Margaret Cho: '100% Cool'

Margaret Cho didn't want to grow up to be a straight, white man, but in the 70s it seemed like that's what it took to be a successful comic.

Fast forward to now, when the Korean-American from San Francisco is a hot commodity with a new movie and a wide following for her brand of crass autobiographical comedy that has been compared to Richard Pryor, one of her role models.

"I used to dream, maybe someday, I can be an extra on M*A*S*H," she says in her new film, "Notorious C.H.O." referring to the vacuum for Asian-American opportunities in entertainment.

So instead of claiming a spot that didn't exist in the traditional establishment, Cho created her own.

"There is so much misogyny and racism in comedy, so much so that I didn't want to deal with it anymore. It was so hard to go on auditions all the time and hang out with a lot of other comics who didn't respect what I was doing," Cho told Reuters in a phone interview.

"Not having acceptance within comedy and entertainment has given me a lot of freedom. My success proves that we don't need to put up with these boxes that we get put in because of race or gender. We can really create our own success," she added.

With her second independently produced film now in theaters, Cho continues to redefine both who and what is considered funny in a genre that has long been considered an old boys' club.

"Stand-up comedy is really a straight white male-dominated world, which makes it all the more remarkable that this Asian-American woman can break through, and become one of the top comics. Margaret is the first," said Chris Young, senior talent executive at the Comedy Central network.

One of Cho's trademarks is that she talks frankly about race and politics and explicitly about both heterosexual and homosexual sex. In doing so, she opened the door for other women to bust the taboo, says Becky Donohue, a 29-year old New York-based standup of Colombian-Irish descent.

"Whenever I worry about saying anything on stage, I look to Margaret because she says anything. It's really freeing -- she's like a leader that way," said Donohue, who started the online magazine www.girlcomic.net to make room for women's voices in comedy.

Cho, who is now 33, dropped out of high school and started performing at the age of 16, first in her native San Francisco, and then touring around the country.

Citing a lack of Asian-American role models, Cho said she instead "looked up to people like Richard Pryor and Eddie Murphy -- great comics who also had a kind of earthiness to them and a kind of honesty."

"It wasn't slick or respectful in the way that Johnny Carson was, who was so incredibly gifted and aloof, that kind of power was unattainable for someone like me," said Cho.

Cho's admiration of Pryor's bold and personal style echoes the rave reviews she's received for her two films.

That's in stark contrast to the derision and rejection she faced earlier in her career, some of the harshest of which came from communities she should have been part of -- other comics and Asian-Americans.

Cho's first film, "I'm The One That I Want," was a comic narrative about her aborted career as the first Asian-American to star in her own prime-time TV show on ABC. The film detailed this historic but painful experience, which ended with the show being canceled after Cho was pressured to lose weight and alternately become more and less "Asian."

"I was willing to do anything anybody wanted because I didn't want to lose my opportunity," said Cho. "It was really a terrible situation, but it turned out good...in the end."

The show, its failure, and Cho's struggles were well publicized in the press, and a personal decline into alcohol, drugs and promiscuity followed before her career turned around.

"What she's done is like the 80s movies, where the nerdy kid is a nerd, and then all of a sudden he makes being a nerd cool," said Victor Varnado, a self-described black albino actor and comedian, who plays the villain in Eddie Murphy's new film "The Adventures of Pluto Nash."

"That's basically what she's done with her career. When she came in doing that stuff with 'All-American Girl' people were against her style. And now she's just brought it around where just being Margaret Cho is 100 percent cool and she basically has carte blanche to do whatever she wants," he added.

Not only is Cho risque about talking about her sexual adventures, enemas, overdue porn rentals, and other mishaps, she is equally bold in talking about the racism, the misogyny and the serious aspects of life, all without giving in to playing the victim, says Comedy Central's Young.

"She's not a comic that will skirt issues that mean something. She really educates people about the sort of things she talks about. She's not afraid to be poignant and say something moving while being hysterically funny".