Wil Wheaton's Blog, page 88
October 17, 2013
New Tabletop: Betrayal at House on the Hill
This week, Ashly Burch, Keahu Kahuanui and Michael Swaim join me to play one of my very favorite RPG-in-a-box games: Betrayal at House on the Hill.
I’m a huge fan of Ashly’s work in Borderlands 2, and after I met her at Valve last year, I became a huge fan of her as a human. She’s really awesome and a hell of a lot of fun to play with. If you like things that don’t suck, check out Hey Ash, Watcha Playin’?
Keahu and I have a ton of friends in common, but we’d never met until just before we shot this episode. Since then, we’ve become very good friends, and I even get to be a Bad Idea Bear for him from time to time when giant pizza is involved. Thank you, Tabletop Gaming, for helping me make a new friend. Oh, and Keahu is on some TV show about wolf hunters or something like that. I think it’s animated.
Michael Swaim knows Felicia, and is a lifelong tabletop gamer, just like me. He also writes for Cracked.com. Felicia suggested that I invite him to the show, because he’s hilarious and fun to be around, and she was pretty sure we’d like each other. I hate to admit it, but Felicia was right.
This was so much fun to play, and so much incredibly awesome stuff happened, we ended up cutting it into a two-part episode (but fear not! Part two comes out next week, because we love you and don’t want to make you wait two whole weeks for the second part. Did I mention that it was awesome? It’s awesome.)
When I get home from Texas, we’re shooting a Very Special Episode of Not The Flog, where I’m going to share some of my favorite horror-themed tabletop games. I have a pretty big list in my head, but I’m sure there’s something awesome that I’m forgetting, so if you wanted to maybe get onto Not The Flog, tell me the title of the game you love, why you love it, and what your favorite Halloween candy is. I’ll pick some and put them into the show, which is coming out sooooooon.
Soooooon.
Soon.
Anyway, turn down your lights (where applicable) and enjoy the show!
October 15, 2013
TEXAS HERE WE COME
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: http://bit.ly/WilPSAustin
Fri 10/18: Fitzgerald’s – Houston, TX - tix: http://bit.ly/WilPSHouston
Sun 10/20: Granada Theater – Dallas, TX - tix: http://bit.ly/WilPSDallas
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.
October 10, 2013
October 9, 2013
The Stairwell
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.
October 5, 2013
… and I’m talkin’ about the road
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 stayed up very late, and didn’t get into bed until almost 3am. BUT! Before we left the theatre, we made another tribute to a classic American film:
Then, today, while we were on the road, we made two more featuring a pair of classic commercial jingles:
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.
because I’m talking about the rooooaaaaddddd….
October 4, 2013
WIL WHEATON VS. PAUL AND STORM SUPER MEGA TOUR 2013: Day One.
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:
If you can’t see the embed, you can probably see the silly video we made right here.
Tonight, we’re in Philadelphia, and then New York on Saturday. We finish up in Boston on Sunday.
October 3, 2013
William Penn’s Wiener (or: Hello. I am 12 years-old. Again.)
Last night, we stayed in downtown Philadelphia. Our hotel room had a great view of city hall, which is topped by a giant statue of William Penn, holding a proclamation about the city’s commitment to fighting off bears or robots or something.
BUT! When you look at it the right way — like out our hotel window, for instance — it looks like he’s wagging his wiener at New Jersey.
He was truly a great American.
October 1, 2013
Marlowe and Riley say OH HAI GUIZE
Seamus went to daycare today, so he could play with dogs his own age (he loves to play with Marlowe, but she’s got that puppy energy and it can be a little exhausting for him).
While he was gone, Marlowe spent most of the day looking at the front door, waiting for him to come home … except for a few moments when I was able to take this picture of her:
Do you know where Seamus is?
And, because she was just a few feet away, here’s Riley:
I’m a dog!
I’d add a picture of Seamus, who is home now, but he’s so exhausted from playing all day, he’s just a blob on the couch, and I wouldn’t dream of disturbing his beauty sleep.
September 30, 2013
our wiggle waggle walk
“Hey, wake up,” I said, gently shaking Anne’s shoulder. Her iPhone buzzed and chimed on the nightstand beyond her, out of my reach.
“What are you doing?” She mumbled, pulling out one of her earplugs and pushing her eye mask up onto her forehead.
“It’s 630. Your alarm is going off.”
“I didn’t hear it,” she said, the tone of her voice changing as she woke up.
“It was probably your sleep cocoon,” I said as I pushed the covers back and sat on the edge of our bed. On the floor next to me, our dog Riley lifted her head and looked at me. “Good morning, Piles,” I said. She sighed and went back to sleep. On the foot of our bed, Seamus and Marlowe snuggled next to each other. Seamus snored softly. Neither of them moved as we got out of bed.
I walked out into the kitchen and began to make some coffee. “You know what’s going to be awesome?” I said, “the nap I’m going to take in about six hours.”
“Oh yeah, we’re going to take the hell out of a nap,” Anne said.
