Renowned improvisational comedian and breakout star of TV’s Comedy Bang Bang, Reggie Watts is bringing his afro, live looping and Hello Humans Tour to Auckland’s SkyCity Theatre this Friday night (October 24). Flicks alum Rose Matafeo is in support too – click here to find tickets. As humans ourselves, it was fun talking to Watts about the show and his approach to improvisation.
FLICKS: I guess as someone whose performances are based on improv, it must feel like ‘Groundhog Day’ to do a series of interviews where you kind of keep getting asked the same questions. You’re not really in charge of how those flow are you?
REGGIE WATTS: [chuckles] Yes, it’s definitely it’s like, “What’s happening?” I’m like, “There’s a strange fold in the time continuum.”
Are you having a good time on this tour so far?
Yes, for sure. I’ve been wanting to get back to Australia and New Zealand for a long time – for three years – because I came fairly often from like 2007, and then just three years ago was the last time I did Big Day Out, and that was really, really fun, and I had such a great time then. It just took three years just because I started doing a television show and that kind of locked me down time-wise for a while. So I’m happy to be back.
I suppose it’s in the nature of your act that you can slot into things like BDO outside of traditional comedy grounds, right?
For sure, that’s what’s fun about it; it’s very adaptable.
And then maybe the flip-side of it is once you start building up a bit more momentum as a “comic,” there’s a whole lot of other stuff you’ve got to do.
Definitely more options appear and you have more to consider, and you have to organize or strategize your time a little bit better.
Does the wealth of footage online create a situation where, on the one hand, you’re creating out of improv; on the other people have expectations about what they’re coming to see from you?
I’m never too worried about it because by the time someone decides to come see a show – when they sit down – it’s still like you don’t know what you’re getting. Even if you watch bands online it’s still totally different when you get there live, and then added on top of that, the show will kind of just be whatever; it’s going to be for that specific night.
If I was working on material, or if I had a bunch of jokes that were online and I did them at the show, and people are like, “I know those jokes,” that would be one thing, but because I’m just kind of improvising, it doesn’t matter to me if people record it, or put it online, or watch a lot of stuff online; it’s still a unique experience.
That’s really good. It’s kind of deflating when you go to see someone you’ve been looking forward to seeing for a while, and then there’s kind of, “I’ve seen that. I’ve seen that.” Part of me kind of wants to, but it’s also a little bit disappointing at the same time.
Sometimes jokes are like singles or like songs on an album. Sometimes it’s great to hear them again, like I don’t mind. I have lots of friends, obviously lots of stand-up friends, that do a lot of shows, and I see people go up and they’ll do half stuff that I’ve seen before and then maybe some new stuff. And sometimes I just like their jokes so much I’m totally happy hearing them again, but sometimes it just depends on the person; if they have a certain charm and a sincerity and a groundedness then it’s usually fine. If it’s just someone that seems kind of like mechanical and machine-like, that’s not appealing.
Obviously none of that applies in this instance. Is your preparation for shows any different when you’re travelling internationally compared to just being at home?
Not really, no. I mainly just try to make sure that I show up where I’m supposed to show up, and then just kind of go from there.
Have you ever had instances of, “I maybe shouldn’t have said that,” because either it’s gone down incorrectly, because of where you are, or because it’s just completely over the top of the audience’s head?
That happens from time to time; it happens with every style of performer or a comedian. With comedians it’s a little bit like they’re just people who speak and are listening to a reaction. Of course that happens, but it’s fun to get yourself into, if that happens it’s fun to figure out a way to remove yourself from it or to make it into something else that’s useful, so it’s all good. It’s all part of the challenge of making something resonate with people.
I imagine there’s a really good rush that comes from that kind of performance, and maybe finding yourself in that predicament, it’s pretty exciting getting yourself out of it as quickly as possible.
For sure, yes – it’s like wrestling, and it’s like you get yourself in a hold and you just figure out a way out of it and continue moving fluidly forward as much as you can. But that’s definitely a part of it; it’s not a good thing to dread. It’s something that you want to welcome when chaos strikes.
Do you recall making a concrete decision that this is how you wanted to approach your shows, or is it just a performance style that evolved?
Not really, mostly it’s very similar to surfing or something like that. You just kind of go “there’s the ocean”, and you’ve got your board, and you just kind of go out and you’re, “This is what I’d like to do today.” And then deal with stuff you could never know – the wave is crazy or the waves aren’t good, or something goes wrong technically, or whatever – you get hit in your head by your board and you’re just going to have to keep moving.
So I don’t really plan too much. I just know that I want to have fun on stage, and hopefully have the audience have fun too, and that’s where I start, and I hope that it works out.
How has Comedy Bang Bang been going in opening up a new TV audience for improv?
It’s great, the thing is with something like Bang Bang it’s got a style that people kind of are familiar with in the sense that you know Christopher Guest and Spinal Tap and A Mighty Wind and all of those things kind of prepare people culturally for the idea of improvisation that seems very structured.
And then a lot of shows on TV like Curb Your Enthusiasm are all improvised as well, so audiences are okay with that and it’s not too crazy, but I think the style of it is definitely unique and that opens people up. I mean, a lot of it is scripted too so it’s a mixture definitely between improvisation and script, so its a healthy mix but I think people are either they really like it or they’re like this is a bunch of nonsense and they’re not into it.
That’s probably a really good line to draw in the sand isn’t it? Like maybe you shouldn’t be coming to the show to check your stuff out in the first place.
For sure, I never expect everybody to love it. It’s just I’m doing it and if someone wants to take a chance and see if they like they can, but if not, then it’s fine; it’s okay because you want the people that want to be there to be there.
There’s a uniqueness that surrounds you in quite a lot of ways from how you dress, the kinds of things that you take on, much of your subject matter. It really isn’t “hey Mum and Dad, this nice Irish fellow who’s going to tell us a story is on the microphone tonight”.
[chuckles] It’s definitely not.
How much of that is a benefit and how much of that is a detriment when it comes to being part of things like bigger comedy festivals?
I love it because I get to be like the weirdo dude, I mean there’s plenty of weird people at the comedy festivals, I’m not the only one but I know that I get to do my weird thing. I really kind of think of comedy festivals or comedy line ups on nights and things like that. It’s very similar to – I’m using analogy again – like skate boarding.
Skate boarders just find a really cool place to hang out and do their thing in like a swimming pool or whatever an empty swimming pool and like a bunch of their friends gather around and they’re just like are trying tricks, they’re just trying stuff. And they’re like, “Well that was a good run,” you know and then, “That was awesome,” and then the next person goes in and does it.
It’s kind of like that for festivals so you get like the. Everyone has got a different style and so it’s nice to have all the different kinds of people for a comedy festival because you need that variety. Otherwise if it’s the same type of person over and over again then it’s not interesting to me anyways and I like being a person who can kind of read the festival and check out people and then kind of perform based off of what I’ve experienced.
Got you. Speaking of festivals, have you ever attended or performed– probably the only reason to go would be to perform at the Gathering of the Juggalos?
[chuckles] No.
I only asked because I’m morbidly fascinated, and I had to throw that one in there. [laughter]
Its a very weird culture. I mean, I guess I’m not really a big clown guy, so that’s kind of a problem.
