Last December, Louis C.K. shook up the comedy industry by eschewing the traditional network deal for a new business model in which he grossed a reported $1 million by streaming his self-produced stand-up comedy special, Louis C.K. – Live at the Beacon Theater, on his website for $5.

Buoyed by his success, other comics are following suit: last month, NBC’s Parks and Recreation star Aziz Ansari, made his special, Dangerously Delicious, available for download. And on April 11, New York comic and actor Jim Gaffigan will do the same for one-hour comedy special, Jim Gaffigan: Mr. Universe, he taped at the Warner Theatre in Washington, D.C. in February.

The setup is the same. Like C.K., Gaffigan will charge $5 for a DRM-free download through his website, and donate a portion to charity. In Gaffigan’s case, a dollar from each download will go to the Bob Woodruff Foundation, which provides resources and support to injured service members, veterans, and their families. He hopes it will also help promote his Comedy Central-sponsored theater shows, The America Tour, which run through August.

There’s one significant difference. Gaffigan believes how well this model works for him will have implications for journeymen performers everywhere. Although Gaffigan–a clean, observational humorist–was a series regular on the 2006-2009 TBS series My Boys, and performed on Broadway last year in That Championship Season, he is not, by his own admission, a household name. “There’s a difference between being an Emmy-winning comic with his own series, or a comic on a hot show versus a person who hasn’t been on TV [as a series regular] in three years,” says Gaffigan. “Can the Everyman do this? That’s the question for me.”

Gaffigan’s downloadable special will promote his live theater tour.

The Wrong Punchline

The impetus for the move began two years ago, when Gaffigan was appearing in a televised benefit alongside some racier colleagues. “I was the cleanest one on the show,” he says. “Sarah Silverman did a bit where she’s singing out of her crotch. I did a bit that was unflattering to McDonald’s. But McDonald’s was an advertiser for the network, so they had to edit out that joke. So the irony is the clean comedian was confronted with censorship. I thought, ‘I need to find another home for my next special.'”

He began exploring different options, from exclusives with Netflix, Amazon, and eBay, to price points ranging from pay-what-you-want to 99 cents on iTunes.