Comments on: Louis CK attempts to both stop scalpers and avoid Ticketmaster

Louis CK attempts to both stop scalpers and avoid Ticketmaster

Lame_username — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 10:08:33 -0800

Popular comedian Louis CK announced yesterday that he plans to sell his upcoming concert tour exclusively direct to the public on his website.

This follows his wildly succesful online sale of his concert DVDs. (previously and previously). Music acts have long fought Ticketmaster over their high fees, such as Pearl Jam's unsuccesful attempt to bring the DoJ on board and String Cheese Incident's running battle with the ticket giant. Efforts to battle scalpers are not as passionate, but bands like Radiohead have also tried to tackle that issue before.

By: 2bucksplus

2bucksplus — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 10:13:13 -0800

(no one's commenting because we're too busy buying tickets)

By: zombieApoc

zombieApoc — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 10:13:55 -0800

i hope he succeeds and others follow suit.

By: ChurchHatesTucker

ChurchHatesTucker — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 10:14:31 -0800

This follows his wildly succesful online sale of his concert DVDs. Interesting choice of words. I guess "DVD" is morphing into "bunch of audio/video data."

By: MCMikeNamara

MCMikeNamara — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 10:15:28 -0800

Also, you'll see that if you try to sell the ticket anywhere for anything above the original price, we have the right to cancel your ticket (and refund your money). It's weird how something that a sentence so simple can be so beautiful, but that's the world we live in.

By: Sys Rq

Sys Rq — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 10:16:01 -0800

Yay! Also, um, the season premiere of Louie is in two days. I'm sure the timing is purely coincidental.

By: bondcliff

bondcliff — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 10:16:26 -0800

Also, season 3 of Louie starts this Thursday!

By: 2bucksplus

2bucksplus — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 10:17:39 -0800

Also season 2 of Louie is finally available streaming on Netflix!

By: zombieflanders

zombieflanders — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 10:30:23 -0800

Meh. This is a tiny bit of capitalism I can get behind.

By: I_Zimbra

I_Zimbra — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 10:31:10 -0800

Bought mine last night! I chose "best available" for the tickets and was given two in the middle of the balcony, middle of the row. Thinking I may be able to do better I gave up the tickets and searched again. Came up with last row of the balcony, doh! Gave those up and searched again, expecting a "sold out" message and was given two tickets in the front row of the balcony, aisle seats. Score!

By: Alvy Ampersand

Alvy Ampersand — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 10:31:14 -0800

Also, Louie is not on Canadian Netflix and CK's not touring in Canada and Hannibal Buress played here last week but I was working early morning shift and didn't go so piss on the lot of you!

By: bondcliff

bondcliff — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 10:31:53 -0800

Also, you'll see that if you try to sell the ticket anywhere for anything above the original price, we have the right to cancel your ticket (and refund your money). I really hope he can pull this off but this seems like it could go very, very wrong. If I decide I really want to see this show and I buy a ticket off a scalper (let's say I just assume tickets were sold the same way they always are) then I could potentially be locked out of the show, losing the money I have the scalper, and the scalper would get a refund? I assume smarter people than me have figured this out already and They Have A Plan, but I hope this doesn't backfire on him. Louis is awesome, and not just for his comedy. I hope this model works for others.

By: gemmy

gemmy — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 10:34:49 -0800

I thought it was interesting that he had to choose venues that would allow him to do this, which might take him to places where he might not otherwise be appearing. I wonder if this is a good kick in the pants for places that only work with Ticketmaster, and if other comedians will follow suit (like they did with the "direct to the fans" video releases) and if that will have any effect on the overall business as well.

By: shmegegge

shmegegge — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 10:37:23 -0800

man, Louis CK needs to either play massive venues like Madison Square Garden when he comes to NYC, or he needs to book a solid month of shows. it is IMPOSSIBLE to get tickets before they sell out, and he's playing more in New York than anywhere else.

By: Blazecock Pileon

Blazecock Pileon — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 10:37:38 -0800

I assume smarter people than me have figured this out already and They Have A Plan Plan A: Not buying tickets from scalpers.

By: slkinsey

slkinsey — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 10:45:20 -0800

How could they possibly find out whether a specific ticket has been resold at a higher price?

By: etherist

etherist — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 10:51:03 -0800

I am of two minds: A) Concert-going is a luxury good, the market should determine prices. If middlemen are involved and they jack up the prices, I can choose not to attend. B) Fuck scalpers, tickets should trade at face value. When it's concerts I don't care about, I take attitude A. When it's concerts like this one, I take attitude B.

By: spicynuts

spicynuts — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 10:54:46 -0800

the market should determine prices. When scalpers have technology to buy up huge swaths of tickets, that is not the market working, that is artificial scarcity.

By: COBRA!

COBRA! — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 10:58:48 -0800

I thought it was interesting that he had to choose venues that would allow him to do this, which might take him to places where he might not otherwise be appearing. Yeah... I'm mega-fucking-stoked to have gotten tickets for this last night; after this show, I'll be one Chris Rock tour away from having seen all of the members of my comedy pantheon. But it's going to be mighty weird seeing Louis CK at the Minneapolis Convention Center, which is usually full of boat shows and shit.

By: DU

DU — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 10:59:38 -0800

Concert-going is a luxury good, the market should determine prices. If middlemen are involved and they jack up the prices, I can choose not to attend. Ticketmaster is a monopoly.

By: BurntHombre

BurntHombre — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 10:59:46 -0800

How could they possibly find out whether a specific ticket has been resold at a higher price?

Great question. I don't think there's a way to enforce this, frankly.

By: bluefly

bluefly — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 11:00:10 -0800

How could they possibly find out whether a specific ticket has been resold at a higher price? I know a lot of the big concert acts (Justin Bieber, etc) have you show ID when you present your ticket at the venue. This prevents reselling.

By: chundo

chundo — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 11:00:11 -0800

Ah fucking hell, couldn't get the site to load yesterday, and now both Chicago shows are sold out. Anyone have some they want to sell me? (At face value, of course :))

By: mondo dentro

mondo dentro — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 11:00:44 -0800

Wow. I bought and enjoyed Louie's first experiment with this approach, but I never until now read his letter about hitting a million bucks. Most talk about his "economic model", but for me what sets it apart is the moral example he's setting. It is positively thrilling.

