Good Morning Night Vale: Good Morning Pilot

and I don't just write Welcome to Nightville, we also write books that are not about Nightville, and here are some of them.

Alice Isn't Dead, a lesbian road trip horror love story for fans of Stephen King.

The Halloween Moon, my book for kids of any age about a Halloween where things really start to get weird for everyone.

The First 10 Years, a memoir from me and my wife about our relationship told year by year without consulting each other about our differences in memory.

And from Jeffrey, You Feel It Just Below the Ribs, an apocalyptic novel that takes place in the same universe as the Within the Wires podcast.

No matter what you're looking for, we've written a book just for you.

Find them where you find books.

Okay, bye!

Hi, we bring you now the first episode of our new Nightfale Presents podcast, Good Morning Nightfale.

In it, Nightvale cast members, Meg Bashwinner, Hal Lublin, and Symphony Sanders discuss every Night Vale episode in order, starting with the pilot, which is what you'll hear them discussing today.

These three are so funny and warm, and listening to this podcast is like getting to hang out backstage at a Night Vale live show.

If you'd like to keep listening to this show, please be sure to subscribe to Good Morning Night Vale directly on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen.

A friendly desert community where the sun is hot, The moon is beautiful and mysterious lights pass overhead while we all pretend to sleep.

Good morning, nightvale.

I was like, ooh, that got a little chill when you said that, Hal.

That was good.

Thank you.

I exist to give people chills.

That's what I'm here for.

You're very talented.

Some people say I have no chill, but I think I just proved differently.

I think you have lots of chill.

Thank you.

All right, everyone.

I think you have the most chill.

Hey, everyone, welcome to Good Morning Night Vale, a new podcast where we recap every episode of Welcome to Night Vale.

Woo!

Everyone's afraid to talk.

I know.

I think it'll get better like later, but like right now, I'm like, do I say

yes?

Welcome to the clunky intro of our brand new show.

My name is Meg Bashwiner, and I am the woman who talks to you at the end of every Welcome to Night Veil episode.

I also play the voice of Deb, a sentient Pietro Hayes, and I am the MC of the live shows.

If you've been to one of our live shows, you've seen me for the most part, unless you came to the show in Birmingham in 2015.

You didn't see me.

I wasn't at that one.

Other than that, that's me.

Who else is on the call with me?

Who else is here?

Silence.

Oh, I was letting, I was going, I was saying ladies first, but I was.

I was waiting for you.

Come on, you go.

Okay.

My name is Hal Lublin, and I am the voice of Steve Carlsberg, and I have been since 2013.

Wow.

I can't believe it's been since 2013.

My mind is ready to explode with happiness.

And I'm really excited to be a part of this and to stroll back through Night Vale with both of you.

And I'm Symphony Sanders, and I play teen militia leader Tamika Flynn in Welcome to Night Vale.

And I have since I also think 2013, I'm not sure someone would have to tell me.

And I'm super excited to go through all of these episodes with you guys.

I'm also excited to go through all these episodes.

It's been fun.

It's nice to take a look back on the

lots and lots of episodes.

By the time this airs, I think there will be like 129, 130 130 episodes of Welcome to Night Vale, which is really wonderful.

That's a lot of episodes, Meg.

Not to mention all the live shows and

yeah, all the

things.

So yeah, so we're going back.

We're talking, we're going to be talking with some people who are involved in the Welcome to Night Vale world.

On this episode, we're going to hear from the voice of Night Vale, Cecil Baldwin.

We chat with him about

his experiences and his reactions to the pilot episode of this show.

And we'll have that for you later, which is really exciting.

So, yeah, so we'll be hearing from different people involved in the Night Vale world over the course of this podcast.

And in this episode, specifically, we'll be hearing from Cecil.

And we'll be talking about the different episodes of the show, our personal reactions to them, as well as the global reactions to them.

Can I jump in for a second and say what I love about the show that we're doing?

Even though it's the first episode of like the first five minutes of it, this is what's cool about it.

For all of you, Night Vale fans out there who have not been able to come to a Comic-Con where we've done a panel, who have never gotten to see us in person or have gotten to sort of learn a little bit about what's going on behind the curtain of the show.

I think it's really cool that you get three people who have been involved in the show for a very long time

sort of walking you through it and not only sort of talking about what happened, but giving you some insight.

And we'll be answering your questions on occasion as well.

So, this is really for all of you out there who are fans of the show to give you another layer of Night Vale and maybe answer some questions you had or raise some new ones if we're doing our job.

Agreed.

Was I wrong, correct?

Was I

correct?

No, that's really beautiful.

Okay, yeah, good.

It's really beautiful.

It was just such a good, you really impacted us.

It was such a good

description.

Yeah, I'm really looking forward to seeing where this, uh, where this podcast takes us.

So, um, yeah, so let's get down to business.

We're doing the pilot, the pilot of Welcome to Night Vale.

We're discussing that today.

The plot description of which is a new dog park opens in Nightvale.

