Kevin Heimbach video recap (it's a doozy):
Kevin started filming his Adam The Woo tribute vlog back in December before the decorations and the coffee cups were taken down. In fact, I'm shocked he found a moment during a sunny day to record in front of the house when no "fans" or other vloggers were there to pay respects.
And I know it's an Adam The Woo tribute vlog and Adam would LOVE it and all that, but maybe don't wear the loudest, most obnoxious shirt with cartoon characters dressed for Christmas all over it when you're doing this?
"There's there's a lot to unpack in this video, but I know Adam would want me talking about this and kind of setting things straight so people aren't confused and conspiracies and all this stuff."
He moves to downtown Celebration (over the past month, the number of Adam-adjacent people walking around Celebration making vlogs who have neverf vlogged in Celebration before must be freaking out anyone who doesn't know much about all of this) and he continues...
Kevin met Adam through "Peter", and I assume he means Peter from Ordinary Adventures but he doesn't specify. Then he talks about when Adam was living in the apartment in Celebration and the lease was ending and he was looking to buy something, even looking out of state, but decided on buying in Celebration.
"I didn't know this until a phone call with Justin last night that Adam was like, "You know what? I'm I'm going to stay in Celebration. I'm going to buy a house. Like my buddy Kevin's there. It's it's going to be awesome." Adam then like moved into my neighborhood, like where, where I live. It was, it was, it was, it was the best. It was like pretty much like living, you know, when you're like growing up and your best friend like lives next door. And like Adam and I hung out and did so many things. I know in the videos it might not seem as big and grand cuz I would feature Adam a little bit in my videos and you know I'd be in his videos a little bit."
Now it gets kinda weird...Kevin is starting to break down crying and get emotional as he's talking.
"I didn't know this until like this week when everything happened that like I was like, one Adam's like best friends. I thought we were good friends but um I didn't realize I was like one of his best friends."
He didn't know this? He had to be told he was one of Adam's best friends? And who told him this? I bet the person told him this dresses in the same colors as the Hamburglar.
(visual reference for anyone unfamiliar with the Hamburglar)
"So, Adam was a very private person and he didn't really let too many people like really in into his life. If Adam was out of town, I'm going over there checking checking his house. And I gave Adam this like sense of security to be able to kind of like do those international travels and and like as you know, Adam and I like traveled a lot together, right? And you learn so much about someone when you're like staying in the same room as them and traveling with them."
Clearly Kevin had a set of keys to Adam's house then, right? But I guess that morning when GiV was trying to meet up with Adam and figure out what was going on, either GiV (and Jim, I guess?) didn't know about Kevin, or Kevin wasn't around/available to get into the house.
"That man is one of the best human beings I've ever met in my entire life. And one of and one of the nicest and most genuine and down to earth people I I'd ever met."
Sorrowful Kevin:
Kevin then explains that he's filming this on Christmas Day (which begins to explain the lack of people around).
Remember when Adam learned about mobile order at Starbucks? Well, that was due to Kevin:
"Fun little Adam story. When I had come here, he would just wait in line to order his Starbucks every day. I taught him what mobile ordering was and that kind of like changed his life."
Here's where it starts to become clear that this video is Kevin's flag in the ground as the post-2020, East Coast Justin. We now move into the "I had a special relationship with Adam and he trusted me" portion of things.
"Adam was so open with me about everything. I literally could ask Adam anything. Any serious topic I'm sure you guys have ever wanted to talk about uh with Adam. I've, I've had that conversation. I just didn't realize how few people Adam uh talked to like that. Um because Adam got burned a lot by different creators and different people, the different troll channels and stuff. So, Adam was just so kind of like paranoid and stressed like, with like who he could trust with info so rumors wouldn't start and conspiracies and like all that. He was just he was so stressed cuz he got he got burned by so many different people, so many sacks of shit within the theme park community. But with me, it was different. It was like Adam knew there was no motive or agenda."
Why would the most genuine, best, nicest human beings on earth have anything to get burned over? Other than BLAB, who did Adam ever get burned by (and per Adam, they didn't even burn him so much as they just had a disagreement)? Is Kevin referring to getting cut off publicly by Giggles, and appearing less with some other people (like Tim)? How can you get burned by a troll channel? Isn't that the purpose of a troll channel? "A lot of different creators and different people". "A lot". To be "so stressed" over this is...odd.
