Reggie Watts

Reginald Lucien Frank Roger Watts (born March 23, 1972) is an American comedian, actor, beatboxer, and musician. His improvised musical sets are created using only his voice, a keyboard, and a looping machine. Watts refers to himself as a "disinformationist" who aims to disorient his audience in a comedic fashion. He appeared on the IFC series Comedy Bang! Bang! and leads the house band for The Late Late Show with James Corden. Reginald Lucien Frank Roger Watts was born in Stuttgart on March 23, 1972, the son of French mother Christiane and African-American father Charles Alphonso Watts. His father was an officer in the Air Force, leading the family to live in Germany, France, Italy, and Spain before returning to the U.S. and settling in Great Falls, Montana, where Watts was raised; he graduated from Great Falls High School in 1990. He began piano and violin lessons at the age of five, with his love of music beginning as a young child when he saw Ray Charles play the piano on television. He moved to Seattle at the age of 18 to study music, attending the Art Institute of Seattle before studying jazz at Cornish College of the Arts. In 1996, Watts became the frontman for the band Maktub. While recording and touring from 1996 to 2000 with Wayne Horvitz's 4+1 Ensemble as a keyboardist, he was forced to downsize his effects pedal from a Roland Space Echo tape delay to a Line 6 DL4 delay modeler, a smaller device that makes it easy to travel. He began using the Line 6 in live shows with Maktub to replicate the duplicate harmonies from the recorded material. He experimented with improvising entire songs in solo acts with the Line 6, while trying to sound like Tom Waits, playing initial gigs at small Seattle venues and artist bungalows. While in Seattle, he composed musical scores for dance choreographers and dabbled in sketch comedy with longtime friend and future playwright Tommy Smith, who later ended their collaborative relationship when Watts failed to credit him for co-writing the lyrics of his viral hits "Fuck Shit Stack" and "What About Blowjobs?"