Linucon trip report is in the works, but it was honestly such an amazing weekend, I’m having a very tough time picking out just the highest of the high points.
Until it’s finished, though, I’ve got something that I think WWdN readers are really going to like:
IT Conversations has put up the audio of my reading from Just A Geek and Dancing Barefoot at Gnomedex!
Quoth the website:
You may know him for his portrayal of Cadet Wesley Crusher in Star Trek: The Next Generation, but inside the skin of an actor is a geek trying (successfully) to get out. He’s the author of the weblog, WilWheaton.net, and two books: Dancing Barefoot and Just a Geek. In this presentation recorded at Gnomedex 4.0, Wil reads original unexpurgated excerpts from his books, takes questions, and sits down for an interview with IT Conversations. It was one of the highlights of the weekend. Guaranteed to entertain, whether you’re a Star Trek fan or not. This is Part 1 of 2.
The audio is outstanding, but it’s not the best performance I’ve ever done (that honor is currently assigned to my performance at Linucon.) As I’ve mentioned before, I was terrified when I went up there, and I can hear the tension and apprehension in my voice as I try to connect to the audience . . . but about thirty minutes in, I think I got more comfortable and hit my stride. I’ll post part two when it’s out.
The entire performance is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 license, so please, please, please share it with people.
I’d love to hear feeback from anyone who tunes in.
UPDATED: In the comments, tsu points us to Part Two. Cool! Thanks, tsu!
Updated again: There is also Video of the performance (.wmv) available as a torrent file (mpeg is on the way, apparently. Sweet!)
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Whee Haaa! First post!
That’s so totally cool
Sweet! It’s downloading as I type! I added your RSS output to My Yahoo, that’s so swift, now I don’t have to re-check wwdn all day 🙂 However, while you were in Austin I was sad because My Yahoo said ‘no new posts in last 3 days’ 🙁
I can’t wait to listen to this.
Thanks for coming to Austin, Wil! Glad you had a good time.
I just listened to the whole thing. I remember being really worried about “endlessly lamenting” through the whole first 20 minutes or so, and I can really hear that apprehension, unertainty, and insecurity in my voice. Once I got past that, though, and got into SpongeBob VegasPants, I totally loosened up. So the second half is stronger than the first, I think.
I can’t wait to hear part two. 🙂
I’m having a great time listening to it. You’re very entertaining.
I listened to it last night – what a great performance! I loved the books, but hearing you read the stories added a whole new dimension to them. You’re doing the reading for the audio version of JAG, right?
Oh, and part 2 is available! It was last night, too. The link from part 1 to part 2 doesn’t work, but I think that’s just a typo. Here: Part 2
Wil,
I really enjoyed both parts. Thanks so much for releasing them. I was listening at work…suppose to be working…laughed out loud twice.
Please keep doing this and audio blog often! Its such a treat for us prisoners of Dilbert-ville.
– Pixie
Just finished listening to both parts, and I agree on both your points so far – the second part of the gnomedex is better than the first, and your reading at Linucon was better still. It’s hard to get a measure of the crowd on the gnomedex recording – but I know the Linucon crowd was having a good time. You were more relaxed in Austin, and one of my favorite bits from Austin was missing from Gnomedex – “dude” being said many different ways to reflect its many different meanings.
I’ll send more later via email.
You rocked in Austin on a lot of levels. I’m glad you had a good time.
Will,
I listened to the IT Conversations podcast this morning and I must say I loved it. I usually skip through IT Conversations PodCasts because I find them a little dry but I am going to say this series. I actually went and added this site to my RSS agregator after listening to your stories today.
I loved the William Shatner story and what Jonathan Frakes said to Micheal Dorn “He took a shit on our teen idol!” then Dorn says “You want me to kick his ass?” I laughed my ass off.
Hope you get the part you did the on camera audition. Keep up the good work.
I look forward to reading your book. Is there an e-book version?
Sincerely,
Fellow Peer
I will give it a listen soon.
and… I will share it with as many people as humanly possible. 😉
Consider yourself blogged.. okay later this afternoon but I will do it.. I promise. 😛
I am looking forward to hearing about your incredible weekend at the linucon.
