In an age of comedy that aims to shock, Reggie Watts is arguably the most unpredictable comedian working today. That’s not to say he’s particularly controversial. And in fact, he decided to “set” his latest stand-up special Never Mind in the mid-’90s precisely so he wouldn’t feel any pressure to talk about what is happening in America right now.
In this 250th episode of The Last Laugh podcast, Watts breaks down how he uses his completely improvised comedic approach to “disorient” audiences and even make them question their reality. He also reveals the real reason he gave up his gig as one-man band leader on the Comedy Bang! Bang! TV show (hint: It wasn’t because James Corden hired him away) and why he was so “stoked” when The Late Late Show ended when it did.
Never Mind, which will be available to stream on the platform Veeps starting this Saturday, July 20, at 8 p.m. ET, is just the first in what Watts imagines could be a series of specials set in other time periods. (He has his eyes on a late ’70s/early ’80s vibe next.)
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He liked the idea of traveling back in time, so to speak, partly because it kept him “away from some of the divisive issues that are plaguing us now.” Instead, he spends parts of the hour comically “predicting” a hopeful future for technology and the internet that sadly went in a very different direction. “It’s tapping into how I really thought it was going to be back then,” he says. “And it still can be in many ways. I think that the internet is obviously an amazing tool, but capitalism has ruined it for the most part.”
Unlike most comedians who tour the same act for a year or more before recording a special, Watts has always worked completely off the cuff. And that was no different for this project.
“I’m not preparing at all,” he says of the moments before he walks out onto the stage. “I create the room or the environment for something to happen, but I’m not preparing for what I’m going to perform inside the environment.”
And ultimately, it’s not even pure laughter that Watts is seeking to produce from his audience but rather a sense of “disorientation” or “dissociation” that takes people outside of themselves. They may be laughing, but it’s the type of laughter that he associates more with a psychedelic trip than a night in a traditional comedy club.
And Watts has had the experience of performing his improvised material in a club setting where people really did not know what they were getting into. For him, that is “actually more fun” than performing in front of a crowd of fans who know what he’s up to. “The less that people know about me, the better it is,” he says. “It’s an opportunity to really fuck with people, because they don’t have any expectations
“Audiences that really know me, I can still fuck with them,” he adds. I just have to—not work a little harder, but just be a little bit fresher in the way that I’m being on stage.”
Listen to the episode now and follow The Last Laugh on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google, or wherever you get your podcasts to be the first to hear new episodes when they are released every Wednesday.
