| Reggie Watts |
|
Watts in performance??
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| Background information |
| Birth name | Reginald Lucien Frank Roger Watts |
| Born | March 23, 1972 (age 44)
Stuttgart, West Germany |
| Origin | Seattle, Washington, United States |
| Genres |
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| Instruments |
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| Associated acts |
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| Website | reggiewatts.com |
Reginald Lucien Frank Roger "Reggie" Watts[1][2] (born March 23, 1972) is an American musician, singer, beatboxer, actor, and comedian. His improvised musical sets are created using only his voice, a keyboard, and a looping machine.
Early life[edit]
Watts was born in
Stuttgart,
[4] the only child of Christiane and Charles Alphonso Watts. His mother is
French. His father is
American, and black.
[2] 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 in the class of 1990.
[2] Watts also took piano and violin lessons from the age of five until he was 16,
[5] and has said his love for music started when he saw
Ray Charlesplaying the piano on television as a young child.
[6]
Watts moved to
Seattle, Washington in 1990 at the age of 18 to study music. He briefly attended
the Art Institute of Seattle before studying jazz at
Cornish College of the Arts.
[1]While in Seattle, he played in a number of Seattle bands of wildly varying 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, and Free Space, amongst others.
Early career (1996–2009)[edit]
In 1996, Watts became the front man for soul, rock, and hip hop group
Maktub.
[7][8]
While recording and touring circa 1996-2000 with
Wayne Horvitz 4+1 Ensemble as a keyboardist, 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, while trying to sound like Tom Waits, playing initial gigs at small Seattle venues and artist bungalows. While in Seattle, Watts composed musical scores for Northwest dance choreographers and he dabbled in sketch comedy with future theatrical collaborator
Tommy Smith.
[9]
In 2004, after recording five albums over eight years, Watts moved to the
Lower East Side, New York City. In 2005, he recorded his first solo single, "So Beautiful". Inspired by
The State and
Wet Hot American Summer, he began infusing spontaneous comedic material with the beat-box-driven musical compositions.
[10] He shot comedic web shorts for Superdeluxe,
Vimeo and
CollegeHumor.
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.
[citation needed]
In 2008, Watts recorded a new special entitled "Disinformation", which features his performance at the Under the Radar Festival at the Public Theater. He also appeared in the independent film "Steel of Fire Warriors 2010 A.D." as a Mutantzoid Underling and on an episode of
Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, as well as making other various television appearances.
Why Shit So Crazy? (2010–2011)[edit]
A Live in Central Park (2012)[edit]
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.
[11][12]
The film was made available as a CD/DVD through Watts' official website as well as Comedy Central's online store.
Comedy Bang! Bang! (2012–2015)[edit]
In 2013, On The Boards recorded a new Watts special entitled
Transition, which played at various arts festivals including the
Under the Radar Festival at
The Public Theater; it was winner of the MAP Fund Award and Creative Capital award. It is available on iTunes via TenduTV.
Watts was invited to perform at Yoko Ono's
Meltdown 2013 on the South Bank in London where he was supported by
[16] Mac Lethal.
In December 2014, following CBS's announcement that Watts would lead
The Late Late Show band, Aukerman announced that Watts would remain with
Comedy Bang! Bang! through only the first half of 2015.
[3] Watts' final episode of
Comedy Bang! Bang! was on June 5, 2015.
[17]
The Late Late Show with James Corden (2015–present)[edit]
Watts currently serves as the bandleader and announcer for
The Late Late Show with James Corden. He has described his role on the show as "... a mix of Paul Shaffer and Andy Richter."
[18] His band on the show is unofficially named "Karen".
[19] Watts has a slot on the show to ask a guest a question about anything (called Reggie's Question on show clips). The questions are a continuation of his time on
Comedy Bang! Bang!, and follow his preference for surreal comedy in his stand-up act.
[20]
Performance style[edit]
Watts's solo shows are completely improvised and consist of him singing and rapping both with words and with
Sound poetry accompanying himself by either
beatboxing and performing vocal basslines into a loop machine, or simply by playing the keyboard. His act also showcases his trademark style of
standup comedy, consisting of him rapidly alternating between topics of discussion in both rational and nonsensical manners, making random sounds and noises, and speaking in other accents and languages at unexpected times, all with the intent of playfully and comically disorienting his audiences.
Filmography[edit]
Television[edit]
Internet videos[edit]
- CollegeHumor - "What About Blowjobs?" (2007)
- Disinformation (2008)
- bd - "I Just Want To" (2009)
- "Fuck Shit Stack" (2010)
- Pop!Tech - "Reggie Watts: Humor In Music" (2011)
- Pop!Tech - "Reggie Watts: A Send-Off In Style" (2011)
- Funny or Die - "Reggie Watts Live" (2012)
- TED - "Reggie Watts Disorients You in the Most Entertaining Way" (2012)
- "Reggie Watts Is Skrillex" (2012)
- Jash - Various Videos (2013–present)
- "Ian Up For Whatever" - Bud Light Super Bowl XLVIII Ad (2014)
Discography[edit]
Solo Albums[edit]
- Simplified (2003)
- Why Shit So Crazy? (2010)
- Live at Third Man - 12" Vinyl (2011)
- A Live at Central Park (2012)
Solo Singles[edit]
- So Beautiful (2005)
- Get Ready (2014)
Collaborative Albums[edit]
with Maktub[edit]
- Subtle Ways (1999)
- Khronos (2003)
- Say What You Mean (2005)
- Start It Over (2007)
- Five (2009)
4 + 1 Ensemble[edit]
Collaborative Songs[edit]
- Closer [Brent Laurence feat. Reggie Watts] (2004)
- Dance Anthem of the 80's [Regina Spektor] (2012)
- Spaghetti Circus [Still Going featuring Reggie Watts] (2012)
- We Got A Love [Shit Robot featuring Reggie Watts] (2013)
- "MFN" and "Housekeeping" Cibo Matto, Hotel Valentine (2014)
- "Holy City" and "The Classic" Joan as Police Woman (2014)
- "Sunshine" Flight Facilities (2014)
Awards and honors[edit]
Watts is the winner of the 2005
Malcolm Hardee "Oy Oy" Award, the 2006
Andy Kaufman Comedy Award, and the 2006 Seattle Mayor's Arts Award.
[21] 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.
[7]