Author: Wil

If you’re going to be in a sub-culture, you absolutely must be able to laugh at yourself. It starts out in school, as a defense mechanism against The Cool Kids. When we grow older, if we’re smart, it’s how we snort laugh right back at people who just don’t get it . . . you know, the mundies. (Who used to be The Cool Kids, before we realized that it is we who are truly The Cool Kids.)
In this endeavor, John Kovalic is our leader. Case in point: “The force can have a strong influence on the geek-minded.”

What do you get when Mediasharx asks me ten questions, and I answer them?
Why, you get Taking The Bat: Ten Questions With Wil Wheaton, of course.
Dive into the deepest recesses my my mind, and swim around Too Much Information like:

5. If you could have a love child with anyone besides Anne, who would that be and why?
Jenna Jameson. However, I’m not as much interested in the having the child part, as I am in the making the child part.

When you’re done, be sure to read Taking The Bait With Dr. Quinn of SEALAB 2021. I am a huge fan of [adult swim] on Cartoon Network, and I think that SEALAB 2021 is the crown jewel of their original programming. Check out Dr. Quinn’s interview, and you just might agree.

I was checking Just A Geek‘s Amazon sales rank (hey, if you had a book at Amazon, you’d check it’s sales rank, too, buddy) and I saw one of the best Amazon Listmania lists, ever: So you wanna be a geek like me?
Quoth the list’s creator:

Tired of being a regular, run of the mill geek? Ready to take that ever-important step forward into full-blown uber-geek?? Then take the plunge, young man (or woman)! Pop ‘Flood’ into your CD player and let’s get cracking!

This list is just a few items short of being definitive. Suggest additions in comments, and maybe together we can create the Official WWdN Geek List.

Even though I’ve been doing interviews for almost twenty years, it’s still a challenge for me to keep it brief and simple, because that’s completely at odds with how I talk in real life. See, I look at interviews as an opportunity for The Audience to listen in on a conversation I have with a journalist, rather than using the journalist as a stenographer for my press release or bio. Of course, if I’m promoting something like Just A Geek, I want to make sure I talk about it at least a little bit, and a good interviewer will facilitate that, but the really good interviews are the ones where the journalist has done his or her homework, is actually interested in what we’re talking about, and isn’t afraid to throw the list of questions away if something more interesting comes up in the course of the interview.
Oh, and when I do this on the radio, we have to do it in less than ten minutes.
There are notable exceptions, like when I do The David Lawrence Show, and David (disclosure: David is a good friend) books me for the whole three hours, but those opportunities are few and far between.
So I was very excited when WebTalk Radio asked me for an interview, and told me that it would be a longer, more relaxed, “Charlie Rose” style discussion.
I loved every minute of the interview, even though I had to pee really bad for the last five minutes or so (yeah, you needed to know that, right?) We talked for almost an hour, uninterrupted, and WWdN readers who are looking to earn their “I spent 58 minutes listening to an interview on WebTalk Radio” merit badge know what to do.
Links:
Windows Media stream of just my 58 minute segment.
The Full Show (1 hr, 12 min; 14MB @ 32k) in .mp3 format.

I had a fantastic time in Las Vegas! I was there >24 hours, which is the perfect amount of time for me to be there, I’ve discovered. I’m working on my trip report, but I’ve got some real work to do today, and I probably won’t have time to finish it until the weekend.
While I was on my way home yesterday, I actually managed to audioblog a little bit about the trip, so go listen, and then read this cool interview I did with Poker Lizard dot Com:

PokerLizard: Do you have any plans to play in the World Series of Poker (WSOP) in the future?
Wil: I was just reading Howard Lederer’s website for his 2003 WSOP reports and something really struck me at the very beginning, he said, NOW This is Howard Lederer were talking about, he said, “I’ve been playing all year long in No-Limit tournament games to get ready for the World Series because I never felt I was ready enough to play in that game.”
If HOWARD LEDERER feels that he has to spend a year on top of all his other experience to play in the No-Limit tournaments, I probably have a LOOONG way to go before I can compete and play competitively at that level.

I had fun with that interview, even though I was steaming from a really bad beat (or misread, depending on who you ask). But the really cool thing is that my interview is right next to an interview with Daniel Negreanu, who is one of the nicest people I’ve ever met, and certainly the kindest professional poker player I’ve ever met. It’s nice to keep good company.
Also, I discovered a wonderful review of Just A Geek over at Apple Lust dot Com:

Let’s get this out of the way right now: if you come to this book looking for Star Trek gossip and wry recollections of life among the Klingons, you’re going to be disappointed. Wil Wheaton’s autobiographic melange of weblog and memoir is something far, far more important.
For a world where fame is instant and independent of talent, and where reality television cranks out disposable celebrities willingly sell their souls for fifteen minutes of fame, Wheaton has written an intelligent and honest warning. Like the slave who whispered “Memento Homo” into the ear of the Roman general enjoying a Triumph, Wheaton reminds us that celebrities are as vulnerable to the vicissitudes of fate as the rest of us. Starring in a hit TV show or getting an Oscar nomination in no way guarantees that the casting calls and party invitations will continue to come.

Oh! And before I forget, this Saturday night at ACME, we’re opening a brand new sketch comedy show. I’m not in this one, (my show opens in 10 weeks) but I was with the cast when they wrote it (we all write our shows together) and it’s hilarious. Tickets are only 15 bucks, there’s a great bar next door, and there is 500% of the USRDA of funny on the stage.