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

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

#111

Post by andrewfelix »

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 bought it because it was convenient.

I also torrent because it is convenient. Price is not the issue for me.

I'm in Australia, which means I typically have to wait for something to come out on DVD before I can watch it legally. I can't purchase through amazon, and Australian distributors don't get American shows until months(sometimes years) after they're released in the States.

I feel good because I got it when it was released, and it was legal.

EDIT: PS. I love NPR

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

#112

Post by StavrosK »

libraryatnight wrote: post #63
tptacek wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I saw him on the most recent tour and he mentioned something about flying first class, and then apologized but assured the audience that he probably won't be doing that long, he'll mess it up lol extreme paraphrasing, but I'm sure you all understand.

It's on the video he's selling now, he says he flies first class because he has more money than the audience, and that this has been going on for eight months and will only go on for another year.

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

#113

Post by StavrosK »

malvim wrote: post #69
ramy_d wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

This is one of the BEST bits I've seen him do. "I have NEGATIVE five dollars. That means if something is free, I can't afford it!" Heheh, love his shows.

That's the bit about the bank charging you for not having enough money, no?

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

#114

Post by neuroelectronic »

S_A_P wrote: post #86
chris_gogreen wrote: post #78

What exactly does he mean he's never seen a check, he does TV specials for free?

it means that he gets paid a small advance, does the show, and then the networks collect all the dvd and merch sales and dont give him any royalties...

Is he retarded or is this standard practice for comedians?

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

#115

Post by bhrgunatha »

andrewfelix wrote: post #111
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 bought it because it was convenient. I also torrent because it is convenient. Price is not the issue for me. I'm in Australia, which means I typically have to wait for something to come out on DVD before I can watch it legally. I can't purchase through amazon, and Australian distributors don't get American shows until months(sometimes years) after they're released in the States. I feel good because I got it when it…

I think this is a legitimate concern amd something that needs to be addressed. The internet and instant global news and information means that we are aware of the output of the entertainment industry immediately - and any attempt to stop that is just going to fail. There is no end to the technical arms race.

I remember vividly discovering that my PC's DVD-ROM drive was region-locked and that to watch anything from another region I had to allow the region to be changed and that there are was a limit to how many times I could change it.

I discovered this, being unaware of the region-locking mechanism, after buying several DVDs while travelling. It made me disproportionately angry and since then I've seen and noticed the situation getting worse and worse.

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

#116

Post by evan_ »

AgentConundrum wrote: post #101
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…

> 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?

Yes. I belong to a number of private trackers and out of curiosity I checked to see if it had been torrented. One has an all-out flamewar between people who bought it and people who didn't. Over a thousand downloads.

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

#118

Post by abrichr »

alf wrote: post #117

I like Louis C.K., was made aware of his new video through this posting, and just bought the video, but I don't think this belongs on HN.

"What to Submit ... anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity." [1]

[1] http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

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

#119

Post by cbs »

_delirium wrote: post #96
cbs wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Success is an anomaly.

That's not much of a useful consideration then; a more relevant question is how some non-negligible percentage of people can achieve at least moderate success, not how a handful of people can do something anomalous that gets famous (that'll always happen one way or another).

how some non-negligible percentage of people can achieve at least moderate success, not how a handful of people can do something anomalous that gets famous

The internet is unarguably a huge advantage for people on the lower end. There are some people who have been knocked form being successful in the traditional media to being successful on the internet only, but that internet group includes them and people who would have never been successful in the traditional media. I don't even think that's a question. The only reason someone who would have been successful in traditional media isn't successful on the Internet is that the increased ease of competition made it clear that they suck and they pushed them out.

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

#120

Post by fakeymcnotreal »

JonnieCache wrote: post #94
tptacek wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

His overhead could be 70% and he'd still be taking home huge amounts of money for every tour. He's selling out shows and has been for at least ~4 years now. If the tours weren't lucrative, he'd raise the face price of tickets. Sorry, I just don't buy the idea that Louis CK is anything but "pretty wealthy" at this point in his career. Which is great, because he's one of my favorite performers anywhere.

Yep, you're almost certainly right. I'd bet on it being more than 70% though.

Posting this anonymously because I don't want to seem like I'm plugging myself and my management would probably get angry.

I'm a standup as well, not quite as large as CK but a number of tv spots under my belt etc.

But it's absolutely right. There's barely anything.

You're average split goes a bit something like this:

Depends where you are. On average a theatre takes around 30%. A bit less in Australia (eg Melbourne Comedy Festival) which takes about 20%-25%. A bit more in European theatres (eg Edinburgh Fringe Festival) around 40%-45%.

Booking / Ticketing fee is around $3-$8 per ticket. For the average show ticket price that's about 10%.

Management takes a flat 15%-25%.

Depending on the scale of marketing, on average it's around 15% of the show budget. The industry wisdom is at least 10% of every ticket should be spent on getting people.

If there is a huge promoter behind you, they sometimes take a stake in the show, usually around 30% - 60% and includes the marketing budget. It's not that you're trying to convince people. It's more like, if they don't know you're there, they won't come.

Then all the travel / accomodation costs.

That's if you're doing theatre shows. The other side of the coin is college campuses, corporate entertainment, which pay a flat rate. The largest gig I did was opened in a 30k seat stadium and I made $4,000.... so not a lot.

Plus you're always touring, unable to maintain relationships, getting heckled (few careers involve being openly sworn at by masses, it's not healthy for self-esteem), feeling like a self-promoting whore and constantly wanting to die because you're whole career is shouting into darkness.

That doesn't even include the opportunity cost. It takes 10 years to get to the point where you can reliably book a 1000 seat theatre. That's assuming anybody comes in the first place... Until then you're making nothing.

It's not uncommon to see someone sell out a show and walk away with very little.

Whilst what CK did is amazing. I don't think it can be done by most standups. I think it would have turned out differently if he didn't have a tv show airing already, basically he's at the top of his career.

The scary part is if standup isn't as as lucrative as it's made out to be. Theatre in general is even worse...

But hey, we're all rockstars!

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