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There are very few things that I get right. I have trouble following recipes, and I keep weirdly buying clothes that don’t fit me. What is THAT all about? But there is one thing that I did get right, and that is when I predicted that 2010 would be the Year of Louis C.K. This is not and was never to say that Louis C.K. wasn’t very successful and very popular before 2010, but it seems, at least to me, that the tone has changed in the past nine months. He has a successful show on television now that has been picked up for a second season, and not just successful but also very good, and not just very good, but very good in really unique and interesting and important ways that–without being too dramatic–could change the way some television is made in the future. Is that tentative and qualified within an inch of its life enough for you? But still. On top of that, the dude keeps writing entirely new one hour stand up specials every year, which would be crazy impressive (crimpressive?) even if they were bad, but they are the opposite of bad, they are incredible. One of them, Hilarious, was turned into a feature length film that got rave reviews at this year’s Sundance, and which I think you can still watch for free on-line here. It has been a good year! And I will tell you this: when we first made the Videogum “Louis C.K. Promise,” it was July of 2008, just two months after the site launched, and rare was it to see another weblog write about Louis C.K. Now you can’t eThrow an iStone without hitting a blog about him. Which is great! He deserves it. Let’s change Livejournal to Louisjournal. The point is, he did it.
And now he is playing concerts at Carnegie Hall. Which is nuts.
Have you ever been to Carnegie Hall? You should go there! It’s incredibly beautiful. Not unlike Radio City Music Hall, it is stunning in a way that only things that were built a long time ago when fortunes could be made by literally pressing poor people between cement slabs until oil and railroads spurted out. The front lobby is surprisingly small. It almost feels foreshortened. Which is fine, just go to your seat, what do you want to hang around a front lobby all night? Go to your seat! But on your way, take a handful of the bountiful and FREE Ricola so that you do not cough during the performance and RUIN IT. Anyway, the point is: very niiiice, this place. On the way back from the bathroom I walked by Michael Moore. Ooh la la! I should have asked him how come in his most recent movie about the dangers of capitalism he interviewed Wallace Shawn as an economics expert. Just because he went to college? But you don’t ask Michael Moore questions about the choices he’s made in the aisles of Carnegie Hall. Everyone knows that. It’s called “gauche,” look it up.
Ted Alexandro opened, and he was great. He explained that when he first moved to New York, it was to attend CUNY for a degree in jazz piano, and that he never could have imagined that 20-odd years later he would be playing Carnegie Hall as a stand up comedian. It’s not so much a joke as it is an acknowledgement of the fact that it IS at least a little bit weird that we are all in this gorgeous, historic location to talk about poopies and fart butts and jerking off SO hard. But actually, there SHOULD be comedians performing at Carnegie Hall, because stand up comedy, when it is good, is an impressive ART, and it is every bit as much a crafted performance as some 15-year-old kid from Hong Kong banging on a piano. Stand up comedy gets a bad rap a lot of the time, and for good reason, because when it is bad, there is nothing worse. But when it is good–and everything about last night was very, very good–it is transcendent, and entirely deserving of the respect of the spooky ghosts of robber barons.
Anyway, Ted Alexandro, you guys. Get on board.
And then Louis C.K. came out and performed stand up comedy and slaughtered everyone. R.I.P. audience.
There is no use trying to recap his jokes, it would be a disservice to him and to you. He is not the best at what he does because it’s so easy to just repeat it to someone else on the Internet. Although, I will let you know that he still talks a lot about his children, and having a fat body, and being divorced, and the pains of aging, and how young people are bullshit, and variations on the theme of jerking-off-SO-hard. What is interesting about Louis C.K.’s stand up, at least right now, is that he has basically picked his themes, and each year he writes the aforementioned hour-long special about mostly the same themes as the previous year’s hour-long special, and yet each time he uncovers completely new ways to talk about these issues. It in no way feels like he’s retreading well-worn territory, even though it probably should. I guess a really obnoxious comparison that makes me want to hang myself from a rafter with an NPR tote is to, like, Monet’s water lillies or some shit. BARF BARF GUNSHOT FART BARF AND YET I AM SERIOUS. Make no mistake: Louis C.K. is an artist, and he has found his subject, and he’s probably going to just keep painting that same subject until his head falls off. And that’s great news.
