WIL WHEATON dot NET

50,000 Monkeys at 50,000 Typewriters Can't Be Wrong

the obligatory w00tstock post

  • w00tstock
  • WWdN in Exile

Everything I could possibly say about w00tstock has already been said by Paul and Storm, who made a lovely list, and Molly, who made a comic that captures exactly how I felt the whole time we did our shows.

I loved feeling the terror and exhilaration of trying something totally new (The Trade, with music) that was raw and unrehearsed enough to allow for surprises every night.

I loved how totally geeked out we all were to be working with each other, too. I mean, I knew it would be cool to meet Adam Savage – the guy's a freakin' genius, after all – but I was unprepared for how completely and utterly cool, kind, and enthusiastic he was. And his 100 wishes are wonderful, especially that he, like I, wishes for his children to have careers that they love.

I loved feeling like we were creating something unique and special, that people would be talking about long after it was finished.

I loved how much fun we had every night, even though I was exhausted down to my bones by the time we finished our last show Wednesday night (actually, Thursday morning).

I loved how wonderful the audiences were at all the shows. Geeks truly are the best crowd, because even when they heckle us (I'm looking at you, Los Angeles front row) it was done with enthusiasm and love. Yes, even the hecklers were, in their own way, supportive.

I loved that we released the entire show under a Creative Commons license, so anyone who wanted to could record and share the show online. There are tons of videos at YouTube and pictures at Flickr, as a result. 

I love that I can blockquote myself right now:

someone recorded all of w00tstock 1.1 from Los Angeles, and uploaded it. It's an audience recording, so you can pretend you are actually sitting at Largo next to the guy who recorded it! If it's the guy I think it was, he had a magnificent pimp hat on. If it's not … well, now you know that there was a guy at w00tstock in LA with a magnificent pimp hat, and you have yet another reason to wish you were there, sukka.

>I love that that recording was done on a freakin' iPhone, and it sounds fantastic.

I saw a post this morning that pretty faithfully recreates the show in Los Angeles from YouTube videos, so rather than try to duplicate that for all three shows, I thought I'd share a couple of my personal highlights, in video form:

First up, a wonderful compilation … almost a montage … from the LA show:

Here I am, recreating the moment when Luke Skywalker saw the smoking hulks of his aunt and uncle. This probably isn't as funny out of context, but if you were at the show, you'll know why I was so amused by this. By the way, the flapping hair in the wind was all Molly's idea, and it killed at all three shows.

Kid Beyond absolutely blew my mind when he performed Wandering Star by Portishead … using only his voice to create loops. If you think this is incredible on video (and it is) you should see him perform live, especially if he brings his video mashups.

Finally, everything Molly did was simply brilliant, and her cover of Toxic is sensational, but I just adore her song about breaking up with Wikipedia:

There's more, of course. Paul and Storm got a lovely pair of, um, undergarments thrown at them in Los Angeles. The acoustic Date My Avatar was great. Jeff Lewis did comedy as Vork, and completely killed. Kasper Hauser made me laugh so hard at the 1.0 show I bruised my medulla oblongata. I've known Chris and Mike forever, but I'd never actually seen them perform as Hard 'n Phirm in person until the Los Angeles show, and I wish I hadn't waited so long to enjoy the majestic wonder of El Corazon live. Josh Cagan seemed a little bemused that we'd added him to the show, but after seeing what he did to just 30 seconds of Roger Corman's Fantastic Four craptacular, I hope he'll come with us for 2.0. And, oh yes, three different versions of The Captain's Wife's Lament, each longer and more ARRRRRRRRRtful than the last. Those two videos (I can't find a video from 1.0 at the moment), do a great job of capturing how much fun we all had together.

When Paul and I talked about w00tstock a million years (or a couple months) ago, we hoped that it would be successful enough to justify the time we would need to put into creating it, we hoped we'd have fun working together, and we really hoped we'd draw enough people to make it worth doing future w00tstocks.

I don't think we ever seriously worried about having fun together, but I was very worried about actually drawing an audience. When we sold out two shows in San Franciso, and only had 20 or so seats left vacant in Los Angeles – where it is notoriously difficult to get people to come out to see shows – we knew that in the future, there will be w00tstock v2.x.

I want to thank everyone who was in the show, and especially everyone who came to watch us, for making the three days of w00tstock so memorable and wonderful. I can't wait to do it again.

