By Zachary Swickey
LOS ANGELES – There are very few people in the comedy world as consistently innovative as Louis C.K. Anyone who’s watched an episode of “Louie,” the F/X show that he writes, produces, directs and stars in, is familiar with the rollercoaster of emotions that one goes through while watching. Each half-hour show will offend you before it makes you laugh, cry and eventually pity Louie.
Louie announced a surprise gig late Friday afternoon for a show taking place just two days later on Sunday at the intimate, iconic Largo – a cozy, no cell phones allowed venue with only 280 seats, but has hosted some of the biggest names in comedy on its stage.
Recent star of the Jason Reitman-directed and Diablo Cody-penned “Young Adult," Patton Oswalt, opened the set. He shared a hilarious anecdote about being extremely hungover after going on an accidental wine binge the night before and randomly having a movie marathon that included “Robocop” and “Goodfellas.” He promised his wife she could sleep in that morning, so he was on dad duty with his daughter, which he joked he was slurring too much to be doing.
After wrapping his stint, Oswalt introduced the man of the night, Louis C.K. The evening was billed "Louis C.K. – A Very Rough Show with Lots of New Material," which kept its promise as he read material from a notebook resting on his stool. But rough as it was, it was an hour of pure comedy gold.
A familiar theme in C.K.’s comedy is his vocal support of the homosexual community and this appeared yet again Sunday night. He joked about the ingrained homophobia of the common heterosexual man, saying, “We’re paranoid that someone might mistake us for something that we aren’t… sexually.” He laughed about the fact that men aren’t supposed to say they’ve missed each other or use descriptive words like “wonderful,” because such acts might be deemed homosexual.
He also made the good point that women typically aren’t as concerned, saying, “You don’t see many women worried about being called a lesbian.”
Louie also voiced his concern for putting one’s music, photos, videos, etc. in the “cloud” – the service from Amazon, Google and Apple that stores your digital goods remotely in their servers so they don’t take up precious gigabytes on your computer or phone. His trepidation toward the technology seemed to echo the concerns of “South Park” when an episode riffed on Apple’s lengthy contract you must click on and accept to receive appropriate updates (which no one ever reads).
All-in-all, C.K. had the crowd in the palm of his hand the entire night, and the constant flow of raucous laughter throughout the night is not something many comedians can pull off.
Do yourself a favor and tune into the season three premiere of the Emmy-winning “Louie” this Thursday at 10:30 p.m. EST on F/X.
Tags comedy
