Drunk With Power

Margaret Cho’s first comedy album captures a performer shedding the constraints of a recently canceled network sitcom. Released shortly after ABC pulled the plug on All-American Girl, Drunk With Power acts as a course correction. She talks about being raised by drag queens, the physical agony of passing a kidney stone, and the realities of being an Asian American actor in Hollywood. The set leans into the precise material television executives had previously asked her to tone down.

The audio was recorded at a comedy club in her hometown of San Francisco in 1996. The tracklist covers dating misadventures, anxieties about body image, and her own sexual hang-ups. Cho also works through early versions of the parental impressions that would become a staple of her later stage work.