Our top story today: heat raving Dragon Con attendees almost ravaged a group of panelists who simply wanted to interact with fans of a dessert town radio show at Welcome to Night Vale in Hilton Grand West on Saturday at 4PM.
It’s not every day a panel is introduced by a pre-recorded voice over from Cecil Palmer, radio host for Night Vale Community Radio, and today certainly wasn’t that day. After the named panelists in the Dragon Con app took their seats, Cecil Baldwin (voice of Cecil Palmer) made a surprise appearance and took the stage, fulfilling what every attendee was hoping for.
Baldwin joined Mark Gagliardi (voice of John Peters), Hal Lublin (voice of the not-at-all annoying Steve Carlsberg), and Symphony Sanders (voice of Tamika Flynn). Gagliardi, who served as moderator, welcomed fans to the mic right off the bat for a full hour of answering burning questions.
Twenty brave souls stood up to face the even braver panel – though thankfully none of the fans were librarians so bravery was not needed on the part of the panel who’s already used to speaking in front of crowds as they’re literally paid to do so on a regular basis. Among the fans at the mic: an intern (who foretold their own demise but was given the paperwork beforehand so it’s fine), long-time listeners, medium-time listeners, listeners who tried to go to the live show but COVID, and listeners ripe for spoilers.
Looking at working with each other for as long as they have, the group had nothing but wonderful and fun things to say about each other. There is clearly an air of support and respect built between them that one would hope extends to the full cast and crew. The ebb and flow of conversation between then panelists was natural, like they’ve worked together for over a decade or something; this ease passed to the audience and created an ease that’s not often found in Night Vale so luckily, we were at Dragon Con.
The group does live shows with each other quite often, none of which is purposely the same as another. Baldwin shared how there was one show where one singular audience member got pulled on stage and was told super, mega deep lore about something in the Night Vale universe and the audience got to watch that person react. They all spoke on how creator Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor like to keep them all on their toes. There will be times they get a note on a script one hour before a live show or there’s a one-line character that wasn’t cast so someone would get pushed on stage in the moment.
To work through this and get into character, Sanders spoke on how she needs to shake before live shows to work out the kinetic and frenetic energy that comes with the excitement for prepping for getting on stage. Lublin gets into character by saying his character’s “Okey dokey,” Gagliardi doesn’t need to do anything to get into character since he’s been playing the role for so long and Baldwin just needs to know what city he’s in.
Some of the most fun questions was about the world of Night Vale itself, which is certainly a place where people live but it’s not necessarily a choice. If the voice actors could bring anything from Night Vale to our world, it would be nothing; Night Vale should stay exactly where it is and no one should ask any questions about it or go looking for it because why would you want a house with too many teeth??? If something has to come to our world, Gagliardi would like for all the weather reports to be songs, and Baldwin wants the weird European countries that only exist in Night Vale but also mentioned that the Blood Space War could be interesting to bring over since we don’t really have to worry about it since it’s a terrible conflict raging somewhere and somewhen in time and space.
Throughout the panel, the panelists had several opportunities to share life advice to fans who were trying to find their own voice and their audience. When asked about what the biggest missteps have been in building a following, Lublin succinctly said the key take away from all the answers given, “listenership will come and go. The bigger misstep will be not to be true to what you create.”
This rings true to what Con goers will hear throughout the weekend. Be yourself. All Hail the Glow Cloud. Stay away from libraries. If you see something, say nothing. There’s no one else in your house. You know, all totally normal things*.
And now, the weather [*please play your own song right now exactly as I can’t possibly know when to press play since I’m not in your head and can’t see where your eyes are on this page, or at all really.].
*For the liability of this publication, please follow all public safety laws and go to the library. Nothing will happen to you there if you run fast enough.
