Eric Weinmeier
Appearances
Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
WWDTM: Thanksgiving Edition!
I've heard it a thousand times. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But what they didn't realize, they think it's funny, but I'm like, no way, man, you made my career. No one heard about climbing Everest, but everyone heard about my gay video.
Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
WWDTM: Thanksgiving Edition!
Yeah, there's another clip where if you go online, you can see me just completely laughing, cracking up for her. I couldn't even do the interview. And by the way, I just want to say for the NPR audience, nothing funny about being gay or being blind, but I don't know how the two look the same on a strip.
Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
WWDTM: Thanksgiving Edition!
No, no, no. In fact, I like more records than I can get. You know, like, first blind guy to climb Everest, first blind gay man to climb Everest is even better. So I'll take it.
Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
WWDTM: Thanksgiving Edition!
Yeah, and I did have great guides, though. I mean, like on Everest, I had... We had 12 friends and eight Sherpas on our team, and those guys were helping me get through, like, the Khumbu Icefall. I mean, the Khumbu Icefall is right out of base camp on Everest, and it's a blind person's worst nightmare. It doesn't meet Americans with Disability Act standards. I mean...
Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
WWDTM: Thanksgiving Edition!
I've done them both my whole life. It's a notoriously terrible career choice. It's like you try to do one thing well, and then you're like, hey, look, I can do another thing badly. And then everyone makes fun of you. But it's fun, and I've been doing it forever.
Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
WWDTM: Thanksgiving Edition!
We're talking like seven, eight, but I was not a professional child in any way.
Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
WWDTM: Thanksgiving Edition!
I was rewriting the lyrics to songs from the Hannah Montana TV show.
Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
WWDTM: Thanksgiving Edition!
So, yeah, they were ringing, jingling a bell in front of me and talking to me and telling me which ropes to clip into. So, for sure, blind guys, at least as far as I know, don't climb Everest alone. And I owe my team everything.
Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
WWDTM: Thanksgiving Edition!
You know, it felt a little bit like, you know, being on the Nina and the Pinta and the Santa Maria. You know, it felt really great.
Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
WWDTM: Thanksgiving Edition!
They do it all the time, even today about the upcoming season. But the good thing about me is I can't understand what's happening in the show whatsoever. I can't tell them even if I wanted to. Okay.
Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
WWDTM: Thanksgiving Edition!
Yes, I play at least five roles in the movie. I play Flannery O'Connor and characters in many of her short stories. And for those who don't know, she's an extremely complicated, curmudgeonly, unpleasant woman from the Jim Crow South who wrote a lot and also died of lupus. That's my pick.
Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
WWDTM: Thanksgiving Edition!
When I was in college, I was already obsessed with Flannery O'Connor or drama school. And I had a boyfriend who wrote me a song about it. And the last verse of the song was, the only thing I knew about Flannery O'Connor was that she died of lupus just like her father. That's a solid approximate rhyme.
Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
WWDTM: Thanksgiving Edition!
Like, if you had to choose one of your favorite lyrics from one of your songs, what would it be? It would be from a song that's not out yet, but that's going to come out, which is a lyric I stole from something that my grandfather always says, which is, why do it right when you can do it yourself?
Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
WWDTM: Thanksgiving Edition!
Ooh, okay, I love crows' sorting. Crows are amazing, and they do amazing things, and so I'm going to have to go with, because of my extensive crow research, with B, sorting a neighbor's recycling.
Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
WWDTM: Thanksgiving Edition!
I'm sensing my body moving up the ice, swinging my tool into the ice, kicking my feet into the ice, feeling the wind and the sun on my face. And when I get to the summit, you're so high. Blind people use this technique. kind of skill called echolocation. And it's the idea of sound vibrations moving out through space and bouncing off of objects and coming back at you.
Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
WWDTM: Thanksgiving Edition!
OK, that's extremely funny, but I'm going to have to go with A. I think it's a gimmick.
Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
WWDTM: Thanksgiving Edition!
And when you're up high on a summit, those sound vibrations just move out infinitely through space. It's sort of like you've been swallowed by sky. It's this scary, infinite, beautiful, powerful sound of vibrations just moving through the universe. And so I'm getting a lot of scenery. It's just not visual.
Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
WWDTM: Thanksgiving Edition!
Well, even Otter, I was the... This guy, Peter Facinelli, played me. And so they asked me to be the stuntman for Peter. So that, I think, was a burst in history because it was a story about me played by Peter, and I was the stuntman for Peter. I don't know. It was really weird.
Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
WWDTM: Thanksgiving Edition!
his he was way handsomer than me i i heard he's a real he's a real handsome man so it occurs to me if you ask me like well how handsome is peter who plays me in the movie i would be stuck because if i say well he's very handsome would that be flattering you oh yeah no you could play me for sure i think you'd from what i understand you'd have to put a wig on though
Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
WWDTM: Thanksgiving Edition!
Blind people, you know, we're judgy, but we have to get the information in another way.
Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
WWDTM: Thanksgiving Edition!
Wow. The third one sounds so specific. But maybe I'll go B. Wait a minute. I'm just going to go through. No, no, no. I'm going C. All right. There you go.
Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
WWDTM: Thanksgiving Edition!
I'm so excited. I feel like I just summited the seven summits all over again.
Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
WWDTM: Thanksgiving Edition!
Yeah. Go enjoy your peanut. And get it on my couch. Exactly.
Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
WWDTM: Thanksgiving Edition!
Right after the break, we're going to interview Eric Weihandmayer, who climbed the highest mountain in the world, Mount Everest. He's gay.