Reggie Watts' sampler

“I have a little bit of a complex about doing the same thing every time,” says Reggie Watts about his strange hybrid performance style, which mixes sampling, jazz, hiphop and improv comedy in one very appealing package.

Watts is in Dublin as part Ulster Bank Dublin Theatre Festival’s slightly oddball “East village” program, alongside Nick Paraiso’s House Boy and the burlesque extravaganza, Gorgeous Morons. So his show naturally includes a large helping of the unexpected – by design.

“Where exactly it goes on any night depends on the mood I’m in. And it also depends on what I’m into at the time,” says Reggie, the son of a French mother and an American father, and the owner of a munitions grade afro.

“At the moment I’m into 2012 and the end of the Mayan calendar, which I think is a really interesting event, kind of like a spiritual Y2K. A lot of people are very watchful of that date. I like to give an absurdist take on the whole business.”



The Seattle born instrumentalist will take to the stage each night with his trusty Line6 DL4, something that he has described as “a commonplace effects pedal”. And from there on, “95% of it is improvised”. There are one or two planned songs, but for the most part Watts sings a phrase or two into the mic, loops it so that it repeats over and over, and then improvises on top.

“Sometimes when it works best it is just because there is something special in the beat I’ve laid down,” says Reggie “Something in it that works really well and the layers that come on top of it start to work out, and the layers take shape in an unexpected way.”

But there is another important ingredient that is all in the performer’s hands: “Music and comedy have everything in common,” says Watts. “…In comedy, like in music, timing is crucial. Really, that is all comedy is…timing.”

Reggie studied classical piano and violin, and played in bands preaching everything from jazz to rock. These days, however, he works alone with his beloved sampler. “One of the main reasons I thought about working in the way I do, using loops of myself in the music, was so that I wouldn’t have to bring a whole band around with me when I wanted to perform.”

But another reason, perhaps, is Watts interest in improvisation, his desire to let all sort of things influence his performances every bit as much as rehearsals.

“A lot also depends on the venue. Sometimes, if the venue feels more like a lecture hall, I go with a lecture. And if it feels more like a theatre, then what I do will be more theatrical. All of that really depends…”