Everyone is LAUGHING... But I'm FOCUSED on THIS INSTEAD! | Louis C.K. | Top 10 Rules

I'm definitely a comedian. Yeah, I can say that one thing with confidence. 15,000 people laughing at your jokes, that's kind of an amazing feeling. I want to do a better show every time I'm on stage. Do a set tonight and I ain't wasting any time. I got a list of stuff I want to try. I want to make sure that this set makes me better. There's a huge challenge in not having your old act, but I think you rise to the occasion. This movie is unreleasable. You have wasted my money. Well, geez, it's only this. And I'm like, well, that's more money than my dad made in his life. Anytime you see me doing a bit where some stranger says something to me, it's me. I say out loud, "I'll never do the same hour in a year," and then inside I'm going, "Oh, jeez." Oh, God, why did I say that? Why did I say that? You get to be on Earth. First of all, oh, my God, what a location. He's an American comedian, actor, writer, director, and producer. He's the creator, star, and executive producer of FX's series Louie. He's considered one of the greatest stand-up comedians of all time. He's Louis C.K., and here are his top 10 10 rules for success. I never keep trying one— like, stand-up is always the standby for me. Like, that's what I do. The meal ticket. That's— yeah, that's what I am. I'm a comic. I'm a comedian. So anything else I do, it's like, if I make a movie, I would never say I'm a filmmaker. I would never call myself that. I'm a comedian who made a movie, you know? I'm definitely a comedian. I can say that one thing with confidence. But, uh, so I've tried TV, uh, and I try it and it doesn't work, and then I go back to comedy. And then if something I'm doing as a stand-up leads me back to like, hey, this might be a show, then I'll try. I'll try anything that I think might be good. I don't care about like, well, I failed at it before, you know what I mean? Who cares? Try it again. I mean, there's always— I love that philosophy. Well, also, the first time I did a pilot, the very first time I got a deal to do a pilot for for a sitcom. I wrote it and they really liked it and it got close and then they said, "We're not gonna make the pilot." That was St. Louis? No, that was before that. It was a whole other thing. And then I wrote St. Louis with this other guy and they made the pilot. We got to shoot a pilot. It was so exciting. And I shot a pilot and then they said, "We're not gonna make the show." All right, third time around, made a pilot and got one season of Lucky Louie on the air. And then that was all they wanted. There's a limit to everything that, you can't think everything's just gonna be everything forever. That was the limit of that one. I did one season, okay, and now I've done Louie, and it's, I've gone three seasons, so I got a little further each time. I pushed the ball a little further ahead each time. I mean, not doing something 'cause it didn't work would be like if you're a quarterback and you go to the line of scrimmage at the 25 or wherever the guy ran it to, and you hand the ball off and the guy pushes it 8 yards, and you're like, well, we didn't score a touchdown, down, let's all go home, right? I mean, there's no point. But at the same time, 15,000 people laughing at your jokes, that's a— it's kind of an amazing feeling. But also having them sit there looking at you listening is really great too. But I always see— I've done it 3 times now, and it was the same every time, that they're all laughing, the show's going great. But what I see are— there's at least in 15,000 people, there's like 1,000 disappointed people. There's like 1,000 people. No. And they're dotted. I see them all. You see that? I see them still today. But during the show I see them, just guys going like, "Eh." Those are the ones that you really see. Everyone's going, "Yay!" And I'm just, "Oh, I'm sorry, buddy." You're reading their disappointment accurately. Absolutely. I'm 100% sure. Well, I'm not sure that's true, but I share the feeling. I know that. Hell, I know it here tonight. Well, the more people you reach and the more people that see you, the more people are going to think that you suck. That's just the law of mathematics. You can't please everybody. Let me explain it to you this way. If in fact that's true, why would those people go to the trouble of ordering the tickets online and showing up? 