Carlos, a scientist, visits and discovers some interesting things, seismic things, plus a helpful guide to surveillance helicoptering.

I'm a really good reader.

So yeah.

That's why you do this fictional podcast.

Yeah, that's why I do this fictional podcast.

So we

did a re-listen.

Do we want to talk about what our reactions were?

Yeah.

I mean, if you really look

not even that deeply into it, a lot of the things that come up in the first episode are some of our biggest fan.

things like the dog park obviously what we're you know so many people are known for talking about hooded figures and the the

sheriff's secret police and kind of introducing the town of Nightvale and like immediately putting you in this space of

distrust, right?

That you can't go in the dog park, even though a new one was built.

There's not, dogs aren't allowed in there, people aren't allowed in there.

You basically don't acknowledge it.

Yeah, I was struck by that too, about how so much of the Night Vale world that we know today existed in this first episode.

So we've got the dog park, we've got hooded figures, we've got the sheriff's secret police, we've got Old Woman Josie and Angels and Big Rico's Pizza and the Desert Bluffs rivalry.

And like just, there's so, and Carlos and Cecil, like he says in this episode, I fell in love with Carlos.

Cecil says it.

It's just like, there's so much of what makes Nightvalve Nightvale just in this first 20 minutes.

Yeah, I think, I think the hallmark of really good storytelling is rather than beginning at the beginning is to start in the middle.

And you are dropped into the middle of what feels like a fully realized world and and it's a testament to how it was written that all those elements from the pilot have just been built on and even even that thing that the great humor in nightvale for me the thing that i enjoy the most is that contrast of the ordinary with the fantastic that's treated as completely mundane and and like standard so there's no like wink to the audience there's no we get this is weird it's just this is the world you're in and and that allows allows you to sort of jump into it completely.

And I love that, that, that, uh, Joseph and Jeffrey joke rhythm they have, where they're like, uh, there are no dogs allowed in the dog park, do not look at the dog park, do not taste the dog, like that building rhythm where they just attack a type of announcement or, or an angle of something over and over again, and, and keep building on it.

I, I really loved seeing that from the beginning.

I forgot, I hadn't listened to this in years and years and years, and it was really interesting to see how how formed their voice was for this from the jump.

Yeah, exactly.

Yeah, I haven't listened to this episode until like it was probably this episode premiered June 15th, 2012, which is Night Vale's birthday.

And

it almost six years ago to the airing of this episode.

And that was the last time I listened to it when Joseph was like, hey, do you want to listen to this thing I made?

And I was like, sure, hon, you know, what do you got?

And

that was the last time I listened to it.

And it really is great to be able to look back at it and hear so much of their voice and also Cecil's voice

and the development of the character of Cecil as our reliable, unreliable narrator.

What did you think the first time you heard it way back then when it was like, listen to this thing I made?

What was your impression of it?

I think that was initially just, it was so different than anything else I'd seen Joseph make before.

And also so,

I'm always impressed by Cecil, the actor.

Cecil, the person, you know, I love him, is a dear friend.

And Cecil, the actor, blows me away every time.

No matter how many, you know, how long I've worked with him and how long I've known him.

So I was really impressed by his voice acting and how much, how much world he was able to build just behind a microphone.

The world of audio fiction was in a newer place then.

So it was interesting to kind of see what one man and a one microphone could build.

And that was really cool.

I think I remember being like, this is cool.

And then, you know, it was.

It was before Nightfall was a thing.

So it was like, this is cool.

What do you want for dinner?

Like, like,

you know, Joseph, you made a nice thing.

It's great.

Um,

yeah.

I remember him saying along that line, you're like, where did you think?

Uh, where did you think this was going?

Did you think it was going to go anywhere?

Did you think it was just like a fun project that he was working on?

What, what were your initial ideas?

I remember him saying to me, I feel like this could be a thing,

which is interesting now because it definitely has been a thing.

But at the time, it was like he never had, he had, we had projects that we worked on.

We had projects that we did.

And I i think the confidence that he had in in this project was different than what we had had seen before from him and he had definitely had successful projects before but definitely nothing with the audience and impact that welcome to nightfall has had so and so yeah past this past this pilot like when

because this happened in 2012 but like when did you guys do you remember the the day that you were like oh this is like more than just a thing we do Yes.

I don't remember like the specific day it was, but it was, it was about a year, a year later.

Nice.

The first year of Nightfall was great.

People listened to it.

Joseph and Jeffrey were like, hey, some of our friends have listened to this show.

How great is that?

And I remember there was like one fan that we saw, like we would, Joseph would search Twitter to see if anyone was listening to it.

And we would often get people being like, up all night, vale, which is vale is a verb in Spanish.

Does it mean,

what does vale mean?

So we would get those tweets.

We didn't get, we'd search Welcome to Night Vale and we'd get tweets in Spanish saying valet.

And then eventually we saw people talking about it.

And there was this one, this one fan who

was named Dana.

And Dana would tweet about listening to the show with friends.

