Customer Reviews

The Top of the Bottom Half [VHS]

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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...

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.

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!

Liza Vann, "The Keeper of all Knowledge." Indeed. A beautiful woman, inside and out. She delivers a brilliant, spell binding performance that makes you laugh one moment and get teary eyed the next. Her message is one that must be told and shared. Hats off for shedding light on a sometimes taboo topic. This should be included in everyone's video library.

Besides being hugely entertaining, especially the adventures of being one of 12 children growing up in the South, Ms. Vann's bottom line is to get informed, make good decisions and take charge of your treatment, in this case breast cancer. There is great information in this video. Get it! Get in the game!