Louie (Louis C.K.'s show on FX)

it's portraiture

i still don't really 'get' the church episode

I don't even remember what episode that is so I really don't 'get' it.

What's to get? Definitely say through some traumatizing sermons as a kid, it hit a nerve for me.

1 of the pts louie emphasized in the commentary 2 the 'god' episode was the image/act of the custodian having 2 re-nail jesus 2 the wall at the end of the day

he doesnt mean it as symbolic or deep or w/e btw just like the guy being all eh ok i had 2 sweep the hallway and now i have to do this thing too

i mean i guess what i didn't 'get' was where the comedy was?

like given that this is ostensibly a(n often dark) comedy program i was sort of imagining that there was some (perhaps so dark as to be opaque) humor in the church episode

so when i say i don't 'get it' i just mean 'am i supposed to laugh somewhere or am i not supposed to be laughing, cause if i watch louie and don't laugh i just assume i'm missing the joke'

that's the joy of Louie!

I attended a Catholic school for many years (even though I'm a Jew!) and I can say that the episode was actually really accurate w/r/t the way these guys can scare these kids about religion; I went through the same stuff when I was 10! Those guys can be brutal. The actor who played the pastor was amazing. One thing I love about the show is that it has a lot of those real tense moments because it feels like it's a documentary; with most every other show you always have some sense of where things are going because of previous episodes, or just certain tropes or conventions that you see over and over, you know who's going to screw up, you know which problems are going to get resolved, you know who's coming through in the end - Louie really feels like it could go in any direction at any time, especially with all the surreal fantasy/absurdist scenes

um, guess who i met

well, not met. but i just found out i'm friends w/ louis ck's third grade teacher, who gave him the nickname 'ck' (he says) and also threw a pie in louis's face. apparently louis semi-obsessively drew pictures of people getting pies in their face, and my friend made note of it and, on the last day of school, threw a pie in his face. all the other students came over and scraped the filling off louis's face and ate it.

That sounds absolutely wrong until I realised he probably didn't have much facial hair.

i mean i guess what i didn't 'get' was where the comedy was?

awkward laughing at human nature or revelations about your own relation to the material being presented, imo

I thought that episode was hilarious because the church-types are using the suffering and trials as Jesus as a way to put fear in the kids, but they're completely tone-deaf on the fact that lil' Louie is actually shaken up by it and feels a connection. So when he's pulling Jesus off the cross, they just see vandalism! Which is hilarious because they use it as a symbol to scare kids, but they completely miss that this kid got the message more than they get it.

Janitor nailing it back up at the end is hilarious, because hey, Jesus is on that cross and that's just the way things are, kid. Nothing to see here, just routine. Gotta take the suffering for granted unless you're using it to scare kids./

Nailing up Jesus at the end is the punch line, so fucking funny. Not really laugh-out-loud funny, but funny in a whole other way.

It shouldn't have worked as a payoff/punch line, but it definitely did

Sorry kid, that's the way it's gotta be, Jesus up on that cross and you down here sinning

Some crits have the first 5 eps, and the response has been typically positive.

press sez 4 oscar winners in new season

Apparently one of them is Melissa Leo.

premiere on Thursday. Rewatching the "Moving" episode right now. Homeless-guy exchange still hilarious.

dude is selling all tix exclusively through his website for the new tour
$45 all seats all theaters, tax and fees inclusive. no opt in list. 4 tix per customer.
this is the way to roll

the man's a legend

"what about obama?"

11 shows in NYC, 0 in Philly :(

my wife bought tickets to his Austin show before I even knew he was touring
fucking love her

also she will be v v v pregnant when we go to this ha

I looked at his site and there was nothing available for Chicago, but I don't know if that meant it was sold out or simply not on sale yet.

Isn't $45 a lot? I've never been to a big comedy show, excuse my ignorance.

$45 is a bit more than half of what he was asking for last time around, I think. He was on Bill Simmons's podcast yesterday talking about how some comedians are going for $100 tickets these days.

finally got around to finishing season 2 and holy shit it's amazing. it's such a treat to watch every episode and have no idea where it's going

Yeah--interesting how sitcoms have always been about predictible form and structure, but this...

I looked at his site and there was nothing available for Chicago, but I don't know if that meant it was sold out or simply not on sale yet.

Chicago Symphony Center, Nov. 9 and 16. Early and late shows for both dates.
https://buy.louisck.net/tour-dates

xp I dunno if that reflects on your typical sitcom or if this show really is that brilliant

In general, American sitcom evolution is multi-cam (new situations in the same room) to single cam, with Scrubs and now 30 Rock et al throwing in surprise cut-aways, but with Louie you don't even know whether the credits will be at the start and when the stories will start or end.

It's like: when Woody Allen put out Crimes and Misdemeanors, it seemed like a wide range of comedy and drama, and now, after Sopranos et al, it doesn't feel radical. Same way a sitcom with some breadth or playing with tone (All in the Family) feels like it's covering a narrower range than this. It's closer to Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman.

Season 2 is on netflix now

xpost I saw that the shows were listed, but when I looked yesterday it said there was nothing available yet (didn't say sold out). This morning, the early show says sold out, but I bought four tickets to the late show.

Oh, my bad.

i think we're better off just not calling Louie a sitcom at all

And for whomever asked, frankly, $45 is cheap for just about anybody in a theater or bigger these days.

The one that started like an actual sitcom was pretty amazing

i think at this point he could sell out a 60 buck tour no problem, but generally 15 of that would be taxes and fees. this is a much better method. also, i gotta say dude really does a solid, lengthy show based on the beacon set. he's a pro and worth 45.

Oh, Louie.

I have to say, though, I laughed throughout the entirety of multiple episodes in season one and only laughed a couple times during season two.
I miss the lols.

I just watched the one last night with the sitcom open, then his stand-up bit about the ex-girlfriend who killed herself, then Dane Cook, then the great button in the end-credits, all connected without a rational or easy explanation.

When I saw him last time he was totally worth the money. Is he unique in dumping his material each time around and starting from scratch?

not a lot of comics do that afaik, particularly ones whose material isn't heavily 'topical' or largely improvised

Yeah, there are comics that coast on the same material for years.

Hi. I'm going on tour all over America, or at least some of it.
Tickets for this tour are available EXCLUSIVELY here on louisck.com.
Tickets are 45 dollars, every seat, every City. That includes all taxes and fees. You don't have to join anything and you don't have to hear from me again unless you want to. Just cheap tickets to see me do an all new bunch of jokes.
See you on the road, bitches.

yep the actual ticket cost for me was like $42.37 or something

because of edinburgh, which even the big comics do, i think most non-us anglo comics write a show a year. there isn't that pressure/milestone for us comics afaict.

$45 is apparently about half what he was charging last year, so i assume he could comfortably sell out a $60 tour forks

He played Bass Hall in Fort Worth last year (or, god, that might have been two years ago) - nosebleeds were $60ish and he sold that place out.

Got tix for his show in Baltimore on New Year's Eve. Early enough to not mess with any late night plans. Pretty stoked!

milo, did you go to that bass hall show? my wife and I went to that one. think it was two years ago