And there was one tweet that was from Dana that was like, mom, stop trying to bring us enchiladas.

We're listening to Welcome to Night Vale.

And so we thought that was really super sweet.

And so they named the character of Dana after Dana, the person who was tweeting at us.

Oh, that's so funny.

Also, I love enchiladas.

Yeah.

I mean, but if you're trying to listen to Welcome to Night Vale and your mom was trying to bring you enchiladas, I would personally be like, thanks, mom.

Right.

It's like a listening snack.

No shade to Dana.

So, yeah.

So

about a year into it, it started to get some traction.

We did our first birthday party at a space in New York that had about 100 people come to it, which was awesome.

So cool that we had 100 people that knew about us.

And then things changed pretty rapidly.

In July of 2013, we used to sell t-shirts on Amazon, Welcome to Night Fell t-shirts on Amazon.

And I think

we printed like 50 of them.

And like once a week or so, we'd get an order for a t-shirt and Joseph would package it up and take it to the post office and send it out.

And then over the course of a weekend, we got an order for a thousand t-shirts.

And then before

Amazon shut it off, because it just like kind of went out of control super quick.

It was too much.

It was like it was, we didn't have the stock for that.

So we went and had more t-shirts printed.

And I remember

one weekend just sitting in our studio apartment in Brooklyn packaging t-shirts, a thousand of them, which doesn't like it's a number that doesn't really make sense until you actually sit down and do it.

And it was so hot.

And I sat in the apartment and just did it.

And I watched, I think I watched like a chef's the first season of a chef's life on Netflix while I did it.

And I had, was using the packaging, like the packaging tape, like just touching it over and over again.

So I had no skin left on my fingertips because I was slowly pulling off layers of skin.

And then I made Joseph take me out for ramen.

And that was my payment for packaging a thousand t-shirts was my husband or my boyfriend at the time took me out for ramen.

Well, that's like

in sign what i probably can't mention that in that one show where that lady died she was sending out her wedding invitations and like she kept licking the stamps, licking the stamps and the like glue is poisonous.

Good thing you're still alive, though.

Wait.

Yeah, I still have use of my fingers.

Why can't we mention that show?

Are we restricted?

I'm telling you, I mean, can you?

I don't know the rules of audio recording.

I'll tell you what.

Seinfeld, McDonald's.

I've been around the block.

Let me tell you something, Jerry Seinfeld.

You're welcome to come on this podcast anytime you want to show your face.

We'll all get into an old car with you.

You can take us out for coffee.

We'll sit and complain about comedy.

It'll be great.

I'm going to give that offer right now.

I'm very funny.

I will make sure I say nothing funny.

I won't even smile the whole time.

I do love that show, but he complains all the time.

Yeah, it's going to be hard being him.

Yeah, it's really difficult.

Anyway, not to throw a shade on Jerry.

No.

So, yeah, so that's

we kind of got off on our lovely little tangent talking about the very beginning and where we are now.

But we can go back.

Look, that's

the great thing about a nice conversation.

Let's go back.

Let's talk about the beginnings of Celios, the beginnings of Carlos and Cecil.

Cecil.

Well, before it was Cecil, like just nameless announcer, right?

Just announcer, he would, or narrator, right?

But people, I guess, didn't even, did they reference him?

What did they do before he had a name?

I don't know.

I don't know if anyone listened to the show like in a fan base before they had a show.

Yeah, we're in the early, early days.

it struck me was it was it weird for either of you now

listening to it through the lens of six years of content almost five and a half whatever whatever whatever we're up to as of this recording that

everything sort of takes on extra meaning i for me in particular playing somebody who's like not the conspiracy theorist, but the guy who seems to know the truth about what's going on, that through that lens, I was like, he's lying.

He's a puppet.

I can hear it right now because all of that was just being established.

Did either of you get that sense or am I just going in too deep?

Yeah.

No,

I think that is like,

I'm not as conspiracy theorist, but I am also dazzled by magic.

So like,

there are things in the early episodes of Welcome to Night Vale that I'm like, how did they know?

You know, like,

how did they know?

And

I just love it.

I like going back and listening to it i'm like oh my gosh uh like talking about like seismic activity and like that there's something like happening in nightvale and like how he was like talking about like the different uh the how it was very interesting scientifically and i like just finding out those things like you're just like oh now i'm i'm like did they know from the beginning but then now I know because they're my friends.

I'm like, they didn't.

Right.

Or maybe they did.

Who knows?

Maybe they're possessed.

They're probably possessed.

We'll find out later.

In season 18 of Welcome to Night Vale, it'll be revealed.

Well, I remember talking to Joseph,

and this was, this had to be sometime in, I think, 2013, early 2014.

And it like, I know at that point, things were still being sort of plotted out.

Like, hey, I had some thoughts about what at that, that conversation was about Steve and Cecil's relationship.

And maybe Cecil's not the most reliable narrator.

So now that's something that's sort of rung in my head.