By: naju

naju — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 11:02:31 -0800

I don't mean this to sound entitled/ungrateful: for all the high-minded talk of sticking it to the man and bringing prices down, $45 still seems like a pretty high price to pay, doesn't it? Considering the rhetoric, I'd expect something like $20-$25. You know, the cost of a popular indie rock band that regularly sells out shows. This is like if the Rolling Stones made a big show of their altruism and then lowered their ticket price from $130 to $115. It doesn't set a great precedent considering how fawning everyone is over this. A bit disappointing, that's all, since the $5 price point to download his show was perfect.

By: schmod

schmod — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 11:02:32 -0800

This is a very good thing, and I'm amazed that he could find venues that would agree to it. Ticketmaster and the other ticketing cartels can't be thrilled about this, and very well may retaliate against the theater owners who had the gall to let CK sell his own tickets. Personally, I'd love to see a ticketing service that allows people to give up/sell their tickets without a surcharge (or something very minimal to cover credit card fees). Make a waiting list of people who want to get rid of their tickets, and another list of people who want to buy those tickets, and then automatically match them up one at a time. In the grand scheme of things, this is a dead-simple programming problem that would completely solve the scalping problem once and for all, without a single gotcha. It's good for the artists, good for the venues, and good for fans.

By: Rodrigo Lamaitre

Rodrigo Lamaitre — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 11:03:21 -0800

He's also threatening to deactivate scalped tickets, which I find difficult to imagine possible but intriguing nonetheless.

By: shmegegge

shmegegge — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 11:06:26 -0800

$45 still seems like a pretty high price to pay, doesn't it? hard to say. I don't know about elsewhere but in NYC the cost of a high profile comedy club (or even a middling one) is $20 or more, with a 2 drink minimum. Of course, there are also plenty of free comedy shows with quality varying from execrable to mind blowingly awesome so you can't exactly place his price on a rigid continuum. but to paraphrase his announcement, this is half of what people paid last year and lower than they've paid since his popularity exploded. for me, that's a decent price.

By: Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish

Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 11:07:24 -0800

I can't even figure out if there are tickets left for the DC shows because clicking the "buy" link takes me to a contentless page. Yay, technology!

By: I_Zimbra

I_Zimbra — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 11:07:41 -0800

How could they possibly find out whether a specific ticket has been resold at a higher price? The tickets that I printed out last night have my name on them. I suppose they could check IDs at the door, but I'm really not sure how it's going to work.

By: inturnaround

inturnaround — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 11:11:07 -0800

I imagine that if they see the tickets on ebay (which have the specifics listed) then they get cancelled.

By: ThePinkSuperhero

ThePinkSuperhero — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 11:11:58 -0800

man, Louis CK needs to either play massive venues like Madison Square Garden when he comes to NYC, or he needs to book a solid month of shows Boy, no kidding. City Center is pretty small for an act like his- only seats about 2700. One night at MSG would offer about 7k more tickets than 5 nights at City Center.

By: Lame_username

Lame_username — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 11:15:10 -0800

MSG (and many other venues) have signed exclusivity agreements with Ticketmaster and therefore cannot be used for this purpose. It seems like a pretty clear anti-trust problem to me, but the Justice Department disagrees.

By: jason_steakums

jason_steakums — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 11:20:21 -0800

Is there a comedy equivalent to something like Topatoco? You hear about prolific comedians like Louis and Aziz going it alone, but people who aren't on their level seem stuck with Comedy Central as the only real distribution game in town. And there's such a huge indie streak in comedy, and such a community built up on the web, it seems like there should be that kind of independent "for comedians by comedians" merch creation & distribution thing somewhere out there. I guess the big problem is that somebody would have to bite the bullet and focus more on the business of running a business and less on their own comedy.

By: RotJ

RotJ — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 11:20:54 -0800

I can't even figure out if there are tickets left for the DC shows because clicking the "buy" link takes me to a contentless page. Yay, technology! The DC pages say "Off Sale Online". Sold out shows show "Sold Out", so I don't know what that means. The tickets left are only available at the box office? There was only one show listed yesterday, and the ticket form was working.

By: Brocktoon

Brocktoon — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 11:21:21 -0800

I was able to get LA Galaxy tickets (MSRP $55) for $15 from some website. How?

By: Brocktoon

Brocktoon — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 11:22:24 -0800

And both Louis and Gaffigan seem to never come to Southern California. Sadface

By: gladly

gladly — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 11:22:31 -0800

I don't mean this to sound entitled/ungrateful: for all the high-minded talk of sticking it to the man and bringing prices down, $45 still seems like a pretty high price to pay, doesn't it? I actually thought it was low considering the size of the houses, and I'm curious about how the deals are structured, especially since he's paying your sales tax for you. I know just a little bit about ticket sales at the kinds of venues he's booked for this tour. Once you open the house, you have security, stagehands, ushers, etc., there are a lot of people working that night besides Louis CK, and they all have to be paid.

By: Pruitt-Igoe

Pruitt-Igoe — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 11:24:45 -0800

Personally, I'd love to see a ticketing service that allows people to give up/sell their tickets without a surcharge (or something very minimal to cover credit card fees). Make a waiting list of people who want to get rid of their tickets, and another list of people who want to buy those tickets, and then automatically match them up one at a time. I'd love to see this. If tickets were only valid with ID, but returnable if someone else is willing to buy them, they would be both useless to scalpers and still possible to resell (at zero profit) if you need to get rid of them. There's also no extra risk for the ticket seller.

By: Mister_A

Mister_A — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 11:26:31 -0800

Gotta go, Louie fest!

By: wierdo

wierdo — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 11:32:14 -0800

Plans is a misnomer. I bought tickets this morning, and I was several hours late. I'm vaguely surprised that Tulsa is one of the 24 or so cities he's visiting, but I guess with his direct-to-consumer video sales he's probably got pretty good intelligence on where his fans are located. We're somewhat lucky in Tulsa to have a flexible venue like the Brady Theatre (too bad it's named after an unrepentant racist fuck) that's still big enough to attract name acts that don't play arenas. Not that I have a problem with our arena. I seem to remember Maher being about the same price, while 'ol CoCo wanted about twice as much. The downside to CK only selling through his website is that I couldn't use my usual tricks to get great seats there.