'Cause they're just miserable fuckers. I don't know, I don't know, they just like to go. That's not their fault. Well, no, okay. It's not their fault. I don't know, they heard I was good. Case closed. They heard I was good. Well, it's not about not killing, it's about doing the best show that you can do, and it's about staying at the edge of your ability, doing a better, I wanna do a better show every time I'm on stage. I mean, part of it is that I want I want what I do to keep getting better. Unless you think you're the best comedian that ever could possibly, like you're a perfect crystalline diamond of a comedian that couldn't possibly be improved upon. Every molecule has been compressed together to the point there's no air in it. You're a black hole of a comic that can't, there's just no room for improvement. You know, you've folded the samurai sword 1,000 times and just can't fold anymore. No, so you gotta keep trying. I mean, I think a lot of people in show business and comedy even, especially, are very lazy and they just sort of think that you just get up there and then you wait for your manager to get you a better one, a better shot. But it's something you gotta really, to me, I mean, for me, I just wanna keep working at it and it would, yeah, I wouldn't like it if I stopped trying really hard. It isn't a neurosis, like, "Oh geez, I hope they like me." It's, this is what I do, I gotta do it really, really well. So when did you get to the point where you, you know, struggling to get better, make a living, figure out how to deal with hecklers, like a million things, to, all right, I'm good at this, now I'm gonna be, try to be great at this? Well, that, I mean, that was, when I saw him do that, that was a big deal. I was writing for TV then, so I was a little more focused on that. You spread out, yeah. But I started going back out to clubs again. And then my life changed in its own way. I had kids and I grew up also, so I just thought, you know, everybody grows up at a different time. I grew up when I had kids and started really thinking about stand-up. When I had kids, it made a big difference for me, 'cause when I went out to do a set, it wasn't also, it wasn't a social event. It was, until that point, you just go to the Comedy Cellar, have a falafel at the comedy table, run down and do your set, bullshit with some comics. It was a lot of wasting time. And it didn't really matter how the set went, 'cause that was just the job. I'm just gonna go on and do my time, tell the same jokes, maybe do one new joke. But now it's like, I've got kids, and getting out of the house is a big deal. I'm gonna do a set tonight, and I ain't wasting any time. I got a list of stuff I wanna try, I wanna make sure that this set makes me better. I started to think every set I do has to make me a better comic. There's a huge challenge in not having your old act, but I think you rise to the occasion. You don't rise to the occasion if you don't put the void there. Right. If you take away your old material from yourself, like one thing I started doing when I was developing Hours is I'd take my closing bit and I'd open with it. Right. Just to fuck myself. Right, right. Just 'cause then I have to follow my strongest bit. That's how he got good, you see this attitude? I know, he's a tough guy. I've been watching him. Yeah, well 'cause then the end of your act quarterizes, it gets longer just 'cause you have, 'cause you don't have choice, you know what I mean? Cauterizes. Well, I started doing that. You get rid of all your best weapons and you have to, you know, or else you're dead. But don't you think sometimes— It brings something out of you. I wrote and directed Pootie Tang. But then didn't the studio lose faith in you during it? Yes, they sure did, yeah. And they took you off the film. They took me off the film. Well, I had already shot it and it was during the editing process. They hated my cut. They let me do, they fired my editor, got another guy and let me do one more cut. Chris Rock was the star. He was, well, one of the stars, yeah. He read the script, he liked it. I assume the studio read the script and liked it. Yeah, wasn't that a character that was sort of on the Chris Rock show? Yeah, Pootie Tang is a character we did on the Chris Rock show, right? And you worked on that show and you said, hey, I created the character there. Yeah, I'm gonna make a movie about Pootie Tang. Well, Chris asked me, do you think there's a movie in that guy? And I said, that's, that's a little nutty, but I'll try it. I would have told you no. Well, of course you're going to say yes. Let me know. I want to make movies. Yeah, very badly. And so the network— that show was very popular. The networks— I mean, the, the studio was probably excited about it. Sure. You go out, you shoot the thing, you write the thing, you do all of And at what point does the studio say to you, listen, you fucked up? What have you done here? I remember that point. It was a great moment in my life. Who comes to see you? I went, had to be, I got brought, they summon you. I got flown out to LA. Nice. Are you thinking, wow, I'm