Louis C.K.’s Return to the Stage

The New Yorker Radio Hour

WNYC Studios and The New Yorker

Politics, Arts, News, Wnyc, Books, David, Storytelling, Society & Culture, Yorker, New, Remnick

4.2 • 6.2K Ratings

🗓️ 7 February 2020

⏱️ 26 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Louis C.K. is touring comedy clubs for the first time since accusations of sexual misconduct seemed to end his career, in 2017. Several women charged that C.K. had exposed himself and masturbated in front of them. (Louis says that he believed he had their consent.) The New Yorker staff writer Hilton Als saw C.K.’s show at Yuk Yuk’s comedy club, in Niagara Falls, hoping to see him address the issues through his comedy. “I really wanted him to describe himself,” Als tells David Remnick. “To be Louis that I loved, the person who would have described what those situations were like . . . what his compulsion was, where did it start? Why was it important for him to masturbate and not be alone? Was it a performance? Did he want [the women] to like him?” Instead, with an audience of bros in a small club, Louis dismissed what he called “the thing” as quickly as possible. Plus, a small group of one-per-centers argues that the wealth gap has grown too large, and that it will hurt economic growth. The solution? They want to raise their own taxes.

Transcript

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0:00.0	From One World Trade Center in Manhattan, this is The New Yorker Radio Hour, a co-production of WNYC
0:07.7	studios and The New Yorker.
0:10.1	Welcome to The New Yorker Radio Hour. I'm David Remnick.
0:13.7	The comedian Louis C.K. is on his first tour since a sexual misconduct scandal early in the Me Too movement.
0:22.6	Now, the details are hardly pleasant to hear about, so heads up, especially if you're listening with kids. The gist of it is that in 2017,
0:29.7	after some years of rumors, a number of female comedians came forward and charged that Louis had
0:36.0	exposed himself and masturbated in front of them.
0:39.3	Louis didn't deny this for the most part, but claims that he believed that these women
0:43.3	were consenting.
0:45.2	The New Yorkers Hiltonalls went to see Louis C.K.'s show, just as the tour began.
0:50.3	Not long ago, you exchanged the high seat of drama critic of the New Yorker for a more generalized criticism.
0:58.3	You wanted to get out and see more different things.
1:00.4	Great.
1:01.5	And so instead of being at the Vivian Beaumont Theater or the Winter Garden, you found yourself at the Yuck Yuck Yuck Club, a small comedy club on the Canadian side of Niagara Falls.
1:10.4	Have you ever been?
1:11.5	Not yet.
1:12.2	Yeah.
1:13.9	Watching Louis C.K. trying to gin up a comeback tour.
1:19.9	Why was this an event worth getting on an airplane for?
1:22.7	Why is it important?
1:24.5	Because Louis C.K. is a really significant artist. And I don't mean just in terms of stand-up
1:31.7	or situation comedy, he was a fantastic writer. And also, I think, an incredible politician about race.
	...

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