Latest news with #LouisC.K.
Atlantic
4 days ago
- Atlantic
Decent Airplane Wi-Fi Will Forever Be Just a Year Away
'Wi-Fi is available on this flight,' the flight attendant announced on a recent trip I took from New York City to St. Louis. She recited her routine by rote, and Wi-Fi is among the details that now need to be conveyed, along with explaining how to use a seatbelt and enjoining passengers not to smoke e-cigarettes on board. But when the time came to use the Wi-Fi, the service didn't work. Eventually, enough people noticed this that the crew 'rebooted' it, after which it still didn't work. A new announcement acknowledged that Wi-Fi was, in fact, not available on this flight (and offered an apology). This was the can't even access the portal kind of failure, but I've frequently encountered others, including can log in but not connect and so slow as to be worse than nothing. And then, at other times, the internet works great—as reliably as it does in an office building. For two decades now, in-flight Wi-Fi has occupied this limbo between miracle and catastrophe. Way back in 2008, on Conan O'Brien's late-night show, Louis C.K. told the story of a man who was complaining about the in-flight Wi-Fi not working mere moments after learning of its existence. 'Everything is amazing right now and nobody's happy,' the comedian joked. The bit was never quite right—nobody was happy because services such as in-flight Wi-Fi were not yet amazing, actually. A chasm separated the service's promise and its reality. Today, 17 years later, I sense that same distance when I try to go online in the air. The matter feels more urgent now that more airlines, including JetBlue, Delta, and soon American and United, are offering free, purportedly better in-flight Wi-Fi (mainly to loyalty members so far). Air travel is neither a haven for offline delight nor a reliable place to carry out normal online life. Either option would be welcome, because each would be definitive. Instead, one is left to wonder if the hours about to be spent in flight can be filled with scrolling, shopping, Slacking, and tapping at Google Docs—or not. I set out to learn why. Is the issue technological? Are the airlines promising more service than they can deliver? Most of all, I wanted to know if this situation will ever be fixed, making airplane Wi-Fi feel as brisk and reliable as it does elsewhere. The answer, it turns out, is familiar: soon, any day now, probably next year. Because it's the thing they use most often and turn on directly, people use Wi-Fi as a nickname for internet access in general. ('The Wi-Fi is down,' your spouse or child might say.) But the Wi-Fi part of airplane Wi-Fi—the access points in the plane that appear as Delta Wi-Fi or whatever on your computer or smartphone—is almost never part of the problem. Instead, the problem is the pipe to which the Wi-Fi connects—the in-flight equivalent of the cable or fiber that delivers internet service to your house. An airplane flies in the air, and there are two ways to get the internet to connect to such a place: from above or below. At first, the only option was down. If you're old enough to remember the September 11 attacks, you might also recall the Airfone service on some airlines—a phone handset stuffed into the seatback. These phones used air-to-ground communication, meaning that the signal was sent from the plane to a relay on the ground. Airfone (and its competitors) were expensive, didn't work well, and few people used them. But that technology would be repurposed for early in-flight internet, offered via providers such as Gogo Inflight. Jack Mandala, the CEO of Seamless Air Alliance, a standards organization for in-flight connectivity, told me that air-to-ground works like your cellphone—the bottom of the plane needs a view (metaphorically speaking) of base stations from the air. That's why, for a time, you could use in-flight internet only over 10,000 feet. It's also why the service is unreliable. Just like your cellphone might hit a dead spot, so can your airplane. Air-to-ground bandwidth was limited, meaning that the service would get worse as more people on a plane used it. And finally, air-to-ground service operates extremely slowly when it sends data down to the ground—this is why sending an email attachment or texting an image from a plane can take an eternity, before possibly failing completely. Going up instead of down mostly solved these issues. Around the time of Louis C.K.'s Conan bit, airlines began offering internet service to planes via satellite communication. The improved speed and reliability allowed JetBlue to provide the industry's first free in-flight internet to commercial passengers, in 2013. According to Mandala, satellite services are easier to scale as more planes adopt them and more passengers use them. Satellite also has the benefit of being usable over water, in bad weather, and on the ground. The problem is that having viable technology is different from rolling it out seamlessly everywhere. Doing so requires investing in the equipment and service, and that requires time and money. In 2019, Delta, for instance, made a commitment to roll out free Wi-Fi across its entire fleet. Joseph Eddy, the airline's director of cabin and in-flight entertainment and connectivity, told me that Delta's effort is still ongoing. Unlike hotels or convention centers, Eddy reminded me, aircraft are highly regulated. Each type of aircraft needs to be configured differently, and a big airline such as Delta—or American, which told me it will also soon have 1,500 aircraft of its own with Wi-Fi service—requires some planning. 