getting flown to LA. First class. They don't even tell you. First class. I have no idea. Well, I kind of smelled something, but they took me to Paramount. You know those gates? It's like you feel like you're going to the White House. And I went to John Goldwyn's office. He was Samuel Goldwyn's grandson. He's a big guy, I know that. Yeah. And so I'm in his office. Most important office at Paramount. He was running the studio at the time, and he's— he just— he— I remember I walked in and he's shaking a little, he was so mad, and he just unloads. Everybody was there that was involved in the movie, and he just unloaded on me and said, this movie is unreleasable, you have wasted my money, this is irresponsible, I have a problem with everyone here. And then this guy who was the president of MTV Films, who they said, well, John, I don't think you really got the film. How How dare you say that to me? He starts screaming at company presidents because of my movie. There was nothing redeemable about the movie. Not to him, but here's the thing. How do you go on in show business after something like that? I'll never forget that moment because I feel my whole— all I wanted to do was make movies at the time, and that was being destroyed by Samuel Goldwyn's grandson. He knows something. Yeah, a little bit. And I'm sitting there, but a part of me was outside of my body going, you are in the Paramount big office being yelled at by— how fucking cool is this? Really? You were able to— Yes, I was able to You turned it into a positive. Absolutely, because who gets to have that very rare, beautiful experience to get to have that? You know, I read How to Make Friends and Influence People, but for you to have such a positive attitude as your career is developing. Well, to me, the key is like surviving failure is a great, it just turns you, it's a very great experience. Tell me about it. Yeah, look, I went through all of that, Howard, and they killed, you know, the press guy. I mean, I grew up watching Siskel and Ebert on PBS, you know, when it was that show. And so I always dreamed when I was a kid Someday Roger Ebert and that other dude who's dead are gonna look at me through the camera and say something about my movie. And here was Roger Ebert saying, "Pootie Tang is so bad, I don't even understand what it is. This isn't even a movie. It's not even complete." He's like, "Yeah, right." He's like, "Why don't they shoot the director?" Yeah, he was like so hateful. And I'm having the experience of becoming famous for making a movie everyone unanimously thinks is awful. There are some people who like to just show up and do a show and get a check. Yeah, and they don't think about— like, I'm interested in everything. Like, when I tour and they tell me, hey, we— you're doing the Chicago theater and here's how much you're making, and they can tell me this big exciting number, then I go, I ask them, well, how much are the tickets? And then they go, well, you know, in order to pay you that, they're charging $50 a ticket. I don't want people to pay $50 a ticket to see me. How much do I get paid if they pay $30 a ticket? Well, geez, it's only this. And I'm like, well, that's more money than my dad made in his life. You know what I mean? I'll take it. And also, once I started looking at it that way, I learned stuff. Like, I learned that if you ask for a high guarantee for a live show, you drive up the ticket price, 'cause the risk is higher. But if you tell the theater, look, don't guarantee me anything, only pay me if we make money, then the price of the tickets come down. And they don't have to advertise as much because they're not as afraid that they're gonna lose. You understand what I'm saying? Yeah, totally. So, um, and if you, uh, work at a theater without a guarantee, you actually get paid more because the show costs less. It costs less for, um, the, the advertising, all that stuff. And if you sell it out, you will make more money. So I started learning about that stuff. It's really interesting to me. Like the story I tell on Conan about the guy next to me on the airplane when the internet shuts down suddenly. There wasn't anybody next to me on that plane. That was me. There was nobody next to me. People don't talk to me on airplanes. Anytime you see me doing a bit where some stranger says something to me, it's me. The fact is, I was really upset that the internet shut down. I was livid. And then I caught myself and said, "Wait a minute. What are you upset about?" This was— This was incredible that this was possible even. And I sort of started, it was kind of like an epiphany for me. I started seeing things differently, like realizing that when we get to a gate and they go, "We need 10 minutes because the guy at the gate, the plane at