This American Life pulls a Louis C.K. with its live show, sells it online for $5

By Eric Thurm | November 16, 2012 | 7:15pm

Aux Features Arts & Culture

Back in May, This American Life did a live show, appropriately titled “The Invisible Made Visible,” on the heels of the scandal surrounding Mike Daisey’s FoxConn segment. The show, which featured David Rakoff, David Sedaris in clown makeup, Tig Notaro, and OK Go (complete with an app allowing the audience to play along with their music) premiered in movie theaters around the country just after it was performed.

Ira Glass and the TAL team are now poised to get in on the rapidly expanding and extremely lucrative market of artists self-releasing material at a low, flat rate for fans by offering up “The Invisible Made Visible” for download or streaming for only $5. After realizing that C.K. made a lot of money cutting out the middleman, several other stand-ups have done similar releases.