"I'm pasty, pale, overweight and I have red hair. I see that Coldstone Creamery and I want to crawl inside and hide," Louis C.K. responded when I asked if he recalled just how disgustingly hot and muggy Rhode Island could be during his 4th of July headlining set at the Newport Yachting Center.
The Newton, Massachusetts, native played Newport last summer to a sold-out tent and immediately corralled the crowd with laughs as he pushed aside two giant easels displaying various sponsors. "Buy all this shit right here, people," he said waving his arm in a giant, circular motion. Two minutes in and Louis C.K. (a shortened take on his last name, Szekely) had the crowd roaring and didn't relent for more than 90 minutes, tearing through plenty of material from his two stand-up specials, 2008's Chewed Up (filmed at the Berklee Performance Center in Boston) and the '07 HBO special Shameless, offering skewed observations and near-horrific views on raising his two young daughters (like the Anti-Christ to Dr. Bill Cosby) with searing punchlines that usually resulted in those paused, hand-over-the-mouth laughs. C.K.'s recurring impersonation of drippy "douchebags at Starbucks" remains a personal favorite, along with views on getting fatter ("It's a downward spiral that begins with a donut, and the next thing you know I'm killing hookers") and why he prefers women over club chicks ("There's no Women Gone Wild, no one would buy that shit. When women go wild they kill men and drown their kids in the tub"). "Politically incorrect" doesn't even scratch the surface, and it's no wonder why fellow comedians are ready to deem him the heir apparent to George Carlin. David Cross recently told Time magazine that "Louis C.K. is doing his best work ever . . . He's America's most important and funniest comedian."
Louis C.K. has been on the circuit for more than 20 years and, during a brief phoner two weeks ago, he recalled his early days kicking around New England, including many kind words for old friend (and Ocean State Follies ringmaster) Charlie Hall.
"Charlie Hall is the funniest person in Rhode Island," he told me. "He was always gracious and kind to me when I was coming up and constantly playing little hole-in-the-wall places like Periwinkles in Providence."
I dropped a line to Hall after talking with C.K.: "Louis CK was one of these rare comedic originals coming out of Boston," Hall noted. "Louis was happier to be a middle act and make less money than a headliner, thus had more freedom in choosing offbeat premises and non-generic phrasing. Comedians like Louis didn't sell out doing stock jokes and concepts, they experimented and pushed boundaries. He was — and continues to be — a well-respected 'comedian's comedian.' "
I asked C.K. if he had any particular memories from last year's set in Newport.
"Well, I noticed a lot of boat tans and boat shorts in Newport," he said, "but the crowd was very gracious and appreciative, and I had a great time. It was hot as hell, but it was fun." When I asked about the old-school Providence days, you could almost hear him smiling. "Providence always had a real crowd, ya know? You guys have such a great melting pot in that city and the audience was always genuine and real. I loved it."
