we can’t rewind, we’ve gone too far

Posted on By Wil

I'm home for a few days before I go back to Vancouver to finish out the season on Eureka. It's nice to sleep in my own bed, actually see my family, and work in my actual office, instead of sitting at a desk in a hotel.

Doctor Parrish was very heavy in the last episode I shot, so I worked 5 of 6 days, an average of 14 hours each day. It was exhausting work, but I loved every second of it. I wish I could get into the details of it, but that is right in the middle of Spoilertown, so I'll just say that it was a lot of fun, and I got to do a lot of origami.

There's this saying, possibly apocryphal, that actors work for free and get paid to wait. One of my days last week, I was called to the studio early, and then ended up not working for about seven hours. This sometimes happens when the scene before me takes longer than anyone expected, or it turns out that they're not going to see me in the background of a shot like they thought. Rookie actors tend to bitch about this sort of thing, but salty veterans like me have learned to be grateful for the job, appreciate that I'm getting paid to wait, and pack a Bag of holding that's filled with books and games and diversions. (Back in the old days, I'd bring tons of stuff, but now I just bring my iPad and a book.)

On this particular day, I played the hell out of Plants Vs. Zombies HD, re-read Metatropolis, spent some time looking for the end of the Internet, and actually started to get bored.

Once I started to get bored, my brain spit out an idea, that went something like this: "Hey, your cell phone has a video camera on it. You should make stupid videos with it, and upload them to YouTube!"

This sounded like a brilliantly stupid idea, so I did as my brain commanded, producing this:

I told Twitter about it, and there was much rejoicing. A few hours later, I did this:

Then I was finally called to set, where I was no longer bored, and my cretive energy was directed into the very useful and productive task of bringing Doctor Parrish to life.

I was pleasantly surprised to see that my stupid videos had been viewed about 7,000 times. "See, we're entertaining more people than just ourselves," my brain said, "let's make more stupid cell phone videos!"

"Yes, sir, Mister Brain," I said. I enlisted the help of some friends, and made this:

I don't know how long this will last, but it's easy, it's amusing to me, and it's a lot of stupid fun, so I'll keep doing it until I lose interest or get distracted and chase a red balloon down the street. If you want to see these stupid things as they become available, you can subscribe to my YouTube channel.

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Comments (55)

  2. Wil, this has nothing to do with the current discussion, but I thought I’d let you know, given your earlier reviews, that Boneshaker was the very first book I purchased for my Nook. (And not one cent of that was wasted money. Damn fine book.)

  3. I think I missed the point of number 3, but I was belly laughing at the first two. Maybe even wiping a tear or two away, I was laughing so hard. The cheesy grins at the end killed me.

  4. I’m pretty sure the third is the best, I mean how can you not laugh at an over used meme when it’s Wil Wheaton and Neil Grayston?
    Neil is the new Kanye.
    So I guess, Wil – you are now Taylor Swift. For the love of all that is holy, what ever you do – don’t wear a blonde wig.

  5. When you were having the dialogue with your brain, I first read it as though you addressed it as “Brian” rather than “Brain”, and I chuckled.
    I guess what I’m trying to say is that you should give your brain a person’s name other than Wil.

  8. I was an extra in a short film called Blood on his Hands playing a press photographer outside a courthouse (three scenes). I have a total on-screen time of less than two seconds but it was one of the most awesome days of my life, despite the rain.

  9. metatropolis was awesome wasn’t it? and i think it’s adorable that you have that fawkes and codex button on your bag of holding. can’t wait to see more “wil is bored and needs to entertain the masses” videos. 🙂

  10. Heh. I especially like the cheesy grin at the end of #1.
    I used to work as an extra (before all of the TV production around here sort of fizzled out) and a regular conversation with new people was “Why are you bringing a book with you?” “You’ll see.” Of course it depended where we were – if we were being held anywhere within eyeshot of filming, that was way more interesting to watch than reading a book! It must be very different to be one of the real actors, but it looks like if anything the waiting time is much, much longer!

  11. Great vids – really this is what makes YouTube a fun place to hang out – just seeing what amuses people, and often noting that it amuses you too.
    Also, any chance you have told or can tell us how many more episodes Parrish will be in? I think Felicia said at least 5 for her, and you’ve been filming alongside her it appears, so may it be as many?

  12. As much as I enjoyed your stupid videos–enjoyment, I admit, that always involves head-shaking and “Oh, Wil…”–I was ecstatic at your choice of title quotes, since I have been listening to The Limousines non-stop for a week now, and become fixated on doing a cover of Internet Killed the Video Star.
    Also, I am making you a present. Hopefully you will think it is as awesome as I do. Is there anyone/anywhere in Vancouver I can hand it off that can pass it along to you when you come back for filming? Otherwise I will wait a few months until I see you in person.

  15. I'm in the last three episodes of the season, which start filming next week. I haven't seen any scripts, and I don't know what the story is for next year, but I think this means there's a non-zero chance I'll do more next season, too!

