“Please stop it with voting for Trump. It was funny for a little while. But the guy is Hitler,” it reads. “And by that I mean that we are being Germany in the 30s. Do you think they saw the shit coming? Hitler was just some hilarious and refreshing dude with a weird comb over who would say anything at all.”
Louis C.K. went on to say he likes both Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, however he isn’t endorsing either candidate.
“And I’m not advocating for Hillary or Bernie. I like them both but frankly I wish the next president was a conservative only because we had Obama for eight years and we need balance. And not because I particularly enjoy the conservative agenda,” he continues. “I just think the government should reflect the people,” adding, “A good smart conservative to face the liberal candidate so they can have a good argument and the country can decide which way to go this time.”
Louis C.K. then proceeded to critique Donald Trump.
“Trump is not your best. He’s the worst of all of us,” he tells conservative voters, while also assuring them that he’s “not saying vote democrat.”
“He’s a symptom to a problem that is very real,” he writes. “But don’t vote for your own cancer. You’re better than that.”
While announcing the sixth episode of his web series, Horace and Pete, Louis C.K. adding a long P.S.
“Please stop it with voting for Trump. It was funny for a little while. But the guy is Hitler,” the P.S. begins. “And by that I mean that we are being Germany in the 30s. Do you think they saw the shit coming? Hitler was just some hilarious and refreshing dude with a weird comb over who would say anything at all.”
The actor and comedian went on to say he likes both Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton, although he’s not soliciting votes for either.
“And I’m not advocating for Hillary or Bernie. I like them both but frankly I wish the next president was a conservative only because we had Obama for eight years and we need balance. And not because I particularly enjoy the conservative agenda,” he continues. “I just think the government should reflect the people,” adding, “A good smart conservative to face the liberal candidate so they can have a good argument and the country can decide which way to go this time.”
“Trump is not your best. He’s the worst of all of us,” he tells conservative voters, while also assuring them that he’s “not saying vote democrat.”
“He’s a symptom to a problem that is very real,” he writes. “But don’t vote for your own cancer. You’re better than that.”
What’s your take on Louis C.K.’s warning about Donald Trump? It’s kind of scary when comedians get serious about what’s happening in the political arena–don’t you think?
Pamela Adlon can hold her own any day. But she really shines opposite Louis C.K. The latest news about the Louis C.K. collaborator is that she will be helming her own show in FX. It will be produced by Louis C.K., and will star Adlon in a lead role very similar to Louie’s own role on his show.
The logline for the new Adlon series, called Better Things, reads like this:
“What’s it like to be a working woman raising three daughters on her own? Don’t ask. Ok. Since you asked. Things get gnarly. And bloody. And funny. Well to you, anyway. In Better Things, Adlon plays Sam, a working actor with no filter trying to earn a living, navigate her daughters’ lives, have fun with a friend or two, and also – just maybe – squeeze in some private time once in a while. Her life is funny to watch, but you wouldn’t want to live it (except sometimes).”
In shorter verbiage, some are calling this a “female-fronted Louie.”
"Better Things, the Pamela Adlon comedy pitched as a female-fronted Louie and written by Adlon and Louis CK" SAY NO MORE. LOVE IT ALREADY.
A closer look under the hood of Pamela Adlon’s new show reveals something about the empire that Louis C.K. has been quietly building for years. Adlon herself, of course, is well known from Louie as Louie’s on-again-off-again lover, confidante, and foil.
But it is the rest of the list of credits for Better Things that Louis C.K. can be proud of. Adlon herself is an executive producer alongside Louis C.K. But designer Blair Breard, and manager Dave Becky are also on board.
Longtime fans of Louis C.K. will recognize those names as having been with him since the early days. While his show and comedy specials may have the air of being big-time, Louis is an incredibly loyal businessman and creator who keeps his projects very close. He does most of his own editing, and has used the same production team for many years, including Breard and Becky. He even uses the same title font for almost everything he works on.
Longtime fans will also remember that Pamela Adlon has been around with Louis long before the popular Louie series. She was there by his side for Lucky Louie, a show that will go down in history alongside Firefly as being inexplicably canceled by people who did not understand the concept of the show.
“Pamela is one of the sharpest and most endearing actresses working in television today and we are thrilled she has joined forces with Louis to create a series that is raw, personal and incredibly funny,” FX Networks/Productions president of original programming Eric Schrier said.
