There is so much variety on television nowadays, so many shows created for so many demographics. Usually calling a show "original" means it is quirky or weird. It's rare to see a show where the originality is defined by realism and honesty. It's even rarer to see that in a comedy.

Louis C.K.'s new FX show Louie, premiering on FX tonight, is as close as anyone is probably ever going to get to distilling the essence of his stand-up into a half-hour television show. While Lucky Louie (which I enjoyed) used dialogue and concepts from his stand-up, Louie truly captures the feeling of seeing him drop-in at The Comedy Cellar or doing a set at Carolines. It's as valid a representation of Louis's life and work as Shameless or Chewed Up.

There are a lot of shows based on a specific comedian's act or life, but I've never seen a show that walks the line between fiction and autobiography quite like this. I don't want to gush on and on about the show, because this isn't really a review, it's an interview. But I wanted to just say, if you don't watch this show, you are an idiot.

Okay, so now that I have called you an idiot, onto the interview!

CCINSIDER: A lot of stand-ups create shows based on their act, but ultimately it still feels like a sitcom. This really captures your stand-up and your style. Were you intentionally trying to adapt a lot of your ideas and approaches to stand-up to this different medium or did that just happen?

LOUIS CK: Well, I've learned a lot over a lot of projects, and I've learned a lot about producing television, directing, editing, everything, and then the twenty five years I've spent on stage, and I just decided, I mean the opportunity I got from FX was to do it anyway I wanted to. So the way I decided to use that opportunity was to just use everything I know to make this show. Every skill I've ever honed and every good idea I ever had and put it in this show. If you do that it just kind of comes out the way it comes out.

I know you have a history of short films rather than just television work, and that really shows through. Like an independent film style.

Yeah, that's really where I cut my teeth. And I always wanted to be a New York indie filmmaker and I pretty much failed at that. And I'm pretty much getting to do that now just on a different screen.

Was it important to really show New York?

I love New York as a character. And it's also misrepresented on other shows where it's always that sort of glossy– where they wet the streets and only show Perry Street and Bleecker. But yeah, I really wanted to show the grimier Bowery and Delancey type of New York.

A lot of shows are listed with the disclaimer 'Adult Situations.' I think this is one of the few comedy shows I've seen that is actually for adults. Was there ever any pressure to appeal younger?

FX is such a great place, and I've never been asked those questions like, how is this skewing? Those discussions don't take place. We just are trying to make the best show possible. And I think that's always the smartest thing.

It's kind of like dating or trying to court a woman. If you sort of go, 'Do you like flowers? Uh, what kind of flowers to do you like?' She's kind of like, 'Oh, Jesus.'

'Well, what kind of guy do you like, do you want me to be strong? Or do you want me to be like political- What kind of guy?' You're just boring her and upsetting her. But if you just show up as the guy you are, and it just so happens that that rings her bell, then it's gonna work. And I think you just have to really concentrate on making the best version of what you are, what you are best at. And if people like it, they'll really like it, because you're chiseling out more distinctly. If every time you make a stroke in the script, you're hoping to reach fifteen different demographics, you're not going to tell the story.

I also think it's really dumb that people think that folks don't like watching people their own age on television. I mean, when I was a kid, my favorite show was the Barney Miller show, and that was a bunch of middle-aged tired cops, and I was ten. It just was a great show.

It seems like instead of trying to cater to an audience, you're just creating what's there and hoping the audience is there that wants to see something that's different.

That's just it. I think it's the opposite of right to say 'the target audience' as if you are shooting out to an audience. You want to be the target and draw them in. And draw in whatever comes in.

Speaking earlier of the indie movie approach, I noticed you were also listed as editor of the episodes. So you're basically doing most of the creative work, almost all of it from post to pre-production, right?

Yeah, and it's just cause I love doing it that way. I just edit on my MacBook, and I kind of walk around. I actually switched recently to the 13" MacBook. I used to cut it on the 15" cause it was a bigger screen and the 13" was kind of a challenge but I can walk around with the show under my arm and I can sit in a Starbucks and edit the TV show. I just like it that way. It's all in my head and this way I don't really have to explain it to anybody. I also enjoy that. It's like mixing music or being a DJ. Sort of flying all the different elements and watching it come together. It's really fun.

The one segment that struck me the most was the Poker segment with Rick Crom.  I guess what interested me most was the whole conversation about the word "faggot." Was that an actual conversation or was that just you having an inner monologue in your head trying to decide what you thought about your previous specials and work?

[Ed Note: In the second episode cold open, CK asks Crom, who is gay, if using the word "faggot" in stand-up is offensive. Crom goes into a great monologue, which I don't want to spoil here, but it raises some interesting questions about use of the word in comedy without definitively answering them.]

