Better sense would dictate waiting until morning to write about Disinformation, Reggie Watt’s incredible show at the Someday Lounge, but if I go to bed now, I’ll be awake all night, trying to organize my thoughts about his performance. Disinformation is unlike anything I’ve ever seen, and is among the two best performances I’ve seen in five years of covering TBA.

Where to start? Watts lives in New York, but just moved there from Seattle, where he did these weird little performances at comedy clubs, for lack of a more appropriate venue (what that would be, I have no idea). He’s funny as hell—the Someday Lounge was roaring with laughter—but it’s not exactly Laugh Factory punchline material. Watts takes the stage spouting nearly indecipherable corporate doublespeak; soon his voice begins to “cut out” like a bad cell phone, drag like a melted cassette, and even loop backwards on itself. Shortly, he’s beatboxing Yma Sumac-worthy ululations into a sampler, flooding the space with cartoony incantations. Watts’ voice is astonishing; it’s sort of Meredith Monk-meets-Mel Blanc and at parts of this show, it will most certainly blow your mind.

But this only scratches the surface of the performance, which was so fast-moving and densely layered that I’m going back tomorrow night to see it again. Watts incorporates videos about an impending Mayan apocalypse, tofu-based lubricants, and magical wizards: Throw in an amazing hiphop interlude about, among other things, a “fuck-shit stack”; a few unexpected performances that had me leaping out of my chair with enthusiasm; some Prince references; beats thicker than Al Roker’s famous meatloaf sandwich; a little sexy-lady action; and tons of other stuff that my mind hasn’t processed yet, and you start to (kind of) get an idea of what we’re dealing with here.

Watts recently won a big prize from some Andy Kaufman foundation that’s given to artists whose work shares a sensibility with the foundation’s namesake. I could see this at points of Watts’ show: some of his vocal delivery seemed close to an old Kaufman conga skit in particular, but more significantly, Watts played with the fourth wall and audience expectations in ways that will please any Kaufman fan. At other times I thought of old Miranda July works (Benet-Simon Test era work), and of Eddie Izzard’s smart, outrageous standup style. (To be fair, PICA’s Mark Russell planted that seed in my brain before I saw the show.)

Portland—this show costs $7-10. Just go. And if you don’t like it, please email chas@portlandmercury.com so that I can be sure never to trust anything you say again.

Reggie Watts performs at the Someday Lounge, 125 NW 5th, Sunday Sept 8, at 8:30 pm. It costs $7-10. I will be there for the second time. Buy tickets.

PS—I was just looking at Watts’ website for a photo to use, and ran across these two endorsements, just in case you don’t believe me. I also heard that Brian Eno is a fan. (Seriously.)

“Amazing and unlike anything you have ever seen. Unless you have seen a comedic stream of conscious operatic beat-boxing marvel. Then it’s like that.”—Eugene Mirman

“Reggie Watts just blew everyone’s minds as usual. Seriously, if you haven’t seen this guy, make it a point to do so.”—Aziz Ansari