HBO: Tell us a little about your show (for) One Night Stand?
Louis CK: Well, I talk about my family, my wife and my kid, and the
difficulty of being a father. The hard part of being a father is not
having a kid, it's being married to a mother. That's very difficult. I'm
doing it, but it's hard. So I get to say how hard it is. It's ****ing
really hard, man.
HBO: That is absolutely true. So what was life like before you were a
father and before you were doing comedy full time - what did you do?
Louis CK: Well, a lot. I used to fix cars for a living. [SMACKS LIPS]
And I used to sit around a lot and smoke a lot of marijuana. And I used
to do other drugs and drink. I started right in high school, doing
stand-up. So I had a lot of years, while I was not a good comedian, that
I used to fix cars for a living. Then at night I would go to clubs and
bomb every night.
HBO: What do you think it was that got you to go onstage the first time?
Louis CK: [SIGHS] ****, I don't know. I just always loved comedy and I
really wanted to be good at it. And it was heartbreaking, 'cause I
started and I wasn't good at it. I was only 17-years-old, so I had a lot
to learn about life in general. But I just kept on trying. I was young
enough and stupid enough and I had no other choice. I had nothing else I
was good at =96 I wasn't even good at fixing cars. I kind of sucked at
that. That's really hard to be bad at. I was bad at it. And I knew I
wasn't going to go to college. So the only alternative I had was to keep
trying and trying. That was 20 years ago. I've been doing stand-up
comedy for 20 years now, and nobody knows who I am. So this special is
gonna change that, because I'm going to kill somebody onstage [HAND
SLAP] and that's going to make the news. You'll know who I am after I
murder some mother****er right there in the first row.
[LAUGHTER]
HBO: There must have been some comedian who you watched as a kid that
gave you the idea to become one?
Louis CK: Oh, yeah. Well, Richard Pryor's probably my favorite overall
guy. But I was very inspired by Cosby when I was a little kid. When I
was in third grade, I wanted to be a stand-up comedian 'cause I listened
to Bill Cosby records =96 Why Is There Air? =96 that my brother Russell
played. And Steve Martin. When I was about nine years old, Steve Martin
just blew my mind wide open. I loved his stuff. But Richard Pryor was
the one who was always there as an inspiration to me. He's the guy I
really wanted to be. I also liked Lenny Bruce later in life, and Woody
Allen's stand-up album stands right up there. It's a classic. I've
really studied it.
And once I started doing stand-up in Boston, it was really local Boston
guys who inspired me: Lenny Clark, Steve Sweeny, Don Gavin and all these
guys.
HBO: Were you ever taken under somebody's wing and shown the ropes?
Louis CK: There was a guy named D.J. Hazard who was just the weirdest
comedian. He had this cult following, and he was really mysterious and
interesting. I just wor****pped the guy, and he took me under his wing.
He used to let me do a set on his show every Thursday night at this
place called Play It Again, Sam's. I would have to run the tech stuff
for him and help him a little bit, and then he'd put me on the stage.
I'd bomb every night, but he didn't mind. I was ****ing up his show, and
he was like, 'just keep trying'. So I owe a lot to that guy.
HBO: That's great. You do a lot of writing, or have done a lot of
writing, for late night talk show hosts. Is it a different kind of
challenge? And are you still doing it?
Louis CK: Not anymore. I'm too old for that ****. It's five nights a
week when you do shows like that. I wrote for Conan, and that was great.
Conan is a great guy and I really enjoyed that. It was a good
experience. Letterman - kinda boring. Chris Rock was great 'cause it was
HBO and it was only once a week. So that was a lot of fun. But I don't
like knowing what's going on in the news. Every time I see the Michael
Jackson crap and all that stuff, I'm so glad that I don't have the
responsibility to turn that into comedy fodder. That's a rotten job.
HBO: Yeah, I hadn't thought about that, that you're really a slave to
the news when you're a writer on a talk show.
Louis CK: Yeah, you gotta know everything. And you're like, Oh good,
Martha Stewart's in jail. I don't care about those things, and I hate
that America cares about them. I don't even think Americans care about
it, but they're forced to listen to that **** over and over again during
the day on Extra and all those shows, and then at night on Letterman and
Conan. Who cares? So I'm glad I'm out of that.
HBO: So who are your favorite comedians these days? Who do you look
around at?
Louis CK: Dave Attell is a great comic. Mitch Headberg, who died
recently, was one of the best joke writers I've ever seen. Great, great
guy. And Chris Rock is sort of the standard bearer right now. I think
he's sort of the pace car for the rest of us. Who else that's out there?
There's a guy named J.B. Smooth, who's probably the funniest guy I've
ever seen. He makes me laugh harder than anybody. And there are some
women out there, like Laura Kightlinger, who's a great comedian.
HBO: Do you have any TV shows that you watch religiously?
Louis CK: Not really. The Simpsons has been my favorite show since it
went on the air. Nobody touches that show. I like watching baseball and
The Simpsons and then some crappy things, like Project Runway. I liked
that. But other than that, nothing.
HBO: Do you listen to a lot of music?
Louis CK: Yeah, when I can, I listen to all kinds of music. I like John
Prine and country music sometimes, but then I'll listen to the
soundtrack to Rocky. And there's a band called The Brian Jonestown
Massacre that's about ten years old - I like them a lot. That's about
it.
HBO: It must be hard to go to see music when you're a dad and you're
also working all the time.
Louis CK: Oh yeah, I don't go out. Go see music? No. No. Download it and
listen, that's about it.
HBO: What about movies?
Louis CK: No. If I have extra time I'm sleeping, that's what I'm doing.
Sleeping and eating. And then the rest of it is **** I have to do.
HBO: What about for a show like One Night Stand =96 do you have any
pre-show ritual?
Louis CK: I just sit around. I try to contain myself and stay in one
place, 'cause otherwise I'd go walking all over the place. But that's
burning energy. I hate waiting. I want to get onstage, badly, especially
at this ****ing place, on this stage. I've been all over the country
training for this show. I've been ready for this show for a while. I
started in July of last year, and I've been in every city in America
practically, Cincinnati, Peoria, Kansas City, Pittsburgh, Baltimore,
Anchorage, Fairbanks, Vancouver, San Francisco, Tempe, Arizona. Every
city in Florida. I played, Jesus, Seattle and Boston and New York and
L.A. So I've been all over the place canvassing and getting ready for
this, refining the material. And now that I'm here I just want to get on
stage. I hate staying in my room. I hate doing this - I hate all of it.
I just want to get onstage. But what I've learned to do is contain that.
I gotta go in my room and I'm going to want to walk around. [HAND SLAP]
But I'm going to be miserable. It's already starting. I'm being rude to
people. I'm not a nice person. And once I got offstage, it's a different
story. It's like *** that way. Like, with my wife, we fight and we
fight, and if she just kind of sits on me for five minutes, then for a
month I'm the best guy in the world. I'm the nicest guy in the world.
Somebody please explain that to her, how little it takes. And I'll wash
her car. ****, she doesn't even have one but I'll buy one and I'll wash
it for her.
HBO: Great. This is her chance.
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