“The Daily Line,” which premiered in early April on The Versus Network, stars alumnus Reese Waters, CC ’02, as part of a four-member sports commentary team.
“I’ve always been a huge sports fan,” Waters said. “I’ve spent a lot of my free time watching sports.” This initially seemed like wasted time to Waters, but when The Versus Network called after seeing a video of him on YouTube, an unproductive hobby became a career. However, no one would have known that Waters was a sports fan in college. He “refused to take a train or bus up to Baker Field to see the games. That’s just not happening … And it’s a long way to see a horrible, horrible team.”
Waters spent his time, instead, fostering his comedic chops on CTV. It was on campus that he discovered his talent for making people laugh. Waters wanted to create funny commercials for CTV, but when he went into to audition, “there was one audition before mine for a sketch comedy show and the people were so horrible.” Watching their performances, he thought, “There’s no way that I can’t audition for this show.” Waters auditioned and got the part.
From there, he met Chelsea Peretti—who has since gone on to become a television writer in Los Angeles. He joined an improv troupe named Six Milks, today known as Fruit Paunch. It fostered a number of thriving comedians, including Jenny Slate, CC ’04, who recently joined the cast of Saturday Night Live.
Waters remembers his years at Columbia fondly. “All the factors just combined to create this wonderful experience for me. I can honestly say that,” he said.
Waters remembers a hawk—perhaps our beloved Hawkmadinejad or a relative—that would troll the campus for squirrels. “They would be giving tours of the campus and people would be seeing squirrel carcasses all over the place—that was always fun to watch,” he said.
Ferris Booth Hall was demolished the year before Waters began attending Columbia, and he was present for Lerner’s opening and the infamous translucent ramps. “You could literally look and see up ladies’ dresses,” Waters said, “so that was a big activity for us when Lerner first opened up. It was awesome. It was like we deserved that for having two years or three years of no student center—they owed us that. They owed us a couple months of skirt watching.”
He credits Columbia’s academic environment with helping strengthen his writing, but the factor that most helped become a comedian was being in New York City. “I decided to stand-up because I could do it and it was something to do with the free time I had as a college student,” he said. If Waters had been at any other school in any other city, “I’d probably just be drinking and I’d be satisfied with that.”
“The Daily Line” airs on the Versus Network, Monday-Friday at 6 p.m.
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