Weir on CNBC

[vwjodyme]

Not sure if you guys caught this yesterday.

http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?video=3000083675&play=1

[mkaufman]

My take is that they need wider distribution (ie: revenue) to fund TRI. They also need more performances.

Bob is not the best spokesman...

mk

[vwjodyme]

Bob is not the best spokesman...

mk

i kept thinking they were going to cut him off

[mkaufman]

OMG

Serious cringe factor.

mk

[ebick]

Not sure if you guys caught this yesterday.

http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?video=3000083675&play=1

yes, once again Bob must take a back seat when being compared to his lifelong partner and his "well-spoken"-ness.

He was certainly clear and spoke intelligent and well-thought out thoughts, it was just like pulling teeth to get them to come out of his mouth......You'd think that he'd done the "why are you doing it"/"why'd you do it" schtick some many times now that it would just flow out.......but apparently not without a guitar in his hands.

[hippieguy1954]

Not sure if you guys caught this yesterday.

http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?video=3000083675&play=1

yes, once again Bob must take a back seat when being compared to his lifelong partner and his "well-spoken"-ness.

He was certainly clear and spoke intelligent and well-thought out thoughts, it was just like pulling teeth to get them to come out of his mouth......You'd think that he'd done the "why are you doing it"/"why'd you do it" schtick some many times now that it would just flow out.......but apparently not without a guitar in his hands.

Very well put, ebick! You crack me up Oh Bobby! Gotta love him, though!

[playingdead]

Steve Liesman's an old friend of mine. I asked him about it last night (he knows Weir fairly well) and he said that Bobby was as sharp as a tack in the green room right before the interview but when the lights and cameras went on, he thinks he just got nervous. TV cameras can do funny things to people, even rock stars who have been filmed before. I sat in on Steve's interview with him a couple years ago and Bobby was totally relaxed. It may have felt different to him this time because the last interview was basically shooting the s--- with Steve in broad generalities, and this was more specific and news-based. I can tell you from experience as a journalist that if you get a little hung up on one question, it doesn't tend to get any better moving forward.

[ebick]

Steve Liesman's an old friend of mine. I asked him about it last night (he knows Weir fairly well) and he said that Bobby was as sharp as a tack in the green room right before the interview but when the lights and cameras went on, he thinks he just got nervous. TV cameras can do funny things to people, even rock stars who have been filmed before. I sat in on Steve's interview with him a couple years ago and Bobby was totally relaxed. It may have felt different to him this time because the last interview was basically shooting the s--- with Steve in broad generalities, and this was more specific and news-based. I can tell you from experience as a journalist that if you get a little hung up on one question, it doesn't tend to get any better moving forward.

yeah, that makes sense.....one might think that the comment one guy made about wanting to be the next Furthur drummer, and the other guy saying he was a fan (whether they were sincere or not) might have been attempts to put him at ease. I've heard Bob speak......better.....much better, although still never as fluidly as Jer. I wanted to say that it almost seemed like he was.......on drugs. lol.

[jester536]

Right now I find myself writing a speech I have to give for ...this thing...and I agonize over it...it's hard to look relaxed in a public speaking situation...and I'm a teacher for God's sake!!! I do it all the time...and I perform in a band...but there is something different about the podium and the large crowd...and I'm sure it's a hell of a lot different when someone is saying "lights, camera, action!" I wished it were smoother...but I ain't gonna give him a hard time about it. Nothing like delivering that line about a space ship and nobody even chuckles...that'll throw you off your game right from the get-go.

[jeffm725]

Right now I find myself writing a speech I have to give for ...this thing...and I agonize over it...it's hard to look relaxed in a public speaking situation...and I'm a teacher for God's sake!!! I do it all the time...and I perform in a band...but there is something different about the podium and the large crowd...and I'm sure it's a hell of a lot different when someone is saying "lights, camera, action!" I wished it were smoother...but I ain't gonna give him a hard time about it. Nothing like delivering that line about a space ship and nobody even chuckles...that'll throw you off your game right from the get-go.

Its his delivery that is off putting for people that don't know him or are not used to hearing him speak. The Flying Saucer line was a good line, but if you are hearing him for the first time you are totally confused by his delivery and don't know what is a joke and not. That is not unique to just his on camera manner.
I met him a couple times, and those times he talked exactly like he talked on TV. I got on an elevator one time in the mid 80's on tour at a hotel and he was already on it, there were other people on the elevator, including business travelers, he was wearing a leather jacket and sunglasses and I didnt notice him at first. Halfway through the ride, my buddy elbows me and goes "Hey, its Weir" and we turn and said "Hey Bob, great show last night, almost didnt recognize you here. " Well in his deadpan Weir voice that only he has, he said, "cool, but I didnt recognize you guys either." Between the "umms", the false starts, stammers and stutters, it took about 45 seconds for that single line to be said.

Some have said that he was mercilessly dosed repeatedly by road crew during the late 60's even when he had personally decided to stop dosing. (I am not down with dosing people who dont want to be dosed, that was, and is, a very dangerous game). They attribute some of his verbal delivery to those repeated dosings. None of us knew him before his GD involvement so who is to say.

[Octal]

I wonder what's going through his head during all of those pockets of silence...

"Wait this might be a dangling participle...alright, the subject has been sufficiently established, now what's the objective form of the infinitive? Verb conjugation for the present perfect tense..." etc.

Who knows...

[mkaufman]

According to McNally's book, it's due to a bout of spiral meningitis as a kid and mind altering substances which he quit because of their efffects on him.

mk

[vwjodyme]

So he speaks like that all the time or just when he gets nervous? I thought that i've heard him speak more fluidly in other interviews.

[eric]

I feel like he always sounds like that ...even if you go back to the GD movie where hes got a few short interviews, hes excatly the same...I have a cousin who speaks somewhat like Bob, he's a very smart individual and there's nothing "wrong" with his brain , he just has a difficult time articulating his words. Look how fluid Bob is when he sings.. I remember a while back there was some sort of TV special (NOVA on PBS?) that showed people with speech related issues who used song to communicate , as it allowed them to be completely fluid as well..

[PaulJay]

Wonder what music does to your brain after playing it for 50 years. Bob probably plays more than he speaks.