Wheeler’s essay “the Ugly Pew” is performed very aggressively creating a tension that matches the negative tone of the essay beautifully. Over the elapse of the time is a relief of tension that is felt in Wheeler’s insightful reflection of his dark experience. As he’s walking through his past and suffering the detachment from others his present voice is recovering himself and accounting all of his faults from those moments. It’s all very insightful, and his tone is as honest as they come. The music he plays is very calming while in the church, and this contrasts with his description of the pews, because he ends the description with “the nothingness inside” (2:00). This clearly communicates the illusion he saw going on, and is understood by the tragic experience later told. The techniques are far from formal speech. If it is at all scripted, the experience is very real and his voice is honest, the key retellings of his tragic experience are ‘good talking’ (Kern).

Biewen paraphrases “the British feature-maker Alan Hall: No sound—or silence—is innocent.” Wheeler pauses just where you’d expect them and the results are very innocent. “Your daughter tried to commit suicide…” Wheeler tells his mother followed by a pause he uses to transition through the tensest moment of his story (9:11). It’s a moment that can merit no response in a real conversation, thus the pause is perfect for communicating the intention from sharing. I mean what can be said to a guy who just told his mother that? And his retelling of his mother’s response is probably the best answer. “My daughter wanted to die” and a pause (9:44). As Biewen explains, the pause here is used to highlight what’s just been said and it clears up the previous tension in Wheeler’s rage, emphasized by his mother’s caring hug following their pause.

His mother’s action extends the pause from when Wheeler initially cried out to his mom, and it creates a very empty tone. It takes a minute from when Wheeler attacks for his mom to respond. This breaks the tension and allows for a long calming pause. He’s able to recreate this through stops and it is an invitation for the reader to join in the moment of silence. Which makes sense, “the world is sometimes quiet. In real life, people pause. Those things should happen from time to time” (Biewen). His performance is really playing with the time, the exact moment of the instance. Unlike essays such as Vowell or Lovell that really cover extended periods of their lives. The spectrum is endless and what I take from it all is that recreating the moment is not a set algorithm. To do it best takes considering all the elements of the experience one wishes to make. Sometimes the only way to preserve a culture and still have a constructive argument is through a pause, sometimes it’s by removing that pause. It’s sort of crazy, but fading to the black is a real idea…