How to let go of needing a plan (w/ Reggie Watts)

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1:36You're listening to How to Be a Better Human. I'm your host, Chris Duffy. Today, we are talking about improvisation, creativity, and living in the moment. In some ways, that can be a very scary and tough skill to learn. But in other ways, it's what we do all day long, whether we like it or not. I mean, there is no script in our daily lives. Well, that's not exactly true because for me, I am literally reading off a script right now, but you probably don't have a script. I'm imagining that as a podcast listener, that is an unscripted interaction. And you know what? I'm going to go off script myself too.

2:08Ding dong. Woo, woo, woo. Aye, aye, aye, aye, aye, aye, aye. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. Bing, bing, bing, bing, bing, bing. You know, the irony is I actually did write all of those noises into the script. So even when I said I was going off script, I was still just staying on script, But you get the idea. You understand. And today's guest is someone who actually does go off script. He doesn't just fake it by putting unscripted noises into the script. Reggie Watts is a comedian and a musician, and there's no one else quite like him. He is one of the most celebrated improvisers performing today, and that is for a very, very clear reason, which is that he is so good at it.

2:45Here's a clip from Reggie's TED Talk, which was fully improvised on the spot. Thank you ladies and gentlemen Certainly it's a pleasure here to be back here All of you guys here Certainly it's a special show here Ted You know, Ted is one of those places Makes me feel like I'm somewhere And that means something These days Now People ask me Why start like that I don't really have an answer But all I can say is that I'm really motivated by something called improvisation. Many of you are familiar with improvisation because you've heard the word, and sometimes that's enough. But what is it really, improvisation?

3:41Why am I speaking like this? how do I really sound I don't know but I try as much as I can to be as truthful about who I am in the moment even if I'm using different voices I know that the times when some of us are wondering what is truth and what isn't but here's a quick summary truth is the intersection of two different things that are constantly colliding for no other reason than the fact that they need to collide in a moment of perception. Why does perception come into it? Because that's super cool and no one loves perception more than people who are conscious. We're going to be right back after this break with a fully unscripted, unpredictable, in-the-moment conversation with the man himself, Reggie Watts.

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6:05of travel possibilities with the Capital One Venture X card. What's in your wallet? Terms apply. Lounge access is subject to change. See CapitalOne.com for details. The market's uncertain. Revenue's tied and hiring on hold. That's why results-driven companies are using Upwork to keep work moving. Go to Upwork.com today and start hiring proven freelance talent fast. No bulky overhead. No rigid long-term contracts. Just the right expert right when you need them. Work smarter and faster with Upwork. Go to Upwork.com now and find your freelance expert. That's U-P-W-O-R-K.com. Post a job for free and get started today.

6:52And we are back. We're here today talking about creativity and improvisation with Reggie Watts. Hi, you're listening to Reggie Watts, and you're also experiencing me as well. and this is me. I hope you like that. So let's talk about this new special. It's called Nevermind. It starts with you walking into a rehearsal and singing a song that is basically every 90s and early 2000s one hit wonder at once. And it's such a great joke. I just immediately started laughing when you play the song. And then it goes from that to you being late for another rehearsal, going to yet another rehearsal, singing a completely different genre of music and then being late for the special and you come into the special and you just start there.

7:37What is it that you're trying to communicate? Like, what is the tone that you want to set when you start your special like that? You know, whenever I do my specials, I usually have some kind of a weird beginning of some sort. Like, I just like the idea of doing like a bit that kind of bookends or sandwiches the experience. I've been wanting to do this for a long time where I just like set up a bunch of bands in a rehearsal studio. Like, and I just go from room to room and I don't know the songs they've written. They've only been instructed to write a song that I will improvise the lead vocal on.

8:09I love that. And so I just walk in and they're just like, one, two, three, and whatever the song is, then I just have to like improvise that song and just go bounce room to room, like maybe like five genres or something like that. And so this is kind of like a light version of that idea. And I thought it was cool. And then I was glad that Fred could do it. I thought he's just perfect. how he's just very nonplussed and lackadaisical and i just like imagined this like you know we're just doing this spin doctor sounding you know stupid song and then he's like oh you're late you know we keep doing late until i get to the special i thought it was just kind of like a dumb way to start the special but also kind of just put it a little bit in the spirit of give a little bit of a hint of the kind of 90s-esque spirit even though it's not like hardcore like we didn't like go hardcore cinematic, hardcore wardrobe, you know, like we didn't go hard, hardcore, but it gives you enough of the idea that it puts you in the spirit of it.

