I'm not going to lie to you, Marge: I'm pretty damn excited for w00tstock next week. It's one of those things where it simultaneously feels like years and seconds ago that Paul (of Paul and Storm) called me and said something like, "do you want to do a show together?"
"Yes. Yes I do."
"Wouldn't it be awesome if we got Adam Savage to be in the show with us?"
"Yes. Yes it would."
"Well guess what?"
"What?"
"He is."
"Nailed it."
And just like that, w00tstock was born.
The idea was to put on an evening of unique geek-friendly performances from some of your favorite geek-friendly performers, wrap it all up in a nice musical and joke-filled package, and then vanish into the night like leaves on an autumn wind. Because that wasn't cool enough, we went through our oh-so-impressive address books, and invited some truly phenomenal friends to join us as special guests, unique to each performance. I don't want to give everything (and by everything, I mean anything) away, but I've seen the setlist, and HOLY CARP.
Hey, want to see the poster for w00tstock v1.0-v1.1?
I know, right? Wouldn't it be great to get those robots on a T-shirt, or get a poster for your very own? Don't worry your pretty little head about it, baby, we're way ahead of you.
Now, onto the part of the post where I go crazy with the bolding, including information about our announced special guests:
w00tstock 1.0 – Monday, October 19. Swedish American Hall in San Francisco. (SOLD OUT!)
Special Guests: sketch comedy group Kasper Hauser; singer/songwriter Molly Lewis; singer/beatboxer/game inventor/all-around creative person Kid Beyond.
wootstock v1.0.1 – Tuesday, October 20. Swedish American Hall in San Francisco. (NOT SOLD OUT!)
Special Guests: singer/songwriter Molly Lewis; singer/beatboxer/game inventor/all-around creative person Kid Beyond.
wootstock 1.1 – Wednesday, October 21. Largo at the Coronet in Los Angeles. (ALSO NOT SOLD OUT!)
Special Guests: screenwriter Josh A. Cagan (Bandslam); singer/songwriter Molly Lewis; actor Jeff Lewis (”Vork” form webseries “The Guild“); several extra-special guests that we are not allowed to name, but we swear are awesome!
Night one in SF is sold out, but there are still seats available for night two. Also, there are seats still open for our show in Los Angeles, which is going to blow your frakking mind. Though I don't want to give anything away, fans of The Guild will not want to miss it. Oh, how I wish I could tell you who else will be dropping in for the Los Angeles show, but we are expressly forbidden from saying or even hinting at who they are for various reasons. However, if you close your eyes and ask yourselves, "Hey, who does Wil know who lives in Los Angeles and would fit right into a geek-friendly show?" you may be able to get some ideas.
I've been asked by fives of people if I'll have books for sale at these shows. Sadly, I wasn't able to get them in time, but if you have your own, and you bring it, I'll be happy to scrawl my name across it.
If you have any further questions that you were afraid to ask, head to the comments and do your thing. I'll answer them as they come up.
Oh, last thing: If you want w00tstock to come to your town (or at least a town that's closer to you than SF or LA) tell your friends who are in LA or SF to come see us, because if these shows do well, it will pretty much guarantee that we take this on the road next year.
This NEEDS to come to Huntsville, AL. There is such a concentrated population of geeks here. I mean we’ve got NASA/Space Camp for cripes sake!
*cries* When things like this come up, I am ALMOST tempted to trade in my Socialist Canuckistani card and move closer to this awesome. ALMOST!
Paul and Storm rock my socks! I will have the pleasure to geek out with them soon and I can’t wait! You are awesome too but that goes without saying. And Molly is fantabulous! And so is Adam! The whole line up (which you are allowed to talk about) is mind-blowing filled with juicy geeky goodness!
/jealous
So… Felicia Day already spilled a couple beans in her twitter feed… at least she made it sound like she’d be in the audience. Looking so forward to this; thanks in advance!
