reggie watts
written by Ken Carlson
(July/Aug 07)
“It’s sleight of hand, misdirection. Look over here, over here, then give them what they want. It’s just tricking people and I really enjoy that feeling on stage. I love how absurd that is. Everything from technology and news, the absurdity in literal comedy, the absurdity of social norms and racism, those are all things that inspire me to deconstruct and make fun of. It’s so absurd that people invest so much energy into it. I enjoy that on stage. I mix music with it and it provides relief from the barrage of lies.”
Reggie Watts sports a number of amber rings. He buys them at a store that sells only cactus and jewelry. “They look precious, they look spectacular, but they’re not. I hate rubies and diamonds and sapphires and gold. I think they look cheap, too literal. Amber is unique and affordable.”
Reggie, much like his rings, is unique. Like his rings, upon seeing his act for the first time, I felt compelled to ask questions to understand the appeal. It would be easy to say Reggie Watts is not a comedian at all, but a performance artist. He doesn’t fit a certain mold. He’s different. His set is composed on the fly, not written. Of course he headlines in clubs and festivals all the time, making new fans among audiences, not to mention among other comics, with his combination of wit and funk. You could say he’s silly and mischievous. You could say he’s an eclectic taste. But, the fact that he operates in a new and different way that makes people laugh is reason enough check him out.
“I was a musician. I grew up in Great Falls, Montana. I studied violin for eight years as a kid. I studied classical piano until I was sixteen. I played in lots of school orchestras and bands in high school. I was also part of competitive dramatics. We toured on buses and competed. The first year, I came in third in the ‘Humorous Solo’ category. The next year I did ‘Humorous Duo’ with my friend Wally Bossy and won State. I did some comedy competitions in small towns and at a Sheraton Hotel where I won some money. I enjoyed comedy then, but I was primarily a musician. So, I moved to Seattle to play music. I did a few funny bits on piano and some sketch work with called High Comedy (spelled High , D). We did these dumb sketches. There was also brief stint with the Stunt Men. Four years ago I decided to try it full time – to be a solo artist, to make people laugh and make a living at it full time. That’s why I moved to New York.”
“There was a performance artist named Linus who told me about a show called Invite them up that his friend Eugene (Mirman) hosted. Stella happened to be coming through town and I was big fan of theirs. The DVD of their shorts was the most brilliant shit I had ever seen. I saw their show. Eugene was opening and Linus was there. He introduced me to Eugene. I went to New York for a month with a couple of bands and in that time I went up and met Bobby Tisdale and did their show. They liked it and had me back whenever I was in town. Then I started doing other people’s shows, I got excited by the scene, and decided it was time to move.”
A Reggie Watts show is not standard stand-up fare. You wouldn’t measure his success in laughs per minute. It’s about as far removed from Larry the Cable Guy you can get without being Paul Robeson. I was curious how audiences reacted to Reggie if they didn’t have any information regarding his style prior to the show. “I haven’t had anybody get hostile with me about a show. When I first started, there’s this site, blowupthemoon.com, people would write saying, ‘Why do people insist on calling him a stand-up comedian? It’s not stand-up comedy. It didn’t surprise me.”
“I don’t know, I always enjoyed confusing people ever since I was a kid. Playing practical jokes, making up stories, all in good fun.”
“My act is 95% improvised. I have a few bits I do, maybe five of them. It’s usually improvised during the set, so I’ll just remember it. I’ll revise that concept and reuse it. It’s improvised onto itself, but it becomes more solid with each passing. To put it this way, I never sit outside the show and think about what I’m going to do, or write a bit. I’ll go on stage and suddenly an idea will come to me, then I’ll start talking about it and hopefully it will blossom into something funny.”
“I don’t think the music affects what I’m saying. The music is its own thing. It’s like turning channels. There’s a few things that I’ve written, ‘What about blowjobs?’ is pretty consistent. I have another song, ‘Fuck shit stack’, making fun of hiphop. I might say something to lead into songs, but mostly it has nothing to do with it.”
“I try to put myself in the audience and I think, ‘What the fuck are you doing up there? What the fuck is going on?’ I’m concerned with the audience a lot. I’m not into masturbating, doing shit to do shit. I think that’s unfair. I find myself pretty sensitive to that. That really informs me as well, the temperature of the audience.”
