Joe: There's a lot of shit going on over there. Louis: That thing is weird. Joe: What this thing right here? Louis: What is that? Joe: Oh, that's a piece of art that comes from Beeple crap on Instagram. Beeple is a digital artist. He puts up a new piece of digital art every day. And he came in to do the podcast and he gave us this thing that's Elon Musk was jacked once genetic engineering comes on. Louis: I was going to grab a paper towel. Joe: Okay. Glasses are brutal. I wear reading glasses when I try to look at my phone in the morning, and I'm like, Jesus fucking Christ. Every day I'm going a little blinder. Louis: Yes, you are. Joe: Every day. Louis: That's just the way it goes. I mean, they're just such intricate little machines, and they're organic, so they just start to soften on you. Joe: I had a guy in the other day, Bala Mohammed. He's a UFC fighter who's had a detached retina and a detached lens on his other eye, on both eyes. It's like you're talking to people like that, and the game they're playing is you're punching people in the face. And a lot of times, thumbs go in the eyes because UFC gloves have open fingers, so accidentally get poked in the eye. Joe: Fucking terrifying. Louis: That's the reason I wouldn't ever I mean, there's a lot of reasons I wouldn't be a pro fighter, but that's it. Now. If it wasn't for the eyes, I'd be all over it. Joe: They could kind of fix them a little bit. Remember when Sugary Leonard had a detached retina and he retired from the sport? And everybody's like, Holy shit. And then he came back and everybody back. I think he needed the money, but I think he also needed the thrills. Louis: Yeah, it must be those guys retire so young. And then we left a huge expanse of life ahead of you. Joe: Not just that. It's like the things that you've looked forward to are these enormous events where you're in your underwear and you're walking out in front of this gigantic group of people that's there to watch you slam your fists into someone's face. Louis: Well, and you've worked up to it, too. All the training and the getting ready, the challenging someone that's setting the fight and where it is in your career. And are you challenging? Are you defending? So it's like a year fights, like a year of your life. I mean, in boxing, UFC, they fight more often, right? I guess. Joe: I don't know. Depends on the fighter. Depends on what stage they are in their career. Yeah, but the guys like to fight more often just to stay comfortable, right? Because otherwise the moment is so big when you have more fights, you can. Louis: Relax and you just I remember Ali describing somebody asking, does he get nervous? He was a great guy because he wasn't a bullshitter. Like he bullshitted when it was time to sell the fight. But whenever anybody asked him things like that. He was honest. Louis: Somebody asked him, do you get nervous? He said, Every fight I get really nervous. When I come out to the ring, I feel like, I can't do this, and that guy's huge. Why did I come here? Yeah, but then the bell rings, and as soon as I start moving, as soon as it becomes about the work, I go, well, this is what I do. Joe: Yeah. Louis: And then what takes over is just routine, what I do. And then he's just serious. Joe: I always felt like the worst part was before the fight started. Louis: Yeah. Joe: The worst part was, like, standing there getting ready before the fight started. Louis: I could imagine. Joe: But then once the fight starts, you're on instinct. You're instant sort of normal. Louis: That's what stand up is like. I fucking hate waiting to go on stage. Joe: Yeah. Louis: It's the worst thing. And if there's stuff going on, I get irritated if the opener is going. Joe: Over a little or yeah, you want to drink, you want to this, you want that. Give me something to distract myself. Louis: Yes. It's bad news. Joe: Yeah. Louis: But yeah, I could see why guys like that need to come back. But it's good to be able to live your life where that's not what you need. Joe: It's a gigantic shift, though, in the way you view the world. You have to view the world as not like these big events that you're planning for every three to six months, but instead just life. Louis: Yes. That's what I've tried to do in the last few years. I'm about to end this tour, and then I'm going to take a year. Joe: Off, I think 100% off. Louis: Yeah. No village anywhere. Joe: That's great. Louis: That's the plan. Joe: I think that there's a balance between performing a lot and perspective, and one of the things that happens to guys when they perform too much is that they talk about things that are related to their life as a traveling comedian. It's all air travel and flights and hotels and restaurants, and so much of the material revolves around this very narrow window of existence. Louis: Yes, that's true. But also you put all this pressure on performance that it's got to fix all your life. It's not going to. Joe: Right. Louis: But if you live a fuller life, then comedy has the place it should, which is like, it's a weird thing to do. It should always be weird, and it should always be like, man, I can't believe I'm doing this. If your life is normal, then comedy is a gas. It's a jolt. Louis: And inside of it, for me, you do work. You're working in there, and there's routine and there's but it should stay special. Joe: Well, you're at a point right now you're ready to do this special, which is this thing that you're going to livestream in Madison Square Garden is fucking super exciting. I love it. Louis: Yeah. Thanks. January 28, I'm going back to the Garden. I used to play there all the time. Louis: Haven't played there in a number of years. I didn't know what to come back. There it is. Louis: And so we put the sale I wrote to you because I wanted to do it in the round. I never did it that way. And so I asked you if it was good. Louis: You said it was really fun. Joe: That was fun. Louis: And then I found out that it