Welcome to Night Vale is a podcast presented as a radio show for the fictional town of
Night Vale, reporting on the strange events that occur within it.
The series was created in 2012 by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor, and is published by Commonplace
Books.
Cecil Gershwin Palmer, the host, main character, and narrator, is voiced by Cecil Baldwin,
while secondary characters are sometimes voiced by guest stars.
The podcast typically airs on the first and fifteenth of every month, and consists of
"news, announcements and advertisements" from the desert town, located "somewhere in the
Southwestern United States".
In an interview with NPR, Joseph Fink commented on the creation of the series, stating that
he "came up with this idea of a town in that desert where all conspiracy theories were
real, and we would just go from there with that understood."
Every episode of the podcast includes a piece of music as its "weather report," each by
a different independently-published artist.
The theme and background instrumental music to the series were created by the musician
and composer Disparition.
In July 2013, Welcome to Night Vale became the most downloaded podcast on iTunes.
In October 2013, Welcome to Night Vale began presenting live shows which continue into
2014 with a West Coast Tour.
In addition, it was announced during the episode "Auction" that in 2015 there will be a novel.
Fink stated that "it's going to have all the characters and weird atmosphere that you want
from Night Vale, with a brand new story that explores parts of Night Vale that we just
haven't been able to get into with the podcast."
Reception The show has been described as "the news from
Lake Wobegon as seen through the eyes of Stephen King", and Christopher Wynn of The Dallas
Morning News characterized it as "NPR meets The Mothman Prophecies."
The Daily Dot's Gavia Baker-Whitelaw compared the podcast as being "caught somewhere between
Weird Twitter and 'Tales of the Unexplained'" and that it is "well worth a listen—although
possibly not after dark, if you live in a small town yourself."
Colin Griffith of The AV Club said the show is "really well done, offering a surrealist/absurdist
take on community radio, with dispatches from the small, delectably nightmarish desert town
of Night Vale."
Writing for TechGeek, Erin Hill considered the uniqueness of the podcast to be because
of "its presentation of what is ordinary", adding that "many of the things that Cecil
reports on goes against our idea of normal, but is presented in a manner that makes it
seem mundane."
In July 2013, Welcome to Night Vale was ranked second on the top 10 audio podcasts list on
iTunes, behind radio program This American Life.
During the same month, it surpassed This American Life to become first on the podcasts list,
having received 150,000 downloads during a single week.
Co-producer Jeffrey Cranor attributed this spike in popularity to both Tumblr and fans
of the television series Hannibal.
Max Sebela, a creative strategist for Tumblr, stated that the fan following began to "spiral
out of control" beginning on July 5, with that week having "20,000-plus posts about
'Night Vale,' with 183,000-plus individual blogs participating in the conversation, and
680,000-plus notes."
The Twitter account for the podcast has been noted as having more than 20,000 followers
by July 2013.
The show has a fan following on Twitter, Facebook, and Tumblr, with fan fiction and fan art having
a particular focus on the romantic relationship between the show's narrator character and
the scientist Carlos.
Fans have published "fanscripts," transcripts of the podcast, in order to widen the accessibility
of Welcome to Night Vale.
Guest stars and guest writers Guest stars include Kevin R. Free as Kevin,
Cecil's Desert Bluffs counterpart, Mara Wilson as the Faceless Old Woman Who Secretly Lives
In Your Home, Jasika Nicole as Intern Dana, Jackson Publick as Hiram McDaniels the five-headed
dragon, Dylan Marron as Carlos, Hal Lublin as Steve Carlsberg, Lauren Sharpe as StrexCorp
executive, and program director Lauren Mallard and Marc Evan Jackson as local billionaire
Marcus Vanston.
James Urbaniak guest-starred in the LA Podcast Festival performance as Intern Leland.
Molly Quinn appeared as Fey, the sentient computer, in the March 2014 episode, "Numbers."
Symphony Sanders appeared as Tamika Flynn, the child anarchist, in the episode "Old Oak
Doors."
Zack Parsons, who wrote alongside Fink at SomethingAwful.com, has co-written three episodes:
The Traveler, A Beautiful Dream, and The Deft Bowman.
The Auction was co-written by Glen David Gold, who also contributed material to The Woman
from Italy.
List of episodes Live episodes
Exclusive double-length shows have been performed live during Welcome to Night Vale's tours.
Recordings of selected performances have been posted for sale on Bandcamp and the iTunes
music store.
"Old Oak Doors", the second anniversary live show, was split in two and released via the
podcast as episode 49 in two parts..
References
Further reading Dobbs, Sarah.
"Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor on Welcome To Night Vale".
Den of Geek.
Retrieved July 25, 2013.
Santilli, Morgana.
"There’s Something About Night Vale".
Amazing Stories.
Retrieved August 8, 2013.
External links Official website
Welcome to Night Vale on Facebook Welcome to Night Vale on Twitter