):
You kind of have to put it out there.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
To even know if it's going to work, and you
have to be confident in your idea in order to
make an audience believe it. So you sort of have
to be a salesman for yourself as well. And I
think I learned that through comedy, but you know, it
wasn't ever something that I was entirely confident about.
Speaker 3 (12:02):
You just have to fake it till you make it.
Speaker 4 (12:04):
That's it a little trial and error too.
Speaker 3 (12:08):
Yeah, always, always yes.
Speaker 5 (12:10):
And as a musician, what do you feel like you've
most learned over the last year of your work.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
I think that it's songs are really magic, like they
come out of thin air and that you don't really know,
like and you'll be presented with all sorts of entry points,
you know, sometimes in the part of a dream, I'll
dream something and then I'll it'll it'll come into being
(12:40):
in like part of a song, you know, and then
you uh will figure things out, like it's just there.
It's so interesting and how it's like a magical stream,
and then you kind of dip in and it's right there,
but if you don't dip in, it's it's gonna go
by you. So I think of what I've learned is
you've got it when you get like the sort of
(13:02):
a thread of something, you've got to go and get
the whole cloth. Is you can build the whole cloth
from that. But it's about going to get.
Speaker 5 (13:10):
It, and it seems like it's an ongoing process of
strengthening the muscles, if you will.
Speaker 3 (13:17):
Yes, yes, which I have very much in joke writing.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
So every day the first thing I do before I
get out of bed is I write a joke. And
it doesn't have to be funny, and it doesn't have to.
Speaker 3 (13:28):
Be a whole joke, but I have to.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
That's the first thing that I do as a comedian
is I make sure I have at least one formed
an idea that's going to be a joke later, or
that is already fully formed joke, or that came out
of a dream, whatever.
Speaker 3 (13:46):
It's the first thing I do every day.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
I don't have that with songwriting, and I really should,
because that's the way to grow as a songwriter. I
used to be in a group of songwriters where we
would send each other songs daily. You would actually have
to write a snippet of a song every day, and
that was really.
Speaker 3 (14:04):
Helpful. But I don't have that right now, and I think, yeah,
so in the next year.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
I don't really do with resolutions, but that's probably something
I would like to do as a songwriter, is to
again reinforce the practice of one thing a day in
the morning.
Speaker 4 (14:18):
I gather you don't sit idle.
Speaker 3 (14:21):
No, but I also love to lay around.
Speaker 4 (14:27):
But I'm thinking if you're laying around still, you're noodling.
Speaker 5 (14:31):
You're you know, you're thinking of it the next you know,
joke or maybe a song that just ran through your
head that you.
Speaker 4 (14:38):
Know made an impact on you or something.
Speaker 5 (14:40):
So I think I have a feeling you're always there's
always something going on up there.
Speaker 3 (14:45):
Margaret, Yeah, I think.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
So I'll try to fight off dementia, you know, I'm
trying to make sure that like it still works, all
those things still work. And yeah, yeah, to me, it's creating.
Is is is fun, It's it's a way to keep
your mind alive, and it's just enjoyable to me.
Speaker 3 (15:04):
So I just I really love it.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
I love to buy instruments as well, so you know,
for me, it's fun to play around with the different
ways sound is made, all different kinds of things. I've
gotten really into synthesizers lately, so that's sort of a
newer passion.
Speaker 3 (15:22):
But yeah, I love it.
Speaker 6 (15:23):
We'll be right back with more of the Taking a
Walk podcast. Welcome back to the Taking a Walk Podcast.
Speaker 5 (15:35):
I just encountered this woman named Sierra Hall. Are you
familiar with her? She's a mandolin player extraordinaire, and you know,
comes really mostly out of bluegrass, which is made up
of so much improvisation. I'm thinking, once again, as a
(15:56):
comedian who's been so masterful at improvisation, you're probably pretty
good on the fly musically improvising as well.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
So I mean, I think that it goes to you
sort of like know what's.
Speaker 3 (16:10):
Going to happen.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
Like with music, you kind of have an idea, and
then if you can follow the sort of chord progression
and bring it back a measure, bring it back a measure,
then you could probably figure it out. I don't know
if I could compete with the great jazz improvisers or
even the best of the bluegrass. Bluegrass is just phenomenal
to me. It's like calculus, like it's like, how.
Speaker 3 (16:31):
Do they even do that?
Speaker 2 (16:33):
Like it's it's a musicianship, but it's also soul, and
it's it's not phenomenal.
Speaker 3 (16:38):
But yeah, I think I can improve a little bit.
Speaker 4 (16:41):
Well.
Speaker 5 (16:42):
I mean, I bet a musician would say watching your
art on stage as a comedian that they're just wowed by,
you know, the ease, how you make it look so easy,
which yeah, it is not easy, I'm quite sure.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
Yeah, it's interesting how comedians have such a We're always
in awe of musicians, and musicians are always in awe
of comedians, and we just want to switch places, which
I get to do every once and again.
Speaker 5 (17:11):
And as I think about music and as I think
about comedy, I believe both have true healing powers. We
actually produce this music podcast called Music Save Me, which
is about sort of the healing power of music. But
can you equate in your mind how music has healing
(17:33):
powers and comedy and laughter has healing powers as well,
because I certainly think it does.
Speaker 3 (17:40):
It does well.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
Laughter is the unexpected breath that you take that you
didn't know you were going to take, that ensures the
next moment of life. So laughter is like this hit
of oxygen that we all need all the time. But
it disrupts your normal breathing pattern and it makes you
breathe deeper and harder. And if you're laughing a lot,
(18:01):
it's a really life affirming gesture. That's why you know,
people all you know always things like laughter is the
best medicine. It's true, it actually is medicine. And sound.
