Comedian Louis C.K.: Portland ‘the lowest depths of misery’

Emmy Award-winning comedian, actor, writer and all-around entertainment biz star Louis C.K. is getting a lot of attention for his answers to a questionnaire the magazine Vanity Fair sent him for its January issue.

Vanity Fair’s Proust Questionnaire is a regular piece in which the publication asks celebrities a string of introspective questions.

Louis C.K. backstage at the 64th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards on Sunday, Sept. 23, 2012, at Nokia Theatre, L.A. Live, in Los Angeles, California. (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times / MCT)

Louis C.K. hit the magazine with a slew of profanity-laced answers, many of which focused on his sex life.

For instance, he told Vanity Fair the “trait he most deplores in himself” is his “absolutely beautiful penis.”

The answer that will probably capture the most attention locally, however, is his response to this question: What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?

His answer?

Two nights ago. A hotel room in Portland, Maine. That’s right. Maine. Not Oregon. Maine.

That gives us an idea of when he filled the survey out. Louis C.K. had a gig at the Merrill Auditorium on Nov. 7, just a few days after hosting Saturday Night Live (a program which has also had a lot to say about Maine lately).

Portlanders — whose city has garnered heaps of praise by nationwide publications for everything from beer to coffee to education to environmental friendliness and women, among other things — shouldn’t take his digs too seriously. After all, Louis C.K. is a comic, and ribbing is what you get from comics. He takes worse shots at himself, many days.

In any case, BDN arts and entertainment expert Emily Burnham went to the show and said the famed comedian claimed during his routine that Portland is getting better. The city was in much worse shape during a visit he’d made several years earlier, so “lowest depths of misery” is actually an upgrade.

Seth Koenig

About Seth Koenig

Seth has nearly a decade of professional journalism experience and writes about the greater Portland region.