Louis CK Takes D.I.Y. Comedy To The Next Level

(Photo via matthiasclamer.blogspot.com)

Rudely negative (but hilarious) comedian Louis CK is raking in some serious dough with his latest independent venture. He released a video of a gig in Manhattan at the Beacon Theater directly to his fans on his website.

Excerpts from Louis CK's statement released on December 13th:

It's been 4 days. A lot of people are asking me how it's going. I've been hesitant to share the actual figures, because there's power in exclusive ownership of information. First of all, this was a premium video production, shot with six cameras over two performances at the Beacon Theater, which is a high-priced elite Manhattan venue. I directed this video myself and the production of the video cost around $170,000. (This was largely paid for by the tickets bought by the audiences at both shows).

I would have a guarantee of a sizable fee, as opposed to this way, where I'm actually investing my own money. The development of the website, which needed to be a very robust, reliable and carefully constructed website, was around $32,000.

The show went on sale at noon on Saturday, December 10th. 12 hours later, we had over 50,000 purchases and had earned $250,000, breaking even on the cost of production and website. As of Today, we've sold over 110,000 copies for a total of over $500,000. Minus some money for PayPal charges etc, I have a profit around $200,000 (after taxes $75.58). This is less than I would have been paid by a large company to simply perform the show and let them sell it to you, but they would have charged you about $20 for the video. 

I really hope people keep buying it a lot, so I can have shitloads of money, but at this point I think we can safely say that the experiment really worked. If anybody stole it, it wasn't many of you.

I also got an education. And everything i learned are things i was happy to learn. I learned that people are interested in what happens and shit (i didn't go to college)

If you are interested in buying the show for $5 (paypal only), go HERE.

50K in pocket per day? Not bad at all! Louis CK took "if you want something done right, you gotta do it yourself" to the next.

Disclaimer for all aspiring comedians and artists: Louis has a massive following and a show on cable TV. He has the audience to support this type of "experiment". This reminds me of what Radiohead did with the "pay what you want" sale of In Rainbows. If they don't know you, you won't break the bank. It's straight up logic, but I wanted to put that out there.

Is this a game changer? Quite possibly, but it raises a humongous question: Are direct to fan releases, sold at a fraction of the retail price, the way of the future? Yes without a doubt. Fans love access, but they have limited budgets and this is a pocketbook friendly purchase. There is extra administrative work for the artists with this type of release which can be managed as Louis CK has demonstrated. The payoff, on the other hand, is undeniable.

-Paqman