'We need to make software upgrades. We need to make sure we have all the satellite coverage that we need to ensure that we have enough capacity and the experience is as good as possible,' Heather Garboden, American Airlines' chief customer officer, told me. But, hold up: American is the carrier I fly most these days, and I keep finding myself unable to use the internet. Garboden confirmed that American is still transitioning its regional jets to satellite service—many are still using air-to-ground. And that's exactly the kind of plane I was on from New York. Delta's Eddy told me that its regional jets and some short-haul planes, including the Boeing 717, are also still operating on air-to-ground service. In both cases, the airlines made a deliberate choice to invest first in the routes and planes that carry the most passengers—big, mainline jets. That means that if you're flying on a long flight across or between continents, or on an airline with fewer types of planes, such as JetBlue or Southwest, you might have a better shot at reliable internet. And if you're on a small or regional jet, chances are greater that the Wi-Fi won't work, or won't work well. Eddy told me that Bombardier CRJ regional jets have proved more troubling to certify for the satellite antennas that sit on top of the fuselage, because of the aircraft's rear-mounted engines. 'You can't allow any form of debris to fly off the antenna at all,' he said. If you board a plane and Wi-Fi isn't available on the ground, that's a sign that your aircraft is still using air-to-ground service. Good luck. * * * Beyond the technology itself, the expectation of always being connected is also driving flier perceptions of in-flight internet performance. Fliers are only now starting to take in-flight internet access as a given, rather than viewing it as a surcharged luxury. Eddy thinks the tide started to turn during COVID. Even though people weren't flying as much, everyone became more familiar with digital tools—Zoom, but also Slack, Teams, Google Docs—that might once have been lesser known. When travel resumed, those expectations made in-flight Wi-Fi 'significantly more important,' Eddy said. American Airlines' Garboden added that a younger, always-online generation is buying tickets now—26 percent of the airline's customers are Gen Z and younger, she told me. For both airlines, the evolution of in-flight entertainment has reinforced the need for internet service. American delivers its movies and shows directly to its passengers' devices; once those people are already staring at their phones, habit makes them expect to be able to switch to email or a social-media app. But Delta, which offers seatback screens on most of its planes, believes that having a television in front of you also now implies the need for internet. 'If you look at the younger generations, they're at home watching Netflix and they're playing on their phone. They're doing both almost constantly,' Eddy said, adding that 20 percent of Delta's Wi-Fi customers use more than one device at a time. Competition and passenger expectations may be the key to making in-flight internet work for good. After 9/11, the domestic airline industry devolved into pure carriage, stripping away all comforts in the name of safety—and profit. That appears to be changing. Nomadix, the company that invented the enter-your-name-and-room-number hotel internet service more than 25 years ago, told me that the quality of Wi-Fi is one of the top three factors in customer satisfaction at every hotel property. That's because hotels are in the hospitality business, and catering to customer comfort (not to mention facilitating work for business travelers) is core to their success. Airlines haven't been as concerned with making flyers content in the cabin, but both Delta and American admitted that in-flight internet service is transitioning from an amenity into part of the hard product. 'You would expect that your seat is there, right? Wi-Fi has become that for us,' Eddy said. Almost overnight, he told me, Wi-Fi went from having no impact on people choosing Delta to being 'more important than flight times and airports.' For now, consistency is the missing ingredient. This is what Louis C.K. failed to grasp: The issue has never been the flying public's unwillingness to marvel at the miracles of human invention, but rather, the fact that carriers appear to make promises and then fail to deliver on them. Now that customer expectations, technological feasibility, and airline investments all align, it should just be a matter of time before the air is as well connected as the ground. But how much time? Delta initially promised 'fast, free Wi-Fi' across its global fleet by the end of 2024, but now the airline thinks reaching that milestone will take until the first half of 2026. Garboden said American is on track for early 2026. United also plans to offer free satellite Wi-Fi across its entire fleet, but offered no projected date for full rollout. Like cabin safety or timely arrival, until every passenger on every flight feels confident that the internet will take off along with their bodies and their luggage, the service doesn't really exist, because it can't be relied upon. Internet in the air is both a concrete advancement that's mature and widespread, and a conceptual one frequently deferred into the future. That future may come, and perhaps even soon. Or it might not. Just like the Wi-Fi on your next flight.
