Years from now, I won’t remember much from Comic-Con 2010 that was all that different from Comic-Con 2009 or Comic-Con 2008 or… well you get the point. That isn’t to say that Comic-Con 2010 isn’t a great time; we’re having a blast. It just isn’t that different from other years. Comic-Con is always a good time, and that’s why all of us keep coming year after year. No, I won’t remember too much from Comic-Con 2010, but I will always remember W00tstock San Diego 2010. On Thursday night, a sell out crowd at 4th and B was privileged to see the the peak of geekery. W00tstock San Diego 2010, with no hyperbole whatsoever, was easily the most entertaining night of my life. It’s Saturday morning, and my sides still hurt from laughing. I still find my thoughts provoked. The show went on for four and a half hours, but on Saturday morning, I still want more.
Wil Wheaton kicked off the night. Wil’s smart, self deprecating sense of humor is perfect for a geek crowd, and because he is so clearly one of us, he is the perfect host for a huge geek audience. After warming up the crowd for just a minute and introducing Len Peralta who would be drawing the show poster during the show based on our suggestions, Will brought out two of his W00tstock co-founders, the musical comedy act Paul and Storm, to do an opening song. They opened with, appropriately enough, their song Opening Band. Jason Finn from The Presidents of the United States accompanied Paul and Storm on drums, and they sounded great. Finn also served as rim shot judge and master all night. He served proudly, and he served honorably. After Paul and Storm’s first number, they cleared the stage and opened it up to a fast paced night of geekery that blew the audience away. I certainly don’t remember the exact order of the acts, and definitely not the order of all of the cameos, but I do remember the acts themselves, and I do remember the roar from the crowd at every cameo.
Molly Lewis is a regular guest at W00tstock, but this was the first 21 and up W00tstock, and Molly isn’t over 21 yet. Wil apologized that she couldn’t come play for us, but then he brought her out for a quick set anyway. I don’t even know how to describe Molly. Yes, she’s little girl with a ukulele, but that doesn’t begin to do her justice. Molly is talent. She is a great big ball of talent wrapped up in a tiny geek girl shell. She is a force of nature. Her songs destroyed the audience, but then she had to leave. She couldn’t stay in the club to watch the rest of the show, so FREE MOLLY became the chant of the night, and during the intermission, Molly played a show in the parking lot next to 4th and B.
Uncanny X-Men and Invincible Iron Man writer Matt Fraction took to the stage to make people think. Matt is hands down the best writer at Marvel right now, and he talked to us about comics. He talked about why comics and escapism are important. He talked about art and the interaction between art and the viewer of art. He singled in on that point of interaction as the most important point of the process, and he talked about how that interaction means that a piece of art or writing will never be the same for two viewers. He talked about getting into reading comics when his mother was very ill and that that experience colors his interaction with those comics in a way completely different from the interaction that other readers would have with the exact same comic. Matt Fraction has a big brain and a big love of comics, and he showed off both Thursday night.
Mythbuster Adam Savage is the final W00tstock founder, and Wil worked up the crowd with what seemed to be Adam’s introduction. When Jamie Hyneman walked out instead, the crowd exploded. Jamie just did a quick cameo and said that Adam would be out in the second half of the show. There were quite a few other cameos during W00tstock San Diego. Fox Trot creator Bill Amend took the stage for a minute, and we also got another Mythbuster, Grant Imahara. Yes, I was hoping to see Kari, but that didn’t happen. At one point later in the show Adam brought Grant back out to do his impression of Jamie Hyneman’s mustache which completely busted us up.
We were treated with another musical act, Marian Call. Marian is a folk singer who recently came out as a geek. She opened with a fairly typical song about not being one of the pretty girls, but she sang it while accompanying herself on a manual typewriter. She really got the audience into it though when she performed the slow, folksy version of the punk theme song she recorded for Zombie Cheerleader Camp. When she got the audience singing the refrain, ‘We’re out for blood! We’re out for blood! We’re out for blood!’ everyone got into it, and for a moment there we became her zombie army.
Ex-MST3Kers Rifftrax came out and did a live riff on a great short about Mister Bungle. If you closed your eyes, it was easy to picture Tom Servo going off at the screen. The short itself was hilarious, and they just made it funnier. I know I’m going to try not to be a Mister Bungle. How about you?
That’s still not even half the show. Comedian and blogger Chris Hardwick (Nerdist) did a 15 minute highlight version of his act. Then Phil Plait (Bad Astronomy) gave us a lecture about astronomical phenomenon that look like penises. Nowhere else can you get 15 minutes of penis astronomy jokes. Phil Plait capped off his presentation by announcing that he’ll habe a new show on Discovery soon. I’m really looking forward to that.
The acts just kept coming. Jamy Ian Swiss wowed the audience, and this guy, with some amazing magic. He did disappearing card tricks like I’ve never seen before. I really like magic, and I pride myself on knowing how a lot of tricks are done, and I do know exactly what he was doing. That shit was MAGIC! While doing magic, Jamy talked a lot about science and his affection for Mister Wizard while growing up. Everyone loves Mister Wizard.
Then, well after any other, lamer, show would have ended, we got to the head liners. Wil Wheaton read a story from one of his books about losing his Rocky Horror virginity. That really took me, and a lot of other people, back a good ways. The story was sweet, and geeky, and most of all so funny I think I broke a rib. As a topper when Wil got to the point of talking about toast, well known Cylon Aaron Douglas walked onto the stage in Tyrol’s flight suit. Wil dismissed him with, “I said toast, not toaster,” but when Aaron left the stage Will had a full geek out moment about how cool his life is and his friends are, and that Aaron would do that for him.
Adam Savage took the stage and talked about his geek youth. He talked about playing Dungeons and Dragons and how as a direct result of D&D, he got his first kiss. That’s a geek honor badge if there ever was one. The story was awesome, but what he did next is the reason why my sides still hurt. Adam sang I Will Survive in the voice of Gollum while accompanied by a guitarist dressed as Chewbacca. Adam’s Gollum was perfect, and Gollum singing that song turns out to be an incredible match. That one was a major show stopper.
Paul and Storm closed out the show with a few songs that culminated in bringing out all of the W00tstock founders for The Captain’s Wife’s Lament. Wil, Adam, Paul, and Storm became the geek rat pack right in from of us. The jokes were flying so fast that it took over 10 minutes to get through the first two lines of the song. Most of the jokes were centered around a game of cover band names where they were constantly trying to one up each other and earn rim shots from Finn. Extremely funny jokes got hand shakes all around. The song ended up going on for over half an hour, and I wish it had last a lot longer. I’d still like to be in that moment now.
I have to say again that it really was the most enjoyable, funniest, most thought provoking night of entertainment I’ve seen, and also, FREE MOLLY!