Early Life and Career
C.K.'s stage name is derived from an approximate English pronunciation of his Hungarian surname, Székely . C.K. was born in Washington, D.C., the son of Mary Louise (née Davis), a software engineer, and Luis Szekely, an economist. C.K.'s paternal grandfather, a Jewish Hungarian, had emigrated to Mexico, where he met C.K.'s paternal grandmother, who was a Catholic Mexican of Spanish and Mexican Indian ancestry. C.K.'s father was born in Mexico, while C.K.'s mother is an American of Irish Catholic ancestry, originally from a farm in Michigan. The two met at Harvard University while his father was trying to finish his degree during a summer-school program. Although C.K. was born in D.C., he lived in Mexico City until the age of seven. His first language is Spanish, and he still retains Mexican citizenship.
Upon moving from Mexico to suburban Boston, Massachusetts, C.K. discovered he wanted to become a writer and comedian, citing Bill Cosby, Richard Pryor, Steve Martin, and George Carlin as some of his influences. When he was ten years old, his parents divorced. He and his three siblings were raised by their single mother in Newton, Massachusetts. His primary reason for aspiring to produce movies and television was his mother: "I remember thinking in fifth grade, 'I have to get inside that box and make this shit better'... because she deserves this."
After graduating from Newton North High School, C.K. worked as an auto mechanic in Boston while summoning the courage to try stand-up. His first attempt was in 1984 at a comedy club's open-mic night; he was given five minutes of time, but had only two minutes of material. The experience kept him away from comedy for two years. C.K. gradually moved up to paid gigs, opening for Jerry Seinfeld and hosting comedy clubs until he moved to Manhattan in 1989.
Read more about this topic: Louis C.K.
Famous quotes containing the words early life, early, life and/or career:
“Many a woman shudders ... at the terrible eclipse of those intellectual powers which in early life seemed prophetic of usefulness and happiness, hence the army of martyrs among our married and unmarried women who, not having cultivated a taste for science, art or literature, form a corps of nervous patients who make fortunes for agreeable physicians ...”
—Sarah M. Grimke (1792–1873)
“Make-believe is the avenue to much of the young child’s early understanding. He sorts out impressions and tries out ideas that are foundational to his later realistic comprehension. This private world sometimes is a quiet, solitary
world. More often it is a noisy, busy, crowded place where language grows, and social skills develop, and where perseverance and attention-span expand.”
—James L. Hymes, Jr. (20th century)
“We shall make mistakes, but they must never be mistakes which result from faintness of heart or abandonment of moral principles. I remember that my old school master Dr. Peabody said in days that seemed to us then to be secure and untroubled, he said things in life will not always run smoothly, sometimes we will be rising toward the heights and all will seem to reverse itself and start downward. The great thing to remember is that the trend of civilization itself is forever upward.”
—Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945)
“Clearly, society has a tremendous stake in insisting on a woman’s natural fitness for the career of mother: the alternatives are all too expensive.”
—Ann Oakley (b. 1944)