New York Post
15-07-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Post
Louis C.K. to headline New York Comedy Festival 8 years after sexual misconduct allegations
Can you call it a comeback? Comedian Louis C.K. is set to headline two nights of the New York Comedy Festival later this year – marking one of his first high-profile stand-up acts since being accused of sexual misconduct by five women back in 2017. Caroline Hirsch, the founder and owner of the New York Comedy Festival, announced the news in a statement on Monday, July 14. 7 Louis C.K. during the 10th Annual U.S. Comedy Arts Festival at the St. Regis Hotel in Aspen, Colorado. FilmMagic, Inc 7 Louis C.K. attends a boxing match at Radio City Music Hall in April 2013. Anthony J. Causi 'We're thrilled to unveil this year's incredible lineup – a dynamic mix of global headliners and rising voices that reflect where comedy is right now and where it's headed,' she told The Post. 'We're proud to continue to bring New York City the very best of the best.' 'In a constantly shifting landscape, we stay committed to spotlighting new voices, championing fresh perspectives, breaking form, and shaping a festival that sets the standard both creatively and commercially,' Hirsch added. C.K. is scheduled to perform his newest comedy special, 'Ridiculous,' at the Beacon Theater on Nov. 14 and 15 as part of the annual festival. 7 Louis C.K. arrives at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party in Beverly Hills in February 2016. Evan Agostini/Invision/AP Other headliners include Margaret Cho, Hannah Berner, Pete Holmes, Morgan Jay, Ryan Long, Trevor Wallace and Michael Blackson. 'Strangers With Candy' creators Amy Sedaris, Stephen Colbert and Paul Dinello will also host a reunion to mark the 25th anniversary of the sitcom's cancellation. The news that C.K. will headline two nights of the upcoming comedy festival comes nearly eight years after five women accused the 'Louis' creator of sexual misconduct in a bombshell New York Times exposé. 7 Louis C.K. performs at the Beacon Theatre on October 13, 2012, in New York City. WireImage The women claimed that the comedian exposed himself and masturbated in front of them without their consent, and C.K. later admitted to the allegations and issued a lengthy apology. 'These stories are true,' the comedian began. 'At the time, I said to myself that what I did was okay because I never showed a woman my d–k without asking first, which is also true.' 'The power I had over these women is that they admired me,' C.K. added. 'And I wielded that power irresponsibly.' 7 Louis C.K. participates in the 'Better Things' panel during the FX Television Critics Association summer press tour at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills in August 2017. Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP FX, Netflix, Showtime and HBO quickly cut ties with C.K., and he joked in 2019 that he lost an estimated $35 million in income due to the scandal. However, despite his sudden fall from grace, the canceled comedian later returned to the spotlight to win a Grammy in 2022 for his 'Sincerely Louis C.K.' album. The 'American Hustle' star's award brought backlash, and one of his accusers spoke out after the surprising win. 7 Louis CK attends the 'Louis CK: Hilarious' premiere during the 2010 Sundance Film Festival at Library Center Theatre on January 26, 2010, in Park City, Utah. Getty Images 7 Julia Wolov arrives at the premiere of 'The Ridiculous 6' held at AMC Universal City Walk Stadium 18. Corbis via Getty Images 'Wouldn't it be nice if people would not be rewarded for bad behavior?' actress Julia Wolov, who was named in the exposé about C.K., said at the time. 'But what are you supposed to do?' 'These people voted for him. I guess that's what happens when comedy and music come together,' she added. 'I don't believe in cancel culture, but obviously, Louis is not canceled. He seems fine to me. He's touring. He's selling out. He's winning Grammys.' C.K. later returned to the stand-up circuit, too. He announced an international 2025-2026 tour, called the 'Ridiculous Tour', earlier this year. The Post has reached out to the New York Comedy Festival's organizers for comment.
