Customer Reviews

Margaret Cho - I'm the One That I Want

5 star:		(51)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I found myself gasping for air a couple of times during this stand up routine, from simply laughing so so much! To be honest, I never expected Cho to be as affable, accessible and plain funny as she proves to be here. Nothing she'd done that I'd seen before prepared me for the warmth and good nature she brings to the stage. If you are like me and think that her jokes will only appeal to gays, lesbians and Asians, you are flat out wrong. In an almost Lenny Bruce-like fashion, without as much fire and brimstone, Margaret Cho nails her jokes with ease, flair and an almost deceptively devlish good-girl grin. I took a chance and bought this DVD after hearing good things about the movie release. Not only am I thrilled I did, but I have since shared it with friends and family just to re-experience moments that are rarely seen in stand up comedy. More abrasive than Ellen DeGeneres, Cho is part Richard Pryor-part Carol Burnett, and charming all the way! This woman's got GUTS and laughs to last a lifetime! But it - you'll love it.

I must admit that there were a few segments during this show that I was in literal pain, clutching my stomach with one hand, and hitting my lap with the other, incapable of breathing, and incapable of controlling my laughter. This was, without a doubt, one of the funniest, most brutally honest stand-up comedy shows I have ever seen. And yet, I would not want to label it as "stand-up comedy," since it was something much deeper and profound. This was not the expected list of witticisms and observations about society and pop culture that most people expect stand-up comedy to be. This is one woman's deep, penetrating look into herself, at good times and horrible times. She tells things to her audience about herself that most people would be too ashamed to say, but it is her hope that by revealing the bad things about her past, she can help others in her position. She talks about the discrimination she suffered, based both on her race and her weight, she talks about a long period of depression, boozing and drugging she went through, she talks about the producers of "All-American Girl," her short-lived sitcom, and how they coerced her to lose 35 pounds in 2 weeks, causing her kidneys to collapse...All of this sounds like this show is a real downer. But, ya know what? It isn't. This, as I said before, is also one of the funniest performances I have ever seen. She finds humor in even the bleakest of situations. It is a real testament to her that she found a way to make dark situation funny, and yet not mock the situations themselves, or herself. She strikes a delicate balance between pathos and comedy, and does so perfectly. Having survived a dark period in her life and come out on top, she can now look back on it from a different perspective. And it is one worth hearing, especially for young actors or actresses who feel they have to change themselves in order to become famous.

But I must stress one more time...If you are just in the mood for laughs, do not run away from this film because of the dark parts. Because it is, once again, gutbustingly funny. There will be tears of laughter streaming down your face, and that is a guarantee.

Margaret Cho is a great writer. Her routines are so meticulously worded, and in most cases, you cannot foresee her punchlines. She throws you for a loop everytime, making the jokes even funnier and more brilliant. And you must SEE her perform as well. Her facial expressions are priceless. And her accents are wonderful: her Valley Girl impression, her black gay guy impression, and of course, her impression of her Korean-born mother, which is both touching and hilarious.

I recommend you purchase rather than rent this concert. I have watched it repeatedly, and it is still as funny as the first time I saw it. I always liked Margaret Cho, but this one DVD has made me a huge fan of hers. Her talent must be seen to be believed. She is that great.

Margaret Cho describes the rise and fall of her TV show "All-American Girl," her close ties with the gay community, being Asian-American, and her dead-pan impersonations of her mother. By far one of the funniest stand-up films around, what makes this a great film is that she lets the audience see her human side. It takes much courage to discuss the whirlwind of emotions as well as the physical and mental stresses surrounding her failed TV show -- the producers said she was too fat to play herself, she wasn't Asian enough, the alcoholism, the hospital time. To go through that hell and still come out strong and with your sense of humor intact and then want to share it...she is to be admired.

This is one film that I truly can watch over and over. Even though I know the jokes and though my friends and I quote some of the lines to one another (the line about Gwen will drive you mad!!!), I still laugh so hard and so loud and wipe the tears from my eyes. The DVD extras are also worth watching. A definite winner!

Like most Americans, I never heard of Margaret Cho until her ill-starred sitcom appeared in 1996. I remember at the time thinking that she herself was funny, but that the show, featuring the first Asian-American family on network, thought it could just coast by on being Korean. Wrong answer. I was sorry, but not surprised, when the show disappeared from the face of the earth.

Now we know why. This concert, more a one-woman show than a stand-up routine, details her relationship with her immigrant mother, the men she's loved, and her "fag-hag" history before spending the bulk of its time on how she got her show, how it went, and how and why it failed.

The content is blue in the extreme, and she's frank about her sexual experience. She doesn't dilly-dally or waste your time in telling you what she thinks you need to know, but she takes her time in telling the story the way she wants to tell it. If that means taking ten minutes aside to make fun of her immigrant mother, you just have to wait. But don't worry, you'll be amused in the meantime.