cost twice as much because you got a light from two sides. And also you need to be able to see the guy from four angles. So you need more cameras. Joe: Right. Louis: And then we sold the thing out. Like, we sold 10,000 tickets on the first day. It's sold out. Now it's 18,000 seats. Louis: It's the most people I've ever have. I mean, I'm doing this 38 years. That'll be the biggest audience I ever played for. Louis: And so it costs so much money, though, to put the cameras in there for the jumbotron. And then I thought, just live stream it because it's actually only costing a little bit more. You know, there's not that much more because we already have all this shit in there. Joe: Right, right. Louis: So, yeah. So we're going to live stream it on my website. You just go and you it's like $25. And that's awesome. Louis: We'll keep it up there. It's a live event. It's not a special so much. Louis: It's a live event. So it's all new material since my last special. And it'll be up till the 17th, I think, of February. Louis: Then we take it down and then it'll go away. And then in April, I'll put out a special of the same material that I already shot at the Dolby Theater in La. I shot a special. Joe: Oh, really? When did you shoot that? Louis: Earlier this month. Joe: Oh, okay. Louis: Yeah, it was really good. Joe: That's a great idea. I love that. Louis: Yeah. So that's like the album. Joe: Yeah, right, right. Louis: And that'll that'll be the same as every special I've ever done. Like $10. And you can download it and all that stuff and keep it. But this one is only for streaming and a short, limited time. Joe: Chris Rock is doing a live special, too, on Netflix. Right. He's going to film it and it'll stream live on Netflix. Is that they're going to do it for the first time? Louis: Yeah, they never live streamed anything. So he's their first one, and that's cool for him. And it'll be march. I think he's doing he's in Atlanta. Joe: I've heard nothing but good things about his new set. Louis: Yeah, well, he's been, I think, holding back a little bit. So I think this tour has been great for him yet. Yeah, I think this is going to be really great. I'm excited for his show. Joe: I'm excited for comedy right now. Louis: Yeah, comedy is getting it's amazing. Picking up Stadium again. Joe: Well, it's also it's like people are really longing for it because there's so much political correct bullshit, this woke bullshit, what you can and can't say. And so many people feel upset about it and that they don't know what to say because they can't talk at work or they get fired. They can't talk amongst their community or they get shamed. They're like and then you can go see someone talk on stage. Joe: Like, yes. Louis: And that's what comedy always was. It's always been that. And to me, everything that's happened has been natural. It's like normal that comedy has to be defended every few years. Louis: Like when everybody's being cool, like when the world is kind of cool, like it was up till maybe 2015 or so, it's just kind of cool. Comedy is cool, but then when things get shitty in terms of this sort of thing, people being more divided and unable to express themselves, comedy gets more important, but also starts getting attacked and we have to defend it. That's all. Joe: Yeah. Louis: I mean, by just doing it, that's all. I don't get into defending it by saying, fuck these people. It just means you have to keep doing it at the same discipline, right. Joe: And doing it the same way. Louis: Yeah. Joe: Don't pull back. Louis: No, just keep doing it and folks will show up and love it. Joe: Well, that's one of the things I really loved about your last special. It was like 100% a Louis CK special. You didn't back off of anything. That whole thing that you did at the end, the faggot thing was so funny, man. Joe: It's so funny. Louis: It's such a good bit today's. Straight Manor. Joe: Fag yes, it's so funny. It's so good because it's so like, he's going there. But it was really well thought out. Louis: My audiences are really diverse. I mean, in terms of, like, I get young people and some kind of, like, progressive looking people. I get men and women and in all races, mostly white, but some cities I get more. But I tested it in front of so many people, that bit, and every kind of person laughed at it. Louis: The only people that got offended by it were people, like, in the south or more kind of, like red state people. Because when I said straight men are faggots, I'm talking about Brooklyn Twinks, right? They think I'm talking about them. They missed it. Louis: I thought I would be offending progressive young kids, but for them, it was a relief because it's about them and they feel that way in real life. People like being laughed at. They like their community. Louis: Like, when you do good jokes about black people, not like a white perspective about being alienated from them, but if you do a good joke about black culture, the people in those groups laugh because they're in the show and they know their culture as well as anybody does. Yeah, so that's always been the case. But people just I mean, it never really changed. Louis: And the way I figured it was there was no point in backing down and changing because what do you want out of life? Maybe I could have I already had a crazy heyday where the kind of comedy I do, which is just flagrant fouls, just fucking just bad behavior throughout. For a while, that was considered the greatest thing, and people were just like, this is great. The mainstream loved it. Louis: Everybody loved it, right? And I had that for years, that success. So I figured if I have to do it and I start getting hated for it or even just business goes down, I have to take some heat from the sides. So what? That's not a lot to ask of me, considering what I've enjoyed. Louis: It was like that before when I first started, I was gross, and a lot of people stayed away from me. And then I had a heyday, and I'm