9:03It totally does. And, and I mean, you have this big celebrity, Fred Armisen, and the way that you're using him, as opposed to him being like, everyone, you're going to love this special just way, like instead of him giving some sort of endorsement, he is kind of rushing you around saying like, you've already messed this up and you've, you continually are messing it up and being late to things. So there are two kind of sections or moments in the special that I want to bring up now because I think they tie into other big things from your themes, from your career and the way that you make work that I want to talk about later on.

9:36The first one is that you have a lot of jokes about technology and kind of delivery mechanisms in the special. And part of that is because the special is thematically set in the 90s, the late 1990s. But you have jokes about like the machine that you use to loop. You have jokes about like compact SD cards. You have jokes about like laser discs. They're both very funny on their face. But there's also something really funny about the fact that you are so focused on the actual system that is being used to deliver the jokes themselves. I think a lot of times comedians or artists try and make the infrastructure invisible and you are drawing so much attention to the infrastructure.

10:16I just think it's funny in a way to be like hyper transparent, but also kind of earnest. I mean, the idea behind what I'm doing when I'm talking about this, that subject matter is, is to just pretend like the audience knows exactly what I'm talking about and just being very procedural about it and just like, just keep going and keep going and just assume that they know what I'm talking about. I find it humorous as I'm doing it. What is this guy doing? Like, you know, I'm saying that to myself, like, well, while it's happening. Every time that I've ever seen you perform, you have this real confidence to yourself.

10:51And I think part of that confidence seems to be about not feeling like you have to make every single piece of yourself for everybody. It's okay if the joke is for the group of people that already understand this piece. And by getting specific, you end up being universal. Right. Like by making the joke that is just for the people who have like been in a studio with an audio engineer, it actually ends up being hilarious to everyone. But that takes a real confidence in yourself and an inability to not conform to what maybe other people would tell you to do. So how did you develop that or like what advice would you give to people who struggle with that when they're trying to make their own work or just living their own lives?

11:34I think the easiest way to describe like, or the easiest way to kind of enter that state is you're doing it for yourself. You know, you're up there and you're entertaining yourself. You're the first audience member. You know, what I'm doing on stage is what I'm doing on stage, but also it's coming from the perspective of the audience. I'm doing the show for me, but I also know that I am concerned about the audience's well-being. so I know that if I just focus on me I trust that what I'm doing is for the audience anyways so I'm not going to go too indulgent I am also listening to the response of the audience as well so yeah so sometimes I'll try things and maybe they're not they don't hit as hard as I want and I'll just adjust based off of you know what's going on or I know that if I continue maybe people aren't getting it at first but I can keep building something and eventually it'll probably turn into something good.

12:26So it's really just kind of trusting that you are, you know, taking the audience into consideration and that you're also doing what you think you would want to see in a show. When you were just starting out and you were trying to figure it out, figure out like, what was your voice or what was your thing? How did you find that? And how did you stick to that? or did it not feel like that at first? I don't know. It's a weird, it sounds lame, but like I've always felt like me whenever I've performed, whatever I'm doing. Whatever it is that I'm into, I see it very clearly. Like it almost like everything reveals itself as I'm imagining it or as I'm performing it.

13:06And it feels like it's always kind of been that way. Even if like in the early days, I was kind of ripping, you know, bits, I was sampling bits and pieces from Eddie Murphy and, you know, Bill Cosby or, you know, whatever was around at the time, Monty Python. I was building an identity through that kind of sampling. But I felt like when I found things funny in other things that I was watching, whether it's Money Python, Holy Grail or something like that, when I was laughing at that stuff, I didn't feel like I was laughing because they were funny. I felt like I was laughing because I found it funny, if that makes any sense.

