Michelle Obama: The Light Podcast - Reggie Watts Has Made A Career Out Of Being A Weirdo

Episode Date: January 11, 2026

Comic, musician, and actor Reggie Watts comes on the show to talk about his multi-faceted life. From being born in Germany to growing up in Montana with his French mother and Air Force Sergeant father, Reggie learned the power of being the oddball. Reggie showcases his accents and the works that inspire him. And him and Michele talk about why he tries not to consume sugar, and how to use a sugar alternative for his mother's Crepes Suzette recipe. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Your Mama's Kitchen is brought to you by Rivian. So the kids would make fun of me and call me Pinocchio. But I could beatbox. And rap was just starting to become really big in the early 80s. And so I'd be on the street in Cleveland on Clearview Avenue. You know, the bunch of kids around me and I'd do the beatbox and they would rap over it. And that's how I kind of got in with the kids. Hello, hello, welcome back to your mama's kitchen.

This is the place where we explore how we are shaped as adults by the kitchens that we grow up in as kids. Not just the food, but all the stuff that happens there. The meals, yes, but also the card games, the conversation, the music on the radio. I'm Michelle Norris, and our guest today is Reggie Watts. The musically talented and comedically included. fellow that you might recognize from his stages where he combines his beatboxing skills with his wacky, sometimes experimental, always entertaining improv comedy routines. He was also the band leader of the show, the late show with James Corden on CBS. And he is an ever-present image on my social media

a feed. And so it feels like I actually get to talk to you this time instead of just listen to you. Reggie, thanks so much for being with us. It's my pleasure. Yeah, thanks for having me. Thanks for making time. You grew up in lots of different places. You were born in Germany. You lived in Madrid for a time. And then as a kid, you moved to Montana. And we always began the show by asking people, tell me about your mama's kitchen. But when I ask you that question, where does your mind immediately go? Which kitchen? Which country? I mean, probably the Montana kitchen, just because I was four, you know, when we got there. So I don't really remember any other kitchens. Although now that you've mentioned it, maybe I'll have a flashback during the day and I'll remember the kitchen in the apartment in Madrid.

I don't know. What do you remember about the kitchen in Montana and where in Montana was it? It was a city called Great Falls, Montana. And yeah, it was a still, it looks. exactly the same. I still have my family home there. And it's red. It's like everything's red in there. The pot holders are red. There's like a cookie jar, is a giant strawberry that's red. The sink is red. The refrigerator used to be red, but now it's black. But yeah, it's just red everywhere. Okay. Obviously. When you think about the kitchen, what do you think of it as? Just a place to eat?

or was it a place where the family gathered? Was it a place where people argued? Was it a place where people laughed? What emotion sort of comes to mind when you think about the kitchen? And as you think about that, how has that shaped the person you've become today? I mean, yeah, it was like, you know, it was a place where I ate my breakfast, you know, every day as a kid. and, you know, I'd have, we'd eat dinner there. Yeah, I mean, it's, and, you know, we had a TV in there, too, so we'd watch TV together.

I'd watch TV with my dad. And, you know, or my parents sometimes, too. And, yeah, just had, like, a lot of meals. I mean, pretty much only ate meals there. Yeah, and we had, there was, like, one of those expanding tables. So, of course, the table was red. But they had leaves, you know, so you could, like, pull it apart and make it a little bit wider if we had, like, a guest or a larger meal. But then we had a dining room as well, so it was very fancy.

Did you eat in the dining room very often? Yeah, we'd eat there. We eat there only for, like, Thanksgiving and, you know, special occasions and stuff like that. But most of the time, it stayed chill. So dad was in the military. and your mother is originally from France. Yeah, yeah. And you moved to Great Falls, Montana when you were four years old.

Was it a bit like landing from Mars at that point? I mean, it could have, it might have been, I suppose. It's really hard to remember because I don't remember how I was necessarily feeling. I mean, I remember when we first got there that we stayed in a motel for like a couple months until the house was ready.

So, you know, I don't know, it's like, I guess the sense memory of like, you know, the United States in 1976 in Montana, definitely there was a feeling there for sure. But it didn't feel like necessarily alien.

It felt more like I don't know. I guess the feeling when I first got there was really informed by television shows. So in a way, the United States had a presence in a broadcast around the world in a way that when I got there, it felt mildly, mildly familiar. Can you tell me about your parents and start with your mom? What's your name? Tell me a little bit about her. Oh, yeah, her name's Christiane, Christian Margherite Watts. Her original name was Boyer. And, yeah, she's from France. And she, yeah, she's from a place called Toul, it's in the north of France.

And, yeah, she was my mom. She worked a lot of different jobs. But she was mainly, she worked Avon. She worked, I believe she, oh, she was a cleaner for laundry, the laundry services in the Air Force Base, and then she was a house cleaner, a base contractor. And, yeah, that was her. And then my dad was from Cleveland, Ohio, or Akron, Ohio originally. And also my mother had a brother and then three step siblings. And my dad was an only child born in Akron.

And then I think they moved to Cleveland. And then he joined the military and was in the army and went, I think, can never remember the order. But he was in the army first and he switched to the Air Force. But he did do two tours in Vietnam. And I think he did, the tours of Vietnam first, then he transferred to the Air Force. they let him transfer to the Air Force. And then he met my mom when he was decommissioning in Air Force Base in Germany.

And then, yeah, they met up and, yeah, hung out in Germany. I was born in Stuttgart. And then we moved to Madrid. And then he moved to the U.S. We all moved to U.S. And then he had a job in the Air Force. And he quit.

