Cho and Tell

Genital augmentation? Pastie scars? Dwarfs? Margaret Cho, star of a new VH-1 reality series, The Cho Show, and a touring burlesque act, gets intimate with us.

Q: What makes your series unique? A: My life is anything but typical. My show features my very Korean parents, my very gay friends, and my wonderful assistant—who also happens to be a little person. So it's like a cross between my stand-up specials and Madonna's Truth or Dare, with a bit of Little People, Big World mixed in.

Q: How did your family react to the show's cringe-worthy fare—like when you injected collagen into your G-spot? A: My parents are very funny when they have to deal with anything racy or off-color. They usually pretend they don't speak English.

Q: What should women know about your burlesque show, Beautiful? A: I'm exploring how we feel about our bodies through laughter. It's important to feel beautiful; it's political to feel beautiful. All my life I felt awkward, insecure, and chubby.

Q: Now you strip onstage. And once you started dancing, you shed pounds. What happened? A: It's weird. Discovering burlesque led me to take up belly dancing, and a lot of my weight came off. It's a pleasurable movement that has positively increased my body awareness. It's so unlike going to the gym and hating it.

Q: How long do you plan to shimmy? A: Burlesque is fun, but now I have big circular scars on my breasts from wearing pasties every night, so soon I'm going to have to take a semi-retirement.