I think, well, like cats. I'm surrounded by cats right now.
They're all purring, and a cat's purr heals bones like this,
(18:22):
the sound frequency heals.
Speaker 3 (18:24):
The heal, helps the cat heal. He'll help you hail.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
So you know, it makes absolute sense that music will
do the same thing. It's the same frequencies using to
sort of mend your bones and your body and your mind.
And I mean, I always love having music around. It
just makes me feel better. It makes me feel great, actually,
like it's just a wonderful thing to have all different
(18:50):
kinds of music and all different ways to listen. And
so I agree it's a very healing they're both very
healing modalities different ways.
Speaker 5 (18:59):
So the cats love your music, The question is how
about Lucia, your lovely dog.
Speaker 4 (19:04):
Does Lucia love your music?
Speaker 3 (19:07):
She loves it?
Speaker 2 (19:08):
She loves singing. One of my cats really loves singing.
She always if they're singing, she'll always come in and
she wants to be a part of it. She wants
to singing to happen like right in her like around
her body, because I think she likes the vibration. Lucia
just loves to be in the studio. She loves just
to be around musicians. She loves people, and she's always
(19:31):
really like happy around any kind of musician.
Speaker 3 (19:34):
She loves it.
Speaker 4 (19:36):
Oh, that's so cool.
Speaker 5 (19:38):
So you got a tour, Well, you're always on tour
in some ways, So you have a tour that will
be rolling out through a bunch of cities. I know
you're doing Boston date and Connecticut date and all through
you know, the East Coast. Certainly, will people get a
taste on this tour of both music and stand.
Speaker 3 (19:57):
Up, Well, it's hard to mix it. It's hard.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
I'm like, I'm trying to this is a stand up
comedy show that I'm touring with. Maybe, you know, I
haven't really thought about that yet, Like I wonder, like
is it possible to tour both? Maybe I know that
there are a couple of like music shows coming up
in around the release of the record, I'm doing a
musical like a show at Largo, which I do a
(20:22):
lot of comedy at in at Los Angeles, and it's
a very famous music club, so I'd be doing that
as a music show. And then I'm doing a music
show at the Grammy Museum on April first, so those
are specifically music shows. And then you know, I wonder like,
maybe maybe it will happen, maybe there will be a crossover, just.
Speaker 4 (20:45):
A touch, right, just maybe. Yes.
Speaker 5 (20:47):
I mean, you know, easy for me to say, I'm
not the one executing.
Speaker 2 (20:50):
It, so yeah, well I think it should happen. I mean,
I think that there should be a little bit of
crossover for both.
Speaker 4 (20:57):
I love that.
Speaker 5 (20:58):
Tell me about the beginning of your comedy career. You
started out, obviously at a young age. I think sixteen
as a stand up.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
Yes, well, my earliest shows were I was fourteen, but
I started like to be like professional, like at sixteen
seventeen eighteen. I was making a living by the age
of eighteen, so, which is pretty good. You know, it's
still in the nineteen eighties, and you know, like I
was doing okay, which is like amazing, and I was
(21:32):
like doing doing television and stuff.
Speaker 3 (21:34):
You know.
Speaker 2 (21:35):
I was on shows like Evening at the Improv and
MTV's half hour Comedy Hour and all sorts of I
was on a show with Bob Hope, had the Bob
Hope's Comedy Special that he would do every year as
the young Comedian.
Speaker 3 (21:50):
Special that he would host. And so I was doing
comedy very young, and I just knew that was my life.
Speaker 2 (21:59):
Like I just knew that's what I wanted to do,
and it just was my biggest passion since I was
about eight years old. So I knew that I would
do it, and I'm grateful that I still get to
do it.
Speaker 3 (22:15):
I just turned fifty six, and.
Speaker 2 (22:16):
I really love it.
Speaker 3 (22:18):
You know. It's a life that.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
I I'm so grateful to have lived. And I still
have a lot to do, you know. I still I
do a show every day pretty much of some kind.
I'll do one later today, and you know, for me,
it's just it's a lifelong passion.
Speaker 5 (22:37):
And as as it has taken its shape over the years,
how have you made living on the road, as you know,
easy as possible.
Speaker 2 (22:49):
Well, I have like a set way that I do,
like my the way that I pack. I have a
life in my suitcase that never actually comes out of
my suitcase, Like my road clothes never touched my home clothes.
Speaker 3 (23:04):
I've like my whole life. It's very specific. But I.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
Travel less nowadays. Oddly, I've been traveling less since the
pandemic because I've just found I want to stay home
more and also I'm pursuing more acting and that is
a little bit of different vibe as well, so which
requires travel, but it's a little different. So but yeah,
(23:31):
I've been on the road for so long that it's
weird to take time off. The pandemic was the first
time that I actually stopped traveling for about thirty five years,
and it was just such a revelation.
Speaker 3 (23:43):
To finally just be home. I really love being at home.
Speaker 5 (23:47):
In talking to so many musicians over the last year,
and in particular about their you know, going out on
the road and how the pandemic obviously changed everything and
really you know stifled all that. It feels like for
so many of them it was like cutting off their
their right arm, not being you know, able to connect
(24:08):
with their fans and play in front of people.
Speaker 4 (24:12):
I'm sure you could identify with that vibe.
Speaker 3 (24:16):
Yeah, I was like who who are we without that?
