There’s an old quote about how laws are like sausage and that it’s best not see how they’re made.

I don’t think the same is true of art. I love to see the work in progress, the rough draft. Maybe that started when I was in college and started buying bootleg albums. As a Bruce Springsteen fan, it was fun to hear the lyrical evolution of “Thunder Road” or how the propulsive “Candy’s Room” on “Darkness on the Edge of Town” started out as the much slower “Candy’s Boy.”

That’s why, when I first learned that comedian Louis C.K. was going to do a show on a Monday night at the Funny Farm Comedy Club in Niles and the expectation was that he’d be working on new material for his next theater tour, I made sure to be online the moment tickets went on sale to secure a seat.

It was a smart move; it sold out in 3 minutes.

Paying $40 to sit maybe 10 feet from someone who I probably would have called my favorite comedian eight years ago while he worked out new material was an easy choice, even if some things have happened in the last eight years to make that problematic.

Louis C.K. was a master at finding humor and insight in the darkest corners of human behavior and desire before his own behaviors and desires derailed at least the film and television portions of his career.

Watching him Monday at Funny Farm Comedy Club, he still is. There was none of the “woe is me / cancel culture is bad” material that some critics complained about when he first returned to stand-up post-scandal.

We didn’t have to put our cellphones in Yondr bags, but for an audience of about 120 people there were three security guards whose sole purpose was to make sure no one took out their phone and started recording.

I didn’t take notes, so I’m not going to quote anything specific, and Louis C.K.’s best material doesn’t adhere to the set up / punchline structure that translates well in print.

The references to his own behavior were more oblique. He talked about fully believing in the concept of the devil and hell at 9 years old, but it didn’t stop him from stealing every time he was in CVS. He used that to argue why society never will address climate change until it’s too late.

Immediate desire always will supersede future consequences, a concept that applies to climate change … or perhaps one person’s actions around subordinate coworkers.

Another bit talked about his amazement at our judicial system being built around how seriously people take their oath to, “tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.” He said that it sounded like something a teenage girl would say at a sleepover and also questioned why we have to promise not to tell the truth and also not to go off on a tangent.

There also was a short segment about being a parent, raising children who then disappear. Part of it was exploring a universal idea that the child the parent knew disappears into an adult they don’t know, but in the telling it also seemed to be about a literal separation from his two daughters.That may be the saddest consequence of the last eight years … or it may be a misinterpretation from this audience member. Louis C.K. gets to serve up the sausage, and it’s up to us to decide what ingredients might have created it.

Did Monday’s set approach the quality of the stand-up specials that made Louis C.K. a star? No, but I didn’t expect it to. There’s a reason why I saw him in a tiny room for less than the cost of a balcony seat when he’s playing theaters later this year.

And it will be fascinating to eventually get to see if his next special evolves into “Thunder Road” or just another detour.

Andy Gray is the entertainment editor of Ticket. Write to him at agray@tribtoday.com.