A Reggie Watts performance is a difficult-to-categorize audio and visual experience. An 80-minute set combines understated storytelling with inspired song craft by a bearded, mega-afro sporting dude from Montana. For example, at a performance at the Largo at the Coronet Theatre in Los Angeles last week, Watts relayed a tale of a recent fishing trip, describing in detail the coolers used on the excursion. That was later followed by an original song covering popular music genres dating back to the early ’90s, accentuated with beat boxing and voice loops.
“I like absurd, kind of abstract things,” said Watts during a recent phone interview. “I like looking at the world in a slightly different way if possible. I just see the world as a silly place. I just try to find the maximum amount of silliness in the most mundane subjects.”
| Onstage |
| Reggie Watts |
| Where: Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, 641 D Street NW |
| When: 8 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, with an additional performance 10 p.m. Friday |
| Info: $35 to $45. woollymammoth.net |
Watts performs at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company Tuesday through Friday.
“I just say that I’m an inter-dimensional jokester,” he added.
Watts received mainstream attention as the opening act on Conan O’Brien’s “The Legally Prohibited from Being Funny on Television Tour” last year.
“It was a pretty major impact,” said Watts of the exposure opening for O’Brien. “I went into it casually. I didn’t think too much about the impact. I definitely saw the evidence of it from that since then. There’s been a lot more press and more opportunities. I think that’s really the impact.”
At the age of 39, Watts is not new to the entertainment world. Raised in Montana, he moved to Seattle as an adult and performed in bands before transitioning to comedy. He continued to develop his comedic style after a move to New York. Last year, he released an album, with a title not suitable for publication in a family newspaper.
Watts said he improvises much of his show.
“I try to get a read from the audience as much as possible,” he said. “Some of it is just the experience of bits and mechanisms that I’ve used before that might work.
“I’m not a big political guy,” Watts continued when asked if he’d touch upon D.C.’s main export. “I’m more of a humanist than anything. I usually like to poke fun sometimes at the idea of what politics are.”
Watts cites a number of influences, including Monty Python, George Carlin, Eddie Murphy, Bill Cosby and Weird Al Yankovic.
With Woolly Mammoth as the venue, Watts said his upcoming set of shows will be more abstract than what he might do at a comedy club.
“That’s going to be fun for me, because I won’t have as many limitations, not that I do have limitations,” Watts said.
