Pixie Vision Productions

For most performers, a year book-ended by Cyndi Lauper's high-profile, Human Rights Campaign-inspired True Colors Tour and a return to off-Broadway in her own cabaret show The Sensuous Woman would be quite enough. Consider Margaret Cho an over-achiever.

Sandwiched in-between these landmark experiences, though, Cho made her directorial debut with short film Two Sisters, lent her voice to animated Logo series Rick & Steve and appeared in a series of YouTube videos with the year's breakout internet celebrity Kelly. The globetrotting San Francisco native also hit the high seas on the first-ever all-gay transatlantic cruise.

Before preparing her as-yet-untitled 2008 stand-up tour, the newly-svelt comedian sits with JustUsBoys celebrity correspondent Pollo DelMar. While sharing her excitement about The Sensuous Woman, Cho raves about her friend Kelly, talks about her weight loss and explains why she thinks porn is more interesting now than ever before.

So how was 2007 for you overall? It was pretty amazing! I went on the True Colors Tour, which was a big move. That was with Cyndi Lauper, Erasure, Deborah Harry, the Dresden Dolls and The Cliks. We kind of all had an awesome time. That was my biggest event this year.

Rosie O'Donnell appeared on The True Colors show I saw. That was awesome. I loved working with her. We became friends during the True Colors Tour. She was great - amazing to work with. She's a really important part of our community. She's incredibly progressive politically. She's incredibly vocal. I loved working with her.

You crack me up as the neurotic fag-hag on Logo's Rick & Steve. Is that series returning for a second season? Oh, thank you so much for saying that. I don't really know. I don't know exactly what's going to happen. We'll see.

With television, touring and your one-woman show, how do you find time for a social life? My personal life is really intertwined with my work. I do a lot of work with my friends, so that became part of my social life. We all sort of combined because we have fun together but also work.

You seem to come from a very creative community of people. Yes, absolutely. It's great because I get to hang out with such creative people. We are all doing different projects, which we can do together, and it all seems to work itself out really well. It's really exciting. I'm just very lucky to come from such a creative environment. The Sensous Woman is probably my favorite creative collaboration. It's really a pretty deep collaboration with people I'm close with, so it's something I love doing.

This year you made your film directorial debut. I directed a short film called Two Sisters, which is about belly dancing. It stars Yunjin Kim, the Korean woman from Lost. It's a great little film about these sisters who belly dance and how they relate through dancing. I especially enjoyed it because belly dancing is something I love doing.

Besides True Colors, what were some of the year's other highlights? That tour was such a huge thing. So was going on the first all-gay transatlantic crossing. That was really a huge thing, too. It was really great – and I had so much fun. That was really leading up to the True Colors Tour. I did the tour right after that. Before that, I was really just doing a lot of gigging and preparing, working. I was working on this show, The Sensuous Woman.

A breakout star of 2007 was Kelly, whose YouTube video for "Shoes" made her famous. How did you end up in her videos? My husband made the robot from the "Shoes" video, so I was actually one of the first people to see it. I loved it so much, I sent it to everyone I know, put it on my blog, etc., and it just blew up. I love Kelly!

Has being a thinner woman changed your style of comedy, which was often based around your weight and body image? I've gotten a lot more peace around my body issues not because I'm thinner but because I've been able to become a dancer over recent years. That's how and why I've lost weight and how I've gotten to a place of peace about my body and feeling good about myself. In terms of my humor, I think it allows me to talk about empowering one's self rather than self-deprecation.
General society has often unrealistic standards of beauty for women. In many ways, gay men hold similarly unattainable standards. It's often impossible to achieve, and it's a really shameful, painful thing to have to go through. That's why I love bears and the bear culture. They're very accepting about body image and body type. I think that's really beautiful to celebrate that. I think it's great! I want to see more positivity in the gay community like that. I want to see it with women, too.

Does it walk a fine line between self-acceptance and that belief that "this is as good as it can get"? Sometimes I resign myself to situations rather than push myself to achieve better. Why can't we just be happy? Why can't that be the best we can be? Why can't we just enjoy that? Instead of looking at the reality of situations and what it would take to obtain the ideal, why don't we just change the ideal and make that the best? Why can't we just accept where we are and enjoy that instead of putting off enjoying your life until we have reached some out-of-reach ideal? Why can't we just accept where we are as the ideal now?

Growing up, your family owned a bookstore which sold porn. Did porn images shape your self image? I don't know. Porn definitely reinforces that ideal in the sense that porn has such a narrow vision of what is considered attractive. Porn limits us. I prefer porn now. It's much more varied and interesting. It involves much more body types and more types of people. I prefer what is happening now as to what was happening back then.

There are still the "stereotypical" porn star looks. Now films do feature people of all body types, sizes and appearance. It's strange to think that people like you and I, attractive, successful people with "normal" or "average" body types, would probably be considered some kind of "fetish" in porn. I know! In porn, we definitely would be. That's so crazy to me, too.

So what are you planning for 2008? I'm going to be on tour again with my own show. I don't know what the title of that will be yet. It's going to be a stand-up comedy show, more traditional than what I've been doing, so that will be the next thing.

Many comics say that, regardless of how much success they have in TV or film, their first love is always stand-up. Is that true for you? I love stand-up comedy. It's really something grateful for and always look forward to doi ng. I do it in this show. I still love it. It's definitely part of who I am and what I do.

Pollo DelMar is a San Francisco drag celebutante . . . and "Sensuous Woman" in her own right. Friend request her at: http://www.MySpace.com/llo_DelMar