Speaker 1: Flame Flame.
Speaker 2: If you watch your coffee time the baby you know
Speaker 2: the name Flame my bro also known as my Roe Flame.
Speaker 3: Come in with last and come in with Jim Love Loundes.
Speaker 1: Baby, you better catch it when you can drop a
Speaker 1: knowledge from fatherhood to politics.
Speaker 3: Shouting now comics, just paying homage. What's up? Tips?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 3: You know? She raised shot towns on speaking to the
Speaker 3: grown a second, we're gonna laugh, cut him and kicking
Speaker 3: and at again. We leave it with just a lift.
Speaker 3: You spirits speak you want to revisit so.
Speaker 2: Your first second listen, young folks are your slip oh
Speaker 2: folks that we dig it?
Speaker 4: Hey, no fish, do what you do?
Speaker 3: No do what you do?
Speaker 5: Can no do what I do?
Speaker 4: And no, Hey, this is comedian playing my role and
Speaker 4: welcome to this week's episode of laugh and Learning.
Speaker 1: Ladies and gentlemen, This is a very special week. I
Speaker 1: am in New York City with the Goat himself, the
Speaker 1: one and only mister Dave Chapelle. It's his birthday week
Speaker 1: and it is his first time headlining at Madison Square Garden.
Speaker 5: So I am here.
Speaker 1: I've been at all the shows. I'm thinking I'm going
Speaker 1: to get on on Saturday, but bigger than that. Right now,
Speaker 1: I am sitting here waiting to have a conversation with
Speaker 1: one of the most pertinent and important comedians of our
Speaker 1: lifetime because I watched this woman even when I was studying.
Speaker 1: I'm always going to be a student of comedy until
Speaker 1: I'm gone from here. That's what I will always be
Speaker 1: as a student. And I am with the one and
Speaker 1: only the Asian wan Tan, the beauty, the diva, the
Speaker 1: one and only Missus Margaret.
Speaker 5: To ladies, je y'all makes a nice of Margaret.
Speaker 3: Joe, Hi, thank you, Hello, gorgeous hell.
Speaker 1: I have been such a fan of yours for such
Speaker 1: a long time. I am so grateful that you came
Speaker 1: to do this with me.
Speaker 3: Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Speaker 5: Well.
Speaker 3: This is wonderful. I'm very excited.
Speaker 1: So I know you grew up in San Francisco, Margaret,
Speaker 1: and you're Sagittarius, because my my friend is not a partner,
Speaker 1: but my friend is a Sagittarius. Her birthday is the fifteenth.
Speaker 1: You are the fifth, tifty, had is the third. I
Speaker 1: know a lot of Sagittarius. How what's comedy your your
Speaker 1: dream when.
Speaker 4: You was a kid.
Speaker 5: Is that what you wanted to do?
Speaker 3: Yes?
Speaker 2: Absolutely, I never wanted to do anything else. They still don't,
Speaker 2: I think. But I love acting, and I love doing
Speaker 2: all that kind of other stuff like whatever that is,
Speaker 2: and music too, but I will always do stand up comedy.
Speaker 3: It's a thing that really I don't know.
Speaker 2: I think most comedians, as you know, we just do
Speaker 2: this and we know that we do this, and we're
Speaker 2: just born kind of knowing.
Speaker 1: Let me ask you a question from a comedian's perspective, Margarete,
Speaker 1: because when they are days when my children get on
Speaker 1: my nerve and I'm having a rough day, but I
Speaker 1: still have a show to do, and you try to
Speaker 1: remove all of the negatives so you can take it
Speaker 1: to the stage.
Speaker 5: But have you.
Speaker 1: Found out that with all the drama, once you hit
Speaker 1: the stage, it all disappears anyway, because you like, I
Speaker 1: got a microphone, I got an audience, let's go.
Speaker 3: Yes, exactly.
Speaker 2: And sickness and any kind of because you have that
Speaker 2: adrenaline that pushes you through because you're just like doing
Speaker 2: the thing that you're supposed to do. You know, we
Speaker 2: just know we're supposed to do it. So anytime I've
Speaker 2: gone to do a show and been sick, I just
Speaker 2: it lifts just for the performance time, and then I
Speaker 2: go back and sick again when I leave the stage.
Speaker 2: But it's really interesting how the body knows we're supposed
Speaker 2: to do this. The body knows and it falls falls
Speaker 2: right into place.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it is.
Speaker 1: It is such a therapy for us and a lot
Speaker 1: I think a lot of people in the audience are
Speaker 1: really understand we're there to make you laugh, but you
Speaker 1: all are there to make us feel better.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 2: It's a healing thing. It's a healing yeah, but it's
Speaker 2: also like a really it's pretty spiritual. You know, when
Speaker 2: you know you're doing the right thing in your life,
Speaker 2: then it really makes sense. Like so I think that
Speaker 2: it really heals me from the inside out.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, Margaret, and I know you are great
Speaker 1: supporter of the OLGBT community. I have part of the
Speaker 1: LGBT community. I get a lot of backlash from my
Speaker 1: community because of how my stance of how I feel
Speaker 1: about biological women, what I see a biological woman is
Speaker 1: to me, how important that is to me. But I
Speaker 1: was actually taken aback that because I didn't think that
Speaker 1: you were going to take the interview.
Speaker 5: I'm just being very honest with you.
Speaker 1: This is a conversation more so than an interview, And
Speaker 1: I appreciate you coming on because they give me a
Speaker 1: lot of bs because of how I feel. I don't
Speaker 1: just try to discredit anyone, but I just feel like
Speaker 1: we can get along in unison as trans women and
Speaker 1: as biological women. I just think that we can jail together.
Speaker 1: But I get a lot of backlash. So again I
Speaker 1: want to say thank you for coming on.
