I'm the One That I Want [Abridged, Audiobook] [Audio CD]

Margaret Cho (Author, Reader)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 19, 2001

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."

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Don't come to this bitter, engrossing memoir for a quick and easy laugh. The material that Margaret Cho has turned to such riotous ends in her stand-up act has a very different flavor on the page. An unpopular child (okay, hated and reviled), Cho made friends with the drag queens who worked in her father's bookstore, soon becoming a fag hag, and finding this mutual attraction "both nurturing and powerful, sweet and sour, retail and wholesale." "Drag queens are strong because they have so much to fight against," writes Cho, "homophobia, sexism, pink eye." To support herself at the beginning of her comedy career, Cho worked at FAO Schwarz, sometimes moonlighting in phone sex. Occasionally the jobs would overlap, and she would find herself doing phone sex dressed as Raggedy Ann. There isn't much here about Cho's early success, but she does delve at length into her disastrous sitcom, and devotes many pages to her battles with her weight, with drugs, and with alcohol, and her hopeless relationships with men (none of the bisexual material from her stage act is included here). Cho's message is about self-esteem in the face of consistent opposition from her family, the network that aired a "Margaret Cho" sitcom but permitted her no creative control, and a society that rewards women for thinness, whiteness, meekness, and a shut mouth. --Regina Marler --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

Expanding on her one-woman show (and film) of the same title, comedian Cho mines her improbable life. The misfit daughter of Korean immigrants in San Francisco (who named her Moran, which she likens to naming a kid "Asshill"), she dropped out of high school, gaining success in stand-up even as she succumbed to self-loathing, substance abuse, bad boyfriends and the siren song of Hollywood. As star of the first Asian-American sitcom (All-American Girl), she was forced to diet herself into sickness even as the show strayed from her story and quickly foundered. This book runs into the inevitable challenge of converting performance into print; neither a script nor a fully fleshed-out memoir, it works episodically but ultimately fizzles. Descriptions of the endless lousy men in Cho's life, perhaps disarming onstage, become tedious on the page. Still, she finds humor in pathos. Working on a pilot with a sitcom writer, she held back the truth: "I was unemployed and trying to kick a sick crystal meth habit by smoking huge bags of paraquat-laced marijuana and watching Nick at Night for six hours at a time. Now, that's a sitcom." Cho knows how great comics tend toward self-destruction, finding it hard to come down from stage adulation. Still, her discovery of self-esteem and New Agey conclusions ("I discovered there was a goddess deep inside me") are something that an acerbic comedian like Cho shouldn't embrace without irony. (May)Forecast: Cho's five-city tour and radio satellite tour will bring her to the attention of her young, hip audience.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Audio CD
• Publisher: HighBridge Company; 5 hours/4 cassette edition (April 19, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1565114752
• ISBN-13: 978-1565114753
• Product Dimensions: 5.6 x 4.9 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (44 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,180,541 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Disappointed., November 26, 2001

By 

Luke G. (the University of Michigan) - See all my reviews

This review is from: I'm the One That I Want (Hardcover)

The title of this reflects my opinion of the most recent "reviewers" and their responses to this book, not the book itself--which I love. Too many of them did not like this book because they were expecting something "funny" or whatever. Typecasting--that's typical America, I suppose.

The fact is, whether or not you like Cho's comedy should be irrelevant when actually rating her autobiography. And when a person can get beyond his/her preconceived notions, I think that he/she would find it to be a sincere and intelligent reading.

Cho does something that many people overlook when addressing discrimination and identity: she brings forth issues regarding gays and lesbians, overweight people and Asian Americans. It's appalling to know that *All American Girl* was the first sitcom based on an Asian family! Think about it.

Margaret Cho, in her autobiography, may be angry at the people who have wronged her in the past; however, she serves as an example to all of us by not taking herself as serious as "True Hollywood Story" celebrities and instead deconstructing herself honestly for us. Her strength in her identity is rare among anyone in the public eye.

I recommend this text to anyone who is interested in identity politics, self love and deconstruction, minority issues and all related topics.

And those who said that her humor isn't really conveyed in the text are mistaken--all of her recent material makes fun of her tragedy but is still VERY serious. Just don't typecast her into what you want her to be (or are afraid to be yourself) and you'll enjoy the experience.

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Brutally honest, April 29, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: I'm the One That I Want (Hardcover)

It's a shockingly honest book that made me stay up till 3am to finish. I was expecting something like her standup routine, but I found her confiding secrets that most people would pay to hide. It made me relate, laugh, and cry, because it was so real and truthful. It's not Shakespeare, but it's compelling. She brings the reader through her journey and achievement of self love.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Rockin', May 19, 2003

By 

John M. Herron "Erica Herron" (Sharpsburg, Maryland United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: I'm the One That I Want (Hardcover)

I don't need Margaret to be funny in her autobiography, I only want that from her on stage. All I require of an autobiography is a life worth talking about, honesty, and the talent necessary to make me feel bonded to the author. I found that here. I was actually somewhat surprised by Margaret's simple yet profound writing style.
Fans coming to this book lookin for a laugh will be disappointed. Fans coming to this book to learn more about the serious side of Margaret, about alchoholism, about self-acceptance, depression, about addiction, and about degradation will find what they want here. I think the author of Prozac Nation said it best when she made reference to the fact that so many of her readers complained they found her autobiography "irritating" and she responded that it was exactly the effect that she was going for, because depression in it's sense of endlessness is irritating. One keeps hoping, while reading this book, that the depression is over, wanting to scream "snap out of it." Those of us who have lived with depression or have lived with someone who has depression can understand the feeling.
I recommend Cho's book for it's courage, honesty, and wit.