HKFP
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- HKFP
Comedian Louis C.K. to perform in Hong Kong next March
US comedian Louis C.K. will perform in Hong Kong on March 24 next year. His 'Ridiculous' tour involves 100 gigs in the US this year, with Asian and European fixtures set for 2026. Tickets go on sale in August via his website, His team confirmed to HKFP on Monday that a previously announced Manila date would be replaced by the appearance in Hong Kong. He will also take to the stage in India, Thailand and Japan. 'Simply, I'm hitting the road again and staying out there for a long while. I am, after all, a professional stand-up comedian,' the multi-award winning comic wrote in an email to fans. C.K. rose to prominence as a writer for Saturday Night Live and late night talk show hosts. He released nine comedy albums, starred in numerous specials, and received acclaim for his semi-autobiographical comedy-drama series Louie. The comedian's projects were cancelled following sexual misconduct allegations in 2017. But he has since continued to tour and release stand-up specials.
Yahoo
26-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Louis C.K. coming to Victory Theatre in August
HENDERSON, Ky. (WEHT) – Louis C.K. announced his 2025 tour will include a stop at the Victory Theatre on August 30. Event organizers say Louis C.K. is a six-time Emmy Award and three-time Grammy Award winner. He has released over ten stand up specials. C.K. is the creator, writer, director and star of the Peabody Award winning shows 'Louie' and 'Horace and Pete.' C.K. also co-wrote, directed and appeared in the feature film 'Fourth of July,' released in theaters nationwide in July 2022. In January 2015, he became the first comedian to sell out Madison Square Garden three times for the same tour. UE Theatre continues its Spring 2025 season with 'Romeo and Juliet' Event organizers say Louis CK newsletter members will be able to access the first presale beginning February 26 at 10 a.m.. Presale for Venue subscribers begins on February 27 at 10 a.m. local time. Tickets go on-sale to the general public beginning February 28 at 10 a.m. local time. Tickets start at $39.75. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
CBC
27-01-2025
- Entertainment
- CBC
Louis C.K.'s downfall and surprising return to the standup stage
WARNING: This story contains details some readers may find distressing. He was once America's " king of comedy," with a growing media empire that included tours, TV shows and movies. For years, Louis C.K. was at the top of his game, with faithful fans who appreciated his edgy, confessional-style comedy routines. But in the fall of 2017, that all changed. Or did it? In the documentary Sorry/Not Sorry, comedy insiders and C.K.'s accusers speak out about the open secret that eventually brought him down. That is, until he worked his way back to the stage, selling out comedy shows and incorporating his sexual misconduct into routines. More than a decade's worth of allegations In November 2017, a front-page article in the New York Times spelled everything out: multiple women had accused Louis C.K. of sexual misconduct over a 15-year period. In 2002, Chicago comedians Dana Min Goodman and Julia Wolov were invited to C.K.'s hotel room for a nightcap. Once they were in his room, the comedian asked if he could take out his penis, then proceeded to strip naked and masturbate. Comedian Abby Schachner described how, in 2003, she could hear C.K. masturbating while she was on a phone call with him. In 2005, Rebecca Corry was in a TV pilot with C.K. when he asked if he could masturbate in front of her. Another woman says he masturbated in front of her in his office during a work day. In his routines, C.K. was known for calling out male hypocrisy. "He became this kind of unlikely moral conscience of the comedy world," says Melena Ryzik, a reporter with the New York Times who co-authored the article with journalists Jodi Kantor and Cara Buckley. In the documentary, many point out how ironic that was, given his actions off-stage. "Every comedian has their