And then that's pretty much, yeah, it's pretty much his history, I suppose. I'd read that your mother held on to her French identity. You know, wherever she moved that it was, she saw herself as being someone who was French. Did some of that rub off on you? Yeah. Yeah, I think, I think, yeah, I do think some of it rubbed off. I mean, for sure. I mean, you know, the French identity is a really interesting one because it was so,

around me all the time, and I kind of just took it for granted, so I never really had a, yeah, I guess I never really had a way of thinking about it that was external too. Like, oh yeah, I'm part French, you know. But, yeah, I mean, definitely. I mean, growing up speaking French and my mother speaking French,

and I mean, being French and speaking French and then going to visit my relatives in France every other summer when I was growing up, being exposed to French culture, hanging out with my cousins. Yeah, it's definitely a part of me, but it's weirdly so a part of me that I don't ever think about,

it's like, yes, I have French heritage or anything like that. It's just as much a part of you as your hair, your nails or your skin on your back or something like that. Was French food a part of your life growing up? Oh, yeah, for sure. Yeah, yeah. I mean, we had Escobu, most special meals

we'd have escardot when my mother would make a canada orange orange duck she would which I wonder if they got that from the Chinese that would be interesting

but yeah she yeah yeah and then of course like her crepe you know my mother would make crepe Suzette which was like her

favorite thing to make it was very easy to make but you know she was Also, my mother was not an amazing cook, and she would have admitted to that, too. But, you know, she was a hard worker, and she did, she did the best she could. She made, I thought she made really solid food. But, yeah, she, it wasn't like her, she wasn't like it in baking and doing things in the kitchen necessarily. But she loved food. And we would

get food, we definitely all command over food. Yeah. Are you a food guy now? We should say that before we actually started this conversation, you were sipping a salad. That's right. I was sipping a salad power. Yes. Sounds like salad power. Yeah, I was sipping a salad. Yeah, because I do love food, but I oftentimes may miss salads, you know, or greens in my day because I'm like, I need a protein shake. I need it, you know, I'm on the go, you know. And so I'm super, I would say like now I'm, I used to be like very foody oriented for sure. Like when I lived in Seattle in the 90s growing up, I love like restaurants and cafes and things of that nature and different types of foods. And that continued into my New York years in the 2000s, you know, and that was like the time when farm to table became a thing and, you know, the whole like gastropub phenomenon. happened. And so I was definitely super into food then. And then still into food, having been in

LA for the last 10 years, but I would say that now with the last five or six years, I've been more into nutrition, like food as fuel. And so, so I have like, I'm really into like vitamins and, you know, neurohacking and, you know, just making sure that I'm using supplements that are that compliment what I need, you know, especially as you get older. And so, yeah, I just want to make sure my nutrition is, like, science out. And a lot of times I just eat for fuel. And, but I still enjoy a good meal, yeah, now and then. You are so confident on stage. And you bring your full self into every stage that you walk on. I'm wondering what a young Reggie Watts was like. Tell me about a nine-year-old, 10-year-old Reggie Watts. Did they call you Reggie back then?

Yeah. Yeah, they did. Yeah, I mean, my parents would sometimes call me Reginald, but most of the time, Reggie. And did you know that you were in trouble if you heard the full Reginald? Yes, there was definitely some of that, for sure, some of that. But, yeah, I would say, like, yeah, it wasn't just exclusively used it that way, but definitely a part of it, for sure. No, I was known as Reggie for the most part. I mean, sometimes kids would, you know, when you have a longer name, to use it, you know, and it's like, a reginal, or whatever.

But it really wasn't an issue. Also, there was, like, the Archie comics, and there was a Reggie in there, so it was not, like, an alien name. But, I don't know, a nine-year-old. I mean, I was just, like, a really curious, really curious kid that was interested in science and imagination,

and was definitely into having friends and trying to, you know, sometimes overly eager to, you know, have friends. But, but yeah, I would say, like, you know, and I was definitely hard-headed. It was hard, you know, like I wasn't, I'd get in trouble, you know, from now and then in school just because, you know, teachers sometimes or AIDS or things like that would be what I thought were, they were being unreasonable. And so I had to say something.

You thought they were being unreasonable and you had to correct the record? Yeah, just like I didn't understand. the rules were so arbitrary. I was like, why? Why? This makes no sense. You know. So you are that kid. Oh, yeah, yeah, for sure. You also, you told us a little about your mom and your dad. They were in a mixed marriage. And this was in the 1970s. And that is much more common now than it was in the 1970s. Yeah, yeah. I mean, they met in 1967, I believe. So, yeah, that was an early, early time. I mean, in Europe, it was more likely to happen in Europe, of course. But France was a lot more lax about that.

How was Montana? What was that like for you? Did you feel like you had a foot in multiple worlds? Oh, for sure. Yeah, yeah. I mean, yeah, I loved it. In many ways, I love being kind of the outsider kid, you know, or the outsider perspective.

So because when I was born, I didn't have citizenship. I didn't get citizenship. So I had no citizenship until I was four years old. And then I became an American citizen. And even when I moved over here for the first, when we first moved over, I didn't speak English.

I spoke Spanish. And, um, because you had been living in Spain at that point. Yeah. And so I had to learn English. So I learned English. I don't remember Spanish at all. by the way.