Speaker 2 (24:21):
Who are we without traveling and touring and playing out like,
you know, living out of a suitcase every night, you know,
Like I was, I had like a crisis, like try,
like a real crisis of conscience, like who are we
even without this part of ourselves? And then I realized
that I'm actually a homebody, that I actually really love
(24:43):
being at home, and I'd never even known that, which
is so weird because I'd never been home for more
than a few days for thirty five years. And so
now when I approach touring, it's very different. I mean,
I still tour a lot, but it's a very different
kind of way of going about it. Like I don't
go out for months at a time. It's just like
(25:04):
much more controlled, which I feel more comfortable doing.
Speaker 5 (25:08):
You've been talked earlier about your advocacy. That was influenced
certainly by your friend Robin Williams, but in general, advocacy
has been important to you. Can you talk in some
other detail about some important.
Speaker 2 (25:25):
Causes well, Working in different things, I worked a lot
on the Kamala Harris campaign, and I really wanted her
to be president, and I really thought she was going
to be president.
Speaker 3 (25:37):
Now that is of course different. There's a lot to
do still.
Speaker 2 (25:44):
You know, there's a lot to work around, especially protecting
rights for gay people, for trans people.
Speaker 3 (25:52):
Trans people in.
Speaker 2 (25:52):
Particular, that's a huge issue for me, Like I want
to be able to protect the trans community, that gender
non conforming, gender fluid, non binary people, Like, it's such
a crisis now that we're dealing with. So it's very
I mean, you know, it's a very treacherous time kind
(26:16):
of trying to figure out how do we combat these
ideas of Project twenty twenty five, where you know, we're
trying to protect women's rights, trying to protect trans rights.
I'm very adamant about doing that. So that's where I
think a lot of advocacy is going to be placed
in the near future, at least in the next four years.
Speaker 5 (26:36):
You feel over the last few years that there's a
certain amount of the population that completely lost their sense
of humor.
Speaker 3 (26:44):
Yeah, people get so.
Speaker 2 (26:47):
Defensive about these ideas of what they want to protect
and these ideas of protecting gender or protecting like the
sanctity of gender, which I think is such a ridiculous thing,
and to me that's very humorous. It's like a really
ridiculous thing I'm trying to protect or trying to protect
these ideas of like families or children, trying to protect children,
(27:10):
which is like, I get that that's kind of a
noble notion, but what's harming children is not drag queens.
You know, drag queens are there's nothing that they have
nothing to do with children. Really, it's not even a thing.
You know, maybe there's like drag queens story rr, but
that's just very innocent, beautiful and fun. It's like clowns.
It's like, when you really look at them as clowns,
(27:33):
it doesn't have that sort of negating effect. But somehow
drag there's a there's a weird, sinister element that people
want to put on it that doesn't make sense to me.
But yeah, it's very humorless.
Speaker 4 (27:48):
So when you.
Speaker 5 (27:49):
Think of comedians coming up the ranks and you think
of musicians coming up the ranks, is it the same
set of advice that you would give too if they
were looking to be steered and mentored the right way?
Speaker 3 (28:06):
Yeah? I think so.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
I mean, I think it's like the same. It's just
to like really understand that your voice is the most
precious thing and that you should put your opinion of your.
Speaker 3 (28:15):
Art above others, above all else.
Speaker 2 (28:19):
Really, and you haven't figured out what you're doing, You
figure it out, you know, but it's it's pretty much
the same because I think what happens is when art
meets commerce. Commerce is always going to try to change
you to make you fit into what they're buying.
Speaker 3 (28:35):
But in truth, you know you're you're in charge. So
I would always give.
Speaker 2 (28:40):
Like younger artists, that advice is like your voices, that
the should be, the loudest should be, that the strongest
should be the most important.
Speaker 5 (28:49):
Is there a particular moment in your career that stands
that one moment that stands out that you feel was
pivotal towards where you are now?
Speaker 3 (29:00):
I think.
Speaker 2 (29:03):
I think it was when I was a really young
kid and I was doing comedy and I had a
theater teacher who would always impress upon me like, you
can do anything, You're good at everything, so do everything.
And that really stuck with me. So it gave me
this permission to pursue all different facets of entertainment and
(29:27):
to really feel like it was okay for me to
do that because she kind of gave me that mode
of confidence.
Speaker 5 (29:33):
So what else do you want to pursue creatively that
you haven't pursued. You've got so many things on your plate,
but there must be other things that you have a
creativitch for.
Speaker 2 (29:43):
Well, I mean, I still want to be a better musician,
Like I want to be a better songwriter. I want
to be a better singer, Like I want to actually
like work on what I have. Like what I have
is good, Like I'm doing good, but I know that
if I actually did the vocal warm ups, which I've
been I told to do by so many teachers, if
I actually did all of the scales, if I did
(30:04):
my scales, I'd be so good. Like I want to
do the basics, Like I really need to go back
to the basics because I been in like comedy for
so long and I kind of take so much for
granted as a comedian that I feel like I never
have to go back to like basics there, But with music,
I really want to. So yeah, I do want to
get better at the musicianship. I need to drink more
(30:25):
water like singers. It's it's so weird because like you're
the instrument, so it's it's hard for me to actually
think about treating my body with more respect in that
regard like I'm actually the instrument. I actually need to
be put in a case like I need to actually be,
you know, like dusted off and restrung.
Speaker 3 (30:47):
So I think I need to do.
Speaker 5 (30:50):
That restrung, zipped up, but put in as long as
you can breathe.
Speaker 2 (30:55):
Yes, absolutely, like I just need to put a new
bridge in every now and again.
Speaker 3 (31:00):
And I really do.
