We're All Mad Down Here, Dear

Louis CK's Genius, Applicable to Any Career

1. LOUIS CK: Well it's like when you see comedians start out, like, young guys come and do stand-up at open mikes, and they bring their family and their friends. They bring their drinking buddies and their friends from work to their first open mike ...
2. SIMMONS: They're stacking the deck.
3. LOUIS CK: Yeah they come out like a rooster and everybody's laughing, and they get cheered off stage, and, uh, that guy's good for two shows, and then he's done. Second show, he comes, his friends aren't there, and he just -- ten seconds into his first set -- I've seen it a million times -- ten seconds into his second set, he's already decided never to do this again.
4. SIMMONS: How important is it to be really heckled by the wrong people, in your formative years as a comedian?
5. LOUIS CK: Oh, you really need that, you need it. You need adversity to get good, you need to be tested a lot.
6. SIMMONS: Is it one of those things where it's almost like boxing, where you need to get hit, and you need to react on your feet --
7. LOUIS CK: Yeah, to absorb pain ... You know, the first time you get hit in a boxing ring, you just do all the wrong things. All your instincts are to cover up, bend over, and flail, and then you're just an amazing target if you do that. So you have to do something very counterintuitive as a fighter, when you get punched. You have to just stay right there, you have to stay open and loose, and relax, because then you're intelligent, and you're able to see ... And also to be able to say, "Yeah, you did that, but your hitting me is part of my plan." Like to able to incorporate -- "You hit me, but I'm still doing what I want to do. I'm actually controlling you through you hitting me."