our gate hasn't backed out yet." And I go, "Okay, come on." Like that was me. Let's go. Why? It's actually not gonna get me there quicker. It's not gonna get, you know what I mean? Like I'm losing nothing. Feel bad. But if you could just like take a breath and calm down and go, yeah, this is as good as they make these right now. This is as good as it is. And it's pretty goddamn great. But somehow we don't, eh, doesn't make us happy. And that's too bad. I don't think that means people are bad people. It means that they're unhappy. We just want jetpacks. That they have all this great shit. If you had a jetpack, you'd be like, I have the shitest jetpack. I can't believe I got this jetpack. Who's your service provider on your jetpack? 'cause who— did they make the new one? I hate this thing. It sucks. And then we'd all sit there and talk about that. Part of me feels like if people have to go back to basics a little bit, they'll start to see that— 'cause there's no— you have a job and then you don't even— you don't make enough for the shit you even own. You have a house full and a car and a house of all shit you can't have. You can't afford it. And you don't even get the pride of saying, like, I have this job and because because of it I have that car. I have this job and because of it I have custody of this car that the bank is paying somebody else for. And if they ever come calling, I'm gonna go to jail. It's really a shit life, I think, that we're living right now. And I feel bad for people 'cause I see it in their faces all the time. So that's really more what it was about. I didn't mean to say we're a shit generation. I meant to say that We're a shit generation. So you never get worried about tapping out? Yeah, of course. I'm terrified of tapping out. Yeah. But that's a motivating fear. That's pressure. Yeah. I like pressure. I learned that from Billie Jean King. Billie Jean King? Yes, one of my heroes. Really? Yes. I remember as a kid watching a press conference with Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs when they were doing Battle of the Sexes. I was so fascinated by that, 'cause I was raised by a single mom, and I have 3 older sisters, so I've always identified with women taking care of shit, and I never saw women as weak. I only ever knew my strong, working, single mother. So, watching Billie Jean King field this horrible, you know, just misogyny was fascinating, 'cause the way she carried it. That's what made it work. 'Cause he would sit there going, you know, "Why don't you all get back in the kitchen?" And, um, that's right, I forgot. It was amazing. Yeah, he went and he'd have two girls in bikinis with big tits. I mean, there's no bigger insult. Yeah. To a working, you know, woman than chicks with tits. And he'd sit there and go, yeah, this is what a woman is, what's your problem, whatever. And the way she carried it was what— it was amazing. She didn't sit there and turn red and be like Wilma and get angry. She just sat there like this. And then they asked her I said, "How do you feel when he says all this?" And she smiled and she said, "All it does is put a lot of pressure on me, and I love pressure." And she had this big smile on her face. She said, "I love pressure." And I thought, oh my, I never forgot it. I thought, oh my God, how do you love, what does that mean? Like, I thought really carefully about that. She really did, she was like, "Come on, keep it coming, I love it, I love it, I want this pressure." 'Cause she knows how to turn pressure into hard work. She knows how to, it motivates her. She knows that the heat from pressure is gonna make her work harder, so she's like, go ahead. The more he said, the more she had to win. There's no way, she had so much to lose that she knew she'd play better. So that's the way I do it. I think, like I say out loud, I'll never do the same hour in a year, and then inside I'm going, oh geez. Oh God, why did I say that? Why did I say that? Pushes me. Don't tape tape shit on your— Life is short. Life is very short. I like life. I like it. I feel like even if it ends up being short, I got lucky to get to have it because life is an amazing gift when you think about what you get with a basic life, not even a particularly lucky life or a healthy life. If you have a life, it's an amaz— Here's your boilerplate deal with life. This is basic cable, what you get when you get life. You get to be on Earth. First of all, oh my God, what a location. This is Earth, and for trillions of miles in every direction, it fucking sucks so bad. It's so shitty that your eyes bolt out of your head 'cause it sucks so bad. You get to be on Earth and look at shit, as long as you're not blind or whatever it is. You get to be here. You get to eat food. You get to put You put