June 27, 2026

Louis C.K.: The Fall, the Independent Years, and Why Netflix Just Took Him Back

Show Notes
Transcript

Nine years after a New York Times report and his own direct admission ended his career almost overnight, Louis C.K. is back on Netflix on June 30 with a new special called Ridiculous. Johnny Mac lays out the full, sourced timeline — the allegations, the statement, the uncomfortable Comedy Cellar return — but also the parts of the story that get skipped: the 2011 five-dollar Beacon Theater experiment that invented his independent model years before he needed it, his own on-camera tribute crediting George Carlin with rebuilding his entire approach to writing, and an honest reckoning with why, like it or not, you can't tell the real story of 21st century stand-up without him in it.

What happened with Louis CK in 2017?" – "Why is Louis CK compared to George Carlin?" – "How did Louis CK sell his own comedy specials?" – "What did Louis CK say in his apology statement?" – "How many specials has Louis CK released since 2017?" – "Did Louis CK win a Grammy after the scandal?" – "Is Louis CK one of the best comedians of the 21st century?" – "Why is Netflix working with Louis CK again in 2026?"

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Daily Comedy News with Johnny Mac is a daily podcast covering comedians, stand-up comedy, late night television, and the comedy industry. New episodes every morning. Follow on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen. Part of the Caloroga Shark Media network.

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This is the animal sanctuary mentioned in the February 10 episode.

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Callarogashock Media.

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Hither. I'm Johnny Mack, and on Saturdays this summer, we're

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doing deep dives on single topics or reasons, I explained

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at the end of yesterday show. On Tuesday, Netflix releases

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a new Louis Ck special called Ridiculous, filmed at the

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Beacon Theater. It is Louis CK's first special the major

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distributor since twenty seventeen. Check your calendar. Twenty seventeen is

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the exact year everything in Louis CK's career stopped, and

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Ridiculous is Netflix specifically deliberately picking the relationship back up

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nine years later. This is not a comeback happening quietly

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at the margins. This is one of the largest entertainment

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companies on Earth making a calculated decision to put their

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name back on Louis Ck. And the fact that they're

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doing that now tells you something has changed in relation

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to that. In twenty seventeen looked pretty settled. So let's

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go back and take a look at what actually happened.

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November ninth, twenty seventeen, The New York Times publishes a

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report naming five women who said that Louis k had

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masturbated in front of them, asked to do it, were

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done so over the phone. In incidents stretching back more

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than a decade, several of the women connected to the

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comedy world, reading from the article skim a little bit.

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But in two thousand and two with Chicago comedy duo

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had their big break, a chance of performing at the

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US Comedy Arts Festival in Naspen, Colorado. When Louis K

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invited them to hang out in his hotel room for

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a nightcap after their late night show. They did not

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think twice times right, so as soon as they sat

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down in his room, still wrapped in their winter jackets

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and hats, Louis c. K asked if he could take

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out his penis. The women said they thought it was

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a joke and laughed it off quote and then he

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really did it. He proceeded to take off all his clothes,

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get completely naked and started masturbating. Then there are other accounts.

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You can read this on the New York Times from

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November ninth, twenty seventeen. All out was immediate and total.

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Where was it? His film I Love You Daddy had

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its premiere canceled within hours, and the distributor pulled the

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release entirely. HBO scrubbed his past projects from there on Demand,

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FX ended its production relationship with them. Netflix, which reportedly

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had a deal in place for a second stand up special,

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apparently canceled that outright. The next day, Louis c k

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released a statement transcript via CNN. I want to address

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the stories told to The New York Times by five women.

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He names the women who felt able to name themselves

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and one who did not. These stories are true. At

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the time, I said to myself what I did was

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okay because I never showed a woman my penis without

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asking first, which is also true. But what I learned

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later in life, too late, is that when you have

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a power over another person, asking them to look at

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euro penis isn't a question. It's a ridicament for them.

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The power I had over these women is that they

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admired me, and I wielded that power irresponsibly. I have

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been remorseful for my actions, and I've tried to learn

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from them and run from them. Now I'm aware the

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extent of the impact of my actions. I learned yesterday,

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the extent to which I've left these women who admired

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me feeling badly about themselves and cautious around other men

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who would never have put them in that position. I

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also took advantage of the fact that I was widely

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admired in my and their community, which disabled them from

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sharing their story and brought hardship to them when they

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tried because people who look up to me, he didn't

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want to hear it. I didn't think I was doing

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any of that because my position allowed me to not

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think about it. The hardest regret to live with is

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what you've done to hurt someone else, and I can

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hardly wrap my head around the scope of hurt I

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bought on them. But what happens next is the part

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that splits people the most. Because the timeline is pretty fast.

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August twenty sixth, twenty eighteen, it is nine months and

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seventeen days after the New York Times story, Louis C.

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K walks on stage unannounced at the Comedy Seller in

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New York and does fifteen minutes, no advance notice, no

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big deal, just back on stage at the Comedy Seller

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in New York City. The club's owner reportedly said afterword

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that Ck surprised even him by showing up unannounced. In

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December twenty eleven, Louis c. K self financed, wrote, directed,

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and edited a special called Live at the Beacon Theater.

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He didn't sell it to HBO or Comedy Central and

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Netflix or anybody. He put it out on his own

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website as a five dollars download with no copy protection

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at all, meaning if you bought it you could do

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whatever you wanted. You reportedly cost something like a quarter

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million dollars to make. He broke even in twelve hours.