I'm pretty happy that @pamelaadlon is getting her own FXX show. She is a great actress and hilarious to boot.
If you’re into seeing live comedy and happen to be in the Hartford, Connecticut area this weekend, you are in for a big treat. Funny Or Die’s Oddball Comedy & Curiosity Festival will feature several of the biggest names in standup this Saturday night. The lineup includes Louis C.K., Aziz Ansari, Hannibal Buress, Amy Schumer, Sarah Silverman, and several more.
The Oddball Comedy & Curiosity Festival is a 21 city tour that runs throughout the entire country. The festival mixes up the comedy lineup every date, there are roughly 25 comedians who take the mega-amphitheater stage on alternating nights. Besides the comics listed above, several other brand name comedians have participated in the tour on various nights. Imagine getting the opportunity to see a combination of any of these stellar comedians: Bill Burr, Brent Morin, Chris D’Elia, Chris Hardwick, Dave Attell, Demetri Martin, DJ Trauma, Hannibal Buress, Jeff Ross, Jermaine Fowler, Jim Gaffigan, Jim Jefferies, Julian McCullough, Louis C.K., Marc Maron, Michael Che, Moshe Kasher, Nate Bargatze, Reggie Watts, Ron Funches, Whitney Cummings.
Last year Dave Chappelle made headlines when he refused to continue to entertain a loud heckling crowd. Instead of moving along with his routine, he sat in the middle of the stage and refused to tell anymore jokes until his time was officially up.
You can get all the latest information, tour dates, and find out which comedians will be playing where by following the festival at Twitter #OddballFest, Instagram, Facebook, and www.oddballfest.com.
Bradley Cooper has proven a notion believed by comedian Louis C.K. to be completely wrong. The American Hustle star isn’t gloating, however, and he really had no hand in making that proof public. It just goes to show that evidence on the internet never, ever goes away.
Here’s the scoop. Louis C.K. remarked during an interview back in 2008 that whenever an acting student in the audience during Inside the Actor’s Studio asks a famous actor a question, that’s when you know that student will fail. Louis C.K. specifically cited Sean Penn when he made his comments, too.
“You know it always occurs to me, when you have an actress stands up during, one of the people in the audience and says ‘I’m an actor, what can I do, and asks Sean Penn or whoever. What can I do to reach your level, or whatever,’” the 46-year-old said. “And you just want to say, ‘that’s it. You never will be famous. You’ll never be famous. There’s no way you asked Sean Penn a question and then you’re gonna be huge.’”
Well, Sean Penn visited Inside the Actor’s Studio back in 1999, and guess who was in the audience?
That’s right. It was Bradley Cooper. And Cooper asked Penn a question about Hurlyburly–a film Sean Penn starred in the year before.
Louis C.K. certainly didn’t set out to deliberately diss Bradley Cooper–but it’s kind of funny how this all turned out.
Note to famous comedians: Be very careful when you switch from funny lines to seemingly calculated speculation. Thanks to the internet, it just might come back to bite you in the butt.
Do you think Louis C.K. owes Bradley Cooper an apology? It will certainly be fun to learn the comedian’s reaction to his unwitting mistake.
Did you know that comedian Louis C.K. wrote and directed a 1998 film called Tomorrow Night? Well, now you do. And hey, look at that! Just in time to snag it for $5 on his website.
TOMORROW NIGHT is now up on http://t.co/gHB7zrPbmm. It's a movie. It's $5. It's funny. People are in it. They're good. Yap.
The film starred Chuck Sklar but featured other smaller appearances by a host of other big names including Steve Carell, Robert Smigel, Amy Poehler, and Todd Barry. The films is shot in black & white and was shown at the Sundance Film Festival in 1998.
So you know you can buy tomorrow night all over the planet $5 or how ever many euros or pesos or blaps. http://t.co/3riKozxFQq
Charles is the owner of a photo-shop. He is not too friendly and spends his evenings alone, and one day he finally decides to get a social life. He meets elderly Florence, who is tormented by her gambling husband Lester and longs for the son Willie she hasn’t seen or heard of for 20 years.
From the YouTube comments:
“Looks like Ingmar Bergman and David Lynch dropped some acid, tag-teamed on Cherry Vanilla with Andy Warhol, spawned a Love child who then grew up to make this film and edit this trailer! WTF? Great bunch of young (and old) comedic talent, though.”
