The Louis C.K. comedy tour keeps rolling on.
The comedian's latest set is, again, making headlines. According to a report given by The Daily Beast‘s Stacey Solie, C.K. was greeted by a standing ovation and performed a sold out stand-up show on January 16th in San Jose, California. During the 90-minute set, C.K. tackled the topics of masturbating in front people, the Parkland shooting, 9/11 and the mentally challenged.
“I like to jerk off, and I don’t like being alone,” C.K. uttered to a packed house, adding, “You’ve read the worst possible things you could read about a person, about me, and you’re here.”
C.K. also defended the backlash he had gotten in performing politically incorrect stand-up sets. “The whole point of comedy is to say things that you shouldn’t say,” he said. “That’s the entire point.” Last month, the comedian had joked about the Parkland kids and how those who testified in congress were the ones that survived because they pushed the fats kids aside to get to safety. During the San Jose set, C.K. said: “If you ever need people to forget that you jerked off, what you do is you make a joke about kids that got shot.”
The Daily Beast added that "C.K. also joked about porn and how the world needs porn because it keeps men from molesting their colleagues at work."
A particular plane joke had the crowd uproariously laughing: “I got on a plane once,” C.K. said, “and this couple comes up to me as we’re boarding. There’s an empty seat next to me, and this woman says to me, ‘Would you mind moving so my husband and I can sit together?’ And he’s behind her and he’s like [motions – no]. I didn’t know what to do. I don’t wanna upset him. But I don’t wanna sit with his fucking wife. So I just got off the plane. And then the plane took off. And it hit the World Trade Center.”
Around 30 protesters gathered in response to the set outside the club. A man was even punched in the face, as the controversial comedian began the West Coast part of his "tour."
The Improv Comedy Club released a statement to The San Jose Chronicle on Wednesday defending the decision to book CK:
“We see comedy as the final frontier and we don’t censor artists,” the statement read. “We want them to perform without scrutiny. We trust that our audiences can decide for themselves what their limits are. We understand that not everyone will agree with our decision and we respect their right to protest. We also respect Louis C.K.’s right to perform.”
Despite backlash, fellow comedians such as Rob Schneider, Janeane Garofalo and Sarah Silverman have vehemently defended C.K's right to perform these last few months.
More to come ...