Cho's new act has 'All-American' insight

By RODNEY BENGSTON
Staff Writer

Margaret Cho is ready to laugh again. Or, to be more precise, she's ready to make audiences laugh again.

It wasn't that way during "All-American Girl," her one-season ABC sitcom of a few years ago. It's an experience Cho describes as "a descent into hell and back."

"There were just too many people involved in that show," Cho says, "and so much importance put on the fact that it was an 'ethnic' show.

"It's hard to pin down what 'ethnic' is without appearing to be racist. And then, for fear of being too 'ethnic,' it got so completely watered down for television that, by the end, it was completely lacking in the essence of what I am and what I do."

The series also took a physical toll. When a producer suggested she needed to lose weight and "begged me not to go out in public in a miniskirt," Cho lost 30 pounds in two weeks. It landed her in the hospital with kidney failure.

Cho says friend Quentin Tarantino warned about her vision being squelched and "that's just what happened," she admits. The series' cancellation sent Cho, 30, into a depression she tried to cure with drinking and drugs.

Now clean and sober, Cho says Cleveland audiences will get a sneak peek at her one-woman show when she performs from Thursday through June 12 at the Cleveland Improv. She plans to open in July off-Broadway at the Westbury Theatre.

"My comedy is an honest exploration into life," Cho says. "This work is already complete. It's a retelling of the story of my TV show. It's a deconstruction of stardom and how I nearly became a Hollywood casualty. This is my second chance at life."

No longer hiding behind drugs or alcohol, Cho feels her stand-up act has improved. "I'm a much better storyteller. It's also great to have quit drinking because now I go to sleep instead of passing out. When I work out, the sweat doesn't burn my eyes."

Always straightforward, Cho says sexuality is broached in her shows. She worked at many gay and lesbian clubs while starting out in her hometown of San Francisco. "I'm not gay myself, but I was in my element there. Gay people are my tribe. I was raised by drag queens."

Cho began performing in a comedy club above a bookstore her parents ran. Soon after, she won a comedy contest where first prize was opening for Jerry Seinfeld.

In the early '90s, Cho moved to a Los Angeles house with several other young performers. "I left because I wasn't the most famous," she says. "If the Manson family had come, I wouldn't have been Sharon Tate, I would have been one of the supporting victims, and who wants that? Janeane Garofalo moved into my old room. Anyway, 'Cho' written in blood on the wall doesn't look as cool as 'Garofalo.'"

Off the stand-up stage, too, Cho has done voice acting in "Rugrats" and had a part in John Woo's "Face/Off." Three films -- "Pink as the Day She Was Born," "Fakin' D' Funk" and "Can't Stop Dancing" -- have played the festival circuit and are seeking distribution.

"Pink" is a movie about girl bands where Cho plays a "deranged karaoke club owner." In "Funk," she is a Chinese exchange student who lives with Pam Grier and John Witherspoon. "Can't Stop Dancing" lampoons '80s trends such as break dancing.

Cho always knew she wanted to be some type of performer. It's not surprising she lists Richard Pryor and Eddie Murphy as comedic influences. On Pryor: "He was angry, scary and energetic." On Murphy: "He was very brash, but with so much heart."

Cho says her Korean parents don't quite understand what she does for a living. "They are supportive yet distant," she says. "They have never been to one of my shows and I doubt they ever will. The audience is my family."