Louis C.K. has quickly become one of the biggest names in the comedy world over the past few years. Performing stand-up comedy since 1984, C.K. is known for his signature style of subversive comedy that features self-deprecating, observational, and societal humour that is in your face and knows no bounds.

With the release of his most recent full-length special, Live at the Beacon Theatre, C.K. has been thrust into the limelight and has singlehandedly changed the business of comedy.

Live at the Beacon Theatre is C.K.’s fourth full-length special and was independently produced and directed by the comedian himself. Rather than utilizing physical media, the special was released via C.K.’s official website, made available digitally for the price of US $5.

The special was released on Dec. 10, 2011, and by Dec. 21 C.K. released a statement confirming that he had grossed over US $1 million.

“So it’s been about 12 days since the thing started and yesterday we hit the crazy number – one million dollars,” wrote C.K. in a news post on his website. “That’s a lot of money. Really too much money. I’ve never had a million dollars all of a sudden, and since we’re all sharing this experience and since it’s really your money, I wanted to let you know what I’m doing with it.”

In the same statement, C.K. announced that he would be dividing up his new found wealth in four ways: US $250,000 was used to cover the costs associated with creating the special and promotional website, US $250,000 was given back to the comedian’s staff in the form of substantial bonuses, US $280,000 was donated to various charities as suggested by fans following C.K.’s Twitter account, and the remaining US $220,000 went to C.K. himself, to care for his daughters and pay his rent.

It’s acts of humility like this that contribute to the success of C.K. and make him such a likeable celebrity. He is a regular guy, with a regular family, who happens to tell hilarious jokes that make millions of people laugh.

I recently had the pleasure of experiencing Louis C.K. live for the first time at the Minneapolis Convention Centre. His performance was as expected – no fuss, no muss, just straight up comedy for an hour and a half.

While his comedy was still dark and boundary-pushing at times, it felt as though his material was a bit more PG than usual. C.K. focused more on topics such as annoying interactions between the comedian and his neighbours, or strangers at the airport, rather than past topics such as C.K.’s failed attempts at sexual encounters, or simulating hilarious masturbation fantasies on stage.

C.K.’s success has not come without a cost. Recently, the FX network announced that it would be delaying the return of C.K.’s successful comedy television show Louie until spring, 2014. The show features the comedian living everyday life and dealing with the hilarious, and sometimes dark or scary situations, that come with it. Given that C.K. produces, edits, and stars in the show, along with creating it, the hiatus will provide what C.K. describes as “a little breathing room.”