It's probably deep in there somewhere that if you... It's in there and it's like I can definitely say like, you know, like, or notheria to sound a more than I can do not have the... I can get the cadence of it. It can kind of sound like it. You know, it's like hovers between Italian and, you know, Spanish. So yeah, and then when I hear it, I do understand parts of it, for sure. But yeah, yeah, for whatever weird reason, it just like,

I guess I stopped using it, you know, and there was nobody in Crape Falls, Montana that spoke Spanish. Although I did have my friend Wally, whose mother is Spanish, but she would mostly just say, Wally, where are you going? You know, like she would just say that. And then once in a while you'd hear a Spanish word, like Minuto. But, yeah, so that was as close to it got. I just didn't do that. But so I became a citizen when I was four.

And so that kind of made me feel not a part of anything. fully, which is something I still feel like today. You still feel that? Yeah, for sure. I feel like I'm like, that's what I call one foot in, one foot out. You know, I

in friend circles, friend groups, it's kind of what allows me to be in multiple, multiple different types of human cultures, you know, and that's like what I was doing when I was a kid because my mother was French and my dad was from Cleveland, Ohio. and we're living in Montana.

And so there was a, you know, I'd go visit my dad's parents, you know, in Cleveland, Ohio, in the all-black community. And that was something I was more alien to because it was 98% white in Great Falls. And so, you know, so I grew up speaking, you know, fluent Caucasian. And so when I'd go to Cleveland, I would speak like this. And then I had a big, not a flat nose. And so the kids would make fun of me and call me poker. Pinocchio, but I could beatbox and rap was just, you know,

just starting to become really big in the early 80s. And so I'd be on the street in Cleveland on Clearview Avenue, you know, the bunch of kids around me and I'd do the beatbox and they would rap over it. And that's how I kind of got in with the kids. So music was always the key. So paint a picture. How did you share your skill? When did that happen?

Was that something that you, no one's paying attention to me, let me show him I can beatbox. Or, you know, how did you share what you knew with them and earn your trust and respect? Yeah, that's a great question. I mean, I think it would have just been, you know, I was on the street. Obviously, I had my grandma. It's almost like a movie scene. You know, the kid comes in from out of town and, you know, he's got the funny hair and knows is different and he talks. funny and yeah but he can beat box

you know what it's true no it's true actually that you're saying that I'm like wow that would make a really great scene in a movie yeah because that's like what a cool moment yeah I think I mean I think my grandmother you know her and my grandpa

they lived on that block forever and there was even there was a white family that lived across the street which was crazy it's all black neighborhood and this one white family and they were like super cool and everybody loved them it was awesome. But I think that they were just so integrated in the neighborhood that, you know, when I got there, kids couldn't be too disrespectful because my grandma Willamay, she would

give them a talking to. So people didn't go too far, you know, if they were trying to make fun of me because they knew that she was, they'd have to answer to her. But, you know, I spent a lot of time with my friends. There was a friend down the block that's name was Reggie. So he was the only other Reggie I knew growing up. And so he and I would hang out. We went to like SeaWorld together, you know, with his mom and their gremlin. And, you know, we... Did you say in their gremlin?

Yeah. That takes you back. AMC Gremlin. Yeah, that really snatches you back. Wow. Yeah, it's like they had a gremlin and my neighbors across the street when I was around seven, eight, nine. They had a pacer.

And if anybody remembers a pacer, the passenger door was slightly longer than the driver's side door, which is really weird. But anyways, yeah. But yeah. So, I mean, growing up, I had Reggie. So I had, like, some friends, and we would play. And I think that was fine. I wasn't, you know, it's just like when we went outside on the street and we played with the kids on the street. And every, because there would always be, like, kids all up and down the street playing, doing different things.

And then sometimes they come up and be like, hey, what are you doing over here? You know, be like, oh, no, we're doing this. And then, you know, they make fun or, you know, or laugh or whatever. And then I think when beatboxing, I mean, when, you know, Fat Boys came out and, you know, Planet Rock and all of that, like, I was, I love listening music. I love recreating it. So I think I was drawn to. I was like, oh, shit, I could do, like, beats because, like, I see people rapping, like, in the movies, you know, there's like someone doing a beat and there's people rapping over it. And so I think I just naturally gravitated to that.

kids were like, oh, cool, and then they just jumped on board. How and when did you develop that skill? Were you sitting in your room just practicing over and over and over again? I was probably just, I was watching TV. I think the fat boys really had a huge influence on me, because that was really the only time I'd heard beatboxing. And you still do this. It's still part of your routine sometimes. Yeah, I still do. I still beatbox. Yeah, I do it all day long. But I never beatboxed.

I never beatboxed like beatbox are generally beatbox. Even today, even like in the beatbox championships and things like that, people are using these techniques that are like hyper, hyper advanced. But they're using these kind of lip-plosives and back of the throat stuff. And for me, my stuff was either like forward in the mouth, you know, like a drum set would be like. Like I was going to say, can we hear that? something like that,

more I would use the throat, just more like, I don't know if you could be able to hear it, but so those are the ways that I was doing beatboxing, whereas Papua's people were like, you know, like, I can't even do it because it fucking hurts my throat. But, yeah,

so I had my own way of doing it. And also Weird Al was a huge influence. Weird Al, Yankovic. Yeah. And how so? Because he, he, you know, he emulated these massive pop hits, you know, and, but he did it with like, you know, his own way and like with his ridiculous lyrics. And I just thought that was so brilliant. And so

I was fascinated by that. That really kind of ignited my imagination that you could like reformat things, you know, that you could do something that's similar to something, but in your own way. And I think that that had a huge effect on me. And definitely like, music for short, hip hop, but, you know, art of noise, you know, paranoia. Yeah. Like that, as a kid, you know, because when I ran into my friend John Thomas in junior high, he was listening to, yeah, he was listening to that. Also, Peter Gunn was popular at the time.

