When Marga Gomez dances, people think she's just trying to be funny.
"I dance really terribly,'' admits Gomez, whose own mother was a professional dancer. ''I belong to a minority of Latinos who can't dance. When I go out to the club, suddenly I forget and I think that I'm good…and I just start going for it. And then the people I'm dancing with will look at me, then imitate me. They think I'm joking.''
Usually, Gomez is joking. One of the first openly gay comedians, the New York-born, San Francisco-based Gomez followed in her father's footsteps, making comedy her career decades ago. One day, she may even nod to her mother and dance during her act. ''On my list of projects that I still want to do, I do have a show where I want to dance in it,'' she says.
Marga Gomez
(Photo by Kent Taylor)
Until then, Gomez's comedy focuses on her life being a ''soft butch in our L Word world,'' and the joys – and pain – of being single at a time when even God is selling relationships – via the dating site Christianmingle.com. ''Their slogan is, 'Find the mate that God has planned for you,''' Gomez says. ''So when we wonder: How are all these atrocities happening the world? Where is God? God is working on a cheesy dating site.''
Next Sunday, Jan. 13, Gomez returns to D.C., a decade after her Woolly Mammoth-presented show Los Big Names at the Kennedy Center, and a couple months after a joint show with gay comic Mike Albo at L'Enfant Café. Her new, politically inspired show at Busboys & Poets is called Laughterglow.
''There's not that much politics [in the show],'' she says. ''It's really just a feeling of being ecstatic and happy [with President Obama winning re-election]. As crazy as our economy is, and as serious as the world situation is, it's still like, 'Oh, our side won.'''
Naturally, the first family is welcome at her show. ''I think that this will be a great way for the Obamas to relax a week before the Inauguration,'' she says, adding with a laugh, ''And Barack can come, too.'' '
Marga Gomez performs Sunday, Jan. 13, at 8 p.m., at Busboys & Poets, 2021 14th St. NW. Tickets are $10 and available at margagomez.eventbrite.com. Call 202-387-POET or visit busboysandpoets.com.
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