Speaker 2 (31:02):
Need to work with like the idea that I'm the instrument,
which I never regarded, so I have to do that more.
Speaker 5 (31:10):
Margaret Show, It's so great to talk to you on
Taking a Walk. Thank you for this, congratulations on the music.
I'm so excited for you, and thanks for all you
give us, for your advocacy and from putting a smile
on our face and making us think and making us
danceing around with the music.
Speaker 4 (31:27):
This is awesome.
Speaker 3 (31:28):
Thank you.
Speaker 6 (31:30):
Thanks for listening to this episode of the Taking a
Walk podcast. Share this and other episodes with your friends
and follow us so you never miss an episode. Taking
a Walk is available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
and wherever you get your podcasts.
Comedy Saved Me.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Well, laughter is the unexpected breath that you take that
you didn't know you were going to take, that ensures
the next moment of life. So laughter is like this
hit of oxygen that we all need all the time.
But it disrupts your normal breathing pattern and it makes
you breathe deeper and harder. And if you're laughing a lot,
(00:24):
it's a really life affirming gesture. That's why you know,
people all you know always.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
Says like laughter is the best medicine. It's true, it
actually is medicine.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Hey there, amln Hoffman, and welcome to Comedy Saved Me,
the podcast where we shine a bright light on the
incredible power of laughter. Now, from time to time we
like to turn you on to other great podcasts that'll
keep you smiling. And today I got a good one
for you. It's from our companion podcast, Taking a Walk,
hosted by the one and only Buzz Night. And in
(00:54):
this episode, Buzz chats with the hilarious musician comedian total
like con Margaret Choe. Her stories are wonderful, they'll make
you laugh, they'll lift your spirits. Buzz is such a
great host. You're going to enjoy every second of it.
So go check it out right now, grab it on Spotify,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Keep smiling
(01:15):
and we'll see you next time. Right here on Comedy
Saved Me.
Speaker 4 (01:20):
Taking a Walk, Margaret Chow, welcome to take it a walk.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
Thank you.
Speaker 5 (01:25):
So, since the podcast is called take out a Walk,
I wanted to ask you to start.
Speaker 4 (01:29):
If you could take a walk.
Speaker 5 (01:31):
With the with someone living or dead, who would it
be and where would you take a walk with them?
Speaker 2 (01:38):
I would like to take a walk with Nancy Kwan.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
She's living st She's quite old.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
I believe she's probably close to ninety, if not ninety.
I love her. I'd love to take a walk around
my neighborhood if she would like to, or her neighborhood,
if she would like to just hang out.
Speaker 4 (01:58):
Just casual conversation, right, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
I think she's got a lot to say. She's got
great legs. She is a true pioneer in Asian American
cinema and art and entertainment, and she's everything. She's a singer, dancer, actress, model.
Speaker 4 (02:19):
Icon, multifaceted just like you.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Yes, so I'd love to take a walk with her.
Speaker 4 (02:26):
That's awesome. Congrats on your new music, Lucky Gift.
Speaker 5 (02:30):
It's been a long time since we heard from you
with music about is it eight years?
Speaker 4 (02:36):
Almost?
Speaker 2 (02:37):
Yes? Yes, So I'm really glad to put it out.
Speaker 5 (02:40):
Tell me how this came together and who some of
the collaborators are with you on this project.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
Well, this album I've been working on actually for the
last ten years, eleven years. Some of the songs were
written with Roger Rosha from Four Non Blondes. He is
a wonderful songwriter in a musical genius, and he and
I wrote about half of the songs of the record
(03:08):
when I was working with him on my B Robin project.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
Which was outreach for.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
Those experiencing homelessness in San Francisco in twenty fourteen. So
a lot of the songs were written out on the
street with a band. We were stealing electricity and playing
in these encampments and also giving out food and much
needed supplies. And it was sort of a tribute to
Robin Williams. He was a big advocate for the homeless
(03:36):
with comic relief, which I got to do for many years,
and so it was a nice way to honor his passing,
but also a creative journey for me and Roger to
write a number of these songs, including funny Man, which
is all about Robin Williams. And so it was singing
out on the street, blowing out my voice, stealing electricity.
(03:57):
But we also had a violin players, and we had horns,
we had saxophone players. We had like a huge bands
because everybody wanted to play with these people, and so
it was a great way to write. But so half
of the songs come from that. The other half come
from me just writing over time and fitting writing songs
(04:19):
in when I was doing other things, like you know,
making movies and TV shows and doing stand up comedy.
So and then I collaborated with Garrison Starr, who's somebody
i I've been working with on all of my records.
She's an amazing singer, songwriter and an incredible producer, and
so she produced the other half of the tracks on
the record.
Speaker 5 (04:41):
So tell me how your creative process differs, if at all,
between your your stand up creation and your music creation.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
I think it's well, it's usually when I'm approaching dant
up comedy, like I'll try to think of, oh, I
have to write a joke about that, and I'll like
work on something and then I'll present it later that
day at a stand up comedy show. So it's very immediate.
With music, I think, oh, I should write a song
(05:12):
about that, or or I will be fiddling around on
an instrument and I'll say, oh, that actually works and
maybe I can create this into something, and it'll usually
come that way, and then I don't present it for
a long time, like nobody really hears it or sees
it until I'm ready to record it or so it's
almost something that like, uh, is isolated for a while.
(05:35):
I mean, in general, my writing process is like that
with Roger. With the b Robin Project, it was a
little bit different because we were like writing songs and
then like taking them out on the street, so it
was fast.