The time has come for fans of comedy to get extra excited. Zach Galifianakis and Louis C.K., two of the comedy giants of the past few years, are teaming up together to make a new comedy. What more could the fans ask for?
The new show comes just a month after Louis C.K., the star of FX’s Louie, inked a deal with the network to produce additional projects under his production company, Pig Newton, while partnering with Louie producer Blair Breard.
It is an exciting time for FX and fans of comedy, as FX Networks and FX Productions CEO John Landgraf said “So many incredibly talented artists want to work with Louis and follow down the independent and idiosyncratic creative trail he has blazed. I can’t wait to see who he brings through our door, not to mention any new projects that he wants to create for us.”
The new untitled comedy that will star Zach Galifinakis marks his first project with the network in the deal, and when the two of them being paired up, it is undoubtedly going to a huge hit with the fans and critics.
Zach Galifianakis and Louis CK working on a show together. Hooooooolllllyyyy Sheeeeiitt. #TYBG
The new comedy is just one of 12 new projects in the works at FX, and others include Billy Crystal’s The Comedian, You’re the Worst from Weeds’ Stephen Falk, Tracy Morgan’s Death Pact, Denis Leary’s Sex&Drugs&Rock&Roll and the newly announced Charlie Kaufman comedy How & Why, starring Michael Cera and John Hawkes.
Zach Galifianakis shot to stardom with his role in The Hangover in 2009, and its subsequent sequels, but he has also starred in several other films, and has experience with television already too. Other notable films of the comedy star include Due Date, It’s Kind Of A Funny Story and The Campaign.
This will mark the latest adventure in television for Galifianakis, who has previously starred in the HBO comedy Bored To Death, Tim And Eric Awesome Show, Great Job and he continues to host the online series Between Two Ferns where he has ironically interviewed a variety of celebrities, including a recent interview with Justin Bieber.
Zach Galifianakis will also serve as an executive producer, along with Louis C.K., Blair Breard, Dave Becky and Andrea Pett-Joseph and Marc Gurvitz. Louie is also set to return to the network in May with its fourth season. Louis C.K. is known for his unique brand of vulgar comedy, and along with Galifianakis, they should make an interesting team.
For fans to see Zach Galifianakis in a comedy that is made from a production team including Louis C.K. could be a comedy fan’s dream, and it will soon become a reality. Details are being kept secret, but the two of them will also co-write the project that was created by Galifianakis.
Louis C.K. often integrates the love, frustration, and hilarious insights that his daughters bring him into his comedy routine, and during his final appearance on “The Tonight Show” with Jay Leno, he talked about how he’s trying to make them into better people…and can’t quite do it.
The comedian’s on-screen daughters are both sweet and funny, getting Louis into sticky situations while teaching him the joys of parenthood (packing a duckling in his bag before he takes off to perform for the troops overseas, standing up to would-be criminals during a trick-or-treat outing), but real life can sometimes be even more difficult.
“They come down and there’s just nothing,” he said after telling Jay he’d toyed with the idea of giving the girls nothing for Christmas. “And they’re like ‘what?,’ and I’m like ‘yeah, there’s nothing here girls.’ And they’re like ‘did Santa come?’ ‘Well, if he did, he didn’t leave anything. Not for you.’ I actually do think that one Christmas with nothing would make them more generous, more cautious, and smarter people, so it would actually be good parenting to have one Christmas where you get nothing,” C.K. said. “But I can’t do it. I can’t do what’s right for my kids.”
The “American Hustle” actor also talked to Jay about a film he directed way back in 1998 called “Tomorrow Night” which was never released despite garnering good reviews at Sundance. The movie will be getting a second chance later this year when Louis releases it on his website.
Louie, the hit FX show featuring Louis C.K., will not return to television with a fourth season until the spring according to reports. The third season, however is about to become available on Netflix.
Fans have been waiting for what seems like an eternity for the last season to become available to stream, and alas, we have a date. It’s 09/26. That is according to a Netflix spokesperson.
Seasons one and two are still available, of course. Whether you’re a fan or haven’t watched it yet, this will give you plenty of time to watch the entire series up to the current point ahead of the Season 4 debut next year.
Here’s a scene from Season 3:
This is yet another example of Netflix expanding its comedy catalogue, which it has been padding with original shows and exclusive stand-up comedy performances along with third-party content from various networks.
Louie fans might also enjoy Netflix’s latest original series Derek, which like Louie, mixes humor with some darker themes.
