by thenewgreen

As part of a series called My Big Break, All Things Considered is collecting stories of triumph, big and small. These are the moments when everything seems to click, and people leap forward into their careers.

Reggie Watts is a one-man show. He beatboxes, imitates and impersonates with incredible accuracy — and, equipped with just a keyboard, looping pedals and a microphone, he crafts one-of-a-kind musical pieces.

Watts calls his style of entertainment "disinformationist." He disorients his audience, sometimes talking nonsense and switching seamlessly between accents — all improvised on the spot.

"When I get on stage, I really just like to listen to what's happening in the moment," Watts says. "And because I've been doing it long enough, I definitely have structures that I can lean on. I know that I can make a beat. And if I make a beat, then I can create a bass line. One thing inspires the next thing, I really just wait until I'm on stage to be inspired to do whatever it is I'm doing."

I saw Reggie a few years ago at Solid Sound. Amazing stuff.