Louis C.K.’s latest performance at the Comedy Cellar in New York City was certainly no secret, as a crowd of protestors gathered outside the Greenwich Village club on Monday night.
Many held signs supporting the #MeToo movement and the five women who have accused the disgraced comedian of sexual misconduct.
“Does this sign make you uncomfortable, Louie?” read one sign, while another said: “When you support Louis C.K., you tell women your laughter is more important than their sexual assaults and loss of their careers.”
After performing a number of surprise shows — that even the Comedy Cellar management wasn’t expecting — in recent months, C.K. was on the bill Monday night, marking the first time he had an advertised gig on stage since his public downfall last November.
“Frankly, I was furious,” one protestor told the New York Times from outside the club. “Every female comedian he has harmed deserves a place on the Comedy Cellar stage one hundred times before he should be allowed back on the stage.”
New York Times culture writer Sopan Deb, who attended the stand-up show, tweeted afterward, “Louis started his set with ‘How was your year?’”
A protester outside the Comedy Cellar tonight before Louis CK takes the stage for his second billed show of the night. pic.twitter.com/inNwuog1V3
— Sopan Deb (@SopanDeb) October 30, 2018
C.K. also told the audience he was there because he needed the money after losing $35 million in one day. “They tell you that when you get in trouble you find out who your real friends are. It’s black people, it turns out. They’ll stick by you,” he added, according to the Times.
Last November, C.K. was accused of sexual misconduct by five women. Among the accusers in the New York Times article were comedy duo Dana Min Goodman and Julia Wolov, who according to the Times were invited by the comedian to his hotel room after their show at the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen, Colorado, in 2002. According to the report, when they arrived at his room, C.K. asked Goodman and Wolov if he could take out his penis.
C.K. released a statement shortly after the story was published saying, “these stories are true. At the time, I said to myself that what I did was OK because I never showed a woman my d— without asking first, which is also true.”
Shortly after the accusations came to light, The Orchard canceled the release of “I Love You, Daddy,” the film that C.K. directed, wrote and starred in. HBO and Netflix also cut ties with him.
A representative for the Comedy Cellar did not immediately respond to TheWrap’s request for comment on the protests or the show.