Reggie Watts has embarked on a time-travel odyssey back to the ’90s, and he’s hoping audiences will join him.
On July 20, he’s rolling out his latest hour, which is set pre-Y2K and weaves together improvisational comedy and musical riffs to form what Rolling Stone has called a “vortex of surrealist entertainment.” Watts prefers the descriptor: “A temporal comedy special,” which his girlfriend encouraged him to title “Never Mind.” Regardless, it’ll be available on Veeps, a still relatively new, Live Nation Entertainment-affiliated streaming platform, founded by Joel and Benji Madden, which announced a comedy vertical in 2023.
Over Zoom in mid-July, Watts talked openly about his new hour, his lack of preparation, his meeting with Rick Rubin, his eight years as the announcer and bandleader for The Late Late Show with James Corden and the real reason that — despite his desire and capacity to be prolific — he feels he’s being held back.
Your special, which is set in the ’90s, transported me back to a simpler time. It was a welcomed feeling for me, and I suspect it will be for others. Were you striving for that?
Yeah. I mean, it wasn’t hyper-conscious, like it wasn’t necessarily the main reason for doing it, but I think somewhere in between the conscious and the subconscious, there was definitely this idea of creating some alternate version of the past and operating from there. And I think it makes it fun because it’s silly, but also you can talk about certain things that are happening now more abstractly.
What was the initial conceit?
Well, I didn’t really prepare for it. I had this idea for what I was calling these temporal comedy specials — a special that takes place in 1983 or one that’s in 1976 and one in the ’90s. So, that idea was floating around, and then when I got the opportunity to make another comedy special, I thought, “Well, let’s see if it’s possible.” And it didn’t really have the budget that I would have needed to go as far as I would have liked. With the right means, I would’ve treated it almost like a Hollywood film, and really get the details of that time period correct, and film it on cameras from that period, and then study the editing styles of shows back then. But it has the spirit of it, I think, so it’s a good start.
What did you ultimately want to say with the hour?
I don’t know because, again, I don’t really prepare for these things, but the message is probably just about the false hopefulness that we had in the ’90s for the internet and where it could take us and how it could change human civilization.
Does that “just wing it” approach ever get you in trouble? It sounds terrifying to me…
I can imagine it being terrifying for someone, but for me, it’s the only way. For me, it’s terrifying to try to remember stuff that I’ve planned. That would almost immobilize me. That’s why when people are like, “Hey, let’s rehearse,” I’m like, “Can I just opt out of rehearsing?” Unless it’s a group thing, where people need to know what’s going on — you can’t have a totally free radical in that situation, there need to be some rules. But if it’s me, by myself, or a cameo, I’m like, “Can we just have me do what I do, and it’ll be fine?” And luckily, I’ve done this long enough that there is a track record, so people can trust that I’m going to do something that will complement what they want to have happen.
You spent nearly a decade at the Late Late Show, which signed off a little over a year ago. I’m curious what pieces of that experience you miss and which pieces you don’t miss.
Yeah, I did it for as long as it needed to be done. In the beginning, when James Corden asked me to be a part of it, he was envisioning doing it for only five years. We did eight and a half. So, I think he and the showrunner, Ben Winston, kind of knew, in a way, how long they would be effective. And then there was a budget cycle that was coming up, and they knew the budget was going to be smaller, and that meant that they would’ve had to let go of a lot of crew members, and these are people that have been with the show for a long time. I’d say the show retained the majority of its crew members. Writers are always kind of changing, but with everybody else, it was familiar faces the whole time. And I think there was a good camaraderie there. So, the length of time was perfect.
And then, for me, obviously it was great. The paycheck was amazing, and I really got to level up in many ways and experience a certain type of life and have access to certain types of things that a lot of people don’t have access to. And I loved it because I always think of myself as a little anthropological, so it was like, “OK, let’s just go for this and see what it’s like.” And that was nice, and I got a lot out of it, but, at the same time, towards the end, I felt like it was becoming a little same-y, and I wasn’t able to be as random and explorative as I could have been, or as I was before doing this. So, again, all of it happened at exactly the right time, and it was challenging, but I got to design a system that I wanted to work in, and I got to hire my friends and have them have a reliable paycheck, which is an amazing thing to be able to do.
What do you make of the current state of late night? Seth Meyers’ show had to lay off his band recently.
Yep, the band is gone. It’ll be interesting to see how Fallon does. I can’t imagine him getting rid of The Roots. I think if he got rid of The Roots, the show would just be done. But I guess you never know. Late night is changing drastically and very, very rapidly. The Late Late Show got out at exactly the right time – we got just a little bit past the peak, and then we were out.
I’m curious what doors that experience opened for you. Put another way, how have the opportunities changed?
I think it just creates more value in the sense of people going, “Oh, he’s firmly in the entertainment industry.” Because TV lends a type of credibility. And for me, as random as I am or as improvisational as I am, I think people now know, like, “Oh, we can trust this guy to do whatever. And as long as we let him be who he is, he’s an easy guy to work with. He produces really good results, and he cares about his audience.”
Did that feel like it was in question before?
