Before his stunning downfall, comedian Louis C.K. was known to joke about anything and everything, no matter how taboo.
He’s back, and he’s picked up right where he left off.
“I’d rather be in Auschwitz than New York City,” he joked in a show at a venue near Tel Aviv, Israel. “I mean now, not when it was open.”
The 52-year-old comedian, whose paternal grandfather was Jewish, delivered the line Thanksgiving night performance, prompting laughter and applause from the audience, the New York Post reported.
The comedian, whose real name is Louis Székely, is out on tour now, part of a long comeback after he admitted two years ago that he masturbated in front of women, with or without their approval.
“How have your last couple of years been?” he said as he opened his set.
After numerous women came out to make the allegations, C.K said in a November 2017 statement: “These stories are true. At the time, I said to myself that what I did was okay because I never showed a woman my d–k without asking first, which is also true. But what I learned later in life, too late, is that when you have power over another person, asking them to look at your d–k isn’t a question. It’s a predicament for them. The power I had over these women is that they admired me. And I wielded that power irresponsibly.”
“I also took advantage of the fact that I was widely admired in my and their community, which disabled them from sharing their story and brought hardship to them when they tried because people who look up to me didn’t want to hear it. I didn’t think that I was doing any of that because my position allowed me not to think about it. There is nothing about this that I forgive myself for. And I have to reconcile it with who I am. Which is nothing compared to the task I left them with.”
At the Tel Aviv show, C.K. even joked about that subject, “advising the audience against following in his perverted footsteps,” The Post said.
“If they say ‘yes,’ then still don’t do it, because it’s not popular,” he said.
C.K. was riding high before his tumultuous fall. He has won six Emmy Awards and a Peabody and was the star of a popular FX TV series called “Louie,” plus, he sold out huge venues for his comedy show. But after his admission that he’d done the things all his accusers said he’d done, film distributor The Orchard dropped his movie “I Love You Daddy” just days before its release and C.K. disappeared.
The comedian opened his comeback tour in Richmond, Va., and he has shows booked in Detroit Akron, New Orleans, and Houston through February.
“One female fan who saw C.K.’s show in Holon thinks it’s time to forgive the Washington, D.C., native, who has also called New York City home,” The Daily News reported.
“As a woman who’s been very aware of everything that has happened over the #MeToo movement and all of that, I’d say that he’s probably the only celebrity who’s expressed regret over what he had done and was willing to actually address it,” Shiri Ayalon told the Associated Press.