Speaker 3 (05:45):
But this one was like some of the other songs.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
It was a little bit of a slower process where
people didn't see them for a little while. So but yeah,
it's very different because it I think stand up comedy
is so much of a dialogue with your audience because
they have to laugh to fill in the other part
of the joke or to complete the joke. Where songs
say can exist on their own.
Speaker 4 (06:10):
Is it fair to say both sides of the equation.
Speaker 5 (06:12):
Stand up comedy and creating music are not only a
way to you know, express love for things and the
beauty around, but also a way to kind of get
some of the pain out as well.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
Yes, absolutely, and to say things that are unsayable or
to be a solution to a problem, you know, or
to communicate things that you really can't communicate any other way.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
Also to give people a vessel.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
And the way that they can communicate something that they
can like bield a relationship with, because oftentimes music the
way that what it's written for isn't what it's listened for.
Speaker 5 (06:59):
You know.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
People have all sorts of attachments to songs that are
outside of the hands of the songwriter, which I love too,
because then people can interpret and put on the meaning
that they want to put on the song.
Speaker 5 (07:12):
You play this instrument that I've never heard of before.
It's the mandolin sort of double neck guitar, otherwise known
as the mandaitar.
Speaker 4 (07:22):
Did you create the mandatar?
Speaker 2 (07:25):
No, The mandatar comes from Bruin, which is a legendary
guitar start in Nashville.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
And it was.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
A luthier who passed away and his widow sold all
the guitars.
Speaker 3 (07:40):
That he made to the store.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
So this is one of the ones, and I've never
seen anything like it. It's one neck is a mandolin
and one neck as a guitar. And the way that
I wrote Lucky Giff, which is the title track of
the record, is I used both at the same time,
as opposed to playing them separately. I played them together
like one long strum and.
Speaker 3 (08:01):
It actually worked.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
The way that it was tuned worked and it worked
in the body of the song and it was pretty incredible.
Speaker 3 (08:07):
So I was so excited.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
So most of the songs, the kind of acoustic side,
the more sort of country ish flavored songs are those
songs that I wrote with Garrison are from the mando.
Speaker 4 (08:20):
Tar And how long did it take you to learn
the man guitar?
Speaker 2 (08:24):
Well, I already played guitar, So anything anything that has
fight a guitar feel, I can work my way around.
I am a multi instrumentalist, but I'm not good. So
I'm like, I can't play everything, but not well. But
I can play everything enough where I can write and
show somebody else who can play well, and then I
(08:46):
can sing.
Speaker 3 (08:47):
I will get to the.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
Point one day where I can play and sing at
the same time. Well, I can't do either well if
I'm doing it at the same time. So I like
to just focus on the singing. But I'm my writing
is is working it out on these idiosyncratic instruments. I
love idiosyncratic, odd instruments, things that.
Speaker 3 (09:08):
Are just made by luthiers or whoever.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
So I have a number of like kind of weird,
misfit toys of instruments that I like to write The Land.
Speaker 4 (09:19):
Of Missmit Toys. I love it.
Speaker 5 (09:21):
Yes, who are some of the players that you particularly admire?
And then who are some of the particular songwriters that
you most admire?
Speaker 3 (09:31):
Well, I think.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
Of the old time would be Bobby Gentry. You know
that she was just such a force, What an amazing songwriter,
what an amazing singer, and also what a great beauty.
You know, She's somebody who I would love to take
a walk with as well. Still alive out there, but
just decided to walk away from entertainment and is sort of,
(10:01):
you know, out there, where is Bobby Gentry? We're not sure?
Another great songwriter asked that question in her song Jill.
Speaker 3 (10:09):
Sobule, one of.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
My favorites, also asked, where is Bobby Gentry?
Speaker 3 (10:12):
We all want to know.
Speaker 5 (10:14):
She was.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
Truly one of one, one of my absolute favorites, and
of course Dolly Parton in the same vein you know,
what a beauty, what a singer, what a songwriter, what
an icon? You know, so many modern people, I would
say Chapel Roan.
Speaker 3 (10:34):
I absolutely adore her.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
I love the way that her songs have such drama,
that there are you start one place and then you
end someplace totally different, And I'm really in awe of
that where somebody can take chords and song structure and
bring it to life and in a way that is
(10:58):
so bombastic and exciting and new but old.
Speaker 3 (11:02):
I love I love her, And there's.
Speaker 5 (11:04):
A theme there as far as your taste. You like
those that just like you are, you know, don't apologize
for anything you've done and you're saying and creating. You
just have that force behind everything that you do. Who
instilled that in you, that unapologetic attitude, I.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
Don't know, I mean maybe it was something that I'm
just you sort of fake it till you make it
like you just don't.
Speaker 3 (11:31):
You don't even know if it's.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
Right, You just do it like you I think you
just put it out there, and that's kind of the
way stand up comedy is.
Speaker 3 (11:39):
You kind of have to put it out there.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
To even know if it's going to work, and you
have to be confident in your idea in order to
make an audience believe it. So you sort of have
to be a salesman for yourself as well. And I
think I learned that through comedy, but you know, it
wasn't ever something that I was entirely confident about.
Speaker 3 (12:02):
You just have to fake it till you make it.
Speaker 4 (12:04):
That's it a little trial and error too.
Speaker 3 (12:08):
Yeah, always, always yes.
Speaker 5 (12:10):
And as a musician, what do you feel like you've
most learned over the last year of your work.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
I think that it's songs are really magic, like they
come out of thin air and that you don't really know,
like and you'll be presented with all sorts of entry points,
you know, sometimes in the part of a dream, I'll
dream something and then I'll it'll it'll come into being
(12:40):
in like part of a song, you know, and then
you uh will figure things out, like it's just there.
