What Was I Thinking?: How Being a Stand Up Did Nothing to Prepare Me to Become a Single Mother

by Margaret Smith and Margaret Smith

Blithely disregarding conventional wisdom that female comics must labor within proscribed borders, one of America's senior comedic writers describes what she thought it would be like--and what it was... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0824522850
• ISBN13: 9780824522858
• Release Date: October 2008
• Publisher: Crossroad Publishing Company
• Length: 191 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.2" x 7.5"

Customer Reviews

What Sedaris, Lebowitz and Dave Eggers should aspire to.

Margaret Smith is a one-of-a-kind comedian. Her off-kilter worldview and dry-as-dust delivery is fresh and real in a world of grinning comedy clones. My favorite Margaret Smith-ism goes something like "I saw my mother today. (long pause) Its okay, she didn't see me." I'm not always able to catch her on tv like I used to, so I was delighted to hear she'd written a book. The cover says the book's about becoming a mother, but you won't find overly sweet sentimentality here. Smith makes looking on the dark side into an art form. Her story is dark and horrific, and she pulls no punches when writing about, violence, abuse, racism, tomatoes, and her calling plan. Only Margaret Smith could make comedy of this. But she pulls it off astonishingly well - deftly balancing tragedy and humor. Ultimately, it's not a story about adopting a baby, it's a heartfelt tale of spiritual redemption. I know that doesn't sound very funny, but it really is.

We need more from Margaret Smith..

I had overheard some people talking about this book and how much they liked it, so I decided to see if Margaret Smith was as good a writer as she is a comedian. She is. The book is poignantly funny and sad at the same time. Margaret Smith is a great comedian and I admire her for the way she takes sadness and turns it inside out to find the humor in it.

Very Funny, Sometimes Dark, Laugh out Loud

I heard the Author on an NPR Radio Show talking about this book. The interview was funny and it motivated me to buy the book. It was an easy an enjoyable read. Laughed many times out loud. It felt alot like a David Sedaris style of writing. The humor sometimes dark. I especially liked her childhood stories. If you grew up with Mary Poppins and Ward Cleaver as parents you might not find this humorous, but I didn't, and I did find this book very funny. Lauren Lauren

so funny I read it twice

I don't know if it's because I feel like a single mom or if just anyone with children or wanting to have children would appreciate it but this book was hilarious. It reminded me of reading Anne Lemott only more dry and painful. At times I was embarrassed that I was laughing and grateful that no one was in the room so I wouldn't have to explain what was so funny, because part of me was sure it was wrong to be laughing. Any way this was a great read!