And it developed over the course of a couple of years.

But now going back,

it's interesting, you know, when you go back with that knowledge of what's to come, it colors.

everything that you hear, which I think is a hallmark of how good the writing is, that they were able to take it, even if that's not something they had planned out for 2014, 2015, that they got there in a way that the internal logic stays intact as a whole.

Yeah.

That you can go back and re-listen to stuff and you're like, oh, yeah, that there's no like gaps where you're like, oh, that was totally forgotten about.

You know, it's not like lost.

Yeah, you're watching it like, they don't even know.

He doesn't even know what's going to happen.

I can't believe I'm listening.

Like, I have more knowledge than the character does.

And it's, you're getting to watch them.

You get to rediscover it by listening along, which I think is really, really cool.

It is really cool.

Yeah, I hadn't thought about that, but it is a pretty cool experience to be like, oh, I'm the, I'm the reliable narrator now because I know because you're from the future.

I'm from the future.

We're all time travelers.

This is very exciting.

You're all time travelers.

You guys.

This is the best way to time travel.

I feel like I'm in quadruple.

I'm just going to start mentioning major television shows.

Yes.

Hey, I think it's fine.

They can all come for us.

They can all come directly for us.

Yeah, what are they going to do?

Send us to cheers?

The board going to come get us from Star Trek?

Yeah, I mean, we're just like Raymond.

Everybody loves us.

Sesame Street.

You were saying, Meg?

Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

I was just,

I was just thinking.

All right.

So,

yeah, I think it was interesting that what we were talking about for a moment were

those sparks of love between Cecil and Carlos.

I think it's interesting to,

this show is not one that describes people's physical characteristics very much, but Carlos is described right away.

His teeth and hair are described, which when I wrote that down, I was like, teeth and hair.

What wonderful notes.

What wonderful notes.

And yeah, and Cecil's description of I fell in love instantly.

And so they describe his perfect hair and his teeth like a military cemetery and that he is beautiful.

Hey,

you like what you like, I guess.

Yeah.

Yeah.

The lens of Cecil's developed.

Is that how you felt about Joseph the first time you saw him?

If I'm being honest about the first time I met Joseph, I did not think that he was,

I thought he was gorgeous.

I mean, I thought he's a good, he's a good-looking dude.

Yeah.

But we did not get along on a personal level.

I think that's just because I didn't quite understand who he was.

And then once I got to know him, I fell in love over time/slash instantly.

But yeah, the further for we met in the box office of the Crane Theater, which is where that's the place that the Crane Theater is a place where I met Joseph, I met Jeffrey Kraner, and I met Cecil Baldwin.

So it's a sacred, sacred space.

Most of you important men in your life.

Yeah.

Yeah.

When I'm all of them, except for, you know, like my dad and Hal Lublin.

So

I met my dad in the hospital when I was born.

It was a good day.

I met my mom and my dad and like maybe my sister all on the same day, which is pretty great.

That's a big day.

That's pretty important.

Did I know at the time?

Did I know at the time like how important those people would be to me?

No, I was an infant.

I was a newborn, but I felt it, I think, maybe.

All right.

So, yeah.

So when I first, yeah, but this isn't a love pod desk.

When I first met Joseph, I was like, who is this kid?

What does he want?

And then, yeah, we became friends and I only wanted things from him from that point out.

Then you made him yours.

Yeah.

So then I realized how wonderful and smart.

And

I always knew he was attractive.

He's a good looking kid.

He really is.

Anyway, all right.

So other things in this episode, there's the NRA bumper stickers.

Okay.

Okay.

Here's the thing.

I'm sorry.

Oh, I'm sorry.

I didn't mean to yell.

I wasn't going to say anything.

I was making what making

excited because I was thinking about this in the first two episodes.

They make their stance very very clear yeah about where they stand with like governments

and the nra and guns and all sorts of business like that

so to all of you friendlings out there who love your second amendment we love you too however

listen to the episodes it's it is really striking i i agree i had the same i wrote that down too that idea of like the way the soul, you know where they stand right away.

And sadly, it's really sad that six years later that that is really relevant to the point that listening to it was like, hold on, this could have been written anytime in the last year.

Three weeks ago.

Yeah,

it could have been an hour ago.

And it would feel just as relevant, which is like, it's.

That's a piece of commentary about a lot of different things.

But in particular,

it's nice to see like,

again it's it's very much them and what's inside of them and them writing their what's in their heart probably with the idea of like hey it doesn't matter who listens to us we're gonna make something that we care about and that comes through big time in moments like that particular yeah i mean if if nightvale is an american city which it's in the american southwest the city in the american southwest it's it's set in america so the people who

we can't hide from that we can't run from that whether it is this totally bizarre world where up is down and down is up, it is still footed in America.

And so there's the unescapable, there's things that are unescapable about it.

And yeah.

And yeah, Joseph and Jeffrey are not ones to ever really hide their opinions when it comes to things like gun violence.

True.

True.

