Name: Louis C.K on Working With Doug Stanhope
Uploaded: 2022-11-05T15:00:51.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Louis C.K on Working With Doug Stanhope' from I'm Not Louis on Comedy Buff. Published 2022-11-05. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Louis C.K on Working With Doug Stanhope' from I'm Not Louis on Comedy Buff. Published 2022-11-05. Transcript available.

Louis C.K. and Doug Stanhope in an episode of Louis C.K.'s FX series.
Louis, have you been in that position where somebody's told you that they want
to kill themselves?
You have to decide, what are you supposed to do with that?
Well, it's a scary thing to ponder, you know.
But it's emotional to hear that clip now because, I mean, I wrote that about a
lot of comedians I knew coming up.
And comedy and show business are very cruel and they don't have a nice way of
saying no or goodbye, you know.
And a lot of guys live really tough lives in this racket.
And I've known a lot of them and come up with some of them and some have made
it, some haven't.
And, you know, the idea of somebody saying, do you look me in the eye and tell
me I have a reason to live?
It's terrifying to think, what would if I fail them in that moment?
And Doug Stanhope is somebody I've known for a lot of years, not well, but I've
always known him.
We've traveled the same paths and I love Doug.
I have real affection for him.
And, you know, he doesn't take very good care of himself and he, you know,
medicates himself in many different ways.
And I've always been scared for him.
I've always been afraid that he's going to let himself go and die.
So you sent him the script in which he wants to kill himself.
How did he react to that?
Well, you know, he's – when I've felt that fear about Doug for a lot of years
and then I look at what he writes on his website and I've listened to him and I
realize that there's something narcissistic in my fear.
You know what I mean?
Like, he's taking care of himself and he's making his choices as a grown-up.
And so that was sort of an evolution of thinking for me.
But then the reason I guess it's emotional now is because I lost my friend Patrice.
Sorry.
No, that's okay.
This is the comic who – do you want to take a break for a second?
No, it's okay.
Okay.
This is the comic who – you dedicated your special to him.
Yeah, Patrice died, you know, in a diabetic coma and he didn't take good care
of himself.
And there's part of me that is, you know, upset with him for not taking care of
himself, you know, because he took himself away from us.
So I guess to me it's like – it's funny to hear that now and, you know.
Well, you wrote that before this happened, so.
Yeah, yeah.
You certainly weren't thinking about his death.
No, no, no, not at all.
And, you know, it's just funny because I had such a different perspective on
that issue of, like, someone's not taking care of themselves.
Someone's not keeping themselves safe.
And what is your role in that?
And the anger I feel towards Doug in that scene is the kind of anger I feel
about Patrice now that he's gone.
So it's interesting to look back on it because the place I took myself in that
scene,
as I was writing it, I didn't know where it was going.
I knew I wanted to stand on that street and have him give me that news.
And I didn't know where I wanted it to go.
So I started writing to him my argument, why not to kill yourself?
And as I was writing it, I realized for this argument to succeed would be
really gross.
For me to, like, be the guy who gives him the reason to live is so self-serving.
And the fact that I was even attempting it on paper, I was embarrassed alone in
a room.
And so the way that I – the path I found to the truth of the scene for me was
having Doug be the one to tell me how full of crap I was for trying it.
So, in other words, as I was sitting there typing, here's why you shouldn't
kill yourself, I stopped and said to myself, oh, my God.
Congratulations, you pig.
You know, who do you think you are?
And so then I had Doug basically say that.
And, you know, Doug is a lot more together than any of the people that I'm
asking him to play there.
Doug has a real career and he's a great comedian.
He's one of the best.
And I didn't know he could act.
He's never acted in his life.
That's the first thing he ever acted in, really.
And I had called him and I said, I wrote this thing, it's kind of an amalgam of
a lot of guys, and your voice would sound great doing it.
Do you want to do it?
And he said, I can't act.
He told me right away, I can't do it.
And I said, I didn't ask you if you can.
And what I'm asking is, do you want to?
And he said, well, yes, I do want to.
And I thought, well, that desire will make it work, you know.
The crazy thing is that I was so exhausted when we shot that episode.
It was one of the last things we shot.
I was so strung out.
I didn't know any of my lines.
I was so, I was depressed.
I was just really not in good shape.
And Doug came so prepared.
And he's so, he was the best, I'm going to say he's the best actor I had on the
season.