Not sure why I’m all-caps serious in the title, but it probably has something to do with not getting enough sleep last night, driving through fuckingawfulawfulawful traffic to get to work and back today (I’m in an audiobook version of a graphic novel that will come out in December and we finished it today), and the realization that it’s almost Halloween and I haven’t put up a single scary decoration, not even a list of what chicken nuggets are actually made of.
But I digress: Anne and I are coming to Texas for some shows this week with Paul and Storm. Information follows:
Thu 10/17: Central Presbyterian Church – Austin, TX – tix:
Fri 10/18: Fitzgerald’s – Houston, TX – tix:
Sun 10/20: Granada Theater – Dallas, TX – tix:
And now here’s the sound a cow makes:
MOOOOOOOOOO
Okay, now that I’ve taken care of that business, I can go pick out and pack clothes for our trip.
I worked on Ben Ten this morning, bringing a little Darkstar into the booth with a whole bunch of my friends who I don’t get to see nearly as often as I want.
We had a hell of a good time, as usual, and when we were on our way out, Yuri, Ashley, and I lingered in the lobby of the Cartoon Network building, which is essentially a gallery of wonderful works of art created by artists who work there.
One of the other actors came out of the recording booth, and saw us. “What are you guys doing?”
“Looking at art,” Ashley said.
“And wishing I could afford to buy this one,” I said, pointing to a gorgeous acrylic on canvas of the main characters in Mad Monster Party.
I didn’t get the artist’s name. If someone knows, tell me and I’ll update this. This was done by Rick “Dienzo” Blanco. Thanks for helping me out, Tara!
“Have you guys ever seen The Stairwell?” He asked us. I could tell by the way that he said it that The Stairwell was capitalized, and important.
We all shook our heads. “No,” one of us said.
“Oh you have got to come see this,” he said. “I didn’t even know it existed until recently when I opened the wrong door trying to find the bathroom.”
He walked us across the lobby, to a door that I’ve seen a hundred times, but never really noticed, if you know what I mean. He opened it, and I said, “… and they were never seen or heard from again!”
The walls in The Stairwell were covered with drawings of all sorts, done in pen, marker, spray paint, and other media. Some of them were dated as long ago as 2005, which I realize isn’t quite The Before Times, but is still one Pon farr ago.
Without realizing it, I was climbing the stairs, drawn forward by drawings of Cartoon Network characters, hilarious scenes and commentary that is most certainly not for being shared on a blog, and then this thing that blew my mind.
I rounded a corner a few flights up and saw that a cardboard Darth Vader had been hung in front of a florescent tube, making it look like the tube was a light sabre. “Yuri you have to come up here right now!” I hollered down the staircase. A moment later, Yuri poked his head around the corner of the landing, and saw what I saw.
“Oh. My. God.” He said.
“Right?” I said. I took a few steps up so I could take a picture … and saw that it was even better: Mace Windu was on the other side, holding out a light sabre of his own. That’s when I noticed that … well, here, let me just show you the crappy cell phone picture I took:
If you click to embiggen that, you’ll see even more awesome detail.
“OH MY GOD YOU HAVE TO COME UP HERE TO ME RIGHT NOW BECAUSE HURRY.” I said.
Yuri climbed the stairs and stood next to me. We looked at this work of art in stunned and reverent silence. Ashley joined us.
“This is amazing,” I said. They agreed.
We walked all the way up The Stairwell, until we got to the top floor. “I hope this is one of those magic stairwells where you get to the top, and when you go down to the bottom you discover all this artwork that you didn’t see the first time,” I said, “and also there’s a circus at the bottom where they give you beer and burritos.”
It was agreed that this would be a fortuitous turn of events, were it to come to pass, and we all started to walk down The Stairwell. As if by magic, or perhaps by merely looking at things we had not looked at on the way up, new works of art materialized on the walls around us, including this little bit of hilarity from 2009:
What I love about that, other than the obviously correct commentary, is the idea that someone wanted to write “Star Wars Rules!” and someone else thought up what the literal Rules of Star Wars would be, if they existed. There was a lot of that hilarious thing you see on college campuses where someone writes one thing, and someone else adds a comment to it, or subtly changes its meaning.