The Peter Gunn theme was popular at the time. And Yellow was another band. that was like in Ferris Buley's Day Off, which weirdly, I'm in the documentary that's touring around right now, the yellow documentary for, oh, yeah. But, yeah, so you had, like, weird crossovers in the early 80s of electronic sampled music that was actually in the charts, which is just unheard of.

I mean, we don't have that anymore. But, like, you would hear, you know, der-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-dard-dard-dard-dard-dard. And all these, like, samples and electronic beats. over it, or you'd hear, you know, El de Barge, you know, Rhythm of the Night, you know, and you'd hear these drum machines, you know, happening. It was like a lot of drum machine shit in the 80s. And so the sound of drum machines sounds kind of like what beatboxers are trying to do to an

extent, even though it's kind of just human rhythm ultimately. But, yes, so I was surrounded by so much rhythm and weirdness. There was so much weirdness. I mean, even Cindy Lopper was weird. Everything was weird and experimental in the early 80s. So I was just swimming in all of this possibility and these sounds, and I love to mimic music. I used to do impressions of Ray Charles when I was three or four,

like kneeling by the bed and acting like the bed was a piano and wearing sunglasses. So I was always into mimicry. And so I got lucky I grew up in an age where I was undistracted by an iPad. And the TV. was on or off enough, you know, that you had to, if your mother was like, go outside and play, it's like you had, there was no access to another device. He just were outside, you know. So I was outside and exposed to whatever I was experiencing at the time. And the radio was on all the time, you know, in the car and Top 40 Radio and I listened to Top 40 Radio religiously. So I was

surrounded by so much music that made me feel incredible. This is probably the most diverse musical time in American and possibly even world history was the mid-70s up until the late 80s. And there was a lot of cross-pollination and you could catch it on the radio and you could catch it on MTV and you could catch it. The last record stores that were still around,

we were still going out to places to purchase our music as opposed to just getting it on our devices. And then the music that your parents listened to. So I heard your dad listen to a lot of jazz. Is that in there somewhere or two? Oh, for sure, yeah. I mean, we had a record player downstairs,

and, you know, I obviously as a kid, I would get a record, you know, like if I was in France, and there was like Gouldaac, which I think is known as Voltron for us here. And there would be the cartoon, the animas, you know, from Japan. Yeah, we would have there be like animas on French television, and that made me feel crazy. You know, it's just like, what a weird world. it's all in French and you know and and so you would buy, we'd go to the store and it'd be like a

45 of the theme from Goldaac or whatever and it would have like a little bit of a cartoon on it and so I would have that but then you know that so that would be mixed in there with my dad's like you know Miles Davis and he loved Cannonball Adderley and you know a lot of James Brown you know the album where James Brown is in prison it's like you the gatefold you open it up and he's just like behind bars. I remember that one. That was crazy. And yeah, and, you know, probably...

I miss albums. Don't you miss albums? The album art was so great. It was, you can't do that, you know, now. You just can't do the same thing. I mean, you can, but it's like, you know, it's like, it's niche. It's actually popular, more popular than we think, but it is niche. Yeah, albums are coming back.

They have been for like the last 10 years, 12 years. or 15 years. Vinyl collecting is a big thing. And even Gen Z, they're going back to, you know, I'm hoping they go back to minidisc. But, yeah, but albums for sure. This episode is brought to you by our friends at Rivian and they're fully electric, full-sized SUVs and pickups

that are designed for all of life's adventures. Now, I have to tell you, the incredible team at Rivian has gifted me with an R1S, complete with a Rivian travel kitchen and snow peak cooking gear. And let me just say, it's not just a car. It's a total game changer. Driving my R1S around Washington, D.C. or around Martha's Vineyard where I spend a lot of time in the summer has been just an absolute joy. But what really makes it special is the adventures that it unlocks. That travel kitchen, it's become my secret weapon. Two burner induction cooking.

on a cooktop on one side, prep space on the other side, storage in this sleek little portable setup that works anywhere with electricity. I just plug it right into the electric outlet right in the back of the car and I am ready to go. I've used it for everything, tailgates, beachside picnics, even impromptu roadside coffee stops. I mean, I can make bacon and eggs if I want to after a long walk. It's so fantastic. The ergonomic carrying case makes it a breeze to haul around and the hangout lights. You just put them up and they sort of hang over the top so you can cook even in the dark. Instant ambience no matter where I park.

