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'Louie' Season 3 is here; Louis CK announces huge tour & is selling tickets tickets himself (NOW)

by Klaus Kinski

Note: tickets are on sale now. Ok keep reading…

Louis CK

I’ve been an avid fan of comedian Louis CK for the past 10 years or so. When I started following his work, he was enjoying a very steady and reliable ascent in popularity. Then he blew. the. fuck. up. in what felt like the time it takes the average person to take a dump. Relentless gigging, successful stand-up specials, one of the most compelling comedies on television (new season of Louie starts tomorrow, June 28th, btw)… He was (and is) dominating. Yet what I love about him most is that his success has not changed how he wants to relate with his audience. He is a rare breed of comedian who writes completely new material every single year and never relies on bits from years prior. He also hates seeing tickets for his shows get bought up by scalpers, marked way up, and his fans getting totally ripped off; he also doesn’t like playing to rooms with tons of empty seats; seats that scalpers couldn’t sell. Back in September 2011, he did three shows at the Bell House in advance of some big ass shows he was doing at the Beacon Theater. These Bell House shows cost $10. The first two shows at the went on sale via ticketweb the morning of the shows; tickets for the third show were only available to people who could show up at the Bell House in person that afternoon to retrieve them. As fan friendly as this sounded, surprise surprise, people found things to piss and moan about. Ticketweb kept crashing and people kept getting shut out. People have jobs and can’t get to the Bell House in the middle of the afternoon. Crap like that. I thought it was a SOLID effort on Louis’ part to do a cheap, fan friendly, small room show.

On December 10, 2011 he released the full-length video Live at the Beacon Theater for download online in HD, SD, or audio only for a measly $5. And people downloaded the shit out of it. By December 17, 2011 the show had grossed over one million US dollars. Louis paid for the production out of pocket and his main intent was giving something awesome to his fans for cheap. Obviously it worked.

Now, Louis is taking a HUGE step in circumventing big name ticket outlets like Ticketmaster, Ticketweb, and LiveNation by selling tickets to his next massive tour for a flat $45. Louis provided a long and thoughtful treatise on why he is doing it, how he is doing it, and how he hopes to enforce a strict no scalping policy.

hello folks! I’m going on tour this year from October through Feb. I’ll be all over the goddamn place. This year, I’m trying something new, building on the fun, success and fan-benifit of selling my content online. We are selling tickets to this tour exclusively here on louisck.com. I only wanted to do this if there was a way, like with LIVE AT THE BEACON, that it could bring the price of tickets down and make them easier and less complicated to buy. We figured out a way.

Making my shows affordable has always been my goal but two things have always worked against that. High ticket charges and ticket re-sellers marking up the prices. Some ticketing services charge more than 40% over the ticket price and, ironically, the lower I’ve made my ticket prices, the more scalpers have bought them up, so the more fans have paid for a lot of my tickets.

By selling the tickets exclusively on my site, I’ve cut the ticket charges way down and absorbed them into the ticket price. To buy a ticket, you join NOTHING. Just use your credit card and buy the damn thing. opt in to the email list if you want, and you’ll only get emails from me.

Also, you’ll see that if you try to sell the ticket anywhere for anything above the original price, we have the right to cancel your ticket (and refund your money). this is something I intend to enforce. There are some other rules you may find annoying but they are meant to prevent someone who has no intention of seeing the show from buying the ticket and just flipping it for twice the price from a thousand miles away.

Some of these rules may be a pain in your ass, but please be patient. My goal here is that people coming to see my shows are able to pay a fair price and that they be paying just for a ticket. Not also paying an exhorbanant fee for the privalege of buying a ticket.

Tickets across the board, everywhere, are 45 dollars. That’s what you’ll actually pay. In every case, that will be less than anyone has actually paid to see me (after ticket charges) in about two years and in most cases it’s about half of what you paid last year.

The benifit for me is that I won’t get angry emails from anyone who paid a ton of money to see me due to circumstances out of my control. That makes me VERY happy. The 45 dollars also includes sales tax, which I’m paying for you. So I’m making more or less depending on the state.

Another benifit to me is also one to you. I get your email address (if you opt in) when you opt in. You don’t have to join ANYTHING to buy these tickets and if you opt in, youll only hear from me once in an old man’s jizz-cycle.

Obviously none of this means anything if the shows aren’t good. So that’s up to me. As I do every year, I’ll be performing a brand new hour (or more) on all of these shows.

Lastly, it was a real challenge to find venues around the country that could work with our exclusive ticketing service under these perameters. It means I’m playing in very new places. I really appreciate all of these theaters that are letting us give this a try.

Setting up this tour has been fascinating and difficult. this ticketing service is a brand new thing and I really fucking hope it works and that there aren’t any problems. If anything comes up, please be patient.

Doing things this way means I”m making less than I would have made if I did a standard tour, using the usual very excellent but expensive ticketing service. In some cities I’ve had to play smaller venues and do more shows. But I like doing more shows and about a year ago I reached a place where I realized I am making enough money doing comedy so the next thing that interested me is bringing your price down. Either way, I still make a whole lot more than my grandfather who taught math and raised chickens in Michigan.

alright, that’s it, folks. I’ll be sending this message out to folks on the opt-in list and sending a separate email that lays it out much more simply with the proper links. I am doing this because when I emailed you about LIVE AT CARNEGIE HALL, (which is still on sale for 5 dollars!) about half of the people who got the email really enjoyed the long, verbose, unedited message. The other half HATED it and would have preffered a price, a link, and me shutting the fuck up.