13:43I was going to say, can you talk more about that idea of building an identity through sampling? I mean, yeah. I mean, I think it's just like, you know, you're watching things and you're getting exposed to things and you get super stoked about, you know, you catch on to something and you're like, oh, that was so funny. That made me laugh so much. I can't stop thinking about it. And I need more stuff like that. What else is out there like that? And you start that journey of finding more stuff that you're into, you know, and wanting to laugh and be entertained in whatever way you want to be entertained.

14:12And I think like in the beginning, when you're working on stuff and finding identity, you are going to borrow a lot from the things that you're inspired by. Or, you know, to some extent, you're going to borrow. It kind of takes care of itself as long as you just keep following your interests and you're drawn to perform in whatever way that is. you know, it's like you need starter leaves and beginning structures to kind of explore, you know, what you are and things like that. And I think the sampling aspect is just kind of a natural way of doing that. I mean, eventually those samples kind of go away and you're kind of sampling in a different way.

14:46And sometimes you can even be sampling from yourself and the ideas that you're generating and resampling and things like that. Like as you're discovering yourself, as long as you're on fire about what you're into, because it's really like a lot of these things, like finding identity and so forth is much, much easier than people think it is. I think people get frustrated with like, how do you find your voice? And, you know, I'd say in general, like the things that come easy to you, like the way that you laugh or the way that you hang out with friends or, you know, if you're helpful or if you like to fix stuff or if you're like a soother or whether you're a pessimist or whatever it is that you are, you know, wherever you naturally gravitate to behaviorally, operationally in life.

15:24I think that however that feels, that's how it should feel artistically. for you. It's just a fluid expression of what needs to happen. And I know that it can feel daunting or feel kind of nebulous and too big, but it's really more, it's much simpler than, than one might imagine. You're a master improviser. And I think this is one of the things that's always so funny about talking to people who don't have any experience with improv about improv is that they always are like, I could never do that. And, and actually like the vast majority of their life is unscripted and made up in the moment, right?

16:00Like that is just how we interact with other people. You don't plan it all out ahead of time. That's why I love improvisation is because it makes something that could be weird or awkward or feel like a mistake. Instead, it shines the spotlight on it in a way that makes it a gift instead of something that you're like embarrassed about or like, oh, we have to cut that out in post somehow. I mean, the best thing about accidents happening, especially when you're improvisational, those are opportunities. You know, if the lights go out or the sound is being weird or whatever, I love that stuff when it happens.

16:35It's just, yeah, I just really think of it as like an opportunity. It's like, oh, cool. Let's use this.

16:44We're going to take a short break, but don't go anywhere. We will be right back.

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19:00And we are back. We're talking about improvisation, creativity, and living in the moment with Reggie Watts. And Reggie, I want to ask you about something that you said in an interview with the LA Times. You said, anytime I'm anywhere in any situation, I'm always kind of like finding the ridiculousness in it. And I want to ask you about that because that seems like such a great way to go through life is to be always finding the ridiculousness. yeah you know it's like definitely a good survival mechanism for you know terrible situations it's like when they whenever i've been in you know potentially non-optimal situations even like the wto riots you know like in seattle i was there at the beginning when the violence started and then i kind of ducked out and i was just like no i'm not gonna do that you know i walk three blocks to get away from the tear gas and then there's like some van parked in the middle of an intersection with a PA system and they're like, Hey, you want to sing?

19:51And then I just like sang for a little bit and then gave him back the mic and then went back to Capitol Hill. It's just like the idea that like, yes, things are serious and there are things that are bad in the world, or there are things that are not optimal, or there's things that are just normal and mundane. But I mean, the thing that I would try to encourage people or remind people is that you are the owner of your perspective. You know, you are in charge of the way that you're interpreting reality. And I think like, it's a powerful skill to be able to, like, if someone's like, Oh no, oh, we're fucked.

20:18We're not going to be able to do this or, you know, this and that, you know, for me, I'm like, I don't believe that there's always a way to reformat it, to look at it in a different way. There's like some positivity to it. It just, you know, I'm just, it's in my personality to just reformat stuff. If someone's like, I can't do this or this is impossible. I'm like, that's not true. And if it is, well, at least we tried something, you know, like that's the attitude that I have. And so for me, I just think life is ridiculous. Like I was talking to my girlfriend about she'd just taken the bar exam and it's really intense.

