Comedian/musician Reggie Watts is currently filming the second season of IFC’s Comedy Bang Bang, and he just released two music videos for the new YouTube channel JASH, which he’s collaborating on with Michael Cera, Sarah Silverman, and Tim & Eric. Watts sat down for a question-and-answer session on Reddit yesterday, and here are all the best bits and pieces from it:
On Comedy Bang Bang Season 2:
We’re halfway through filming season 2 of Comedy Bang Bang. Scott is one of the smartest, funniest guys I know and it’s a pleasure to work with him. We goof around and make bad puns to each other a lot.
On whether his JASH videos will be him solo or collaborations with the other JASH comedians:
There is going to be a combination of stuff I want to do and stuff that I end up doing collectively with the other members of Jash.
On who he’d like to collaborate with:
I would like to collaborate with…I don’t know, maybe Jack White would be fun? Robert Glasper. Or Michael Mayer from Kompact Records … It would be an honor to work with Jack, he’s a very complicated person who’s capable of almost anything.
On whether he and James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem will ever collaborate:
Yea, James and I have talked about doing something together but he’s such a busy guy it will happen when it happens naturally.
It was great, it was amazing. It was kind of a life goal of mind to do it, and it was incredible to be around so many amazing people … [The audience] was confused at first, and then I think they were enjoying themselves, and then afterwards I had a lot of great conversations with people. I think they were expecting a serious talk from someone, and then they realized that that wasn’t going to happen, and they let themselves enjoy it.
On his musical education:
I studied classical piano for 11 years, and classical violin for 8 years, and did 2.5 years of jazz voice training.
On the inspiration for his songs:
Yeah, I have no idea really. They just happen in the moment, whatever the dumbest shit is, that’s what happens. For the inspiration for my latest video “If you’re Fucking, You’re Fuckingâ€Â - the inspiration was just how dumb it is. The idea of how dumb it is to have a song that addresses a question that no one would ever ask…
On his favorite movies:
I would say THE WRONG GUY (it’s a David Foley movie) and WANDERLUST and YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN.
On Ken Marino:
I was always a big fan of his, STELLA SHORTS, WET HOT AMERICAN SUMMER, THE STATE - anything he has been on, he has been nothing short of knocking it out of the park - I’ve never seen him do a not-good job ever. He’s just a genius. I don’t know what it is, he plays a dick but he has such a huge heart and you can always feel that. He’s amazing.
On Chris Hardwick:
I think he actually is the hardest-working man in showbusiness. He’s amazing, and a good friend.
On Tim & Eric:
I thought they were pure genius, and exactly the type of humor that i wanted to see in the world.
When asked when the last time he didn’t have an afro was and what his hair was like:
It would have been maybe 5 years ago. That would have been when i was maybe 26-27? The hairstyle was just very short, maybe 2 inches.