Product Details

• Actors: Liza Vann
• Writers: Liza Vann, Katherine Griffith
• Producers: Liza Vann, Cheryl J. Elliott, Robert A. Nowotny
• Format: Color, NTSC
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Raven Releasing
• VHS Release Date: October 31, 2000
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00004XPQJ
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #412,437 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Westchester County Weekly, NY

"This is stuff to live by... promises to be one of those amusing, enlightening videos that actually changes your perspective."

Product Description

The seventh child in a family of 12, Liza Vann is the top of the bottom half. There are no sacred cows in this one-woman show which guarantees to raise eyebrows and answer questions about life, family and relationships. Hard-hitting, fast-talking and funny, Liza comically reviews her experiences growing up in the South and examines the choices people face throughout their lives. She addresses the most difficult of topics - including a brother's serious drug problem and her own less-than-traditional confrontation with breast cancer - with humor and intelligence.

A New York stage actress and producer of independent films, Liza was persuaded to create the play while having dinner with a colleague who began crying, from laughing, at Liza's stories about her recent run-in with breast cancer. "You must do this on stage," she told her.

On the eve of its New York debut in 1998, The Top of the Bottom Half created controversy when New York Magazine rejected a $27,000 full-page ad displaying the effects of Liza's 1992 lumpectomy. Liza proposed a fold-over ad with the flap reading, "If you want to know what breast cancer looks like, lift this page." Lifting the flap would reveal Liza's model-perfect torso. While the magazine cited procedural issues that prevented their running the ad, two alternative weeklies - The Village Voice and Time Out New York - ran a scaled-down version without hesitation.

Controversial. Irreverent. To the point. No holds barred. The Top of the Bottom Half isn't just about breast cancer. It's about life. As one writer said, "Liza covers everything. Dating. Marriage. Murder. And we think she's got it in the right order!"

Endorsed by the National Alliance of Breast Cancer Organizations (NABCO). Featured in NABCO's joint effort with the WNBA. Winner of the Silver Award in Women's Issues at WorldFest Houston 2000.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Life 101 - A Funny Reality Check, July 11, 2001

By 

Connecticut Calling "Chris" (CT United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Top of the Bottom Half [VHS] (VHS Tape)

This is a great video! I have watched it alone and with family and friends and everybody learned something different from Liza's no-nonsense approach to life. Liza's humor and honesty make serious issues easier to grapple with and easier to discuss. I have watched this video several times and told everybody I know to buy it as I believe the lessons it contains are ageless and universally beneficial. My favorite part is definitely "The Rules", (I was able to get a copy of them at Liza's website) because they provide a quick slap in the head whenever I am in doubt or when I think I need to "make a pig noise" to satisfy somebody else! The video reminded me that common sense and personal responsibility, which lately seem scarce, are more important now then ever. And while I believe, as she states in her opening monologue, that Liza, is "the Keeper of All Knowledge and is undisputedly the 7th of 12 children", I don't think there is one mean bone is this "Meanest Woman on the Planet", but I wouldn't cross her either...

5.0 out of 5 stars A powerful, funny story about an unusual life!, October 30, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: The Top of the Bottom Half [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Liza Vann's one-woman show "The Top of the Bottom Half" is the powerful story of one woman's plucky approach to family, love, life and death. At first the most extraordinary aspect of the show seems to be Vann's experience with breast cancer, and her unorthodox response: advertisements as well as the cover of her video feature a photo of her bare torso-flawless, after a 1992 lumpectomy-and the words "This is what breast cancer can look like." It's a striking portrait when contrasted to the images of disease and destruction that most of us associate with breast cancer. Vann is a fierce advocate of being an informed patient, rather than leaving decisions about her life and body up to the medical authorities alone; and she does a righteous job of dispelling some of the myths that surround this disease, and can leave women feeling helpless. (Chief among those myths is the widespread belief that all women with breast cancer must have mastectomies.) But while Vann's observations and outlook on this disease are powerful and intriguing, ultimately "The Top of the Bottom Half" is about a lot more than breast cancer: it's about an alternative approach to life.

Vann comes the South, from a family of twelve-a mini-community. With so many siblings, raised over several decades, Vann is closely connected to a wealth of experiences beyond just her own: some of her siblings are married, others divorced; some have been to jail, others to therapy; one wrestled with drug addiction. Vann taps this broad range of experience and brings it to her audience with wisdom and compassion, integrity and great humor. In the end, she delivers not just family stories, but a highly insightful no-nonsense philosophy of life. Hilarious and at once deadly serious, Playful and at the same time full of common sense, "The Top of the Bottom Half" blends together a great yarn with an inspirational set of rules for living. Vann calls herself, tongue-in-cheek, "the keeper of all knowledge"-and perhaps she is.

5.0 out of 5 stars a viewer, August 22, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: The Top of the Bottom Half [VHS] (VHS Tape)

After seeing Liza Vann do this play in NYC a few years ago, I had to have the video so I could share it with my friends and family. Her lessons are worth hearing again and again.Besides - it feels good to laugh this hard at everyday life!