Louis C.K. on 'Louie' and Being Single at 40-Something

Way back in January, Louis C.K. came to the TCA press tour to promote his new FX show, 'Louie,' which was originally set to bow in April. After his panel discussion, Louie was nice enough to sit with me for a wide-ranging, very personal, 45-minute interview about the new show, which finally debuts on June 29 at 11PM ET. In the interview, he spoke about how he filmed the stand-up segments that punctuate the stories told during the series, and he also talked about dating at 41 (now 42), balancing being a dad with being a successful entertainer, and why he can't be on 'Parks and Recreation' anymore.

What follows is an edited transcript of that interview; if you want to read the nearly-complete transcript, click here. In it, he goes into detail on how unfairly he thinks HBO treated his last series, 'Lucky Louie,' and he discusses the words and phrases you're not allowed to say on FX. I know he's talked about it briefly in interviews, but this is the most extensive version yet. And it's easily the dirtiest thing we've ever published here at TV Squad.

Are you confident now that FX is going to let the show breathe, and nurture it?
Well, it's up to me. But I sort of look at it the way I look at standup as a business, which is that when you're younger and you're working for clubs, you want them to give you work, and you go, "Why don't I get to work? I see other guys up there. I got less weeks at the Acme in Minneapolis than I did last year." And you sort of think of it as this guy who's sort of deciding who gets to try and who doesn't.

Well, now when I go to Minneapolis, I rent a theater and sell as many... a s---load of tickets... and I get a piece of the money. And it's a very tangible, simple thing, which is that I draw, because of the work I've done, and because of the ground I've laid.

And so I look at this as the same challenge, like I have to bring viewers to FX. I have to prove that the show's worth it. I have people that know who I am and who like... I don't think I have an FX-ratings-shattering amount of fans, but if everybody who likes me watches this show, that's a lot of people. You know, everybody who's ever seen me live or anything. So I think it's my responsibility to prove the show is a business for them worth trying. But I think I do have more of a platform now, because they do have a comedy that they didn't have before.

When you do those standup segments, are you doing them as part of a set you're already doing at the Comedy Cellar, or you're just doing it separately?
Well, it's different on different episodes. One thing that's really freeing about the show is that there's no set format. The pilot was two stories told with standup as bookends to the stories. And the standup doesn't set up the story, like and then here's what happened, it just sort of is I'm talking now, and now I'm telling you about the stuff through visual, that's all.

There's other ones where I do a set, and then I come off stage and you follow me. There's this thing that happened with Nick DiPaolo where we got in a fight. I don't know how many people caught wind of it. Well, he and I did an episode where he and I got in a fist fight, and an extra taped it and put it on the internet. And Howard Stern played it the next morning and said it, because they thought it was real. But anyway, that story starts with me doing a set and coming off stage. And now the story includes the standup. I've only done that in one episode so far. And then I watch Nick, and then we talk about his material, and then we end up fighting.

But the logistics of it, I mean, is it a real audience at the Comedy Cellar?
Oh, OK, well I usually do two shows when I do the Cellar. I do one where I bring, I Twitter an audience. I just tell people, if you want to be part of this, come at 6:00, and then whoever comes gets to be in the audience. Usually we fill the place up. And we do a 6:00 show, which I do because I want to be able to stop and start. I want to be able to do stuff that doesn't have setup. Just go here...I'm just gonna jump into this. I want to be able to spell the camera if he needs it, without pausing. I want to control the way it's shot.

And then at 9:00 when the Comedy Cellar has their real audience, I go back in and just catch what I can. Because that audience is usually a little more... my audience is really excited to be there. I even tell them, cool it. Don't act like it's a big deal. (It's) supposed to be just an audience that I'm trying to pull teeth from. I mean, that's part of what I like showing here is not the usual standup, this is the perfect set. It's I'm working on shit that's not always good.

Even amongst standups who have a particularly bleak worldview, which is most of them, yours is probably bleaker than most. But do you think 'Louie,' the FX series, reflects that more than 'Lucky Louie' did, or differently?
Well in both of them, like for me, the thing about 'Lucky Louie' was that it was a struggle, that life that we were portraying. But we loved each other and there was love in that house. But it was hard. And I feel like this show has a similar feeling to it, which is, I'm not any worse off than anybody else, and there's a lot to live for, it's just hard. It's just hard, that's all.

One thing I would say is that 'Lucky Louie' might have been more bleak, because the fact is, I was... I wasn't aware of it when I was making the show, but I was in a marriage that was going to end. I didn't know that. And 'Lucky Louie' didn't end up being much about my marriage, because it just didn't look like my marriage. But the fact is, I was in a marriage that eventually ended. Now, I'm in a open-ended life that I'm excited about. I have possibilities now.

So in other words, even though you say you're waking up running out the clock, just like you said, the work and the kids, that's what really keeping you going?
Well, and also, life after divorce is full of potential. Life in a marriage that is not working, it has no potential unless you get out of it. But now, I have infinite amount of things I could do with my kids, and with work, and also my love life. I'm alone and I'm in an awkward position romantically, but who knows.

So despite the awkward dating, despite all that stuff...
So at least I'm trying. And at least I get to try.

Dating at 41 must be just... I mean, I met my fiance a couple years ago so I was dating into my 30's, but it can't be good.
Well, you know what? The good parts aren't funny. So the fact is, I got my share of good, young pussy. But nobody wants to see that. There is a story that we're doing that we're shooting next week about a younger girl. But I was with a girl who was 21. That's the youngest I got. And after we had sex, I said, you have such a great body. And she said, I think you'll find that most 21 year olds have very nice bodies.

