6 questions for louis c.k.

Erika Gonzalez, Rocky Mountain News

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

You may know Louis C.K. as the slouchy, working-class sad sack struggling to be a good husband and father on HBO's recently canceled sitcom, Lucky Louie. But even if you never saw the show, you've likely encountered his twisted humor.

The staring contests pitting late-night host Conan O'Brien against former sidekick Andy Richter? C.K.'s idea.

The superfly, pimpified superhero Pootie Tang, star of many sketches on The Chris Rock Show? Created by C.K., who won an Emmy for his work on the show.

And let's not forget Pootie Tang, the movie, written and directed by C.K..

His latest on-screen effort is I Think I Love My Wife, which he penned with star Chris Rock. Rocky entertainment reporter Erika Gonzalez spoke with the shockingly honest and often embittered comedian.

1 Is your stand-up a true reflection of your real life?

"It's all honest. Everything I say about what I feel is true. Some stories are true and some are not, and the ones that are not are a way for me to interpret something I feel. To me, it's not just that it's honest, it's completely unfiltered. In other words, when you think about something you want to say, you add a bunch of filters before you say it. You put a politeness filter on it. You put a logic filter on it and a context filter, and I take all those away and I just say the s----.

2 How does your wife feel about having her dirty laundry and tidbits about your sex life shared on stage?

"Like I said, most stories I'm telling are not exactly true. As much as I've kind of put a very unfiltered ridiculous version of myself on stage, I definitely do the same with her. That's definitely not entirely her up there."

3 So, she's not as uninterested in sex as you make it seem?

"Oh no, that's definitely true."

4 You appeared on The View last year to promote Lucky Louie and remained reasonable and diplomatic even after hearing Barbara Walters describe the show as "unbelievably vulgar and racist." What did you really want to say to her?

"The reason I reacted the way I did on the air was because I welcomed it. I figured if she's thinking it, then other people are thinking it. But as far as Barbara Walters goes, (expletive) her and her (expletive) old (expletive). I have nothing but contempt for her. But I'm not in an empty room talking with Barbara Walters. There's a bunch people watching and those are people I care about. We weren't doing a show to gross people out and the fact that she said it was racist was really infuriating to me, because our show dealt with race and talked about it, and if that makes you racist then we're all in a lot of trouble."

5 Have you have ever found yourself in the situation explored in I Think I Love My Wife - bored with your marriage and tempted by a beautiful woman?

"Bored? Yeah. But I'm not the guy who gets tempted a lot. If I wanted to cheat on my wife I would have to heavily pursue it. That's one thing that makes it easy for me to be faithful. The idea of having some sexy girl from your past suddenly showing up and not leaving you alone, for both me and Chris, that's a fantasy."

6 Your father is Hungarian and Mexican and you spent part of your childhood in Mexico. Would you ever consider releasing a Spanish-language comedy album?

"You know what? If I could get my Spanish back to where it was, I would try it. I love Mexico. It's a really great culture, it's a great country and humor is huge there. But I have a feeling I'm not as funny in Spanish."

Louis C.K.

• When and where: 8 p.m., Thursday; 8 p.m. and 10 p.m., Friday; 6:30 p.m., 8:30 p.m. and 10:30 p.m., Saturday; Comedy Works, 1226 15th St.

• Cost: $25

• Information: 303-595-3637 or www.comedyworks.com

Louis C.K. (who was born Szekely) owes his surname to a camp counselor who jotted down the initials 'C.K.' as a pronounciation reminder. Louis borrowed the trick when he started doing open-mic comedy and wanted to make sure announcers got his name right.