So,

and as we have also evidenced by when we travel throughout this beautiful country of ours,

I remember there's been airports that we've gone through where there's been a sign that says, did you forget to take the gun out of your luggage?

And I'm like, oh,

I never put one in there.

Dang it.

I guess I can't bring dry shampoo.

Right.

Like literally.

Well, about my yogurt.

Yeah.

But about my yogurt.

What are, hang on, side note, tangent, why are old people always trying to bring yogurt on the airplane?

Like, it's a liquid, friend.

Like, oh my God.

One time I was at the metal detector at LAX and I was behind a group of older German tourists.

And it was like they huddled up beforehand.

They were like, all right, which rule do you want to break?

Because we shouldn't all do the same one.

I'll have a pocket full of coins.

Meanwhile, you'll have a gallon of water in a camel back that you have strapped on that you don't understand you can't have for a variety of reasons.

And then, can you just be juggling grenades as you try to walk through?

That'd be great.

All right, break.

And it took forever.

It felt like, I mean, again, it probably wasn't that long, but it felt like nine days of waiting for them to get to get it together and realize that they can't like

drive a car through the metal detector.

It was bizarre.

You grew a beard in that time.

I grew a long wispy beard.

I scratched several lines, both horizontal and vertical, into the wall to mark how long I'd been there.

All right.

Welcome to this very important podcast where we talk about how things can be frustrating in lines at airport security.

Yeah.

We're so signed up.

That's all part of the Night Vale experience.

Yeah.

I was going to say we were talking about Joseph before.

I wanted to bring it to the weather.

Yeah, the weather.

Let's tease, let's tease it like they do on the show.

So we'll be like, next up, we're going to talk to, welcome to Night Vale's voice, Cecil Baldwin.

But first, we're going to talk about the weather.

Yes.

Donna.

That was good.

That was a good teaser.

We teased it.

You teased the shit out of it.

Yeah, so the weather, these and more than these.

It was the Joseph Fink.

I didn't know.

I didn't know who.

I was listening to it and I was like, this guy sounds super familiar, but I don't.

I can't place him musically to any other songs that I would have heard from him.

And then I get to the end of the episode.

Mag says, The weather was these and more than these by Joseph Fink.

And I'm like, get the fuck out of town.

That was Joseph.

He is such a good singer.

He is a beautiful singing voice.

How do I not know this after all this time?

And it's a really, it's an enjoyable song.

It's a good song.

It is.

The lyrics are great.

They're super weird.

Okay, so first of all, let's talk about the weather being a song.

Yeah, this is the first time that happened.

The first time I ever, I remember back in the day when I first listened to the episode, I remember I was like, okay, and now the weather, because they had

other installments, a community calendar and like whatever.

And you're like, okay, like, that's cool.

Like, that makes sense.

It's like weird and kind of funny.

But then the mute, the weather is music.

What a brilliant idea.

Like, and now that I I know Joseph as well, like it makes so much sense.

Joseph and Jeffrey, like it makes so much sense because they are so focused in music.

They both love music so much.

And Joseph especially loves independent music.

And I admire that.

And listening to this show.

I have found more musicians and more music that I would have never, ever heard of in my entire life.

And I, it's like getting a recommendation from a friend, right?

You know, you're like, they're like, oh, I think you would like this song.

And they play the song and it's like, wow.

But this song in particular being the first song, I always, I keep thinking, I'm like, was he just like, oh, I'm going to, I'm going to put this song on there?

Or had he thought, oh, I'm going to try and see if I can find other people or whatever.

I guess I don't know that bit.

No, I mean,

knowing Joseph and knowing his process behind this, he was definitely like, okay, well, what do I have the rights to?

Okay, something that I enjoy.

And then, yeah,

I don't know his process behind selecting.

He has Joseph has a lot of songs.

He's had some of them be on the weather.

He

has some that weren't on the weather that are just, that just exist.

I used to go see him play at open mics in divey places

in New York City, and he would play his original songs.

And he would also play a Leonard Cohen cover or two, because that's how adorable he is.

And so I think, I don't know why he selected this one, these and more than these, but I like it.

I think it's really fitting in the first episode.

I think it gets going to get an interesting

Joseph's voice as a songwriter as well as Joseph's voice as a writer.

So, yeah, so I think when, yeah, he was first starting to place the weather.

He was like, well,

who do I know that will say yes to this?

And he was the one who could do that for the first episode.

It me, you know?

Hit me.

And now it's branched out so much, like so many people, like people like the Mountain Goats have

premiered songs on the show.

And Jessa has premiered songs on the show and people have like the Felice brothers have premiered stuff it's so it's like there's all these bands that we like love and have loved forever um and musicians that are getting putting their work on our show and it's just it's it's so cool to start from you know to start from here and and get to get to a bigger place

as well as the submissions there was a while where we were taking submissions for the weather and we got so much great music from people and it's like you know the got to the point where it's like we still use from those submissions.

