Tag Archives: Louie

Louis C.K. lets fans set the price for his new comedy special (Also: FX discusses ‘Louie’s future)

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Louis C.K. is back with a new comedy special release, Live at Madison Square Garden. As always, Louie is self-distributing it on his website, LouisCK.net. Typically, Louie charges five bucks for fans to download and save his audio and video comedy specials in popular file formats. This time around, though, he’s playing around with his groundbreaking and fool-proof system: he’s letting you decide how much you want to pay for it. The default price is set at $5, but you can lower that to a buck or raise it all the way to $85–it’s completely up to you. In the past, Louie’s made his specials cheap to get online to curb pirating. Wondering why he makes the barrier to entry even lower for the MSG special?

On his site Louie writes, “Price: so I didn’t know what to charge for this because a lot of the material was on my Comedy Store special and it was hard to get good sound because comedy is intimate and MSG is large, so there’s a lot of sound slapping around everywhere though the sound engineer and the mixer did their level best. So we have the price set to 5 dollars but you can lower it to 1 dollar or raise it to 85. that’s the maximum, because beyond that, I don’t want your crazy money. Not for this show.”

The comedian even went on The Daily Show last week (on Jon Stewart’s penultimate episode) to tell fans not to buy it in classic Louie self-deprecating humor. “It didn’t seem fair to really sell it,” he semi-jokingly told Stewart.

Repeated material and fuzzy mixing aside, Live at Madison Square Garden does contain new jokes, and if you’re into Louie’s smart, dirty humor then giving away a lousy buck to hear them sounds more than fair to me.

Jump after the break to learn the future of Louie’s FX original series. Continue reading Louis C.K. lets fans set the price for his new comedy special (Also: FX discusses ‘Louie’s future) →

TV reminder: 10 premieres to look out for in April

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Spring is here! Though we may be nearing the month where most of your favorite TV series wrap up for summer (I’m looking at you, May!), that doesn’t mean this is the end. In fact, there are a whopping 10 series premiering this month, four of which are brand new and demand your attention. Jump after the break for what you need to know. Continue reading TV reminder: 10 premieres to look out for in April →

FX renews ‘Fargo’ & ‘Louie’

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FX has renewed Fargo and Louie for a second and fifth season, respectively.

EP Noah Hawley took big risk adapting and twisting the Coen brother’s classic film for the small screen and it paid off. Fargo on FX, starring Martin Freeman and Billy Bob Thornton, proved to be a highly addicting, violent, and incredibly intriguing character study. Hawley thinks there’s more to explore in this inspired world he brought back to life and in its second season we will travel back in time to revisit Keith Carradine’s character Lou Solverson, albeit at a younger age. The 10-episode Fargo was always billed as an event series, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that a new season will play out sort of like FX’s other series American Horror Story with new characters and an entirely new plot. Though Fargo season 2 will deviate from AHS in that it will take place in the world as its first season and will carry over familiar characters (played by different actors, of course). Lou will be much younger in 1979, and his daughter Molly (portrayed by the talented Allison Tolman in season 1) will be but four years old. In terms of plot, the new season will explore the “Sioux Falls” incident that Lou mentioned a couple times in the show’s first year. Expect more Fargo in 2015.

Moving on to Louie, the comedian produced (and directed and wrote and edited and starred in) arguably the best season of his dramedy this year. Standouts “Elevator” and “In the Woods” pushed the envelope in terms of pure creativity. FX head John Landgraf puts it nicely: “Louie’s fourth season was once again groundbreaking. Sometimes hilarious, sometimes heartbreaking — always thought provoking. The show went to narrative and cinematic places no comedy has gone before and we look forward to seeing what Louis comes up with next.” A 7-episode fifth season is expected to air in Spring 2015.

[Via TVLine 1, 2]

TV reminder: 4 premieres to look out for in May

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As summer approaches many of your favorite shows will be airing their season finales this month. But don’t freak–May is home to a handful of exciting premieres headlined by the return of 24 and Louie. Jump after the break for details. Continue reading TV reminder: 4 premieres to look out for in May →

‘Louie’ will return for a fourth season in Spring 2014

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FX renewed Louie for a fourth season this summer, but you won’t see the comedian return to the airwaves for quite some time. Instead of premiering in late June as is tradition, Louie will come back in Spring 2014. Why the hold-up? In a conference call today Louis C.K. said he’s taking an extended break from the show for two main reasons: to focus on touring (which runs from this month all the way to February 2013) and to allot time to making the next season as creative, entertaining, and funny as possible. “The last three seasons have been this surge of fun and work and stories and it’s been great, but I want the show to keep getting better,” he said. “That’s my goal, and I don’t want it to be making the donuts, I want it to be something that comes from somewhere important and stays funny.”

