The Comedy Cellar Owner Has Explained Why He Let Louis C.K. Come Back (Again)

This past Sunday, disgraced stand-up comedian Louis C.K. made a second unannounced appearance at the Comedy Cellar in New York. However, unlike August’s surprise show, at which he received a standing ovation from the crowd, the Cellar audience was reportedly far less keen on seeing the comic perform. While numerous hot takes from critics and comedians alike have publicly debated the complicated nature of accepting or denying a “comeback” by C.K., the Cellar owner has spoken out about the matter… again.

Talking to Rolling Stone this week, Norm Dworman said, “I don’t know what else to do.” The club owner insisted that he has “been considering the issue seriously” but has ultimately come up short in a solution that would be universally acceptable. “I’ve thought about this from every angle, and have sought a lot of outside advice to try to guide me”:

“The one complaint that I felt I didn’t have a good answer for, was customers who came who felt ambushed,” he says. “One option was to put [C.K.] on the line-up, but for practical reasons that won’t work, so I decided the next thing to do was to have this policy and give customers notice.”

“This is not the first time we’ve had someone who became controversial, but this is the most serious time,” Dworman says. “This is the kind of place where these people might show up. Comedy is that kind of world.”

Dworman isn’t wrong to avoid blasting C.K.’s name too far in advance, as that would most likely cause a media circus and a potentially dangerous situation to develop at the club. Even so, as many who were critical of the comic’s surprise visit in August — especially women — pointed out, being ambushed by the admitted sexual assaulter in such a public venue is not a situation they really want to find themselves in.

Hence the Cellar’s new policy for letting anyone who finds themselves in an uncomfortable situation (because of a particular surprise guest) to leave, free of charge. As Rolling Stone notes, show tickets and a sign out front read, “Swim at your own risk. We never know who is going to pop in. If an unannounced appearance is not your cup of tea, you are free to leave (unobtrusively please) no questions asked, your check on the house.”