It's so interesting and how it's like a magical stream,
and then you kind of dip in and it's right there,
but if you don't dip in, it's it's gonna go
by you. So I think of what I've learned is
you've got it when you get like the sort of
(13:02):
a thread of something, you've got to go and get
the whole cloth. Is you can build the whole cloth
from that. But it's about going to get.
Speaker 5 (13:10):
It, and it seems like it's an ongoing process of
strengthening the muscles, if you will.
Speaker 3 (13:17):
Yes, yes, which I have very much in joke writing.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
So every day the first thing I do before I
get out of bed is I write a joke. And
it doesn't have to be funny, and it doesn't have to.
Speaker 3 (13:28):
Be a whole joke, but I have to.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
That's the first thing that I do as a comedian
is I make sure I have at least one formed
an idea that's going to be a joke later, or
that is already fully formed joke, or that came out
of a dream, whatever.
Speaker 3 (13:46):
It's the first thing I do every day.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
I don't have that with songwriting, and I really should,
because that's the way to grow as a songwriter. I
used to be in a group of songwriters where we
would send each other songs daily. You would actually have
to write a snippet of a song every day, and
that was really.
Speaker 3 (14:04):
Helpful. But I don't have that right now, and I think, yeah,
so in the next year.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
I don't really do with resolutions, but that's probably something
I would like to do as a songwriter, is to
again reinforce the practice of one thing a day in
the morning.
Speaker 4 (14:18):
I gather you don't sit idle.
Speaker 3 (14:21):
No, but I also love to lay around.
Speaker 4 (14:27):
But I'm thinking if you're laying around still, you're noodling.
Speaker 5 (14:31):
You're you know, you're thinking of it the next you know,
joke or maybe a song that just ran through your
head that you.
Speaker 4 (14:38):
Know made an impact on you or something.
Speaker 5 (14:40):
So I think I have a feeling you're always there's
always something going on up there.
Speaker 3 (14:45):
Margaret, Yeah, I think.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
So I'll try to fight off dementia, you know, I'm
trying to make sure that like it still works, all
those things still work. And yeah, yeah, to me, it's creating.
Is is is fun, It's it's a way to keep
your mind alive, and it's just enjoyable to me.
Speaker 3 (15:04):
So I just I really love it.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
I love to buy instruments as well, so you know,
for me, it's fun to play around with the different
ways sound is made, all different kinds of things. I've
gotten really into synthesizers lately, so that's sort of a
newer passion.
Speaker 3 (15:22):
But yeah, I love it.
Speaker 6 (15:23):
We'll be right back with more of the Taking a
Walk podcast. Welcome back to the Taking a Walk Podcast.
Speaker 5 (15:35):
I just encountered this woman named Sierra Hall. Are you
familiar with her? She's a mandolin player extraordinaire, and you know,
comes really mostly out of bluegrass, which is made up
of so much improvisation. I'm thinking, once again, as a
(15:56):
comedian who's been so masterful at improvisation, you're probably pretty
good on the fly musically improvising as well.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
So I mean, I think that it goes to you
sort of like know what's.
Speaker 3 (16:10):
Going to happen.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
Like with music, you kind of have an idea, and
then if you can follow the sort of chord progression
and bring it back a measure, bring it back a measure,
then you could probably figure it out. I don't know
if I could compete with the great jazz improvisers or
even the best of the bluegrass. Bluegrass is just phenomenal
to me. It's like calculus, like it's like, how.
Speaker 3 (16:31):
Do they even do that?
Speaker 2 (16:33):
Like it's it's a musicianship, but it's also soul, and
it's it's not phenomenal.
Speaker 3 (16:38):
But yeah, I think I can improve a little bit.
Speaker 4 (16:41):
Well.
Speaker 5 (16:42):
I mean, I bet a musician would say watching your
art on stage as a comedian that they're just wowed by,
you know, the ease, how you make it look so easy,
which yeah, it is not easy, I'm quite sure.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
Yeah, it's interesting how comedians have such a We're always
in awe of musicians, and musicians are always in awe
of comedians, and we just want to switch places, which
I get to do every once and again.
Speaker 5 (17:11):
And as I think about music and as I think
about comedy, I believe both have true healing powers. We
actually produce this music podcast called Music Save Me, which
is about sort of the healing power of music. But
can you equate in your mind how music has healing
(17:33):
powers and comedy and laughter has healing powers as well,
because I certainly think it does.
Speaker 3 (17:40):
It does well.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
Laughter is the unexpected breath that you take that you
didn't know you were going to take, that ensures the
next moment of life. So laughter is like this hit
of oxygen that we all need all the time. But
it disrupts your normal breathing pattern and it makes you
breathe deeper and harder. And if you're laughing a lot,
(18:01):
it's a really life affirming gesture. That's why you know,
people all you know always things like laughter is the
best medicine. It's true, it actually is medicine. And sound.
I think, well, like cats. I'm surrounded by cats right now.
They're all purring, and a cat's purr heals bones like this,
(18:22):
the sound frequency heals.
Speaker 3 (18:24):
The heal, helps the cat heal. He'll help you hail.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
So you know, it makes absolute sense that music will
do the same thing. It's the same frequencies using to
sort of mend your bones and your body and your mind.
And I mean, I always love having music around. It
just makes me feel better. It makes me feel great, actually,
like it's just a wonderful thing to have all different
(18:50):
kinds of music and all different ways to listen. And
so I agree it's a very healing they're both very
healing modalities different ways.
