Newsweek

The Fall and Rise of Katt Williams

KATT WILLIAMS’ WILD RIDE OF AN APPEAR-ance on Shannon Sharpe’s Club Shay Shay podcast started the year with one clear message: the comedian has far more than nine lives.

In a conversation spanning almost three hours, Williams, 52, discussed his family, career, legal issues, grievances with other comedians and this year’s presidential election, among many other subjects. He also shared claims so wild that it was forgivable to expect a punchline (the assertion that his and Ludacris’ fates in Hollywood were decided at a meeting with “the Illuminati” is a highlight; Ludacris dismissed the allegations via a freestyle rap).

On a personal front, the statements were no less sensational. He was reading fluently at 3 years old. He got accepted into college at 7. He read 3,000 nonfiction books a year in “multiple languages” between ages 8 and 12. He moved from Ohio to Florida by himself at 13, and later lived with sex workers.

The interview was social media gold. In the two Instagram following stood at 798,052. As of press time, it exceeds 1.3 million.

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