Now if you’re like me or my homeboy Louis C.K. you walk down the street to the tune of “Brother Louie.” And I don’t even bother with headphones, I crank that shit out of the boombox that I’m carrying around on my shoulder. I would wager a guess that Louis probably doesn’t like my “penchant for flair” and I’ll bet he doesn’t like you either because you’re probably deciding between this new album of his and a trip to Taco Bell. Well, wait one diarrhea-taco-eating minute and just hear me out first.

If you are a fan of the show Louie and have ever wondered how much farther the material went and how he stuck it all together into one album, then this is a good buy. However, C.K’s Word: Live at Carnegie Hall is not simply a rehash of old material. There is plenty on here that you haven’t heard.

Let’s face facts: C.K. hates things. This was covered in my review of Live at the Beacon Theater last year. His act is full of misanthropic, cynical and self loathing observations and humor, but they don’t become means unto themselves. It feels cathartic to hear a man air all his frustrations out. “Most kids don’t have medicine! When they get sick they die on a rock with a bear eating them,” he says to his daughter, who doesn’t like the taste of her bubblegum medicine.

Maybe his loathing nature is a bit played-up. After all he’s a single father. Kids can be frustrating. Divorce is bitter. To illustrate this he talks about his two kids who, at the time of the recording were five and eight. “They have very disparate skill levels. The eight year-old is blossoming…[The five year-old] is appropriately shitty at everything.”

From mediations on young people today (“Why do you have to make my coffee sarcastically?”) to his odd choice of encore humor (“So I was watching Schindler’s List today…” ) this is a hidden gem of an album. With none of the fanfare but all of the quality, C.K. scores again.

This special is $5 and is only available at louisck.net. The material was recorded November 4, 2010. To be clear this does not have any of the material from Hilarious which was making a limited theater run at the time. Various material has cropped up in Louie either as direct stand-up or dramatic re-interpretations. On it’s own the album is on par with the past five or so years of Louis’ comedy. It works well for the hardcore C.K. fan or the casual comedy lover that has a hunger for tacos right now.

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