Oh, to be a leaning tower of pizza.
Louis CK brought his unrepentant comeback to Massachusetts over the weekend. CK, who grew up in Newton, surprised the audience Saturday night in Saugus on Boston’s North Shore at Giggles, the comedy venue inside Prince Pizzeria run by Mike Clarke, brother of local comedy legend Lenny Clarke.
According to audience commentary afterward, CK’s routines still have yet to include any direct references to his history of admitted sexual offenses. Instead, he’s merely sidestepping the issue by saying he took “a long break.”
For his part, Lenny Clarke told friends and fans: “I gotta tell u he was fantastic.”
Chris DiPetta, talent manager and co-owner of The Punchline in Atlanta, wondered if the Giggles crowd was happy to see CK back onstage or not. “How did the crowd respond to him? Back to normal?” To which Mike Clarke replied, “They loved him Chris!!”
As for all of the viral media hoopla made over CK’s joke that he lost $35 million in an hour: 1) Jokes exaggerate the truth. 2) If there is any truth to it, you’d have to figure the math adds up as lost revenue and sunken costs in having to shelve the movie he wrote, directed and co-starred in, I Love You, Daddy; lost income from any planned stand-up touring from November 2017 to the present; and future revenues forgone by losing executive producer credits on his other TV shows (Baskets, Better Things on FX, and One Mississippi on Amazon).
Of course, none of that compares to the lost career opportunities to the women he victimized over the years, shunned and afraid to speak out until last year.
You’d think a comedian who earned his critical and popular acclaim from mocking his masturbatory habits would lean into his self-inflicted crisis for laughs, but so far, not yet. The only thing leaning in Saugus last weekend was that tower of pizza off Route 1.