Louie envisions his FX show to live on for nine seasons. The first three seasons have served as the first act of a trilogy, making season four the beginning of a new phase for the show. Following the splendid three-episode Late Night arc and the absurdity that ensued in the season three finale, I personally cannot wait to see what Louie has up his sleeve.

[Via Deadline; EW]

FX renews ‘Louie’, ‘Anger Management’ expected to receive 90-episode pick-up

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High off his record-breaking seven Emmy nominations, Louis C.K. has more to be excited about. On Saturday FX renewed his comedy series Louie for a fourth season. The cable network also renewed Russell Brand’s new talk show BrandX and said it will undergo creative changes as the show continues through the fall. Wilfred and veteran Justified were not renewed, but FX entertainment president John Landgraf remains positive about their respective futures. On Wilfred, he expects the bizarre comedy to remain on the air for “many years.” On Justified, he sees the Timothy Olyphant-led show run for at least six seasons (season three concluded in April).

Charlie Sheen’s comeback vehicle Anger Management has performed well enough in the ratings for FX to grant it a (whopping) 90-episode order. Though Landgraf has yet to greenlight the order, he expects to do so in the near future. “We won’t make a decision on the 90 episodes until all 10 have aired but the series up until now has given us every indication [that it will return],” he said. In episode 10, Charlie’s father Martin Sheen will join the cast as a series regular. “What the entry of Martin Sheen’s character will do is it will give an extra dimension to the show and make it a multi-generational family show,” Landgraf explained. “The show will still deal with his relationship with his patients and the women in his life, but will also [expand to focus on his family].”

Currently Anger Management, Louie, and BrandX air Thursday nights at 9:30PM, 10:30PM, and 11PM, respectively, on FX.

[Via EW 1, 2]

TV reminder: ‘Louie’ returns to FX tonight at 10:30PM (also, he’s going on tour)

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Louie Louie Louie Louieeeeeee. Sing it. You know you want to.

Tonight stand-up comedian Louis C.K. returns to your television screen in his highly lauded comedy Louie. The season three premiere is called “Something is Wrong” and the log line goes like this: “Louie has a challenging day.” This has got to be good. As you should be used to by now, C.K. wrote, directed, and edited the episode; you will see his name plastered all over the opening credits throughout the 13-episode season. He hit a high point in last year’s war-themed “Duckling,” and he’s still red hot following the massive success that was Live at the Beacon Theatre. Expect a bunch of guest stars to pop up throughout the season including Oscar winner Melissa Leo (The Fighter) and fellow comedians Robin Williams and  Jerry Seinfeld (the latter will help carry a three episode arc towards the end of the season).

Louie airs Thursday nights at 10:30PM on FX. Also premiering tonight on the cable network is the return of Charlie Sheen in Anger Management (9PM) and Wilfred season 2 (10PM).

In related news, C.K. is going on tour again soon. It starts on October 3 in Cleveland, OH and comes to a close on February 1 in Washington, DC. He’s following his previous means of success (read: Live at the Beacon Theatre) by directly selling tickets to his fans through his website. Tickets go for $45, no fees, no annoying emails.

In a blog post he explained, “Making my shows affordable has always been my goal but two things have always worked against that. High ticket charges and ticket re-sellers marking up the prices. Some ticketing services charge more than 40% over the ticket price and, ironically, the lower I’ve made my ticket prices, the more scalpers have bought them up, so the more fans have paid for a lot of my tickets.” He continued, “By selling the tickets exclusively on my site, I’ve cut the ticket charges way down and absorbed them into the ticket price. To buy a ticket, you join NOTHING. Just use your credit card and buy the damn thing.” And he means business. “Also, you’ll see that if you try to sell the ticket anywhere for anything above the original price, we have the right to cancel your ticket (and refund your money). this is something I intend to enforce. There are some other rules you may find annoying but they are meant to prevent someone who has no intention of seeing the show from buying the ticket and just flipping it for twice the price from a thousand miles away.”

That’s the C.K. way, and it rules. Click here to read the rest of his blog post and here to view the tour dates.

Update: He did it again, only this time he did it faster. According to the AP, Louis sold 100,000 tickets and raked in $4.5 million in sales in 45 hours. He shared his excitement in a tweet: “I guess it was a good idea.”