MARGARET CHO
By Rob Turbovsky

When ABC turned Margaret Cho's life into the sitcom All-American Girl, she jokes that executives essentially said she was too fat to play herself. The ensuing diet and addictions nearly killed her, but also inspired a career of searing, even Pryor-esque, comedy. She returns to TV in VH1's summer reality program The Cho Show, but before that she's touring with Beautiful, a stand-up show that filters ideas on self perception and self-esteem through her own struggles.

Why the departure from more explicitly topical material?

I love doing political humor and there's a measure of that in the show, but I also think it's great to do things that are about your story, my own story, and learning to feel good about yourself and taking a long time—a lifetime—to figure it out.

Does reality TV do a good job with minority representation?

Reality TV is great because it promotes diversity in terms of who we see. I'm bringing the second Asian-American family ever to television, my real family, and I brought the first Asian-American family to television 14 years ago. When I first did my show, there were so many criticisms as to racially where we were at or how we should be. It's interesting, because I see a lot of our struggle reflected in the Obama campaign, and how he is criticized for being too black or not black enough. People were saying I was too Asian or not Asian enough.

What did you think of Obama's response to the criticisms over his pastor's remarks?

He took that hit on his campaign and turned it into something where people were cheering for him. That speech [in Philadelphia] was incredible, which makes me think that Obama is a Jedi.