Reggie Watts-Transition

Him: Let’s get straight to the point: Reggie Watts is brilliant. But, I don’t know how to even begin to describe his performance. Was it about the alienation produced by mass media? Relationships? An exploration of the artistic possibilities that emerge from the combination and integration of sound engineering, multimedia, and acting with the power of the human voice? Or was it just a really, really entertaining variety show that blended performance art with singing, beat boxing, and an ironic commentary on the absurdity of the way that society packages and processes personalities and emotions into marketable commodities?
Her: Why even try to describe the experience of Reggie Watts. It was a pure attention-deficit explosion of sounds and sites and hilariousness. It reminded me of Sesame Street. If Sesame Street was created for adult hipsters on acid.
Him: Alright. But let’s try and break this down. Transition was a lot of things, but Sesame Street it was not. Watts entered the stage in front of the words “An Soliloquy” projected on the screen behind him. He launched into exactly that. Later, he interviewed the filmed projection of a woman Facebooker, who then materialized, to confront him in person on his aggressive interviewing tactics. Then, a couple acted out a scene from what we later found out was a Michael J. Fox film, projected onto the screen but minus Michael J. Fox. Then Watts skillfully produced a plethora of percussive sounds using nothing but his voice. It was fast paced, funny, thought-provoking and entertaining, all at the same time. When it was over, I felt like you do at the end of a too-short rock concert: Did it have to end so soon?
Her: I think you got lulled into the high energy hyper-ness, wanting it to continue like a junkie needing another fix. What happened and how it happened are of little importance, other than to say Reggie Watts is a post-modern multi-media genius. The genius was found in the flow from one piece to the other, from the stage hands helping with the transitions, or the removing of wigs, the addition of the computer girl to the mix. Obviously from the title we learn that it is the space in-between, as much as the acts in and of themselves where the heart of this performance rests. The what and the how are of little consequence when looking at the why of Reggie Watts. Why does an artist combine bad 80’s movies, hip-hop, digital age technology and good ol’ fashioned humor to invite the audience into a small room of Reggie Watts brain. Why? Because the other rooms are filled to the hilt and something needed to leak out. We were leaked on, by the surreal and silly, by the hilarious, irreverent and just plain enjoyable spectacle of it all. And we loved every minute.
-Ariel Frager and Seth Needler
They are a married pair of TBA junkies.