Louis C.K. is the best standup comedian in America right now. Sure, he’s no Jason Manford but he’s the best they’ve got. And he’s just made a heck of a lot of money for charity and for himself by self-releasing his latest live show, only charging $5 for it and trusting his fans not to pirate it.

The new film, Live at the Beacon Theatre , was released on December 13 with the intention of seeing, in Louis’s words:

“If I put out a brand new standup special at a drastically low price ($5) and make it as easy as possible to buy, download and enjoy, free of any restrictions, will everyone just go and steal it? Will they pay for it? And how much money can be made by an individual in this manner?

It turns out, a shitload of money can be made. Just before Xmas, Louis took to his website to say:

“So it's been about 12 days since the thing started and yesterday we hit the crazy number. One million dollars. That's a lot of money. Really too much money. I've never had a million dollars all of a sudden.”

C.K., who first rose to a small, cult-like level of fame with his largely ignored-then-cancelled HBO sitcom Lucky Louie, plans to break the million down into four parts, as follows:

“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.

• The Fistula Foundation
• The Pablove Foundation
• charity: water
• Kiva
• Green Chimneys 

“That leaves me with 220k for myself. Some of that will pay my rent and will care for my childen. 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.”

And it’s still on sale. So you should get it. And you can do so in the knowledge that unlike most comedians on the circuit, Louis’s live DVDs tend to be the last time he performs that set of material, rather than the stuff he will then go on to hammer to death on a seemingly never-ending tour to idiots laughing at jokes they already heard when they got it for Xmas. (And if our cousin is reading this we hope you’re enjoying the John Bishop live DVD we got you).

https://buy.louisck.net