Fuck Yeah, Louis C.K.
Photos, articles, updates, videos...anything and everything available about LCK.
- May 23, 2012
Fans of Louis CK’sincredibly colourful (and hilarious) standup comedy will be excited to note that he’ll be headlining four shows in Toronto as part of the launch of JFL42, a festival put together by Just For Laughs and LiveNation. The festival runs for eight days from September 21 to 28, and will include, um, 42 acts from various disciplines, ranging from art to comedy, to choose from (a pass entitles the buyers to a reserved seat for a Louis CK show, and the choice of attending several other events). This isn’t your average comedy festival either, because JFL and LiveNation want the user to be involved in creating the schedule—festival passes can be purchased via smart phone, and the acts with the most interest will get the best time slots (the festival also recognizes that some acts may be too popular, and they have committed to setting up at bigger venues or adding extra performance dates and times where possible). Passes go on sale May 25 at 10 a.m. via Ticketmaster, and a full list of the performers will be revealed in June.
-
Posted: 05/16/2012 11:05:15 PM PDTUpdated: 05/17/2012 12:27:51 AM PDT
I was struck recently by a scene in an episode of the FX Network TV show “Louie,” when the title character, played by comedian Louis C.K., takes his two school-age daughters on a road trip to visit an elderly aunt he hasn’t seen in years. As the three of them are motoring along, The Who song “Who Are You?” comes on the radio, and Louie turns up the volume and starts to sing along. In fact, he belts out the whole 3½-minute tune, at points accompanying himself on air drums and guitar, or turning around to deliver more emphatic vocals to his daughters in the backseat — even the climactic “Who the #$%& are you?” part.
If you’ve seen “Louie,” you know it’s an unusual show — the kind of comedy that’s actually more depressing and unnerving to watch than most anything else on TV (except maybe the Grammy Awards). But the scene in the car struck me as remarkable for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that network television shows don’t typically burn more than three minutes of air time while someone on screen sings along, slightly off-key, to a recorded track (again, with the exception of the Grammys).
One thing I found particularly authentic about the scene was the daughters’ reaction. On a typical “family-friendly” sitcom, in a scene like this, the daughters would likely join in for a happy, heartfelt family moment. Or, if the show were a bit more snarky, the girls would cover their ears and beg the dad to stop. But on ”Louie,” as I have found to be the case in real life, the kids in the backseat are mostly indifferent, paying little attention to Dad’s singing, his excitement or his disregard of highway safety as he embraces his love of classic rock.
Not that the scene was 100 percent true to life. One big discrepancy I noticed is that Louie got to pick the radio station. Needless to say, this is not the case in my car. I don’t know when parents lost this privilege, but it must have happened after my childhood was over. My dad always insisted on listening to classical music when we drove which, while I didn’t appreciate it at the time, I later realized helped instill in me a lifelong love of not having to listen to classical music.
The other element of the scene that rang hollow was that Louie seemed to know all the song’s lyrics, which is rarely the case with me. Sometimes I’ll hear a song come on the radio and tell the kids, “Oh, I love this one!” and then fumble pathetically as I try to sing along. I guess I should really tell the kids, “Oh, I love this one — the chorus, anyway!”
But there is at least one song I do know all the way through, and that’s “Yesterday,” by The Beatles. It’s one of the songs I’ve always sung to my kids to put them to sleep, whether they wanted me to or not. But with “Yesterday,” I have the opposite problem — I know it too well. I’ve sung this song so many times that I can’t help but over-analyze the lyrics, especially the part where Paul McCartney famously sings of his lost lover, “Why she had to go, I don’t know, she wouldn’t say. I said something wrong, now I long for yesterday-ay-ay-ay.”
In the approximately 18 million times I’ve sung this song, I’ve come to wonder a few things. Like, who is this girlfriend who up and leaves Paul McCartney without a word of explanation? Does that sound like any woman you know? What, was she an intelligence operative about to go on a top-secret mission, but she didn’t want to jeopardize Paul’s safety by revealing any of the details? Probably not. Which is why I bet if you asked her, she’d have a different story to tell:
Paul’s Girlfriend: “‘she wouldn’t say?’ Is that what he tells people? Oh, I said, let me tell you, I said plenty. Maybe Paul should rewrite the lyrics to that song as, ‘Why she had to go I don’t know, I wouldn’t listen. Probably because I was too busy running around with that French trollop, Michelle.’”
So clearly, even a musical genius like Paul McCartney has lyrics-related problems. But no matter. Inspired by Louie’s rendition of “Who Are You?” I’m going to keep on singing along to the radio in the car with gusto, even if I don’t know the lyrics and I sound absolutely terrible. Then I’ll promise my kids I’ll stop if they let me pick the station.
Readers taking issue with Malcolm’s take on classical music, Beatles lyrics or proper parenting can email their dissatisfaction to Malcolm@CultureShlock.com.
