FOR A COMEDIAN, Margaret Cho isn’t very funny.

Let’s qualify that. Margaret Cho is often very funny, when she’s on stage doing her stand-up thing, as she did in I’m the One That I Want, her 1999 hit show and subsequent movie, and in Notorious C.H.O., her latest one-woman show just released as a feature film. But off stage, Cho is decidedly more serious, musing on everything from her publicized addictions to sex and food; to her mother, who often finds herself good-naturedly mimicked in Cho’s stand-up routine; to her comedic mission as a Korean-American woman. On stage, Cho says things like, "I urge you all today to love yourselves without reservation and to love each other without restraint — unless you’re into leather. Then by all means use restraints." Off stage, she says things like, "I think it’s safe to say that [Notorious C.H.O.] is inspired by female rappers because I think that they really are at the forefront of feminism."

Luckily, it’s the on-stage Cho that audiences get to see.

Q: Are Boston audiences typically good to you?

A: Yes. It’s really a great place for me to come and work. I like to come and write, too, when I’m working out a new show. It’s a really good place for me, because people here are so educated and really aware and smart. There is a difference in different areas of the country. There’s something about the people here; they’re very concerned about the world, so there’s much more of a political consciousness. I think it’s a very political city, a very opinionated city, a lot of people who are very staunch in their beliefs.

Q: Are there any parts of the country you don’t play because they just don’t get you?

A: Not really. I mean, nowadays there is, I guess, more of an awareness of what I’m doing and what I’m about, so I don’t really play too many places where people are just going to see comedy and they don’t know what they’re seeing, which is something that I started out doing. You know, when I was playing in a lot of comedy clubs, a lot of times people would just go see comics because they thought it was really generic. And through the years, I’ve developed an audience that really appreciates what I do. But certainly it’s been a lot of trial and error to get there. At this point, there’s really no place that I’ve played that isn’t receptive to what I’m doing, and I’ve been to areas very far out. I’ve performed in Sydney, Australia, and all over the United States and Britain, so it’s not really like I go anywhere where they’re not aware.

Q: Talk to me about this show and movie. I’ve read that it was inspired by female rap artists?

A: Well, the title is, but it’s more, maybe the feeling and sensibility that [female rappers] put out there. This show is probably more feminist than the work I’ve done before, more blatantly feminist, and deals with a lot of gender issues pertaining to sexuality and relationships, sort of the politics of relationships. That’s the main focus, if there is one. There’s a lot of different things, too — it spins off into many different areas: a little bit into race, a little bit into sexual identity, a little bit into gay and lesbian issues, probably more into body issues. So from the jumping-off point of being a feminist work, I think it’s safe to say that it’s inspired by female rappers because I think that they really are at the forefront of feminism; they’re really offering up a different type of feminism. It’s a kind of feminism that’s really about being ostentatious with your power, and having this kind of bravado, and an almost male swagger to the power that you wield. It’s a really exciting movement, I think.

Q: Your bio alludes to sex and food addictions. How have those addictions affected your comedy?

A: I think that I just naturally have a deep hunger, a wild hunger, for stimulation. And so to be able to work like that too as an artist, to write with that hunger, I think really serves me well. I do talk about both addictions in my work, extensively, and I think people identify with them. Often they can be uncomfortable topics to discuss in front of people that you don’t really know, but then at the same time they’re things that we all have experienced, or have in common, or can identify with on some level. So I think they’re unifying, but they’re also pretty loaded. I enjoy talking about things that I know about.

Q: Do you think comedians who don’t have major issues are as funny?

A: I think that it depends. I think there are different types of humor, and there are different types of entertainment, and things that I enjoy are probably the things that are darker, and maybe outside of the mainstream slightly — although there are people in the mainstream who talk about things that are volatile who I really respect and enjoy. I mean, there are people like Chris Rock, and even back further, people like Richard Pryor, who really changed people’s notions about what comedy was, and so I respect that and I enjoy that probably more than somebody who is more generic in what they do.

Q: Have you ever stopped telling a particular joke because your mother asked you to?

A: No. She wouldn’t ask.

Q: If she did, would you stop?

A: I might. But I really doubt that she would ever involve herself in that way. That’s something that isn’t part of her particular personality. She’s not the censorship type.

Q: What do you do when a joke fails? How do you recover, in that moment?

A: It’s almost as if my jokes are not really, like, obvious, so it’s not really something that I ever have to think about. Sometimes things get laughs and sometimes they don’t at all, and it just depends on where I am and what I’m doing. So I’m pretty well protected from that kind of very obvious failure, which is a great thing.

Q: How much does audience energy affect what you’re doing on stage?

A: It really affects it a lot. I really respect their opinion, and obviously it’s for them, so I need their input a lot. It is like a dialogue; it’s not so much that I want to be up there by myself — I need some sort of agreement or reassurance.

Q: Do you try and send your audience away with one particular message or one thought?

A: I think what maybe I try to do is entertain on a lot of different levels, and if I can get some of my views across, things about self-esteem, things about body image, things about race, things about wielding our own power in relationships, as women — I think if my point of view comes across, that’s great, but it’s more important for me to just be an entertainer. So I just hope that people have a good time.

Q: What do you think makes somebody funny?

A: I think that it’s a combination of things. It could be something different for everyone. I think there’s an element of freedom and silliness and irreverence and confidence and sometimes non-confidence — sometimes total fear makes someone really funny. And it’s a lot about charm, too.

Q: What do you think you’d be doing now if you hadn’t become a comedian?

A: I don’t know. I think that I have very few interests outside of what I do, so I don’t know that I could devote myself fully to any other profession.

Q: Is anything off-limits in your comedy?

A: I don’t know. I mean, it’s possible. I don’t really know. I guess so. I certainly lead a very private life, if that makes sense. It’s something that’s really important to me. Also, the way that I work and my persona on stage is very different than my off-stage demeanor. I think I’m not as outspoken, not as vulgar, certainly not as aggressive. I don’t really have that aggression in my daily life, which makes everything colored differently. Even though everything I talk about on stage is true, in a sense it’s like it’s happened to a different person. Often when people meet me, they’re kind of taken aback by the fact that I’m actually quite shy, and not funny at all. It’s almost like not the same person that is doing what I’m doing on stage.

Q: You sort of just answered one of my questions, which was, do you ever try and go a whole day without being funny? It sounds like you often do.

A: Months without it! I don’t really think about being funny off stage; it’s not really something that I’m naturally gifted at. It’s something to work on.

Q: Is making someone wet their pants the pinnacle of success for a comedian?

A: You know what it is? I think making people cry — that’s sort of the pinnacle. The really great comedians are very good at that. What they do is they take people to all of the levels of emotion, and through everything. That’s what we really aim for, I think.

Notorious C.H.O. is now playing at the Kendall Square Cinema, in Cambridge. Tamara Wieder can be reached at twieder[a]phx.com