Best living comedian and creator of the brilliant show Louie, Louis C.K., has a new special debuting on HBO next month. HBO just released the first promo for it, and it’s dramatic as hell.
Last year, comedian Louis C.K. famously bucked the trend in comedy and successfully cut out the middleman. Instead of relying on a network like HBO or Showtime to distribute his standup special Live at the Beacon Theatre, Louis C.K. decided to produce it and distribute it on his own directly from his personal website. The format was simple: for $5, fans could download a DRM-free copy of the special and do whatever they wanted with it. It was widely viewed as a major experiment in content distribution – as it was unclear how successful it would be without the strong reach provided by a major cable network and with the ever-present threat of online piracy.
Well, the experiment worked, and that’s using any imaginable metric. Not only did it endear him to his fans, especially his internet-savvy fans, but it worked on a financial level. It was a huge success right away, and inspired a new generation of self-distributing comedians, including comedy heavyweights like Jim Gaffigan and Aziz Ansari who both released DRM-free $5 specials in Louis C.K.’s wake.
Now, Louis C.K. and HBO are teaming up once again for a new comedy special set to debut in 2013. No hard feelings, I guess.
From that clue, we can guess that the special will be called Lucky Louie.
Louis C.K. also made a point to let people know that he isn’t totally abandoning his popular internet-downloading scheme. Apparently, HBO is going to allow him to put it up on his site a few months after it airs on the network:
Louis C.K. and HBO have a long history together, and there was no reason to think that the comedian would move to exclusively releasing standup on the web. This seems like a nice compromise for C.K., who still gets to release his own content later on down the line but gets to benefit from the HBO name and all the promotion that comes with it.
If you were ever curious about what it would be like to see skateboarding legend Tony Hawk sit down and interview the greatest living comic, Louis C.K., wonder no more.
Hawk caught up with Louis C.K. during one of the comedian’s tour’s stops in Detroit and proceed to discuss a wide range of topics including reddit, Louie, Dane Cook, and pushing the limits of comedy.
Tony Hawk obviously thinks quite a bit of Louis C.K., saying that he’s “smart, funny, poignant, crude, inappropriate and innovative; all the qualities of a genius in my opinion.” I’m positive that most of the internet agrees. Check out the entertaining (and a bit awkward) interview below:
One of the great things about Louis C.K.’s comedy, both his standup and his hit show Louie, is that it is oftentimes painfully self-deprecating. Some of his best bits involve his failings as a father, husband, and the ability to be a generally decent human being.
But behind all of that we know that Louis C.K., and by extension Louie, is a great guy.
With that in mind, have you ever noticed that Louie apologizes. A lot.
And if your day was bereft of a good Louis C.K. compilation video, you’re in luck. You’ll actually be shocked with how many “sorry” utterances appear on Louie, and it’s only halfway through season three.
From the folks over at Slacktory, check out the supercut below:
The little comedy experiment that could just keeps on…doing?
We already know that Louis C.K.’s standup special Live at the Beacon Theater was a success monetarily and artistically. Now, it has a chance to be a critical winner.
That’s because Louis C.K. has scored 7 Emmy nominations, four of which are for his standup special that never even appeared on network or cable television.
Live at the Beacon Theatre scored nominations for Outstanding Special Class Programs, Outstanding Directing For A Variety Special, Outstanding Writing For A Variety Special, and Outstanding Picture Editing For Short-Form Segments And Variety Specials.
After deciding to cut out the middleman, Louis C.K. released Live at the Beacon straight to fans via his website back in December of 2011. He set a flat price of $5, and for that fans could grab multiple streams and downloads that were DRM-free.
I guess you can give the finger to the man and still get your props. He’ll be testing that premise again this summer, as he’s been selling tickets to his standup tour directly from his site as well, and even threatening those who would resell them at a markup on sites like StubHub.
For his FX show Louie, Louis C.K. also received three (higher profile) nominations; Lead Actor in a Comedy Series, Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series, and Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series.
After looking at the early figures from comedian Louis C.K., it was hard to call his most recent direct-to-fans venture anything but a massive success. After announcing that he planned to forgo Ticketmaster or any other similar service and sell tickets for his upcoming standup tour straight to fans on his website, Louis C.K. gave us some encouraging news:
Less than 48 hours after ticket sales opened up on his site, the tour had sold 100,000 tickets. With a flat cost of $45 per ticket, you can probably do the math. But for the lazy, that’s a gross of $4.5 million.
