In 1994, she won the American Comedy Award for female comedian. Her ABC sitcom “All-American Girl” launched that same year, only to be canceled in 1995.

Cho was stung by the experience. She blames the show’s producers, drugs and herself. Now sober, she views “All-American Girl” as a learning experience, one that has helped to pave the way for a series now in development with Lifetime. This time, Cho has creative control.

She describes it as a soap opera in which she and writing/performing partner Karen Kilgariff play all the characters.

“It’s just really exciting,” Cho said. “We love doing all the transformational makeup and costume changes. We’re going to follow the lives of these different women that you don’t see on television, follow their different lives and all their personal hells.”

Cho, who will perform at 8 p.m. Oct. 31 at Rutgers University’s Camden, N.J., campus, spoke to PGN last week about her career, her battle with drugs and alcohol, and her gay fans.
 

PGN: Why do so many gay men seem to love you?

Cho: It has to do with my upbringing. I grew up in San Francisco. I always say in my routine that some people were raised by wolves, I was raised by drag queens. I learned how to be a woman by being around gay men.

PGN: I consider you, Janeane Garofalo and Kathy Griffin to be the holy trinity of comedy – what’s the opposite of ‘fag hags’?

Cho: (Laughs.) Thank you. I don’t think “fag hag” is a bad thing. We’ve embraced it the same way that black people embrace “nigger,” or the way that queers embrace the word “queer.” At one time they were considered these horrible names, and now they have become terms of endearment.

PGN: You were kind of the Barbara Mandrell of fag hags, though. You were a fag hag when fag hag wasn’t cool.

Cho: (Laughs.) Barbara Mandrell? How gay. How funny. I like that. I am, by my nature, and temperament, and hair, a fag hag. I can’t help it.

PGN: Your family is pretty religious, though. How did they react to you spending so much time with gay men ?

Cho: My family is pretty liberal, by Korean standards. When I grew up in San Francisco, my parents ran a bookstore on Polk Street. So my father was, like, really into these guys who worked for him – who were all gay – because of their education and literary background. He wanted to put me in their care – kind of a “My Fair Lady.”
 

PGN: Your stand-up material has always been tied to your family. Is your routine the same, or are you branching out?

Cho: I’m really branching out. I’m almost 30. I have really come into a new time in my life, in that I’m newly sober ... I’ve been on drugs and alcohol since I was 14, so I’m literally 14 years old now. It’s so weird. It’s like a new page has been turned in my life. My gay friends loved me because I was the most dressed up and messed up. I would be lying on the dance floor like Liza on a bad night at Studio 54.

My career was really perfect for an addict: You have all this money, you don’t have to work during the day. I wanted to be like Billie Holiday or something.

PGN: Do you miss it?

Cho: I would love to do it if I could. But it got to be really difficult. So I’m really just discovering this sober subculture, which is so gay ... I’ve given it all up for green tea and yoga.

PGN: Sounds incredibly healthy.

Cho: You know what it is? It’s the new Madonna album that’s done it for me. I just feel a lot better. My body’s healthier. When I work out, my sweat doesn’t burn my eyes. I just feel a lot better.

PGN: You’re not going to start wearing Hindu face paint and piss everyone off, are you?

Cho: The henna? I don’t know about that yet. I’m into chai now.

PGN: Chai tea? Me too, except I like Starbuck’s chai tea lattes, which I don’t think are good for you.

Cho: I don’t know. This whole sobriety thing has led into a different lifestyle. I’m vegan now. I got into this addiction of denial. I got into cutting out caffeine, meat, leather, dairy. My life is so stripped down, yet very full.

PGN: You’re not one of those militant vegans who attack people eating red meat, are you?

Cho: Oh, no. I don’t think you should infringe your beliefs on other people.

PGN: Tell me about these films you’ve done that haven’t been released. I have to hear about “Fakin’ D’ Funk.”

Cho: “Fakin’ D’ Funk” is really amazing. It’s about these three Asian students who get lost in South Central L.A. They become hip-hop by osmosis, it’s just a really cute comedy. It’s so crazy: the total classic fish out of water ...

PGN: Who else is in it?

Cho: Pam Grier, who I love – all these really cool people that I love. Nell Carter ...

PGN: I love her.

Cho: She’s awesome. She just does everything. When I was shooting this scene with Nell Carter, I was in bed and I was supposed to be freaking out in the middle of the night because of this police siren – because I’m Chinese. I was holding Nell Carter, and I was crying, and I didn’t realize where I was touching Nell Carter, and the whole time my hand was on Nell Carter’s vagina.

PGN: Nice. That’s OK, though. I think I touched John Waters’ penis last night.

Cho: Wow. (Laughs.) John Waters’ “pecker”?

PGN: What about “Pink As the Day She Was Born”?

Cho: That was a rock ‘n’ roll movie, I just have a really little part in it. I wear this rhinestone outfit. ... I just can define it from my outfit.
 