Speaker 5 (18:59):
So the cats love your music, The question is how
about Lucia, your lovely dog.
Speaker 4 (19:04):
Does Lucia love your music?
Speaker 3 (19:07):
She loves it?
Speaker 2 (19:08):
She loves singing. One of my cats really loves singing.
She always if they're singing, she'll always come in and
she wants to be a part of it. She wants
to singing to happen like right in her like around
her body, because I think she likes the vibration. Lucia
just loves to be in the studio. She loves just
to be around musicians. She loves people, and she's always
(19:31):
really like happy around any kind of musician.
Speaker 3 (19:34):
She loves it.
Speaker 4 (19:36):
Oh, that's so cool.
Speaker 5 (19:38):
So you got a tour, Well, you're always on tour
in some ways, So you have a tour that will
be rolling out through a bunch of cities. I know
you're doing Boston date and Connecticut date and all through
you know, the East Coast. Certainly, will people get a
taste on this tour of both music and stand.
Speaker 3 (19:57):
Up, Well, it's hard to mix it. It's hard.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
I'm like, I'm trying to this is a stand up
comedy show that I'm touring with. Maybe, you know, I
haven't really thought about that yet, Like I wonder, like
is it possible to tour both? Maybe I know that
there are a couple of like music shows coming up
in around the release of the record, I'm doing a
musical like a show at Largo, which I do a
(20:22):
lot of comedy at in at Los Angeles, and it's
a very famous music club, so I'd be doing that
as a music show. And then I'm doing a music
show at the Grammy Museum on April first, so those
are specifically music shows. And then you know, I wonder like,
maybe maybe it will happen, maybe there will be a crossover, just.
Speaker 4 (20:45):
A touch, right, just maybe. Yes.
Speaker 5 (20:47):
I mean, you know, easy for me to say, I'm
not the one executing.
Speaker 2 (20:50):
It, so yeah, well I think it should happen. I mean,
I think that there should be a little bit of
crossover for both.
Speaker 4 (20:57):
I love that.
Speaker 5 (20:58):
Tell me about the beginning of your comedy career. You
started out, obviously at a young age. I think sixteen
as a stand up.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
Yes, well, my earliest shows were I was fourteen, but
I started like to be like professional, like at sixteen
seventeen eighteen. I was making a living by the age
of eighteen, so, which is pretty good. You know, it's
still in the nineteen eighties, and you know, like I
was doing okay, which is like amazing, and I was
(21:32):
like doing doing television and stuff.
Speaker 3 (21:34):
You know.
Speaker 2 (21:35):
I was on shows like Evening at the Improv and
MTV's half hour Comedy Hour and all sorts of I
was on a show with Bob Hope, had the Bob
Hope's Comedy Special that he would do every year as
the young Comedian.
Speaker 3 (21:50):
Special that he would host. And so I was doing
comedy very young, and I just knew that was my life.
Speaker 2 (21:59):
Like I just knew that's what I wanted to do,
and it just was my biggest passion since I was
about eight years old. So I knew that I would
do it, and I'm grateful that I still get to
do it.
Speaker 3 (22:15):
I just turned fifty six, and.
Speaker 2 (22:16):
I really love it.
Speaker 3 (22:18):
You know. It's a life that.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
I I'm so grateful to have lived. And I still
have a lot to do, you know. I still I
do a show every day pretty much of some kind.
I'll do one later today, and you know, for me,
it's just it's a lifelong passion.
Speaker 5 (22:37):
And as as it has taken its shape over the years,
how have you made living on the road, as you know,
easy as possible.
Speaker 2 (22:49):
Well, I have like a set way that I do,
like my the way that I pack. I have a
life in my suitcase that never actually comes out of
my suitcase, Like my road clothes never touched my home clothes.
Speaker 3 (23:04):
I've like my whole life. It's very specific. But I.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
Travel less nowadays. Oddly, I've been traveling less since the
pandemic because I've just found I want to stay home
more and also I'm pursuing more acting and that is
a little bit of different vibe as well, so which
requires travel, but it's a little different. So but yeah,
(23:31):
I've been on the road for so long that it's
weird to take time off. The pandemic was the first
time that I actually stopped traveling for about thirty five years,
and it was just such a revelation.
Speaker 3 (23:43):
To finally just be home. I really love being at home.
Speaker 5 (23:47):
In talking to so many musicians over the last year,
and in particular about their you know, going out on
the road and how the pandemic obviously changed everything and
really you know stifled all that. It feels like for
so many of them it was like cutting off their
their right arm, not being you know, able to connect
(24:08):
with their fans and play in front of people.
Speaker 4 (24:12):
I'm sure you could identify with that vibe.
Speaker 3 (24:16):
Yeah, I was like who who are we without that?
Speaker 2 (24:21):
Who are we without traveling and touring and playing out like,
you know, living out of a suitcase every night, you know,
Like I was, I had like a crisis, like try,
like a real crisis of conscience, like who are we
even without this part of ourselves? And then I realized
that I'm actually a homebody, that I actually really love
(24:43):
being at home, and I'd never even known that, which
is so weird because I'd never been home for more
than a few days for thirty five years. And so
now when I approach touring, it's very different. I mean,
I still tour a lot, but it's a very different
kind of way of going about it. Like I don't
go out for months at a time. It's just like
(25:04):
much more controlled, which I feel more comfortable doing.
Speaker 5 (25:08):
You've been talked earlier about your advocacy. That was influenced
certainly by your friend Robin Williams, but in general, advocacy
has been important to you. Can you talk in some
other detail about some important.