You know, the more I listen to this, the more I think Wil ought to be on SNL. Heck, I think he could pull of GWB alone better than that joker they have doing him right now.
Just listened to your readings. Pretty neat. Awesome that you sold out of your book!
The interviews were interesting. It would be neat to have an annotated version of that interview, with subtitles telling people what the various topics were about, and how to read about them.
I’m really surprised that the “I hope the room doesn’t fill up with popcorn” comment didn’t get a laugh. The audience was just a little too young, I guess? Ah well.
Cool! Thanks for posting this.
tim: I think that Wil would be wasted on SNL. Granted I haven’t watched much in the last few years, but it’s just not as funny as it used to be. I think he probably has a much more sophisticated, narratively oriented sense of humor than SNL.
Woo!
Really nice.
too damn cool, thanks for posting this. spent this afternoon listening to the whole thing – excellent job.
Great listen – part two and the shatner story killed me.
I’m not a forwarder, but the link’s been forwarded all over the place.
Glad to follow the blog. Very cool. Thanks for the time.
Thanks, everyone!
I’m very interested in tracking the propagation of this around teh Intarweb. If you see it somewhere else, would you let me know? Probably comments would be the best way, to prevent overlap.
Hey Wil, I just wanted to give you props for supporting the idea of creativecommons.org. I swear, I’m not affiliated with the site, I”m just a geeky law student studying copyright. 🙂
This is fantastic to hear! I loved reading these stories in the books, but hearing the stories live is even more colorful. Fabulous! The performance definitely gets better and better during the show. Oh, but I absolutely adored the Bush-isms and Bush impression. The Best!
“carney on speed…” LOL!
Listening to the recording now as I type this….I am embarrassed to say I have not read either book yet, but they are both on my Christmas list……I love your writing style,from reading WWdN, it really pulls the reader in, and I am impressed to say the audio is pulling me in now too as I listen, I feel like I’m in the audience, laughing along and giving knowing looks to the “people” sitting around me….Wil, to use an overused phrase, You Rock……keep up the great work!!!!! Also, am I the only one who thinks it’s too cool that Keith Coogan is regularly posting in the comments???? Neat to hear from him, am a huge fan of him as well…Jess
Wil,
That was fantastic. I had no idea.
Thanks,
troy
You sounded great! My computer is buggered so I could only hear. But you were great, very funny and charming!
I’ve never seen wil on star trek. Or what’s this website about but i do know him from Stand By Me, one of my all time favorite movies. Why don’t you act anymore? you should if you were that good a kid, I’m sure you’re better now.
thanks
I’ve been listening to all the IT Conversations since you mentioned you were going to be up there too, so I happened to see yours go up yesterday. Very nice job. I liked when Jesus showed up.
Way too cool Wil. I loved the reading.
Downloading the audio and video of this as I type…I know what I’ll be doing when I get home tonight! Looking forward to hearing you read from your book. I’m glad you had a great time out there in Texas.
Sat down to listen to five minutes of this and ended up listening to the whole thing. Great reading, great performance.
heh, i just noticed, there’s a [wheaton] tag on fark… that’s when you know you’ve hit the big times!
And you’ve been Farked again! (I’m sure you probably already know, though.)
Listening to it right now – very, very cool!
It’s been a long time since I’ve heard you speak; your last episode of TNG, probably. There’s something in your speaking voice that reminds me of P.J. O’Rourke’s, which is odd since you’re from California and he’s from Ohio.
So, when are you coming to the East Coast?
So I was hanging out with Jon Enge and a few other people this weekend who said you were involved in a tree incident at faire when you were 16. It’s okay to fess up.. we all did dumb stuff when we were teenagers.
I just finished listening to part 2 (almost was late to class this afternoon from being so engrossed in part 1) and I have to say it’s so awesome to be able to hear you do your thing on stage. I love the character voices, from 16-year-old teen idol Wil to G.W. to Gene Roddenberry, and when you did the cheeky Wesley Crusher action figure bit I pretty much collapsed laughing. You have a great skill of balancing serious touching moments with raucously funny parts.
