It’s like a scene from Alice In Wonderland, walking into the Festival Garden in Hyde Park North. It’s a magical night playground, with coloured lights strung between trees and a carnival atmosphere amidst the old world charm of the Spiegeltent and the Bosco Theatre, the venue for Reggie Watts’ first Sydney show of the Sydney Festival.

It’s a muggy night and the bugs are out to play, the wooden walls of the Bosco no match for their heat seeking abilities. Seated on hard backless pews, everyone has taken their place inside this intimate sloped circus-like arena. Reggie Watts – festooned with an out of control afro – rollicks onto the boards at nine thirty sharp. Having seen some of his repertoire on the interweb, I’m vaguely prepared for an onslaught of amazing off the cuff riffs, beats and rhymes. I wasn’t prepared, however, for such sharp and hilarious off the wall banter! It’s hard to pigeonhole Watts, whose shows are marriage of quirky comic routines, musical journeys complete with references galore and an incredible ability to improvise.

In front of him he has a Line 6 DL4, a delay modeler, loop machine and a piano up stage. Wearing runners, folded up jeans and a baggy loose jumper, his eccentricity is apparent from the get go – and I love it.

“How you all doing?...Good!” he interrupts. He’s speaking in an English accent, but I was sure he was American. Not letting this get in the way of enjoying the show, I thought nothing of it; until suddenly he seamlessly fell into American. It is difficult to review something without hindsight but I’ll try and tell you what it felt like in the moment. Utter confusion…and the crowd loved it. There was endless banter about his growing up in Bundaberg, with detailed references to cane fields, or his dream of admiring the Swiss Alps with his grandfather…before pushing him off the balcony. Of course it was accompanied by the sound he thought his granddad would omit: “Waaaaaaaaaaah chhhhrrsssssshhhhh!”

Looking around the small theatre there weren’t many people not enjoying themselves. When it came to Watts’ hysterical take on today’s hip hop scene, the profanity laden lyrics ” You get a shit, a fuck, then you got a Shit, Fuck, stack. A shit, fuck stack!” brought on sing-alongs and wailing laughter.

After addressing the crowd as Adelaide, he continued to play odd mind games with us. He chose three onlookers and asked them to think of a number in their heads. No sooner had he done that had he dashed to his piano to play a fusion R’n’B/jazz/ballad about a Sasquatch and the numbers were instantly forgotten. This was followed by a game dubbed – œOne Hundred Horses. “Basically you place your hand on the speaker pole and undo the knob and it comes crashing down on your hand, pinching that little bit of skin between your thumb and forefinger…don’t do that.”

Although at some stages he did wander a little too far into obscurity, it was a truly enjoyable night of absurd comic routines, gibberish songs that led nowhere and stories that birthed a nonsensical analysis of society. Reggie Watts sure is one comedian? No…Singer? No…oh heck who cares, go and see him!