Addendum to the reading

[I posted yesterday's blog entry to the Wil Wheaton Yahoogroups list to share, and then forgot to tell them all about this incident and posted it as well.]

When Wil was doing the Q&A after his reading -- he read the chapters about the "Hooters Incident" and about his audition when his family went on vacation -- a guy came sauntering into the bookstore, and you could tell he was "different." Unkempt hair, terribly matching clothes... let's just say he was the standard NERD type like in high school that you hoped would never stop in the halls to talk to you lest you be banned from the normal kids forever. (Not like our dear Wil, he's Just a Geek :).

The audience could see the fellow coming, barreling along side the makeshift "podium" past Wil as he's answering someone else's question. He looks to see who the speaker is -- stops, takes a double take and then immediately shoots his hand up in the air, waving.

My heart sunk. Please don't ask it.

Wil takes his question next.

"Hey, hey! Aren't you the guy who used to be on Star Trek?"

"Yeah. Used to be." Ugh. Poor Wil. Sucked up real good and I know I wasn't the only one with him. But the guy goes on:

"Oh yeah, yeah. Well, have you done anymore science fiction?"

Not a bad question and Wise Wil runs with it. I'm sorry, I can't remember the answer, but it's basically no -- I was too distracted by the other fellow's hand at attention again, ready to ask yet another question! Fortunately one of the employees there felt our collective cringe and told the guy something like "Give everyone else a chance, moron!" (okay, maybe not exactly that). He pulled his hand down and he left us and Wil alone.

We all got a taste of the entire "Hooters incident" right then and there, twenty minutes after Wil read it to us. Wow. Talk about synchronicity. Talk about empathy.