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Title details for Great Falls, MT by Reggie Watts - Wait list

Great Falls, MT

Fast Times, Post-Punk Weirdos, and a Tale of Coming Home Again

by Reggie Watts
Reggie Watts
Audiobook
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Comedian and musician Reggie Watts shares his story of growing up in Montana as a biracial oddball struggling to navigate life, girls, drugs, and his own identity in America’s heartland—and having a blast doing it.
Reggie Watts is weird. But you knew that. Anyone who’s seen his multifaceted, entirely improvised comedy and music shows knows that. Reggie Watts is also from the town of Great Falls, MT. 
 
These two facts are not unrelated. 
Watts grew up in Montana in the ‘80s, half French, half American, half white, half Black, speaking a bunch of different languages and slipping between the orchestra geeks and the football jocks until he finally found a squad of fellow misfits with an affinity for trouble. It was a wide-open time and place that invited freedom and exploration—as well as car theft and the not infrequent use of recreational cough syrup. And it helped him become the uniquely strange creative voice he is today.
In Great Falls, MT, Watts takes us through his story, hitting on the culture shock he experienced after moving from Europe to the heart of America, where he was called racial slurs by neighbors but wasn’t Black enough for his father’s extended family. Where he fought with his authoritarian dad, built a new family of antiestablishment, post-punk oddballs—and ultimately knew he had to leave. But after Watts’s career exploded in Seattle and New York, ultimately scoring him a nightly place next to James Corden on The Late Late Show, he found himself drawn back to his hometown after the deaths of his parents. This is his love letter to the town that made him. But like love itself, it’s messy and complicated and dirty and beautiful—and as weird and wonderful as Watts himself.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    October 17, 2023

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9780593787076
      • File size: 238043 KB
      • Duration: 08:15:55

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      August 21, 2023
      Comedian and musician Watts debuts with an animated love letter to Great Falls, Mont., that recounts his tangled coming-of-age there. In 1976, when Watts was four, he moved with his Black American father and white French mother from Madrid to Great Falls after his father was assigned to a nearby Air Force base. In junior high, competitive drama competitions gave Watts his first taste of onstage success, and through high school—even as he took up smoking weed, chugging Robitussin, and participating in acts of vandalism—he never stopped chasing that rush, consistently playing in bands and performing bizarre, Andy Kaufman–style improv and stand-up comedy. After high school, Watts set off for Seattle, where he joined the band Maktub, and then for New York City, where he gigged at comedy clubs until his star rose and he started making nightly appearances on The Late, Late Show. He ties it all together with a third-act return to Great Falls to care for his dying mother, during which he unpacks the influence Montana had on his life and career, and concludes, “there’s no place better.” Watts is a droll, endearing narrator, delivering his account with the rapid-fire patter of a good improv act. Budding performers and comedy fans alike will find much to love.Agent: David Larabell, CAA.

    • Library Journal

      Starred review from March 1, 2024

      Growing up, comedian and musician Watts consistently felt like an oddball, a situation that was amplified by his being a biracial, suspender-wearing, French-speaking new kid who landed in Great Falls, MT, in the 1980s. In this distinctive memoir, Watts narrates his recollections about growing up as a post-punk "weirdo" in Great Falls and becoming a successful mainstream performer, if still a perennial misfit. He treats listeners to various accents, multiple languages, and, of course, musical interludes as he goes from feeling like an outcast to learning to fit in, chameleon-like, as he grew older. To describe this as merely a memoir does not do Watts justice. He interweaves personal narratives (about connecting with a found family of people like him and discovering his passion for improv comedy and music) with surreal asides, such as "An Open Letter to Axl Rose's Hair" and "Ode to a Grown-Up Pippi Longstocking." Watts regularly breaks the fourth wall, inviting listeners to share in the audio experience and echoing the stylistic elements of his live performances that have made him a cornerstone of the alt-comedy scene. VERDICT Part memoir, part performance, part comedy riff, this vibrant audiobook is not to be missed.--Laura Hammond

      Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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