20:52And I was like, I don't think I could ever take a test like that because the whole time I would be taking a test, I would be doing an impression of someone taking a test. You know what I mean? Like, like I couldn't, I don't think I, I mean, I would try to take the test seriously, but my mind would probably start to drift and be like, oh, I'm taking a test. Oh, it's better move my pencil like this. And just kind of shift the paper a little bit, look concerned, you know, for a second, look up for a little bit, you know, like that's just, I don't know. I just like, it's hard for me to not be in observation mode or I call it like one foot in one foot out mode.

21:25Does that come from somewhere? Do you think like, were you always like that? Or was there a specific moment in your life that you realized like you had this ability to kind of step into that mode and that you liked being in that mode? No, I just like, again, it's a really weird thing, but I just, I've always been that way. I don't really remember, like, I don't really remember moments where I'm like, oh, now I'm this way or, you know, or now I'm gravitating towards, there's definitely like things that I love, you know, I ran into that I loved and I'm like, oh, I want more of that, you know, for sure.

21:58But I think the way that I viewed things, the way I absorbed information, the way I was in the present reality was always just blown up like anything that i was in like my imagination was always kind of expanded in a way that was always trying to find interesting things and really small things even you know big things of course but also small dumb things you know like giving voices to spiders you know spider web as it's moving around or you know or you know watching the way that the branches are moving in the wind you know and kind of like imagining all this stuff happening inside of the tree or whatever you know of like, I've always kind of had that way of that outlook in the world or that way of kind of perceiving the world.

22:43Your TED talk, which people have heard a clip from, it was about improvising anytime that you want. And how much of your talk was planned out before you went on stage? And how much did you completely improvise? The whole thing was improvised. Yeah. I didn't really have too much of a plan other than like, I wanted to try to be like a little bit more informational about my process. I don't know how much of it was successful. I mean, it ended up just being kind of like weird and silly, but you know, I tried to make it about something because, you know, I told them that's where I was coming from, like on the talk, because I think they were looking for something a little bit different than the last time.

23:19So yeah. So I tried to structure it a little bit, but no, I mean, none of it was planned in any way. And you came out and you're like, no, I'm going to just be me. And I'm going to be not even just me. I'm going to be me in this moment, like totally improvised me. That is a skill. Like, I think that is a skill that you've practiced over years and years and years and years. What are some of the key things that you do to allow yourself to be in the moment like that? Like, how do you get yourself in that state? Well, I think a lot of it is just reminding myself that it's just another gig, you know, without diminishing its importance.

23:50But it's just like, oh, well, now I'm going to do what I do in this room, you know, and kind of keep it a little bit grounded and practical in that way. I mean, there's definitely moments leading up to it where I'm like, Oh boy, you know, this is Ted and you know, the stakes are like my manager going like, you're not going to prepare anything. Maybe you should clear something, you know? And I'm like, no, I'm good. You know, but like I, you know, there's definitely not to say that I get, you know, I'm like, am I going to be able to pull this off? I mean, I'd say probably the thing I got most nervous about was like making sure that it was at least on somewhat on par with my first Ted performance because, and that's kind of a hard one because that's like the first time people saw me at ted and you know there's it's hard to equal something like that but i i wanted it to at least be relatively in that ballpark of that and so that was really the i was think i think i was more concerned about me doing well against me than necessarily the whole thing and the other thing is just like time because time goes by so quick on that stage and it's only eight minutes or nine minutes or whatever it was.

24:57And so managing time, that was probably a challenge that definitely had a little bit of like, a little bit of anxiousness about, okay, make sure you stay on time, make sure you get in the stuff that you want to get in and the amount of time that you have. Yeah. But generally now I just kind of, I usually am chatty and really casual right up until the time that I'm introduced. So I'll just be like, oh yeah, that's really cool. Yeah, well, I live in LA and blah, blah, blah. And then it's like, and we walk into the stage, right? So we're like, okay, I'll see you in a second. Cause I think it's funny to like be talking about something unrelated and being casual.

