If there was any ever doubt that a web series—without any moonlighting Hollywood celebrities or TV network backing—could galvanize throngs of faithful fans into a live rock concert adoration, well, it ended last night at SXSW. Before a sold out crowd of over 2,200 at Stubbs BBQ one of Austin’s legendary outdoor concert stages, Kevin Rose and Alex Albrecht took a page out of the rock star playbook at the live Diggnation taping Saturday night.
The spiked hair and fire breathing magic skills of Scam School’s Brian Brushwood primed the crowd, in an opening act that probably could have its own Vegas offshoot some day. Then there was the #OMGConan hoax, an organized prank led by Rev3 co-founder David Prager that generated 426 tweets from the audience blasting out that Conan O’Brien is joining Revision3. This was of course full-circle to the web network’s credulous offer back in January for Conan to have his own Rev3 show.
Oh, and the crowdsurfing. Alex and Kevin floated over the sea of outstretched arms. Even live streaming TWIT.tv’s Leo Laporte joined in on the fun to cheers of “Leo! Leo! Leo!” as he was whisked up while carrying his lighted unipod to stream his ride. Was this the first live streamed crowd surfing shot first person?
In the parlor game of us spectators, one of the questions batted around was just how much PC-maker Alienware paid for the ultimate product integration—swapping out Kevin and Alex’s usual laptops for two of theirs. Best bets from those in the know seemed to say it was at least $50k for the privilege of that placement. Some speculated it was a six figure deal. Either way, not cheap to free known Apple-lover Kevin Rose from his MacBook Pro.
Spotted up in the VIP section were a number of web series vets like Taryn Southern, Tim Street, Brett Register, iJustine, Phil DeFranco, Shira Lazar, Tony Valenzuela and others—all there to witness first-hand just how big this video space has actually become. It left us all thinking, who needs Conan when you have have these guys?
The episode was shot live, but to tape, meaning the edited version won’t be up until later this week.
Photos by George Ruiz.
Related News:
Comments
Actually the OMGConan prank was put on by Brushwood and Justin Robert Young from NSFW. Don’t blame Prager.
OK, let’s correct some things: 3800 attendees, live, with over 1500 additional watching on TWiT.tv network via Leo Laporte’s uStream.tv-provided backpack called “uLive”, camera op = Leo Laporte, himself.
“The spiked hair and fire breathing magic skills of Scam School’s Brian Brushwood primed the crowd, in an opening act that probably could have its own Vegas offshoot some day.”
Not exactly: The spike-haired, fire EATING Brian Brushwood (owner and host of ScamSchool.com, employee of Rev3, and creator and co-host of NSFW, a TWiT.tv network late-night show), primed the crowd in a FEATURED act, appearing before Diggnation taping. Brian Brushwood has played 100’s of colleges and universites all over the US and some other countries.
Rounding out their set on stage was the presentation of 3 (Three) World records, garanteed by the UWR
“…Then there was the #OMGConan hoax, an organized prank led by Rev3 co-founder David Prager that generated 426 tweets from the audience blasting out that Conan O’Brien is joining Revision3. This was of course full-circle to the web network’s credulous offer back in January for Conan to have his own Rev3 show.”
Not to say that Prager can’t “oraganize” stuff, but to say that this prank was in any way “organized” would be s disservice to the brainchild who tought of it!
The hoax was only PART of ONE of the 3 World Records attempted (and all succeeded) by Brian Brushwood – NOT Prager – live on stage. This particular Hoax, the first of the 3 presented (many others were earlier rejected by Brushwood, as we would later find out earlier tonight on his LIVE NSFW show), was actually dreamed up by Brushwood’s trusty and beautiful assistant, James Robert Young, just 10 minutes before they hit the stage (also confirmed only hours ago); Young had help from Chad(?) aka @amtrekker thinking up some of the whacky hoax-hijinx. The tweet number 426 was for in a 3 hour period – and occurred only in ONE hour. Many more came later from those watching the Streaming Leo Show.
——–
“…Was this the first live streamed crowd surfing shot first person?”.
Well, yes, IF you had been there, you would know that it was not only the first time, but should officially become a world record, results will be in soon.
—————-
“The episode was shot live, but to tape, meaning the edited version won’t be up until later this week”.
Well, not “tape” of course (you must be an oldskooler?), but a Live-to-Drive, 6 (six) camera HD Shoot, that will – as usual – appear on BitGravity.com with ALL 6 camera views available for viewer switching. Kind of cool.
BTW, with all these facts floating around, I believe, but am not sure, that Brushwood’s stage appearance may also have been recorded to the BitGravity system, whether 6 or just one camera used also unknown, and would also be made available through the Rev3 process.
Trackbacks
Leave a Reply