Speaker 3: Thank you.
Speaker 2: No, it's so important. I think that, you know, being
Speaker 2: queer myself, I grew up within the trans community, within
Speaker 2: the queer community, within the gay community, and I've never
Speaker 2: seen as much unity as I do now.
Speaker 3: You used to be.
Speaker 2: I think it's like before age too, Like a lot
Speaker 2: of us were very separated, you know, the men and
Speaker 2: the men and the women in the trans the bye
Speaker 2: everybody was in their own area. And then we came together,
Speaker 2: I think because we needed to. So I'm very very
Speaker 2: supportive of the tense community, very supportive of unity within
Speaker 2: the queer community.
Speaker 1: Do you think that it's now with all of the transparency,
Speaker 1: with all the unity that's public, do you think it's
Speaker 1: better now or do you think that it was better
Speaker 1: twenty years ago?
Speaker 3: It's better now?
Speaker 2: It's better now we have a lot more of a
Speaker 2: presence of the idea of how to talk about being trands.
Speaker 2: We didn't have an understanding of it twenty years ago.
Speaker 2: We didn't have an understanding of it five years ago,
Speaker 2: you know, And now we have much more awareness, much
Speaker 2: more education about it. We have a lot more vocal
Speaker 2: activism going on, very like present activism, especially in social media.
Speaker 2: So I think we know more, but we don't know enough.
Speaker 2: We need to know more.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I love the opportunities that the opportunities that have
Speaker 1: been afforded to us. We have girls that are making
Speaker 1: millions of dollars of doing what we love to do,
Speaker 1: which is drag shows or stand up or you know,
Speaker 1: hosting or what have you.
Speaker 5: And I love those opportunities that are afforded to us.
Speaker 1: I just hate that some of the younger generation feels
Speaker 1: so entitled that they don't want to respect the ones
Speaker 1: that made a way for them. And I'm not saying
Speaker 1: any name, but it's just a lot of that.
Speaker 5: But that's neither.
Speaker 1: Hear nor there being coming out as a queer as
Speaker 1: a comedian, Marger, was that did you find that challenging?
Speaker 5: Because after Ellen came.
Speaker 1: Out you know, she got a lot of blowbacks, she
Speaker 1: got a lot of pushbacks, she lost a lot of opportunities.
Speaker 5: Did you find that that was part of your story?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 2: But you know it's interesting because if you look at
Speaker 2: comedy itself, the majority of the women in comedy are gay,
Speaker 2: almost all of them, I mean, and if they aren't gay,
Speaker 2: they have like gay tendencies or they're totally in their
Speaker 2: sparent you know, they may like dick, but they have
Speaker 2: a butch heart. So if you look at like, you know,
Speaker 2: people like Wanda Sykes and Rosie O'Donnell and the people
Speaker 2: that are like really like famous always had that side
Speaker 2: to them. I mean, whether they were talking about it
Speaker 2: on stage, you know, that came a little bit later,
Speaker 2: but it was something like when you're in comedy, there's
Speaker 2: always a queerness.
Speaker 3: I think there's just always there.
Speaker 1: Yeah, have you found because I love the familiarity of
Speaker 1: that you use your family, especially when you do your
Speaker 1: mom and everything, because Joe Cooy talks about his mom.
Speaker 1: And I love the fact that you guys have led
Speaker 1: us in Because Asian Asian people were very private, they
Speaker 1: were very selective on who they allowed to inside their
Speaker 1: little circle.
Speaker 5: But the show Fresh Off the Boat really opened up
Speaker 5: how the.
Speaker 1: Asian community is and how they talk, and they were
Speaker 1: fun and exciting because if you're not a part of that,
Speaker 1: they really don't let you in. So I love when
Speaker 1: you and Joe Coy talk about your mom and do
Speaker 1: us the accent that is so great to me. Do
Speaker 1: you find that that is your best comedy when you
Speaker 1: emulate your mom or your family as opposed to just
Speaker 1: talking about who you are?
Speaker 2: Absolutely, because it's a very it's a very present truth
Speaker 2: that I think anybody can identify with, is that people
Speaker 2: parents that are from another generation, from another country, who
Speaker 2: are just kind of seeing the life that you have here.
Speaker 3: And kind of trying to connect with it.
Speaker 2: So, you know, for me, it's a really it's a
Speaker 2: it's a very Asian part of myself to talk about
Speaker 2: my family. Also, but i'd love like when you slip
Speaker 2: into a character that is like you know, to me,
Speaker 2: it's very classic like comedy of you know whatever, Like
Speaker 2: it's the outsider point of view.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and we we've never been privy to that headed
Speaker 1: notment for comedians like yourself and for like Joe, because
Speaker 1: y'all let us in.
Speaker 5: Asian people are such a private unit.
Speaker 1: You know, they don't let people in, so I love
Speaker 1: the fact that we were able to come in to
Speaker 1: see all of that. What is your what is your
Speaker 1: dream arena to play Margaret as a comedian?
Speaker 3: Well, I would love to do Madison Square Garden like
Speaker 3: you're going to do. I've never done it. I'm looking
Speaker 3: forward to that.
Speaker 2: I mean, what a great what a great opportunity, and
Speaker 2: what an event. So for me, that's like the ultimate. Also,
Speaker 2: Carnegie Hall was really great. It was just adds a
Speaker 2: level of establishment to what you're doing. It's classy. I
Speaker 2: also just love a comedy club. I love a you know,
Speaker 2: a night nightclub, very like raunchy, very safe.
Speaker 3: You can say whatever you want to me. That's the best.
Speaker 5: Yes, that is the best. That is absolutely the best. Margaret.