We open submissions, I think, for like a couple, a couple weeks, and we still use

some of those submissions

as there were just hundreds of great, great songs.

But that's also how we get introduced to so many great artists that we've heard of, and ones that we've worked with: Mary Upworth, and Eliza Rickman, and Dessa, and Doomtree, and all sorts of people, people from all over the world, which is

really phenomenal.

And actually, I'm going to see Dessa this weekend for her new chime tour.

So I'm pretty excited about that.

It's a great album.

It's great.

It's so good.

It's so good.

Yeah.

She hasn't made anything I don't like.

She hasn't sent a text message I didn't like.

Like every, like every piece of her writing is that good.

She's a poet.

She's a poet.

She's a poet.

Yeah.

Seriously.

She is like she Facebook comments in a beautiful way.

Like she just, you know, she's just,

she's a super sick performer.

But yeah.

So yeah, it's like we just, we get to meet such great people, and and luckily we get to work with them when they come on tour with us.

Like, we've had and like we've really bonded with all of them.

I think tour, tour will bond you to people.

Yeah, that's been it's cool to bond to people who are like they kind of come they start as outsiders and then they become insiders, they're on the inner circle, yeah.

Actually, we should uh just a side note, we should uh have uh

maybe special Ev says talking about tour in particular.

I mean, I feel like we'll talk about it anyways, but like, be like, oh, tour shows, like, investigators.

What else do we do?

Ghost stories.

Yeah, old.

We did ghost stories.

We also, old Oakdoors, we didn't tour, but we did all the debate behind those.

We sort of toured.

That'll be pretty interesting

when we come across those.

And we'll have to go over the controversy of the,

will we go over the controversy of the original Tamika Flynn?

I think we will.

I think that's, that's, I think, stay tuned, audience.

so we'll go over that controversy it's me it's also there's also the controversy of the original carlos yes oh we'll have to talk for sure we'll talk about that with hefe yeah with el hefe and maybe even with dylan maroon short for dylan marin oh

um it'll be more fun guests coming but speaking of more fun guests coming we go now to our conversation with cecil baldwin

All right, so who do we have with us on the line?

Who could it be?

Wait, is that me?

It's you.

Do you know who you are?

You get three guesses.

It's me.

All right, that's one.

That's one.

Also, me.

And myself.

Cecilia Joyce Baldwin.

That's right.

It's me, Cecil Baldwin.

So, Cecil Baldwin, what is it that you do for Welcome to Night Vale?

What don't I do for Welcome to Nightfale?

I'm a voice actor on Welcome to Nightfall.

I played the character of Cecil Palmer, although we're talking about the pilot episode.

So one,

there was no Cecil and there was no Palmer.

It was just guy.

It was like dude on mic.

Unbodied voice.

Just the voice of.

Yeah.

The voice of.

You were the voice of for a very long time before you got proper named.

So yeah, so we have Cecil Baldwina.

Cecil is, of course, the voice of Nightvale, the

velvet host of Night Vale Radio, the velvet voiced voice, the velvet voiced host.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That's a lot of words.

So yeah.

So Cease, as you mentioned, we're discussing the pilot episode.

So the pilot episode aired June 15th, 2012.

What was your life like in June 15th of 2012?

Oh my God.

If I was better at multitasking, I would totally look up my Facebook page from 2012 just to see what was up, but I literally can't talk and uh handle technology at the same time.

So you need a time hop.

I know, I know.

I was thinking about that.

See, had I done any preparation for this show, I would have already done that.

But the prep I did was listen to the pilot twice while I made dinner tonight.

So, you know, that was like, that's enough.

What was my life like?

I was probably

waiting tables six days a week at a restaurant in Chelsea, New York.

probably doing too much light makes the baby go blind, trying desperately to get onto law and order or,

oh man,

what was like every New York actor.

Like every New York actor.

What was the one on HBO

that was like

Carnival?

No, no, no.

It was like

Five Points New York, old rough New York.

Yeah, yeah, with Steve Buscemi.

Steve Bushme, yeah.

Bourdois Empire.

Boardwalk Empire.

That was like...

That was like, as long as that show was on, somebody kept calling me back.

And I was like, maybe this time.

And I never got it.

So that was probably what I was doing

at that point in my life and living in like the tiniest apartment in West Harlem with the tallest man

that could possibly fit into that apartment with me.

And that was where I recorded this pilot episode.

You're living in a sitcom.

He is balky.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It was like a sad, like kind of foul smelling sitcom.

I have a question for you, Cecil.

Yes.

This is how Loveland.

I play your

brother Outside the Law, Steve Carlsby.

But just to just introduce myself.

Yeah, it's me.

Who are you?

We've roomed together.

We're road roomies.

Who am I?

Me too.

Yeah.

I think we have me too.

Have we all roomed?

No, everybody, except for like, I haven't stayed with Hal before.

Right.

I haven't stayed with Hal either.

So, yeah.

So, Cecil, you're the unique one in this conversation, being that you've roomed with Hal.

We've all roomed with you.