25:29I'm just going, oh, I'm just going to perform on Ted right now. Like, I just, I think that shit's funny. And I think there's so many lessons from what you said that like anyone can apply. I mean, genuinely, like the, even the idea of keep it like even falsely casual right into the moment, because then your body is kind of tricked into like, it's, I don't have time to have my heart like start pounding and hyperventilating because I'm acting like I'm relaxed. And weirdly, that actually makes you relaxed on stage. And then the idea of being like, take away the stakes that are the external ones that you actually can't control anyway, and then make it the internal stakes of just like, am I doing better than I did the last time I did something like this?

26:06Or if it's the first time, am I just doing something that I'm proud of? Those are really kind of applicable to everyone. But they're also really hard to do. I think that's true. It's like you find out mechanisms to kind of distract yourself from, you know getting into those feedback loops those kind of you know anxiety or like over concern or whatever it is and you just start focusing on it and it just gets tighter and tighter and tighter and you're losing the big picture yeah and i think like that's why i think you know having nice chats with people about other stuff you know before i'm going on that works because like oh well i'm gonna have a conversation with somebody and i'm gonna put my attention into that and that's where my energy is going and that way you know when i'm called on stage i'm like oh shit okay now I'm performing.

26:46I think they are forms of tactics. And like I said, I also just think it's ridiculous to just, I just love that. Well, I'll see you just a little bit, you know, they do like go up to like 50 ,000 people.

27:01I'm obviously extremely biased here, but like, this is part of why I think comedy and humor are such interesting and powerful tools is because I was like, so much of society tells us to not be ridiculous, to be like serious and impressive. And if you instead are like, I'm going to be this silly little clown boy. Like when I sell myself that I have more fun. And also people like me more because they're like, hey, this guy's kind of fun. He's like not like he's not trying to impress me with his sweaty like, oh, I'm also I did all these things. Here's my resume. Instead, I'm just like, I am about to do something very silly and probably extremely bad.

27:37And people like that person more. Yeah, I think so. and it's good in a mixture, you know, it's a good in the lineup. Cause whenever I perform, I am concerned about the lineup, you know, like I usually watch, you know, who's on a show at Ted, I watch as many things as I can, as many talks as I can, I get a vibe for the room and like what the audience is like. And, you know, and people from Ted are kind of like giving you their read on the audience and, you know, stuff like that. And, and so it's like, you know, you take all of that stuff into account and when you go up on stage, you're armed with that pre-knowledge.

28:08and then you're also armed with the real-time response, you know, in the moment. And it's a, it's cool. It's like, if you involve yourself, if you care about the show, I know that Ted's not really a show, but it's, it's kind of a show. It's a presentation, I guess. But, you know, I, like, I think of everything as, you know, you can use theater to describe everything in, in, you know, the performance realm. You can use film or you can use TV, you know, you can use all of those things because they all have a similar thing going on. And in comedy and lineups and you have like, you know, who's featuring, you know, who's headlining, who's opening, you know, or what's the order, how much time do we have, all that stuff.

28:43And, and I think like just that experience, that level of experience, it, you know, you kind of apply it anywhere. It doesn't matter what you're doing. If you're doing a daytime television show, or if you're, you know, a guest on a TV show, or if you're doing a podcast, any of those types of any form of media, you can use that, what you learn and apply it anywhere, which I think is fascinating to me. Like watching other people and seeing what is happening and being in the room, that's a way of like gathering the pieces that you want to bring back and put together on stage in the moment with yourself, with incorporate into your own moment of performance, right?

29:21Is that part of why you're watching and observing what's happening in the room? Oh, yeah, for sure. During the talk, I talked about methane, and that was from a presentation that these people gave on using satellites to observe methane output. And yeah, and so that definitely got put in there. Even like in my first TED Talk, I talked about background radiation, and that was from a physicist or astrophysicist that was giving a talk about dark matter and dark energy. Because I like it to feel like it's a part of the thing. Like I'm taking the show as a holistic experience and I want to integrate with that experience.