"Adam surrounded himself with people and friends who were genuinely authentic with people who weren't fake or phony, right? That's a lot of different content creators and people out there. There's a lot of, I would say 99.9% of content creators are like really fake and phony and there's always kind of a motive to use people and everything. And Adam sensed that there was no motive with me and he could really trust me and kind of let down all those, you know, barriers and walls. We talked about everything like there's stuff I will take to my grave um that, you know, Adam and I talked about. He really trusted me and being his like nextdoor neighbor, I really kind of knew his schedule. That was something that was very like sacred to Adam. He didn't want people finding him in, you know, a city or a hotel that he was staying at or things like that because like, you know, different people who watch his videos would like track him down and stuff like that. But I kind of like knew exactly where he was kind of at all times. Strangely as that is because I was his neighbor and I had to know who was coming where and where Adam was going, right, to watch the house."
So Kevin was Adam's personal assistant and confidant, it seems. Seems much, much closer than Justin in the recent years. Also, why put it like "there's stuff I'll take to my grave"? What's with all the secrets of the greatest, nicest, most wonderful human to ever walk the planet? And 99.9% of content creators are really fake, phony and looking to use people, but somehow ADAM found EVERY SINGLE PERSON who made up the remaining .1% and surrounded himself with them - you know, like Kevin!
Now Kevin goes into the details of December 22, and like I thought, he wasn't available that day to babysit in person:
"Alison and I are uh in New York. I'm flying home. Uh we're on the plane just about to take off. Adam's neighbor messages us and was like, "Someone's been knocking at uh Adam's door from like Germany." She wanted to check if that was like normal. I knew uh German Venice. Uh Mike was going to be in town and staying with Adam for a couple days so they could like do stuff and go to the Disney parks. I was like, "Oh, that's yeah, that's normal." Uh Mike's supposed to be there. German's been knocking on the door now for like 2 hours. And I'm like, "That is not right. Adam's normally up first thing in the morning, especially if he has a friend coming. Adam is not late. He's supposed to pick up a friend or something like that. He's always on time. I'm on the plane and I and I see that Adam hasn't posted yet. And I'm like, "Something's off. This isn't right." And like at this point, we're taking off on the plane now. And it's going to be like 2 hours until we like land. I messaged one of our buddies."
So the neighbor didn't know GiV was supposed to be there, they had to check with Adam's personal assistant, Kevin, while he's on the road. And then the more Kevin heard from the neighbor, the more he realized something was up, and he texted Jim. Then Kevin says they called the cops, all that, cops couldn't do anything, and left.
"So, like the police left and I was I said to our buddies, I was like, "Dude, you got to get a ladder. You got to like climb up there. You got to make sure Adam's okay." And uh and he he gets up there and you know, he's he he gets up to the third story balcony. Adam is in bed. So, they call 911 and they uh you know, they they knock down the door to get in uh to to get Adam."
Amazing how GiV told the whole story and never mentioned Kevin, so Kevin could tell the story. And now the ladder was Kevin's idea, somehow. Until now it was portrayed as GiV, Jim and the neighbor happened to see some workers with a ladder and got the idea that way.
Kevin is VERY careful to mention how happy Adam was, that he was the happiest he'd been in "a year", and also wants to rule out anything else:
"I just want to say like Adam does not drink. He does not do any drugs besides lots of caffeine. So there there was nothing fishy that happened with with Adam. Everything was locked. His place is like Fort Knox. No one no one was getting in. He passed away just in his bed."
He's getting emotional again now...
It's really hard to take seriously with the Rugrats, etc. on the shirt, visually - it just is, man. I'm sure it's genuine, but...
"So Adam kind of informed me and kind of Justin if something was to happen to him, where stuff is, how he kind of wanted stuff done. But that's why I really haven't posted anything online. I know a lot of people have been like asking me, but I've been kind of like dealing with all of that, helping the family, kind of like what Adam um wanted done."