And let's talk about the tech inside this thing. The 360-degree camera makes city driving inside the vehicle a cinch. The premium audio system turns every drive into a concert and there's a speaker that you can actually pop out of the car and take with you when you're out on one of your adventures. The self-driving features a lifesaver on live. long road trips. But here's another really exciting part. Rivian has just launched a new R1S. It's called the Quad. This is Rivian's fastest, most capable vehicle yet. Four motors, one for each wheel for unbeatable precision on any kind of terrain. Whether you're carving sharp

corners or tackling wild trails or out on the freeway, the quad is built to stand out. Go check out, the all-new quad and all of Rivian's amazing vehicles now at rivian.com. Trust me on this. You'll love it. We all know that food waste is bad for the planet, but that doesn't mean we're ready to start a compost pile or we're okay with having a smelly fruit fly condo compost pail on the counter. That's why I am so into the mill food recycler. The whole idea is to make keeping food out of the trash as

easy as dropping it into the trash. I just add my scraps, and I mean like almost anything. I mean anything from chicken wing bones to avocado pits to cannilop rinds, and mill runs automatically while I sleep. I can keep filling it for weeks, and it never smells. What really surprises me is the peace of mind. I used to feel guilty every time I tossed out wilted spinach or half-eaten leftovers. Now I just drop them into the bin, open the lid, drop them in, and I know that they're going a better place. You can use the grounds in your garden or feed them to your chickens, but me, I have mill, get them to small farms for me so farmers can grow more food. You just send those grounds off to farms in little boxes that mill can provide, and they will turn that back into

real food for real animals. That's such a good feeling. It's a full circle moment that I didn't know that I needed. You can have your own full circle moment. Try mill. risk-free and get $75 off at mill.com slash YMK podcast. That's mill.com slash YMK podcast. This episode is brought to you by our friends at Rivian and their fully electric, full-sized SUVs and pickups that are designed for all of life's adventures. Now, I have to tell you, the incredible team at Rivian has gifted me an R1S complete with a Rivian travel kitchen and Snow Peak cooking gear, which is an accessory sold separately and available at Rivian. And let me just say, it's not just a car. It is a total game changer. Driving my R1S around

Washington, D.C. or around Martha's Vineyard where I spent a lot of time in the summer has been just an absolute joy. But what makes it special is the adventures that it unlocks. The travel kitchen, well, it's become my secret weapon. Two-burner induction cooking on a cooktop on one side, prep space on the other side, storage in this sleek little portable setup that works anywhere. With electricity, I just plug it right into this electric outlet that's right in the back of the car, and I am ready to go. I've used it for everything. Tailgates, beachside picnics, even impromptu roadside coffee stops. I mean, I can make bacon and eggs if I want after a long walk. It's so fantastic. The ergonomic carrying case makes it a breeze to haul around, and the hangout lights, you just put them up,

and you sort of hang out over the top, but you can cook even in the dark. Instant ambience, no matter where I park. And let's just talk about the tech inside this thing. The 360-degree camera makes city driving inside the vehicle a cinch. The premium audio system turns every drive into a concert, and there's a speaker that you can actually pop out of the car and take it with you when you're out on one of life's adventures.

The self-driving feature is a lifesaver on long trips, But here's another really exciting part. Rivian has just launched their new second-generation quad R1S. This is Rivian's fastest, most capable vehicle yet. Four motors, one for each wheel for unbeatable precision on any kind of terrain, whether you're carving sharp corners or tackling wild trails or out on the freeway. The quad is built to stand out. Go check out the all-new quad and all of Rivian's amazing vehicles now.

at rivian.com, and trust me on this, you are going to love it. You know what I listen to you tell the story. I wonder if there's a blessing in growing up in Montana because maybe you had all this cross-pollination in the music scene, but not access to the same music scene that you would have if you were in L.A. or Chicago or New York in one of the big cities. Even Cleveland, you know, was a little bit further away from the center, epicenter of music. And I wonder if that meant that you had to be individually creative, that you had to create sounds on your own,

of some of this sort of eclectic interest in music that you have grew out of growing up in a place like Montana where it didn't necessarily come to you fully formed. You know, you had to create it yourself. Yeah, I mean, for sure. I mean, I definitely can serve myself lucky. You know, I tell friends, I have a lot of Gen Z.

and millennial friends. And sometimes it's like, what was the 80s like? You know, I don't know. Something like that. But I always say like, you know, I was in the exact perfect curve in the exact perfect location

to make me who I am in the sense that that time, especially growing up in the United States, you know, you had access to all these amazing TV shows. And it was like such the heyday of television. We had all in the family and Jeffersons. and, you know, Sanford and Sun and these variety shows

and Battlestar Galactica, and it all had like crazy music. You know, there was, everything had, you know, the A-Team theme, the Airwolf theme, the chips, you know. It was, I was so saturated with, like, American culture. There was, like, so much television and movies and all of that. And so, you know, and then not having non-network devices, but also the idea of computers being there,

but it was like early ideas of ARPA net, you know, and then the first true internet in the whatever, mid to late 80s. And even then, like, we had modems at school, but there were dial-up modems, and you could barely do anything. It was like maybe a chat room or a... So the computer didn't do it for you. You had to do it yourself.

That's the idea, is that you had to do it yourself. Yeah, you had to do it yourself. I mean, I went to computer camp growing up, you know. I was like 11 years old going to... computer camp on Lake Salmon, Salmon Lake in Montana. And, you know, it'd be like, it'd look like a classic American summer camp, like, from a movie. And then in the afternoon, like for two hours, there'd just be rows of computers. I think TI 994A, Texas Instruments, TI994A computers all lined up with tape drives.

And we learned basic programming. And, you know, yeah, computers back then, it was, it was this nerdy, I, idea of an extension of possibility, but it wasn't like, this is the device that connects us or anything like that. It was still very much human input base. Reggie, you also, in addition to being musically inclined, having beatbox skills and being a comedian, you also are a master of impersonation. And not everybody can, either many people try, but not everybody can do it with us much precision as you seem to have. And in fact, one of your TED Talks, you know, I was listening to some of your TED Talks and I was like, am I,

did I hit the right thing? Because you begin and they're like a couple of characters that are talking to each other or past each other and then you, you know, you ask the audience, you wonder why I'm using this voice. How did you develop that skill of impersonation? Is it being a careful listener? Is it having the right ear? Is it, you know, the way that you described how you beatbox and you use different parts of your voice to beatboxes, that's that. the thing that makes you so good at impersonation? I mean, I guess, well, I grew up listening to watching, I mean, again, I was watching a lot of television, and I watched, I was also really into PBS.

