Every generation, in any medium, someone comes along and changes the way things work.
There’s really nothing I can say
about Louis C.K. that hasn’t been said by a slew of comedy bloggers and writers
with far more authority on the subject than me.
All I’m going to do is explain
exactly why he is deserving of all the praise he receives.
Louis was born in Mexico, not that
you’d guess that with his shocking ginger hair and beard.
“C.K.” was a moniker
he adopted early into his career, as his last name was impossible for the
average comedy club MC to correctly pronounce (“C.K” is the phonetic
pronunciation of his last name).
Louis has a heroic career in
writing for late night comedy. Late Show
with David Letterman, Late Night with Conan O’Brien, The Dana Carvey Show, and The Chris Rock Show all boast Louis’
singular comedic voice at different times.
He has been nominated for 25 Primetime Emmys. He’s recorded 4 critically acclaimed stand-up specials (and one yet-unreleased one).
He writes, directs, produces, and
edits his award-winning sitcom Louie himself.
Mechanic of Comedy: Most stand-ups take 2 or 3 years to cycle
through enough new material to make a fresh new hour. Louis takes inspiration
from George Carlin, arguably the greatest comic of his time, by recording his
special, and then immediately dumping
his entire act and starting from scratch.
I
can not stress how insanely difficult it is for a comedian, even a
professional, to write a full hour of rock-solid material in a year.
Seriously.
In 2007 he recorded his first
special, Shameless
In 2008 he released his second, Chewed Up
In 2009, his first independently
produced special, Hilarious, setting
the format of paying for the production himself, and keeping all the profit.
Something comics like Jim Gaffigan and Aziz Ansari would follow suit with in
following years.
In 2010 he used the hour he had
written as content for the first season of Louie.
In 2011, Live at the Beacon Theater was released for $5.00 DRM-free on his
website, further showcasing C.K.’s connection to his fans and the changing
media landscape.
2012 was again focused on creating
content for Louie, but he released
the audio versions of Shameless and Live at the Beacon Theater DRM-free for
$5.00.
In 2013 he recorded his fifth
special, Oh My God, released in the
same format he’d used for the last two years.
Louis C.K. is not for children, his
content is often crude, black, and challenging. There are only a handful of
comics living today who have the ability to manipulate every angle of a topic
into a joke like Louis.
If you like stand-up, you can’t avoid Louis C.K. any more than a hockey lover could avoid Wayne Gretzky or a
movie lover could avoid Stanley Kubrick.
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