Sure, girls — and gays — just want to have fun. But rocker Cyndi Lauper and jokester Margaret Cho say it’s time to get to work, too.
They land in Atlanta June 21 for the Human Rights Campaign's True Colors Tour, a five-hour musical, comedic, and political spectacular with a goal to rock audiences out of their seats and into voting booths.
Fortunately, the duo is bringing help. Cho and Lauper share the bill on the Atlanta date with a Blondie-less Deborah Harry, Erasure, The Dresden Dolls, The Gossip and The Misshapes.
Cho, who still rides a wave of gay adulation into sold-out comedy show halls, wastes little time hitting the political focus of the tour.
“For the most part, we live in a very homophobic country — a country that does not recognize gays and lesbians as full human beings," Cho tells Southern Voice. "We don’t have the same rights as other people, and that’s very discouraging.”
About $1 per ticket sold from the month long, 15-city tour is earmarked for the HRC, the nation's largest gay political organization.
Lauper originally conceived the tour, and like Cho, has long asserted herself as a straight ally for gay rights causes. The tour's name harkens back to Lauper’s 1986 hit “True Colors.”
She says the tour represents one way she can return the favor to throngs of gay and lesbian fans who have supported her career for decades.
Also, it ticks off a lot of anti-gay forces.
"Certain right-wingers are already flapping about [True Colors]," Lauper says. "So if it engages debate, then it is engaging discussions which are crucial to changing what's wrong in this country.”
Specifically, the artists claim that what’s wrong with this country is the systematic attack on gay families by the federal government and a majority of states that refuse to recognize gay marital unions.
“I think marriage is important for everybody,” Cho says in the middle of describing her own five-year union with artist and web designer Al Ridenour.
“We’re very close, and it’s wonderful," she says. "He helps me a lot in my work, and he’s a really good person for me to be with. And that’s one of the reasons I want to work for gay marriage. People need people, and for that not to be available for everyone is very tragic.”
Lauper, who has a lesbian sister, encourages people to attend the True Colors concert with their families.
"A lot of my family is going to be at the shows," she says. "We want families. Bring your lover, sister, mother, father, brother, cousin, best friends … uncles. Bring 'em all out," she invites.
As much as True Colors is pegged on a political dynamic, Lauper maintains that change begins at home.
“It [could be] an icebreaker for parents to talk to their gay kids," she says. "If you can change one mind, you've made a difference."
LIKE LAUPER, CHO SAYS she’s on the tour as a gift to her gay fans. Without them, well, she’d be nothing, as one of her comedy hooks says.
“It’s the community that I belong to, that I’m in — that I work in, that I’m political in, that I’m social in,” Cho says. “I have a real connection with the gay community. It’s something that’s vital and important to me. Our relationship is concrete and real.”
As the lone act on tour who doesn’t sing, Cho likely has the most difficult job of all. She plays host — or, as she dubs it, “ringmaster ” — throughout the five-hour show.
“I’m there to kind of keep it all moving along and making sure everybody is taken care of and getting it all organized,” she says.
Yes, that definitely means she's cracking jokes throughout the evening on topics in the news and closer to home. Her parents, arguably as famous as Cho herself among some fans, are doing fine she says.
“I just saw them the other day. We got very drunk on saki,” jokes Cho, who, as a recovering alcoholic, does not drink.
Skinny celebrities are also likely to get skewered in the show.
“I don’t think Paris Hilton should go to jail," Cho says, trying to hold back laughter. "I think that it’s wrong. Instead of sending her to jail, I think we need to punish Nicky for all Paris’ crimes. So anytime Paris drives drunk or recklessly, I think we should round up Nicky Hilton and make her pay for it.”
The tour returns Cho to Atlanta, where she was last seen in 2006 working on “One Missed Call,” a feature film co-starring Ed Burns.
A run-in with a misguided motorist who yelled out “Me love you long time” when he noticed Cho strolling a Midtown sidewalk briefly soured the comedienne on Atlanta. But over time, she’s ready to forgive and fall in love with the gay capital of the southeast all over again.
“It is a very hot, very sexy place — and so gay,” she says. “That’s actually surprising that it’s so open and accepting of gays and lesbians, because it's way down south.”
THE HRC ROAD SHOW is Cho’s first chance to work with Lauper, and most of the other acts on the bill. She claims they all get along famously.
“We are all working together to make this happen," she says. "It’s a great thing to get to play together, so it’s a social thing for some of us too.”
Fun aside, the message that gay men and lesbians face unnecessary discrimination remains at the forefront of the festivities.
“I think the tour is really meant to promote a lot of things," Cho says. "It’s to promote awareness of these issues, and to give people more of an idea of creating anti-hate legislation.
“Also it’s a place where we can rock out,” she adds.
— Zack Rosen contributed to this story.
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