skeletons," says comedian and writer Michael Ian Black. "But I felt like … there's just a lot of hypocrisy around it because so many of us spend our careers trying to sort of hold the light up and be like, 'Hey, I'm telling the truth here. I'm the truth teller.'" Louis C.K.'s open secret 6 days ago Duration 2:45 'These stories are true' The day the article was set to be published, the New York premiere of C.K.'s new movie, I Love You, Daddy, was abruptly cancelled due to "unexpected circumstances." That night, once the Times had broken the story, Late Show host Stephen Colbert said the comedian had pulled out of his appearance on the program. The following day, C.K. released a statement confirming the allegations. "These stories are true," he said. "The power I had over these women is that they admired me. And I wielded that power irresponsibly." "What's nearly unique about the Louis C.K. story is that there is no factual dispute at the heart of this story," Kantor says in the film. "He didn't use the word 'sorry,'" says Noam Dworman, owner of the famed Comedy Cellar, "but he wrote a whole essay explaining that he knew he did something wrong." C.K. concluded his statement by saying he would "step back and take a long time to listen." But soon, actors, comedians and fans began downplaying the severity of C.K.'s conduct. Dave Chappelle even made light of the accusations in a Netflix comedy special. "I became the joke," says Schachner, referring to Chappelle's jokes involving Schachner's phone call with C.K. "It does bother me that, like, I'm not gonna live this down." "Making fun of the victims is still good for business," says comedy journalist Sean L. McCarthy in the documentary. And about nine months later, C.K. was back onstage telling jokes. A self-financed comeback When C.K. returned to comedy, he had new jokes about his sexual misconduct. "If you ever ask somebody, 'May I jerk off in front of you?' and they say yes, just say, 'Are you sure?' … and then if they say yes, just don't f--king do it," he quips in performance footage featured in the film. "You all have your 'thing' … you're so f--king lucky that I don't know what your thing is. Because everybody knows my thing." It was a marked shift from the tone of his public statement, notes comedian Jen Kirkman, who says C.K. also asked her about masturbating in front of her. "He framed it as a kink," she says. C.K. also included jokes about all the money he'd lost due to his misconduct — but he still had the ability to self-finance his own comeback in the industry. Many fans were happy to see the comedian back onstage and bought up tickets to his shows. C.K. then went on to self-release four comedy specials and win the Grammy for best comedy album in 2020. "You know, Louis is not on The Tonight Show, he's not on TV and Netflix," says comedian Aida Rodriguez. "He created his own thing outside of the business. The people who love Louis C.K. are still there." But there was never an apology, and Ryzik says that he only talked about the repercussions for himself and never for the women involved. Making light of Louis C.K.'s sexual misconduct 6 days ago Duration 1:28 'It just seems like nobody cares' "When you see women that are hurting and feel like they're crazy, because everyone's letting all these predators back while some never had a chance," says Kirkman in the documentary, "it really hurts, especially in this culture, where it just seems like nobody cares." In Sorry/Not Sorry, C.K.'s accusers share their experiences, including the professional and personal consequences of speaking out. "If something horrible has happened to you, why should it continue to hurt you when you bring it to light?" says Buckley. "That, to me, is kind of the more interesting question." The documentary also examines so-called cancel culture in the context of C.K.'s career. "Cancel culture, for me, was all a ruse, you know? Like, homophobia, transphobia, racism, misogyny — none of it went away … people are making money, money, money, right now doing it," says Rodriguez. "So what's the 'cancel culture'? Tell me what happened."
