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

yeah this is all p weird but y'know people are complicated (also fwiw her new special is really funny)

Is Louis CK really as powerful as all that? Serious question here.

i'm sure he's powerful enough that publicly accusing him would be uncomfortable. he has friends, some connections, etc. otoh he seems like the kind of guy that if an accusation ever came out he might just admit & apologize. i def don't think he's as powerful as these stories are making him out to be - most powerful man in comedy? maybe standup comedy? how about like adam sandler or seth rogan or kevin james who have huge hollywood careers? or jeff dunham, russell peters, kevin hart, or terry fator? idk.

I would say powerful mostly in the sense that his fanbase could make life a real pain in the ass for quite a while

But yeah if he ever tries to go negative on accusers about it that's the end of his rep forever

dude is such a heroic figure to his scene and considering the crap that comes with making rape accusations about celebrity, making "he's creepy and showed me his dick" accusations would seem to ask for even more hemming, hawing and scrutiny from shitbirds (not to mention everything the fedora squad would get up to). and if he did say "yeah, i was a REAL CREEP around the time of my divorce, sorry i freaked anybody out and here's an hour about it" it would be In Character and quickly forgiven as clueless game-lacking, while the accusers would be known as The Women Who Couldn't Just Let Louie's Slip-Up Slide which would probably be toxic for a comedy career. It's just a shitty situation and there's likely no world where CK would be the one getting most of the shit, even though he'd be the one at fault.

to me, louis' power is more indirect than anything. i don't think there's anything unique about louis or his power -- it's more that he happens to stand at the precipice of an industry that is tightly knit and funnels talent upward in a pretty straightforward and traditional manner. it's true that someone like sandler or rogen or rock might be more famous, but i don't think those guys are as connected to the comedy scene as louis, and "comedy" and "stand up comedy" are not really all that separate. (i.e. as recently as 2014 louis headlined a funny or die stand up tour that he was probably way too famous to be a part of http://www.oddballfest.com/talent/). practically all talent in the "comedy" world comes from the stand up comedy scene (or the improv scene, which bleed together). even someone like seth rogen, who bypassed that route in his path to megastardom, is going to inevitably end up working with plenty of writers or whatever who make names for themselves thru stand up.

so anyway, i think the reticence of people in the comedy scene to explicitly talk about louis is less about something special to louis, and more about becoming known as the type of person who will break a circle of trust. being a whistleblower is a very hard thing and it takes a brave person who is willing to put their career at risk. it's not precisely about what louis ck could personally do to a whistleblower, but what being a whistleblower might say about you to the people who control your livelihood: talent agents, casting agents, booking agents, fellow comedians, fellow writers, people who scout for comedy central shows, people who scout for snl etc etc. hollywood does not care for the moral. plenty of industries -- white collar business, government, police forces etc -- will outright shun you if you reveal yourself as someone who will not keep certain secrets, and i think people feel like comedy -- and hollywood -- is like that too. and if someone is willing to stand up and say things about someone as important and beloved as louis ck, who won't they talk about?

idk someone who didnt masturbate in front of ppl I spose

yeah i think you're underrating the love for louis ck here, j0rdan, i don't think the industry is worried he'll reveal what carcosa means, people just don't wanna hear bad stuff about people they've ass-kissed

hierarchies are indeed self-protective but you don't have to be a jenga piece in something far more sinister to be protected

Isn't Jordan saying some exec will be like "if she'll say this about Louis what might she say about me"

tbose tweets /are/ incoherent. "bring negativity to my podcast"? sounds like she basically passive-aggressively outed the man who all but sexually assaulted her, but is upset that someone took the bait. mixed in there is her genuine surprise that something she might have thought was not "public" in the same way as say twitter has been harvested for a very public purpose. everything you do on the internet, esp. under your own name, is public! in any event i sympathize with her. if she didn't want to name him (even though she all but did) i'm not sure it's really all that necessary or responsible for either jordan to do so. w/o a victim willing to go on the record i'm not sure what purpose their posts serve. but this is not my "world" so i dunno.