“I’ve done mainstream clubs and I do pretty well. Sometimes not. It dependes on the mood I’m in. When it comes to alternative venues, someone’s going to enjoy it even I’m feeling a little darker that night, or extra silly, or breaking out of what, I wouldn’t call it a character but what I focus on when I’m on stage. Sometimes I break from that convention. In that regard it’s important. Vibe is important to me. If the room has a good vibe, I’m really happy and excited to perform. But, if I’m at the Improv or Caroline’s or Zany’s or Giggle’s or other versions of those clubs, I get a little nervous and think to myself that I hope they know what they booked. If I was a booker for this room I wouldn’t book me. But, they’ll book me. I’m doing some shows with Bill Burr coming up. He’s rides the line between alternative and mainstream. But he’s very palatable to the larger audience. He’s got the demeanor and feels huge already. He seems to like my work. Paul Provenza was another who liked it. He saw me at the Improv in LA and stayed afterwards and talked to me for a long time. He was amazing and I thought, ‘Why is this guy interested in what I do?’ He’s been nothing but cool to me. I look up to him in the same way, in what he’s accomplished.”
“Over time, my act has become more defined. I know a little more about what I’m going to do when I get up there. It might be approach. The metaphor I use is, alternative comedians are like skateboarders, maybe surfers. Culturally, they share a lot of the idiosyncracies. Wait, they’re really like BMX-ers. Mainstream would be more like ten speeds, Tour de France. It’s a culture where anything goes. It’s all about style and approach, so people are constantly innovating thru this sport that is misunderstood by a lot of people and not generally appreciated all at once. Under the radar, counter-culture, whatever you want to call it. Impractical by many people’s standards.”
“It’s all about the approach. You’re looking at this space. In your mind you know the geometry and physics possible, and you just go for it. The more you do it, the more comfortable you get, even though you’re up against the whim of the elements. For me, I see it a lot in the alternative scene, acts like Kristen Schall, people who are more unconventional. My act has developed by using the space and I’ve adapted my presentation of the elements.”
“It depends who you are as a comedian – do you want to please an audience or not? If you don’t care, don’t give a fuck, be like Zack Galafanakis. He’s just Zack Galafanakis. I don’t see him as someone who modifies his stuff to accomodate an audience. He does what he does. People either agree with him or they don’t. That’s how he builds an audience. For me, I tend to be a people pleaser. I want the people to have fun. I’m not going to be a total asshole. But, if some guys are being disruptive, then I’ll probably be more of a dick. I’ll call people out. I’ll adapt in a way. If people aren’t into it, I’ll do more music stuff, or I’ll talk about regular stuff, like being single. Something to make them feel more comfortable.”
“Mainstream comedy isn’t dull. It appeals to a larger audience because it’s general enough for people who has a certain spectrum of perception to accept. There’s nothing wrong with that. Bill Cosby’s a mainstream comedian and he’s a fuckin’ master. He relates. Carole Burnett was one of my heroes. Lucille Ball. Gilda Radner, imaginative but mainstream. Gene Wilder. They just have a strong point of view and care about their audience. Mainstream is a label. I look at it as bandwidth. People will find something useful in it no matter what frequency you’re at. If it’s very specific and only a few people are going to get it. Mainstream is like pop music.”
“It bothers me when people accept things for what they are and don’t go beyond that. I view it, you’re either part of the drama or aware of the drama. With commenting about politics or relationships or race, mainstream comics tend to stop at, ‘What’s up with women?’ Alternative comedians would make fun of that because it’s such an obvious convention. Back in the day, it was innovative. Ultimately, it depends on the comedian. They can talk about very mundane and broad matters, but it’s the way they deliver it; it’s very pointed and it resonates. I don’t want to take anything away from anybody, but it’s fun for me, as a comedian, to make fun of the way mainstream comedians do that. I love trying to find the convention within the convention, and comment on that.”
“It’s a matter of people laughing. It’s a feeling. When I’m on stage and I hear people laugh, what I’m feeling on stage is, am I in tune with the absurdist in me? I know that when I’m affecting someone in the audience, hopefully, the whole audience. Often, I’ll hear a few people laugh hysterically. I remember doing a show at Invite Them Up. I wasn’t trying to be funny. I was just talking, thinking about the next thing I wanted to do, and there were these girls who were laughing and laughing and laughing. So I have different levels of affect on people. Sometimes I don’t know what people are going to laugh at. I know that the success is, that if I’m having a good time, and feel people laughing and are attentive, I know things are going well. I’m not looking for applause breaks or so much laughter that I have to wait and wait. I just want to make people laugh. I want to present myself on my terms. I want to do everything from alternative comedy venues to mainstream comedy venues, contemporary performance spaces, like PS122, to cabarets, to weird circus-y things. Opening for bands is really fun, like indie rock bands, some hiphop groups as long as they’re intelligent. I’m going to Burning Man this year to perform with the Fungeoneers. I’ll be at the Oregon Country Fair. I’ve always been interested, even when I was a kid, in all demographics. I’ve even done little kids shows. When I think of all the shows I’ve done: The Dresden Dolls in London, weird underground shows in Europe, On the Boards in Seattle. I’m developing a show, called Experiemental Theatre, at the Public Theatre. I hope to work with IBeam, with John Johnson of the Johnson & Johnson family. They created this space ten years ago to use technology to create art. It’s like a workshop. They have access to 3d printing, laser etching, computer modelling, anything they want. I’m interested in being an artist, but a comedic artist.”