By: slkinsey

slkinsey — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 11:32:36 -0800

>>How could they possibly find out whether a specific ticket has been resold at a higher price? I know a lot of the big concert acts (Justin Bieber, etc) have you show ID when you present your ticket at the venue. This prevents reselling. But, suppose I sell my tickets at face value (or less)? Or suppose I give away my tickets?

By: Sticherbeast

Sticherbeast — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 11:33:08 -0800

A) Concert-going is a luxury good, the market should determine prices. Tish and fipsy. The invisible hand is a model, not a moral or natural imperative. Besides, Louie CK derives benefit from having his tickets sold in this model: he gets happier crowds, a more "real" public image, etc.

By: item

item — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 11:38:11 -0800

My girlfriend and I bought our tickets last night for the local show and it looked like it'd sold out completely by morning. I wish Louis were a close relative of mine - I'd trade my own brother for him in a heartbeat. He just seems like he's really a stand-up (ha!) guy.

By: xingcat

xingcat — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 11:40:09 -0800

I wish Louis were a close relative of mine - I'd trade my own brother for him in a heartbeat. He just seems like he's really a stand-up (ha!) guy. That would mean you'd traded in your brother for a man of higher value, and so your brother would be deactivated. Or was that your plan ALL ALONG?!?!?

By: robocop is bleeding

robocop is bleeding — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 11:40:11 -0800

it's going to be mighty weird seeing Louis CK at the Minneapolis Convention Center, which is usually full of boat shows and shit. Well, I assume they'll air the place out first.

By: gompa

gompa — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 11:45:05 -0800

$45 still seems like a pretty high price to pay, doesn't it? Just did a quick scan of Ticketmaster for upcoming events here in Calgary. Not-quite-nosebleed seats to any old Calgary Flames home game are $54.15. The cheapest seats to see Nazareth at a local casino are $55. Floor seats to see Iron Maiden at the Dome are $112. Single-day tickets to the Calgary Folkfest are also $55. I can't think of a single live touring music act I'd be as keen to see as Louis CK - maybe Radiohead or Wilco in the right venue, though neither of them are, IMHO, at peak creative brilliance like Louis is right now - but I know many of 'em charge lots more than frickin' Nazareth does. So, no, not a high price to pay. I'd pay twice that and consider it a bargain, if only Louis had included Canadian dates on this tour.

By: tzikeh

tzikeh — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 11:46:15 -0800

I don't mean this to sound entitled/ungrateful: for all the high-minded talk of sticking it to the man and bringing prices down, $45 still seems like a pretty high price to pay, doesn't it? Depends on how much is costs him to book the locations. I can't imagine that, for example, renting the Minneapolis Convention Center is cheap.

By: naju

naju — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 11:49:37 -0800

By: naju

naju — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 11:51:17 -0800

(And he deserves the money! Definitely! It's just there's a lot of paragraphs in there about how he feels like he's made plenty doing comedy and just wants to help you.)

By: Flood

Flood — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 11:52:34 -0800

Ticketmaster is a total rip off. I hate it. Service charge on every ticket of like $8. Tickets to a baseball games are only like $12 each. So, ticketmaster is marking up the price of each ticket 75%. Rip off.

By: jessamyn

jessamyn — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 11:53:40 -0800

[Comment removed. We do not describe violent rapes here, even against Ticketmaster.]

By: John Cohen

John Cohen — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 11:57:04 -0800

I don't mean this to sound entitled/ungrateful: for all the high-minded talk of sticking it to the man and bringing prices down, $45 still seems like a pretty high price to pay, doesn't it? There is no objectively right answer to this question. Some people will care more about seeing Louis CK than about their $45; others will care more about keeping the money. For the first group, it isn't too high a price to pay. For the second group, it is. If the shows sell out, it will be a reasonable price for enough people that the price makes sense. I also have no idea what total expenses went into the show, which you'd need to know in order to figure out how much they have to charge just to break even, let alone make a profit. Many different workers are involved in making the show possible, and I can't possibly figure out how much money each of them should be making. The price is set by people with much more information than you or I have, and they'll just have to see whether they sell enough tickets at that price. In short, there's no need to have an opinion about whether a price is too high or too low. You and I have no basis for having such an opinion anyway. You and I are oblivious to almost all the relevant information. Don't worry about prices — the market takes care of them.

By: gompa

gompa — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 12:01:33 -0800

I'm not convinced that he couldn't have brought the tickets down further and still made an outrageous amount of money for himself. When he made an outrageous amount of money off the Beacon Theater show downloads, he gave a near-outrageous amount of it away (to staff/collaborators and charity). He's got more integrity than the other nine comics on the current Top 10 list of touring acts combined, and he's in some land of his own as far as fan trust. If he wants $45, I'm willing to assume he's got a good reason.

By: Space Coyote

Space Coyote — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 12:11:26 -0800

Wish I'd seen this in time to get tickets for the early show in SF. But glad I'll get to see him at all. I love that when you order the tickets it says: Delivery Fee $0.00 Order Fee $0.00

By: KokuRyu

KokuRyu — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 12:14:55 -0800

I'm not convinced that he couldn't have brought the tickets down further and still made an outrageous amount of money for himself. The sheer logistics of setting up an independent ticketing system are huge. Huge. Remember, this isn't Louis CK's day job - he has to pay other people to do it, and still make time to promote it himself. Anyway, you should try it yourself and report back!

By: DigDoug

DigDoug — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 12:15:50 -0800

He's in St Louis (a 4 hour drive) 10 days before my 40th birthday. So I bought myself a present. Thanks for making it simple, affordable and spending years making it so I know it will be entertaining, memorable and completely worth it, Mr. CK.

By: naju

naju — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 12:23:03 -0800

Anyway, you should try it yourself and report back! Haha, I'll do that. Well John Cohen convinced me that I should never have opinions about any prices ever, so I'll be quiet now.