So, but anyway, for the most part, it's awkward. 90% of it is. I had some fun, and I kind of... One of the things, when you first get single, you get really excited at this age. You realize, God, the world's my oyster. You also have an ease that younger women are... older guys have something that younger women want. That's a fact. And so you find out you got game that you didn't think you had. But you exhaust it pretty quickly, the fun. And then you go, I don't want to go f--- around a lot. I am too old for that. I don't want to do it. It feels weird and hollow, and it's a little upsetting.

You mention Nick DiPaolo. Is this going to be the Nick we know and love?
Yeah, I mean, he's... But you know, I'm glad I'm showing the Nick that I'm showing. Because he's a very good guy. We were roommates for some years, and we've been friends for a long time. And I couldn't disagree more with anybody than I do with him about politics, and about everything in life, but he's a friend. I mean, that's what... our episode is about two people having polar opposite views and being able to be friends. Because that's one of my, when I was growing up, that's the way it was like. I had a lot of Republican friends that I was close to and disagreed with. And now with Glenn Beck and all this s---, you can't agree about anything anymore. Nobody can like each other even when they disagree.

Right, it's like if you have different political views, you have to be the enemy.
Yeah. And everything's compartmentalized. Everybody used to watch the same news show and make their own conclusions. Now it's...people literally don't communicate who don't agree. And that's really dangerous. Nobody's talking.

I know FX pretty much takes everything to almost the limits it can go. You swear a lot in your act, but it's definitely not dirty. So FX, is that a comfortable spot for you as far as content is concerned?
It's perfect. It's perfect. I'd rather be on FX. In every way, I'd rather be on FX than HBO.

(To read the rest of this answer -- easily the dirtiest thing we've ever published here at TV Squad -- click here for the full version.)

Any shot that you can go back and do 'Parks and Recreation?" Or just the schedules don't work out that way?
It's hard because I really am very strict about my family schedule. I don't, like my agents asked me to audition for a movie by Alexander Payne. So it was like the lead in his next movie. And they... I don't audition for stuff, but they said "we feel like you have a chance for this. You're a contender." And I looked at it and it said, "shoots in March or June in Hawaii for a month." And I just said no. I don't care if he called me at home and said, "I want you to do this." I would say no. Because I've gotta be with my kids. When I'm not doing my shows, the only thing I could be doing that... I can't go away and go work on something.

And it's that important to you to keep that schedule going?
Oh yeah. I made a decision like two years ago that my kids come before work. They're more important than work to me. It was a big realignment of priorities. Because I've never... I've always thought you juggle. And then I just said no, I actually have to make a declaration in my head of which one's more important and make all decisions based on that fact. And so I chose the kids to be number one, and work is number two. And ever since then, my career has gone far better. Because it's...

The 'Parks & Rec' character, the reason why I enjoyed him so much was mainly because he seemed like such a good match for Amy Poehler's character of Leslie Knope.
Yeah, it just really worked. I thought, when they asked me to do it, I first just said no. Because I thought well, I don't want to go out to LA, and it's going to f--- with my life too much, and I'm trying to get this pilot done and everything else. I didn't know if I was getting a show yet.

But anyway, my manager, Dave Becky also manages Amy, so he really pushed. And I heard that Amy really wanted me to do it, and that she actually lobbied and beat out some other concerns that other people they wanted to try. She'd said no, she wanted it to be me.

Once I read the script, I thought, oh these guys... Because I didn't really watch the show at all last season and I didn't have the feeling it was good. I love Amy Poehler, and I saw one episode... actually that's not true... I saw one episode and I liked her in it. But I read the script and I'm like, this is really good. And I saw this guy was being very earnest, very dedicated, and having a very practical approach to being with this woman, but that there's this passion burning underneath it. And it just worked. We just clicked together. And that show's so easy to shoot. They don't even know where the cameras are. You just burn through a couple of takes and you keep moving, so...

But you took the part, and they gave you the part, knowing that the 'Louie' pilot was being shot?
Yeah, they knew. I told them, I don't know how many of these I can do. I think we agreed to two first. And then I said I'll do as many as I can, if you want. It was like if they want me to keep coming back, and I said, if I can. And then after two, they said, we'll take as much as you can give us. And so I did I guess five total. And then I had to get out.

So they came to New York actually to shoot our last episode. I couldn't shoot anymore, but we had to close the character out. So they came to New York when we shot the last scene of me and Leslie together in New York.

If there was any show, at this point, that you haven't been a guest on that you'd want to be a guest on, what would it be?
I don't know. I don't watch a whole lot of television, honestly. I don't watch the other NBC comedies. There's a frequency they operate on that doesn't, that I'm not tuning into. And so I don't care about them. I like the, I like dramas. Like I would love to be on one of these FX dramas. I would love that.

You mean like be on 'Damages' or something?
Yeah, something like that. Like 'The Shield,' before it went away, that would have been my favorite show to come on and be like a real disgusting, piece of s--- cop, or a criminal.

I could see you doing that.
See, that's what, when I did Amy's show, that thing, I thought, I'd love to be a cop on something. That would be really fun to be a cop on a show. So that, to me, any really good drama like that, and to me, the FX ones are like Dickens, these shows. The way they arc, and yet they're serial, which is... his books were written as serials in magazines, and then he compiled them in the novels.

But so I love those. The big glossy dramas like 'Law & Order' and stuff, I get put to sleep by those. But I love the FX dramas. They're really good. It's really my favorite channel. I don't need to kiss their ass, they've already given me the show, but I really think they're great.

[Follow @joelkeller on Twitter.]