Terrence Dwyer, the president of the Segerstrom Center for the Arts, has been trying hard to convince young Orange County that the Costa Mesa temple of culture isn't just a place for mom and dad anymore.
Reggie Watts could be the ultimate statement of the Center's new programming philosophy.
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Reggie Watts
Where: Segerstrom Concert Hall
When: Wednesday
The New York-based vocalist/beatboxer/musician/comedian/improviser, whose Wednesday show in the Ren?e and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall was part of the second annual Off Center Festival, represents the epitome of wild and woolly downtown hipness. Stocky, dressed for the practice room (his first onstage act was zipping his fly) and sporting an afro that would have been considered impressive in the Age of Aquarius, Watts has to be the strangest act to appear on that august stage since it opened in 2006.
You might have seen Watts without knowing his name. He has appeared on Jimmy Fallon's and Conan O'Brien's shows and is a regular on the IFC's "Comedy Bang Bang." He's also popular on the comedy, alternative music and theater festival circuits.
Watts is an indefinable animal. Everything he does is improvised.
Using only his voice, he quickly manipulates digital samplers to feather together intricate and multi-layered loops of repeating sounds which he then solos over. In contrast to his highly rhythmic and tightly structured sound beds, Watts' lead lines and melodies are very fluid and stream-of-consciousness.
He employs his highly flexible voice to imitate a huge variety of styles, from jazz to African township music to classical arias. Often he invents languages. They're nonsense words, but Watts modulates his inflection and body language so they seem uncannily like real phrases whose meaning you can't quite make out.
Sometimes holding two microphones, occasionally playing simple repeated chords or single lines on a keyboard, Watts is a facile and virtuosic composer with a symphony of vocal sounds at his disposal.
Watts alternates his music-making with random monologues about virtually everything under the sun. His ramblings can be hilarious, pseudo-scholarly, disconcerting or maddeningly obscure. He sometimes lets his voice trail into inaudibility or wanders offstage during his talks.
Watts began the evening with a long, detailed and completely fictitious etymology of the Segerstrom Center's name. "It's named after Bob Seger," he told the young, rowdy crowd. "He liked storms. But he didn't want to be obvious about it."
Such artful nonsense is typical of Watts' style. Sometimes it soars; sometimes it falls flat. What's amazing is that he employs no mental filters or governors, allowing one tangent to lead to another. He covered group sex, organic food, President Obama, vocal techniques, the importance of sound absorption and a crazy plethora of other topics, all connected through non sequiturs.
Watts' final song of the evening, announced several times, was delayed over and over by one aside or another. That's at the heart of Watts' performance persona: to keep us off balance and unsure of where exactly he's taking us.
He used that uncertainty right through the show's final moments. As he sang over an energetic sound loop, Watts slowly slid off the stage, walked through the audience and disappeared out the front door of the hall, improvising lyrics all the while. The lights stayed off; the accompaniment continued. Was the show over or not?
A few moments later, Watts finally provided closure. Like a sleight-of-hand artist who's finally done fooling us, he bounded back onstage, thanked us and bid us good night.
Watts isn't everyone's cup of tea, but that's the whole point. From the wall-defying choreography of Project Bandaloop to the tent cabaret of Teatro Zinzanni, the Segerstrom folks have been striving mightily to defy expectations of what a performing arts center should offer. They and Watts are pursuing the same goal: to shake us loose from our ruts and preconceptions, no matter the result.
Who: Reggie Watts
Where: Ren?e and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall
When: Wednesday
Contact the writer: 714-796-7979 or phodgins@ocregister.com
Source: http://www.ocregister.com/entertainment/watts-409352-center-segerstrom.html
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