So, I was already charmed by the delightful Mr. Wheaton long before I heard him speak in person. It often happens that you are horribly disappointed when you have expectations about a celebrity...they end up being not enough, or even completely opposite of what you want them to be. But, perhaps because I began to enjoy him through his blog, which is a fairly personal mode of entry...he definitely lived up to and exceeded my expectations.

He speaks just like he writes, and the only thing better than reading his words is hearing the genuine qualities in his voice that let you know he's not just blowing sunshine. Maybe he's just that good of an actor, but I know that while sitting in the audience, I felt like he was not being (as he puts it) TVSWILWHEATON! but rather just being Wil, and being quietly amazed that all of us would want to hang out with a dork like him.

Maybe it was his occasional perverted reference... "I'm going to sit down to read, because otherwise, you'll all just be staring at the top of my head...but then I know some of you have been dying to see the top of my head." ::pause to acknowledge the few giggles from the inner 12-year-olds in the front row:: "wait for it" ::crowd laughs louder as the reference is caught by all::

Or maybe it was how he just made the same kind of jokes that I would like to make but probably wouldn't... "This is the part where I have to say that I have a bit of a potty mouth, and anyone who's offended or bothered by that should probably leave. It's okay. We all understand." ::pause, presumably to give people time to leave, then he looks up at the crowd:: "Fuckers."

But it's probably even more so the way he blushed when reading the embarrassing bits from Dancing Barefoot (he read 2 selections...one about him as a teenager and one that explains how Capt. Kirk became William Fucking Shatner)...and the way you could see his mouth curl into an anticipating grin when he knew he was about to read a funny part.

Somehow that touched me far more than Koenig's impassioned (overdone) reading of Lovecraft...it kicked the ass of Takei's reading from his book. Really, Wil should have been scheduled for Sunday, because maybe I would have enjoyed the other people more if I hadn't already seen someone kick ass onstage for my amusement.

*biggest grin in the world*

This makes me feel great. I had a good time in Vegas, and I felt like the reading went well. It's nice to hear from someone who felt the same way, from the other side of the stage.