References

• WELCOME TO NIGHT VALE A NOVEL BY JOSEPH FINK AND JEFFREY CRANOR
• welcome-to-night-vale-live The cult podcast brings its live show to Australia for the first time UPDATE: An extra show has been added to the Melbourne leg of the tour. Tickets to the 9.30pm show will go on sale Friday November 6. It’s hard to put your finger on just what is so intoxicating about the American series Welcome to Night Vale: one of the world’s most successful podcasts, which launched in June 2012. Is it the fact that nightmarish, extraterrestrial subject matter – often so bizarre that it would make Stephen King balk – is communicated through the medium of a community radio station, broadcasted from the fictional desert town of Night Vale? Is it the fact that, as the twice-monthly series continues, characters and plot threads become as nuanced and complex as Twin Peaks? Certainly, the show’s three creators – Joseph Fink, Jeffrey Cranor and narrator Cecil Baldwin – never expected that a show as darkly funny and as surreal as this could command a fan base that now extends to cosplay events, tumblr fan art and fanfiction. Following on from their tour of the UK in September, the team will make their way Down Under for a stage show, written specifically to be performed live. The never-before-seen episode will star Cecil Baldwin himself, alongside special guests, live music from Brooklyn ambient electronic composer Disparition and featuring Minnesota singer/rapper Dessa and ‘The Weather’.