By: disillusioned

disillusioned — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 12:24:20 -0800

Regarding "how can they know if you're scalping", my guess is that they can't easily. They say in the contract they reserve the right to force everyone to will call and revoke the print-at-home tickets, in which case I imagine if they're seeing scalpers scalp like crazy on eBay or Craigslist in a given city, they may trigger that. But as mentioned above, the big issue is that if someone is unaware of the arrangement, the person buying from a scalper could easily get screwed twice while the scalper makes double the money. It's unlikely you won't be at least tangentially aware of how the ticket sale is operating because I imagine most people try to check to see if they're available through whichever official means they hear of the sale, and then resort to scalping/CL/eBay only if that's unsuccessful, but still. It's also important to note that Louis CK is clearly not trying to prevent all resales. I think that he recognized that people don't want to be stuck in a situation where, for example, if I get a save the date for a wedding on Dec. 22 (when he's coming here), I'm screwed out of my tickets entirely because I can't sell them to anyone. So he's not disallowing that behavior, which is why you can resell them at face value. (There also might be actual legal restrictions in some states from barring people from selling tickets at face value or below, but I'm not sure.) What would be an interesting experiment would be as follows: 1) Tickets must be redeemed with the purchaser's credit card, like buying movie tickets online, at will-call. (This prevents people scalping tickets since they simply don't exist.) People could still scalp in person on the day of, but there's not a great deal of efficiency in that, and the provider could limit purchasers to a given credit card.) 2) Tickets can be returns/refunded in full (minus CC fees?) up to the day before the event. This would be the trickiest element since I don't know what the attrition rate is, but I'm willing to bet that if only people who were unable to attend would take advantage of this. 3) Refunded tickets could then be sold again online and at the box office at face value, like the cancellations line at a theater. 4) The ticketing system would take a list of wait listed people who could be notified that tickets still existed for the event, with an accurate count on the day of so that users could have reason to line up. There are some disadvantages to this system for the venue: it's fair to assume that not all cancelled tickets could be easily moved back out again. Maybe. I'm willing to bet it'd work with Louis, but with another performer, it might be trouble. It's also hell on accounting, since the tickets are booked as revenue until the show actually performs (or the "lock down" date), so there may be issues there. But again, if the talent is assumed to nearly sell out the show anyway, this shouldn't matter. This would nearly entirely stifle scalping attempts. Sure, a babysitting, present scalper could offer to meet you at the event, redeem the tickets, hand them to you and take cash for them. The only way to stop that would be to check IDs at the door to make sure the tickets match the name, like a boarding pass. But this would be a bit silly and a crazy amount of overhead for a problem you kneecapped by requiring scalpers to show up and limiting their purchases. (You could further limit their purchases by CC name AND number, since most people won't have the resources to have a ton of those. It depends on how crazy you want to get without wildly inconveniencing legitimate fans; a name check could easily be done mostly transparently and if you saw the same name pop up dozens of times on different cards, you could flag it to watch.) It's a tricky problem, and I'm not sure the ideas they've put forth here will solve it correctly, but it's cool to see them trying and I already bought my tickets for December's show.

By: Windigo

Windigo — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 12:31:11 -0800

$45 still seems like a pretty high price to pay, doesn't it? Considering the rhetoric, I'd expect something like $20-$25. You know, the cost of a popular indie rock band that regularly sells out shows. $45 is pretty often the cost of popular indie rock bands that regularly sell out shows.

By: Homeboy Trouble

Homeboy Trouble — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 12:40:44 -0800

I'm not convinced that he couldn't have brought the tickets down further and still made an outrageous amount of money for himself. The sheer logistics of setting up an independent ticketing system are huge. The sheer logistics of booking a show into a single large theatre are also huge, much less a travelling production to two dozen cities. He's either done the work of booking shows in 24 different venues, each with their own paperwork, or paid someone to do so. He's also had to arrange these venues so that he can book a tour in such a way that there is space available, and he isn't travelling too much between any pair of shows. He's taking on the risk of organizing a tour himself, and hoping to sell enough tickets in some fairly large venues to make the thing worthwhile, which is by no means guaranteed*. He's bringing a crew of some sort with him, which involves paying for several people's travel, lodging and living costs for months as well as paying them a decent salary. And that probably includes off days as well; he's got 4 days between his Detroit and Savannah shows. He either has to put everyone up somewhere for those 4 days, or fly everybody back to New York, give them a couple of days off, then fly them to Savannah. He's paying for the costs associated with credit card processing, which don't go away just because TicketMaster isn't sticking them to you within a separate line item. He's paying sales tax, and he's paying an accountant to make sure that this is worthwhile. These add up quite quickly. My very slightly educated back-of-the-envelope guess is that something around $20 is the break-even cost, assuming he sells every seat out. If you want to see Louis CK before this tour starts, you can pay $71.50 or $59.00. That seems a lot higher than $45 to me. If any other business venture slashed it's prices by 25-40%, I would be willing to let it congratulate itself as well. * Certainly, the odds that he can't fill the venues are low, but that's because he is an extremely popular comedian, which is itself because he is an extremely hard-working and talented comedian. And the fact that he has some degree of certainty that he can sell out any reasonable sized venue he casts his eye on is due to that hard work and talent, and seems like the sort of thing that should be rewarded.

By: jeffburdges

jeffburdges — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 12:49:55 -0800

Yey! Ticketmaster must die!

By: KokuRyu

KokuRyu — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 12:50:13 -0800

You also have to wonder how torrents etc are affecting LCK's bottom line. His HBO shows are all available on YouTube, which means less revenue for him, and compelling reason to tour.

By: 200burritos

200burritos — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 12:58:15 -0800

Well, I did a quick search too and, minus the fees, Aziz Ansari is charging $29.50 in Portland, $34 in Seattle, $39.50 in SF... I'm not convinced that he couldn't have brought the tickets down further and still made an outrageous amount of money for himself. posted by naju Aziz Ansari is in a totally different league than Louis CK, so that doesn't seem like a fair comparison.

By: bluefly

bluefly — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 13:01:11 -0800

>>I know a lot of the big concert acts (Justin Bieber, etc) have you show ID when you present your ticket at the venue. This prevents reselling. But, suppose I sell my tickets at face value (or less)? Or suppose I give away my tickets? Your name is printed on the ticket usually (and I think it is for this show) -- so no giving away, I suppose -- who knows? Scalping is why we can't have nice things...