It was clear the Louis C.K. is very serious about this new model for ticket sales.
“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,” he said in an email to fans. “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.”
So Good Guy Louis C.K. sincerely wants his shows to be more accesible to his growing throngs of fans. That’s absolutely believable considering last year he released his latest comedy special online, DRM-free for $5. Louis C.K. started a trend with that “Live at Beacon” release – one that was shortly followed by the likes of Aziz Ansari and Jim Gaffigan.
Despite his warnings and good intentions, it’s unavoidable that people have seen the low $45 price money and vision of scalping danced through their heads. A quick trip to StubHub shows four tickets available for his October 27th show at the New York City Center – and they’re going for around $245 a piece.
Here’s where we are with the scalpers as of now…
I’m doing 67 shows on this tour and we’ve sold 135,600 tickets to those shows after one week on sale.
In addition to the tour, I’m doing two shows in one city that are on sale through traditional ticketing.*
So as a comparison…There are 1100 tickets available on stubhub alone for those two traditionally ticketed shows out of 4,400 available ( Almost exactly 25%). and these shows aren’t sold out yet.
There are less than 500 tickets available on all scalper sites (including stubhub) out of the entire 135,600 tickets that have already been sold, from the tour sold exclusively on my site, louisck.com (substantially less than 1%)
So it’s working. So far.
He’s right about the breakdown of tickets. The two shows (Trump Taj Mahal, Atlantic City) not being sold for $45 on his site currently have over 1100 tickets available on StubHub alone. Plenty of his other shows are available on StubHub, but each of them only offer a couple of ticket as available. Two-four mostly, and occasionally as many as 16-20.
He continued:
Our goal is to get even these 500 or less tickets back into the hands of fans at their original price. How we are doing that is our business that I won’t share right now. But so far our plan is working and we have learned a lot. The main message I’d like to convey to ticket-buyers out there is that buying a scalper ticket to one of my shows is a tremendous risk (well, a risk equal to how much you paid for it).
Contact with these scalpers has been enlightening. They tend to respond with indignance and a defensive posture “Hey man! Scalping is NOT a crime!” We’re not treating it as a crime or even a wrong-doing. We are just competing with them, on behalf of my fans, to enforce the terms and conditions of our ticket sales and to keep the prices down. It’s worth the effort, it’s working and it’s even been kind of fun.
Jesus christ, these shows better be fucking good.
Has Louis C.K. figured it all out? I’m sure he’d tell you no, but he continues to have success doing it his way. And you, the guy sitting on your couch laughing your ass off, should be happy about that.
Louis C.K., a comedian known for his tell-it-like-it-is style and unapologetic sense of humor, recently announced that he would be selling tickets for his upcoming tour on his own, through his website, without the help of Ticketmaster. And it looks like he made the right decision.
The New York based funnyman said that by Wednesday–about 45 hours after he made the announcement–he’d sold 100,000 tickets and made $4.5 million. Considering they’re only available through louisck.net, and considering the tour doesn’t even begin until October, that’s a hell of a feat. Even more impressive? C.K. has managed to do all of this despite the fact that a lot of theaters won’t let him perform in their venue if he refuses to go through Ticketmaster.
The new season of “Louie” starts tonight on FX. As for the man himself, he’s enjoying his spoils.
Louis C.K. continues to give a giant middle finger to middlemen, networks, and anyone who would attempt to make you pay any more than is reasonable or necessary for his product. And the awesome thing is that it continues to work.
Earlier this week we told you that Louis C.K. had decided to forgo Ticketmaster and sell tickets for his upcoming standup tour himself – directly from his website.
Here’s what he said about the venture in an email to fans:
We are selling tickets to this tour exclusively here on louisck.com. I only wanted to do this if there was a way, like with LIVE AT THE BEACON, that it could bring the price of tickets down and make them easier and less complicated to buy. We figured out a way.
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.
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. opt in to the email list if you want, and you’ll only get emails from me.
The tickets are going for $45 – a flat rate for all shows across the country.
Now, a few days in, it appears that Louis C.K.’s direct ticket sale move is paying off. Apparently, fans have paid over 4.5 million dollars in just 45 hours of the sale being live:
That tweet came Wednesday evening, so we can assume the numbers are even better now.
If you remember, this isn’t the first time Louis C.K. has found success in bucking the trend. Last year, he distributed his standup special “Live at the Beacon” on his site, free of DRM, for $5. In just one week, proceeds hit the $1 million mark (of which he gave about 75% of to charity).
