Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Louis C.K. "I've never seen a check from a [TV] comedy special"

npr.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

101–110 of 140 posts

Re: Louis C.K. "I've never seen a check from a [TV] comedy special"

#101

Post by AgentConundrum »

funkah wrote: post #27

I was surprised that he revealed yesterday in the reddit thing that he has never owned a home or had real financial security. I'm enough of a fan to know that he is definitely not rich from comedy, but I somehow figured he had made enough to own a home outright at least. FTA: "And a friend of mine who does torrent stuff a lot says that when torrent users do buy something, they act like they're doing the greatest thin…

Has that really been the response that this Louis C.K. video has received though? The "I'm awesome because I didn't pirate this" attitude?

I'll admit I've pirated things, and I'll admit that I did feel good about myself for buying this video. The good feeling, in my mind, had nothing to do with having paid rather than pirated. I liked that he was bucking convention, and trying his own distribution model, and the lack of DRM and just eliminating all, or as many barriers as possible. I wanted to support the effort.

He gave the public a clean product, priced it very reasonably (even cheaply), and he made a profit on it. Now, in this case the business model was 'Be Louis C.K.', and it probably wouldn't work for some up and comer, but I was actually surprised to find in this article that he had already made a profit (he said on reddit that he had yet to really push the marketing for this, so I'm assuming there will be additional profit to come for a while).

I'd absolutely love to see Louis leverage the infrastructure he's built for this experiment into something more substantial - licensing other artists to release their works themselves through his site, rolling the profits into new development, and see where it goes.

Maybe I'm just deluding myself, and I'm just masking an "I'm the greatest for not pirating this" attitude behind a veneer of "supporting new media". I don't know. I just know that torrenting this video never even occurred to me. I had heard of this experiment, and thought it was a cool idea. Then, a friend told that he'd really enjoyed it, so I gave in and threw $5 at it and laughed my ass off at the video (if you haven't seen it, I do recommend it).

Re: Louis C.K. "I've never seen a check from a [TV] comedy special"

#102

Post by AgentConundrum »

nostromo wrote: post #83
tptacek wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've seen him live a couple times, and he's gotten up on stage and joked about how much more money he has than everyone in the entire room. I don't think he's hurting.

A little Googling led me here ( http://www.celebritynetworth.com/richest-celebrities/richest... ) which estimates he's worth about $6.5mm. Who knows if it's accurate. The "It's Always Sunny" guys as a comparison (also FX) do quite well, despite being obscure. As Louis does more seasons, I suspect he'll also become quite wealthy -- he's the only real 'talent' on the show that he stars in, writes, and directs -- which…

> only real 'talent' on the show that he stars in, writes, and directs

And edits. In his AMA on reddit yesterday, he revealed[1] that he cuts Louie himself. In season one, there was a second person that helped him, but season two was apparently all him. He could be oversimplifying, and presumably other people at least watch his cut to smooth any rough edges, but it seemed like there was minimal involvement of others in the process.

[1] http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/n9tef/hi_im_louis_ck_a...

Re: Louis C.K. "I've never seen a check from a [TV] comedy special"

#103

Post by gospelwut »

philwelch wrote: post #82
gospelwut wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For you, maybe. I've found AAC being proprietary is enough to make people buy iPods. Hell, I'm pretty sure you can convert it to MP3 within that piece of shit iTunes.

AAC isn't proprietary, at least not any more than MP3.

I suppose not, but my point is I think inconveniences are relative to the user.

Re: Louis C.K. "I've never seen a check from a [TV] comedy special"

#104

Post by gospelwut »

_delirium wrote: post #98
joejohnson wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know. HN is so cool. And people here never point that out, unlike that lame circle-jerk Reddit.

I assumed it was sarcastic, since posting about Louis CK all the time for the past 5 years is sort of Reddit's thing .

