We are working on a new animation for superdeluxe.com and we wanted to get Rack ‘Em to do one of the voices. So a few weeks ago we decided we would go out and track him down. We spent several hours going by his usual hangouts and asking around. Most people in Athens don’t know him by Rack Em Rack (a nickname that we gave him) or even Willie. Everyone here calls him “Chicken”. After many conversations and a lot of misinformation we finally found a group of people downtown that seemed to know what they were talking about. They said that Willie had gotten really sick and had moved into an assisted living facility. Now we’ve heard many rumors about all of our guys over the years so we don’t believe anything until we’ve seen it.

Roger and I headed over to this facility to see if he was really there. We asked at the front desk if they had a Willie James Huff and the guy said he didn’t. We were relieved that he wasn’t there because everyone we’d seen so far looked to be in pretty bad shape. As we were turning to leave he said that we may want to double check in the back to make sure he wasn’t there. We did just that and the nurse said he actually was in there. She led us to the cafeteria we she said he was having dinner. I was hoping that they had another Willie Huff, but it was Rack Em. He was excited to see us, but he was defiantly not his usually happy and energetic self. Apparently he has a very serous condition and has been given six months to live. I was crushed by this news. Willie may have had is faults, but he is a great guy. I spent thirteen hours in the car with him when we took him to NYC to be on the Stern show. I’d never seen anyone so excited to see New York. Within few hours he knew the streets better than we did. We left the facility really bummed out.

We returned the next day to bring him some DVDs and T Shirts. He seemed to be doing much better and even felt up to doing the voice over for the animation. I started to think that he may not be that sick, but his nurse said that is how it goes with his condition, there are good days and bad days. As he was recording the voice over I couldn’t help but think that this may be the last time we ever get to work with him.

Most people have only seen the first video that we shot with Willie, but that was over seven years ago. He really cleaned up his act since then. He stopped drinking and doing all of the other things that weren’t great for his health. If you have seen the job interview prank you can tell how much he has changed, but still remained funny.

Willie has made millions of people laugh over the years and has inspired many people to do their own Rack Em tribute videos on You Tube. We were trying to think of the best way for Willie’s Fans to bring a little happiness into the time he has left. If you are a fan of Willie’s and you want to do something I think the best thing you can do is write him a letter. Tell him how he made you laugh. Tell him how you and your friend quote him all the time. Tell him how you were having a bad day and you watched one of his videos to cheer you up. This guy has had a hard life, but I can tell you for a fact that he loved making those videos with us and he loved making people laugh.

-Waco and Roger

After this post Willie made an amazing recovery. He moved out of the assisted living facility and got his own apartment. For the past two years he was doing fine. We knew that his condition would never go away, but we were still shocked by his sudden death. We really cared for Willie and have had a great time working with him over the past decade.

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A few of our favorite sketches from over the years. Written by and featuring Waco O’Guin and Roger Black.

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Waco and Roger