bacon in your mouth. I mean, when you have bacon in your mouth, it doesn't matter who's president or anything. You just, "Oh, oh." Every time I'm eating bacon, I think, "I could die right now," and I mean it. That's how good life is. Thank you so much for watching. I made this video because Arlington Guitarist asked me to. So if there's a famous entrepreneur that you want me to profile next, Next, leave it in the comments below and I'll see what I can do. I'd also love to know which of the 10 rules had the biggest impact on you. Leave it in the comments and I'll join the discussion. Thank you so much for watching. Continue to believe, and I'll see you soon. I started doing, right out of high school, started doing stand-up. Didn't go to college, didn't pursue anything else professionally really. Started doing stand-up. First time I went on stage, I did a minute and a half and I bombed. It was terrible. But I wanted it so badly that I kept trying, and I learned how to write jokes, and I just had jokes, kind of funny thoughts. And I— about, I don't know, 15 years later, I had been going in a circle that didn't take me anywhere. Nobody gave a shit who I was, and I didn't either. I honestly didn't. I used to hear my acting go, "This is shit, and I hate it." But I've been doing this for 15 years, and And stopping now is like getting out of prison. Like, what do you do after 15 years of stand-up comedy? How do you re-enter the workforce? So I was in a really bad place. I hated my act. I'd been doing the same hour of comedy for 15 years, and it was shit, I promise you. And I was working places like Chinese restaurants. And this is— this is— I was. I'd do a show in a Chinese restaurant where They don't even know there's a show gonna happen. They're there to eat. And all of a sudden you go, "Hey everybody!" And people are like, "I'm eating. I don't wanna be forced to sit in this, ugh." So I was doing a Chinese restaurant called the Kowloon in Boston. It's all good. Saugus, Massachusetts. And I was sitting in my car after the show just feeling like, "This was all a big mistake. I'm not good enough." And I hate— I felt like my jokes were a trap. And I listened to a CD of George talking about comedy and the workshopping it and talking about it seriously. And the thing that blew me away about this fellow was that he just kept putting out specials. Every year there'd be a new George Carlin special, a new George Carlin album. They just kept coming, and each one was deeper than the next. And I just thought, how can he do that? And it made me literally cry. That I could never do that. I was telling the same jokes for 15 years. So I'm listening and they ask him, "How do you do all this material?" And I'm like, "Eh." And I hear him and he says, "Well, I just decided every year I'd be working on that year's special and I'd do the special and then I'd just chuck out the material and I'd start again with nothing." And I thought, "That's crazy. How do you throw away? It took me 15 years to build this shitty hour. If I throw it away, I got nothing." But I— he gave me this, the courage to try, and also I was desperate. What the fuck else was I gonna do? This idea that you throw everything away and you start over again, and I thought, well, okay, when you're done telling jokes about airplanes and dogs, you throw those away. What do you got left? You can only dig deeper. Start talking about your, you know, your feelings and who you are, and then you do those jokes and they're gone. They're gone. You gotta dig deeper. So then you start thinking about your fears and your nightmares and doing jokes about that. And then they're gone. And then you start going into just weird shit. Eventually you get to your balls. But there's a whole— it's a process that I watched him do my whole life, and I started to try to do it. And I started to think, what do I— 'cause he says whatever he wants. What do I really wanna say that I'm afraid to say? And at the time I was a father. I am still a father, but at the time I had started, I didn't take off yet. Jury's out. My oldest is 8. I could still split. So far I'm still there. I was having a lot of hard time being a father, and I wanted to say it on stage. And one night I just, I thought, okay, forget all the old jokes. I'm gonna start again. And I thought of the first thing. I said, I can't have sex with my daughter, with my wife because we have a baby and our baby's a fucking asshole. It's just what I was feeling and I said it and the audience went, whoa! And I thought, oh, I'm somewhere new now. And I said, and I said something like, I never used to get babies in the garbage, but now I understand it. And they did that. And I thought, I'd rather have that than the tepid laughter for my 15-year-old jokes.