In 1994, when Margaret Cho was just 26 years old, she achieved what has become the Holy Grail for today's comedians: her very own sitcom. And not just any sitcom—the first U.S. sitcom to feature an Asian-American female star. It should have been a year of triumph for Cho; instead, it was a living hell. First, she lost all creative control. Then, the producers expressed anxiety about the "fullness" of her face. Cho soon found herself in a spiral of anorexia and diet-pill abuse, which led, when the show was canceled, to clinical depression and drug and alcohol abuse.

Margaret Cho not only survived—she came back with a comedic vengeance. I'm the One That I Want, her 1998 off-Broadway show, was her raucous, raunchy, howlingly funny yet searingly honest account of the dark years she'd been through. In 2000, a film version of the show was released at the Sundance Film Festival to near-delirious critical acclaim. In her new book, Cho expands on these experiences, finding deeper meaning and even more outrageous humor in her fateful encounter with the bizarre world of American network television. She can now say, in all seriousness, "I really love the way my life is going right now."