Once seated inside Melbourne’s Spiegeltent it is comedian Reggie Watt’s Afro hairstyle that commands attention. Like a wayward projectile it sways in tandem with Watts’ erratic contortions as he obsessively positions a microphone stand. The mic itself then becomes the recipient of an unintelligible monologue that has one discernible characteristic. The colloquialism ‘geezer’ is heard and its connotative meaning is accentuated by Watts’ use of a generic English brogue. For approximately five minutes he leavens the spoken word in such a manner that there arises a genuine suspicion that his mouth might be full of dough. But the audience is laughing and that’s a good sign; even if it is impossible to understand anything this New York based comedian is saying. But the first lesson learnt by any member of an audience unfamiliar with the comedy of Reggie Watts is: no matter the context Watts is always taking the piss. Acknowledging this performance strategy is essential if a person is to appreciate the discombobulating impact of a comedian who eschews the usual conventions of stand-up comedy. However, once this risky approach is accepted by an audience Watts’ indirect escapades become typical of those performers who strive for inspiration within the improvised moment. Add to this a mischievous desire to gently mock the portent of the African-American pop song and an evening with Reggie Watts is a most unusual comedic experience.
Watts is accompanied on-stage by a music sampling device and an electronic piano. For a person who quietly appears to be an accomplished musician he is also a sly purveyor of the poorly played tune. Sometimes thumping the keys of his piano with hands reminiscent of those belonging to an infant having a tantrum, at other times sampling simplistic vocal intonations and regurgitating the rhythms back into his performance, it is when investing these ironic tunes with improvised lyrics that Watts’ mockery emerges. His overt and ejaculatory embellishment of soul music elicits from, then repudiates and ridicules, what has become a self-imposed African-American stereotype. That is, as superhuman crooner invested with the sexual prowess to last ‘all night long’, Watts’ ideal African-American male is instead a marketing illusion that utilises sex to sell compact discs. (Not to mention challenging the deeply embedded fear that the well-hung Negro stud, once released from his chains, will plough through the plantation in an indiscriminate and primal act of sexual revenge). Sex has always been used as a marketing strategy. But its utilisation within the music industry is as prone to racial prejudice as it is in other areas of society. However, Watts’ skill in demonstrating this is less didactic and more the actions of a class-clown. But just as 80’s supergroup Earth, Wind & Fire do not escape his satire, neither does the literary academy. Utilising the same pretentious audacity local shock-jock John Laws once used to introduce his poetry, Watts’ investigation of the archaic English language, as exemplified by Donne and Shakespeare, deteriorates into a very funny rumination upon its irrelevance in a 21st century, media dominated world. Even so, the usual tag of ‘Comedian’ does not necessarily apply to Reggie Watts. For better or worse, his horizontal improvisations and oblique mockery will divide an audience. Those expecting a tedious sequence of sit-down one liners are hereby advised to first take a crash-course in Dadaist history.
Reggie Watts: Why Sh*t so Crazy ?
April 19 - 24, The Famous Spiegeltent
Melbourne International Comedy Festival
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