Louis C.K.'s $5 Comedy Special Has Likely Made Him $750,000

If you're a connoisseur of funny things you may already know that NYC's own Louis C.K. has a new comedy special out featuring his performances at the Beacon Theater last month. It's on his website for $5, and his thinking is akin to Radiohead's In Rainbows experiment: will people pay for something if they can steal it? Apparently if it's good enough, yes. The comedian tells David Carr that on Thursday night, 175,000 people bought the special, and he was expecting 200,000 total after the weekend. Minus production costs, "That's a $750,000 profit. And he owns the rights, and the long tail of buyers, in perpetuity." Not bad for the recipient of the America's Saddest Handjob.

“It feels weird having numbers out there, because that’s my personal income,” he told Carr. “But I talked to my mom, who is a pretty judicious, careful person, and she said, ‘Tell them everything. Just let it all get out there.’ So that’s what I have been doing, at least so far.” Even though the files for downloading the special can be transferred to another computer and therefore pirated, it doesn't appear that many people have taken that route. "I've gotten so many tweets and emails from people who say, 'I torrent everything and I'm not torrenting this,' " C.K. told NPR. "Because the gap from stealing and buying with these things—for $5, you're almost stealing it. So it tips the scales more easily."

Louis C.K. already has a hit TV series on F/X, Louie, which he writes, directs, produces and edits. But in a Q&A on Reddit last week, he revealed that if the special makes a lot of money, he'd do it again and use the proceeds for a movie.

This special, if it explodes, cause really it's only been up for 2 days, more like a pre-sale. If it really tears an asshole into the money monster who then shits dollars into my mouth (oh my god what's wrong with me) then I will use that money to buy a home and get some security which i NEVER have had in my life and have certainly not gotten from my low budget show.
So it would have to be special number 2 that would keep the money in the company and make a movie. I have always put cash back into the work. The profit I made on last years season of louie went to buying a new RED EPIC camera which now sits here next to me and a modest but impressive collection of lenses from germany and england, which now belong to Pig Newton and will be used to shoot said 8 million dollar movie.

We hope that Louis can nail down Nick Nolte to play Donald Rumsfeld in a biopic about being the Secretary of Defense AND and flesh-eating lizard.

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By Christopher Robbins in Arts & Entertainment on December 19, 2011 12:24 PM

Comments [rss]

Samantha Lawrence

Love Louis C.K.! I'm glad this is really working out for him. He deserves the profits and I hope others will follow in his footsteps. I imagine in some ways this is easier for him because he's always produced and edited his material. Still though, I really hope this isn't some great triumph that fades into the ether.

Kanger

Yep I bought it too! Hilarious.

jandetlefsen

i didn't know him before, only bought it because of the news about this release and the way he did it.

siliconsoul

Hope he makes more $, well deserved

robingee

He deserves all of this and more. Awesome.

Peanut_Butter

Speaking of which, I think Awesome Possum has to be one of the funniest bits on Youtube.

Gwen Dibley

When I saw Louis at the Bell House a short while back, he mentioned right away how annoying scalpers are and how they really fuck it up for everyone. He said that, for example, when you see him headlining a place like Carnegie Hall and it says sold out, that there are actually about 100 or more empty seats because the scalpers bought tickets, couldn't sell them, and just tossed them rather than showing up to the venue and selling them for face to the fans who were still trying to get tickets. And it's the same reason the Bell House shows were $10, went onsale and were announced the day of, and that the late show was pick up only.... he seems to be reallllly sick of the middle man and the entities that come between him and the fanbase he has worked his balls off trying to generate.

Even if you don't like his comedy, you simply have to respect his desire and ability to make things more accessible to the people who adore him. And you have to respect it because his model, and Radiohead's model, can apply to all sorts of fields... not just entertainment.

BottomlessChips

1%er...pitchforks, everyone!

I love his work. Good for him.

blameus

Also bought it. I think the model fits for artists (well, anyone really) who want to get out from under major marketing campaigns. Glad to see it's paying off.

ANGRYGOD11

I love his work, but his plan won't work for other comedians who don't have a great show and many appearances on so many talk shows.

Rocknrope

I saw him at the Beacon, AND I bought this special, because Louis CK is just that goddamn awesome.

This is one of my favorite bits of his: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...

SFNY

Ditto. Let's hope he makes a shitload of cash off this.

He's one of my heroes, for his genius comedy, his brilliant TV show, and especially for sticking it to The Man.

diablofreak

i bought it. even if you don't think he's funny the way he's sticking it to counter-intuitive and overzealous DRM is great and should be applauded.