On-Sale: Friday, August 30th, 2019 @ 10:00am
As Kelowna moves into chilly November the cast of the Welcome to Night Vale podcast will be performing their warmly fascinating live installment, “A Spy in the Desert,” at Kelowna Community Theatre on Nov.15, the last stop on their full year international tour. Welcome to Night Vale, a podcast from New York, has filled venues to the brim with both avid fans and newcomers alike, transporting them to the strange world of Night Vale, just for an evening.
For those who are unfamiliar with the podcast, Welcome to Night Vale is a popular paranormal and surrealist production created by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor, revolving around the oddities and strange happenings in the fictional town of Night Vale. The series, which follows the format of a news radio show, features informative segments that update the residents of the town on strange breaking news, sports, community announcements, weather, and more. The voice of Night Vale is a radio host named Cecil Palmer, voiced by Cecil Baldwin. Though at first the news segments are seemingly mundane, nothing is ever as it seems in Night Vale.
Although the podcast has been in production since 2012, the Night Vale craze has yet to die down, but for good reason. Welcome to Night Vale continues to stay relevant through its unique and dark humor, engaging storytelling, peculiar characters, and by continuing to push the boundaries of creativity.
“Welcome to Night Vale’s “A Spy in the Desert” is definitely worth seeing live. “-Pearl Shin, Third Coast Review, Chicago
“A Spy in the Desert” includes music by Dreamboy and is a phenomenal, true testament to the quality of the podcast itself. Over the years of traveling and performing live shows, Welcome to Night Vale seemed to have truly perfected its live performance formula. Despite it being a live reading of the podcast, the vibrance of the voice actors make it seem more like a stage production. Cecil Baldwin’s stage presence captivates as he encouraged dialogue and audience participation throughout numerous parts of the show, really making it an engaging experience. The supporting cast, features Meg Bashwhinner as Deb, a sentient patch of haze, Symphony Sanders as Tamika Flynn, and more.
“A Spy in the Desert” is not only entertaining, but also an inclusive show for all types of and all ages of fans. “A Spy in the Desert” is a standalone piece from the podcast. While it includes lots inside jokes and references, it also incorporates many mentions of pop culture and broader themes, making sure no one was excluded from the narrative in this all ages, must see show.