Speaker 1: I would love to see I would love to see
Speaker 1: you play the part of the person in Kinky Boots.
Speaker 5: I know it's a drag queen.
Speaker 3: That's great.
Speaker 5: I would love to see you do something like I
Speaker 5: think that you can pull that off.
Speaker 1: Say you are so familiar and you have been a fruitfly,
Speaker 1: and that that is my terminology for people who have
Speaker 1: been allies for.
Speaker 5: The gay community. You were a fruitfly.
Speaker 1: Long before you became, you know, announced that you were queer.
Speaker 1: You are a fruitfly, and this is one of my things.
Speaker 1: I don't want the ten or twelve just run to
Speaker 1: loud mouths to chase the only allies from the LGBT
Speaker 1: community that we have ever had, which are biological women.
Speaker 1: Biological women have always been allies of the community, always,
Speaker 1: of course, and I never want to lose that.
Speaker 5: So sometimes I get a little opposition because of the
Speaker 5: way I feel.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I would love to see you do something
Speaker 1: like that, Mark. I think that would put a twist
Speaker 1: on it because they always say that, let look look
Speaker 1: look at how popular Victor Victoria was and there was
Speaker 1: a woman playing a man pretending to be a woman.
Speaker 5: You know, that would be Margaret.
Speaker 1: I think you could do that, and I think the
Speaker 1: whole visual of it all would be great because I
Speaker 1: was walking past and I saw the same Kiki Boos.
Speaker 1: I remember, I said, Margaret could probably report a big time.
Speaker 1: That would be so fun.
Speaker 3: I love it. Thank you, Thank you.
Speaker 1: So movie West. Because I know everybody's on strike right now.
Speaker 1: Do you have a dream role that you would like
Speaker 1: to play.
Speaker 3: I just want to just keep working, you know, like it.
Speaker 2: They used to not have Asian people in movies, so
Speaker 2: this is like really new that it just started, and so.
Speaker 5: Oh change the game.
Speaker 2: Yeah, incredible, incredible, so hopefully that you know, I just
Speaker 2: I don't care what it is, you know, like, and
Speaker 2: it's it's sad because I never.
Speaker 3: Had the real opportunity to dream.
Speaker 2: I never dreamed so big about movies and TV because
Speaker 2: it just wasn't an option for me. Like I was just, oh,
Speaker 2: I'm going to be a stand up comedian forever, which
Speaker 2: is actually great too, but you know, like I never
Speaker 2: let my imagination go of what I could be as
Speaker 2: an actress. So I'm you know, I'm really just I
Speaker 2: just want to work and I don't care what it is.
Speaker 2: But I'm very excited that finally we're seeing Asian people
Speaker 2: in movies.
Speaker 5: So do you think that because having representation and seeing
Speaker 5: the representation, that it'll open up a plethora of work
Speaker 5: for you? Possibly, I hope.
Speaker 3: So that's believe that's my dream.
Speaker 2: You know, that to me is like the ultimate because
Speaker 2: comedians also make great actors. You know, We've seen it
Speaker 2: time and time again with people like Robin Williams, and
Speaker 2: you know, I just think we just have that ability
Speaker 2: we can sort of do. If you can do comedy,
Speaker 2: you really can do anything in entertainment. And so I
Speaker 2: really do believe that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I would love to see I would love to
Speaker 1: play a dark role when I get a movie. I
Speaker 1: would love to play something dark and greedy, because I'm
Speaker 1: like anybody know, you could be funny.
Speaker 5: I don't want to be funny. I want to be
Speaker 5: something else.
Speaker 3: Yeah, well we could do it.
Speaker 2: We could do it all, you know, I think because
Speaker 2: comedy like really lends itself to all of the emotions.
Speaker 2: So as an artist, you have every color to work
Speaker 2: with on your palette, so all of the different shades
Speaker 2: of gray are there. What I'm thinking of is something
Speaker 2: like Monique and Precious.
Speaker 3: She's so just so gritty.
Speaker 2: And and scary in that, you know, and they're there's
Speaker 2: something that you know. She really that one of one
Speaker 2: of my favorite Oscar winning performances from a comedian, no less,
Speaker 2: So that's great.
Speaker 5: Yeah, And have you worked with Wanda and Paige? Because
Speaker 5: when I did Netflix, are they ready with Tiffany? Had?
Speaker 1: It's wand and Page Pushing Productions were producers on there? Yes,
Speaker 1: So they were pretty they were pretty dope. They were
Speaker 1: they were trying to give me to be something else,
Speaker 1: but they were pretty dope. They were really nice women.
Speaker 2: They're so great and I've been such a fan of
Speaker 2: both of them, and you know, so many different ways.
Speaker 2: But yeah, I definitely love I mean, like, I just
Speaker 2: love Wanda's comedy and I just love.
Speaker 3: I just I love the way that they went together.
Speaker 3: So they're great.
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, Wanda is uh.
Speaker 1: They just reached out to me recently, so hopefully something
Speaker 1: would jump off from that.
Speaker 5: But no, So you don't have any children, huh.
Speaker 1: No.
Speaker 3: I have a dog who is barking here.
Speaker 2: I have recats, I have many, you know, many animal
Speaker 2: animals around me. But I don't have any children. I
Speaker 2: guess it just never happened for me. But I don't know.
Speaker 2: I uh, I can barely take care of myself. But
Speaker 2: it's great to have kids. I think it's so amazing,
Speaker 2: But I just don't have any.
Speaker 5: I love them people.
Speaker 1: I love that people with no children always say that
Speaker 1: it's great to have to And you can borrow one
Speaker 1: man anytime you like. Good God, they are a little
Speaker 1: darker than you, but you could borrow anyone of them.
