Margaret Cho

Cho won the American Comedy Award for Best Female Comedian in 1994. She made television history by being the first Asian American (male or female) to have a television series based around her and her culture. Although the series was quickly cancelled, she has had several successful one-woman shows. The first, called "I'm the One That I Want[?]," dealt with her difficulties breaking into show business due to her ethnicity and weight.

The second, "The Notorious C.H.O.[?]" (the title a spoof on rap artist Lil' Kim's album "The Notorious K.I.M.[?]," and that in turn being a tribute to Lil' Kim's late boyfriend's nickname "The Notorious B.I.G.",) dealt with her having been raised in 1970s San Francisco and her own bisexuality. Both tours spawned live movie versions, albums and books.

Much of her comedy is quite sexually explicit; some of her favourite subjects include her fondness for gay men and proud identity as a fag hag, sharp political commentary, descriptions of her problems with prejudice, substance abuse, and eating disorders, and her relationship with her mother, whom she adores to satirize.

"My mother calls me the other day and leaves this message. 'Beep: Margaret? Are you there? Pick up the phone. I know you are there. (Pause.) If you do not pick up phone, that mean you gay. You gaaaaaay. Only the gay screen calls. (Pause.) I know all about the gay. The gay, they love-uh ass. They love-uh ass soooooo much, but you know, sometime I think they love it a little too much. You have to have ass in moderation. Otherwise? It not special. I know a gay. He name is Paul and-uh he is sooooo gay. He love just two things. Ass...and Judy Garland. Ass, and ass-uh-ovah-the-rainbow.'"

- Margaret Cho on her C.D. "Drunk With Power"

Bibliography:

• I'm the One That I Want (2000)

Discography:

• Drunk With Power (1997)
• I'm the One That I Want (2000)
• The Notorious C.H.O. (2001)
• CHO REVOLUTION! (2003)