Katt Williams explains his writing process
“I try to write the seven to 10 most [expletive] things that I think,” he says, “and I try to make that into the comedy show.”
The things that make Katt Williams such a great raconteur, according to Katt Williams Wants to Show You the Receipts: “He is diligent about numbers, inexhaustible in his curiosity and meticulous about his delivery.” In it, Williams talks about his writing process:
Williams has an allegiance to numbers typically reserved for athletes and actuaries, and it’s apparent in the quantifiable way he breaks down his sets. “I try to write the seven to 10 most [expletive] things that I think,” he says, “and I try to make that into the comedy show.” An hourlong special comprises 10 to 12 stand-alone pieces, which usually leaves him looking to add a bit or two as he’s writing. For this run, he says he’s needed to pare down what started as a 90-minute set.
On the road, Williams hones an act by watching footage of the previous night for the first 30 or so dates. “My job is to let this guy know, ‘Hey, you’re looking old out there, like, you going to work this stage?’” he says, adding that he’s most often not refining the words but the delivery — a bigger gesture, a different tilt of his head…
The key to skirting flammable topics and still landing a laugh, he says, is “no matter what joke I’m telling or who the focus of that joke is, the thing that you’re supposed to get from it is that my heart is in the right place. But I see what I see.”
And btw, that “Club Shay Shay” interview? He says he wrote out his part of the dialogue in advance.