29:56So I'm going to utilize, you know, the themes and the subject matter and the vibe of the room to make it feel like a cohesive show. This is kind of a philosophical question, but how do you see truth and improvisation as being linked? Because it strikes me that there's a piece that is very honest about just presenting what you are seeing in the moment and feeling. And yet, it's not like you're saying true facts necessarily when you're improvising. So what's the relationship between truth and improvisation in your mind? well i mean i guess i would call it sincerity when you're improvising uh there's a higher chance that what you're doing is sincere because you're you know it's not premeditated in any way i mean aside from like the micro buffer of time you know before your actions are occurring inside your mind i don't know i mean i guess you can fall into patterns and things like that still if you're improvising but and i'm you know because my form of improvisation is more like pure improvisation i don't think of it as not like pure in a hierarchical sense, but just like in the sense that there's no training behind it.

31:02I'm not trained in Del Close improvisation or, you know, Second City or any of that stuff. For me, it's just, you know, I'm just getting up and I'm playing with the moment. And I think in that case, just like jamming music, you know, improvising in any sense, or even like, you know, dancers, contemporary dancers doing like contact improv and things like that, like they're just flowing with what's happening in the moment. And I think that's very sincere and you can feel that and there's a truth inherent in that and i think it's a good form to practice even if it's not your main thing to even just like fuck around with it um i mean like a writer's room arguably is the same thing you know you might not it's not performative like on stage it is somewhat performative because you're performing for the other writers but you know you're kind of like piling on to ideas you're like thinking of something in the moment and things are going back and forth, things occur to you in the moment.

31:54And I think in those states, those flow states or those improvisational states, it's definitely an opportunity to just reflect what is happening and what's coming down the pipeline in your mind and you're just expressing it. So you're shortening that gap between the processing point of what's coming in and what's being expressed. And that gets shorter and shorter to where it feels super fluid. And it feels like you can almost go into the future a little bit and you can almost sense what's about to happen. And it's almost like you're watching or listening to what you're about to do. If someone is listening to this and they're completely sold on this, but it's also new, it's new to them and they're not in entertainment.

32:32What are some of the small ways that they can start improvising or building these skills and just having fun and having that kind of play in their day to day? What's a way that they can start to improvise? Yeah, I like that. I think improvisation helps in like making decisions. Like, you know, if you get stuck on, on, on things, you can make rules for yourself, you know, to break yourself out of patterns and things. And I think when you start to kind of disassociate and reassociate, and when you start to identify patterns, I think, I think if you, I think that the step, first step is like, are there things that you do that feel prescriptive or mundane and boring or things that kind of like make you disappointed about like, you know, deficiencies and making decisions and things like that.

33:16I think that's an opportunity to kind of create a game for yourself to break out of that. And it can be in a very small way. And I think when it comes to, you know, like what restaurant do you want to go to tonight with your friends or your partner or whatever? And you're just like, I don't, well, you know, and I think like there's something about like just practicing like the first thing that seems appealing. You just go, we're going here and you just do it. and uh or like you know what i want to go i'm gonna go to my friend's house real quick and just see if they're home and you just do it instead of like think about and go should i call them should i text them like practicing doing the first thing that comes into your mind when you're kind of in a moment of you know processing a decision or like something that you want to do to fill up time or whatever it is let's say you like someone's pants you know and you're in the supermarket you really want to say it but you're like i'm not a person that usually says anything But then you're like, you know what?

34:11Fuck this shit. Just gonna say like, hey, I really love your pants. You know, like these things that could lead to like, oh, thanks a lot. Oh, I like your scarf. And then suddenly you find out that they work in this other thing. And then it leads to some other opportunity. You never know. But putting yourself out there and practicing not processing and lingering too much in the liminal space in your every day-to-day life. I mean, it even comes down to like, there's a mug that I never use that's on my shelf. And I always see it. I want to use it, but I just never use it because I'm used to using the KCRW mug or whatever.

34:40And you just go, I'm just going to use that mug. I'm going to use the other mug. Those types of things, practicing that or like, you know, doing things with your left hand instead of your right hand. Starting when you go upstairs, instead of using your favorite leg to go up first, you use your other leg. Or when you put on pants, you put in, if you do your right leg first, do the left leg first. All of these things are great ways to just kind of shake you out of your kind of grinds and your grooves and things like that. And kind of make life a little bit more fun and interesting. And it might lead you to cool places.

