Louis C.K. first chatted live with Howard Stern in 2006, so Monday’s appearance marks the 10th anniversary of the comedian’s Stern Show status. Ten tremendous years they’ve been for Louis C.K. as he has continually broken new ground creatively and professionally. He’s been an entrepreneurial innovator in using the Internet to move his product, and his show, Louie, has been a smash since it debuted in 2010.
What keeps Louis so relevant is his passion and relentless search for the funny truth, the comedy in honesty. He doesn’t keep a lot to himself. So he and Stern get on famously, as the saying goes. Here are 10 things Louis has revealed over the years while talking to Howard Stern, a man who understands him.
- A definite No. 1 is that Louie is on Stern to promote his boldly independent web series Horace and Pete, a funny groundbreaking (and heartbreaking) show he stars in about people in a Brooklyn bar. It’s an incredible cast and Louie talks about the sometimes staggering material the show addresses.
- Ricky Gervais has never seen Louie’s penis, despite Ricky’s claims. Because Louis wore a “dick sock” when he filmed his nude scene with Ricky.
- He once did a showcase trying to get hired by SNL, and the producers took everyone in the showcase but him.
- Conan O’Brien — via Robert Smigel — hired him to write for Late Night with Conan O’Brien.
- He was offered the big money producer job at Conan when Smigel left and turned it down to do his own thing.
- Louie thinks David Letterman is “the greatest.” Letterman convinced him to write for his show after Conan and Louis took it so he could perform on the show too, which he did.
- Ricky Gervais didn’t see his penis, but Louis tried to show it to Gwyneth Paltrow in the 90s. They had some laughs, but it seems like Gwyneth remains in Ricky’s category.
- He struggled so hard to make it that once he had serious cash, he kept it around. Louie kept $100,000 in cash in his apartment for a while, afraid he might lose what he worked for. (Note: This is a common comedian affliction. Jay Leno once confessed to worrying about losing it all after he was worth $100 million; Jerry Seinfeld looked at him and said: “you know that can’t happen, right?”
- Louis apologized to Sarah Palin for being mean. It’s his only apology to date. (Because of the dick sock.)
- Horace and Pete has a theme song by Paul Simon and stars frickin’ Steve Buscemi, Edie Falco, Steven Wright (who was just at the bar when they got there to film), Kurt Metzger, Alan Alda and Jessica Lange. Are you kidding? That’s incredible.