I'm the spoke of the wheel.

And everybody's like, okay, no thanks.

Next door, next door, Cecil is his own room.

It's mine.

So my question is, which roommate was the best?

No, my actual class

and the March Madness bracket.

Tiffany Sanders is a pretty good roommate.

I'll say it.

I mean, I can't speak to many other people.

Tiffany Sanders is an excellent roommate.

She always brings me water.

She always brings me water.

Coconut water.

And yeah, no.

I like to create an experience, you guys.

And you getting up early to go exercise wakes me up so then I can then go back to sleep and then say hello to you after you've worked out and be like, oh, maybe I should get out of bed now.

I come in glistening and I'm like, hey, wake up.

Are you ready?

The sun's been up.

I've never saved the day.

I've had a full day.

Did you have a question, Hal?

I can't remember.

I did have an actual question listening to it.

One thing that struck me, even in like the first three minutes of the episode, listening to it, was like, oh, I'm listening to Cecil like find his character.

Like, as you were doing it, it was evolving even in the first couple moments, which was really impressive to watch you kind of zero in on it.

Because I know we've heard this story before in panels, but I'd love to hear a little bit about your initial approach for this episode, looking at it, how much direction you had, and like how you were directing yourself, how many takes it took, that kind of stuff.

Well, at first, it sounds like Cecil on Xanax.

Like, it sounds real.

I was like, oh, I sound very sedate in this.

And I think that more than anything kind of set the tone for people who then later would be like, oh, my God, I fall asleep listening to your voice.

So soothing, you know, because like listening to those first couple of episodes, it really is super neutral.

Like it's so neutral and like just really quiet, just reading.

And there was like the character of.

you know, like which would later evolve,

you know, like wasn't there as much.

Because I don't know, you know, I guess I knew this idea of it would be like an episodic thing and it would go on from there, but, you know, I had no idea how many we were doing or, you know, like what, where this was all going and stuff like that.

So I was like, well, let's just, you know, keep it really basic and simple and just start by words on the page.

And then finding ways to, you know, like have that sort of very neutral narrator voice.

And then, you know, slowly finding the moments in Joseph and Jeffrey's writing when Cecil does comment on stuff, you know, and there's little ones in this first episode.

You know, it's just like, oh, and so-and-so brought the corn muffins and they needed salt.

You know, like, like, oh, like, that was a moment that I, you know, that was like a Cecil moment rather than a neutral narrator NPR

late night radio DJ.

generic.

Right.

You know, so when you were initially finding the character, a lot of that was just like feeling it out.

And

you weren't sure about where it was going to come from

or where it was going to go.

So you just were like, I am going to read this thing as well as I can.

Yeah, exactly.

Like put words on sound, you know, into mic.

Exactly.

And when you're, as an actor, of course, obviously you're trying to do the writer's words justice, right?

So I think that's that's part of it.

But now listening to it, when you go back and have heard it again, do you think, what would you think you might have done differently?

What I have done differently.

If anything, or was it a perfect read?

It was, no, it was not perfect.

I don't know.

It's like, I do wish that I had had like a chance to like take a crack at it again.

I think I would have, in a way, getting to do kind of the last paragraph as like the forward to the book, the first book, was kind of a chance to to do, to like to do a do-over.

And it was so much fun to be at the studio, like in like the fancy, you know, like Midtown studio, like, you know, with a engineer and a director and like all that stuff, getting to redo what was essentially in the very first episode of the podcast.

And, you know, having 70 plus episodes of Night Vale under my belt at that point.

That was really cool.

That was super cool.

So did you feel more connected to it?

Yeah.

Like I, you know, I felt more connected.

And also like giving every part of the language weight, you know,

because, you know, when you, like when you're reading something, you're, you're, you're, you know, for the first time, especially if it's absurd or, you know, like non-linear, you know, you just have to kind of like be like, okay, these are the things that I'm going to try and hit and highlight and, you know, let the chips fall where they may, you know.

You know, but like if I had a chance to like go over, go back and redo the pilot, you know, I think I would have made some of the one-off jokes, you know, like the like two-sentence jokes, like more punchier.

Punch them up, kid, you know.

Well, I feel like that we get to do now in the live shows when we get to repeat and do the shows over and over again.

But yeah, when you record it one time, you're like, oh, man, now that I listen to it, I could do something differently.

Yeah.

Speaking of taking a time travel, let's go back to the time hop thing for like one second.

So, in your world back then, you said you were like just recording this, you didn't know what was going on, and uh, you were waiting tables, right?

Yeah.

So,

when you recorded this, how did you record it?

Like, did you go to a place?

Can you tell that sort of story?

I had to borrow Joseph Fink's like snowball snowball microphone, which is this giant plastic, you know, like ball on a, on a, on a tripod.

You know, it's like it.

Oh, really?

I mean,

like, you can just, you can, like, throw them around and, you know, like they're, but they're, they're kind of bulky.

And, and so he had, like, wrapped it up in a sweatshirt.