Cho exposes the brutality of the entertainment industry and how it chewed her up as grist for the mill, yet instead of feeling sorry for her at the end, you cheer her perseverance. She's a hero for the media age, someone who's better off having left than being trapped in the system. More than just a funny person, she's a post-modern Frank McCourt, using her life story to reveal to us how we can refuse to participate and still come out alive in the end.

Margaret Cho someone we can all admire. Oh, and she's funny as hell, too.

As an Asian-American I only wish that there were more Margaret Chos out there, female and male...such a powerful counterpoint to the "Model Minority" stereotype of Asians as submissive and faceless conformists and techno/corporate coolies.

There's no doubt about it: this lady is hilarious, her facial expressions are just comedic gold, her graphic humor and acerbic wit devastating. In a nutshell, she has verve, and she has COJONES! Her jokes revolve around sex, admiration of gay men, racism and sexism...it's mostly the second that distinguishes her from most comics, who still tend to lean towards the homophobic side.

Towards the end there is a bit of a confessional that flirts with self-pity and then syrupy self-help, but that's a small thing compared to the rest of this side-splitting movie. I'm ordering a copy for my very "proper" sister, who more closely fits the impeccable Yuppy suburbanite Asian stereotype...will relish watching it again with her, to see all the squiriming but also the shocked laughter.

Wow, it hardly seems that Margaret Cho has been in the business long enough to have endured the things she's endured. But indeed she has, and she shares all in this hilarious video.

Having seen Margaret live a handful of times over the years, her timing and content are at their best in this video. Building on material she's used occasionally throughout the years, she explores topics such as weight loss, her mother (of course), being attacked by midgets, fear of straight people and, in more serious tones, her sense of disappointment when her TV show "All American Girl" failed.

For anyone who's ever seen Ms. Cho perform, this is a no-brainer purchase. For anyone else, trust us all - it's worth it. :)

I found this DVD browsing the shelves at the video rental store. I had seen Margaret Cho stand-up routines before and particularly enjoy her impressions of her mother, so I decided to give this DVD a shot.

While I wasn't dying laughing throughout her entire performance, her true life experiences about her sitcom TV show and mother were well told and delivered. Like a good storyteller, she kept me following along through the sections that were meant to be more sincere than humorous. There were of course definitely moments when I could not help but laugh wildly out loud.

90% of her material is either gay- or Asian-based, so you may not be able to fully-appreciate the dead-on, true-to-life anecdotes and impressions if you've been living a sheltered life. Some may feel uncomfortable with the heavy emphasis on these topics, but Margaret tells it the way that only someone who grew up in a predominantly-gay neighborhood with Asian parents could tell it. Her facial expressions are priceless. Overall, this is the best Margaret Cho performance I've seen on video (actually film). I only rented this DVD, and I'd recommend watching it once just for the experience. This particular film is even used in colleges and universities in women's and cultural studies classes.

"I'm the One that I Want" is a hysterically funny and heartfelt chronicle of Margaret Cho's rise and fall (and another rise) in showbiz. (It's basically a taped version of her performance at the Warfield Theater in San Francisco.) She comes across as someone who overcame many obstacles in her path to success (racism, sexism, weight problems, substance abuse, criticisms from the Korean-American community, etc), someone who took the high road and used the all the negativity towards her as inspiration. Some of her routines get a little too stretched out (especially her impersonation of her mother), but overall this is by far the funniest movie I've seen in years.

Oh, Margaret Cho also wrote an autobiography of the same name -- stay away from it. It's a long, boring, poorly-written book that is occasionally funny only because it reminds you of her routines from this movie.

Just amazing. This is not only a performance of fabulous comedy, but also makes a number of important statements about our prejudices concerning weight, race, sexuality, and gender. It's no accident that Margaret's comedy is being used as an educational tool in many universities today. This one is not to be missed.

As a fellow San Franciscan and an Asian-American, I have been a long-time fan of Margaret Cho's work, and this film only confirms my love of her comedic abilities. Margaret's rhetoric is complete genius. Her way of tackling some of society's toughest issues with a laugh on the side is unique to Ms. Cho's stand-up. When she gives her thoughts on homophobia, racism, and weight you will find yourself glued to her insights.

"I'm the One That I Want" is the latest revelation of Cho's genius. It starts out as just about every Cho routine starts out: with her exclamation of her love of gay men.

But later, her material begins to be very surprisingly emotional, almost heartbreaking, when she talks her alcoholic and sex addicted life preceeding her failed ABC sitcom, "All American Girl" (a tragic story still with many laughs, of course). Perhaps Cho's greatest achievement with this film is talking about her mother, and her pursuit of happiness as an immigrant to America, fighting racism and seeing her struggling daughter finally become a star (the first, true Asian-American star). This is also the outlet for Margaret Cho's side-splittingly funny impersonation of her elegant, sweet, and heavily accented mother: hands-down the funniest impersonation routine I've yet seen.

This release will not only make you love Margaret, but also admire her for her life-fulfilling journey to "fit-in" to the American culture and become the revolutionary of the conception of female beauty. I eagerly await her upcoming release, "Notorious C.H.O."