As the lights dimmed in the Paramount Theatre Tuesday night, a strange radio show host entered the stage to transport Austin to the small desert town of Night Vale. 

“Welcome to Night Vale” is a podcast in the form of a radio show for the fictional town of Night Vale, where strange things constantly occur and nothing is out of the realm of possibility. “Night Vale” was created in 2012 by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor and follows the radio show host and main character, Cecil, portrayed by Cecil Baldwin. 

On Tuesday night, the podcast came to life on stage at the Paramount as part of the podcast’s “The Haunting of Night Vale” tour. The show opened with a musical performance from Mal Blum before turning to essentially a live episode of the podcast, where Baldwin performed with a backdrop of original music by Disparition. Fellow voice actors Symphony Sanders and Kate Jones joined in for the story. The actors interacted with the crowd, creating a sense that they were residents of Night Vale for the evening.

“There is an energy that comes with live performance,” co-creator Cranor said in an interview with Hilltop Views. “I think the community of being in the room laughing with everyone else, gasping with everyone else, sitting in like tense, dramatic silence with a room full of hundreds of people is really, really fun.”

“The Haunting of Night Vale” succeeds in just that. As Baldwin hooked the audience into the world of Night Vale, the crowd was in it together, responding to the cues he gave and laughing alongside each other. Members of the audience even came dressed as interpretations of their favorite characters, as there aren’t any official descriptions of them. 

“The Haunting of Night Vale” is an extremely fun show that new and old fans will love. The story is a standalone, and audiences aren’t required to be caught up on episodes of the podcast to enjoy it.

“It’s all the same characters existing in the world of the podcast, but we want our live shows to tell a story that doesn’t require having ever listened to Night Vale,” Cranor said. “We want a story where they immediately understand who the characters are.”

The 2022 world tour is the first in-person tour from “Night Vale” since rescheduling their US dates in 2020 due to the pandemic. According to Cranor, “Night Vale” was able to do live shows over Zoom in 2020 and 2021 as well as hangouts with Patreon supporters to continue connecting with the fanbase.

“It feels so good doing live shows again. I’m a theater kid, so getting to be on the stage again, after more than two years away, feels fantastic,” Cranor said. “There’s so much energy between audience and performer in live theater. I love podcasting, but podcasting doesn’t have that immediate, in-the-room feedback that theater does. To see the audience again is fantastic. I love it so much.”

“Welcome to Night Vale” continues their tour in Portland, Oregon on April 30.