Again confirming he is East Coast Justin, and by the virtue of being much closer physically, he's really numero uno. I'll get into the "where stuff is, how he wanted stuff done" part is a bit.
"So, when they had to get into Adam's house, they had to forcibly get in. They have to like bust out the whole door. The first night, about every hour, I was like all night just going by to make sure nothing was going on. Um because I had to talked to the the uh our like manager of uh the property. I talked to Adam's family about the whole situation. And then I had to like replace the door cuz pretty much what they do is they just close the door and that's it. There's no signs. There's no nothing stopping anybody from entering. Me and some of Adam's other buddies, we all like got together to install a new door at Adam's house so everything is safe and protected so the family doesn't have to stress."
I wouldn't have just gone by every hour...a lot can happen between visits like that. Adam's pals should have rotated guard duty at that broken door until it could be replaced, and I'm being serious.
I really don't know enough about the beginnings of YouTube and what creators were the first to do certain genres, or main driving force behind genres early on. But Kevin seems to think Adam created (not moved forward or helped make more popular, but CREATED) the following:
- Filming Location videos (Sean Clark was trading VHS filming location videos before YouTube existed)
- Urban Exploring
- Filming Haunts
- Filming Conventions
- Vlogging Theme Parks
- Daily Vlogging
Certainly Adam was influential in some of these, but he didn't create any of them and I don't even think he was the number one force behind making any of them super popular. Kevin doesn't even mention van life! But then he says "It all kind of started with Adam and Justin and Tim like a decade plus ago"...so???
He says they were doing it just to connect with people, they weren't doing it to be famous or rich, it was just for the love of it.
"So it's like Adam created so many different sectors of the internet just because it's just the content that he wanted to make."
He created so many different "sectors of the internet"! Wow!
"And my favorite thing about Adam is just how humble he was. when he would be talking with different people and interacting with people he didn't care about a subscriber count who they were if they were famous Adam treated every single person equally and the exact same."
I know some on this forum have experienced being treated exactly the same by Adam as the way Adam treated Nerd Locations, Kevin and BC DeLorean, right? I know you have. No difference at all.
"Even people that Adam didn't really like care for he treated so kindly and there's so many stories that I have of Adam of just like his kindness and generosity to so many people just was there for anyone at any time Adam would drop everything and be there for you and there's very few people like that in the world and I I wish everybody was more like Adam cuz he would do he was just so great. He was so great."
I'm waiting patiently for a specific example of Adam, when Adam was in the middle of doing something important to Adam, where he "dropped everything" and was "there for you". When? When did Adam ever leave anywhere and say "I gotta get home to help a friend", or "I gotta get to SoCal to help a friend" when it wasn't already conveniently working for his schedule. What about when his dad was in the hospital and he didn't leave SoCal? I mean, we have eyes and ears and there is NO evidence. If it's true, mention it!!!
About the last video:
"One of the things that Adam and I kind of like talked about was like Adam would want every single video posted that he filmed. He wanted to share his life with the world and share his life with the internet. There is a final video that Adam did film on December 21st. I have it in my possession. I've been talking with the whole family about the whole process. Hopefully eventually, I know Adam would have loved to see his final kind of video posted. Maybe one day that'll be released, but I know a lot of people were asking about that. So, that's one of the things I kind of wanted to talk about. It's been edited. It's safe and and secure."
So here are my comments and questions on this:
- Kevin says it's been edited, but does not say by who. Adam would do editing before he went to bed, not just in the morning when he got up. And when someone (GiV) was coming early to meet him, he could have edited most of not all of the footage he had and just had it ready to go, all he had to do was wake up and post it. So who edited the last video - was it Adam? Was it Kevin? Was it someone else? Was it a combination?
- In the Justin/Rev. Jim video, Justin says he's not going to show him how to format the sd card in Adam's camera because there might be something on it they don't want to lose, and they clearly discussed not being able to get into Adam's phone or laptop. So how did Kevin get the vlog footage? This leads me to believe that Adam the version of the last vlog that Kevin has was edited by Kevin or someone else, but not by Adam, and Kevin grabbed it off the sd card at some point between Dec 22 and Dec 25th when he filmed this. I have a hard time thinking he took the time to edit Adam's vlog during those days, but maybe. This dovetails with Justin saying in an early rambling video that there is a last vlog and it's safe. But then why would Justin be concerned about formatting the sd card, he knows Kevin got the footage and "it's safe and secure"?