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Within twelve days, he'd made a million dollars, and he

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wrote at the time with genuine surprise, that he'd never

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had that kind of money land on him all at once.

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The bet paid off. People didn't pirate it, they just

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bought it. And that's the part of the story that

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sits right alongside the cancelation. Louis CK returned to an

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audience relationship had already proven. Worked more specials Sincerely Louis

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K in twenty twenty Sorry, in twenty twenty one, Louis

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K at the Dolby, and Back to the Garden in

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twenty twenty three, four full specials sold directly, no studio,

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no network. Sincerely Louis CK won the Grammy for Best

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Comedy Album. In twenty twenty two, the Recording Academy handed

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its Top Comedy Hour to a special that nobody but

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Louis k himself had greenlit financed, were distributed during the

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exact period the rest of the industry had locked him out.

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Canadians have gone up against Lewis. If you're a murderer,

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you go to jail and they let you off whatever.

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Twenty years later, and you try to get a job

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as a bus boy. And if the guy says, I'm

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not hiring that guy he murdered, you know, and you go,

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but but he his penance, you know, and now you

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give him a job. That's the humane thing to do.

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And people go, well, what about the murdered person, And

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you go, well, of course he got worse, you know,

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the guy that lost his life. He's doing worse. But

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it doesn't mean you can't forgive, or it's impossible to forgive.

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During the years when I worked on my show, and

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even in the nightclubs, I mean a lot of the comedians,

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there was a lot of activity, let's call it frivolity,

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comedians and waitresses and everybody, I mean men and women,

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you know, Chase after each other right right, Yes, yes

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they do. Now I've never seen it done in a

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way that was that. I thought, that's not right that

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guy's doing.

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So you're surprised with all this me too campaign and

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things that are coming.

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Out now, No, I'm not surprised, but you asked me

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if I had seen it, so I haven't.

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One of them is also actually your friend or someone

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you worked with, Lucy King.

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That's terrible.

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I mean, these behaviors themselves don't even make sense sexually.

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It's like, I don't even understand why they would do that.

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And is it something that will cause you not to

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listen to him anymore? Not to be I mean, not

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to listen to his material. Think it's right that they

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took him.

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Ok, well, he stopped, he stopped working. The problem for

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him will be no one will ever ever look at

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him without thinking about that. And he knows that now.

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One thing they got lost in all this there were

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as a time when Ck was being compared to George Carlin.

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That doesn't happen much these days, but that was absolutely happening.

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The part of this tracess back to something Louis c.

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K himself said at an actual memorial event for George Carlin.

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In twenty ten, he described being stuck for roughly fifteen

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years performing essentially the same hour, recycling the same material

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because it worked, because building new material from nothing is terrifying,

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And then he described watching George Carlin operate differently. Carlin

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would discard an entire hour of material after touring it

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and start over year after year, refusing to coast on

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anything that had already proven itself. C K said adopting

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the same discipline was the actual turning point that took

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him from a journeyman comic with a tired actor. Did

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the comedian who within about four years of making that change,

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Comedy Central was naming one of the hundred greatest stand

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ups of all time. Once people started watching the result,

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the comparisons followed naturally. GQ called him the undisputed King

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of comedy during his peak run in the early twenty tens.

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I think that's fair. Rolling Stone placed him in their

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list of all time Greats, and the specific shorthand quote,

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the air to George Carlin quote shows up again and

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again in writings about him from that time period.

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I was having a lot of hard time being a father,

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and I wanted to say it on stage one night,

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I just I thought, Okay, forget all the old jokes,

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I'm going to start again. And I thought of the

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first thing. I said, I can't have sex with my

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daughter with my wife because we have a baby, and

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our babies of asshole. It's just what I was feeling.

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And I said it and the audience went whoa. And

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I thought, oh, I'm somewhere new now, and I said

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and I said something like, I never used to get

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babies in the garbage, but now I understand it. And

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they did that, and I thought I'd rather have that

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than the tepid laughter for my fifteen year old jokes.

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So I started going down this road and he was

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always the beacon for me. And since then I've done

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three comedy specials and I've started down the same road.

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It's been a massive change for me. I feel every

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year I've got something to work for it the same.

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I'm doing exactly what he taught me to do. And

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on stage I feel that a courage to say what

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I want to say because of this guy. And anyway,

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a few years ago I was about to tape my first,

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my second stand up special, and he was taping the

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same night in la He taped his last special on

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the same night that I taped one, and I remember

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feeling like, this is amazing that I do what this

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great man does and that we do it in the

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same way.

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Whether he fully or in the comparison is a separate

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question that the comparison existed at all. It's pretty interesting.

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If you're telling the real story of twenty first century

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stand up comedy, seek has to be in it. He

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has to be in it for like a decade, from

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the Beacon Theater experiment, through Louis, through specials like oh

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My God in Live at the Comedy Store, he was

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operating at a level of critics, fellow comedians, and audiences

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all independently agreed was or near the very top of

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the four. And he was doing it while simultaneously rewriting

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how comedians could build a sustainable direct relationship with their

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own audience without needing a network's permission. First, those are

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two separate major contributions to the art form, the work

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itself and the business of comedy. And think of how

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that has changed. And here we are in June of

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twenty twenty six, after performing at the Hollywood Bowl for

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the Netflix as at Joe Comedy Festival. We will get

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a special on June thirtieth. Louis c K is back

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and how do you feel about that? And that is

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Daily Comedy News for today. Back tomorrow with a normal episode.