The award for best use of a stage hand for PICA’s TBA Festival 2008 goes to Reggie Watts who employed a ski-masked stage hand in numerous clever and deadpan tasks.
Seattle performer Reggie Watt’s Transformation (playing again today and tomorrow) was essentially a smart musical variety show, funny/entertaining, not unlike Sonny & Cher (skits, stories, sketches, songs…you know the drill) except with much better music: Reggie Watts is an incredible musical performer, creating layered R&B vocals with witty, self-effacing lyrics on the fly over his own beatboxing with his little looping box.
When we were sitting in the boxy Winningstad before the show began, we were thinking it felt a bit like the Globe Theater, with two tiers of wrap-around balconies. So it was great that the show started off with fake high theater: Watts doing “An Soliloquoy” as the projection noted was brilliant, musing on love with pompous tone and liberal misuse of language. The show hit sex, drugs, rock n roll, as well as racism and guns, had a good supporting cast, but was ultimately uneven. Video, it should be noted, was used to great effect a couple of times, particularly in a bit about the socially net(over)worked.
Extra points to Watts for use of the word “zenith,” a favorite.
In the ladies’ room afterward a sexegenarian was overheard saying that she thought she was too old to appreciate the show, “It was meant for a 23 year old,” she said. A septuagenarian disagreed as do we. It’s numerous pop-cultural references including a story Watts told about an incident involving fire extinguishers, Robitussin®, and a borrowed car clearly put the target audience closer to latter tricenarian/early quadragenarian.
Also: one of the Watts’ company was a Sam Adams doppleganger. Yes?
WHAT TO DO NOW?