Louis C.K. Oh My God

I have no intention of going through and naming each comedy bit, that would ruin the surprise and fun of watching this new hour from Louis C.K..

The core of C.K.'s comedy is not the material itself. He is not reliant on comedy mechanics for laughs. Nothing he says ever feels like a joke in the traditional 'setup, punchline' sensibility. No, the humor is sourced in his energy and inflections, where the audience is experiencing the world through his point of view as if we were in his body, thoughts or fantasies. Sometimes it's all three.

Often I find myself laughing at his word choices and visual descriptions. At times, he's merely just stating the obvious. But the way C.K. utilizes a metaphor or simile is artful in how he can conjoin two separate ideas together, where he can wormhole the audience's minds to some unexpected grotesque places for comparisons. And then he builds on it by acting out these ridiculous thought trains. There was also one improvisational moment where he accidentally spills water and he comments on it that had me aching in laughter. The bit he did as his closer was truly the climax of this new hour.

C.K. makes a point that being older makes a more intelligent and interesting person. He is the living embodiment of his own point. We're watching a comedian who has grown into himself, and we're intrigued not just for the laughs, but because he has something to say. A voice with true gravitas that he has earned from living a life.

And for that, Louis C.K. seems eternally connected to the grotesque and the morbid, but it's all enwrapped over a positive message: appreciate life and what you have. That's how he gets away with saying very horrible things on stage. As an audience member, I rather enjoy watching him get away with it.

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Like most of the world, I love the comedy of Louis CK, even when his sitcom is difficult and not funny in the least, I am normally held by the ideas within the episodes. The third season perhaps didn't work quite as well for me as I would have liked but his standup remains consistently funny and clever and it remains so with this special/ Louis talks about aging, about living in the moment, about how great it is to simply be alive and off the food chain and several other topics. As subject they do rather fit within the subjects you would expect to hear from a standup, but Louis delivers them with a view and a conviction that leaves you in no doubt that he is speaking from his own experience and that this is more than just a funny bit.

This sense of honesty and realism helps a great deal to get into the material, because often you cannot help but agree, even when some of the things he says are pretty dark, it comes from a place of truth but not often spoken out loud. Of course this isn't enough on its own though and it helps that the things he put forward are delivered with imagination and timing, so the phrasing and delivering of the material is consistently funny. I wasn't sure what to expect when it came to the round stage but it works very well and the camera never loses Louis even though he keeps moving and engages well with the crowd – even sitting he is careful to talk over his shoulder at times. His easy delivery makes it look easy but of course it is not.

More accessible than his TV show, this special is dark, honest and very funny throughout.

Louis C.K. has gone from strength to strength in the last 12 years, on an escalator to the top of the pile of stand-up comedians struggling to be relevant. And Louis C.K. is arguably the most relevant of them all. By discarding his material for each tour, he gives his fans exactly what they hope for every time he steps into the limelight.

Although much of his material doesn't tread new ground, it doesn't matter - his arsenal of jokes about growing old and waving goodbye to youth with a sigh are always fresh and bleakly hilarious.

His material comes from thoughts that most people have every day but never talk about, and the audience's secret familiarity with the subject matters makes laughing at them all the more relieving.

This is the one stand-up show that comedians everywhere would work their entire lives to emulate. But it's not made for comedians. It's made for you and me to join in laughing at the misery of the average life, and be completely comfortable with it.

Louis C.K. does his HBO special in Phoenix. The stage is 360. He does his highly inappropriate material as usual. He's a 45 divorced New Yorker father of two girls.

His brand of observational comedy is brilliant. He is lovable. The crowd is into it. It hits all of his various hot spots. He's growing breasts. There's a lot of jerking off, getting off of the food chain, dating and so on.

Comedy is always a matter of taste. No two people have the same funny bone. This is not for the easily offended. His fans will love this. It follows his many other specials.

It was only in the last few years that I learned of Louis C.K. Fortunately, I've seen some of his material, including "Louis C.K. Oh My God". In this special (also released as a comedy album) he discusses things like how lucky humans are to exist outside the food chain, and what would happen if murder were legal. I'd say that C.K.'s humor corroborates what Lenny Bruce, George Carlin and Richard Pryor proved: the problems in the world make for some great humor. Admittedly, C.K.'s humor isn't usually as edgy as Sarah Silverman's, but I've liked everything that I've heard from him.

In conclusion, I recommend the special. It deserved its Emmy win.