Comedian Louis C.K., 44, played a million-dollar social experiment with his fans last month: see how much money he could make from putting out a new stand-up comedy special that was free from digital restrictions and easy to buy at the lowest price possible.
C.K.'s special, "Louis C.K.: Live at the Beacon Theater," was launched for purchase on his website Dec. 10.
Knowing that it would be extremely easy to illegally download the special from various websites in its current format, C.K. said: "Consider this: I made this video extremely easy to use against well-informed advice. I was told that it would be easier to torrent the way I made it, but I chose to do it this way anyway."
Much to C.K.'s satisfaction, his fans did come through for him, and his experiment was wildly successful. C.K. stated that sales revenue covered the entirety of his $250,000 production costs within 12 hours of releasing his special to the public. Also, 12 days after its release, C.K. sold more than 200,000 copies of the special.
"Louis C.K. Live at the Beacon Theater" is still available at https://buy.louisck.net/purchase for $5 with payments taken via PayPal.
All joking aside, Louis C.K. has donated a large portion of his profits to charity.
