Reggie Watts Is Here for Our 250th Episode!
The Last Laugh
The Daily Beast
4.6 • 661 Ratings
🗓️ 17 July 2024
⏱️ 37 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
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, 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 after a longer-than-expected eight-year run.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is The Last Laugh. I'm Matt Wilstein from The Daily Beast, and welcome to the 250th episode of this podcast. I know, it's crazy, right? Over the past five years or so, we have had so many uniquely brilliant comedians on this show, |
| 0:23.1 | but I'm not sure I've ever talked to someone as singularly out there as my guest today, Reggie Watts. |
| 0:30.3 | You might know Reggie Watts from the Comedy Bang Bang TV show, where he served as a one-man band |
| 0:35.9 | leader, or maybe from the Late Late Show, where he |
| 0:39.2 | led that late-night band for more than eight years until James Corden stepped down as host in |
| 0:44.3 | 2023. |
| 0:46.1 | Now, Reggie is about to premiere what is somehow his most experimental stand-up special yet? |
| 0:52.7 | It's called Nevermind, and he decided to set it in a sort of |
| 0:56.6 | pre-internet as we know it mid-90s. Like most of Reggie's work, I've never seen anything like it. |
| 1:04.3 | In this conversation, we talked about putting together the new special, which premieres on the streaming |
| 1:09.1 | platform Veeps this Saturday, July 20th, |
| 1:12.5 | and went deep on how exactly he became one of the strangest musical comedians of our time. |
| 1:19.9 | Before we get into it, here's a clip from the new special. |
| 1:24.2 | Guess, have you heard the new Beastie Boys? |
| 1:28.2 | So keep that in mind, too, and I hope I don't get in trouble for this, but anyways. |
| 1:35.6 | I don't know any Beastie Boys in the lyrics, by the way. |
| 1:46.1 | For whatever reason. Like like I should because like |
| 1:47.8 | it's pretty cool I think when it's playing I do |
| 1:49.9 | remember you know some stuff |
| 1:51.9 | but it's just like kind of the same thing |
| 1:53.9 | with like the red hot chili peppers |
| 1:55.2 | you know |
... |
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