Speaker 2: I just I think I'm afraid of loving somebody so much,
Speaker 2: you know, like that I don't want to love anybody
Speaker 2: that much. Like I'm very happy being single. I'm very
Speaker 2: happy in that life. Like I just don't want to
Speaker 2: be beholden to another person that I made. That to
Speaker 2: me is just so intimate and intense.
Speaker 5: Yeah, how how has the strike effected your work?
Speaker 2: Well, I was supposed to do about five different movies
Speaker 2: from this summer on into the fall, and everything is
Speaker 2: just you know, we can't do anything, and so it's
Speaker 2: a really it's interesting because it's made it possible for
Speaker 2: me to just sort of take a break because I
Speaker 2: was really busy. But I'm also on tour doing stand
Speaker 2: up still as well. So because I would do my
Speaker 2: works on the movie like for the week and then
Speaker 2: I would go out on the road on the weekends,
Speaker 2: so I had like a very packed schedule. Now I'm
Speaker 2: just going out on the weekends, which is fine too,
Speaker 2: but it's certainly different. I really wish they would resolve it,
Speaker 2: but we have to find a solution because you know,
Speaker 2: they've been treating actors so unfairly for such a long time,
Speaker 2: so this is the only way we can finally have
Speaker 2: some resolution.
Speaker 5: It's the effect of Ai.
Speaker 1: They try to replace us with Ai, Ma, it's gonna
Speaker 1: be real hard to replacing me with Ai.
Speaker 5: Got a lot of extra parts.
Speaker 3: You cannot be replaced.
Speaker 2: I mean, it's just like you missed the real, the
Speaker 2: real deal. I think that comedy in particular is the
Speaker 2: one area where you really cannot recreate it.
Speaker 3: You cannot. There's no way.
Speaker 1: I want to know, who is your dream to share
Speaker 1: the stage with as far as being doing stand up,
Speaker 1: Who is the dream artist that you would love to
Speaker 1: share a stage with.
Speaker 2: Well, I would love to do more with Ali Wong.
Speaker 2: I worked with her in the past, and you know,
Speaker 2: I really love her. Also a Sabrino Woo is incredible.
Speaker 2: Also Sherry Coola. You know, I would just love to
Speaker 2: work with Wanda again. And I just you know, I
Speaker 2: just want to work like I don't. I think every
Speaker 2: time I get to go out and do shows, it's
Speaker 2: to me so miraculous and so exciting, especially you know
Speaker 2: at my age, it's it's really incredible to still to
Speaker 2: do it. You know, I've been doing it for forty years,
Speaker 2: so it's great to keep them going.
Speaker 5: Margaret, we're only in our thirties, don't do that. We're
Speaker 5: only in our thirty that's right. We just you know,
Speaker 5: it's been a hard knocked life, but we're in our thirties.
Speaker 3: That's right. That's right.
Speaker 5: I watched one night.
Speaker 1: I would head to the edible and I watched your
Speaker 1: special don't even remember the name of it. I was
Speaker 1: just channel surfing and you were on doing the jokes
Speaker 1: about your mom. It's the facial expression, Oh my god,
Speaker 1: listen to me. It was amplified twenty times because I
Speaker 1: had taken the edible. I love it.
Speaker 5: The tunniest thing to me. Oh my god, I love it.
Speaker 5: I was like, I wonder, does she know if.
Speaker 1: She passed out edibles to an audience and they watched it,
Speaker 1: it will be ten thousand times bunny.
Speaker 5: Oh my goodness.
Speaker 3: That's great. I mean, you know, that's a good idea.
Speaker 2: Maybe I should, you know, have like a whole thing
Speaker 2: beforehand and everybody take it at the same time.
Speaker 3: But then it's so.
Speaker 2: It's so unpredictable because sometimes people.
Speaker 3: Just fall asleep, and then some people just get corny, and.
Speaker 2: Then so people can't pay attention. You're the people that
Speaker 2: can't pay attention when they have been edible. They're just
Speaker 2: like all over the place, right, So, but that's a
Speaker 2: good market.
Speaker 5: Have you faced them so, Margan before?
Speaker 1: It has become so popular to be just who you
Speaker 1: are because it's not about Asian or black or white.
Speaker 1: Did you find discrimination as being a female Asian comedian
Speaker 1: because I know what females go up but gifts because
Speaker 1: comedy is a male dominated field.
Speaker 5: I portray a.
Speaker 1: Female, but I have a very masculine, alpha male spirit.
Speaker 1: Have you found a lot of opposition and a lot
Speaker 1: of pushback from me just being an Asian female comedian.
Speaker 2: Yeah, But the way that it came out was invisibility,
Speaker 2: like it just didn't have any opportunities, you know, And
Speaker 2: then I would just like, uh have Like what was
Speaker 2: good about it is that it made me different. So
Speaker 2: then I stood out, Like when I was starting comedy
Speaker 2: in the eighties, like it was like good because they
Speaker 2: would remember me because I was just nobody like me
Speaker 2: at all, and so that was promising. But then, like
Speaker 2: when you came to trying to break into TV and movies,
Speaker 2: I just couldn't catch a break. Like it was very
Speaker 2: hard to get roles. It just they weren't anything written
Speaker 2: for Asians. There were just no roles out there, and
Speaker 2: so it was really very tough, but stand up always
Speaker 2: was a place that was welcoming, even though it's very
Speaker 2: male dominated, even though it's very white. The fact that
Speaker 2: I think identity is currency, you know, we have a
Speaker 2: lot of value because we are different, and then the
Speaker 2: audiences will remember that. That's the only thing that is
Speaker 2: like true in comedy. So and usually like, if you're funny,
Speaker 2: you're gonna make it no matter what. So there are
Speaker 2: very few people that actually are truly funny. It's weird
Speaker 2: how few people are really really funny. It's so amazing though,
Speaker 2: because when you have the ability, you can really do it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was when I started, we had to do
Speaker 1: either alternative nights. They had to have a gay night
Speaker 1: or black Knight, or train and night, trans woman night,
Speaker 1: or I'm like, how about I just want to be
Speaker 1: a comedian. I don't want to be all those other adjectives.
