What’s Louis CK Doing With The Million Dollars You Just Gave Him?

Instead of going cable, as usual, Louis CK sold his new show for $US5 a pop on the web, streamed live from the Beacon theatre, free of DRM or regional restrictions. Ballsy? It worked: the public paid him $US1 million.

So what’s Louis CK going to do with that million dollars? He’s going to do really good stuff. In his own words:

I’ve never had a million dollars all of a sudden. And since we’re all sharing this experience and since it’s really your money, I wanted to let you know what I’m doing with it.

  • The first 250k is going to pay back what the special cost to produce and the website to build.
  • The second 250k is going back to my staff and the people who work for me on the special and on my show. I’m giving them a big fat bonus.
  • The third 280k is going to a few different charities. They are listed below in case you’d like to donate to them also. Some of these I learned about through friends, some were recommended through Twitter.
  • That leaves me with 220k for myself. Some of that will pay my rent and will care for my children. The rest I will do terrible, horrible things with and none of that is any of your business. In any case, to me, 220k is enough out of a million.

All I can say is bravo. In this era of selfishness, it’s refreshing to see people being sensible instead of being dicks. And, on top of that, doing it after slapping TV moguls on their sorry faces, using the internet and screwing the usual DRM crap. Hey Louis, thanks for showing how is it done. [Louis CK]