By: vidur

vidur — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 13:02:08 -0800

Lessons in pricing a scarce resource

By: thedaniel

thedaniel — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 13:03:15 -0800

schmod: Personally, I'd love to see a ticketing service that allows people to give up/sell their tickets without a surcharge (or something very minimal to cover credit card fees). Make a waiting list of people who want to get rid of their tickets, and another list of people who want to buy those tickets, and then automatically match them up one at a time. This is pretty much how Burning Man dealt with its sold-out ticket fiasco: Secure Ticket Exchange Program. In their case, the only people eligible to be on the waitlist are those who entered the ticket lottery in the first place and had bad luck.

By: naju

naju — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 13:09:20 -0800

By: KokuRyu

KokuRyu — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 13:16:12 -0800

It might be useful to think of Louis CK in terms of a production company, rather than as an individual. It's likely that a significant amount of profits from the tour will be reinvested back into the company - he is self-financing and bootstrapping, after all, and shouldering all of the risk.

By: found missing

found missing — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 13:19:25 -0800

$45 per seems way too low to me. I want to see this guy get rich.

By: PenDevil

PenDevil — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 13:21:09 -0800

The revenue from this is going to be something like $5 million, guys. That's just the ticket sales. You make the real gravy on merchandise...

By: mr_roboto

mr_roboto — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 13:33:41 -0800

Well, it's selling out, so I guess $45 isn't too high?

By: Blazecock Pileon

Blazecock Pileon — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 13:37:12 -0800

You make the real gravy on merchandise... What Louis CK isn't telling you is that he's getting Ticketmaster to move the merch. Get your official $75 Lucky Louie sex towels here!

By: smackfu

smackfu — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 13:40:09 -0800

But, suppose I sell my tickets at face value (or less)? Or suppose I give away my tickets? Honestly, the answer is "you can't do that". It's too bad, but I haven't seen any other solution to scalping other than proving that you bought the tickets at the door.

By: xingcat

xingcat — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 13:47:50 -0800

So I'm breaking the million into four pieces. the first 250k is going to pay back what the special cost to produce and the website to build. The second 250k is going back to my staff and the people who work for me on the special and on my show. I'm giving them a big fat bonus. The third 280k is going to a few different charities. They are listed below in case you'd like to donate to them also. Some of these i learned about through friends, some were reccomended through twitter. •The Fistula Foundation •The Pablove Foundation •charity: water •Kiva •Green Chimneys That leaves me with 220k for myself. Some of that will pay my rent and will care for my childen. The rest I will do terrible, horrible things with and none of that is any of your business. In any case, to me, 220k is enough out of a million.

Would Ticketmaster do that?

By: MCMikeNamara

MCMikeNamara — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 13:52:15 -0800

What Louis CK isn't telling you is that he's getting Ticketmaster to move the merch. Get your official $75 Lucky Louie sex towels here! So they'll cost you $97.50 at checkout?

By: Devils Rancher

Devils Rancher — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 13:57:00 -0800

Dammit, there's still tix available for Austin as of right now, and I don't have any damn money. Maybe I should have been rich so that a bank would just give me some. :-(

By: spaceviking

spaceviking — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 14:18:07 -0800

There is a really interesting B.S. Report w/ Bill Simmons where he interviews the Ticketmaster CEO about monopolies and ticket pricing and how they are trying to change. I was really impressed with the CEO, he seemed younger and had experiences as a concertgoer and eventgoer before becoming CEO - so he had a really interesting perspective.

By: Rodrigo Lamaitre

Rodrigo Lamaitre — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 14:21:56 -0800

But, suppose I sell my tickets at face value (or less)? Or suppose I give away my tickets? I suspect one of the benefits of a small-time approach like this is there's no corporate policy stopping Louie/his staff from, say, helping you out if you email or call them.

By: jessamyn

jessamyn — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 14:26:15 -0800

The revenue from this is going to be something like $5 million, guys. (Most venues will sell out at around 2500 capacity x $45 x 47 tour dates). Part of the actual risk from doing something like this is the amount of damage control and balancing information that you have to do. So when you buy a ticket from Ticketmaster they take some huge chunk and then there's also a surcharge and whatever else and then there are mailing fees. And the performer gets some amount of that and still has to make payroll for his team and Ticketmaster mostly deals with the complaints. In this case he has to not only do all of what we call the fulfillment [getting your ticket to you in a way that means you have your ticket, someone else doesn't have your ticket and whatever else goes along with making them unscalpable] but also all of the fielding customer service issues and complaints in some way or another. I mean I guess he could just say "screw those guys" and not respond, but you've sort of seen how part of his deal is that he's responsive, or tries to be. So to bring this back home, we charge people $5 here at MetaFilter. We think that's a decent deal and most people agree. However there are a few weird things that go along with this which are things like Matt's PayPal being the same as the site's PayPal and the user number thing [we have user numbers up to almost 160K but really only about 50K users. One of the reasons that is set up the way it is is so Matt doesn't have to deal with griefers talking about how he's made $X that month and bla bla I'm the customer]. We also deal with almost all tech support and customer service in house. Which is not a big deal except in the weird cases where it is and you can't predict them. And so if Louis CK clears $5 mil from this, we all know he doesn't walk home with $5 mil. He pays a lot of people to run his traveling circus for five months and there's a lot of before and after work, it's not just "get up on a stage and tell the same jokes every night" (I mean technically, it's a little like that, but performing is hard when you do it for a job because it's never just a job, among other reasons). And in addition to all of this, there are a ton of bean counters who now want to get all up in his business about why tickets--which as he said are about HALF of what people paid for them last time--are still spendy, why things aren't more the way they would want them, why they don't cost even less, etc. Nothing personal naju, I totally hear where you're coming from and I have the same inside-my-head-thoughts too. However, I feel sometimes like I can totally get the urge, if I had more money than I do now, of paying some good chunk of it to just somehow keep people from being all up in my business. Louis CK decided to be the change he wanted to see in the way people see Very Popular Standup and that's pretty noteworthy, whether or not you personally agree with it or can afford it.

By: Blazecock Pileon

Blazecock Pileon — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 14:31:53 -0800

You know what I'd like to see Louis CK tackle next? Sit-down comedy. Just a bottle of water, a microphone, and a chaise lounge.

By: Renoroc

Renoroc — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 14:46:43 -0800

I scored my Tix online. I love you Metafilter!