Speaker 1: I just want to be on the comedy show. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so I had to keep doing stuff like that in
Speaker 1: order to prove to them that I was, you know,
Speaker 1: I had the chops because it's what you say it.
Speaker 5: There's a lot of people out here that have the
Speaker 5: title of comedian.
Speaker 2: That they're not, but you can sound like people are
Speaker 2: in it just because they want to be seen, because
Speaker 2: they're like, oh, well, I'm an actor, but I'm going
Speaker 2: to try this for a while so that people can
Speaker 2: see what I do. But there's a very big difference
Speaker 2: between somebody that is genuinely a comedian funny and like
Speaker 2: knows they have to do it as supposed to people
Speaker 2: who just sort of do it as a means to
Speaker 2: something else.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it is. It is very tough. It is very tough.
Speaker 5: I would like to see you, Margan. You know, I
Speaker 5: would think. I think that you because I've.
Speaker 1: Watched your interviews and I've heard you speak to so
Speaker 1: many different people. Why haven't you tried to get a
Speaker 1: talk show? I don't even think we have any Asian
Speaker 1: women that have actually had a really good talk show out.
Speaker 3: No, there, I would love to.
Speaker 2: I would love to, you know, I've never uh yeah,
Speaker 2: I've never been approached for that, but I would love
Speaker 2: to do that.
Speaker 3: That would be great. There's Lisa Ling.
Speaker 2: Lisa Ling does more sort of one on one sort
Speaker 2: of things, and she goes and travels all over the world.
Speaker 5: And yeah, behind stuff is mostly serious.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm talking about from a comedic aspect, from an actor,
Speaker 1: and everybody likes you.
Speaker 5: Margaret. You know you've got a great reputation in Hollywood.
Speaker 1: I think that would be great because you would coming
Speaker 1: in from a whole different perspective.
Speaker 3: Let's do it. You could could be on it with me,
Speaker 3: Let's do it together.
Speaker 2: I could be MacMahon fabulous, a fabulous.
Speaker 5: Seeing the dog even agrees she does, she loves it.
Speaker 1: Oh, Margaree, you you think that.
Speaker 5: I see.
Speaker 1: I would like to see them remakes and movies with
Speaker 1: with all with different females like I would love to
Speaker 1: see a Charlie's Angels with an Asian woman and a
Speaker 1: Latino woman and a black woman, you know, or even
Speaker 1: a comedy like nine.
Speaker 5: To five with an Asian.
Speaker 3: Oh, that was love.
Speaker 1: That would be so great because I'm telling you, because
Speaker 1: now we see that it doesn't have to look like this.
Speaker 5: It can look like this and still be successful. And
Speaker 5: I'm loving that.
Speaker 1: And I wish they would give more opportunities to Asian
Speaker 1: women and people of color to try different things.
Speaker 5: I think would be wildly successful.
Speaker 2: I agree because people want to see themselves, People want
Speaker 2: to see their stories, and they want to feel like
Speaker 2: they exist in the world. You know, we just have
Speaker 2: such a long history in cinema where it's just whites.
Speaker 3: It's just whites.
Speaker 2: I'm so I mean, and the films are still great,
Speaker 2: but it's just like we just haven't been able to
Speaker 2: see ourselves for so long.
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, I think that's what.
Speaker 1: I think that that was the reason that the show
Speaker 1: All in the Family. They had a character on there.
Speaker 1: Her name was Beverly LaSelle and ninety seventy four. I
Speaker 1: was nine years old and when I saw the character,
Speaker 1: I cried for an hour or because I kept thinking
Speaker 1: that there was something wrong with me.
Speaker 5: So seeing it.
Speaker 1: Transparency and being able to visualize, especially on TV, I
Speaker 1: was like, especially Norman Lea just had his finger on
Speaker 1: the pulse so many years ago. It made me know
Speaker 1: that you're going to be okay. You are actually going
Speaker 1: to be okay because you see somebody that looks like you.
Speaker 3: It's incredible, it's incredible.
Speaker 1: That is why it was so wonderful for Dave to
Speaker 1: embrace me into his foe, because when all the backlass
Speaker 1: happened with Dave and you know, his jokes about the
Speaker 1: trans community, and Dave and I haven't had conversations Margaret,
Speaker 1: and I told him when you did stix and songs,
Speaker 1: I thought you were a little phobic.
Speaker 5: I did. I thought you were a little bit. But
Speaker 5: you met somebody from San Francisco.
Speaker 1: Her name was Daphney Dorman, a trans woman who wanted
Speaker 1: to be a comedian, and she changed her mind because
Speaker 1: you had a conversation with somebody that didn't look like you,
Speaker 1: that didn't dress like you. But you took the time
Speaker 1: to realize I'm talking to another human being. I'm talking
Speaker 1: to another American. And you know, I hate that she
Speaker 1: killed herself because of whatever the drama was going on
Speaker 1: in her personal life. May she rest in peace. But
Speaker 1: to me, she OpEd en up his mind to be
Speaker 1: able to accept somebody like me. So he saw somebody
Speaker 1: like me that looked like me, and now we are
Speaker 1: friends because of somebody like her. That is where I
Speaker 1: want us to get to in this world, because everybody
Speaker 1: is feuding and you don't look like me, so we
Speaker 1: can't get along. And we're all Americans. Margaret, You an American,
Speaker 1: I am an American. We may look differently, but we
Speaker 1: are all Americans.
