London Continued
Tonight is my fourth show at the SOHO theater. So far, the shows have been all different and all great. The theater is small and the audience starts at stage level and goes up from there very steeply. It's like talking to a wall of people. It's also like being in a surgical theater. Like the kind from the nineteenth century, where the doctor is still wearing a suit, just rolling up his sleeves and pulling out the spleen of a pauper who is still awake and screaming. And everyone is laughing.
I got some reviews in the British press. The Times, The Evening Standard, and a comedy website called Chortle. Chortle was the best one, meaning she liked me more than the others, which makes her better in every possible way a human being can be measured against another. I would LOVE to be so cool and self-possessed that I don't even read my own reviews. But yup, I do. And I'm even going to post the entire text of the Chortle review here, for those of you too lazy to follow the link. Here...
At last, comedy for grown ups. There's been a long wait for the next grumpy old man to come along, we've known and loved Rich Hall and Jack Dee for a long time - now there's a new old kid on the block.
Bostonian Louis CK has a great, bassy compelling voice, a solid presence and a direct, unsentimental manner. He front-loads the set with faggot, cock, cunt and 'the N word' material, but with such warmth and precision that there can be no offence taken.
He shares the vocabulary of the shock comics, but has so much more in his range and his approach. At 40 he's hardly an elder statesman, but he absolutely a master craftsman. There's tremendous skill in talking about how great it is to be white without sounding like an horrendous Klan member, but Louis CK does it, teasing the audience's unease with the premise.
He doesn't strain for edgy topics, no woodland animal nonsense and contrived surrealism here. This is comedy of the everyday, raising kids, divorce, fat Americans, even the perennial air travel gets a note, but here's the trick; it sounds fresh, the angles are new and illuminating.
The sheer joie de vivre in his use of language, vivid, economical and pungent had the Soho audience gasping for breath between laughter and delight. The stage seems full of characters, without going for manic impressions, as he reprises tetchy exchanges with an arrogant three year old, a lazy harassed doctor and a pithily politically acute phone conversation between spoiled America and an outsourced call centre.
He simply leaves most comics who've approached similar topics in the dust. There's not a word wasted, the pace is brisk and engaging and unlike many, he doesn't do shouting and bawling to fake energy. Top stuff.
Reviewed by: Julia Chamberlain
Soho Theatre, London
There's not much more to report right now. I've been hanging out a bit with Ricky Gervais which is always great. He is a little pig-faced retard and a very nice man. I saw his next film, Ghost Town, at a screening he had for friends. He is goddamn very mother fucking funny in that movie.
Okay, goodbye for now.
LCK
Posted by Louie in on August 2, 2008 | Comments [ 3 ]
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Why is it the only review that didn't explained where "CK" came from is the best one of the three? I smell douuuchyyyy...
Nope, actually, just some abandoned urethras. My bad.
(What?, it's kind of possible)
Greeting from Uruguay!
(A place with far less random urethras references than this comment may imply)
I was just watching the TV Funhouse DVD, and the "What a Policeman Does" sketch made me think, "This is like something Louis CK would do." And it was, because in the credits it said you wrote it. So I'm telling you what you already know to make myself feel somehow useful.
Thank you for bringing comedy to England. You could probably get some sex off that Chamberlain lady.
Me and my lady came to see you last night (5th Aug) for our anniversary and it was grand, very funny and a brilliant night as I too have a terrible sweat problem.
Apologies on behalf of the asshat sat directly in front of you on the front row who was off his face and kept rocking back and forth and clapping for no reason and shouting motherfucker.
He was Australian and high so that was his excuse and I thought me beating him to death would've distracted from your great work.
Good luck for the rest of the run, you won't need it.
Peace.