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Brick Wall Comedy
Brick Wall Comedy

I'm the One That I Want

Margaret Cho

Cho Taussig Productions · 2000 · 1 h 36 min

An angry, joyful autopsy of a failed television sitcom.

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.

The set list

6 bits

  1. Imagining Karl Lagerfeld in prison

    Cho opens the performance by establishing her affinity for gay men and gay culture while joking about fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld.

  2. Drastic network weight loss and kidney failure

    Details how network executives pressured her over 'the fullness of your face', leading to an extreme diet where she lost 30 pounds in two weeks and collapsed from kidney failure.

  3. The network's Asian-American consultant

    Satirizes the network hiring a consultant to instruct her on how to seem 'more Asian', whose primary recommendation was to use chopsticks.

  4. Tabloid diets and mandolin music

    Mocks tabloids printing fabricated stories about her 'thunder thighs' and a fake diet claiming she ate rice and fish like a girl on a rice paddy.

  5. Two drunks attempting to have sex

    Parodies the physical and emotional awkwardness of intoxicated sexual encounters during her lowest period of drug and alcohol addiction.

  6. Impression of her mother

    Affectionately impersonates her all-knowing, Buddha-like Korean mother with a mixture of love and sharp ridicule.

How it plays

Tone
Bawdy, ribald, laceratingly honest, raunchy, uplifting, and defiant.
On stage
Described as a lusty, full-figured dynamo, part Sophie Tucker-esque burlesque bawd, part Valley Girl, and part drag diva; an outspoken, sexually blunt, self-proclaimed trash talker with outrage tempered by sweetness.
Pace
Kinetic rhythm, honed timing, sustained momentum, and unfiltered continuous delivery across the performance.
About
Hollywood beauty standards and body image, Asian-American ethnic stereotyping and racism, Cancellation of 'All-American Girl', Substance abuse and 12-step recovery, Gay culture and queer allyship, Sexual promiscuity and dating

What the critics said

Received universal critical acclaim, with critics praising Cho's fearless comedic honesty, rapid-fire bawdiness, and insightful take down of Hollywood stereotypes, drawing comparisons to Richard Pryor and Lenny Bruce.

In the room: Raucous, enthusiastic, and fiercely supportive hometown crowd featuring strong representation from her gay and Asian-American fan base.

Summed up from reviews, articles and listings. Sources: en.wikipedia.org, metacritic.com, catalog.afi.com, allmovie.com, archive.nytimes.com, variety.com, latimes.com, npr.org, freshairarchive.org.

Backstory

Personal, physical, and emotional fallout following Cho's short-lived, compromise-riddled ABC sitcom 'All-American Girl'—the first network comedy centered on an Asian-American family—including severe network dieting pressures that led to kidney failure, followed by substance abuse and self-doubt before achieving sobriety and self-acceptance.

Details

Released
Taped
1999, Warfield Theater, San Francisco
Runtime
1 h 36 min
Where
Cho Taussig Productions
Director
Lionel Coleman
Topics
Before
Drunk With Power (1996)
After
Notorious C.H.O. (2002)

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