I like Jen Kirkman but she sometimes seems to think what she says in her podcast is magically limited to being heard just by her fans.

Isn't Jordan saying some exec will be like "if she'll say this about Louis what might she say about me"

yes, and admittedly i kind of overstated it. my point is that creepy uncles don't get away with shit because the rest of the family hates snitches or is necessarily made of creepers too. often they just don't want to look horrible by association and find it easier to pretend nothing creepy is happening. if dane cook or carrot top wiggled his dick at a hip female comedy duo, i think they'd be far more likely to publicly call him out, as fewer people of note like them anyway.

this is the dark side of being 'cool', no? Ppl are afraid to say bad stuff about you even when it's the truth?

Good to know high school rules apply to the world of comedy

Good to know h

Good to know high school rules apply to the world of comedy

CK and Maron both seem like guys who are figuring out their dark shit as a way of figuring out the dark shit of most of the white American dudes of their age. They're a bit too old to have gotten Free to Be...You and Me and Sesame Street in their early education. They both have pre-breakout standup representing the mindset of generally decent guys whose imagination has been a bit too shaped by porn. They've tried not to be shitty while letting their appetite run their actions, and they've seen a lot of comedian peers self-destruct in a dozen ways, and all of that awareness is front and center in their acts, their interviews, and their TV work.

I'm not saying it's right, just that this is what's going on. Lotsa ppl's moral compass seems permanently set at high school so it's not that surprising?

Garfunkel and Oates are like "hey we never signed up to help Louis CK figure out his dark shit all over us, do that in the privacy of your own home, Louis CK"

Oh yeah, if there's bad actions to come to the surface it's fair that they do - just saying that I imagine these guys know it could happen. Unlike Cosby, it probably keeps them up at night.

Also, unlike Cosby, Louis CK didn't drug them

How many people has Louis watched die in the show now? Double figures?

People he's watched die vs. women he's fucked

Upper Decker
Is this a thing?

'tis.

On indefinite hiatus, Curb-style. good move imo (on a few levels)

he's helping produce a series for Pamela Adlon for FX, I like the sound of that

Yeah that's got potential.

how did i not know about this

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/louis-ck-direct-star-indie-793211

Was surprised how little chatter this season generated

It was kind of a blah season; not as funny as the earlier ones, not as interestingly experimental as the most recent.

Yeah, not that great a season, and it sounds like it was created under less-than-ideal circumstances.

I liked the nightmare episode a lot, but it seems like it was pretty divisive.

that one and the pamela roleplay sex episode prob the most memorable

simon otm abt how louie seems perceptive abt issues of masculinity in his show and that this, if true, would be a kick in the teeth. i don't know that this is more likely to be true than not. i suspect j0rdan probably has some better sources up his sleeve but i really have no idea. i have seen people make shit up before, especially when they are protected by anonymity. it's not like this is a victim talking, it's just this bro goes by the name of "jason"

so there's a new show huh

o baskets u mean? first ep was funny def

horace and pete

i got an email about it like an hour ago

yeah, no fanfare and no press and apparently an insane guest lineup. filmed in the past week based on news items referenced in the screenplay.
https://louisck.net/show/horace-and-pete
$5 for the first episode. i may try this.

http://gothamist.com/2016/01/30/louis_ck_releases_surprise_new_web.php

C.K. stars as Horace and Steve Buscemi is Pete, who run a bar together; Alan Alda is their grizzled, racist uncle (also named Pete), and other comedians, actors, and Louie friends such as Nick DiPaolo, Kurt Metzger, Steven Wright, Jessica Lange (as C.K.'s father's former lover), Edie Falco (as C.K.'s sister), Rebecca Hall (as C.K.'s girlfriend), Aidy Bryant (as C.K.'s daughter) and more show up throughout the episode. It also must have been filmed in the last week or so, since the characters touch on topical hot button issues, including Donald Trump's candidacy and Super Bowl quarterbacks. There's also an intermission.

ken tucker review.

https://www.yahoo.com/tv/louis-ck-horace-and-pete-review-steve-buscemi-180857513.html

not really a review as such

I thought this was great but $5 was a little steep. Also what is with Buscemi sweeping all the time?