Kevin now takes things to a ridiculous level, it's like he's describing Jesus...
"I think each person who interacted with Adam, Adam changed that person a little bit. So, it's almost like there's a little bit of Adam in in everyone."
He goes on and on about Adam's vast influence upon millions and millions of people and all the creators he influenced, at one point saying:
"It was like Adam was almost like a planet and all these different creators were almost like orbiting Adam."
He uses the term Wooverse and says:
"We all became friends because of Adam. So many people's closest friends happened because of Adam. That's because Adam was again just so humble and wanted to connect everybody together. He loved people who made art and he loved people who were just like genuinely them and not fake and phony. One of my favorite things is when we'd be at like conventions and stuff, he'd buy these t-shirts and I'm like, "When are you going to wear that t-shirt?" He was always like, "I want to support the artist."
Right, because the majority of t-shirts he bought were from small artists or independent creators - no, they were from giant conventions or giant corporations!!!! Oh these people were just so blind, they believed anything he tossed out. Kevin, who probably prides himself on being able to spot a con artist and thinks himself worldly, buys it hook, line and sinker just like Sofie. For all Kevin talks about knowing about Adam, I'll bet he didn't know about Sofie.
How about just giving them the money and not taking the t-shirt? That supports them and doesn't waste the t-shirt, if it's really not about just mindlessly collecting t-shirts (which is what it was about).
"And Adam didn't take handouts, he didn't take freebies, he didn't do the media route, he didn't do like the corporate route. He was just a hardcore just like punk rock YouTuber. Adam through and through. You're not going to get him to change his mind on anything. He didn't want any brands to, you know, like affect his thoughts about something. He was just brutally honest. I think that's one of the reasons why Adam and I really got along because like again like we didn't give a Adam never wanted to like lie to you guys about stuff. He just wanted to show you his unfiltered view of an experience or the world."
Kevin even buys into Hardcore Punk Rock Adam, lol!
Then the video skips to Jan 1st and Kevin is documenting the "shrine" for posterity before they take it down. He includes the footage of Darth Vader showing up at the house. He also put in footage of "Santa" showing up on Christmas Eve to pay his respects:
Justin makes an appearance to give the tally of 180 bouquets of flowers and 82 disposable coffee cups
Then the video skips to much more recently, and Kevin finishes things off with these items:
"I just want to let you know the most important thing in Adam's life was his family. His family is in a good spot right now. They have a great support system around them."
So no GoFundMe or anything anymore? Did people alert Jimmy Mulligan that they are ok?
"When it came to Adam, I always told him this. I was like, "Dude, you are the true real life Forest Gump." Adam went to so many different historical events, influenced and changed so many people's lives, and he did it with his own originality."
"Alison had this moment, it's like a mind-blowing moment where she truly figured out Adam, and it's awesome. So she was like, "Adam is the punk rock Mr. Rogers." And then everything clicked."
Then he inserts a clip of Adam talking about Mr. Rogers:
"Mr. Rogers had a huge impact, still does, not only on my personal life, but also the way I present entertainment. Even the most drunkard beer swilling sailor pirate hooligans gnarly tattooed bearded overweight biker in the world loves Mr. Rogers. Who doesn't? And his content his content speaks for itself. So I try to model myself after that."
Yes, I remember the many times Fred Rogers would tell his detractors to Fuck Off, and ran around Europe with a hidden lady friend he was leading on, while romancing a lady at home, and many other ladies in other places he went. Won't you be mine, indeed?
Edit to add: Just like Justin, Kevin says multiple times that there will be more to talk about concerning Adam in the future
) so I didn't have to hit the weights, I'm off work these two weeks, I gamed with my son for a few hours, I'll be spending Christmas with my family, so everything is pretty amazing in my life and I'm very lucky and that's what I'm focused on, always. As for what to watch at lunch going forward, I have a lot of tv and movies on my list.