By: naju

naju — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 14:57:55 -0800

Well, jessamyn's comment made a lot of sense. I hate when that happens!

By: Mick

Mick — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 15:03:41 -0800

Sit-down comedy. Just a bottle of water, a microphone, and a chaise lounge. You just described Bill Cosby.

By: homunculus

homunculus — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 15:14:35 -0800

I want to hear more of his daughter's jokes.

By: MCMikeNamara

MCMikeNamara — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 15:28:26 -0800

I want to hear more of his daughter's jokes. As someone who grew up with the trope of anti-matter being dangerous around matter, seeing Louis CK and Jay Leno in the same frame makes me very nervous, but then I realize that "funny" isn't a particle.

By: Sys Rq

Sys Rq — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 15:29:13 -0800

You know what I'd like to see Louis CK tackle next? Sit-down comedy. Just a bottle of water, a microphone, and a chaise lounge. Chaise longue. Because it is a long chair. (And, no, it's not the same as a fainting couch. Duh. Duh.) C'mon, America, learn your weirdly impractical old-timey fancypants furniture already.

By: whir

whir — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 15:29:58 -0800

This is pretty much how Burning Man dealt with its sold-out ticket fiasco: Secure Ticket Exchange Program. When that was posted to the blue in February it seemed like a giant disaster that was making everybody unhappy, did it ever get satisfactorily resolved?

By: surrendering monkey

surrendering monkey — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 15:39:06 -0800

[SPOILER ALERT] Louis and a blonde lady are in a lift. - Can you like help me out with this? - With that? - Yeah, with this. points to hind leg area - What seems to be the... problem? - Haw it's just like there's zero dicks in there. - Zero dicks? - Yeah, there are like, no dicks in there. Haw, it's like, so annoying. Can you like, help me out? Can you just like, stick a whole bag of dicks in there? - A bag of dicks? - Yeah! That would be, so great. You have a bag of dicks right there. Louis picks up his plastic shopping bag, peeks in, winces and breathes out in disgust. - You want me to put these in there? - Em, yeah! sorry about this, I'll relinquish my account if I need to, happy to pay another $5.

By: triggerfinger

triggerfinger — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 15:52:13 -0800

The revenue from this is going to be something like $5 million, guys. (Most venues will sell out at around 2500 capacity x $45 x 47 tour dates). I realize the overhead must be significant, but I'm honestly not sure why we're discussing it so earnestly. I am coming across like a huge dick, though, so I apologize. Louis CK is awesome and hilarious. I would much rather pay a little extra if it means I can skip the scammy middleman and/or know that what I'm paying is going to support happy and adequately paid employees, good customer service and other things that benefit society as a whole. I don't know Ticketmaster's reputation as an employer but their customer service isn't great, and why should it be? They have a monopoly on the market, which is shitty for the consumer and shitty for the artists, all just to benefit their bottom line. If I know Louis CK is charging a little extra for his tickets (which I don't think he is), but I know that he's paying his employees well, passing some along to charity and keeping a fair and not-at-all exorbitant amount for himself then I am happy to pay extra for his tickets. In fact, I would be willing to pay more for the tickets that he sells himself, which benefits his employees and his fans as much himself; than pay less for tickets from Ticketmaster which benefits (I'm assuming) only the guys at the top of that company and fuck the employees and fans. If I can't afford the higher priced tickets, then I would have to find the money or pass on the concert and apart from the bummer of not being able to go to a concert that I would have liked to attend, I would be mostly fine with it. Our relentless insistence on lower and lower prices has not helped us at all as a society, imo. naju, I'm not saying you think this and I'm definitely not directing this at you. It's just a thought that occurs to me when we're talking about things like this.

By: Forktine

Forktine — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 15:54:58 -0800

[Comment removed. We do not describe violent rapes here, even against Ticketmaster.] If there was ever a justification for relaxing the rules... I'm not a comedy fan, and definitely not a CK fan. But I love it that he seems to be creating a business model that is the opposite of what I think of as the entitled 1970s rock star model, where the promoters and managers handle the details so you can get stoned and grope groupies. He is handling his own details and making that part of the arrangement. There are still middle men of a sort (he isn't buying the arenas, for example) but his involvement means he can control where the value is captured and where it is shared.

By: churl

churl — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 16:19:14 -0800

We seem, here, to be debating whether it's worth paying more for these tickets because this is a good move on his part. We're not paying more, though! Louis CK:

Tickets across the board, everywhere, are 45 dollars. That's what you'll actually pay. In every case, that will be less than anyone has actually paid to see me (after ticket charges) in about two years and in most cases it's about half of what you paid last year. (emphasis mine)

He's at the top of his career right now, ostensibly worth more than ever to see, and his tickets are cheaper than before, not more expensive. And clearly cheaper than he could be charging and still selling out venues.

By: BrotherCaine

BrotherCaine — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 16:40:23 -0800

I'm kind of surprised that artists haven't banded together to create a co-op or non-profit to handle this kind of thing on a national scale. I look forward to hearing about more artists succeeding at this.

By: BrotherCaine

BrotherCaine — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 16:41:19 -0800

I'm also surprised that ticket sales haven't moved to some kind of auction model.

By: ActingTheGoat

ActingTheGoat — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 16:53:49 -0800

Well, I did a quick search too and, minus the fees, Aziz Ansari is charging $29.50 in Portland, $34 in Seattle, $39.50 in SF But why minus the fees? They're part of the cost of the ticket, which will run $51.50 for the SF show. While I would prefer that the performers make the lion's share, as opposed to Ticketmaster, it doesn't really matter if the fees come to $3, or $12 or $25 if the total cost is still going to be $51.50

By: hippybear

hippybear — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 17:23:33 -0800

Nine Inch Nails stopped scalpers for their fan club tickets pretty effectively on their last two tours. You could only buy will-call tickets, and you had to show both your ID and the CC used to make the purchase when you picked up the tickets. You could only buy two, and they both had your name on them. (You could take one guest.) You had to show your ID when you entered the venue, and your guest had to be right there with you. Pretty much zero scalping in that kind of situation.

