Product Description

Let's get one thing straight. I'm not. I'm out and proud. When I'm out and it's raining I carry an umbrella. I used to be in but I hate the smell of mothballs. My closet was huge, complete with a foyer, turnstile, a few dead bolts, and a burglar alarm that had to be deactivated before I could even touch the door handle. And then there was the storm door. It wasn't until I had lived and slept with a woman for a year that it occurred to me to ask, "Do you think we're lesbians?" By the way, never come out to your father in a moving vehicle.

Now I've written a book. It's not as easy as it looks. One night, I was working late on my computer when a little message came up on the screen, "You are almost out of memory." Here are my thoughts and observations on everything from gay marriage (Mad Vow Disease) to my morbid fear of mascots (with the exception of the San Diego Chicken). That's all I'm going to say because I don't want to spoil it for you. That's a job for Jesse Helms.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #999737 in Books
• Published on: 2000-01-04
• Released on: 2000-01-04
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 208 pages

From Publishers Weekly
The product of an upstate New York Catholic girlhood, Clinton spent eight years teaching English before she took a leave, developed her feminist and lesbian consciousness and began writing. That writing turned into stand-up comedy. Since 1981, Clinton has been performing at festivals, universities and other sites outside the comedy club circuit. This book collects her routines and anecdotes, many of which work as prose, though they clearly would be elevated by performance. In contrast to the mainstream themes of many other comedian's books, Clinton's pointed politics and lesbian frame of reference are showcased here. She chronicles the emergence of gays: "We aren't so much a movement anymore as a niche market waiting to be scratched." Lamenting the programmed world of Disney, she dishes, "Old Walt must have been some kind of control queen." The Gulf War campaign she calls "Operation Just 'Cause George Bush Felt Like It.'" Clinton's comedy aims for more than the laughs, however. She recalls giving a great show in one small church basement in the South, with an audience "in desperate need of some news about their lives." And even though Clinton claims to feel "shame and guilt" about doing talk shows, she recalls how one young lesbian said that seeing her on the Maury Povich Show was a consciousness-raising moment and a relief from depression. Author tour.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review
"Girls with mascara--watch out! Kate will have it running down your cheeks in no time flat. Thank heaven Kate did get started. She makes the world a funnier place."
--ROSIE O'DONNELL

"Kate Clinton is a hero to women, to feminists, to lesbians, and to anyone who loves a good laugh. Don't Get Me Started is laugh-out-loud funny. Do yourself a favor. Buy this book--and get ready to laugh."
--Bay Area Reporter

"SASSY . . . WICKED . . . HILARIOUS . . . BOTH HUGELY ENTERTAINING AND PROUDLY LIBERATING."
--Q San Francisco

"Kate Clinton manages the neat trick of being deliciously sane. Her book is a joy, filled with tasty, politically dangerous thoughts; Kate is the person you want to sit next to in the back row."
--PAUL RUDNICK -- Review

Review
"Girls with mascara--watch out! Kate will have it running down your cheeks in no time flat. Thank heaven Kate did get started. She makes the world a funnier place."
--ROSIE O'DONNELL

"Kate Clinton is a hero to women, to feminists, to lesbians, and to anyone who loves a good laugh. Don't Get Me Started is laugh-out-loud funny. Do yourself a favor. Buy this book--and get ready to laugh."
--Bay Area Reporter

"SASSY . . . WICKED . . . HILARIOUS . . . BOTH HUGELY ENTERTAINING AND PROUDLY LIBERATING."
--Q San Francisco

"Kate Clinton manages the neat trick of being deliciously sane. Her book is a joy, filled with tasty, politically dangerous thoughts; Kate is the person you want to sit next to in the back row."
--PAUL RUDNICK

Customer Reviews

Funniest Person on Earth
If you like lesbian and gay humor you are in for a treat. Kate will keep you laughing from the first word until the last word of this book. Laughter is the best medicine.

Funny Book by a Terribly Funny Woman
I found myself laughing throughout this wonderfully funny book, however it would have been considerably funnier preformed. Clinton is among my favorite Comediennes, and proves again to have an inteligent wit. The book drags in places, however, when tone and motion are simply necissary additions. So I recomend having someone read this to you while adding tone to their voice and motion to their bodies! Or simply watch her live or listen to one of her CDs.

Not As Funny As I Had Hoped
I first saw Kate Clinton on "Out Loud and Laughing" and found her extremely hilarious. I found her topics in her comedy to be something I could really relate to, as well as her dry, sarcastic wit that was applied to every single comment, almost as sinful as buttered popcorn. I had been looking forward to this book for a long, long time.

Imagine my surprise when I read the book and hardly laughed, but more importantly, had to FORCE my way to get to the end. It was a difficult read not because of the language or the topics, but because I didn't care about what she had to say. It seemed too wordy, as if there wasn't any real point she was trying to make, but that she had to fulfill her 60,000 word contract deal.

I had better hopes for Ms. Clinton's book and hope that if she releases another one, she has a goal in mind; namely, a point.