- posted: Wednesday, May 2, 2012 4:17 pm
By the time Labor Day weekend rolls around, the third season of Louis C.K.’s ridiculously funny FX show “Louie” should be winding down. For a little taste of season three, which begins in June, check out this teaser.
And when Labor Day weekend rolls around, the sharp-witted funnyman will be coming to Mark G. Etess Arena at Trump Taj Mahal on Friday, September 1 for two shows: 7:00 p.m. and 10:30 p.m.
Tickets are on sale this Friday at noon. Get ‘em here.
The third season of “Louie” is coming to FX on June 28, and a trailer hyping the show was released Wednesday. The black-and-white teaser does not appear to include any footage from upcoming episodes, but instead pays homage to Woody Allen’s “Manhattan” with black and white photography of New York City and a sprawling classical soundtrack.
And the similarities don’t end there. C.K.’s career has many parallells with Allen’s — both made their name as stand-up comedians before become auteurs in the medium of film (Allen) and TV (C.K.), eventually writing, directing and starring in vehicles that are simultaneously screamingly funny and enormously heartfelt.
Although this trailer uses Rachmaninoff and not Gershwin, FX obviously wants us to know that New York is Louis C.K.’s town, and it always will be.
- March 26, 2012
Rather than invest millions of dollars in its original comedies, the basic cable channel FX traffics in a different, rarer currency: creative freedom. “We take small bets economically, but big bets creatively,” said John Landgraf, president and general manager of FX Networks.
Those bets have paid off with sitcoms like “Louie,” written by and starring comedian Louis C.K.; “Wilfred” about a depressive who befriends a talking dog; and “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia,” which is syndicated to Comedy Central.
The shows fit well with FX’s larger strategy to pursue young men with risky, breakthrough and even offensive material — in June, FX will introduce “Anger Management,” a new sitcom starring Charlie Sheen.
Louis C.K. talked to Bill Carter about how Mr. Landgraf lured him to bring “Louie” to FX for $200,000.
He had a very loose idea of what he wanted. I said, ‘Let me shoot a pilot and you don’t have anything to do with it. I won’t even pitch you the idea or show you the script or show you the footage or show you the casting. Just wire me the money and let me do the show.’ And he was willing to do that.
One of the reasons it was done that way was he only gave me $200,000 for the thing all in. Since I was able to prove this was a way to do it and they liked what they got, I was able to keep doing it that way.
No notes. Nothing. I had one phone call with John Landgraf after the pilot. He said they had tested it and I’m just going to give you the information from the test in case if you feel like having it. The breakdown of who likes what.
Now the thing ended with me saying this whole story about my dog dying. He said: A hundred percent of the people in the test were really upset by the ending. He said the strongest testing was that the ending was a bummer. And my interpretation, said John, is: ‘Don’t change it.’ So all I got from the test was: ‘Here’s the strongest data we got and I as the network president am urging you to ignore it.’
He continued:
Everybody wants the ‘Louis C.K. deal.’ What they don’t realize is there is no Louis C.K. deal. There’s nothing on paper that says they don’t bother me. Everything on paper says they can make me do everything they want, says I serve at their pleasure and they get approval over everything. But they’re not going to exercise it as long as things are going well. I earn this with every episode. If I stop being funny, they’re going to come calling.
One good thing about John, too, is that he’s not a snob. Some people are comedy snobs. They start to close in and feel small. I think of the fact we have Charlie Sheen, which is like having Jason Giambi the year after the steroid thing but he’s still hitting. He’s got the average. We’ll take him. Or that guy on the Dodgers whose leg was all taped up but he hit that home run the World Series. Kirk Gibson. I think Charlie has that potential.
This is getting suspicious. Three weeks ago, a particularly surprising bit of newsblossomed regarding Louis C.K., a comedic genius and pioneer in offbeat television: it was reported that C.K. was teaming with Seinfeld writer Spike Feresten to create a sitcom pilot for CBS. This, alone, was shocking to those familiar with C.K.’s brand of comedy—particularly, with his FX series Louie: it’s dark, depressing, and not structurally out of sync with just about everything else on television. So many of us wondered if C.K. would be adapting to CBS’ general comedic brand, or if the network would be open to the comedian’s signature style. The first bit of casting news regarding the series drives us further away from a clear answer: Ashley Tisdale is reported to be starring in the pilot.
Louis C.K. has sold a comedy to CBS.
The FX series star and former SNL writer is teaming with Spike Feresten (Seinfeld) on the show, which just received a pilot order from the network. The untitled project is an ensemble comedy about “young people trying to achieve their creative dreams in these tough financial times.” It has Louis C.K., Feresten, Gail Berman, Lloyd Braun, and Gene Stein as executive producers. According to one account, Louis C.K. and Feresten originally conceived the project 13 years ago.
Episode description: Leslie and Ben run into Dave (Louis C.K.) while meeting with the Chief of Police. Andy searches for a song to represent Leslie’s campaign.