So when I was growing up, I was exposed to a lot of English television shows. So you were listening to All-Star Cook doing Masterpiece Theater or something? Yeah, Masterpiece. Yeah, Mimicking his voice. For a Masterpiece Theater, because I used that, you know, for sketches. in high school or whatever. And people would always like they are talking and then English accent, you know, whatever, which was just

shittiest like. And and then like I was watching a lot of period pieces and then what really got me is Monty Python, which had tons of voices in it. But a lot of us watched Monty Python and talked about, you know, it's merely a flesh wound, but few of us could actually pull it off.

So how did you get to the point where you could actually hit those voices in the way that you can? Yeah, I mean, I think I think a lot of it has to do with being a musician, you know, and having a musical ear and just always wanting to figure out how can I mimic something, you know? And so for me, when I spoke in an English accent most of the time when I was growing up, wherever, I would be like thinking of myself, like how does, it's more like I'm speaking from like a place of embodiment, not really, I'm not doing an

impression, I'm just trying to channel whatever that is, you know, so that it matches what I'm hearing with my ear. And obviously, like, when you're traveling and things of that nature, especially when you go to the actual country, then you start hearing all these different kinds of accents, because, you know, obviously there's different ways of speaking in England, and there's probably, like, 400 different types of dialects. And so, yeah, it's, so I think, like, you know, or even, like, when someone is talking like this, you know, they're from a different country in the way they speak and you know, you figure out the affectations, why they say what they say in the vowels are different. And so for me, it was more like trying to sound like, you know, Olivia Newton-John.

I used to sing, let's get physical on the way to school. So I think as a kid, like, you know, me trying or imitating singers and that's what created my vocal range for sure. And then in high school, what really kicked my vocal range in was a band called The Sundays. and I'm sure to remember her name. I'll remember her name, but the singer of the Sundays, she, her lines are so high, but I was so determined to hit them.

And I figured out a way to get there. So I think that really broadened. Oh, Harriet Wheeler, that's her name. And that really broadened my range. So I just like I've always had an ear. Does it come in handy when you're ordering plane tickets or ordering food from a particular restaurant? or traveling to a country and you don't want to be treated like a foreigner.

Yeah, for sure. I would use it, I would use it in various ways. Not like a lot, but yeah. Like what? Give me an example. I mean, I don't know. I mean, I would just fuck with people and just be English for the night, you know, or something like that.

Or, yeah, or like if I was like, if, like authority figures that didn't know who I was, you know, if I did something and I was kind of in trouble, then I would act like I didn't know what I was doing, you know. And another accent? I don't understand. I don't. I'm sorry. You know, whatever. And they'd be like, oh, he doesn't understand. And that would always throw them off. Ordering food?

Not so much. Not so much. I mean, like, if I was ordering something French, I might say, pan chocola as opposed to pan o'chocola or whatever people say. I don't even know what people say. Do you have a Starbucks name? No. Starbucks is my mortal enemy. Oh, okay. Yeah.

I'm sorry I asked. Are at the beanery or something? I boycott it. All right. Sorry, I asked that question. I wanted to do like a class. I think there should be a class law, sorry, class action lawsuit against Starbucks. And what it would be is it's saying that Starbucks cannot call what they serve

coffee. I don't know. It's like I don't really, I mean, I go to like small coffee shops. I go to like local coffee shops just because it's better. People care. It's more community based and the money goes into the, community. So I just don't like corporations. That's righteous. Since you were a kid that was so musical and we're talking to you in the fall and it's pumpkin season, I can't go anywhere

without seeing people's pumpkins and fall leaves and harvest displays. Yes. That's true. Even though they're not harvesting anywhere, you know, in the city, but it's a look. It's a look. What is acceptable candy to give out for someone like Reggie Watts? Nowadays, if I did give out candy, I'd probably do, you know what I would do? Lily's peanut butter cups, like dark chocolate peanut butter cups because they're sugar-free and they taste really good. And that would make me feel good about giving an actual healthy-ish product to kids. And they're full-size.

They're not the little teeny. No. Little Reese's peanut buttercups that are like, this big. You don't eat sugar at all anymore? I do on occasion, but most of the time I'm trying to choose. You know, I have Lily's chocolate chips here. So I just like, but a handful of those with some real peanut butter. And, you know, that gives me that.

And I try to stay away from sugar, sugars. Like, it's not particularly useful in any way. And that's very addictive. So I try to just stick to more non-suggery foods. And if I do sugar, all that. do it like a keto ice cream or something like that. What's your go-to meal to get you ready to perform or your go-to snack if it's not a full meal? I don't really have a snack before I go.