We made our way out of The Stairwell. I thanked David, the other actor who showed us that particular passage to Art Narnia, and hugged Ashley goodbye.
“Hey,” I said to Yuri as we walked toward our cars, “it’s Wednesday. Want to go to the comic shop?”
“You know I do,” he said.
“I’ll meet you there.”
“Done and done.”
A few minutes later, we were in the comic shop, picking up a few books that are perfect for rainy afternoon reading. When we said goodbye, I told him, “tell your wife I love her, and we hope to see you guys soon.”
“Give my love to Anne, and all your pets,” he said, “and we’ll get together when you guys get back from Texas.”
“Have a great day,” I said.
“I’ve already had a great day!” Yuri said, “everything else that happens today is just icing on the cake!”
Before I could tell him that I don’t like cake, he said, “Wait! This is the icing, because the icing is the best part.”
“Yeah, I just throw the cake away, anyway” I said.
We waved goodbye, and headed to our respective cars. Raindrops began to fall from the dark grey sky.
It’s the third day of the WIL WHEATON VS PAUL AND STORM MEGA ULTRA SUPER TOUR 2014, and we are in New York City tonight.
Last night in Philadelphia, we played one of the best shows we’ve ever played. I haven’t put together precisely why, but something just felt solid and locked together on the stage in a way that it hasn’t in the past. We always have fun, and we always feel good about our performances, but last night we all just felt connected in a way that we haven’t before, like we were sharing a brain.
The audience was great, and even demanded an actual for realsies encore from us!
Here’s a couple of shots from the theatre:
Paul and Storm doing a soundcheck. (Bonus Anne Wheaton photobomb.)Backstage, there’s a wall covered with setlists from the bands who have played there.Storm’s rockin’ the house.Obligatory artsy photo from backstage.Introducing the show.
We keep joking about being “on the road, man”, knowing full well that driving for a couple hours at a time doesn’t really count, but it’s been really fun to hang out together as we drive from city to city. I’m getting to see a lot of, uh, refineries, and trees and also trees, and even some trees. We’re driving over lots of beautiful rivers and past houses that are older than the city I live in. I’m getting a real perspective on just how much of a dystopian urban sprawl I live in back in Los Angeles, and taking some small comfort in knowing that drivers near Washington, DC, are even worse than the ones we have at home.
Refineries. Refineries everywhere.
Last night, the manager at the Live Café in Philadelphia told us that he loves it when nerd crowds come to shows, because they’re always awesome and polite and really fun to be around. I told him, “We have a wonderful audience, and I love to perform for them, because we all love the same things, and we’re basically here to celebrate those things together. And, as a general rule, nerds tend to be more awesome than dudebros.”
It sounded better in my head, and the post-show bourbon probably didn’t help with the translation, but my point was that we are very lucky to perform for the audiences who come to see us, and I’m grateful that I get to do what I do.
In a few hours, we’ll be on stage in New York, and tomorrow, we’ll be back on the road to Boston.
Last night Paul and Storm and I did our first show of the first half of our WIL WHEATON VS. PAUL AND STORM SUPER MEGA TOUR 2013 in Virginia, at a great theatre called The Birchmere.
The house was completely sold out, and I’m pretty sure the audience had a good time. I know that we did.
Paul and Storm played some new songs that just killed, and I did a short stand up set, followed by some storytelling with musical accompaniment from them.
The audience was just wonderful, and stayed up very late for us. Everyone made me feel welcome and at ease, and it was a fantastic way to kick off a few days of shows.
But the very best moment of the night, the most entertaining and pants shittingly funny moment, happened after the show was over and we were just about to leave. I was cleaning up the green room, and when I was about to toss some old chicken wings into the trash … this happened:
Last night in Philadelphia, we played one of the best shows we’ve ever played. I haven’t put together precisely why, but something just felt solid and locked together on the stage in a way that it hasn’t in the past. We always have fun, and we always feel good about our performances, but last night we all just felt connected in a way that we haven’t before, like we were sharing a brain.