Steven Wright was great in this as well

And Alda is the dramatic glue that makes it work.

Some of you are aware that, last Saturday, I launched a new series on my site louisck.net called “Horace and Pete”. I’m writing now to tell you some stuff about it….

Horace and Pete is a new show that I am producing, directing, writing, distributing and financing on my own. I have an amazing cast: Steve Buscemi, Edie Falco, Alan Alda, Jessica Lange, Aidy Bryant, Steven Wright, Kurt Metzger and other guest stars. Also Paul Simon wrote and performed the theme song which is beautiful.

The response to episode one has been great so far and there are more coming. We are making them now and having a lot of fun doing it.
Part of the idea behind launching it on the site was to create a show in a new way and to provide it to you directly and immediately, without the usual promotion, banner ads, billboards and clips that tell you what the show feels and looks like before you get to see it for yourself. As a writer, there’s always a weird feeing that as you unfold the story and reveal the characters and the tone, you always know that the audience will never get the benefit of seeing it the way you wrote it because they always know so much before they watch it. And as a TV watcher I’m always delighted when I can see a thing without knowing anything about it because of the promotion. So making this show and just posting it out of the blue gave me the rare opportunity to give you that experience of discovery.

Also because we are shooting this show in a multi-camera format with an emphasis on a live feeling, we are able to post it very soon after each episode is shot. So I’m making this show as you’re watching it.

Okay so let’s talk for a minute about the five dollars of it all. If you’re on this email list then you’re probably aware that I always make an effort to make the work I do on my own as cheap as possible and as painless as possible to get. That’s why my specials are five dollars and that’s why I sold tickets to my last big tour here on the site, with our own ticketing service at a flat price with no ticket charges and we have worked hard to keep my tickets out of the hands of scalpers.

So why the dirty fuckballs did I charge you five dollars for Horace and Pete, where most TV shows you buy online are 3 dollars or less? Well, the dirty unmovable fact is that this show is fucking expensive.

The standup specials are much more containable. It’s one guy on a stage in a theater and in most cases, the cost of the tickets that the live audience paid, was enough to finance the filming.

But Horace and Pete is a full on TV production with four broadcast cameras, two beautiful sets and a state of the art control room and a very talented and skilled crew and a hall-of-fame cast. Every second the cameras are rolling, money is shooting out of my asshole like your mother’s worst diarrhea. (Yes there are less upsetting metaphors I could be using but I just think that one is the sharpest and most concise). Basically this is a hand-made, one guy paid for it version of a thing that is usually made by a giant corporation.

Now, I’m not complaining about this at all. I’m just telling you the facts. I charged five dollars because I need to recoup some of the cost in order for us to stay in production.

Also, it’s interesting. The value of any set amount of money is mercurial (I’m showing off because i just learned that word. It means it changes and shifts a lot). Some people say “Five dollars is a cup of coffee”. Some people say “Hey! Five dollars?? What the fuck!” Some people say “What are you guys talking about?” Some people say “Nothing. don’t enter a conversation in the middle”.

Anyway, I’m leaving the first episode at 5 dollars. I'm lowering the next episode to 2 dollars and the rest will be 3 dollars after that. I hope you feel that’s fair. If you don’t, please tell everyone in the world.

Meanwhile, we’re going to keep making Horace and Pete. We’re going to keep telling you the story.

I sincerely hope that you enjoy it. I’ll write you again later and tell you more about it. It’s fun to talk about. But for now I want to shut up and not ruin the experience of you just watching the show.

Enjoy episode 2 of Horace and Pete. We’re shooting it now. You’ll get it on Saturday morning.

The first episode of Horace and Pete was really hard to get through

I've been watching all of these in order over the last couple months and man this show is really erratic. And not in a purposeful, interesting way just in retrospect a lot of it feels really sloppy and half-assed, interspersed with moments of greatness and genuine inspiration. Also Louie more and more seems like a terrible person. Like, the character is just kind of gross and loathsome.