After his set, Louis stepped off stage to a standing ovation, but he only kept people waiting for 30 seconds, long enough to take off his sweatshirt, before coming back out and doing an encore about a time he almost died on an airplane, and the casting process for the child actors in Schindler’s List. Again: it’s of no use to anyone to get into the details. What you should do is move to New York and bookmark the Carnegie Hall homepage and make sure that the next time Louis C.K. performs to a sold out audience that includes Michael Moore you are in that audience. It’s just the easiest way to get all these jokes I’m mentioning.
The best part about 2010 being the year of Louis C.K. is that we’re going to get at least a few more years of this. It’s not like when you get to the next level they immediately kick you right back down again. (Unless you are Cuba Gooding Jr., but I like to think he was at least partly if not mostly responsible for that. Not to get too off track about Cuba Gooding Jr. but is that guy missing some kind of Decision Making Gland in his brain? Because what’s going on there?) Considering what this guy was able to do last night with just a microphone and a cup of water on an uncomfortably large stage in an opulently appointed room full of upper-middle-class white people, it’s hard to tell where the ceiling is on this. All I know is that it is very high up there. You can just barely make out the chandeliers.
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That is so many words, Gabe. Aint’ no way I’m reading past the first sentence. In the future, would you mind throwing in some pictures of fluffy kittens, or naked ladies, or something? I lose interest pretty qu
I believe Chris Trash already provided the naked ladies link via twitter this morning.
That was me.
http://twitter.com/DS3M/status/542716513484800
I mean, we kinda look alike (Thass Raciss) So fair Enough.
Man I really hope I don’t get fired for clicking that link.
Professor Carnegie Hall over here.
I’m going top see him at The Academy of Music in Philly tonight!!
i didn’t know he was here tonight! I couldn’t go anyway, having had a baby 3 months ago, but I could have at least complained about missing him to everyone I know.
hi philadelphia people!!!
Hi!
You could bring the baby, Louis CK is pretty appropriate for children.
I might, but she is having a fussy day and the only thing that’s working to calm her is to continuously sing the chorus of Sheena Easton’s Morning Train; I’m not sure that would go over well with the people sitting near me.
Saw him in Philly last night and it was the best thing that has ever happened in my entire life BUT I noticed a couple pre-pubescent kids in the audience. I went all “old man Delahaye” on them in my mind. Is it terrible to take your 12 year old to see the greatest comic in the world own the stage? I still say yes. I won’t co-sign on a tween laughing at the c-word.
Well, not to top you, Gabe. But let me take you on a tour of where I spent Thursday night:
If you’re ever in Park Slope, Brooklyn, you have to stop by the apartment of Frank Lloyd Wrong. Built in 1931, the lobby is small that it almost feels foreshortened, but once you get into the apartment, you’ll find it is just as small as the lobby. The living room features two mismatched couches, which is not so much an aesthetic choice as what was cheap at the time of purchase. The lamp that Mr. Wrong has had since college casts a dim light over the place and adds to the overall claustrophobia.
In the apartment, you may pass by a perpetually sleeping puggle named Roscoe. You might be tempted to ask him why he decided to eat gum off the sidewalk that afternoon. But you don’t ask puggles about their dietary choices in the apartment of Mr. Frank Lloyd Wrong; it’s considered insane.
If you are ever in Atlanta, GA and attempt to stop by the house of teacherman and Baby Friday, you will be thwarted by skeledog. He is over a thousand years old and bald but he is a certified ninja and the teeth of a young Jeffrey Dahmer. The ancients hold that if you look into his eyes, you will see how you die. It is by looking into his eyes, however, that you perish. Beware skeledog.
