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All Music Guide:
Probably the only artist in history to receive equal love from Brian Eno and the Comedy Central television network, comedian/musician/performance artist Reggie Watts combines spoken word, human beatboxing, rapping, and standup comedy for his innovative and unclassifiable material. Being outside the norm started at childhood for Reginald Lucien Frank Roger Wattson as he was born in Germany but raised in Great Falls, MT. He grew up with a need to entertain, and at 18 he moved to Seattle to study jazz at the Cornish College of the Arts. He soon became involved in many Seattle-based acts including playing keyboards for Wayne Horvitzs 4+1 Ensemble and fronting the groove-oriented Maktub. He began playing solo in 2002, at first just putting his voice through loops and delays for musical effect, but being a fan of improvisational comedy influenced him to incorporate some humor into his work. Still, his debut album, Simplified, from 2003, focused on more serious neo-soul and was released by the Non Linear label. Moving to Brooklyn in 2004, he hooked up with comedians Eugene Mirman and Bobby Tisdale and appeared in the duos forward-thinking variety show Invite Them Up. In 2006, he won the Andy Kaufmann Award for his innovative standup performance along with the Seattle Mayors Arts Award. A year later he began collaborating with playwright Tommy Smith on a series of theater pieces, and in 2008, he released the EP Pot Cookies. In 2010 he was invited to play Brian Enos Luminous Festival at the Sydney Opera House and then made his proper comedy debut with the Comedy Central television special and CD/DVD release Why $#!+ So Crazy?.
Wikipedia:
Reginald Lucien Frank Roger "Reggie" Watts (born March 23, 1972 in Stuttgart, Germany) is a Seattle-based comedian and musician. His shows are mostly improvised and consist of stream of consciousness stand-up in various shifting personae, mixed with loop pedal-based a cappella compositions. He performs regularly on television, radio, and in live theater. His comic skills come into play in improvisational performance, as well as performance of written music. Watts currently appears as the sidekick on the IFC talkshow Comedy Bang Bang, which began airing on June 8, 2012. Watts is also a repeat guest on Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell which airs on FX, performing comedy sketches and his unique brand of solo vocal improvisations.
Early life (1972–1990) [edit]
Watts is the only child of Christiane and Charles Alphonso Watts; his mother is French and his father is American. His father was an officer in the United States Air Force and the family lived in Germany and Spain before relocating to Great Falls, Montana, where Watts was raised and graduated from Great Falls High School. Watts also took piano and violin lessons from the age of five until he was 16.
Seattle (1990–2004) [edit]
Watts moved to Seattle at age 18 where he briefly attended the Art Institute of Seattle before eventually studying jazz at Cornish College of the Arts. He went on to play in a number of Seattle bands of wildly varying styles/genres, including Hit Explosion, Swampdweller, Action Buddy, Chiarrscuro, Clementine, Smell No Taste, Wayne Horvitz 4+1 Ensemble, Das Rut, Synthclub, Elemental, Eyvand Kang Seven Nades, Free Space, etc. He became the front man for soul, rock, and hip hop group Maktub, with whom he has recorded five albums.
In Seattle, Watts became interested in alternative performance styles. He composed musical scores for Northwest dance choreographers KT Niehoff, Amy O'Neal, Maureen Whiting, Pat Graney and Beth Huerta. He dabbled in sketch comedy with future theatrical collaborator Tommy Smith.
Watts' genesis as a solo performer started to emerge at the beginning of 2002. While touring years earlier with the Wayne Horvitz 4+1 Ensemble, Watts was forced to downsize his effects pedal from a Roland Space Echo tape delay to a Line 6 DL4 delay modeler, a smaller device that makes it easy to travel. He began using the Line 6 in live shows with Maktub, in order to replicate the duplicate harmonies from the recorded material. Then he experimented with improvising entire songs in solo acts with the Line 6, playing initial gigs at small Seattle venues and artist bungalows. Inspired by The State and Wet Hot American Summer, he began infusing spontaneous comedic material with the beat box-driven musical compositions.
Brooklyn/Manhattan (2004–present) [edit]
Wanting to concentrate on solo comedic performance, Watts moved to the Lower East Side, New York City, in 2004. He shot comedic web shorts for Superdeluxe, Vimeo and CollegeHumor, where his video "What About Blowjobs?" became a viral hit. He also formed a theatrical collaboration with playwright Tommy Smith, and began developing web philosophy/content with online entrepreneur Jakob Lodwick, with whom he recorded the EP Pot Cookies. Moving to Williamsburg, Brooklyn in 2006, Watts started to branch out into performing for television and film, while continuing to pursue live performance and the creation of new performance technologies.
Solo performance [edit]
Watts was the opening act for Conan O'Brien on The Legally Prohibited from Being Funny on Television Tour, and appeared as the musical guest on several episodes of Conan. He also recently recorded material for his Comedy Central special Why Shit So Crazy?, released as a dual DVD/CD package.
