“An opinion is a closing. An observation is an opening.”

Near Delaware Water Gap!? If so…

Louis C.K. did a deep dive on standup with Rick Rubin on the Tetragrammaton podcast.

Some of the best bits below…

On not being attached to laughs:

“I don’t think any more — and this has evolved over time — in terms of success or failure on stage. I’m not attached to either outcome. There’s many in between. If you have this idea of laugh no laugh, you’re stuck in two things. It’s like if you are just doing A and F and ignoring all the notes in between. There’s a lot that can happen.”

On bits that kill right away:

“There are some bits that kill right away and I throw them out because I’m like, ‘Yeah, that’s killing because I know how to do this and because that’s pretty down the middle.’ Most of the bits that I have that have turned into bits that people come back and tell me they loved — most of those started in deep disturbed silence. The first times I did them, people were like, ‘No, we don’t want you to do that.’ I’m gonna have to do this bit and fail with it for the next three months before it turns into something. But I already have the nose. That could be a great bit.”

On jokes as seeds:

“Jokes are seeds. Sometimes they just polish and harden and stay the same size and you end up with a nut, and sometimes they sprout and grow roots and all kinds of crazy shit.”

On detaching from validation:

“If you can detach from the personal and the judgment and the feeling of validation, you can get so much more done. It’s not saying like fuck them or I don’t care. It’s saying if you can just detach from the moment of validation meaning so much, then you can really hear that there’s a lot in silence. There’s a huge range.”

On observations vs. opinions:

“An opinion is a closing. An opinion is like, ‘That’s it. That’s the verdict. That’s how I feel.’ Well, that’s a shame. Like what’d you do that for? Now you can’t see anymore. It’s blinding. An observation is an opening. It’s opening your eyes.”

On saying the unsayable:

“It’s like you’re going to throw up. And the joke being the vomit. There’s great potential in sticking with it and sticking with it and sticking with it and not letting it go. There was just a massive amount of treasure on the other side of that line.”

“If you can detach from the personal and the judgment and the feeling of validation, you can get so much more done.”

On playing adversarial rooms:

“If you’re having a good time on stage, especially when you’re developing, go find somewhere else to work because you’re not growing. You have to try to win over an audience. Going into a room of people that think what you think is cool is cool, then all you have to do is lead them around and they’ll cheer you on. But I just think you get better at it if you’re in adversity.”

On upsetting audiences:

“The problem is that when I do a bit where I’m like, I’m going to introduce this, they get upset. Okay, so here’s, let me find a road to it. Trust me, I know you’re upset, but it’s okay. And then they get it. They start to get it more and more. And then the bit starts killing. It starts killing. And then I just get off on that. It kills because I’m so good at this, like I know how to do this. And then my feeling — the conveyance of a feeling during the bit, which is a big part of it — instead of it being like, ‘Look, I know this is a tough subject but I’m asking you to open your mind to a new thought about it,’ I’d started doing the bit like, ‘Here comes the next killer, here comes the next killer, but this bit always kills, you’re going to love this, everybody loves this one.’ Thank god I did it in Houston because as I was starting it, this woman in the colorful hat was looking at me like, ‘That’s fucking horrible. Why are you talking about that?’ And I looked at her and I realized I forgot this bit’s offensive to anybody. I forgot. And I’m doing it with like a smug bravado because I’m given to that. I’m fucking funny. Fuck you. And so I started looking directly at her and I let her lead me and I went back to like, I know, just here’s an idea, just — like she’s pointing a gun at my face and I’m like, listen, just take a breath and listen. And she’s like, mmm, kind of like okay. And I go, how about this? She goes, yeah, that’s true. And I go, how about this? And she goes, that’s actually interesting the way you’re saying that. And then I go, how about this? And she laughs. And I’m like, let’s fucking remember that. And she was in my head. She was in my mind every time I did that joke for the rest of the year, including when I did it for the special.”

Related: Lots more CK stuff in the archives.