Reggie Watts Removed From Festival Lineups as Comedy Bang! Bang! Drops Theme

Several UK festivals and the Comedy Bang! Bang! podcast have removed Reggie Watts from their programming without public explanation, following a Rolling Stone report detailing accusations of reckless behavior in the months before his ex-girlfriend Katherine McCollough died by suicide.

The podcast, which had used Watts’ improvised beatboxing intro since 2011, replaced it this week with a generic voice stating the episode number. Neither the show nor host Scott Aukerman has commented on the change, and Watts’ long association with the program—he starred in its television version from 2012 to 2016—makes the silence notable.

Watts had been scheduled to perform at the Shambala and Greenbelt festivals in Northamptonshire this week. His name has since been removed from both festival websites. Greenbelt confirmed he will no longer appear, while Shambala has not responded to requests for clarification. A planned run of shows with electronic act CAPYAC in Bristol was also canceled without acknowledgment from the venue or any of the parties involved.

The removals follow a Rolling Stone report in which friends of McCollough claimed Watts encouraged heavy ketamine use during their relationship and fostered conditions of financial and emotional dependence. McCollough suffered a drug-induced manic episode last summer, and Watts ended the relationship in October. She died in March.

Watts’ attorney, Andrew Brettler, called any suggestion that Watts was responsible for her suicide “dangerously false,” stating that McCollough was already an experienced drug user before dating Watts. The institutions now distancing themselves have offered no statements of their own, leaving the practical consequences of the accusations to accumulate without any accompanying public reasoning.