I'm the One That I Want

Before she walks on stage, the audience already knows her sitcom failed. I’m the One That I Want is the autopsy of that public failure, detailing exactly how television executives broke a young stand-up in half. Margaret Cho recounts the absurd demands placed on her during the production of All-American Girl, including producers bringing in consultants to teach her how to act “more Asian” and forcing a crash diet that caused kidney failure. Instead of retreating, she weaponizes the trauma. The routine where she wakes up in a hospital bed only for a nurse named Gwen to brightly announce she is there to shave her vagina perfectly encapsulates the hour. It is bodily, absurd, and remarkably precise.

Filmed at San Francisco’s Warfield Theater in late 1999, the show served as a roaring return from addiction and industry rejection. Cho is energized and highly focused. She transitions quickly from accurate impressions of her Korean mother to affectionate, raunchy tributes to the gay men who supported her when Hollywood did not.

The project was widely praised upon its theatrical release in 2000, earning favorable comparisons to comedians like Richard Pryor and Lenny Bruce. Cho closes the set by throwing down a gauntlet, promising to hold the microphone until the next “Korean-American, fag hag, shit starter, girl comic, trash talker” arrives to take her place.