  17. Wil, this is off-topic but when you tweeted the MY NAME IS BINGO! thing with the #nevertrustamonkey hashtag yesterday, my house asploded. 13yo daughter and 9yo daughter literally fell off the couch screaming.
    That CD is our “hey, we’re startin’ a road trip” music, no one else we know has ever even heard of it, and you possibly made their month. You have achieved a state of cool you could never have anticipated with them. In short, your future fandom is secure. 🙂

  19. Last week while on set for Eureka, I re-watched this season of the Guild to keep from being bored during the extra long day. I thought it rather fitting. 🙂

  23. Thanks!
    Season ender, eh? Sweet. All the season ending arcs for Eureka have been strong, so that should be a lot of fun to be a part of.
    Yeah, I could totally see Parrish get the same sort of deal that Dr. Grant got and get at least the first half of the next season. Enjoy!

  24. What’s really fun is to take a whole series of photos on the phone and then flip quickly thru the series to make it look like stop action filming.
    Drawback? Trying to share it with others…

  26. We want to see a video of you chasing a red balloon down the street!
    Don’t fill it with helium, or you might have trouble chasing it through the stratosphere.

  27. Wil, from a fandom point of view, it would appear that you are now a semi-regular on Eureka – flirting with the status of a series regular. As a fan of both Eureka and Wil Wheaton I am quite pleased at this turn of events. 🙂 (Though a hell of a commute to Vancouver for poor Wil.)

  29. This is one of my favorite things about you: that even in the throes of boredom, you find a way to Get Excited and Make Things. 🙂

  30. Hooray for stupid videos! I subscribed and can’t wait for more. While I’m waiting, I’ll play the hell out of Plants vs. Zombies, because I’m addicted, thanks to you and / or Felicia Day. So glad to see you getting a lot of work!
    Christine

  31. SO,
    A neutron walks into a bar and orders a drink. The bartender serves the drink and the neutron says “How much?”
    The bartender says “No charge.”

  34. completely irrelevant. you said you brought your ipad AND a book? i applaud you for still having books rather than digital versions! there is something much more satisfying in holding a book than a screen.

  35. As your accountant, I suggest you now attach a dollar amount to view that video and start complaining about how much money acting is costing you.
    Oh wait… I’m not your accountant…
    Never mind.

  38. Too funny. Will look forward to seeing more of you on YouTube. And yes, it is nice to see there are others out there still reading books.

  39. You crack me up, you dork (meant in the most affectionate way)! 😀 You so remind me of my friend Adam. If I wasn’t in bed dying of the Plague (and simultaneously surfin the web, I heart the 21st century!), I would now go out and do stupid videos too.

  46. I’ve been away from the interwebs for a while due to travel and such. I’ve finally managed to mostly catch up again, and I find this, the reason why the internet was invented.
    Thanks for the laughs, Wil. Please carry on.

  47. Your Tube killed my Twitter account!
    Funny story. While I was still cracking up over the Special Guest video, the wonderful @bonniegrrl tweeted a (semi)spoiler, and I replied with an ironic rejoinder that people who post spoilers are… very very bad people.
    However, I didn’t #hashtag, LOL or 😉 the tweet, Bonnie initially took it literally and tweeted as such, and before my humble apology for the offence and misunderstanding, and her characteristically graceful response hit the tweeterfeeds… ZOMG @wilw just tweet-blocked me.
    Holy. Carp. Wil Wheaton, the guy I fought for back in the Day, in the First Troll War on alt.wesley.crusher.die.die.die – the Serenity Valley of Usenet – he just blocked me. It was like being bitch-slapped by Gandalf: super awesome and chillingly awful all at once.
    But you know what? Awesome wins out. A guy with 1,700,000 twitter followers – that’s one point seven million – and a feed that doubtless scrolls past like the Matrix on bennies, actually took the time to block one random nobody simply because they’d (apparently) offended one of their chums? I’m calling that as classy.
    That personal touch, having the smack down put on me by Wil. Goddamn. Wheaton? Well worth an account switch-er-oo.
    What, I was going to continue with a Twitter feed that didn’t have @wilw in it? Not in this universe, or the next.
    Rock on, Wil. You are the real deal, sir.

  48. Hey, no hard feelings, by the way. Here’s one of my own:
    Two galaxies go into a bar. The bartender turns to the lenticular galaxy and says “I’ll serve you, but your friend is barred“.

  49. You should ask Neil about the incident at DragonCon where he wound up drawing a picture of his face on Colin Ferguson’s arm. It was very entertaining 😉

  50. Jumping back to one of your OTHER TV characters, Evil Wil, I saw a story yesterday that Kaley Cuoco and Johny Galecki were dating in REAL LIFE – for almost 2 years!
    http://www.popeater.com/2010/09/29/Kaley-Cuoco-Johnny-Galecki-secret-romance/?icid=main%7Cnetscape%7Cdl8%7Csec4_lnk1%7C174371
    Two questions:
    1) Was that common knowledge amongst the cast or were you just as surprised as the rest of us?
    2) What???? Galecki scored Kaley Cuoco in REAL LIFE? HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE?!?!?!?

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