Speaker 3: That's right.
Speaker 5: But we won't get that. We want to fight everybody
Speaker 5: wants to fight, Mary, I don't want to fight.
Speaker 3: I don't want to fight.
Speaker 5: I want I want to be pretty and funny.
Speaker 3: And that's right me too. You're great idea. Let's just
Speaker 3: do that.
Speaker 5: Right, that's the day of the show, pretty funny and
Speaker 5: making money good.
Speaker 1: Yes, oh, Marre, it is. It is powerful to think that.
Speaker 1: So have you been discriminated in your faith? Have you
Speaker 1: had discrimination in the comedy rooms in your faith? Because
Speaker 1: I've had it in my face. I want to I
Speaker 1: don't want you to name the name story.
Speaker 2: The first one of the first shows I ever did,
Speaker 2: I didn't have a headshot because I was so young.
Speaker 3: And I went into the club and they had taken.
Speaker 2: An illustration a racist caricature from the eighteen nineties of
Speaker 2: a Chinese.
Speaker 3: Railroad worker like with buck teeth.
Speaker 2: And eating a bowl of rice with chopsticks and spraying
Speaker 2: the rice everywhere, like a racist caricature for my picture,
Speaker 2: Like can you imagine? Like I was, and I was
Speaker 2: like just a kid, and I just remember telling them
Speaker 2: you have to take that down, like I was shaking,
Speaker 2: like I was like, how is that?
Speaker 3: How are you? That's you can't put that on.
Speaker 2: That's not appropriate, And it was like, you know, so bad,
Speaker 2: and you know, things like that happened like often, but
Speaker 2: it's mostly out of just sheer ignorance, not really like
Speaker 2: they didn't mean to be racist. They didn't know, which
Speaker 2: is like so dumb, but it's really that's so bad.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well that was back there. You said you were
Speaker 1: very young. Now that people know so now they know better.
Speaker 1: So like they said, you know better, you do better.
Speaker 1: That's not necessarily always the truth. But when you know
Speaker 1: better now you can get called out on it is
Speaker 1: what can happen.
Speaker 3: Right, But I mean that there's just yeah, horrible, horrible.
Speaker 3: There was just like I hate that, it's so terrible.
Speaker 2: But then there was stuff that I have to laugh
Speaker 2: because one time somebody took a picture of me. I
Speaker 2: was on the side of the stage and I was
Speaker 2: eating you know, those Chinese food boxes, the white ones.
Speaker 2: I was eating with chopsticks out of it, and I
Speaker 2: was just like really, I was really chowing down on them.
Speaker 3: And somebody took a secret.
Speaker 2: Picture and posted it and I had to laugh because
Speaker 2: that was just it was so racist.
Speaker 3: It was like a caricature, but it was me.
Speaker 2: I'm eating them, I'm eating those wantons that I'm not
Speaker 2: trying to act like I'm not in it. And I
Speaker 2: had my hair up like at a top knot that
Speaker 2: was all kind of coming out, and there was a
Speaker 2: chopstick in there. I mean, it was just it was
Speaker 2: it was very racially insensitive, and I was doing it
Speaker 2: to myself.
Speaker 1: Well that's the difference in that is at least that
Speaker 1: was you, and you own that. The other picture was
Speaker 1: not you.
Speaker 3: No, no, But it's so funny.
Speaker 1: Starting look, starting with the buck teeth, I would have
Speaker 1: been like, okay, my problem was the bug teeth.
Speaker 3: That's so racist, so terrible.
Speaker 1: Oh my goodness, I'm Margaret. I have those stories. So
Speaker 1: I get and I understand. But I believe that because
Speaker 1: we have been so we have become dinosaurs in this profession.
Speaker 1: We are so much older, we have taken so many
Speaker 1: of the beatings for people coming behind us, that we
Speaker 1: made it easier for the Asian, the young Asian comedians
Speaker 1: coming up, or for the young trans or gay comedians
Speaker 1: coming up.
Speaker 5: Because I was in the clubs that I was, I.
Speaker 1: Was invisible for years to the comics, Margaret, I was
Speaker 1: invisible to them. I would go and wreck the stage,
Speaker 1: but in the green room, I couldn't get a fist pump,
Speaker 1: I couldn't get a hello, I couldn't get a good job.
Speaker 5: I couldn't get a pad on the back. I could
Speaker 5: get it. So it made you feel like, oh why
Speaker 5: am I even doing this?
Speaker 1: But there's a fire in you, especially when you hit
Speaker 1: that stage that you got to like blaze it. But
Speaker 1: you do want the love of your constituents. You do
Speaker 1: want the feeling of good job. You know that was
Speaker 1: tight punch up my joke if you hear something. But
Speaker 1: it took a.
Speaker 5: Long time to get that. So I love that you
Speaker 5: have those stories because they made you this, Margaretel.
Speaker 2: Yeah, thank you, thank you, thank you. But yeah, it
Speaker 2: is hard, you know because when we want that recognition
Speaker 2: from our peers. But comedy is such a supportive environment
Speaker 2: for the men. You know when the men they love
Speaker 2: they love to watch their their you know, homi sets
Speaker 2: and they love to like help them with tag like
Speaker 2: their men are just so tight. It's so weird, just
Speaker 2: like always like this is that's real gay, Like I'm
Speaker 2: like this that really people they act real gay like
Speaker 2: it's a very homo erotic environment. They don't want to
Speaker 2: admit it, but it really is they just don't want to.
Speaker 2: It's like the no Girls club.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 2: Sometimes it's a very it's a very uh boys club.
Speaker 3: But you know, it's just part of it.
