Brad Weissenberger wrote:(...)there are other members of this forum who knew Wesley Willis personally. I'd appreciate it if one of you could set the record straight regarding:

(i) Mr. Willis' lack of cognizance;
(ii) whether or not "most" of the audience (what audience?) was "just laughing at him"; and
(iii) whether or not items (i) and (ii) are even important.

When I was working at the old Copy Max on Milwaukee, Wesley came in to hang out quite a bit. One night, he was having one of his frequent "hell nights" and crying on one of the tables. One of the hipster dudes (possibly a member of the Fiasco) came in and said "what's up, Wesley?" and upon seeing Mr. Willis' state, promptly ignored him and walked out.

To me, a lot of the people at the time looked at Wesley like this: not as a human being, but as a performing monkey to make them laugh. I didn't know him personally, but I saw quite a few people laugh at him, sometimes openly.

He was schizophrenic (therefore prone to massive mood swings), that can explain the lack of cognizance. I had seen him both extremely happy and pitifully crazy. I knew a band who was (i use the term loosely) "managed" by the same chap who managed him in the mid 90's. My friend (a tattoo artist) was helping Wesley with his drawings and showed Wes some of his art. Wesley promptly stood up and said "You take my markers you are a better drawer than me." My friend refused multiple times but, Wesley absolutely insisted and would not pipe down until he accepted said markers. He still has those markers to this day and cherishes both the markers and the drawing that came with them. I myself never laughed at him and was always smiling when I was around him or just saying "Hello". I think he did get exploited and laughed at by various people, on the other side of the coin if there were people around that knew him they were staunch defenders of his feelings and vehement about being kind to the gentle giant.

~~ CprlCoffee

Wesley came and stayed with us for a weekend when I was in college. he was a handful to say the least, but he left a lasting impression (not counting the bruises on the forehead).

My roommate Orion and myself were responsible for "Wesleysitting" at the behest of a local promoter. We took him around all weekend, made sandwiches that fit his diet, got him specific battery types for his headphones and made sure he had a running river of orange juice to slake his thirst. He slept in the nude on our sofa under a blanket.

It was hard and laborious, but he told so many funny/sad stories about friends of his turning on him and calling him a 'monster.' I know WW was bonkers, but it was beyond his control. One can only assume that his needs became a stressful burden on those that he was travelling with.

When we got him on that train, O and I both teared up as he waved from the window. It's always made me sad that I wasn't at his services. I felt like I dropped the ball.

We weren't laughing at him. I think at some point, we could very well have, but getting to know this guy and be remembered years after the fact by his ridiculous memory skills always made me feel warm.

Sweet and crazy, but sweet nonetheless.


Faiz

wesley willis lived in cheyenne the summer before he died. (that's where i live) and i never actually met him, but from what i hear his schizophrenia was pretty bad, he was well known for head butting people and telling them to fuck off, but he was also known for his art. most people i know listen to his music as an addity, but i have met people who seriously think he was a genius. th eperson he lived with here admired him artisticlly and will forever defend him. he used to hang out at the kinkos here alot and i would "just miss him". the employess were not to fond of him. but as you probably know most people even if they didnt like him would not do so to his face due to his mental condition and massive size. i honestly think he could whoop batmans ass.

i don't know about how he was treated in chicago, but wesley willis would stay at my house in downstate illinois (we had mutual friends) when he was on "vacation" or had a show in the area. pretty much what everybody else here said. he wasn't an idiot, he knew his stuff was funny, and he liked to make people laugh. we weren't laughing at him.

i did see one guy call him a "retard" or something to that effect, and he promptly got the holy shit beat out of him by one of wesley's friends

he was also a shrewd businessman. if you wanted to buy one of his records, he wouldn't let you pick.. my friend bought about eight until he got the one he wanted.

aaron wrote:i did see one guy call him a "retard" or something to that effect, and he promptly got the holy shit beat out of him by one of wesley's friends

as much as i detest violence, and think it's never the answer, this really brought a big smile to my face, and i read it again, and smiled even more. for some odd reason, i don't think i've felt this way in a loooong time, but i guess there's times where i think a good beat-down is just.

i only ever met him once, when a band of mine was printing our color separations for our album at a kinko's in chicago. he was really friendly, and insisted that a couple of the guys in the band partake in the famous headbutt. it is the only reason i remember printing those color separations.

i have one willis story. a band from chicago called my special space out day or something like that, was on tour with wesley. they had him on a diet and had to fight off people bringing him krispy kreme doughnuts...anyway...afterwards wesley was playing his keyboard and his chair broke, i was scared shitless, but they started laughing and i was like man you guys are assholes and then they told me thats the brand new chair that is the biggest badass one anyone makes and it was claimed not to break. we all ran up on stage to pick him up, i felt terrible and wesley just said,"wesley fall down" and smiled.

I only met Mr. Willis once, when I saw him play a show in Los Angeles. I talked to him a bit while he sketched a girl before his set. He was nice to me, fairly cognizant, although easily distracted, but also very much in control, even peppering our conversation with complements to the girl he was sketching for her ability to stand still, etc. I did notice later on, after more hipster-doofuses showed up, that he started to get kind of manic and aggressive, but it seemed like he was pretty particular about the people to whom his mania was directed. He was clearly gripped by mental illness, but, that night at least, he teetered right on the edge of control. Perhaps because of that, his performance was captivating in a way that I wouldn't have expected it to be. "It was the best show".

From what I've seen in the documentary it's clear WW had moderate learning disabilities but that often (or always) goes unmentioned because such focus is placed on his schizophrenia.

If I were to have seen him live and felt that people were laughing at him as spectators and not fans/friends/well-wishers/admirers/etc I probably would have had to leave. I hope that for the most part that wasnt the case.

As for his records, they stand alone, infact I wish I could have heard them without his reputation preceding them.

When I saw WW in Baltimore just a few years back the audience was very largely made up of the former. I ran into him (like, literally) coming out of the men's room and he seemed to be weary of the whole scene. During the show audience members seemed to be trying to cajole behavior out of him rather than enjoying the set, presumably with the hope of having stories to tell their friends the next day. Several were requesting songs he did with the Fiasco, and not by name. It was disgusting. I would have left but I felt it would have been an insult to the man.

It's nice hearing that some crowds, somewhere, were better to him than this.