Comedian Katt Williams made a name for himself bringing laughter to millions. But there’s a difference between the Katt Williams on stage, and the Katt Williams in real life. And the two personas don’t always agree with each other.
Katt Williams explained the difference between his real self and his on-screen persona
What has attracted many to Williams’ stand-up shows is the honesty behind them. And because of that honesty, it might be easy for audiences to believe they’re seeing the real Katt Williams when he’s performing.
After all, there are some comedians who dial up their real personalities when performing for a crowd. But when Vulture once asked the Emmy winner how much of his real self is on stage, Williams asserted there were no traces of his true persona in his acts.
“Those are extreme opposites,” Williams said of his off and on-screen presence.
There are times when Williams doesn’t even fully agree with who he plays on stage.
“I’m not my biggest fan. I’m in a business relationship with Katt Williams, so I don’t always agree with how he’s doing it, but I’m always trying to get him better than he was in his last presentation,” Williams said.
Williams asserted that his on-stage persona formed over the years by performing for different audiences.
“This is a conversation I started when I could really only guarantee about 30 or 40 people a show,” Williams said. “I was doing show, after show, after show, all over America in the C-list places, hoping to be able to get to the B-list places. Once you’ve done that, you get to the A-list places and you’re coming back on a yearly basis and having this conversation.”
Even after achieving monumental success, Williams shared that crowds were still influencing the growth of his alter-ego.
“It’s a conversation that evolves because this is a group of friends having a conversation. That’s why they keep coming and why I keep coming,” Williams said. “The reason it keeps being successful is because of the conversation that we’re having. It’s a conversation with 10,000 people and we’re all on the same page. That’s what makes the onstage conversation different than if you met me yourself.”
A few years ago, Williams was involved in many controversies. At the time, the scandals painted a very unflattering picture of the comic, slightly affecting his reputation. But Williams felt the media’s narrative wasn’t honest.
“Most of things that they say about the guy we happen to know are not factual because of those comedy specials that he keeps putting out,” he said. “If we listen to them we would be thinking that there’s no reason to see this guy because he’s a crazy crackhead. But we’ve been seeing him in seven comedy specials, so we know that can’t possibly be the case. The difference between perception and reality is why it’s still exciting and fun.”
Williams posed the possibility that he was being targeted for constantly addressing topics some might’ve seen as taboo.
“Nobody who had bad things to say has proven anything they were talking about,” he said. “We don’t talk about the people who are really going through those issues. We don’t discuss them like that. So maybe we just don’t like this guy because of the topics that he chooses to discuss. If that’s really the case, I would look for that guy to keep on saying more of those topics, but to stop giving people a stick to beat him with. That sounds like growth to me. I would like to see his next special and I would hope he would be getting better.”