A little of both because actually I did have that conversation with Rick Crom back when I was in my twenties and I started working in New York. He was the MC in The Comedy Cellar most nights. Still is. Really good guy. Thoughtful, smart guy.

I came from Boston, and when I came up, when you came out of the closet and said, 'I'm gay,' the next word out of your mouth was, 'Ouch.' It just wasn't something people did. Even not recently. And Rick was one of the first people I've met who was openly gay, ever, let alone comedians. And he was always a very accessible and friendly person.

And I asked him once, "Hey, I use that word sometimes. Does it bother you?" And he told me exactly what was there [in the episode], pretty much. Very much the same way. He didn't berate me, he didn't lecture me. He just said, 'Go, go ahead, we're all grown-ups, but if you're interested, it's completely devastating.' He sort of like bowled me over. And you know, I have used the word since. But I think about it. I think it's important if you're going to use nitroglycerin, to read the label. To know what you're doing. So I was grateful for that information from him my whole life.

And then, it's kind of the fun thing about the way I get to do the show, that stuff kind of grows organically. I was at The Comedy Cellar recently, and Rick was telling everybody stories about this place New York Jacks. [ED Note: In the episode Crom tells a story about City Jacks, a regular event where gay men go to masturbate each other at hotel rooms or clubs] And all these comedians were being little boys, giggling and screeching. It was like telling a bunch of eleven-year-olds about sex. I thought it would be a funny scene, and I combined it with that other one, and I thought, 'Okay, do I develop these characters and have a whole story with them?' But the great thing about the format of this show is I was able to go, 'Nah, just have the game. Begin and end it. Populate it with funny people. Write a good script. Shoot it in a really compelling way. And that's it. That's the project.'

It sounds like the show came together organically, with you editing and figuring it out as you make it. How much thought went into how the segments fit together? Specifically with Nick DiPaolo, who in one segment has a lot of tension with you and then in another episode, you end up fighting with him. Was that planned out or did it just come out of your real relationship with him?

I like that we have an antagonism, but we're friends. Nick and I have never gotten into a fistfight of course. But we are on the opposite sides of the spectrum politically, and the thing I always feel about that is we've always been friends.

When I grew up you'd say things like, 'My Republican friend.' You could have friends that didn't agree with you and you could still be human beings. And I think because of Glenn Beck and all these other shows, where people only watch their ideology, it's hard to be friends when you disagree. And I think that's a shame. So for me it's fun to show the way Nick and I used to be screaming at each other and then the next minute we're making jokes about some lady in the emergency room.

And we have history. We're both 42. At the end, there's more to gain from being pals.

It's important to me that when Nick and I have those arguments [in the show] that I be as unreasonable as he is. Like I call him a Nazi in that scene, which is not okay, it's really not fair. I wanted to be the instigator. I didn't want to be like Aaron Sorkin who writes an eloquent liberal and a dumb conservative and let's see who wins. I wanted it to be like Nick's arguments were thoughtful and mine were, 'You're just a Nazi.' I was just being relentlessly bigoted.

That bothers me more than conservatives who are stubborn. Liberals who aren't thinking through. Even though I agree with the liberal, it really bothers me when they aren't thinking through and are just being babies.

I was wondering about the stand-up on the show, is that the final format? Will it be on a special, because you have longer versions of some of those bits.

Well, that's a good question. When I started to develop this show, I had a new hour ready since I'd done Hilarious, which is yet to come out. I was starting to look for a way to do it in a special, and then the series came along, and I was writing it, and I wasn't going to use any stand-up in the series. And then I thought, 'But that's my best communication device, but how am I going to write a bunch of material on top of the hour I just finished writing?' Because to me, it's a foregone conclusion I couldn't use the hour because I needed it for the special. And I thought, 'What are you nuts? You want the show to work.' I thought, 'Wow, this is weapons grade material. I can put this in my own show, and it's a reliable source for every episode that's really strong. And that's the way it will be out there.'

Louis CK performs on last Thursday's episode of Lopez Tonight.

But sure enough, I've continued to do stand-up and the stuff has developed and gotten better since I've started doing the series almost a year ago, and I wish I could do an hour, because people would see something. They wouldn't just see the pieces from the show. They'd see a pretty lethal set because I've sat with it almost two years now.

So I don't know. We'll see. Maybe if somebody wants to me to do it, I'll do it. I'm also on to the next hour. I don't perform the material much anymore. I kind of think that's probably it.

ED Note: Great interview, right guys? Well, if you want to read some more of his thoughts, both  The Comic's Comic and The New York Times have really great CK interviews too. He doesn't cover much of the same territory he did here, so I highly recommend reading them too.

Here's a clip of CK talking to George Lopez after performing his set on that show.