"No matter how successful he may be, Louis C. K. can always be a loser in his own mind."

El mensaje va calando, aquí y allá.

:)

En algún momento se me pasará el furor y dejaré de insistir, pero acabo de leer el anuncio de Louis sobre su experiencia con el vídeo del que hablé el otro día, del que ha vendido un montón de copias, y me he alegrado, emocionado (soy así de ñoño, yes) y partido el culo. Por si acaso cambia el texto, como creo que ya ha hecho alguna vez, lo copio aquí:


People of Earth (minus the ones who don't give a shit about this): it's been amazing to conduct this experiment with you. The experiment was: if I put out a brand new standup special at a drastically low price ($5) and make it as easy as possible to buy, download and enjoy, free of any restrictions, will everyone just go and steal it? Will they pay for it? And how much money can be made by an individual in this manner?

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. What I didn't expect when I started this was that people would not only take part in this experiment, they would be invested in it and it would be important to them. It's been amazing to see people in large numbers advocating this idea. So I think it's only fair that you get to know the results. Also, it's just really cool and fun and I'm dying to tell everybody. I told my Mom, I told three friends, and that wasn't nearly enough. So here it is.

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). The material in the video was developed over months on the road and has never been seen on my show (LOUIE) or on any other special. The risks were thus: every new generation of material I create is my income, it's like a farmer's annual crop. The time and effort on my part was far more than if I'd done it with a big company. If I'd done it with a big company, 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. We worked for a number of weeks poring over the site to make sure every detail would give buyers a simple, optimal and humane experience for buying the video. I edited the video around the clock for the weeks between the show and the launch.

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. They would have given you an encrypted and regionally restricted video of limited value, and they would have owned your private information for their own use. They would have withheld international availability indefinitely. This way, you only paid $5, you can use the video any way you want, and you can watch it in Dublin, whatever the city is in Belgium, or Dubai. I got paid nice, and I still own the video (as do you). You never have to join anything, and you never have to hear from us again.

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. Pretty much everybody bought it. And so now we all get to know that about people and stuff. I'm really glad I put this out here this way and I'll certainly do it again. If the trend continues with sales on this video, my goal is that i can reach the point where when I sell anything, be it videos, CDs or tickets to my tours, I'll do it here and I'll continue to follow the model of keeping my price as far down as possible, not overmarketing to you, keeping as few people between you and me as possible in the transaction.

(Of course i reserve the right to go back on all of this and sign a massive deal with a company that pays me fat coin and charges you straight up the ass.). (This is you: yes Louie. And we'll all enjoy torrenting that content. You fat sweaty dolt).

I probably sound kind of crazy right now. It's been a really fun and intense few days. This video was paid for by people who bought tickets, and then bought by people who wanted to see that same show. I got to do exactly the show I wanted, and exactly the show you wanted.

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)

I learned that money can be a lot of things. It can be something that is hoarded, fought over, protected, stolen and withheld. Or it can be like an energy, fueled by the desire, will, creative interest, need to laugh, of large groups of people. And it can be shuffled and pushed around and pooled together to fuel a common interest, jokes about garbage, penises and parenthood.

I want to thank Blair Breard who produced this video and produces my series LOUIE, and I want to thank Caspar and Giles at Version Industries, who created the website.

I hope with all of my heart that I stay funny. Otherwise this all goes to hell. Please have a safe and happy holiday, and thank you again for all this crazy shit.

Sincerely,
Louis C.K.

Si alguien ha llegado hasta aquí y tiene ganas de más, yo acabo de pasar un buen rato leyendo este chat de Louis en Reddit sobre su experiencia con el vídeo y un montón de cosas más.

Louis CK

Ya sabéis cuánto me mola Louis CK. Y también he hablado alguna vez aquí de Fresh Air, un fantástico programa de entrevistas de la NPR. Aunque aún no lo he escuchado, he visto que ayer Terry Gross, la presentadora, habló con Louis a propósito, entre otras cosas, de su nuevo vídeo (special, lo llaman ellos), que acaba de poner a la venta directamente en su web, sin intermediarios.



Me gusta mucho que la gente se atreva a hacer estas cosas, y además Louis me cae de puta madre, así que yo me acabo de gastar los cinco dólares que cuesta y lo estoy bajando (sin DRM ni otras restricciones, por cierto).


También me ha encantado el mensaje de Louis para quienes se plantean compartirlo en las redes p2p o similares:

To those who might wish to "torrent" this video: look, I don't really get the whole "torrent" thing. I don't know enough about it to judge either way. But I'd just like you to consider this: I made this video extremely easy to use against well-informed advice. I was told that it would be easier to torrent the way I made it, but I chose to do it this way anyway, because I want it to be easy for people to watch and enjoy this video in any way they want without "corporate" restrictions.