Watts' recent solo comedic experience includes gigs at Fusebox, SXSW, Bonnaroo, Brian Eno's Luminous Festival at the Sydney Opera House, The Louvre, Montreal Comedy Festival, PopTech!, Electric Forest Festival, Soho Theatre (London), Vancouver Comedy Festival, CollegeHumor's "CH Live" stand-up comedy series, The Edinburgh Festival, Bumbershoot, The Sydney Festival, Sasquatch, Outside Lands Festival and cities throughout the world including Amsterdam's Boom Chicago, Paris, Cologne, Madrid, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Melbourne, Cape Town and Reykjavík, among others.
Watts frequently collaborates with performers/musicians around the globe. He appeared as part of the Ensemble cast of UK beatboxer Beardyman's Complete and Utter Shambles show at the Udderbelly during its residency at South Bank. He was the opening act for Regina Spektor on her European tour; he recorded vocals for Spektor's song "Dance Anthem of the 80s". He collaborated with French singer Camile Dalmais in a performance at the Centre Pompidou, Paris. He also contributed two tracks to DFA Records' Spaghetti Circus. He also performed with dance-punk band LCD Soundsystem during their first two farewell shows at Terminal 5 in New York City, and again at their final show at Madison Square Garden.
Watts' second stand-up special, Reggie Watts: A "Live" in Central Park, premiered on May 12, 2012 on Comedy Central in the "Secret Stash" completely uncensored to positive reviews.
Television/video [edit]
On screen, Watts has appeared on Conan, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, HBO's The Yes Men Fix the World, Comedy Central's Michael and Michael Have Issues, Iceland TV, UK's Funny Or Die, PBS' revamped The Electric Company and the music video "What About Blowjobs?" for CollegeHumor.
Waverly Films recently shot a one-hour special on Watts called "Why Shit So Crazy?". Created as a dual DVD/CD, the special features Watts in live performance at New York venues Galapagos, The Bellhouse and Le Poisson Rouge, bookended with brief sketches and a music video of Watts' "Fuck Shit Stack". As a composer, he wrote and performed music for comedian Louis CK's show, Louie, and created the theme songs for Key & Peele, Comedy Death-Ray Radio and Kristen Schaal's Penelope Princess of Pets. In 2010, Watts appeared on the Movie Network/Movie Central/HBO Canada produced Funny As Hell, a comedy series taped during the Just For Laughs Festival in Montreal, Quebec.
In the Adult Swim series Superjail!, Watts does voice-over work for one of the unnamed "Time Police" characters. The characters themselves are an homage to Cheap Trick's "Dream Police".
In 2012, Watts began starring alongside Scott Aukerman on the IFC series Comedy Bang Bang, based on the comedy podcast of the same name (formerly Comedy Death-Ray Radio). Also in 2012, Watts was in the Peter Serafinowicz-directed music video for the Hot Chip song "Night & Day". He was also featured in the seventh series of BBC's show Russell Howard's Good News as the stand-up guest.
Watts is collaborating with Michael Cera, Tim & Eric, and Sarah Silverman and created the web-based comedy Youtube channel known as Jash.
Theatre [edit]
Starting in 2007, Watts began creating experimental multi-media theater with long-time friend and playwright Tommy Smith. They have generated four pieces, Transition, Disinformation, Radioplay and Dutch A/V. The collaborations between Watts and Smith feature a wide array of performing artists including dancer/choreographer Amy O'Neal (locust), comedian/actor Beth Hoyt, singer Orianna Herrman (Oracle), journalist Brendan Kiley ("The Stranger"), aerial artist Jeslyn Kelly (Fuerzabruta), and projected imagery by ex-Wooster Group video artist Joby Emmons.
Transition played at The Under The Radar Festival at The Public Theater, Portland Institute for Contemporary Art's Time Based Art Festival and On the Boards (Seattle); it was also the winner of the MAP Fund Award and Creative Capital award. Disinformation was seen at the UTR Festival, PICA: TBA, The Museum of Contemporary Art (Chicago), The Warhol Museum (Pittsburgh), and ICA (Boston). Radioplay premiered at Ars Nova (New York), and played at Seattle Rep (Bumbershoot), IRT Theater (New York) and Redhouse (Syracuse). Dutch A/V, a live environmental film performance and winner of the MAP Fund Award, was workshopped at IRT Theatre (New York).
Watts and Smith also regularly host Occurrence, a cabaret of alternative performers, which has been seen at Ars Nova, Galapagos, The Tank, Leftbank (Portland) and various other venues. A recording of their show Transition at On the Boards helped launch the first-ever live performance download website, OTBTV.
Awards [edit]
He is winner of the 2005 Malcolm Hardee "Oy Oy" Award, the 2006 Andy Kaufman Comedy Award, and the 2006 Seattle Mayor's Arts Award. He was also awarded the 2008 MAP Fund and the 2009 Creative Capitol Grant for the performing arts, and won the 2009 ECNY Award for Best Musical Comedy Act.
Personal life [edit]
Author Alice Walker is Watts' second cousin.
