Monday, December 12, 2011

1657 - Louis C.K.: Live At The Beacon Theater

Readers of this blog will know that I've got a lot of love for Louie CK.  He is without a doubt my favorite stand-up, and he currently has what is probably my favorite television series.  As a creative force Louis CK is more or less untouchable right now and I for one sure as hell hope it stays that way.  He's a man who is unafraid to work his ass off - to throw away an entire years worth of material and start again each year from scratch.  He's a true professional. 
Before I get into the meat of this particular show, know that Louis himself put up all the money for the show, he paid the crew, the theatre, and to distribute it he's doing it himself through his website.  And how much does it cost?  $5. That's right, by going around the middle men he's giving it to us for a low, low price (probably the profit he'd make from it anyway... actually that's probably more than he'd make from it).  A lot of his professional friends have given him shit and said that doing it this way will make it easy for people to torrent, but Louie is trying to see if people are given something they want, at a fair price, from the artist them-self, if they'll be decent and buy it.  I sure as hell did.  So if you want to as well, here is the link right here.  Please don't steal it, it's so damn cheap. 
Now, for the special itself.  It's fantastic.  The style of it is exactly in keeping with Louie's show, and uses that as his credit bed.  The material he covers is stuff that makes me feel like he's walking around inside of my head.  If I were a stand-up, I would cover similar material to Louie, I probably just wouldn't do it as well.  He talks about a kid that's in his daughter's class that he absolutely hates, how his grandmother donated her body to science, and how men have no choice but to be dirty pigs.  It's a burden!  And what's amazing about Louie's style is that he does all this as if the stuff is just coming to him.  He seems like he's pulling it out of thin air, while you know that it's a heavily crafted act - this man knows how to play an audience and a joke, he's playing a violin making it look like it's a recorder.  There is so much skill and thought put into it that, like a magician, you never see how the trick works.
When talking about him with a co-worker today they said that Louie CK is on his way to becoming one of the greats.  I disagreed.  I think that he already is one.

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