Summaries and Customer Reviews are supplied by Amazon.com

Average Customer Rating:

Still her best show!	Customer Rating:
My partner and I have all four of her shows on DVD, and this is still our favorite. Why? Because though she digresses and takes time to channel various characters, all the elements are still unified by the thread of her own story. She's a pottymouth, but not as gratuitously as in her later shows, and the timing (or the editing) seems faster. This is a great introduction to the magic of Margaret!

Finding Her Voice

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I've seen snippets from Margaret Cho's other comedy routines, but this, her first, is the only one I've watched in its entirety (and more than once). You'd think I was afraid to watch the later ones--not because I'm easily offended or put-off--but simply because this show is so solid (laugh-out-loud funny, but also touchingly honest) that maybe I'm almost afraid I'll be disappointed in the follow-up films. Definitely something to work on in this new year. It's not that this recorded performance is perfect. In essence, I'd have to agree with some commentators that her timing SEEMS to be off on occasion and that some bits are milked too long. But I say "seems" because this is a recording of a live show and, obviously, quite a different experience from experiencing it first-hand. A comedian sometimes pauses, in response to audience reaction, and that doesn't always come through on a videorecording. And sometimes, it may just me the viewer (in this case, me) who's being dense and NOT getting it. The first time I watched the show, I didn't understand the seemingly endless repetitions of the "Hi, my name is Gwen and I'm here..." Second time through, I had a "D'oh" moment, and it finally dawned on me that Gwen was going from hospital bed to hospital bed saying the same durned thing over and over. How I missed that the first time, I'll never know. Some will no doubt find the comedy-as-therapy approach to much of this material a little too much. Again, I'd say you have to keep in mind that this is a film of a live performance. The close ups capture the pained look in Margaret's face at some key moments--which is more than the audience can see at a distance. But then again, they CAN hear the emotion in her delivery, and that's impossible to miss. But if you think Margaret Cho is unique among comics in using her personal pain as raw material for comedy, you may need to go back and give other contemporary comics (well, really, comics from the last several decades) a serious re-listening or re-viewing. Think Richard Pryor! Think Chris Rock! Comics have been "bringing the pain" for decades now (and longer if mother-in-law jokes count.) Scrolling through some of the reviews posted on this site, I see one or two that talk about how much sharper and more focused her later routines are on the subsequent DVDs. If that's true, I really need to get over my fear of disappointment and give NOTORIOUS C.H.O. and REVOLUTION a shot. But this one will always have a special place on my DVD shelf. It's a document of a very brave AND very funny woman finding her voice at last.

Hilarious! Touching.	Customer Rating:
One learns a lot about Cho from this DVD. While maintaining hilarity, Cho tells the story of her time as a child star, and her battle with weight disorders. Very great, and a definite purchase for a Cho fan.

Pretty funny, but a little too much info at times...

Customer Rating:

I like this film quite a bit. Normally, I don't get into standup comedy films, but I like Margaret Cho for the most part. She is usually very funny, and her audience is really having a good time here. Some of my favorite parts are where she impersonates her mother and that ABC hired an "Asian consultant" for her horrible sitcom. The mother bit is hilarious, and the ABC bit is hilarious as well as outrageous (maybe the folks at ABC didn't realise that Korea is considered part of Asia). I did object to when Margaret talks about how she became a drunk, drugged out tramp after the sitcom was cancelled. The term she used was she gave a lot of unnecessary h**d. I understand that she needs to vent, but I don't really like to hear too much about the sordid details of her private life, and I doubt that her current husband cared for it that much either (guys do not like to hear their current squeeze's past, no matter how "open minded" they are). I'm glad she's cleaned up, and I hope she stays that way. She doesn't really go into too much political stuff here, which is good. Too often Margaret's poiltical rantings become shrill and humourless, like a lot of political rantings tend to do. But here she stays clear of that, which makes this one of the better comedy concert films.

Stick It In!, My Name is Gwen and I'm Here to ...Get a Driver's License.

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Love, love, love, love, love Margaret Cho's I'm the One That I Want (and really all of her stand up films). It could be because she makes me want to laugh so hard that my body simply cannot facilitate the amount of laughter desperate to escape and I find myself on the verge of convulsions. Or it could be because she is one of the best social commentators of all time. It could be because she is so beautiful in every way and that she's an uninhibited, intelligent individual of a woman...or because she is aware--aware that all of us (at least us everyday freaky, yet normal, folks) desperately need to know that we're not alone in this world that seems so full of self-righteousness. That we don't need to feel so ashamed of our actions, our bodies, our minds. She frees us from that in telling us, hysterically, her own stories of how easy it can be to lose oneself in the quest for acceptance. One of the most profound moments in the film is her heartbreaking story about being signed on for a sitcom based on her own life that wound up forcing her to become someone she wasn't at all, which ultimately compromised her strong voice in the process. Well, her voice ain't lost now! In this film, she is back and she is stronger than ever. (and that strength continues to be reflected in Notorious, Revolution and Assassin...oh, and on her Web site and various other projects). You Go, Girl!