OK, I know I’m lucky that I live in the SF Bay Area and have tickets to both nights of Wootstock in SF BUT WHY CAN’T WE GET THE GUILD PEOPLE UP HERE???!!!!!! WHY??!!! There are a lot of fans up here and we’d love to see them all! I know there’s not much you can do about it Wil, but please let them know we want to see them one way or another sometime soon! And your part in the Guild has been awesome! Hope to see more! Thanks! 🙂
Wil, will you be doing any press either before/during/after w00tstock SF? Any chance of talking to you for 10 minutes for a podcast?
I don’t think 3 hours of geeks and music is really enough, to be honest. Wait, that wasn’t a question I was afraid to ask. Who designed that nifty poster?
That poster has a definite Robert Crumb thing going on there. I approve!
The poster was designed by Len Peralta. He’s done other work for Paul and Storm. Isn’t it great?
“…from saying or even hinting at who they are…”
Here’s a hint, lol.
Vork! Score.
Based on the clues, I am thinking one of the mystery guests is either Abe Vigoda or Felicia Day. If only I had some way to narrow it down further!
Hope you can come show the geeks in SW Va some love one day.
Oh yes! He’s also done Jonathan Coulton related things as I recall. And this one is great. I don’t know which I like more, the Death Star O or the d20 O. This will take some serious geek-soul-searching…
I second that. I may live in Birmingham, but, with enough notice I’m sure I could make it and surely get one’s or even five’s of other people to go too.
I wish I had friends in LA, that would be AWESOME!!!
Didn’t have time to read everything, but you should do that thing that Jonathan Coulton does where fans can go demand a show in their town. That way we could all request you and you’d have a good idea of how many people would show.
Except I forgot what it’s called and we’re deep in the throes of homework (handwriting practice!) over here so I don’t have time to surf around and look it up.
Just bought tickets for Tuesday… doubt my book will be here by then though. Oh well, I can hope. Placed the order on the 13th.
Erm, HELLO?
This would sell out instantly in DC, and there are about a zillion venues to choose from — and loads of other cool spots for you to hit while you’re here. Air and Space annex is right at the airport, fer crissakes. And the Spy Museum! Hell, I’ll even volunteer time from my super-busy and self-important schedule to help set it up. Not that I know anything about the subject, but free labor is free labor.
@Patrick: Abe Vigoda is still alive? That’s amazing!
Too bad I don’t own a copy of your books… Somehow, having you sign a pdf doesn’t quite have the same ring.
But I’m so excited for monday!
I would love to see a video of any of the woot you have on stock in LA. I am not able to make the trip due to a current disability but would really enjoy seeing it during my convalescence. Is there a possibility of this happening?
You haven’t booked the Atlanta show yet????? Go ahead. I’ll wait (taps foot).
Man, seems like all the fun stuff is on the West coast! I don’t suppose taking the show on the road would involve a road that goes all the way to NY?
It certainly *could* involve a trip if not *to* New York, close enough to New York that it would be easier to get there than, say, Los Angeles.
As I said in the post, it all depends on how these shows go. There is, incidentally, a DEMAND IT widget on the w00tstock homepage, that you could use. We’ll be paying attention to that if we decide to make tour plans.
Vancouver BC needs w00t.
Or, if you don’t like borders (and let’s face it, who does these days?)… I hear Seattle is fond of w00t.
The race is on! Just bought tix for SF d20th, and just ordered MotFv1 from Lulu with 2-day shipping… will it get to SJ in time??? (we plan to hedge by visiting some bookstores too and maybe get a copy today, but the former is obviously more dramatic)
Are you talking about demand it? where there is a link to it over there on the left of Wil’s blog <--------- but you have to scroll up.
Come to London. Come to London. Come to London. Come to London.
Is my hypnosis chanting working yet? No?
Come to London. Come to London. Come to London. Come to London. Tea and HobNobs. I promise.
And once again, living in Germany proves to be the wrong place to be. Wish I could see this, but still I hope everybody will have a blast. Maybe there will be a way to see a few scenes on video somewhere 🙂
Best of luck to the cast!