Speaker 2: I think you just have to accept it, and you know,
Speaker 2: we develop regardless and then we're better for it.
Speaker 3: So it's actually fine.
Speaker 5: Now, Margot, if you were on when you're on tour,
Speaker 5: do you.
Speaker 1: Prefer to be with a bunch of women or do
Speaker 1: you prefer to be with a bunch of men or
Speaker 1: a mix?
Speaker 3: A mix, A mix.
Speaker 2: I mean, I'm always very It's I'm always very kind
Speaker 2: of like uh.
Speaker 3: All over the place.
Speaker 2: I get a lot of they them energy two. So
Speaker 2: a lot of they them's are in my crew, so
Speaker 2: that's really nice. But yeah, I'm very open to different
Speaker 2: people and very comfortable that way.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I like a mix too. I love to have
Speaker 1: feminine energy on the stage. I don't like is just
Speaker 1: all men because my presentation is feminine, but my my
Speaker 1: addiction is very alpha male. So I like to have
Speaker 1: women on the stage coming in from a different angle
Speaker 1: because I think everybody's respective is respected. The problem with
Speaker 1: too many females on one show, they say they all
Speaker 1: gonna talk about the same thing. I said, well, all
Speaker 1: you mean talk about the exact same thing, you talking
Speaker 1: about your damn penis, and who you know, what's the difference.
Speaker 1: So this sexist it's still very sexist.
Speaker 3: It's true.
Speaker 5: The sexist don't work on me because I got both sexists.
Speaker 1: So you know, who is your biggest influence, Margarete, when
Speaker 1: you were coming up, who.
Speaker 5: You who was your biggest influence in comedy?
Speaker 2: I think always Joan Rivers, you know, see I love
Speaker 2: Joan too. She was a real pioneer and also really supportive,
Speaker 2: you know, throughout.
Speaker 3: My kind of coming up, and.
Speaker 2: She gave me a lot of work and I ended
Speaker 2: up getting to take over Fashion Police after she died,
Speaker 2: which was real honor, you know. But I always I
Speaker 2: always went to her if I had a bad show
Speaker 2: or you know something like she just was so incredibly
Speaker 2: understanding and she was really nurturing to other comedians, which
Speaker 2: I think is something she did for women but also
Speaker 2: for men, and very open about her own insecurities too.
Speaker 2: Like we were doing a show at Kennedy Center with
Speaker 2: all of the dudes, you know, the big like all
Speaker 2: of like Gary Shanling and you know, John Stewart and
Speaker 2: all you know, Bill Maher and all the guys, and
Speaker 2: she really wanted to do well, and so she was
Speaker 2: like really nervous. And so you know, we were like
Speaker 2: in her dressing room beforehand and she's talking about it,
Speaker 2: and I'm like, how could you be nervous? You're fucking legend.
Speaker 2: Like nobody's better than you. They wish that, like they
Speaker 2: wish they were you. But still she still had that
Speaker 2: was very open about that, you know, and I think
Speaker 2: that's what made her really powerful.
Speaker 3: She was at the ability to be vulnerable.
Speaker 1: Do you think that that was instilled on her from
Speaker 1: because Joan came out at a time when women were
Speaker 1: really discarded as comedies.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 1: It was just you had to be not attractive or fat,
Speaker 1: you know, you know something like that. You couldn't be
Speaker 1: pretty and funny. It just not a woman. Those three
Speaker 1: components just did not work.
Speaker 2: That's right, because you were perceived as a threat if
Speaker 2: you were anything that you know, could be construed as
Speaker 2: like sexually attractive, sexually vital. And Joan was like not
Speaker 2: even able to talk about her pregnancy when she was
Speaker 2: on stage because that was considered vulgar, you know. So
Speaker 2: it's like, yeah, she really changed everything for women, and
Speaker 2: I personally was very affected by her just as another comedian.
Speaker 2: You know, she really took care of me, and so
Speaker 2: I really I missed her, you know. But she lived
Speaker 2: a really long life. What a great life she had.
Speaker 5: I never had the luxury of meeting her.
Speaker 1: I always wanted to meet her, but I figured because
Speaker 1: I knew my journey as being a trance comedian for
Speaker 1: twenty five years, and nobody liked me was around, so
Speaker 1: I could only imagine what it was like for her
Speaker 1: as a woman's but back then, because Phyllis Diller was
Speaker 1: not an attractive woman, so she played on that.
Speaker 5: Joan Rivers was not a bad looking woman at all
Speaker 5: to me, you know, she's lovely.
Speaker 1: She had a bunch of serch Yeah, but I figured,
Speaker 1: and she always dressed nice. So you had to either
Speaker 1: be fat to be the joke, or to be unattractive
Speaker 1: to be the joke, or to be a shadow to
Speaker 1: be the joke. But Joan was. She was never the shadow.
Speaker 1: She was always the chandelier. So that's right, the wallpaper.
Speaker 1: She was a centerpiece. I wondered, did she bring any
Speaker 1: of those insecurities even when she became v Jon Rivers,
Speaker 1: Those insecurities probably have were embedded in her from all
Speaker 1: her youth.
Speaker 5: That's what I was thinking.
Speaker 1: Yeah, because I harbor insecurities. I still harbor insecurities from
Speaker 1: when they didn't speak to me, or when I was
Speaker 1: just a man in a dress, even though I feel
Speaker 1: like I've overcome that, but every now and again, that
Speaker 1: little ugly shadow will pick his head and like, maybe
Speaker 1: you're not good enough, or maybe you're not funny enough,
Speaker 1: but maybe you're not pretty enough. So I wondered that,
Speaker 1: you know, That's why I asked you because we were different.
Speaker 1: We are nominally that's right.
