After seeing her exhilarating and spirited performance in All That Gomez at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival – described by The List as “Absurdly Brilliant” and by a table of women sitting next to me as “Hilarious, fabulous lesbian stand-up”- I got the chance to chat with Marga Gomez about KFC, America’s Next Top Model, and the gay rumors surrounding Queen Latifah.

Grace Maxwell: Can you tell me a little about All That Gomez?

Marga: It’s especially for Edinburgh. I thought, “I’ll put together a mix of stand-up and some of my favorite bits from my one-woman shows”. So that’s what All That Gomez is. You get all I got. A little of everything. It’s a stand up show, it’s about being Latina, it’s about being lesbian, it’s about pop culture, yoga, whatever. And now it’s about crossing the street in Edinburgh.

Grace Maxwell: What inspires you to write the material for your shows?

Marga: I write material because no one is gonna write it for me, and I want to be onstage. I get material from things that bother me, things that annoy me, stupid things. I love stupid things. As far as politics is concerned, it’s not so funny now. I mean, I love that Obama’s president, but he’s not as funny as George Bush.

I’m also inspired by gay issues. I do a lot of my material about the kind of things we have to go through because of inequality, at least in the States… I like to poke holes in homophobia and bigotry and all that, and sometimes I like to do that by actually playing the stereotype, and blowing the stereotype up. I’m a sincere lesbian from California who is kind of bitter and angry.

Grace Maxwell: Did you always know you wanted to be a comedian?

Marga: I think so. You know, my Dad was a comedian. I always saw the way people responded to him, and I liked that. Comedians are artists and are presenting some concepts that are kind of deep, but they find a way to use humor. They trick people into thinking while laughing. My Dad was very well known in the Latin community. I just saw how he made people happy, and that’s the other thing comedians wanna do – the good ones- they should want to make people happy.

And I wanna make myself happy as well. I enjoy a good laugh, and I like having people see my point of view as I always feel like “I’m weird, I don’t fit in here and I don’t fit in there…” When I’m onstage, I feel like I have a community with the audience. It’s pretty cool.

Grace Maxwell: Which comedians do you find funny?

Marga: I’m just gonna tell you one for now; Reginald D. Hunter. He has such intelligence, even when he’s talking about extreme, nasty sexual content- in his show, he was getting into what people do, scatological things. But you feel so safe in his hands, he was just so inspiring. He’s from the South and he’s a black guy and he might just be- next to me- one of the best living comedians on the planet. So yes, Reginald Hunter.

Grace Maxwell: What would you be doing if you weren’t a comedian?

Marga: I can’t really imagine not being a performer, but at one point here when things were a little rough, I was walking by the KFC and they had a sign in the window “taking applications” and I thought, maybe I’ll just get a job! I’ve been able to make a living as a comedian for 20 years. I’ve been very privileged. I got three lines in a movie, it’s a great life. I’m not rich and famous, but I’ve been able to get by and travel around the world. I’ve been able to play at beautiful, fabulous venues, and I’ve been able to inspire youth.

But at one point I thought, “maybe I’ll just work at KFC”; any 9-5 job kind of appeals to me because when you get home, your working day is over. When you’re a comic, your job is never done. You’re looking for ideas, you’re with people, you gotta be funny, your always on or y’know, you’re stressing out, cuz like why am I not on TV? Why am I not where this person is? Why am I not like Reginald Hunter? In school I was studying to be a teacher. It’s like being a performer, because you stand in front of people who are tough; there’s no tougher audience than a classroom. That’s probably what I would have done.

Grace Maxwell: In All That Gomez, you talked about you’re role in Sphere alongside Queen Latifah. I just wanted to know, did you pick up any lesbian vibes from her?

Marga: Yes. I mean, Queen Latifah is one of those celebrities who says, “I don’t wanna talk about my personal life.” There should be an “I don’t wanna talk about my personal life” parade, because all those people are fucking queer.

