After some rumination on sex and drugs (and she talks about these twin demons at length), the delightfully naughty Cho moves on to more serious topics. She was inspired by a particularly cynical experience she had with ABC and Disney as the star of the long-since-canceled show, “All American Girl.” She says the network hired a consultant at one point to make her “seem more Asian” and that her kidneys collapsed when the network’s “concern” about her “full face” led her to lose 30 pounds in two weeks with a trainer.
Cho’s imitations and physical gestures are evocative and stirring, particularly her simultaneosly sweet yet wicked portrayal of her immigrant mom. By the end of her schtik, she’s seamlessly woven outtakes from her childhood with the tale of her battle back from drug addiction. This kind of meshing of her personal baggage with pop culture riffing–served up with Cho’s hilarious delivery–makes “I’m the One That I Want” something you might want to see.