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chris hardwick comedy Felicia Day geeks kasper hauser live music molly lewis music paul and storm The Guild w00tstock wootstock
3 November, 2009 Wil

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64 thoughts on “the obligatory w00tstock post”

  1. Kevin Hanson says:
    4 November, 2009 at 11:43 am

    Now that is a pretty cool idea, if feasible.

  2. Akialyn says:
    4 November, 2009 at 1:48 pm

    You know what you need to pick tour spots? One of those online map dealies where everyone plots where they live. Post up on blogs, twitter, etc. “If interested in wootstock, tell us where you live” Then you can see where people are congregated.
    If nothing else you get a really sweet data set.
    If you come anywhere near Chicago we’ll be there.

  3. Wil says:
    4 November, 2009 at 1:49 pm

    We're using Eventful for precisely that purpose. There's an Eventful widget at the w00stock homepage.

  4. dostrow says:
    4 November, 2009 at 3:15 pm

    I was great to see you again Wil. Also super great to finally get to meet (and sell merch) with your wife, that was pretty awesome. Here is hoping you can set aside the time and funds to go to PAX East, otherwise, likely see you again at PAX Prime.
    –Dan

  5. Brendan Creecy says:
    4 November, 2009 at 3:37 pm

    It was a fabulous show. You guys all did a fantastic job. I will definitely be at the next one!

  6. Wil says:
    4 November, 2009 at 3:55 pm

    Do you have an easily-searchable archive of the recordings you made during the show?

  7. Jon Snow says:
    5 November, 2009 at 10:00 am

    I tried to get tix for the LA show, but the theater was extremely uncooperative and difficult to work with – that’s probably why you had empty seats there.

  8. elizabeth_ann says:
    5 November, 2009 at 10:56 am

    just had a spaz moment when i realized you’d linked some of my videos! serious mad giggle. so glad you enjoyed them and want to share them with your fans. W00tstock was an incredible evening and i cannot wait to v2.x… i’ve got a list of geeks and nerds who didn’t make it to any of v1.x and they must attend! to qoute “Hardison”- “geek power, baby!”

  9. Michael Midnight says:
    5 November, 2009 at 12:01 pm

    Oh wow! You liked my compilation video @Wil! Thanks man. You know what, that was such a stellar cool event. And you know how I know it, besides all of the awesome performances, I didn’t have enough battery or space to capture it all, and from the clicks and beeps I heard too, I wasn’t the only one. w00t stock couldn’t be contained LOL! Can’t wait for the next one!
    Michael Midnight!

  10. Wil says:
    5 November, 2009 at 12:01 pm

    I loved your compilation! You captured the evening very nicely.
    Thanks for coming! See you at 2.x, I hope.

  11. Michael Midnight says:
    5 November, 2009 at 12:33 pm

    Here’s a great clip from @TheAmberyOne that got full footage of the acoustic “Do You Wanna Date My Avatar” –

  12. Jeff from Vegas says:
    5 November, 2009 at 2:30 pm

    Wil,
    It’s nice to see that someone else knows about Kid Beyond. My wife and I saw him a few years ago at a Mutaytor show at the House of Blues in Las Vegas and we were completely blown away by him.
    Jeff C.

  13. Julie F. Barman says:
    6 November, 2009 at 9:48 am

    W00tstock on Tuesday night was epic! I look forward to 2.x!

  14. Plainsong says:
    9 November, 2009 at 10:51 pm

    < !DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
    It's not cool to say she's better than the instrument she's playing? I mean if Yo Yo Ma was playing a plastic cello, I'd suggest that maybe he's better than that, ya know? And it's not a cost thing, because those Flukes really really cost a lot for what they are. For the price, and cheaper, she could get something of all solid wood, or maybe concentrate on something with good electronics in it so she can be heard without worrying about the mic. What's not cool about being heard? Flukes are great to take to the beach or to use at baseball games as a great bat AND instrument all while staying in tune. It's like in marching band when you have the concert instrument and the marching beater. The Fluke is the marching beater. She could sell it on to some starting uke player, and trade up to something really nice. And then she'd find she doesn't even need the pick, and now we're cooking with gas. 🙂
    Think of my advice as the the old BBC version of What Not to Wear. I'm not insulting the person wearing the clothes, I'm saying they're better than the clothes.

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