Behind the scenes as Louis CK films a new TV pilot

Louis CK called me a motherfucker last night.

Some background first: He sent out a Twitter message two days ago saying he was filming a pilot and to write in if you want to come. People who responded got a message to come to The Comedy Cellar early last night (it was about 2/3 full) where he filmed some standup segments for the show.

Before filming, he explained the deal. The pilot is for FX. It will alternate between standup clips and actual scenes. Also in it: Todd Barry, Nick DiPaolo, and Rick Shapiro. He joked around that it most likely will never get picked up. He's directing the show too and it was interesting to see him talking tech stuff with the crew and closely examining the steadycam shots (using some fancy new Red camera that weighed so much the cameraman had to take a break every 15 mins or so).

He did some Q&A with the crowd while cameras were setting up. I asked him what the narrative of the show was and he replied, "You want me to tell you the entire story now, you motherfucker?" Oddly, that word seems almost like a term of endearment coming from him. Heh. He didn't answer and moved on to other questions, mostly about his previous work on movies.

The standup performance lasted about 40 minutes and is almost all new material that he's developed since his last special was filmed two months ago. So I guess that puts his material development rate at about 20 minutes per month. Jesus.

Some was still being fleshed out (after a bit on people who honk car horns, he looked down at his notes and grumbled, "Who the fuck cares what I think about honking horns?"). But some was really great stuff that's already top tier (great stuff on how all relationships end badly and chaperoning at his kids school especially stood out).