By: jeffburdges

jeffburdges — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 17:28:07 -0800

Jay & Silent Bob Get Old was "sit down" comedy in that Kevin Smith mostly sat while Jason Mewes occasionally ran around dry humping audience members. They work kilts and adjusted their genitalia jokes for Scotland. I'm against sit down talks though personally, speakers should stand. There is an annoying tradition of speaking sitting down in some humanities fields, like philosophy, makes good reason to avoid their conferences.

By: liquorice

liquorice — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 17:41:23 -0800

I think I paid around $80 or $90 to see him in Australia (totally worth it!), $45 would be an amazing price to pay especially knowing that none of it is going to Ticketmaster.

By: Bigfoot Mandala

Bigfoot Mandala — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 18:19:53 -0800

@Brocktoon I don't pay much attention to live comedy, but I've definitely seen Louis CK on Largo's schedule a few times. Including this past Sunday, even!

By: artemisia

artemisia — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 18:51:33 -0800

Ah fucking hell, couldn't get the site to load yesterday, and now both Chicago shows are sold out. Anyone have some they want to sell me? (At face value, of course :)) I just bought tickets to the 11PM Chicago performance five minutes ago. You should check again!

By: hippybear

hippybear — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 19:19:04 -0800

Yes, check again. And again. And yet again. When tickets are purchased online, they are held until the purchase is completed. Often, a purchase will not be completed for various reasons (usually the CC is declined), and the tickets will be released back into the purchase pool. This doesn't all happen instantly, and so it's often possible to get tickets to a sold-out show 2-3 hours after the sell-out has been announced. It's a good thing to know, and can yield quite magical results. I once managed to score 4th row seats for Cirque du Soleil's Delirium tour because I checked back about 3 hours after the sold-out shingle was hung on the website.

By: stoneandstar

stoneandstar — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 20:43:08 -0800

So what are the chances that these are going to be sold out, like, yesterday? I never buy tickets to big events and I definitely want to get in on this, but it ain't payday yet. And I live in Chicago. Should I suck it up and buy them now? Because I really, really want to go.

By: chundo

chundo — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 20:57:54 -0800

stoneandstar - you should probably get them now. The two Chicago shows were sold out in a day - fortunately he added late shows to both dates this morning and I got tickets for one of those, but I'd guess they're also going quickly.

By: ApathyGirl

ApathyGirl — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 21:11:42 -0800

I was all excited, and then.... no love for LA. Are ALL the venues in LA owned by TicketBastard? No Royce Hall, Luckman Theater, hell, the Pasadena Civic?

By: donnagirl

donnagirl — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 21:20:54 -0800

In for St Louis, couldn't be more excited! Is it October yet?

By: handbanana

handbanana — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 21:24:23 -0800

You also have to wonder how torrents etc are affecting LCK's bottom line. His HBO shows are all available on YouTube, which means less revenue for him, and compelling reason to tour. posted by KokuRyu at 12:50 PM on 6/26 Look, I pirate his tv show, as I will be doing later this week and pirated his old show, but kicked in for his comedy release, and plan on buying tickets (as soon as I get a count for how many) because he knows how to do this. I admire his approach and wish others would follow suit. I'd rather more people get paid, while avoiding ticketmaster at all costs. Just because I enjoy, and dont get me wrong, I LOVE pirating, I still go to shows and support the artist I love and believe in. Louis CK is one of them, and I will gladly hand over $45 for a ticket. Because to be honest, I dont think I've seen a comedy show under $50/ticket ever...and I've seen a bit of comedy in my few young years. Most tickets have cost me $50+ with ticketmaster (ticketbastard in our cicles) taking a $13 services charge plus if your unlucky, so fuck em. Good for him doing a diy approach. Its refreshing to see an artist actually get down to brass tax for a show HE wants to do. I wish more artist would see that it can still be financially rewarding, not just from an individual perspective but from a collective one.

By: moift

moift — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 22:52:48 -0800

I haven't seen any of his shows, but I've watched his standup, and there is this "words mean what I want them to!" defense of the word "faggot" and a nearly identical joke about "nigger" that I find trotted out regularly by shitlords the world over as justification for using whatever terminology they want, because they don't mean it like *that*, bro. CK says it is justified so long as you can't think of a better word. And also there's the rape joke about not doing it unless you have a good reason, like the other person not wanting to have sex with you. Probably more but I'm not a huge fan. Funny stuff, though? I know a comedian can't be held strictly accountable for what people make of their jokes, because they're always waiting to recycle bits out of context (cf Chappelle), but what was the context here? Was it ever funny, or is he getting a pass for something?

By: 99_

99_ — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 23:08:36 -0800

He didn't book a tour date in LA (I assume ticketing issues, but what about the Largo? I can't imagine they are all Clear Channeled up), but he did do a set at the Improv Monday night (just happened to be driving by -- the intimidatingly long line discouraged me from making a run at it).

By: stoneandstar

stoneandstar — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 23:49:47 -0800

Ok, I bought tickets. Yay! I've liked his work for a long time but became a much bigger fan when I started watching Louie and searching out more material, so I'm pretty pumped. No way I would have been able to afford $80 tickets.

By: legospaceman

legospaceman — Wed, 27 Jun 2012 00:30:43 -0800

"And also there's the rape joke about not doing it unless you have a good reason, like the other person not wanting to have sex with you. " How can someone be this obtuse?

By: shmegegge

shmegegge — Wed, 27 Jun 2012 08:45:57 -0800

moift, those are the bits of his that I have the most problem with. Even as a huge fan of his, I often cringe at the evident privilege in those jokes. But you know what? The last time I tried to argue that the "faggot" bit was insensitive and entitled, it was a queer friend of mine who told me to shut up about it and called me a faggot for not liking it. So what the fuck do I know? I think Louis is more aware of his privilege than just about any comedian performing today, and that he makes it a point of his routine to point our that privilege in himself and others. That makes it easy for me to like his material quite a lot. I don't like those particular jokes, as is my right. Other people do, as is their right. At the end of the day, I pay attention to the ones I like and try not to crusade about the ones I don't because at the end of the day I think he's got his head and heart in essentially the right place and he's funny. Also, my queer friends will call me a faggot again if I keep arguing on their behalf.

