For some reason, Louis C.K. thought now would be the time to return to stand-up after admitting to a years-long history of sexual misconduct and harassment.
C.K. made a surprise appearance at his former frequent haunt the Comedy Cellar in New York City Sunday night, per the New York Times, where he performed for about 15 minutes. Club owner Noam Dworman told the paper the unannounced pop-in from the onetime regular featured "typical Louis C.K. stuff" which “sounded just like he was trying to work out some new material, almost like any time of the last 10 years he would come in at the beginning of a new act.”
"I understand that some people will be upset with me," Dworman added. "I care about my customers very much. Every complaint goes through me like a knife. And I care about doing the right thing."
Last November, a Timesarticle included the accounts of multiple women detailing similar instances of the Louie star and creator masturbating in front of them. In a subsequent statement, the comedian said "these stories are true" and that he planned to take time away to listen instead of talk. "There is nothing about this that I forgive myself for," he said. "And I have to reconcile it with who I am. Which is nothing compared to the task I left them with." In the months since, C.K.'s 2017 film I Love You Daddy has been all but buried and one of the comedians who was a target of his admitted misconduct has opened up about the treatment she received when coming forward.
"The day Louis C.K. asked to masturbate in front of me on the set of the TV show we were shooting, I was put on an unspoken 'list' I never asked or wanted to be on," Rebecca Corry said in a piece for Vulture back in May. "And being on that list has not made my work as a writer, actress, and comedian any easier."
C.K.'s new Comedy Cellar surfacing, fittingly, has many asking why the public's same push for career protection hasn't been extended to the women included in the original Times report detailing the misconduct. Others are taking a different approach.
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