Holy shit, teach. I’m in Atlanta, too! Southeastern monsters represent! What, what!!
Are you and Babes going to see Louis C.K. at the Cobb Energy Center next month? Any other Atlanta area monsters going? We should meet up. I’ll have to convince the 5 people I’m going with b/c they are not religious Vgum readers. They are losers. Even Mrs. Ball Z.
Ginger, we are planning a Southeast Monsters meet up! Most likely in Birmingham!
Park Slope Monsters are obviously the coolest Monsters. I suspect there are quite a few of us….
I’m in Prospect Heights/Crown Heights (oft-debated) right next to the shuttle that nobody outside of my neighborhood believes exists. Which means I probably don’t exist. Luckily, I am just a walk away from Park Slope wherein I DEFINITELY don’t exist.
So, not to get emotional or anything, but if you exchanged “Gabe Delahaye” for “Louis C.K.” in this write-up, that would sufficiently express my admiration.
Let’s try it! “[Gabe] still talks a lot about his children, and having a fat body, and being divorced, and the pains of aging, and how young people are bullshit, and variations on the theme of jerking-off-SO-hard.” LOL! It works!
Seriously, this was some really killer writing, Gabe. No Asskissmo
It’s recaps like this one that make me want to pack up my things and take Ms. holy smokes to live in NYC immediately.
No kidding, I was in New York two weeks ago (Awesome city! So dynamic! Going to Madison Square to see the Rangers play! Sights! Chipotple! Phantom of the Opera was terrible!) and while I was looking up who was performing, it was like “Holy shit, Eugene Mirman, Kristen Schaal, Mike Birbiglia, Ira Glass and John Godgman are all performing THIS WEEK! . Of course, everything was sold out, but I still got to see a bit of Jim Gaffigan and Ali Wong in an almost empty Gotham Comedy Club
What I am trying to say is that a lot of comedians perform in New York.
2012 is right on track…
I saw him when he stopped in Montreal a few weeks ago and I also thoroughly enjoyed the show. The Schindler’s List auditions bit was so absurd and hilarious. “Goodbye, Jews!” He also did a wonderful bit about how Canadians sounds like when they are talking, but maybe that was an exclusive? Did he do that in the USA? Canuck bonus, maybe.
Canadian monsters, represent! That’s what I’m talking aboot.
saw him do this hour @ the chicago theater last month…SO good.
I’ll admit, this was the year that I really hunkered down and got to know Mr. C.K. I had seen his Comedy Central half-hour, and found it funny and all, but never went much further.
Then more friends started talking about him, then he had “Life with Louis,” then he didn’t, then more friends started talking about him, then he suddenly had “Louis,” now he continues to have “Louis,” and now I had to painfully deny my brother’s request to accompany him to see Louis C.K. two weeks ago.
i think you’re thinking of this
and not this
Oh, balls. BIG difference. A thousand pardons, y’all.
I’ve only seen Louis C.K.’s older stand up specials that I got from Netflix, back when he was married and talked about his wife a lot. I really liked them, and I’m really disappointed to hear that he’s divorced now. Is that stupid?
No, because that made me sad, too. You could tell that he loved her, even though he joked that she looked like this:
GAH…I meant to buy tickets to this when I first heard about it, but, you know, money. And then when I actually had the money, I had totally forgot about it, because I’m old and stuff.
But for reals, go to Carnegie Hall, Monsters. The one and only time I went was for a Band of Horses concert last year. I sat in one of the balconies, and the workers there have to open them with keys! It’s like your own tiny house with its own little area to hang your coats.
Just power-watched Louie Season 1 via Netflix, which I believe was one of the Roman Gods because of how much I worship it. I expected laffs, and got them, but didn’t expect the smart and biting social commentary. The thesis of that show is simple and poignant: Don’t be an asshole.
Is bad improv worse then bad stand up? I can never decide.