If you asked a Sydneysider this time last year who Reggie Watts was, they’d probably answer with either a bemused look of confusion or the long lost details of a former Big Brother contestant. Today, however, the result is very different. After becoming the face of the 2009 Sydney Festival and now returning for the Brian Eno-curated Luminous Festival, his brand of electro-improv-comedy has made him a household name.

However, when talking to the Brooklyn-based entertainer ahead of his nationwide visit, he spoke of the anxiety that came with being the face of such a large festival.

“In the beginning it felt like it was a lot of pressure. But it was fun. People were enjoying the shows and having fun. I appreciate the help that I had coming in. And I owe a lot of that to Fergus Linehan of the Sydney Festival, who had an idea and went with it.”

On stage, he has proven himself as a unique, if not provocative, performer. In the song Fuck Shit Suck, he takes the most commonly used curse words and wears them down through using them as a beat, challenging our conceptions of political correctness. Watts, however, is quick to identify that his purpose is more on observational absurdity.

“It’s more what I think is absurd. A song like Fuck Shit Suck is just ridiculous. I mean, how much profanity is in it is just hilarious to me because it goes way beyond the point of it. It’s constantly – constantly – in your face. I think in that setting, what people would find offensive normally they actually find the absurdity and laugh with you. It’s a form of liberation, in a way, for myself and the audience too.”

During a time when political correctness is pervaded in mass media, from Proposition 8 to our racial stances, Reggie believes that it is also a time of change. Talking exclusively about his role as a comedian, he sees the changing mindset of the mass population as an opportunity. “There was an article on Demitri Martin, who has a show on Comedy Central. They were talking about how he’s the type of comedian who doesn’t really talk about politics. He doesn’t really talk about race; he doesn’t talk about all of the things that normal stand-up comedians talk about. It said that we are in a time of the intellectual humorist.

“I don’t think it’s necessarily that, but I think these times make room for comedy that’s a little deeper. It’s not just about the surface that we can see really easily. It’s about the core thing; the absurdity of being alive or the absurdity of physics or making fun of science fiction or the imagination or just being abstract. It gives more room for that type of comedy to happen.”

Reggie Watts himself has been a part of political movements in the past. Namely, the Yes Men, responsible for creating fake press conferences and releases under the names of major corporations for the sake of public awareness. Watts sees his time with the group as an inspiration to his career.

“It’s good to be around people that show that anything’s possible. They do some pretty audacious things and they go pretty far making an idea come into reality. It just kind of reinforces the idea of having no fear when you’re on-stage. Not just on-stage but even just the thought of if you create an idea and you push you can make it happen, no matter how absurd it is. And the more absurd, the better. I think it reinforces my desire to create interesting, complicated situations in the world.”

That said, he clarifies that corporate involvement in the arts is not as bad as the Yes Men’s anti-establishment stance may suggest. “It’s a hard thing, because shows are always going to be hard to put on by themselves and there’s always going to somebody putting up money, somehow.

“Corporations at the end of the day are not evil, necessarily. They’re just interested in their bottom line. So in a festival setting, corporations are involved in the arts and paying these artists. Those artists have ideas on how they want the world to be and they’re influencing other people. So they’re socially fuelling change. So I view that the corporate sponsorship for the most part is a good thing, because it does keep the arts going. And we need the arts to keep going so people have the ideas to change the future.”

It’s this level of artistic integrity that Reggie Watts values above all. When discussing the honour of being chosen by Brian Eno to play at Luminous, he speaks of the personal connects he feels in their mentalities. “I feel a similarity with him, to a certain extent. Not to say that I’m able to produce a U2 album, but I feel like how his level of curiousity is explored in nature is something that I recognise. He’s always involved in the arts, interested in art, making art and supporting it. He lives his life as an artist.

“I don’t think that there’s a large percentage of people in the world that just want to be an artist to the level at which they potentially sacrifice a lot of things just because that’s their calling. It’s relatively small.”

Reggie Watts has kicked off his second Australian tour of 2009, with a four-night run at Sydney’s Luminous Festival next week.

Thursday 4 June – Heritage Hotel, Bulli
Friday 5 June – The Folkus Room, Canberra
Sunday 7-Wednesday 10 June – Playhouse, Sydney Opera House [Luminous Festival]