I mean, I usually try to go on an empty stomach if I can because it's better for performance. In terms of vocal control? It's just like overall energy. I think my writer is only like two apples, a bag of almonds, like four bottles of water and glass bottles and oh and then like we have six pack of corona but that's not for me that's just like if friends come visit me backstage and at least they have like some beer or something they can drink yeah so it's really simple purple m&Ms or anything oh and nothing like zivia no no none of that none of that I mean the sweetest thing is zivia soda yeah what flavor

I like um I like the cream soda is really good and uh the zivia cream soda actually tastes like cream soda. It really does. Yeah. It actually tastes great. I'll vouch for that. Their cola cola tastes pretty good. And it's like a lighter cola flavor. And then they have a caffeine-free cola that I love. So that's like what I like for nighttime drinking. But yeah, those are, I mean, root beer is pretty good too. None of the other ones really hit me that hard, though. But cream soda for sure. Sounds like you don't drink alcohol. No, I, you know, it's not, I don't find it a particularly useful experience. No sugar, no alcohol, anything else you don't do?

If Reggie's coming to dinner, what should they know not to have on the menu? Oh, peas. Green peas? Yeah. What do you have against peas? I do not like peas. I don't like the smell of them. I don't like a bowl of peas.

It's the grossest thing. Is it because they came in a can or those mushy frozen peas that they always had on Thursdays in the school lunch menu? Yeah, the school lunch, I was picky. out all the peas, you know, like a bowl of peas, you know, people love with like some butter on top of it. It's like, I don't like the smell of it. I don't like the texture. Have you ever had, like, fresh English peas when they're not canned or frozen when they're freshly shelled? I'm sure I have, but I just don't like them. Your face is telling that story. Your face is like, no peas. There's nothing about peas that I like, although split pea soup is great.

I love split pea soup. Split pea soup for me, I'm like growing up, I could totally eat. I could totally eat split-piece soup. No problem. Split-up soup is one of those strange things because it doesn't look like it would be good. No. Everything about it looks like you might want to use it to shalac something or, you know. Yeah, it's a paste. But it's actually very satisfying in this harvest season where the pumpkins. Yeah, it's a harvest, this bountiful harvest season that we're experiencing. I read a lot about you in preparation for this interview, and it was fun. It was fun to read about your life.

and your journey in both music and comedy and on the James Corden show. One of the words that kept coming up over and over again, though, is that you embrace the idea of being an oddball. Your word, like you said to describe yourself or to be a weirdo. Most people, you know, that is a label that is attached to them by other people.

In your case, you embrace it. When and why did you do that? I mean, I was always known as a weird kid growing up. So, you know, I've never not felt weird. I've definitely wanted to fit in to an extent, but I also knew that I wasn't ever, you know, going to fully fit in. And that was okay, but that's why I was an entertainer. I think it's kind of entertainer class clown types

are always viewing themselves a little bit on the outside anyway. That's why they're doing what they're doing. So, yeah, I don't know. I always thought of myself as weird. My friends growing up were weird. And, you know, I gravitated to weird friends in junior high and high school and, you know, and beyond. You know, always hung out with all the weird kids or I was in the lunchroom and I would hang out with the weird kids in the lunchroom. You know, even though I had like a couple popular stents, but I was just like, I was just role playing to see what it was like.

But, like, yeah, always with the weird. I mean, even in those circles, I was known with the weird kid, but I was funny. So people like having me around. When you say the weird kids, the kids who were purposely misunderstood or the kids who were outcast, I just, you know, it's a kind of an elastic word that can mean a lot of different things and is often determined not by the person who's called weird, right? Right. Well, for sure, for sure. Well, I mean, the 80s, there were clearer delineations in school, you know, the touch. the types of people in school and weirdos, you know, geeks, dorks, whatever, weirdos.

Yeah, you know, there was, you know, there were kids in school that, you know, they were definitely, like, they didn't fit in or they, you know, they were probably, you know, back then we didn't know what to call it, but they're probably autistic, you know, on the spectrum somewhere. And, but I gravitated to those kids a lot. and, you know, it was always, I don't know, I saw a kid being picked on or whatever. Like I tried to make friends with them because it was like not cool

just to remind them that there are people that see them, you know, it's like we can hang out. So, yeah, so weird out of me, it was always like the highest thing that you could be. It felt like a badge of honor. Well, yeah, because it's the most powerful position. You know? There is, yeah.

There is power in being purposely misunderstood. And also in what you were saying earlier about having your foot in both worlds, that sounds like you're stretched and you're uncomfortable. But there's another way of looking at it. You're an edge walker. Yeah, for sure. Also, I identify with if I had a spirit animal, it would be an Nubis from Egyptian lore. Or I guess you could say, Hades or Karon or from Sumerian times,

the Rishkeghal. You know, like, this was the God that had those, the God of the underworld, but could freely move between the world of the living and the death, you know. So it's like, like Dr. Hu essentially, you know, like I definitely identified with Dr. Hu growing up because Dr. Hu was this time lord that, you know, existed in his own paradigm and would travel to all different kinds of realities all the time and got to meet all kinds of people have adventures and things like that. And that's kind of how I always viewed myself as a, you know, someone who can like go between all the different types of

worlds. I can talk, you know, growing up, maybe talking to the popular kids, the dirt bike kids or the, whatever, hunter kids or the, you know, like, that was my, that was my thing. I like being able to, I didn't want to hang out with just one crew of people. And that's still how you operate today through music, through comedy, moving through life. Yeah, for sure. I mean, I, you know, I still hang out. It's funny. I love surprising, you know, like artistic communities. Like, you know, I did a show last night with this band called Cairo's Creature Club. And, you know, the show was like small. It was kind of co-sponsored by Desert Days, but, you know, it was at this place called Permanent Records. And, you know, they're an incredible band, first of all.

but like, you know, I did a set and my set was like super flowy and felt really cool. Like it was like really like everything was firing really well. And it wasn't like super packed or crowded. And then, you know, and then they got up and did their thing. And then they killed. And then afterwards we're all hanging out. And I think people are always like, they're like, I can't believe you're hanging out with us. Like, like, I get that a lot, you know, sometimes.

