Reggie Watts: Live

Expect the unexpected: We chat with Reggie Watts about comedy, chaos and his return to Sydney for Just For Laughs 2025.

By Melissa Mantle

Reggie Watts describes himself as a “playful trickster,” a label that fits an artist whose work defies easy categorisation. A comedian, musician and improviser, Watts has collaborated with names as varied as Michael Cera, Flight Facilities, and The Try Guys. He was the bandleader on The Late Late Show with James Corden, created a comedy troupe on YouTube with Michael Cera and Sarah Silverman, and delivered one of the most unusual TED Talks to ever go viral. His performances - part stand-up, part DJ set, part physical theatre - leave audiences stunned, often laughing at things they can’t quite explain.

This November, he’s bringing his one-man show back to Australia, including a stop in Sydney as part of this year’s Just For Laughs festival (Nov 10-22).

We meet over video call after a few minor tech glitches on my end. “There’s always something with this technology,” he laughs. Watts eventually appears in a sunny kitchen, joking that he’s in “Lost Angeles.” As we chat, he wanders around his colourful home, relaxed and present.

His stage work, though often described as “disorienting” and “pure presence,” has lately leaned into something more earnest. “The playful trickster” is how he describes himself, but there’s a seriousness underneath. Comedy, he says, can be a shortcut to “instant community.” In a fractured social landscape, those shared moments of laughter feel like an essential release valve. It’s one reason he’s excited to headline Just for Laughs alongside Eddie Izzard.

What should Sydneysiders expect from his show? He laughs at the question. “I usually just feel out what the space needs,” he replies. His performances are famously improvised: no set list, no script, just instinct. When I joke he might riff on climate change if he catches a Sydney heatwave, he shrugs off the risk of controversy: “That’s the thing, it’s less what you talk about. It’s how you talk about it.”

That skill - of playfully bringing the unsayable and the absurd to the stage - has defined his career. More recently, Watts has also become politically outspoken on social media, saying people need laughter more than ever, given current tensions.

Australia is hardly new ground for him. He’s performed at the Sydney Opera House “five or six times,” and says Sydney ranks among his favourite cities, though Melbourne wins out. “It’s the artist in me,” he admits, before conceding Sydney’s charms. “There’s a lot of natural beauty in Sydney,” he adds, naming Manly and Double Bay among his favourite spots. His tour this time also includes Melbourne, Perth, and Auckland. “I’m a good traveler, and I’m used to it by now. Getting to the airport is the worst part.”

When talk turns to influences, he describes them as “lego blocks” for improvisation. Musically, he grew up on bands like Depeche Mode – “I’m a child of the ’80s,” he jokes. Comedically, Richard Pryor and Andy Kaufman stand out, with a tongue-in-cheek nod to Yahoo Serious: “I’m joking,” he quickly reassures. 

But his longest riff is reserved for Andor, the Star Wars spin-off series. “It’s just this perfect Fabergé egg of a show,” he says, “full of tension and nuanced dealings with evil and darkness.”

Before arriving in Australia, Watts will launch a new podcast, bringing in friends and collaborators as guests. Like his live performances, it will be entirely improvised. “It’s my approach. I can’t really do it any other way. I never have a plan, and that doesn’t always work for producers. What I request is usually at the lower end of their capacities, but I feel it’s worth it.”

That commitment to spontaneity is precisely what makes his shows so singular. Whether switching between invented languages mid-sentence, looping his own voice into a musical crescendo, or throwing out surreal and off-kilter observations, Watts creates something unrepeatable each time.

If audience reactions are any measure, his insistence on creative sovereignty pays off. This November, Sydney audiences can expect exactly what they can never quite expect from the international treasure, Reggie Watts. Reggie Watts: Live 📅 November 10th - 11th, 2025 📍 Sydney Opera House 🎟️ Tickets from $79.90: sydneyoperahouse.com/just-for-laughs/reggie-watts-live