Katt Williams tells KOMO he's retiring from stand-up comedy

By KOMO Staff & Seattlepi.com Staff Published: Dec 3, 2012 at 11:56 PM PDT Last Updated: Dec 6, 2012 at 1:24 PM PDT
Katt Williams tells KOMO he's retiring from stand-up comedy »Play Video
Katt Williams announces his retirement from stand-up comedy to a KOMO News photographer in Seattle on Dec. 3, 2012.
SEATTLE -- Stand-up comedy star Katt Williams has had a controversial stay in Seattle the past few days, and now he says those incidents have led him to retire from stand-up comedy.

In a rambling interview with a KOMO News photographer while Williams was being ejected from a south Lake Union hotel, he admitted his trouble with the law and went on to make a string of allegations against police and the media.

Williams even said he was going to place a cash offer of $301,000 for the Washington State Ferry Rhododendron as a place to stay with his family and staff until his Thursday court date.

"If they will accept our bid... I will take me and my whole staff on that boat because I still have a court date four days from now and can't leave and I've been kicked out of four hotels in two days and I've been arrested by three different sets of officers four different times detained by two sets of officers," he said. "I can stay there [on the ferry] and my family can be there and my dogs can be there and my whole staff can be there until we get done suing Seattle for this $50 million that I want for crippling my reputation as a father and a black man and as a taxpaying citizen and as a person who is not a convicted felon."

The comic, wearing a Kurt Cobain T-Shirt and Seattle Seahawks cap Monday evening, said he usually comes to Seattle to just get away.

"This was a place I like to bring my kids and let them do stuff without people caring who they were," he said. "I got arrested in front my kids three times in my three days stay in Seattle... And all we were doing was coming into town to sell jokes and police department painted me as some sort of public menace that came to town."

Then he said the controversial incidents have led him to end his stand-up career.

"I'm just gonna go ahead and announce my retirement from standup, I'm kinda done," Williams said. "I've discussed it with my kids, I wasn't gonna do in the middle of a Seattle street, I was going to go to Los Angeles and do it in the offices of ICM or LiveNation."

Katt Williams interview with KOMO News:


On Sunday, police say Williams argued with customers and threatened the manager with a pool cue. Williams is accused of then throwing a lit cigarette into a family's car, which hit a woman in the face, and throwing a rock at that car.

Police said Williams struggled with officers as they tried to put him into a patrol car. Jail records show Micah Sierra Williams was booked into King County Jail at 6:42 p.m. Sunday for investigation of harassment, assault and obstructing police. Producer Suge Knight later bailed him out, TMZ.com reported.

A group of fans also claims Williams assaulted them after his performance Friday night. The fans claimed Williams had attacked them after they tried to take a photo with him after the show, Seattle police said. However, Williams claimed the fans had forced their way into his dressing room, and denied assaulting anyone. No arrests were made in that incident.

Williams, whom police said was 41 but who is listed as 39 in online biographies, is known for his role as Money Mike in "Friday After Next." He also was on Nick Cannon's MTV improve show "Wild 'n' Out" and has appeared on BET's "Comic View." Recently he was parodied on "Saturday Night Live" for his arrest in Oakland.

He has been known for confronting hecklers and last month in Oakland he was moved off stage by his own security staff. The day before he was arrested for investigation of assault with a deadly weapon for allegedly beating an 18-year-old.