'Oh my God!' is an exclamation that can generate many emotions and situations, from the joy of offering a hand and a heart to the shock of seeing a suicide, from the fear of an unknown insect to the ecstasy of a goal of fantastic beauty scored by your favorite team. Louis C.K.’s eponymous performance, the last of his career to date, recorded in mid-2013, is a collection of thoughts, models, and cases related to this exclamation, and at the same time a catalyst for new and numerous “Oh my God!” Growing up on Carlin's classic comedy, CK flexes briskly between socially significant and painfully meaningless topics, notices the funny in the sad and the sad in the funny and skillfully tests the audience for strength.
Many people begin their acquaintance with the world of stand-up with CK. Louis has long been a pop, but a pop of the highest quality - like Forrest Gump in cinema, Radiohead in music, The Clinic in the television series industry. In short, a phenomenon that almost everyone who knows about it is at least loyal to. During his career, Louis did not have a single failed program, and the humor was close and understandable to many. This led to the fact that now, to describe each new performance, it is enough to say: “CK once again confirmed the class, again proved himself one of the most stable comedians in modern stand-up, again managed to laugh.” "My God," in that sense, is no exception. Here, as in other performances of the comedian, the main feature of the number is a well-found balance between the ability to like and, surprisingly, stay with their own. CK is not afraid of sharp corners, but manages to lead the viewer past them so that he felt all the sharpness, but, at the same time, did not get hurt. Louis is not a particularly tolerant and cautious guy, he just does not make what is so sharp, artificially even sharper. The scattering of the subject matter in "My God" will be the envy of many comedians. In an hour, the comedian will have time to talk about the specifics of the relationship between men and the secondary sexual organs in women, demonstrate the facial expressions of seals, make social advertising for 17-year-old well-fed guys, speculate about allergies to nuts, and in the end bring out a rather ironic but, at the same time, sad morality. And that’s just a small part, just the extremes! In addition, the attention in “My God” is paid to the theater. The comedian works quite a lot with some miniatures, facial expressions and body and, although it is more often like curves, the number dilutes well. Meanwhile, it is impossible not to note the general structure of the program: if before Louis most often did numbers in the form of "from general to private and back", now from individual life situations to the end of the program, the comedian goes to some general issues and problems, and more to individual cases does not return.
C.K. has certainly aged since his last recorded performance two years ago. He became even fatter, even more bald, and, contrary to the concept of the genre in which Louis has to perform, he spent about ten minutes from the hour number, regularly sitting on a high chair. However, even without being terribly attentive, you can see that the comedian is not very eager to be young. My God, of course, is largely devoted to the topic of growing up and aging, but this theme is quite common for comedians of Louis’ age: it was addressed by Stewart Lee, Doug Stanhope, and Richard Herring. What I live, what I write, the more that all these monologues from the mouth of a comedian are imbued with an understanding of one important thing. It is now, when the young comedians have not yet declared themselves, or announced, but quietly, and CK has successfully used years to hone his skills, but not yet aged and bored, now is the time. It's time to be, to joke, to write. Surprisingly, you can, but absolutely nothing. This is the time when it’s important to just do what you can.
Fans of stand-up have the good fortune to be present at the event, when, conditionally, one of the best bottles of cognac in the cellar has already laid its own, and its contents have acquired all the necessary taste, but has not yet begun to deteriorate. And by and large, all that remains is just to sit back and enjoy it, savoring every sip, one of which is "My God" - something amazing, something embarrassing, something serious performance, which, at the same time, is also absolutely ridiculous. That's a good thing to say.