I would love to see you perform live; hope you can make it to Seattle someday soon.
Loved the recording. I am really looking forward to the audiobook.
BTW – you don’t sound bad or nervous at all. Just the tiniest bit shaky at the very beginning in a charming kind of way and then you really seem to hit your stride. The audience sounds like they were more “with you” than you feared they were (at least to me).
Keep up the great work!
Kerin
“mutual admiration society”, AKA circle jerk.
I keed, I keed.
Wil, long time reader, first time poster. I’ve been hooked on IT Conversations, so when TV’s Wil Wheaton came into my RSS aggregator, I just had to grab the audio to stuff onto my iPod for the commute.
I was listening to part 1 on the bus, on the way home from work. Twice, I started laughing out loud, and the whole bus looked at me like I was Special. Thanks, for that Wil! Damn you!
I listened to part 2 on the way home tonight, resolved to not Look Like an Ass by laughing out loud. Damn you, Wil! Less than a minute before my stop. In my neighborhood. Less than 100 metres from my house. I broke out laughing. Uncontrollably. Like an idiot. Between the Hooters girl (you know, with hooters…), and William Fucking Shatner, I was snorting like I just had a stroke.
That was an awesome session, Wil. You rocked hard. There’s only one way to describe it: “Dude!”
Wil, dude! That was five kinds of awesome. I enjoyed it thoroughly.
You’re an expressive writer, and you achieve this by being unafraid to connect with your audience and speak to them levelly; person to person. I enjoy this in your writing all the time. Hearing you read your stuff to an audience took it to eleven, so to speak. I guess it follows that you would handle your own material really well, but that doesn’t make it any less cool to hear. I haven’t bought your book yet, but after today there aren’t many things that are likely to stop me.
Thanks for getting this performance out there, man! It took the great day I was having and gave it another reason to shine.
I have been following your blog for a while now and have enjoyed reading your comments on life and geekdom. I have to say though hearing your description of William fucking Shatner was hillarious. Being raised in the scifi con community the stories about Bill Shatners escepades of egotism are apocryphal. It reminded me of some of my favorite tales of him or people like Harlan Ellison.
Kudos to you for a good show.
Thanks Wil! Great job. Got to love bit torrent!
Wil,
Just listened to your Tahoe presentation (thanks tsu for a good link to part 2).
As always, content was wonderful, and to have the pleasure of hearing you on the streaming thread added a dimension to my memories of your written material and inhanced my respect for your work.
I anticipate your next book, biography or fiction, and hope to savor it in all the ways you have allowed us to savor Just a Geek and Dancing Barefoot (written and audible).
Ok, now get back to work. We are waiting!!!
I just saw the .wmv version of the vid. I wish that it wasn’t cut off so abruptly there at the end for credits. Was there a problem with recording the whole thing? Oh well. It was cool to see you reading, I had always wanted to see one of your reads, but the way my life goes these days, I have zero time to be my natural geek self and go to shows and such anymore 🙁
Fucking BRILLIANT audio! Great asides and read with personality…so much better that how it sounds in my head. Wish I could’ve been there to hear it live.
Wil [holds up pint of Guinness], here’s to many moons more…cheers, D
Okay.. you have been linked and properly blogged. 😉
err okay.. forgot to add the link. *oops*
My Blog
Yer a great multi-purpulous actor, Wil, keep it up!
*listening to reading*
You lived in Topeka? I’m from there. I just spend six hours in a car driving there and back to get my braces tightened. Got a power band on my bottom teeth. Yes, it will soon be as painful as it sounds, probably in the middle in the night when I’m trying to sleep.
Hi Wil! I loved your work on STNG – it was cool to think that someone around my own age could be part of the crew. Anway, great job on this! I’m halfway through the first downloadable file now. Have you considering doing a Podcast (Intenet ‘radio like’ show distributed by downloading/bittorrent and accessible by RSS) of your own?
I just finished listening to both parts. Awesome job Wil! I really loved the story about “William Effing Shatner”- now I can appreciate your mechandise instead of going, ‘huh’? Good luck with everything!