Margaret Cho: Turning a flop into success
By Larry Getlen • Bankrate.com

Margaret Cho is triumphing over her demons, personally and professionally.

Cho began her stand-up career at the age of 16 in her native San Francisco, and by her early 20s became one of the most popular acts on the college circuit, performing more than 300 concerts in two years, earning a nomination for Campus Comedian of the Year and winning the American Comedy Award for Female Comedian of the Year in 1994.

Shortly after, though, her success turned almost deadly. Cho was given a sitcom by ABC called "All-American Girl," which was the first sitcom to center around an Asian-American family. But the network had problems with Cho's wider-than-a-toothpick body image, and pressured her to lose 30 pounds in two weeks. Among the network executives' complaints was the roundness of the Korean comic's face. Cho lost the weight, developing permanent kidney problems in the process.

"All-American Girl" lasted one season, and the ordeal drove Cho into a spiral of drug and alcohol abuse, promiscuous sex and generally suicidal behavior.

Instead of blindly succumbing, Cho channeled her "All-American Girl" experience into a one-woman show titled "I'm the One That I Want." The show dealt frankly with Cho's experience with the network, her self-abuse after the cancellation and the problems women face concerning body-image expectations.

The show was a hit, winning New York magazine's Performance of the Year Award, and being named one of the great performances of the year by Entertainment Weekly. Cho made a film of "I'm the One That I Want," and it became one of three films in history to reach $1 million dollars at the box office with fewer than 10 prints. She also turned the show into a book.

So now, having converted defeat into triumph, Cho is touring her new one-woman show, "The Notorious C.H.O." This show more closely emulates the traditional stand-up comedy format than its predecessor, but will still deal with the weighty topic of "the politics of a woman's body."

Bankrate spoke with Cho via telephone from Scotland, where she performed "The Notorious C.H.O." as part of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

BANKRATE: You were a highly paid comic before you did the TV show, weren't you?

MARGARET CHO: It was all right. I don't really remember. I think I was mostly doing universities, which are pretty good. They pay a lot.

B: What kind of money can a comic make on the college circuit?

MC: From $50,000 into the millions per year.

B: Which end were you closer to?

MC: I was probably close to the $50,000 side when I started, but now I'm gradually approaching the other side. But I rarely do universities now, except for educational purposes. That has a different pay scale to it, where you get an honorarium, where you're doing it more for the students than for the pay. It's like being a commencement speaker.

B: In the midst of all your negative experiences with the TV show, how did you come out of it financially?

MC: I actually didn't do too badly because I didn't spend any of the money. I don't know how I got away with that, but I didn't buy anything when I started. A lot of people, when they get their big television show, they buy a big house and flashy cars, and it's a big thing. But I didn't buy a house or car or anything of value. I didn't go anywhere, there wasn't any family to spend it on, nothing but myself. So I wound up saving it all.

B: What were you paid per episode for the show?

MC: I think it was, I'm not sure, but I think around $20,000. I could be wrong.

B: Compared to what we hear about for sitcom people now, that seems low.

MC: That's minimum wage for a sitcom star. Now, they usually make upwards of $100,000 to $150,000 per episode. That's kind of the low end.

B: How did you finance the film version of "I'm the One That I Want?"

MC: The tour I had gone on before the film was so successful that it allowed me the ability to be very fluid with the cash flow and finance it myself.

B: How much will you make on a live show?

MC: I don't know, because, it changes so much. I can't say. I'm not far from the upper echelon.

B: You only made 10 prints of your film. What were your expectations for that? Did you expect to lose money, just break even, or profit?

MC: I actually didn't have any financial expectations. I just wanted to make it. I wasn't sure what would happen. I didn't give it that much thought. I just did it because I wanted to.

B: I know it did really well. Did it turn into a huge moneymaker?

MC: It still remains to be seen. I mean, it has been, but compared to what I make as a live performer it's not a big moneymaker. It worked out in the end, but it's in the low end of what I would make.

B: Now you've got a book, live shows, movies, the film -- are any one of these the bulk of your income?

MC: The big moneymaker is the live performance, the touring. That's always going to be where you make your money.

-- Posted: Oct. 3, 2001