She’s breaking all the rules of the profession. She’s discovered thin. She has a boyfriend. Her career is gangbusters.

In short, she’s happy, free and 33, and this will not do.

Misery may love company, but it adores comedy. Ms. Cho knows this well. Her claims to fame are riffs on her parentage, her weight, her dating life, her short-lived TV career.

Arrest that woman! How can she be funny when she’s this happy? Relax, says Cho. She may be getting some of this and retaining less of that, but she still has plenty to say on a variety of subjects. Like drag queens. Like colonic hydrotherapy. Like the harangue she suffered at the hands of an Asian store owner over an unreturned adult video.

Hilarious but still personal – that’s classic Cho. Most of her jokes can’t be repeated in a family newspaper, but trust those who have seen her “Notorious C.H.O.” tour: She’s still killer.

Or see for yourself. The tour brings her to the Aerial Theater on Friday. She then plays Austin on Saturday before winding up a 35-city tour at New York’s Carnegie Hall on Wednesday.

And then?

“Actually, I’m extending the tour slightly,” she said. “I’m going to Australia in February, so I’m extending the tour by two weeks.”

She says her act translates well in Australia.

“Actually, some of this show was written in Scotland, and some of it was written in Massachusetts and Provincetown,” she says. “It really travels very well.”

And now, 20 questions for Margaret Cho:

1) What are your memories of Houston?

“I’ve been there many times. You know, I have the key to the city (for her work three years ago on behalf of Montrose Clinic). It was very large. I also have a key to San Francisco. And a key to San Diego, but I can’t find it.”

2) Houston is near the end of your tour. How do you keep the performance fresh?

“It’s about being in the moment for everything, which I think is the key to life in general. It’s about taking it moment by moment and fully inhabiting each moment as I go. That, and also I have a pretty high turnover in that I write a new show every year or year and a half, so it keeps things moving pretty fast for me.”

3) But does the act itself change from venue to venue?

“It changes based on what I am and what happened to me that day. It stays fresh, as though I was performing it with my whole heart.”

4) Is the show adapted for particular audiences?

“Not necessarily. It’s more that there are subtle nuances that change. But the content doesn’t change.”

5) Indelicate question: Are you a better performer on Wednesday if you scored on Tuesday?

“It’s hard to say. I don’t think so.” She laughs. “I’m not really fueled by that kind of energy, although maybe I was when I was younger ... “

6) Do you aspire to change people’s perspective of Asian people?

“I would like to. Or add to whatever the social and cultural makeup of an Asian woman is. I would like to add to what we know, which is not very much.”

7) What do you say to people who say you make fun of your race?

“I do.”

8) And what’s wrong with that?

“Nothing. It’s like, so? It’s my heritage and my life. In a sense, I’m just making fun of my life. I make fun of everything that happens to me. To be able to talk about race and ethnicity freely, in order to laugh and enjoy that aspect of it, is very important. If I went there and didn’t address race, that would be odd.”

9) Have you confronted people who are violently opposed to it?

“I suppose so, but in the end they totally agree with me because I’m only trying to serve the art or the creative spirit that I have. There is no malice behind that. When I’m talking about race or ethnicity, I’m talking about, say, my parents or my family. It’s an honest, truthful portrayal of what’s happening to me, and what I want to create is very viable and alive. It’s not something to denigrate or meant to hurt people. It’s not a racist thing. It’s very important to talk about race. It’s very important to be free to.”

10) Are your relatives OK with it?

“Oh, they love it.”

11) Even your mom?

“Yeah, she loves it. I just did a show (in San Jose) and she was there, and she stood up. The audience was completely floored that she was there and was very excited to see her. She loves it.”

12) Do the events of Sept. 11 enter into your act?

“Yes, that’s a portion of the show that’s toward the beginning. It’s important. That whole thing happened right before the beginning of the tour. The first leg of the trip became a benefit tour for different organizations in New York City and Washington, D.C., and it was important for me to talk about it in the show.”

13) Could you give us a sample?

“Take anthrax. It wasn’t really that big of a deal when it was happening. All that was required was a few small changes in the way we live our daily lives. For instance, my first instinct when I receive an envelope with white powder is to snort it. So I just won’t do that this time.”

14) Your schedule does not show a New Year’s Eve performance. Why is that?

“It’s not appropriate for me. I worked on New Year’s for 15 years straight. Now I just want to be home. Last year I was home by 10. This year, I made dinner for a friend and my dog.”

15) Is a large part of your audience Asian?

“I’d say, overall, that 30 percent of the audience is Asian.”

16) Is that in any way a burden?

“No. It adds a bit of recognition, such as when I’m talking about race or my family. There’s this extra recognition factor, this extra understanding that we have.”

17) How is your love life?

“I have a ... mmm ... It’s good.”

18) Can you expound?

“I’m in a relationship, and it’s very quiet and homey and what I need right now.”

19) Does it help your comedy?

“He’s very conservative in that he doesn’t want to be talked about. ‘Just don’t talk about me, whatever you do.’ He’s British, and the British don’t talk about certain things. You can talk about anything else, but don’t talk about me or us. He’s great.”

20) That’s cool with you?

“Yeah, that’s fine.”