It wasn't. I'm just used to violent reactions, like "F* CORPORATIONS F* FOR F*"

Re: Louis C.K. "I've never seen a check from a [TV] comedy special"

#105

Post by omouse »

kin wrote: post #16

Can't believe someone put it on a Torrent site with that lame excuse. His experiment is interesting and I think it works but only for acts like him. I'd like to see stats on the Humble Indy bundles I feel they follow the same model but at a smaller scale.

The torrent includes a link to the "BUY THIS VIDEO" page. I paid for the video and didn't download it from his website.

I would be interested in knowing what the bandwidth costs for Louis C.K. are since the video was around 1GB. The number of torrenters was 10,000. That's 10TB of bandwidth which I imagine costs quite a bit...so those torrenters were saving him a bit of cash.

Re: Louis C.K. "I've never seen a check from a [TV] comedy special"

#106

Post by omouse »

gospelwut wrote: post #104
_delirium wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I assumed it was sarcastic, since posting about Louis CK all the time for the past 5 years is sort of Reddit's thing .

It wasn't. I'm just used to violent reactions, like "F* CORPORATIONS F* FOR F*"

That isn't violent. It's just a quick shorthand to express an intense dislike of corporations and capitalism without bothering to write a paragraph about it :D What's so violent about that?

Re: Louis C.K. "I've never seen a check from a [TV] comedy special"

#107

Post by lukifer »

kin wrote: post #16

Can't believe someone put it on a Torrent site with that lame excuse. His experiment is interesting and I think it works but only for acts like him. I'd like to see stats on the Humble Indy bundles I feel they follow the same model but at a smaller scale.

Buying the special allows you only two downloads, even if the download doesn't complete. My first try, the Wi-Fi dropped; luckily, the second worked. While waiting, I was bemused thinking that I would have a legitimate reason to torrent if it didn't go through. (Actually, I would have just bought it again, as an excuse to give the man more money. Like his bit with the veteran on the plane, I got a hit of feeling good about myself without actually having to follow through. :P)

Re: Louis C.K. "I've never seen a check from a [TV] comedy special"

#108

Post by OverlordXenu »

funkah wrote: post #27

I was surprised that he revealed yesterday in the reddit thing that he has never owned a home or had real financial security. I'm enough of a fan to know that he is definitely not rich from comedy, but I somehow figured he had made enough to own a home outright at least. FTA: "And a friend of mine who does torrent stuff a lot says that when torrent users do buy something, they act like they're doing the greatest thin…

Nah, there's no way this is true. He has a Leica MP: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:Dc4zH72...), a 50mm Summilux, and a 35mm ASPH summicron.

The MP is $5000, the 50mm is $3700 and the 35mm is $3000.

Edit: Damn it, no markdown!?

Re: Louis C.K. "I've never seen a check from a [TV] comedy special"

#109

Post by ceol »

ff0066mote wrote: post #59
funkah wrote: post #27

I was surprised that he revealed yesterday in the reddit thing that he has never owned a home or had real financial security. I'm enough of a fan to know that he is definitely not rich from comedy, but I somehow figured he had made enough to own a home outright at least. FTA: "And a friend of mine who does torrent stuff a lot says that when torrent users do buy something, they act like they're doing the greatest thin…

I agree that the attitude which some torrent users have (feeling good when they actually pay for things) is annoying. However, nobody can deny that computers and the internet have irreversibly changed the game. It is simply no longer default that one must purchase information. Information doesn't want to be free, it just is free (for better or for worse).

I don't believe it was ever default that one must purchase information.

Re: Louis C.K. "I've never seen a check from a [TV] comedy special"

#110

Post by JL2010 »

tptacek wrote: post #55
ramy_d wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

he's also done the opposite the "I don't even have 'no money'" routine.

When, and what was the bit? Also: you've seen him live, right? How much did you pay for the tickets? Both times for me, the face was over $30, and both times the house was packed. Do the math on how many shows he does. He tours constantly; a new one every year. I don't think he's hurting. I think he's "only serious" when he jokes about having more money than everyone in the whole audience.

being broke: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0rSXjVuJVg

and if he were rich: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gO9PwbtlOIU

These were a while ago.

Post reply on HN