35:09You never know. Yeah. And I think the thing that is so interesting to me, both about your career path, but also your work and your talk and kind of everything is, again, it just goes back to like, you're always Reggie Watts. You are always yourself and you bring a confidence to that stuff in a way that I know I struggle with, right? Like, well, what if I do this? What does that make me? What kind of person am I? And I'm always like, well, do I fit in that space or do I fit in this space or should I be saying this thing? Like I get in my head a lot. And it feels like there's a real lesson to be learned from your confidence that wherever you are, you will be able to carve out a space for yourself.

35:43But I don't know how you do that or if you think about it consciously at all. So I'm curious, like, is that just your natural self or is there some like real conscious process of like, I'm going to make sure that I am always me and there's always a space for me no matter where I am? Well, I mean, I was just born that way. So like, you know, I don't know what you're even talking about. I mean, I'm open to doing things that are a little bit outside my wheelhouse, so to speak, as long as they allow me to do it my way. And that's always been the guideline for me. You know, one of the first time I did TV, I think it was on the Jimmy Fallon show in New York.

36:19And a bunch of writers there advocated for me to perform there. I think it was Todd Levin kind of led the charge for that. And then, yeah, and I just remember them going like, can we have a transcript of what you're going to be doing? And I was like, I don't have that because I'm not an improviser. And they're like, well, can you give us an idea? I'm like, ah, kind of, but not really. And then eventually, you know, the writers had to be like kind of, they just kind of stood up or just like, just have him on. It's going to be fine, you know. And then, you know, me showing up and I'm standing behind the curtain and the guys, you know, the producers there and the floor producer.

36:53And he was just like, you're not going to do anything embarrassing, are you? I remember what you said to me. And I was like, no, would you just fucking get me on the stage already? That's just kind of the only rule I have. I'm like, oh, yeah, I'll check it out. Obviously, as long as it's not like a terrible show or, you know, terrible whatever people. I'm like, okay, yeah, let's fucking do this. As long as I can do what I get to do, I'll do it. So that's really my only rule. And with the late show, it was definitely the same thing. You know, James Corden was cool. I told him, he was like, whatever you need, whatever you want.

37:23And I was like, this is exactly what I want. this is how I'd like the band to run and this is what you know what we will do and what we won't do and he was like great and so that was it and then I you know did the show and it ended up being exactly the way he described it and yeah it ran the way that it did and I got to be exactly who I am so that doesn't the fact that it's on tv or national tv doesn't really affect me as much because if I'm allowed to be who I am then I don't feel false and it doesn't feel alien you know being up there. Amazing. Reggie, thank you so much for being on the show.

37:55This was such a pleasure. Yeah, I loved it. Thanks for having me.

38:02That is it for this episode of How to Be a Better Human. Thank you so much to today's guest, Reggie Watts. His new special is called Nevermind, and it is out now on Veeps. That's V-E-E-P-S, Veeps. I am your host, Chris Duffy, and you can find more from me, including my weekly newsletter and other projects at chrisduffycomedy.com. How to Be a Better Human is put together by a team that both plans and improvises and then plans and improvises again. On the TED side, we've got Daniela Balarezzo, Ban Ban Chang, Chloe Shasha Brooks, Lainey Lott, Antonio Leigh, and Joseph Debrine. This episode was fact-checked by Julia Dickerson and Mateus Salas, who never make up a fact on the spot.

38:38On the PRX side, the sweet music that is this podcast is put together by Morgan Flannery, Nor Gill, Pedro Rafael Rosado, Maggie Gorville, Patrick Grant, and Jocelyn Gonzalez. And of course, thank you so much to you for listening. You make our show possible. It would not be a podcast if there weren't people listening to it. It would just be me talking into a microphone alone. If you are listening on Apple, please leave us a five-star rating and review. It really helps us to get on the charts and to get out to new people. And it just helps to spread the word about the show. We will be back next week with even more How to Be a Better Human.

39:13Until then, take care. Thank you.

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