By: moift

moift — Wed, 27 Jun 2012 11:34:24 -0800

legospaceman, I do get the joke, if that's what you're saying. It's not exactly tricky to unravel. I get why people find it funny, I just don't get why people find it acceptable. That bit of the routine seems to trivialize rape and hence do a (admittedly small) part to perpetuate rape culture. That's more of a tacit failing vs what appears to be the active endorsement of hate speech and of the most typical privileged argument about intent over context in the other jokes. Plus he did have a better angle on the subject w/ his bit about the ten commandments, so I'm not all that fussed on the balance. It's still kind of shitty, though. shmegegge, you don't have to be gay to know the bit is insensitive and entitled, and one queer friend telling you it isn't doesn't make it so, unless they happen to be the officially designated spokesperson of the gay hive-mind. Good point about him being more aware of his privilege than his peers though, perhaps he is. Really, thinking about other comedians I can't name any that don't have these kinds of problematic patches in their material. I think I'm just angry at CK in particular because these bits are so often regurgitated uncritically as a blanket defense of the use of slurs by people who are markedly less aware, and as I already said that isn't a fair judgment criterium. There's not enough evidence presented here to make me disembark from the hate train, but thanks at least for the attempt.

By: cuomofied

cuomofied — Wed, 27 Jun 2012 11:50:25 -0800

"...and keeping a fair and not-at-all exorbitant amount for himself" Nonsense. The man has busted his ass for years in one of the shittiest and toughest industries around, and you *might* pay more as long as he complies with your altruistic preferences? You can call yourself alot of things, but "fan" certainly isn't one of them.

By: timjertson

timjertson — Wed, 27 Jun 2012 18:13:07 -0800

Stop trying to have it both ways! We want the performers to play venues we can afford but that get mad about the price, or the venue, or both. STOP! If you need to watch regular TV and then read this that is fine, but otherwise or afterwards, stop. You are bitching about whether the pencils are as sharp as they could be while everyone is cheating on the test. Fight the right fights.

By: hippybear

hippybear — Wed, 27 Jun 2012 18:51:47 -0800

I haven't heard his rape joke, but did find his faggot material a bit aback-taking. I mean, I get what he is saying, and in some ways agree, but it still seems a bit cavalier for a straight man with a microphone and an audience to be saying that "faggot" isn't a slur against homosexual men, that it instead has this undefined other meaning which he asserts and we are all supposed to instantly grok what it means, and then to continue to use the word faggot repeatedly for the rest of his act, as if by this use he is somehow getting everyone used to the idea that it has this other, unspecified meaning and doesn't carry any cultural or emotional baggage. That he came across the word when he was too young or naïve to understand what it actually meant, and that he was using that word in his youth and naïvety without himself carrying any of the previous generations of weight behind the word... that speaks more to the time and place in which he grew up, that a word which has an actual pejorative meaning was being so casually tossed around as a way to put someone down that the entire fishbowl of anti-homosexual sentiment was actually never perceived by this fish who was swimming in it. I use the word. I use it not infrequently, but not every day, and I use it as a descriptor not a pejorative, and I use it mostly to describe myself. And when I do use it, I know about the cultural weight it carries and am purposely using it in order to shock whomever I'm talking to out of their little comfort zone, even (or especially if) they're liberal or progressive or whatever... to take them back to a time when they WERE calling each other "faggot" on the playground over the smallest of things, to force them into a small, even unconscious reflection upon those times in their youth and naïvety when it was okay to use a homosexual slur pejorative in a casual manner, and to help redefine not only their past actions but also their present company in light of how hateful they might have been in the past and help them appreciate how much things have changed today. I also wear the word with capital-P Pride, because just like queer used to be, faggot is a word which continues to carry power when it is used against someone as an object of derision, and it needs to be rescued and have that power turned inside out to where, like queer most often is now, it is a descriptor and not a wounding word. That Louis continues to try to use the word as a wounding word, even if he attempts to strip it of historical context by claiming that when he was young he didn't know what it meant, simply means he isn't really enlightened about such things. Even though he claims something to the effect that words should carry no power AT THE VERY BEGINNING OF THAT BIT, he is a straight white male who is successful at a creative job which is mostly him standing with a microphone and telling stories about what he thinks about the world. If that's not a position of privilege (and one which is the least able to know whether words have power or not), it's very definitely a very very basic setting on the videogame of life.

By: timjertson

timjertson — Wed, 27 Jun 2012 19:20:05 -0800

I love the comment about the number 1 "offensive" thing that the comic says, which is fine, then the second one which is "un-acceptable". And, of course, you have the amazing gift for determining which is which. Congrats on being the world's most perceptive person. Good luck.

By: wierdo

wierdo — Wed, 27 Jun 2012 22:18:06 -0800

Sys Rq: "C'mon, America, learn your weirdly impractical old-timey fancypants furniture already." I resent this. I have one in my bedroom, thank you very much.

By: ChurchHatesTucker

ChurchHatesTucker — Wed, 27 Jun 2012 22:55:28 -0800

I mean, I get what he is saying, and in some ways agree, but it still seems a bit cavalier for a straight man with a microphone and an audience to be saying that "faggot" isn't a slur against homosexual men, that it instead has this undefined other meaning which he asserts... I can kind of understand this, because to some extent that's happening. I'm not sure if it'll ever quite get there, though. "Gay" itself is further down that path. C.f., use of the word "lame," which sets off disability rights people. Just about nobody uses it in its original context anymore (unless referring to animals,) so many people are confused by the objection.

By: moift

moift — Thu, 28 Jun 2012 08:33:26 -0800

timjertson, are you referring to my comment? I suppose so because I'm the only one who said anything about acceptability. You're the only one who said "offensive", though, so maybe not. You might be surprised to learn that quotation marks are not strictly decorative. Anyway, if you are talking at me, please note that I am clarifying that my *question* re the joke is why people find it to be acceptable. I'm not claiming a special gift of discernment, rather the opposite: I'm asking people who are more familiar with CK's work for opinions and arguments on the matter. Thanks for the best wishes, anyway.

By: growabrain

growabrain — Thu, 28 Jun 2012 08:34:57 -0800

Tweet update: well. after 45 hours, my tour has sold 100K tickets, box office gross of 4.5 mil $ (not all mine). I guess it was a good idea.

By: Lorin

Lorin — Thu, 28 Jun 2012 15:17:48 -0800

Louis CK on selling tickets directly to fans. (w/ Elvis Mitchell - 10 minute audio)