Or not a lot, but just sometimes. I can't believe like, what do you, why are you here? And I'm just like hanging out with like some. weirdo kids and some underground club somewhere and I'm like, yeah, it's because I'm one of you. And I feel most comfortable in

those situations. But at the same time, I swim all these different kinds of circles. I like having access to the cutting edge of whatever's going on, whether it's AI research, whether it's psychedelics consciousness research, whether it's going to JPL and you know,

working with a space program, you know, on some kind of fun JPL jet propulsion labs. Okay. I'm sorry, that didn't register for me automatically that I would know what JPO stood for. Sorry. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. NASA JPL. They work kind of together. But they, yeah, so, you know, doing stuff for them or NASA, you know, or whatever.

It's like science and art. So why choose? You do all of it. There's no need to choose. There's no need to choose. It's a buffet and you choose all of it. I love it. We always gift our listeners with a recipe, and we know that you're going to choose something interesting and that it won't involve peas.

We've established that. There will be no green peas. But the recipe that you wanted to tell us about, you mentioned early on that your mother's crepes or what you really think about when you think about comfort food. Tell me about them. When would she serve them? Yeah, she served them as pretty random. And they're crepe, Suzette, we should say. Yeah, she would serve it kind of random.

I don't think there was like a time of year or anything. She would just make them sometimes. Sometimes I would, you know, ask for it or whatever. Special crate pan that she would use, the inverted. Yeah. Yeah, it's like a flat, very flat, low-edged pan. That she would, yeah, she would mix up the batter, you know, and make it. And then, you know, immediately cover it in butter and, you know, put the sugar on it,

and then we'd roll it up. And then you eat it rolled up. And, yeah, sometimes my friends would come over and, you know, and make it with my friends. And it was a cool thing to share. Well, the recipe that you shared with us involves fire. Oh, yeah. So would you do that with your friends?

Fire. Or you actually ignite the... Oh, oh, yes, right, right, right, right. Yes, in that particular recipe, sometimes she did. She used a brandy, I think. Something like that. She used some kind of thing. Sometimes she did, but not always.

Okay, because I was wondering, if you and your friends are in the kitchen and you're like just, you know, lighten things on fire, that might be kind of interesting. I'm just reaching for the recipe here. She would have been the one. Even though I was a fire bug,

she would have been a bug. Okay, why does that not surprise me to learn that you are a firebug? That doesn't surprise me at all. And I'm thinking about you and all that hair try to ignite something very carefully. So you do it. Until these days.

Yeah, but I've never made it. I've never made it in my life. So I don't know. Okay. All right. Well, I road test all the rest of it. and I do a lot of hair, so I'll just pull it all. You have to.

You have to. And do it very carefully and do it with an extinguisher or a fire blanket right there. Always, fire blanket for sure. Like just right there. Yeah. And the recipe says that it is a beautiful presentation, but that it just kind of flames out. Yeah.

And you have this wonderful, it's an orange kind of buttery syrup. that it creates over the crim. Yeah, yeah, the brandy has that, like, it has got that sweet brandy aroma to it, which is really nice. And then you have the sugar, the butter, the sugar, the brandy. Yeah, it's really amazing. I mean, nowadays, I would probably just make it with...

I was about to ask, what's the sugar substitute? Yeah, I'd probably use monk fruit. Yeah, monk fruit. That's what I was wondering. Because it does, it allows you to get that, that crisp in a way that you'd with like stevia or some of the other things that you could use? Yeah, and it doesn't taste good.

Mung fruit tastes like sugar. So, yeah, and it keeps the granularity like sugar and everything. So it's a pretty one-for-one. So, yeah, I would use that. And this is what comfort food from your childhood tastes like. Yeah, I mean, yeah, for my mom, yeah, those definitely. Yeah, I mean, outside from macaroni and cheese or something. That's like whatever kid.

Anything from your dad's side of the family that, that you still think of as comfort food? Cornbread, I mean, for sure. My dad loved cornbread. And, yeah, I loved corn. And I also loved cream corn as a kid, like with butter, just cream corn. My mom never liked corn because she said that's food for animals. That's, well, that's often the view in many parts of Europe.

Reggie Watts, I really dug this conversation. This has been fun. Yeah. Thank you so much for making time for us. Thanks, Michelle. Yeah, I'm super start. I've loved hearing your story. I look forward to making Crape Suzette.

And I'll keep an eye out for you. Well, that was fun. Now, before we let you go, I want to remind you that our inbox is always, always open. If you want to record yourself either in video or audio, tell us about your mama's kitchen. Tell us about some of her recipes. Tell us about some of the episodes that you've heard and maybe your thoughts on them. You can record yourself, either video and audio, and send that to us. at YMK at Higher Ground Productions.com for a chance for your voice to be heard on one of the future

episodes or maybe for your video to be featured on YouTube because we're now on YouTube as well. If you want to try the crepe Suzette, you will find that recipe at your mama's kitchen.com. We mentioned in this episode that it calls for brandy. It actually, as you will see, if you go to the website, calls for a mixture of Grand Marnier or cognac. So we want to make sure we get that right. And while you're there, you'll find recipes for all the previous episodes. Hope you'll come back next week because we're always serving up something delicious.

And until we have a chance to see each other again, be bountiful.