It’s hard to imagine that this bitter-looking man on the stage of the packed Hulu Theater in New York’s Madison Square Garden was once one of the funniest people on the planet. Louis CK’s shows used to be nasty too, they always played with what you can and can’t say, and yes, admittedly, he’s made too many jokes about pedophiles in the past. But for the most part he talked about the futility of life in a way that made you believe at the best of times that you could give life a pinch of meaning by forgetting the world and its weight for a while and his nihilistic monologues listened.
It looked like he was checking when it was time to return
This weekend, Louis CK made his big comeback with two appearances in New York after his career came to an abrupt end in 2017. It was then revealed that he had masturbated several times in front of women who were not enthusiastic about it, to say the least. He admitted the allegations. He said that for now he wanted to listen more and talk less. Then he disappeared from the scene.
If not for too long. Only nine months later he appeared unannounced on the stage of the Comedy Cellar in New York. Some guests left the auditorium in protest. CK then tried abroad, for example in Slovakia, perhaps in the hope that, in a country that is so far away and so small, they did not know that he had sexually molested several women.
He then appeared occasionally in smaller clubs in the USA. It looked like he was constantly testing the terrain, as if he was checking when the time had come to return to the big stages. In the spring of last year he made his first attempt in Washington DC, two sold out shows in front of 1,800 people each in the Warner Theater. He had the performances filmed and published a recording.
5500 seats in the middle of Manhattan. You can hardly say more clearly: I’m back
His material was pretty blatant, he joked about victims of school rampages, he mocked Asian men, he persistently worked on the issue of gender identity. It looked like Louis CK had become a far-right comedian. He deleted most of these passages again, but the issue of gender apparently still drives him. More on that later.
Just a few days ago, CK had surprised with the announcement that it would go on a longer US tour that should last until December. To make it clear straight away that the testing phase is over for him, he booked the Hulu Theater for the first two appearances on Friday and Saturday, with 5500 seats in the middle of Manhattan. You can hardly say more clearly: I’m back.
Before CK, there were three New York comedians, a woman, a man, and a trans woman. CK is known for personally selecting the supporting act, and the line-up seemed so balanced that you could briefly think of attending a politically correct event. The jokes of the three performers were – well – funny. The evening started well. Then Louis CK took the stage.
When the curtain rose, there were five letters taller than a man: SORRY, it said. That was the set, but certainly not the motto of the show. In the following, over an hour long performance, CK made it clear that he was pretty much sorry for nothing. Except maybe that he was not allowed to take part in the concert of the greats for so long. And that his manager left him then. And that his ready-made movie was unceremoniously pulped. And that his multi-million dollar TV deal fell through.
He didn’t say a word about what had happened. That was different during his test appearances. From time to time he had described what it was like to sit alone at a table in a restaurant and be greeted from the other end of the room with an outstretched middle finger. In Washington just over a year ago, he asked, “How was 2018 and 2019 for you guys? Anyone else got into GLOBAL trouble?”
In New York it now looked as if he had decided to say hello with an outstretched middle finger. Instead of victims of rampages, he joked about Covid deaths. He talked so much about pedophiles that after a while you had to wonder if he was saying, Look, there are a lot worse guys than me. But it wasn’t even the issues. It was his charisma, his demeanor. He always seemed to be saying: You owe me something. You did me wrong. And now I’m paying you home. Sometimes it was oppressive.
He used to vibrate with happiness. Today at best with bitterness
The darkness that blows around the current CK is only revealed when one has seen the earlier CK at the height of his work. There’s an older story about one of his daughter’s classmates named Jizanthapus. How wonderfully stupid this name alone is. The number starts quite harmlessly with him telling how much he hates this six year old boy. Abysmal hate. And that maybe that’s not entirely okay for a man his age.
This leads to a bizarre scene in which CK has sex with both the mother and the father of the child, later incites fundamental Christians on the father’s neck, the child flies tied up and gagged to Venezuela for interrogation, and so on further, and all of this, as he explains in an absolutely understandable way, in order to protect his daughter. It’s a little miracle of stand-up comedy.
It contains everything that distinguished Louis CK: the precisely calibrated border crossing, the poetic use of vulgar language, the monumental madness, plus a better feeling for day and night than sun and moon. All of this presented with an irrepressible delight in madness and anarchy. The whole CK vibrated with happiness when he recited the number because he knew how good it was.
On his comeback show, the whole CK vibrated with bitterness at best. There was no longer any trace of the joy that once beat in his performances like an indomitable heart. CK spat out his jokes, leaving as essence an indefinite and almost physically unpleasant form of malice.
As I said, a woman, a man and a trans woman performed in the opening act. What CK actually thinks of people of indefinite gender, he had hinted several times during the show in derogatory remarks. At the end he explained in great detail that everything was all well and good with the gender debates, but in the end it came down to the man and the woman, everything else would be a mess. Why? Well, he explained, you still need a woman and a man to make a non-binary person, more precisely: an erect cock and a wet pussy, in, out, you know.
In a way, that was the, sorry, highlight of the show. He repeated this a few times, he launched a verbal thunderstorm of cock, pussy, cock, pussy, cock, pussy, and when this thunderstorm was finally over, Louis CK disappeared from the stage and luckily gave no encore.