Well, w00tstock 1.x has come and gone, and we are still blown away by how incredible an experience it was for us. And to think it all started because of our insecurity.
True story: w00tstock was born because we wanted to schedule a few dates in California; but not having toured out there on our own (without the protective sheath of Jonathan Coulton‘s fanbase to bolster the crowds), we weren’t sure how strong the attendance would be. So we called the two most famous California-based geeks we knew, Wil Wheaton and Adam Savage, in the hopes that one of them might be interested in performing with us.
Then they BOTH said yes. Without hesitation. And they had some “ideas”.
Things snowballed quickly, with everyone’s enthusiasm and input combining to evolve into the “w00tstock” concept: a full evening of entertainment celebrating all things geek.
A strict, thorough chronology isn’t really possible—well, sure, it’s *possible*; we’re just too damn sleep-deprived to coherently reconstruct the timeline—and also, plenty of evidence is showing up on the Intertubes, including pictures, video and blog posts. So we’ll just list various highlights from the whirlwind that was this past Monday through Wednesday…
- Watching people’s faces (including Wil’s) as they heard Kid Beyond do his incredible beatbox/live-looping for the first time.
- The wave of incredulity that passed through the gang backstage after people who had been working with and admiring Molly Lewis for three days finally learned that she is just nineteen years old.
- Seeing screenwriter Josh Cagan, whom most of the crowd in L.A. had never heard of, completely win over the audience by minutely breaking down 30 horrible seconds from the Roger Corman version of Fantastic Four.
- Kasper Hauser‘s dramatic reading of their ongoing correspondence with a 419 scammer–a sketch that is even funnier, we discovered, with accompanying PowerPoint slides.
- Finally getting to see Hard ‘n Phirm perform live, and thus more fully understanding why we hate them so goddamn much (i.e. because they are awesome and hilarious)
- Jeff Lewis KILLING IT doing “World of Warcraft” standup as his character Vork (from “The Guild“)
- Jamming on an acoustic version of “(Do You Wanna Date My) Avatar” with Felicia Day, Sandeep Parikh and Jeff Lewis
- The pure joy of being onstage with Wil & Adam at the end of each evening as they joined us in increasingly-epic versions of “The Captain’s Wife’s Lament”—culminating on Wednesday night with a 15+-minute “In-a-Gadda-da-Vida” of fake cover band names and “R”-based pun one-upsmanship.
And last but probably most of all, getting to see so many geeks and nerds in one place enjoying the whole production as much as we enjoyed putting it together, extended by the love-fest meet and greet afterwards. Thank you all.
Finally, we make you this promise: there will be a w00tstock 2.x.
18 Comments
w00tstock 2.x: Minneapolis! You know you want too…
~Sharon, I’ll Merch Minion for you at w00tstock.
You forgot to mention the Levi socks!
Whom do I have to bribe to get everybody into the studio for a good recording of that acoustic version of “Avatar?”
Yeah seriously Levi socks was the craziest thing this year.
I really want to see the epic captain’s wife’s lament. please say someone recorded it
http://sharebee.com/216d1991
This is the full audio recording of w00t stock, and indeed it has Captain’s wife’s lament on it.
Awesome show in Mpls tonight. We want to here all of Bus Plunge!
Please oh please oh pul-leeease bring w00tstock to Boston! It’s full of geeks and you know we love you! [/slightly clingy]
(Ahem. Sorry about that.)
But seriously, I hope you can arrange something up here. I already know a bunch of folks who are excited for PAX East, so there’s definitely an audience. Given what the MythBusters gang has said about their shooting schedule, I don’t know if Adam can be lured all the way out here, but there must be East Coast geekery to be had.
Thanks so much for giving us the honor of helping you out with merch in SF. If you are out California way again I’ll make sure to drop you a line.
Another vote for w00tstock on the East Coast! The videos were wonderful and the “The Trade” with musical interludes was absolutely awesome.
Being in Scotland and currently unemployed it was kinda hard to make it to wootstock but watching it on youtube has been a great pleasure.
While Kid beyond is all forms of awesome finding that Molly is only 19 is quite possibly one of the most shocking things ive heard.
That was an incredibly awesome and thoroughly enjoyable show.
Especially when Paul moved the mic stands out of the way.
😀
Chicago!!!!! We midwest geeks need love too!
I’d like to see W00tstock 2.x roll through Texas, hitting at least Dallas, Austin, and Houston. I’d hit that.
I second a request for a Texas geek tour. I am in Houston, and it would become my third time to see Paul and Storm. Bring Molly and Felicia, whatever you do!
W00tstock Tuesday night was epic!
In w00tstock 1.0 what was the video with the Asian girl and the cartoon super hero characters. I forget what it was called or link to youTube be awesome thanks.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/turkeyanne/4347541252/in/set-72157623279688147/
FTFY
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