Speaker 2: It's also like it's a combination of not fitting in
Speaker 2: but then also imposter syndrome too, so it's like we're
Speaker 2: almost our own internal built bully in a sense, you know.
Speaker 2: So I think always like the greatest opposition for me
Speaker 2: always has been myself and my own fears and my
Speaker 2: own limited thinking.
Speaker 3: Of like what I could do, what's possible.
Speaker 2: It's always been my own doing, So I stand in
Speaker 2: my own way more than anything else.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I would love to see Netflix put a show
Speaker 1: together with all the alternatives.
Speaker 5: When I say that, I mean Margaret Show, Flame and
Speaker 5: Row just very unique comedians.
Speaker 1: That all have different stories to tell, and we all
Speaker 1: come in from it and we all look like Basking
Speaker 1: Robbins with thirty one flavors thirty three flavors.
Speaker 5: You know, that would be fantastic. I think that would
Speaker 5: be a great show.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, because I don't want to be on all. I
Speaker 1: don't want to be pigeonholeed to ever say that I'm
Speaker 1: this kind of comedian on that kind of comedian. I
Speaker 1: can play any room at any time, in front of
Speaker 1: me any people. I just played a whole room full
Speaker 1: of rednecks. They're all Trump supporters. I talked about your Trump,
Speaker 1: and I talked about Trump and I didn't talk about
Speaker 1: his politics. I talked about his shape and its hair
Speaker 1: good where I was at. And you know a lot
Speaker 1: of comedians out here say, oh, I'm not changing my set.
Speaker 1: I'm not changing. I said, I don't care who I'm
Speaker 1: in front of.
Speaker 5: I think that's irresponsible on a comedian's part, because you
Speaker 5: have to read the room that you're working, have to
Speaker 5: read the room.
Speaker 2: Well, Ultimately, you're an entertainer. Like if you're you're an entertainer,
Speaker 2: that's what you do. You're here to entertain and you
Speaker 2: can't allow anything like that to stand in your way.
Speaker 2: And it's a good challenge and a good exercise.
Speaker 5: Yeah, and that's a great point.
Speaker 1: You're there to entertain, not to offend exactly.
Speaker 2: You know a little bit then, but you need to
Speaker 2: sort of gauge what it is. But there's always makes
Speaker 2: it worth it, you know, people like to be offended.
Speaker 2: I think people really do like to be offended.
Speaker 1: Well, they like for you to say stuff that they
Speaker 1: want to say, but it makes their skin crawl and
Speaker 1: then they clutch their pearls and like, oh, I was
Speaker 1: thinking of it.
Speaker 3: I I want to buy danger. People want to buy danger.
Speaker 2: And that's what is the appeal of stand up comedy
Speaker 2: is the dangerous element of it. And so I think
Speaker 2: that's really like a very rare gift. That's why it
Speaker 2: can't be replaced by AI.
Speaker 3: Can't. You can't.
Speaker 2: It won't ever be dangerous because it's thinking outside of
Speaker 2: the parameters of what's normal, what's saying what's right and
Speaker 2: doing something fun with it.
Speaker 1: That's the name of your next special Margaret, buying danger.
Speaker 1: Come by danger, buy some danger.
Speaker 3: Let's buy it's question danger we're going to make. We're
Speaker 3: making danger.
Speaker 5: That is pretty dope. I really really like that. That
Speaker 5: would be a great day.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, I am not going to keep you.
Speaker 1: I know you got things to do. I appreciate you
Speaker 1: so much. I want you to come down. I have
Speaker 1: a show every Monday night. Because I didn't know you
Speaker 1: were in LA I don't know why I thought you
Speaker 1: were still living in San Francisco. Every Monday, I'm at
Speaker 1: the Hollywood Laugh Factor for free vote.
Speaker 5: We have a great time. Oh come, great show. Come
Speaker 5: and we will let you stretch your legs, Margaret and
Speaker 5: get it out.
Speaker 1: It's a great audience and minds is very diverse, and
Speaker 1: they love the people that we bring. So I would
Speaker 1: love for you to come hang out with us for
Speaker 1: one Monday perfect. I thoroughly enjoy having this conversation with you.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Margaret for being a great representation of the community.
Speaker 5: Thank you for being a fantastic comedian. Thank you for
Speaker 5: being a great woman. And thank you for being a
Speaker 5: fantastic American. Because that's how people keep beginning that we
Speaker 5: are Americans. I don't care what we look like. Besides,
Speaker 5: we are with shape. We are all American.
Speaker 3: That's right. Thank you.
Speaker 5: Got to remember that, Margaret. Thank you so much, my darling.
Speaker 5: Where can we follow you at? Give fans? Well, we
Speaker 5: can follow you everywhere.
Speaker 2: You can follow me at Margaret Show on x at
Speaker 2: Margaret Underscore Show on Instagram, and the Margaret Show on TikTok.
Speaker 2: And you can buy tickets at Margaret Show dot com.
Speaker 2: Anybody who wants to come see.
Speaker 5: Me, I'm coming to see you. I'm buying my tickets.
Speaker 5: I don't know where you're gonna be it. I'm coming
Speaker 5: to see you, see you.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna come see you.
Speaker 5: I want you to come and see me. We're gonna
Speaker 5: have a great time.
Speaker 1: And listen. I appreciate you, Thank you so much. Thank you,
Speaker 1: baby three to your dollars. But she spoke a couple
Speaker 1: of times, thank.
Speaker 5: You, thank you. Oh my god.
Speaker 1: I can't even spell none of it, but I take it.
Speaker 1: Thank you for being so pleasant. I appreciate you.
Speaker 3: Thank you.
Speaker 1: Don't miss an episode of Laugh and Learn. Listen and
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Speaker 1: This is flaming road. Don't forget to laugh, listen and
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