Reggie Watts – Live at Third Man Records

Reggie Watts is far from any comedian you’ve ever seen before. That perhaps explains in part why Live at Third Man Records is only available on vinyl. His set is made up of mostly short character bits and songs.  The characters can be amusing, but his real bread and butter comes from his music.  What you hear from his stand-up comedy albums sounds like something that took hours and hours to complete in the studio, but he is able to do it all live on the stage.  No easy feat to say the least.  However, the bits are rarely funny on this vinyl comedy album.

Watts set has the makings of a perfect Las Vegas show.  It would be entertaining if you’re in town, and something you tell your friends about later, but not something you’d need to pay to see a second time.  His audience always seems engaged, which is more than I can say for myself while listening to it.  It seems that seeing him live would be a great night out, and if you’ve ever seen one of his television spots, you’d agree.

Unfortunately, you can also see that he’s spent loads more time developing his musical talent than working on his comedic material and delivery.  There are several jokes that, with better delivery, could have been quite funny, but instead they failed.  At the same time, there are points when his character jokes could have worked if only the material was there to accompany his voice work.  And his songs aren’t any funnier.  It’s hard to find any gut-busters on Live at Third Man Records.

In the end, this vinyl comedy album isn’t anything special.  If you want to see some of Reggie Watts‘ musical talent (that I don’t want to undermined at all; it’s incredible), you’re better off checking him out on YouTube or finding his TV spots.

Live at Third Man Records
Reggie Watts
Stand-up Comedy Records
Third Man Records 2011

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