Other big-name comedians like Aziz Ansari and Jim Gaffigan followed suit, relasing their new standup specials direct to fans.
I can only express happiness and enthusiasm about this trend. And the more success “cutting out the middleman” finds, the more likely we are to see other content producers trying it out in the future. Of course, like I’ve said before, Louis C.K. is a huge star, and many think that he’s the best living comedian. It will be interesting to see if others who are maybe not at star-powered can find success following the Louis C.K. model.
And just for good measure, here’s why this funny son of a bitch is succeeding in all of his ventures:
Comedian Louis C.K. is pretty well known for doing things however the hell he wants to do them, and when it comes to selling tickets to his stand-up shows, he’s not just going to acquiesce to the man (i.e. Ticketmaster). He’s going to sell them himself.
He did something similar with his comedy special “Live At The Beacon”, selling downloads of the show for 5 bucks apiece. The idea was so popular–making a million dollars in about two weeks–that other comedians followed his lead, including Aziz Ansari.
C.K. insists that now that he’s able to make a living doing what he loves, there’s no point in overcharging his fans if its not necessary. He announced on Monday that he will offer tickets only through his website, louisck.net, to his upcoming October tour for a flat rate of $45.
Besides cultivating a hugely successful stand-up presence, the comedian has also found a hit in his FX show, “Louie”, which is in turns odd, sad, hilarious, and insanely addictive. His observations on the people and world around him have hit home with a big fan base, who have all been clamoring for his presence on Twitter. He obliged, but only to insult them. That’s why we love you, Louis.
The new season of “Louie” begins this Thursday on FX.
In the past, comedian Louis C.K. has been fairly up front concerning his opinions of Twitter – he doesn’t really care for it. He once said that he “kinda hates” social media, in fact he “thinks it’s awful.” He has bemoaned the social media generation, saying that everyone nowadays has to live every moment through the social media lens – that we can’t just experience anything anymore without posting a status about it.
Can’t really argue with that.
Despite these feelings, Louis C.K. has maintained a presence on Twitter, and he has over 1.3 million followers. He’s said before that he really only uses the service to get people to buy stuff, and apart from using Twitter to go on an amazingly funny rant about Sarah Palin or to defend fellow comedians when they’re attacked by the PC police, that’s pretty much the bulk of his tweets – a show annoucement here, a comedy special release there.
Now, apparently, he’s decided on a new way to use Twitter. And it involves the merciless bashing of his followers.
Let’s call it the wave of direct comedy. Today, another high-profile comedian has launched their new standup special from their website, straight to fans, without any middleman to speak of. The eternally pale Jim Gaffigan’s special “Mr. Universe” is now available to stream and download for the now-standard price of $5.
From his site:
Mr Universe is my all new 75-minute stand up special which is available only here to stream or download. Mr Universe will NOT be available in stores or on television. For the cost of $5 worldwide paid via Paypal or Amazon Mr Universe can be yours. No DRM, no regional restrictions. You can play it as much as you want or burn it and then play it even more than you want. You can gift Mr Universe to anyone if you have their email.
Gaffigan now joins Louis C.K. and Aziz Ansari as comedians who have bypassed the networks and released their own product, free from the constraints of editorial control. Louis C.K. is credited with starting this trend with his $5 direct release of his special “Live at the Beacon Theater” back in December of 2011.
We know how Louis C.K.’s experiment worked out. Well. He announced that he had recouped his cost of production in just 12 hours of release, with over 50,000 purchases. After a week of being available online, Louis C.K. had made $1 million on the venture. We’ve yet to hear exactly how Aziz Ansari did with his direct release.
Louis C.K., Ansari, and Gaffigan are all very popular comedians. They will most likely succeed in this type of venture. But the real question is can other, less prominent comedians and artists do the same without the already-established fan base? Do they need the help of networks for promotional value and to take some of the risk?
Inspired by Louis C.K., Gaffigan is making “Mr. Universe,” available to download today for just $5, representing another big step for the viability of independent distribution of artistic works. As we’ve said before, PayPal fully supports the direct-to-fan business model for a number of reasons – it helps artists maintain creative control over their work, it typically makes the products more affordable for fans, and gives the artists themselves a larger cut of the profits!
We’ll have to wait and see as this trend (hopefully) continues in the future. Now, here’s some of the funny:
