This is a quick review of a recorded standup comedy show. These are known as ‘specials’. Not sure why, they are generally unspecial -a comic (usually a middle aged man), a stage, and an audience, and that’s it.

This show is probably worthy of a closer look (for comedy nerds), because of the fact it has been heavily promoted across the main social media and streaming platforms. And for the fact that the comic is a veteran critically acclaimed act. And a self admitted sex offender.

Which was the elephant in the theatre. And why when the act chose sex abuse as the main arc of the set, it looked like it was going to be confronted. It wasn’t …will get back to that later.

I’ve watched a lot of Louis C.K’s comedy over the years. I reckon he has flashes of brilliance, so is generally worth the time to listen. The show stuttered to a start -he laid out a few generic gags and then got into a spiel about his ageing father. This is where some, in my opinion, serious class came out.

<spoiler alert>

He went into a long description of a chick that fell to its death from a nest onto a footpath. How the sight of the dead bird inspired in him a brief flash of insight into the nature of existence, before he went on to buy coffee someplace. How an old woman’s cry for help in his father’s nursing home reminded him of the bird. Her body struggled to stay alive as she plaintively called out for anyone. How he looked to a carer who casually shook his hand to indicate ‘nah’. As casually as if he had just offered to fetch coffee from the canteen. The connection between both situations was very well made. Something visceral. Universal. Profound. And funny.

This, to me, is comedy at its best.

<end spoiler>

But unfortunately the wheels seemed to come off after that -the rest of the show, more or less, was:

Fannies (tee hee)

Child abuse (tee hee, wink wink, nod nod)

His mother’s fanny (tee hee hee)

More fannies (tee hee)

More child abuse (har har hee hee)

That sort of stuff is all well and good for simpletons like Jimmy Carr or Ricky Gervais. No insight. No duality of meaning. Just ‘ooh arr missus isn’t it all a bit giddy and exciting’ (for reasons never explained).

From what I could tell there was one attempt to hook back into his existential tale:

A ‘friend’ of his who had a child late in life, and whose partner’s eggs had gone ‘rotten’. Grim stuff. No insight into the struggle they clearly went through to conceive. And crucially, no gag. If the ‘friend’ is not a figment of Louis’s imagination then he has more than earned the right to dish out slaps, kicks and headbutts the next time they meet.

It is safe to say nothing is by accident in one of these shows. 

Louis is a veteran comedian. 

Every word and topic in this show was carefully chosen.

The same goes for the promoter, Netflix. They run a serious business. The act and show would have been carefully considered before promotion. Which is why the overarching theme and end of show call back to no context child abuse was bizarre. Especially so when the act is a self admitted sex offender.

ANYWAYS.

Is the show worth a look?

In my opinion –No …head down to your local comedy night and see the real deal instead.