It felt like a Beatles concert.
A line of teens looped around Carnegie Hall Tuesday night. The Evening of Awesome sold out just 10 days after it was announced. When brothers Hank and John Green come onstage, the crowd of 2,800 screams.
"We are so excited to be here," John says. Hank interrupts with a song: "Because the sounds are a little bit louder and my parents are a little bit prouder and the crowds are a little bit... crowder, 'cause we're doing it at Carnegie Hall." John: "I didn't know we were going to open with a musical number."
There's no wait for the VlogBrothers to post a video. We get to see them converse, live. The audience is eager to participate. "Yeah, and I'm gonna say, 'Carnegie Hall,' and everybody's gonna stomp their feet," says Hank, then sings: "Cause when the people stomp their feet, it makes me feel complete... because these feet are at Carnegie Hall." The Hall vibrates like a subway train is rumbling underneath.
The air is electric. The show feels both spontaneous and seamlessly choreographed. It's the one-year anniversary of John Green's The Fault in Our Stars, and the six-year anniversary for Nerdfighters--the fans who made the book a bestseller, six months before its release. Now, a YA novelist and his brother fill Carnegie Hall with teens who scream for Ashley Clements and Daniel Gordh, stars of the Lizzie Bennet Diaries, an online presentation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice--brainchild of Hank Green. "It's great to see so many people cheering for Jane Austen," says John.
Clements and Gordh read the passage from The Fault in Our Stars in which Hazel and Gus tour Anne Frank's house in Amsterdam and recite poetry by Wallace Stevens and kiss.
The crowd screams again when Neil Gaiman walks onstage, having eschewed his usual black leather jacket for a dashing tailored, quilted tuxedo coat, black of course, not worn since the party celebrating his engagement to Amanda Palmer, he tells us. In a q&a section, Gaiman asks questions (submitted in advance by Nerdfighters) of John; then Hannah Hart, host of the video series "My Drunk Kitchen," asks them of Hank. Gaiman asks John for his advice to aspiring writers: "Read a lot. Tell stories to your friends and pay attention to when they get bored," John answers. Gaiman adds: "And finish things. You will learn more from a glorious failure than you ever will from something that you never finished." Questions ranged from the sublime to the ridiculous. Hannah Hart to Hank: "What would your petronus be?" Hank: "A corn dog."
Special guest John Darnielle of the Mountain Goats sings a previously unrecorded song that brings the house down: "People were mean to you, but I always thought you were cool, clicking down the concrete hallways, in your spiked heels back in high school." Kimya Dawson sings "I Like Giants," and Carnegie Hall is converted into her living room.
Digital Book World was happening right down the street, while every publisher's dream was realized on the stage at Carnegie Hall: two artistic, creative brothers using technology to unite a worldwide community.
Move over, John, Paul, George and Ringo. It's John, Hank and the Nerdfighters now. --Jennifer M. Brown
You can watch the entire performance here.