<-- Excited for W00tstock. Also, saw your episode of "Leverage" last night. I don't want to give anything away for people who have not seen it, but the scene with you and Hartison in the parking lot is hilarious!
PAX is coming to Boston next year. There are a a few thousand geeks that would love to see this show in Boston. And did I mention that PAX is coming to Boston next year?
Here, here! I’m in Northern Virginia and my husband and I must have said “I wish Wil Wheaton would come out to DC for something” a thousand times.
Heck, we would probably drive up to New York to see this if it was on a weekend, but DC would be so much betterer.
We’re the new technology corridor. ThinkGeek is headquartered here! You would be rockstars.
I think he’s asking for more than just Wil to come.
My biggest lament right now is that, even if you guys were to come to Toronto, I still wouldn’t be able to afford to go. *sigh* Unemployment sucks. 🙁
I will have to go demand it then. I’m in Rhode Island, but I’ll go just about anywhere on the east coast to see this show. Boston, NY, I’d even consider going as far as DC if I had to!
The demand it is also on the wootstock homepage as will pointed out
I have already seen some of my Canadian friends back east use Eventful to demand wootstock in Ottawa
There IS an amazing concentration of geeks here in Huntsville and we really really need WOOt to come here!
This is ridiculously pedantic of me, and it probably doesn’t matter, but your bio on the official w00tstock page is a wee bit out of date. Your latest book isn’t Sunken Treasure anymore, and it could mention your recent appearances on The Guild. (nice pic by the way! heehee)
Holy carp, Wil! Was that a compromise that I just read, or are my eyes playing tricks with me again? Seriously. The East Coast is just chock full of Whil Wheaton fans. I may not have control over the hypothetical crying baby during your flight, but what I can do is tell every single Star Trek fan that I know to make good use of the “DEMAND” widget.
Damn, it’s not even a reality yet but I literally just let out a little “squee!” at the thought of you coming over to the East Coast for an event.
*mega-sigh* I have that sinking feeling that I’m one of the dumb cousins that never gets invited to the cool kids party…yes, that’s right, I’m in the UK :o(
Wil and all other avatars of Geekhood, show your UK fans some love, come on over! The beer’s always cold here, I promise.
Amen sister!
In case the above isn’t clear Wil…COME TO LONDON! :o)
Yeah, I saw on the wootstock page. That’s pretty awesome.
Personally, I’d pick Toronto. Hotels and the International Centre are minutes away from the airport.
Austin, TX would love w00tstock; our geek per-capita is a lot higher than LA or SF.
Hint: geeks buy everything online. And there are more of us than would fit in a theater. *eyes up the deathstar/eyeball/d20 font awesomeness, which needs to live framed on my computer room wall*
Ottawa is such a nicer city though IMO
But if I had a say, I would bring w00tstock to the island here and have them grace Victoria. Victoria has a great center than hardly ever gets used like it should. Plus Victoria is the most beautiful city ever IMO
How about Berlin? Can I demand w00tstock for Berlin? I assure you there’s lots of geeky types round here. I’d come with all my friends, I promise!
Are there any plans to do some kind of Highlights DVD? Which should be available world-wide, of course? I know this would not be the real deal, but for most people over here in Good Ol’ Europe it would probably the only way to experience it.
Guys, DC is a cheap 5 1/2-hour flight from Heathrow…
That’s a great idea. I’ll bring it up at the next high-level meeting of our cabal of ultimate awesomeness.
Woohoo! Shipped today, crossing my fingers.
I really wish the LA public transit actually went someplace useful. I’m living in Pasadena, but I can’t get to any of these awesome things because I don’t have a car!
That really is a great idea! Those of us in the only single syllable state in the US of A would be on board!
DEMANDED!
And, um, as you say close enough to NY that it would be easier than, say, LA sounds good. How about Boston? Close enough to NY?
Yeah…I think so.
*grins from the piny woods of Maine*
Oh, come on Wil (and via extension Paul and Storm), you guys know that if you bring w00tstock to Portland, you’ll sell tickets like ticket-selling things.