A big hit of Webstock was internet phenomenon and chief chef of Earth Sandwiches, Ze Frank.

Ze Frank is an online performance artist, composer, humorist and public speaker based in New York. He rose to internet fame ever since his “How to Dance Properly” viral video (born as a party invite for 17 friends) – hit the Web in 2001.

Here’s how Ze opened his talk recently at the Webstock conference in Wellington (a realtime artwork is created in response to the audience reaction):

Video by Nigel Parker

It appears that Ze lived up to the legend and made quite an impression in New Zealand. The Suite Spot captured the following responses from the Webstock audience:

Sarah: “Zefrank broke my headache into lots of little pieces at #webstock09. And made me cry a little bit. Both ways.”

Alana: “Would love to see inside Ze Frank’s head, his ideas are brilliant!”

Ludwig: “Zefrank is giving me goosebumps!!”

Joanna: “Is there anyone in this room who _wouldn’t_ have sex with zefrank right now?”

Never heard of Ze Frank? Neither had I until it dawned on me that I’d been playing with his internet creations on-and-off throughout the years…

Here are some of his greatest hits:

Earth Sandwich

In 2006, Ze challenged his viewers to create an “Earth Sandwich.” The goal was to place two pieces of bread on the ground at points directly opposite each other on the globe, creating a giant sandwich between the two pieces of bread. The task was completed by teams in Spain and New Zealand.

Voice Draw

A drawing tool which responds to sound and volume. Here’s a performance artist using Ze’s software to create a great piece of theatre.

Try Voice Draw yourself.

The Scribbler

The Scribbler turns any doodle into a generative masterpiece.

Try The Scribbler yourself.

YOUNGME – NOWME

My favourite is Youngme/Nowme, a recent meme started by Ze Frank, where people recreated childhood photos of themselves.

View the full gallery of Youngme/Nowme submissions