Speaker 2 (25:25):
Causes well, Working in different things, I worked a lot
on the Kamala Harris campaign, and I really wanted her
to be president, and I really thought she was going
to be president.
Speaker 3 (25:37):
Now that is of course different. There's a lot to
do still.
Speaker 2 (25:44):
You know, there's a lot to work around, especially protecting
rights for gay people, for trans people.
Speaker 3 (25:52):
Trans people in.
Speaker 2 (25:52):
Particular, that's a huge issue for me, Like I want
to be able to protect the trans community, that gender
non conforming, gender fluid, non binary people, Like, it's such
a crisis now that we're dealing with. So it's very
I mean, you know, it's a very treacherous time kind
(26:16):
of trying to figure out how do we combat these
ideas of Project twenty twenty five, where you know, we're
trying to protect women's rights, trying to protect trans rights.
I'm very adamant about doing that. So that's where I
think a lot of advocacy is going to be placed
in the near future, at least in the next four years.
Speaker 5 (26:36):
You feel over the last few years that there's a
certain amount of the population that completely lost their sense
of humor.
Speaker 3 (26:44):
Yeah, people get so.
Speaker 2 (26:47):
Defensive about these ideas of what they want to protect
and these ideas of protecting gender or protecting like the
sanctity of gender, which I think is such a ridiculous thing,
and to me that's very humorous. It's like a really
ridiculous thing I'm trying to protect or trying to protect
these ideas of like families or children, trying to protect children,
(27:10):
which is like, I get that that's kind of a
noble notion, but what's harming children is not drag queens.
You know, drag queens are there's nothing that they have
nothing to do with children. Really, it's not even a thing.
You know, maybe there's like drag queens story rr, but
that's just very innocent, beautiful and fun. It's like clowns.
It's like, when you really look at them as clowns,
(27:33):
it doesn't have that sort of negating effect. But somehow
drag there's a there's a weird, sinister element that people
want to put on it that doesn't make sense to me.
But yeah, it's very humorless.
Speaker 4 (27:48):
So when you.
Speaker 5 (27:49):
Think of comedians coming up the ranks and you think
of musicians coming up the ranks, is it the same
set of advice that you would give too if they
were looking to be steered and mentored the right way?
Speaker 3 (28:06):
Yeah? I think so.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
I mean, I think it's like the same. It's just
to like really understand that your voice is the most
precious thing and that you should put your opinion of your.
Speaker 3 (28:15):
Art above others, above all else.
Speaker 2 (28:19):
Really, and you haven't figured out what you're doing, You
figure it out, you know, but it's it's pretty much
the same because I think what happens is when art
meets commerce. Commerce is always going to try to change
you to make you fit into what they're buying.
Speaker 3 (28:35):
But in truth, you know you're you're in charge. So
I would always give.
Speaker 2 (28:40):
Like younger artists, that advice is like your voices, that
the should be, the loudest should be, that the strongest
should be the most important.
Speaker 5 (28:49):
Is there a particular moment in your career that stands
that one moment that stands out that you feel was
pivotal towards where you are now?
Speaker 3 (29:00):
I think.
Speaker 2 (29:03):
I think it was when I was a really young
kid and I was doing comedy and I had a
theater teacher who would always impress upon me like, you
can do anything, You're good at everything, so do everything.
And that really stuck with me. So it gave me
this permission to pursue all different facets of entertainment and
(29:27):
to really feel like it was okay for me to
do that because she kind of gave me that mode
of confidence.
Speaker 5 (29:33):
So what else do you want to pursue creatively that
you haven't pursued. You've got so many things on your plate,
but there must be other things that you have a
creativitch for.
Speaker 2 (29:43):
Well, I mean, I still want to be a better musician,
Like I want to be a better songwriter. I want
to be a better singer, Like I want to actually
like work on what I have. Like what I have
is good, Like I'm doing good, but I know that
if I actually did the vocal warm ups, which I've
been I told to do by so many teachers, if
I actually did all of the scales, if I did
(30:04):
my scales, I'd be so good. Like I want to
do the basics, Like I really need to go back
to the basics because I been in like comedy for
so long and I kind of take so much for
granted as a comedian that I feel like I never
have to go back to like basics there, But with music,
I really want to. So yeah, I do want to
get better at the musicianship. I need to drink more
(30:25):
water like singers. It's it's so weird because like you're
the instrument, so it's it's hard for me to actually
think about treating my body with more respect in that
regard like I'm actually the instrument. I actually need to
be put in a case like I need to actually be,
you know, like dusted off and restrung.
Speaker 3 (30:47):
So I think I need to do.
Speaker 5 (30:50):
That restrung, zipped up, but put in as long as
you can breathe.
Speaker 2 (30:55):
Yes, absolutely, like I just need to put a new
bridge in every now and again.
Speaker 3 (31:00):
And I really do.
Speaker 2 (31:02):
Need to work with like the idea that I'm the instrument,
which I never regarded, so I have to do that more.
Speaker 5 (31:10):
Margaret Show, It's so great to talk to you on
Taking a Walk. Thank you for this, congratulations on the music.
I'm so excited for you, and thanks for all you
give us, for your advocacy and from putting a smile
on our face and making us think and making us
danceing around with the music.
Speaker 4 (31:27):
This is awesome.
Speaker 3 (31:28):
Thank you.
Speaker 6 (31:30):
Thanks for listening to this episode of the Taking a
Walk podcast. Share this and other episodes with your friends
and follow us so you never miss an episode. Taking
a Walk is available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
and wherever you get your podcasts.
Host
Lynn Hoffman
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