This way, you can read this if you like, or your can just see the massive shit-ball of text and throw it in the garbage, and focus on the simple email.

I hope to see you all on the road.

regards,
Louis C.K.

His insane tour schedule runs straight into 2013 and includes 10 NEW YORK CITY SHOWS spanning October 24th through October 28th at the New York City Center. Tickets are currently on sale and based on the seats I was able to pull up, they are going FAST. Complete tour dates below.

As a brief aside, HypeBot has a pretty decent and coherent breakdown of what Louis is doing right and how it could possibly apply to other industries. I mean, I don’t know jack squat about the music industry, video industry, distribution industry, or whatever industry gets our entertainment into our eyes and ears… but if what Louis is doing is “new” and appears to be “working” perhaps it’s time other related “industries” “evolve” to a “newer model” of “thinking.” Because, “clearly,” you can make “fans happy” and generate “piles” of “revenue.”

Oh, and Littlefield in Brooklyn is hosting an unofficial “Louie” Season Premiere Party Thursday if you’re interested. All tour dates, not including ATP I’ll Be Your Mirror in NJ, are listed below…

LOUIS CK 2012/2013 TOUR DATES
September
1 – Atlantic City, NJ @ Trump Taj Mahal – Mark G. Etess Arena (Early show) (via ticketmaster)
1 – Atlantic City, NJ @ Trump Taj Mahal – Mark G. Etess Arena (Late show) (via ticketmaster)

October
3 – Cleveland, Ohio @ Severance Hall (Early show)
3 – Cleveland, Ohio @ Severance Hall (Late show)
4 – Minneapolis, Minn. @ Minneapolis Convention Center
5 – Minneapolis, Minn. @ Minneapolis Convention Center
6 – St. Louis, Mo. @ Fox Theatre
10 – Milwaukee, Wis. @ Riverside Theater
11 – Milwaukee, Wis. @ Riverside Theater
12 – Detroit, Mich. @ The Masonic Temple
17 – Savannah, Ga. @ Johnny Mercer Theatre – Savannah Civic Center
18 – Tulsa, Okla. @ The Brady Theater
19 – Houston, Texas @ Jesse H. Jones Hall for the Performing Arts
20 – Dallas, Texas @ Majestic Theatre (Early show)
20 – Dallas, Texas @ Majestic Theatre (Late show)
24 – New York City, N.Y. @ New York City Center (Early show)
24 – New York City, N.Y. @ New York City Center (Late show)
25 – New York City, N.Y. @ New York City Center (Early show)
25 – New York City, N.Y. @ New York City Center (Late show)
26 – New York City, N.Y. @ New York City Center (Early show)
26 – New York City, N.Y. @ New York City Center (Late show)
27 – New York City, N.Y. @ New York City Center (Early show)
27 – New York City, N.Y. @ New York City Center (Late show)
28 – New York City, N.Y. @ New York City Center (Early show)
28 – New York City, N.Y. @ New York City Center (Late show)

November
7 – Portland, Maine @ Merrill Auditorium
8 – Hartford, Conn. @ Bushnell Center for the Arts
9 – Chicago, Ill. @ Chicago Symphony Center (Early show)
9 – Chicago, Ill. @ Chicago Symphony Center (Late show)
14 – San Francisco, Calif. @ Davies Symphony Hall (Early show)
14 – San Francisco, Calif. @ Davies Symphony Hall (Late show)
15 – San Francisco, Calif. @ Davies Symphony Hall (Early show)
15 – San Francisco, Calif. @ Davies Symphony Hall (Late show)
16 – Chicago, Ill. @ Chicago Symphony Center (Early show)
16 – Chicago, Ill. @ Chicago Symphony Center (Late show)
28 – Fort Lauderdale, Fla. @ Broward Center for the Performing Arts
29 – Tampa, Fla. @ David A. Straz Jr. Center for the Performing Arts
30 – Athens, Ga. @ The Classic Center

December
13 – Austin, Texas @ Austin City Limits Live (Early show)
13 – Austin, Texas @ Austin City Limits Live (Late show)
14 – Austin, Texas @ Austin City Limits Live (Early show)
14 – Austin, Texas @ Austin City Limits Live (Late show)
15 – Denver, Colo. @ Wells Fargo Theatre – The Colorado Convention Center
20 – Seattle, Wash. @ Paramount Theater (Early show)
20 – Seattle, Wash. @ Paramount Theater (Late show)
21 – Seattle, Wash. @ Paramount Theater (Early show)
21 – Seattle, Wash. @ Paramount Theater (Late show)
22 – Phoenix, Ariz. @ Celebrity Theatre
31 – Baltimore, Md. @ Josephy Meyerhoff Symphony Hall

January
3 – Boston, Mass. @ Boston Symphony Hall
4 – Boston, Mass. @ Boston Symphony Hall
5 – Boston, Mass. @ Boston Symphony Hall

February
1 – Washington DC @ The John F. Kennedy Center For The Performing Arts (Early show)
1 – Washington DC @ The John F. Kennedy Center For The Performing Arts (Lateshow)

In addition, he will be at All Tomorrow’s Parties in Asbury Park, NJ.