PGN: And “Can’t Stop Dancing”?

Cho: It’s a parody of the ‘80s dance movies, which I just loved.

PGN: I saw an ad with Steve Allen’s photo in it. I can’t see a photo of him without thinking of your routine from a few years ago, where you trashed him and his wife [Jayne Meadows]. You had seen them at some awards dinner, and joked that they would come to the opening of an envelope.

Cho: (Laughs.) Oh, yeah.

PGN: Anyway, he’s in this ad wanting people to give him money to help stop sex and violence on television. It’s pretty funny, since his last TV role was on “Homicide: Life on the Street” – him, his wife, and his bad wig.

Cho: Yeah. And what, stop sex and violence so we can see his hypocritical mocha-mix ass on the screen? No thank you. (Laughs.) It’s so mean to go after Steve Allen, who’s, like, totally defenseless.

PGN: (Laughs.) That’s the beauty, of it. Who better to pick on? It’s great to go after these really average people.

Cho: That’s the nature of my comedy – to pick on people who are totally defenseless.

“I was on so many drugs, and I was so young. I call those my ‘Saved By the Bell’ Years. I wore a jeans jacket and ankh, for Christ’s sake. Of course I was on drugs.”
MARGARET CHO on her short-lived sitcom “All-American Girl”

PGN: What happened with “All-American Girl”?

Cho: I was on drugs. When I started complaining about the show, they were like, “You should lose some weight.” So they sent me to this weird diet doctor who gave me some of these not-legal diet pills. ... I started losing weight, but I started losing my ability to function in reality. I know it was my fault. I’m such a paranoid person. I think it was just a lot of unfortunate circumstances that led to it. They tried to fit me into this role of being some sort of sex symbol, which I’ve never been in my comedy ...

I’m no Yasmine Bleeth, yet they were trying to make me this. No amount of diet pills are going to turn me into this sex symbol. Even the title was wrong. There were so many reasons the show was wrong. I was on so many drugs, and I was so young. I call those my “Saved By the Bell” years. I wore a jeans jacket and ankh, for Christ’s sake. Of course I was on drugs.

PGN: If those were your “Saved By the Bell Years,” maybe you can go on to your own version of “Showgirls.”

Cho: For “Can’t Stop Dancing,” I watched “Showgirls” between scenes. I get a lot of inspiration from “Showgirls.”

PGN: It’s probably the last of the unintentionally camp Hollywood films.

Cho: So camp, and so brilliant. I can watch that movie over and over again. I can jump in anywhere and watch the whole thing, and I always am exhilarated. It’s hilarious, but exciting and fun. That’s entertainment. But I don’t like the rape scene.
 

PGN: Tell me what it was like to film “It’s My Party.”

Cho: With “It’s My Party,” I think all of us really felt close to the subject matter. The film was basically a love letter to the director’s partner, who had died. It really captured that. We felt we were doing this great thing for someone who was very loved and very missed. I really felt like I loved him and felt like I was part of the whole experience. I have a lot of joy remembering, and I brought a lot of my own pain with it.

PGN: No offense, but the cast was like, “big screen meets movie of the week.” My God, you had Eric Roberts.

Cho: And Olivia Newton-John. She’s great. It was a really weird cast, like a bad episode of the “Love Boat.”

PGN: All you needed was Charo.

Cho: We did have Bronson Pinchot, which was kind of like having Charo.

PGN: (Laughs.) And you had Gregory Harrison, who was the only reason ever to watch “Trapper John, M.D.”

Cho: He’s so sexy ... Gonzo Gates.
 

PGN: What else are you doing?

Cho: I just did a show in Connecticut with Kate Clinton. I travel a lot. I’m doing “The Nanny” next week, I’m doing the tour ... At home, I take the dog to the park. I’m going to see “Happiness” tonight.

PGN: I can’t wait to see that. I loved “Welcome to the Dollhouse.”

Cho: I just saw “Practical Magic.”

PGN: Ew. I’m afraid of that.

Cho: It was great. I love things that empower little girls. That’s why I love the Spice Girls. That’s why I want to keep working, because I think my work inspires little girls and queens. If I can do that, I’ve done my job.

PGN: You like the Spice Girls? I suppose you’ve seen them in concert.

Cho: I’m a huge fan. I’ve only seen the video of them in Istanbul. I’ve never seen them live, but I would love to. It’s different now that Ginger is gone. There’s a hole, and I don’t know who’s going to fill that hole. They’re incomplete without Ginger. She was Cohesive Spice. They were collectively the Spice Girls, but Ginger was the bonding agent.

PGN: You’ve thought too much about this.

Cho: They need her. Some of my friends are like, “It’ll be fine without her.” That’s bullshit. They need her.

PGN: Maybe you could fill that hole.

Cho: I wanna be the new Spice Girl. I could be MSG Spice.

PGN: I can see you on stage, wearing your jeans jacket and ankh.

Cho: (Laughs.) That was the drugs. God, the ankh. •