We made breakfast and drank our coffee, and got ready to take Marlowe down to the Rose Bowl for the Wiggle Waggle Walk.
It was so early, none of the animals quite knew what was going on. After we’d been awake for about a half hour, Marlowe and Seamus came out of our bedroom, looking as confused as dogs can look. “You have no idea what a big day you are about to have,” I said to Marlowe as I pet her wrinkly little head, “you’re a very big deal, you know.”
She wagged her tail before laying down on the living room floor next to Seamus, who was still trying to figure out why we were up so damn early.
“Man, I suck at mornings,” I said to nobody in particular.
Montage: Anne dries her hair, I shower, we put on our shoes, realize we’re wearing almost identical clothes, try to change them, realize that we have a lot of dirty clothes, feed the dogs, put Marlowe in the car, drive to the Rose Bowl, meet up with our friends.
It was an absolutely beautiful morning. The cool, clean air of early autumn wrestled with the lingering heat of summer beneath a brilliantly blue and cloudless sky. Thousands of dogs and their humans excitedly walked around a park, waiting for the official Wiggle Waggle Walk to begin. I saw everything from giant Great Danes and tiny teacup Chihuahuas, and a ton of seriously adorable dogs in costumes. My very favorite was the one dressed up like a taco. Tons of people came over to us, so they could meet Marlowe (she’s pretty popular, thanks to the video I helped her make last year, and she was chosen to be the dog on this year’s T-shirt). She was such a good dog, so excited and happy to meet everyone. (I wished that Seamus and Riley could have been there, but Riley is too old and cranky to make the walk, and Seamus gets overstimulated easily, so Marlowe was the only canine member of Team Wheaton in attendance this year.)
We walked with our friends Pixie and Brady, Mari and William, and Jenna, Bobak, and Rileah. Pixie took all the photos for Anne’s calendar, and she took some really great shots yesterday, too, which was awesome. Jenna got to walk an absolutely adorable shelter dog named Barkley J. Peabody, who we’re all trying to help find his Forever Home — he’s part Ewok, nerds — and how can you say no to this face?! We also walked with our friends Troy and Marie, who brought their rescue dogs Digby and Ziggy. Digby is a PHS alumnus just like Marlowe and Seamus.
By the time we got all the way around the Rose Bowl, the lingering heat of summer had pushed autumn into the shadows of a few trees. We all got to have a beer from Stone Brewing Company (Stone very generously donated beer for the volunteers and some of the fundraisers), and then we went to lunch with all of our friends, where Marlowe made even more new fans.
We walked into the house about 8 hours after we’d left it. Marlowe went directly into our bedroom, hopped up on our bed, and fell asleep. A few minutes later, we joined her … and we took the hell out of a well-earned nap.
Yesterday was a very big day for Anne and me, the culmination of months of hard work on her part to make the celebrity pet adoption calendar, and the celebration of the kindness and generosity of a lot of people who made contributions large and small, totaling just over $42,000 to help Team Wheaton help the Pasadena Humane Society.
All I want to do with the time I have is make the world a little better, and you who supported our team and the PHS made it possible for us to do some really good stuff. Thank you, from all of us humans, cats, and dogs in Castle Wheaton, for making this the most amazing Wiggle Waggle Walk we’ve ever had.
Wil Wheaton vs. Paul and Storm 2013 Tour Funtimes
So how about that Breaking Bad finale? As I said to Twitter: That right there is how you end a series.
Anne and I are going to go back and rewatch the entire series, and since there isn’t much new on television that we care to watch, I’m finally going to get her to watch The Wire, Mad Men, and The Shield.
In non-television news, I’m heading out on the road next week to do some shows with Paul and Storm!
We love hanging out with Wil Wheaton. We love performing with him, too. So over the past couple months, we’ve slowly, methodically tricked him into doing a series of shows with us in October. And he FELL FOR IT! WHATTA DOPE!
So folks in the US Northeast and in Texas will now have the chance to see the three of us on stage, singing and reading and performing what will surely be EPIC-LENGTH versions of “The Captain’s Wife’s Lament” at the following live shows:
Thu 10/3: The Birchmere – Alexandria, VA – tix: http://bit.ly/WilPSAlex
Fri 10/4: World Cafe Live – Philadelphia, PA - tix: http://bit.ly/WilPSPhilly
Sat 10/5: SubCulture New York – New York, NY - tix: http://bit.ly/WilPSNYC
Sun 10/6: Hard Rock Cafe – Boston, MA - tix: http://bit.ly/WilPSBoston
Thu 10/17: Central Presbyterian Church – Austin, TX - tix: http://bit.ly/WilPSAustin
Fri 10/18: Fitzgerald’s – Houston, TX - tix: http://bit.ly/WilPSHouston
Sun 10/20: Granada Theater – Dallas, TX - tix: http://bit.ly/WilPSDallas
Tickets for many of these shows are already going fast. So don’t wait if you wanna get in on the fun.
I’m not exactly sure why we’re doing a show in a church, but I’m very much looking forward to finding out if I burst into flames on the stage or not.