I don’t think so. But people like to know for sure, especially if you’re an improviser, people have to trust you’re going to do the right thing. I think it would be different if I were an actor, and I was reading scripts or just a heavily structured person. Then it’s easier to go, “Oh, that person is this,” or “We can use them in this way.” But now I have a track record, so people can go, “Oh, he was on a television show, and he functioned perfectly well within that system doing whatever it is that he does, so I think we can use him in all kinds of different ways.”
So, what else do you want to do?
Well, I definitely want to work for The Hollywood Reporter…
You did prove to be a pretty phenomenal interviewer on The Late Late Show. I’ll admit, I’d be excited to hear the kinds of questions you would ask.
Probably, like, what kind of food do you like? That kind of stuff. Like, what’s the deal with oatmeal? Because that’s like very The Hollywood Reporter.
Oh, absolutely.
Besides that, I want to make more stuff. I want to make more film things, whether that’s short films or just like experimental ideas. I’d love to do some version of that music show, whether it’s with Rick Rubin and Eric Andre, or whether it’s some other version. I’d also love to direct music videos and create live, immersive experiences for people to go to. I’d love to do special live shows using state-of-the-art sound equipment, things of that nature. That’s something that I am going to be talking to my management and my agents about, just being more focused on those types of things, because I feel like I could definitely make a comedy special, like, every two weeks. I could probably direct a few music videos in one week. I could come up with and act and do all the characters for a scene of a video a few times a week. I can produce a lot, but there are no avenues for me to do that at this point, and so I’m just kind of stuck, going like, “Well, I’m ready to go, is there anyone…?”
You mean, from a distribution standpoint?
Yeah, having the money to produce the thing and try the thing and distribute the thing. I know, I know, it’s stupid. And I can definitely make things now, but I’ve also paid for things in the past, and there’s no guarantee anything happens with it, and then you’ve just spent a lot of money on something.
As Kevin Costner is now realizing. Back to the special. You’ve made hours for Comedy Central and for Netflix. How did you land on Veeps to distribute this one?
Well, part of it is just that they wanted me to do a special. And I’ve known Bart Coleman [Veeps’ head of comedy] for a long time, and it was good to work with someone familiar again, and the director understood what I was going for. And then the mission statement for Veeps and its model, it’s a streaming platform that live streams events, is more in line with [my tastes]. I know we’re oversubscribed in general, but I do think, for entertainment or art, subscription is nice because it removes us from being advertised to, and I can’t stand commercials. This way, we can just get directly to our experiences, which I’m much more interested in. And the deals that they offer, they’re good. I mean, they’re not rager deals…
So, you’re not getting $20 million like Chappelle?
No, no. (Laughs.) I’m not being incredibly overvalued for what I provide to society. That’s unfortunately not happening with me. On that note, I’ve always wondered, why doesn’t Chappelle just keep $8 million and then give the rest of it to other artists and charities that need that money? That’s what I would’ve done. I mean, $20 million is an astounding amount of money. Anyway, I didn’t get that, but the amount of money that I got was fair, and I think they did a good job with the special.
Do you walk away from your time onstage surprised by what played out?
I think I felt pretty good about it. And Rick Rubin was in the audience. I didn’t put him on the guest list or anything, he just bought a ticket and showed up, which I thought was kind of amazing because it was set in the ’90s, and he was such an instrumental person in the ’90s. So, that was surprising but also not surprising. It’s funny, Rick Rubin reminds me of me 10 years from now. And I’ve sat down with him. There’s a project that we were pitching, I guess it’s still kind of out there to be pitched, and Eric Andre and Rick Rubin signed on as producers. It’s a music show, kind of like MTV’s 120 Minutes, that type of a thing.
And in order for him to sign on, he wanted to meet with me and talk about what the show was because I would be the host of it. So, I went to Malibu, where he lives, and we went to this room in his house, which is a sparse, no technology, kind of discussion room, and we sat there for two hours just talking about music, and it was really amazing. I told him how I’d met him in the ’90s when my band was coming through L.A. We went to the office, and we played our CD for him, and he listened to it, and he was like, “Yeah, that’s pretty good.” He didn’t remember it, but that’s also such a small thing to remember. But the whole time we were talking [this time around], I was like, “This guy reminds me of me in so many ways.”
How so?
Just his thoughtfulness and, also, he’s kind of improvising through this wisdom that he has. I don’t think he thinks as deeply as people might think. I think that people who have wisdom to impart are doing it in the moment. So, when I saw him in the audience, I wasn’t that surprised because if I were me, and I saw a younger comedian doing a thing that I thought was interesting, I’d probably buy a ticket, too.
Before I lose you, is there anything I have not asked that I should be asking?
I mean, I just want everybody to know that I’m a pro-imperialist. I look forward to corporations having more control.
Yeah, of course. I get that from you.
Yeah. I mean, that is my thing. (Laughs)
Of course, you did spend eight and a half years working for a major corporation, and, as you previously noted, you enjoyed the paycheck…
Yeah, you’re right. And I loved it. (Laughs) So, I guess no, I don’t think there’s anything else.
