Luck has nothing to do with comic-actor-writer Louis C.K.’s ever-evolving success
Louis C.K.
During the spring of 2006, three months before Lucky Louie premiered on HBO, it was obvious that Louis C.K. was on his way to becoming the hardest working man in show business.
While sitting with the energetic comic for lunch in Manhattan, he offered considerable details about his then forthcoming show. He had his hand in everything, including set design. While waxing about the show’s minutia, C.K. would then talk about his stand-up, which was constantly morphing.
Between his work, marriage and two daughters, which helped fuel his comedic fire, you couldn’t help but wonder when he slept.
Even though Lucky Louie didn’t last more than a season (HBO should have given the uneven show a longer look), all the work paid off.
At the time, C.K. was a relatively obscure comic with a bright future.
These days, C.K. has realized his potential. He has hit with the amusing Louie, which has been renewed for a fourth season by FX. C.K. plays a fictionalized version of himself, a divorced dad with two daughters living in New York City. The structure of the show, which he writes, directs and edits, is loose and the comedy is black and often surprising.
“It isn’t easy managing all of this, but it’s what I do,” C.K. tells Atlantic City Weekly. “The pressure of pulling this all off doesn’t bother me. I’ve always been good with pressure. I love having all of the work, the challenge.”
Part of what makes C.K.’s humor work so well is that it’s based on reality. His initial HBO special, One Night Stand, which aired in 2005, foreshadowed C.K.’s future of being at the head of the stand-up class along with the brilliant Demetri Martin.
C.K. cracked the house up as the beleaguered parent, who was clobbered by marriage. When C.K. would reveal that his then wife tongue-lashed him for not running the dishwasher, he noted that he simply forgot to press the start button — who hasn’t been there?
"That’s part of what I’ll talk about when I come to town. I’ll talk about my daughter. I’ll talk about getting older. I talk about how kids aren’t kids anymore and I’ll get political and I’ll talk about the dysfunctional. My daughter is 17 and she’s driving and I can’t help but worry. She goes to a private school and what’s bad about that is there a lot of entitlement. It’s hard raising my daughter but it’s good for material."
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"Yeah, we all get along super well and whatever, but there are no stories like ‘Oh, and then Nick Offerman slashed everyone’s tires.’ Ya know? Like, this is not a thing. It’s just not like everyone’s pulling pranks and doing goofy stuff all the time."
Two years ago, the mere suggestion that she would simultaneously be executive producing network sitcoms — and starring in one of them — would have probably gotten a bigger laugh than any of Whitney Cummings’ stand-up material.
“This show is completely scripted. This show is meant to look more like a movie than a TV show. And my comedy is very different than Larry David’s comedy. We have different sensibilities.”
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With one Emmy and four nominations under his belt for comedy writing (Late Night with Conan O'Brien, The Chris Rock Show), a strong and steady stand up career, plus the completion of the first season of his new sitcom on HBO, comedian Louis C.K. is feeling kinda "lucky." With both Lucky Louie and his stand up act, Louis C.K. brings us a raw look at family life, marriage and relationships in a way that is real, sometimes ugly, and always laugh-out-loud funny. I recently spoke with this writer, producer, stand-up comedian and actor about his road to success, his future plans, and his need for a little free time. Dave Peña: Congratulations on the first season of Lucky Louie on HBO. What has the show done for your career? Louis C.K.: Well, it's definitely noticeable in the clubs. When I go out to do stand-up I pretty much sell out every show, and people recognize me in the street and stuff, so it's fun. If it stays on TV it'll be even better. DP: Are you planning to produce more episodes? LCK: We're hoping so. They hired us to write eight more scripts, but they haven't pulled the...
“I was in a dark hole for a long time,” Lange says. “It was horrible and I’m lucky to be alive.”
Sandra Bernhard’s career has had the ups and downs one might expect from her primary profession as a stand-up comic. Her career has also included professional singing (not just in her stand-up but with several albums and a hit dance single) and an acting career in movies that got off to a brilliant beginning in Martin Scorsese’s King of Comedy (1983).
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