Please bear in mind that I am not a company or a corporation. I'm just some guy. I paid for the production and posting of this video with my own money. I would like to be able to post more material to the fans in this way, which makes it cheaper for the buyer and more pleasant for me. So, please help me keep this being a good idea. I can't stop you from torrenting; all I can do is politely ask you to pay your five little dollars, enjoy the video, and let other people find it in the same way.

Sincerely,
 
Louis C.K.

Y la forma de preguntar si quería seguir recibiendo información de su web :)

I'm going to be offering other things through this site. Would you like to hear about them?

Yes, I'd like to receive further emails about Louis C.K. things.

No, leave me alone forever, you fat idiot.

Patético

El final de la segunda temporada de Louie, la serie con la que ya he dado la lata varias veces aquí, es de las cosas más patéticas que he visto en mucho tiempo. En sentido literal:

patético, ca.

(Del lat. pathetĭcus, y este de gr. παθητικός, que impresiona, sensible).

1. adj. Que es capaz de mover y agitar el ánimo infundiéndole afectos vehementes, y con particularidad dolor, tristeza o melancolía.

Louie acompaña al aeropuerto a su amiga Pamela, de la que está enamorado pero que pasa olímpicamente de él (y se lo deja bien claro: se va a París para darle una nueva oportunidad a su ex).

Se despiden de una forma algo abrupta y él se queda mirando mientras ella se aleja. Cuando ya van a perder contacto visual, ella se para y le dice ¨Wave to me, you moron!" (¡Saluda, capullo!), primero en voz baja pero cada vez con más fuerza porque él está ya lejos. Tan lejos que Louie, que pese a todo le ha prometido que la esperará, entiende: "Wait for me!" (¡Espérame!).

En el plano final se le ve salir del aeropuerto con tal carita de tonto que uno ya está viendo el hostión que se va a pegar.

Pobrín :)

A hombros de gigantes

Acabo de llegar, a través de esta noticia, el vídeo de la participación de Louis CK, por el que estoy empezando a sentir absoluta devoción, en el homenaje a George Carlin, cómico como él, fallecido hace tres años, y que, por lo que cuenta aquí, le sirvió como ejemplo para, tras 15 años de carrera mediocre, repitiendo siempre las mismas bromas, atreverse a empezar de cero cada temporada, renunciando a la seguridad de trucos ya probados, por malos que fueran, y recreándose una y otra vez, escarbando cada vez más profundo (primero las obsesiones, después los miedos... hasta llegar a los huevos :)



(Aquí está la transcripción, a partir de la página 58 del pdf.)

Louis acaba emocionado, agradeciéndole a Carlin todo lo bueno que le ha pasado desde que tomó esa decisión. Esto hace que me caiga aún mejor, porque me gusta la gente que, por muy buena que sea, sabe que nada de lo que hace sería posible sin todos los que vinieron antes.

Es una de las razones por las que me gusta tanto la música: hace mucho tiempo que aprendí de Diego Manrique a verla como una gran tradición, en la que cada artista dialoga no solo con sus contemporáneos, sino con quienes le inspiraron, ya para recrear lo que otros hicieron antes o para oponerse a ello.

Por supuesto, he buscado en Youtube algo de Carlin. Creo que es obvio por qué Louis CK se inspiró en él :)

(Los vídeos están subtitulados en español.)

Louie

Si tenéis ocasión, ved (¿mirad?) la serie Louie, del pedazo de crack Louis CK, del que ya he hablado aquí alguna vez. (Más sobre Louis en mi blog aquí.)

Si entendéis el inglés, escuchad esta media hora de entrevista con él en el programa Fresh Air de la NPR. Yo lo acabo de hacer (en semisiesta) y he disfrutado como un enano de un humor en ocasiones muy muy bruto, pero siempre inteligente y sensible de la mejor manera posible, sin gilipolleces, sin tapujos.

En un momento de la entrevista, Louis y la presentadora, Terry Gross, comentan una escena de uno de los primeros episodios de la serie en que un grupo de cómicos se reúne para jugar al póker y hablan con uno de ellos, homosexual, sobre un club gay en NYC y sobre cómo le hace sentir el hecho de que se utilice la palabra "faggot" (marica), lo que, al parecer, contribuyó a que se prohibiera la emisión del programa en el estado de Mississippi porque, según el director de la Mississippi Public Broadcasting: “too often Fresh Air's interviews include gratuitous discussions on issues of an explicit sexual nature”. “We believe that most of these discussions do not contribute to or meaningfully enhance serious-minded public discourse on sexual issues.”)

Podéis ver la escena en Youtube (no me deja insertarla aquí).