Marga Gomez

Marga Gomez (born June 19, 1960) is a Puerto Rican/Cuban-American comedian, playwright, and humorist.

Quotes

• I want to represent queerness and mujerness in the conversation. I worry that my poor Spanish may be off-putting to some cohorts. I just talk so damn slow in any language. I also want to represent slow talkers—and mimes.
  • On her show Latin Standards in “FAMILY, LATINIDAD, AND QUEERNESS COALESCE IN MARGA GOMEZ’S ‘LATIN STANDARDS’” in The Theatre Times (2017 Nov 2)

• My audience is a mix of people, very San Francisco progressive, gay straight, Latino, people of color, white folks, and women. What I’ve learned is you can’t get everybody. I don’t want to compromise who I am. I love anyone who buys a ticket to my show.
  • On her audience in “A Tall Cool Drink of Marga Gomez" in Mission Local (2009)

• If I talk about my body the way the men do, that’s not okay with the audience. I was at a comedy show where there was this cool lesbian couple in the audience, really stylish, and one of them had to leave. She was crying sitting there listening to all the jokes about Subarus and mullet haircuts. I thought: I am going to get back at them. I want a man to look at this show and realize that their junk is no more appealing than women’s junk. I want them to look at junk.
  • On choosing to be more vulgar when talking about the female body in “Marga Gomez’s Love/Hate Letter to Her Lesbian Role Models” in American Theatre (2015 Jul 23)

• I tend to channel my characters and their needs first—that leads to dramatic situations—and then…I start writing and barf out pages. Next, I read what I have and find a glimmer of plot in there. Then I do it all over again with the plot driving the characters. You have to write a lot and throw out a lot and have fun with it.
  • On her writing process in “Exclusive Interview with Marga Gomez of Pound” in GOMAG (2015 Jul 9)