“Line 6 DL4 Sensory Delay Four. It’s a machine made for guitar players to create a loop. There are several pedals ou there that do that, but I like the Line 6 because it’s one unit, it has effects, and it loops. It’s the only one that does that. Otherwise, I’d need to add a delay pedal. This allows me to have one machine. I pull it out. Plug it in. It’s in the system. I can do it anywhere anytime. It’s ready to go and powerful. I’ve done shows without it, and they’ve been fun. I want my shows to be immersive. When I’ve seen my favorite comedians, whether it’s Leo Allen, Arj (Barker), Kristen Schall, Kurt Braunholer, Eugene Mirman, Bobby Tisdale, what they have is the gift of immersion. They’re ‘on’ with the audience in a way that causes you lose track of where you’re at. That’s what I’m hoping for. Aside from being unique, something that stands out, and I’m appreciative that this scene has let me in because of that, (which I was worried about for a while), this machine helps me create a more immersive experience.”
But is there aconcern with taking technology so far you stop being funny? “It’s a concern for me. I love technology. I’m a technofile. However, I love transparent technology, that it’s so easy to use, that you don’t notice it’s there; or content so compelling you don’t notice the technology. You’re just taken in by that experience. For me, if I expand my technological palette as a comedic performer on stage, I want it to be so subtle, so smooth. My primary concern is the audience’s experience. A fear of mine is that I become so involved in what I’m doing, I lose that connection with the audience. It happens. It’s all over. It’s not worth performing anymore. I’m very sensitive to that, I hope.”
Reggie’s act is one that needs to be experienced live; to appreciate his improvising skills, to gauge the level of the room, to clearly describe how it relates to his audience. Does that mean that, like many improv groups or street performers, his work will be lost over time with no permanence, as opposed to a Bill Cosby album that can be played and played and recited. “Ultimately, my dream is to have someone filming every show, getting sound of the board. Every single show. then getting an editor, get it down to the best bits, and get it on a drive. We’ve tried to sell it. I work hard, but at the same time, I’m lazy. I like people who are really into what they do to be a part of my team. I have a writing partner, Tommy Smith. He’s done stuff at Williamstown. He writes with me on webstuff.”
“I’ll come up with dumb idea, he’ll pull out a pad to start writing, then we work on it. We can make films, have a point and shoot camera, call some people. Edmund Hawkins, is an amazing animator. I have an amazing writer and animator. Now we need a great camera person and editor. I want a special forces unit, to excute web films instantly. Or they could follow me around and document my gigs. It’s starting to happen, but setting up my camera and tripod, etc takes me out of my element. All I want to do is have nothing on my mind.’
“Five months ago, I did a show where my equpiment didn’t work. It wasn’t panic, more disappointment. ‘This sucks.’ I do this thing where I have 3 different styles of beatbox, one with my lips where I make throat sounds, one from my throat, then hi hat stuff with my tongue. I can do weird noises and imitate effects. So I can do a show and do my rants, but with the device I can sit back and think about the elements.”
“An amazing comedy scene is happening in Seattle right now. There’s a group called the People’s Republic of Komedy. It’s like the LES scene, but it’s Seattle, so they all wear flannel and have beards. They’re brilliant. It’s erupted over the past six months. Emmit montgomery is fabulously funny.”
“People are making webisodes online for fun or for collegehumor.com or superdeluxe.com or comedynet. There’s a bunch of websites that give commissions to create. It’s a great phenomenon to let people put it up there. It’s going to keep going. People are going to get a better sense of what it takes to make a short film. Some of it sucks. It just creates something else for people to follow online. They can see my stupid films online that I make with Tommy and expect to make more with vimeo.com.”
To see where Reggie is performing and videos that he’s in, visit MySpace.com/ReggieWatts