When I was in Sphere, I was living large. I had my own trailer – it wasn’t as big as Sharon Stone’s, but it was as big as Queen Latifah’s. Her trailer was next to my trailer, and I was already a fan of hers. I would look through my venetian blinds, see what was going on in Queen Latifah’s trailer, like “if the trailer’s rocking, don’t come knocking.” All I can tell you is she had a personal assistant who was smokin’ hot. When the crew broke for lunch, we all had lunch together – Sharon Stone, Samuel L. Jackson, and me… but Queen Latifah would take her lunch in her trailer with her personal assistant.

C’mon.

That woman was so hot.

And then at the premier party when Sphere opened, and we all realized it was gonna be a big flop, Anne Heche… do you remember her? She was Ellen DeGeneres’ crazy girlfriend – who wandered off and then broke into a farmhouse to steal some woman’s slippers?

Well, she was at the party with her girlfriend Ellen DeGeneres. Ellen I had known when I was starting out in comedy in the late 80’s. Ellen and Anne both came up to me and were like, “That movie…” and I go “yeah…what about that movie”, and I’m ready to tear it apart, and Ellen goes, “It was amazing. It blew my mind,” and Anne H was going, “It was really deep”, and I’m like “these people are out of their minds…”

Anne Heche actually came from a sphere. She thinks she’s from another planet, so of course science fiction is gonna appeal to her.

So what I was getting at was Queen Latifah… those were her buddies. That’s who she was hangin out with…C’mon.

I saw her on Barbara Walters and her mom was there, and Barbara asked her, “Are you going to ever have children?” Queen Latifah says, “Sure, I’ll meet somebody, and we’ll have kids”, so I think Queen Latifah is just totally afraid of her Mom.

Again, means she’s gay.

Grace Maxwell: Ha ha! On Grace The Spot, we have a list of stuff lesbians like…

Marga: Oh, yeah!

Grace Maxwell: In your experience, what are some of the top things that lesbians like?

Marga: Lesbians like Grace the Spot! Lesbians like – well, I hate to do stereotypes, but- lesbians like fleece. I like fleece. I brought my fleece here. My girlfriend is the kinda lesbian who likes high heels, she likes cigarettes, she likes Patricia Fields – that kind of lesbian. When I wear my fleece it makes her cry. So I’m here with my fleece – me and my fleece are lovers.

What else do lesbians like? Lesbians like me – but they also like Indigo Girls, you know that.

You know what lesbians like? They like this game called erotic photo hunt. It’s a great game. We have it at a bar in San Francisco called the Lexington. It’s basically “spot-the-difference” and it’s softcore porn- lesbians in San Francisco love that.

Oh, lesbians like to complain. When we go to the club, we complain that everybody’s too young. As soon as lesbians turn 24, everybody’s too young. And lesbians never like the music that the DJ’s playing, and we always go up to the DJ and say “Play something else! Play something else- not that, play something you don’t have.”

Lesbians also like processing and talking about their feelings; in fact, I saw a lot of lesbian porn where they just talked about their feelings about fucking, instead of just fucking.

And I think some lesbians like America’s Next Top Model, too….I do. ‘Cuz it’s just girls in underwear.

Grace Maxwell: Could you describe yourself in one sentence?

Marga: I am someone who tries to keep it real, gay.

Grace Maxwell: What can we expect next from you, Marga?

Marga: Next from me? Besides having a breakdown in Scotland? Well, I actually wanna get my blog going…Yeah, but I don’t know how to. Are you hearing this, Grace Chu? I know I’ve got a lot of hits but I don’t know who’s following me. What’s next for me is I wanna have a really great website. I wanna have a site where people can buy stuff from me.

I want to be queen of the internet. I want to create content people can have. I want more people to know about me, and so that’s whats next: me getting organized, strategic, and becoming the king of pop.

[Editor's note: READ MARGA'S BLOG. Add her blog to your links. And follow her blog on Bloglovin'. Oh yeah, and Twitter.]