Louis C.K.

Reviewed show on Jan. 25 at Massey Hall, 178 Victoria St.

It takes a bold puppeteer to point the strings out to the audience. Louis C.K., however, has seemingly tired of anything less than masters’ moves.

The 49-year-old stand-up comedian built his career on personal material about aging, sex and divorce, but Wednesday night at Massey Hall he took an eager crowd deep into more provocative topics. Abortion and suicide were not spared — there was even an extended bit on suicide inside an extended bit about abortion — but the most noteworthy recurring topic was the comedy of Louis C.K. himself.

Time and again he drew our attention to the artifices of his job — “I’ve been to a bunch of gay weddings, which is not (pause) true,” he said at one point — whether that meant teasing us for thinking one tall tale was real, telling us the other way he might have written it, or framing a bit about pornography as an idea mentioned to a too-credulous fellow comedian.

None of this took away from the manipulation’s effectiveness. “Nah, it’s too gross,” he said at one point, as if to himself, seemingly dismissing a joke he was about to tell — knowing he would then be beseeched to tell it. (It really was too gross, or would have been, before a less ardent congregation.)

All of this was received excitedly, if not rapturously, by a slightly reserved audience that had already demonstrated its enthusiasm by dropping everything to buy tickets Monday for the surprise show two days later. But there was no doubting that almost-cosy Massey Hall was the right venue to be seeing him.

“I feel bad for those f--kers who have tickets for tomorrow night. Tomorrow’s gonna suck,” he joked, alluding to Thursday’s previously scheduled Air Canada Centre date. That crowd will still get a generous show, in any event (Wednesday’s lineup had three effective, efficient opening comics — C.K.’s fellow Americans Joe Machi, Rachel Feinstein and Joe List). Barring any shakeups to C.K.’s set, the arena fans can also expect the Emmy winner’s insights into the myth of Achilles, motel soap that somehow leaves you less clean, the demonstrable global triumph of Christianity, and as mentioned, a whole lot about suicide.

On his last visit to town, back in 2012, he was already embracing philosophical questions; here, ending one’s life gets a thorough workout in which he came close, I thought, to quoting both G.K. Chesterton and Nietzsche.

Not that it was all driven by thoughtful writing. A lighter piece, about 9/11 deniers, was simply an opportunity for the comedian to stay in a particular funny voice, reminding us of his underrated vocal work — simulating the sound of a firework launching to indicate a bodily function, for example.

The next few months will see comedy titans Amy Schumer, Chris Rock and Sarah Silverman doing shows in southern Ontario, letting aficionados squabble about the stars’ respective rankings. On Wednesday C.K. seemed less interested in defending his crown than continuing to evolve.