Desperately seeking CK

Somerville Theatre stage, Massachusetts
Somerville (MA) Theatre stage, post-Louis C.K.

Thursday, I received this message. The reason why is explained in the message.

Hello. Louis CK here. You are getting this because a. you bought something from my website and b. you live somewhere around Somerville, Mass. C. I’m doing 3 shows at the Somerville Theater this weekend (November 22nd and 23rd) 2 shows on Saturday and 1 show on Sunday. Please go to one of these shows. Here are links to buy tickets…

Saturday November 22, 2014 – 7:00PM
http://www.etix.com/…performance_id=4124684

Saturday, November 22, 2014 – 10:00PM
http://www.etix.com/…performance_id=7530226

Sunday November 23, 2014 – 7:00PM
http://www.etix.com/…performance_id=3613757

that’s it really. Except I hope you are doing ok. Stay warm. Wear a sweater.

Regards,

Louis CK

The tickets were a flat $30, with no add-on fees. I acted the moment I saw the message, and still ended up with two seats in the nose-bleed section of the Somerville Theatre, against the back wall and next to the spotlight, which has a much louder fan than my video projector at home. But I was lucky to get the tickets, because it was purely by chance that I had checked my mail. Louis C.K.’s fans are mostly young and, as I pointed out recently, I don’t have a smart phone. Yet many fans missed out, despite Louis adding a fourth show, and they were desperate to get tickets.

I was also lucky to find a parking space in a city lot. As Louis suggested I wore a sweater, but it turned out to be a warm night and the theater was even warmer. As this review on Boston.com points out, the audience skewed heavily with a late 20’s-to-early 30’s demographic. Everywhere I looked, we were by far the oldest members of the audience. The fact is that I became familiar with Louis’ work because he has an apartment next door to some people I know, but I am now a genuine fan, so I watch his FX series and I enjoyed seeing him in “American Hustle”.

It was a very funny 75-minute set, with only a few brief transitions that felt flat. Louis anticipated and deflected them easily. I loved his bit about Victor Fleming directing Ray Bolger in the scene from “The Wizard of OZ” where the flying monkeys rip the scarecrow apart. Later he seemed to make another nod at the classic movie by describing a time when he was spooked and declared that immediately he believed in witches. Earlier in his routine Louis pointed out that being funny doesn’t, by itself, have to be a job. You could, for example, be a mechanic and be funny. I don’t know if that was a sly tribute to the Car Talk Guys, but it would be nice if it were.