Korean-American
comedian Margaret Cho is comfortable with homosexuals. “Some people were
raised by wolves,” she says. “I was raised by drag queens.” Riffs on gay
life and Asian-American culture enliven Cho’s new one-woman show, “I’m
the One That I Want,” currently on an extended run in New York. (A national
tour this fall will hit Houston, Chicago, San Francisco and Seattle.) Her
caustic, often hilarious performance takes special aim at TV execs and
critics who panned her 1994 sitcom, “All-American Girl.” Cho says
the suits just didn’t get it. “[They were] used to seeing a certain kind
of Asian woman: meek, quiet and slim. I was none of that.” Cho calls her
experience in Hollywood “my journey to hell,” one that ended in drug- and
alcohol-induced oblivion. Four years later, sober and grounded at 30, she
says, “I’m just glad I survived.” You will be, too.
Esther Pan
Newsweek, August 2, 1999