Comedian Louis C.K. comes in from the cold to warm welcome in Israel
HOLON, Israel — Two years after being swept up in the #MeToo movement and acknowledging sexual misconduct with several women, comedian Louis C.K. took to the stage at a nearly packed basketball arena outside Tel Aviv, where the audience seemed ready to let it go.
“How have your last couple of years been?” he asked near the start of the hourlong set Thursday night, before describing himself sitting in a restaurant, eating alone, as someone at another table gives him the finger for the duration of the meal.
Later in the set, he acknowledged his transgressions, saying that even though he had asked permission before masturbating in front of women, it had been a mistake. “If they say ‘yes,’ then still don’t do it, because it’s not popular.”
The 52-year-old comedian’s career imploded in November 2017 after he acknowledged complaints of harassment reported by the New York Times, most of which involved him masturbating in the presence of women he knew professionally. Some of the women said they feared their careers would suffer if they discussed the incidents, which took place more than a decade ago.
C.K. released a statement after the Times report, saying: “These stories are true.” He acknowledged abusing his power over others and causing them pain, but did not publicly apologize.
This month, one of his five accusers disputed that his behaviour was consensual. “We never agreed nor asked him to take all his clothes off and masturbate to completion in front of us,” Julia Wolov wrote in an op-ed for the Canadian Jewish News.
The revelations, which came at the height of the #MeToo movement against sexual abuse in the workplace, led to the cancellation of C.K.’s numerous TV contracts and the scrapping of his featurelength film, I Love You, Daddy, shortly before its release.
The comedian vowed to “step back and take a long time to listen.”
But he returned to the stage less than a year later, and is now on an international tour that includes several sold-out shows. Protesters have gathered outside some of them, including a small demonstration outside his first show in Tel Aviv organized by Kulan, a local women’s advocacy group.
Bracha Barad, the group’s director, said those attending the show were “normalizing sexual violence.”
“They are basically telling him everything is OK, you’re not going to pay a price for this and you will be given a stage,” she told the local Kan TV.
There were no protests Thursday outside the arena in Holon, a suburb of Tel Aviv.
Most of the more than a dozen audience members who spoke to the Associated Press had heard about the scandal. Some said they didn’t know the details or that it wasn’t clear whether he had done anything wrong. Several young men attending the show declined to comment. “Twitter is fragile,” one muttered as he strode away. “Feminists.”
The show drew an audience of about 5,000 men and women of all ages. Most appeared to be fans who felt the severity of the misconduct was not enough to justify a boycott.
“We don’t support what he did to those women, but we like him as a comedian,” said Asaf, who came to the show with his wife, Tal. They declined to give their last name out of privacy concerns. “It’s not like he raped someone,” he added.
“It’s like a little bit complicated,” Tal said. She noted that C.K. had reportedly asked permission before masturbating in front of the women and said it shouldn’t end the career of a “genius.” But she also acknowledged the pervasiveness of sexual misconduct.
She finally concluded that paying to see Louis C.K. was “like supporting animal rights and still eating meat.”