And, you know, and we met at a coffee shop near Union Square.

Uh, and I, and, you know, it was just like, okay, here, take this, just plug it in to your computer and just record it.

Just do it.

You can use like Audacity or GarageBand, whatever.

And I'd heard of Audacity through the NeoFuturists for, you know, like free sound editing software.

So I was like, okay, I'll check.

Okay.

So I took this like contraband, you know, like little straw baby back to my apartment

and like plugged it in.

And I think I recorded maybe the pilot and the second episode at the same time.

Or like, I think one, two, and three

happened like within the same week, you know?

So that way, because like I had the microphone borrowed, you know, and then eventually like I had like returned it and like got my own, you know, and we did the reverse of this like pass-off of this weird little small child-sized microphone wrapped in a sweatshirt, you know, out in front of a coffee shop on the street.

It was podcast drugs.

It was like illegal podcast contraband in a world where podcasting is illegal and the penalty is death.

It's some weird weird.

And the rest is history.

It's like a Logan's Run scenario where there's only podcasting inside the dome.

If you live outside the dome, you got to find your way in that city.

It's like a handmaiden's tale, except for podcasting.

Did you record them in order?

Yes.

Okay.

Yes, for the most part, absolutely.

Like, it wasn't until

literally years later that I started getting like, it was like three episode arcs or stuff like that where stuff would be out of order, but mostly it was like, you know, like literally like one, two, three, four, five, six in succession for like years.

And did they give you an indication like that?

Were they like, oh, we're just going to keep doing this until we can't do it anymore?

Or

I think I in like, like around, like around like episode like seven or eight, I emailed Josephus like, hey,

so

where's this going?

You know, like, is there a, is there a, do y'all have like a giant like dry erase board that you're like, you know, have like characters written out and shit like that?

And they were like, absolutely not.

You know, it was like, I think Joseph's reply was like, we just figure we're going to keep making it until we don't want to make it anymore.

Like until it's, until it stops being fun.

I think is literally, he's like, we're going to make it until it's like, it's not fun to make anymore.

And I was like, okay.

Well, here we go.

And here we are.

And here we are.

225 episodes in.

I know, right?

And I know that's been like, you know, there's been a lot of fun stuff along the way, you know, involving like

continuity and stuff like that, because literally that was how, you know, like we made it was just like, okay, here's an episode and here's another episode that kind of mentions this other character, you know, however many episodes back, you know, and like you kind of half remember stuff.

For me, like, it was a lot of, for my end, it was more about like

trying to find episodes that that character was mentioned to be like, wait, does, does like Telly the barber have a voice?

You know, like, did we ever give him a voice?

Does he ever say anything?

You know, because there's like, when you're reporting stuff secondhand on, you know, like, which the show is, you kind of have the choice every time you see words in quotes to like, is it impersonation of that?

character or is it Cecil, you know, like, are you trying to sound like the character themselves or are you trying to sound like what that narrator's personification of that character is, you know?

Right.

And like usually the like the easiest way is just to be like, and then they said a whole bunch of stuff, you know, like much like a newscaster.

You're not doing it, you're not doing an impersonation.

You're just doing, you're just reporting on what they said.

Exactly.

So, you know, and,

you know, like, I would just kind of feel it out in this very like one foot in front of the other episode by episode kind of way.

And then later on, you know, I was like, oh man, have we heard from Big Rico?

Does Big Rico have a voice or a sound?

And I'm sure there've been like characters that sounded one way.

And then maybe like 20 episodes later, they say like one sentence.

And you're like,

that's totally not right.

I'm sure they must, there must be like a million of those.

Or at least there is in my mind.

So when you were doing your re-listen tonight, was there anything that jumped out at you that struck you as weird or interesting or like

any feels about listening to the show?

Well, okay.

So the first one that I, the first thing that I noticed from the very beginning is like sort of the entity of like Nightville presents.

And like, you know, like, I was like, oh, man, like, you know, and it was like Jeffrey came on and they're talking about like the Chuck Tingle podcast and like conversations with people, you know, like Dylan.

And, and I was like, oh, man, because in.

It's like, of course, it makes absolute sense.

But in my mind, I was like, some of those early intros, especially with Joseph, where he's like, I was like, are we going to get a Dash Con mention?

You know, like, it's not that early on, but I was like, oh man, what?

Like, those are as much of a time capsule, almost more than like the show itself of like how far, you know, how long ago this was.

You know, when we're just like, those are all gone now.

Oh, they're like, all of them are gone?

Are all gone.

Yeah, it's just like RIP.

Yeah.

It's like, thanks for loving us.

Donate if you can, like, whatever.

You get special content, right?

I hope somebody has has a copy of them somewhere.

I think they do exist.

They do exist somewhere.

Because of the advent of dynamic insertion, which sounds really dirty, but really it just allows you to move stuff around.

So, I mean, a while back, I re-recorded all the credits and Proverbs.

Get it, dude.

No, you did it.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Mags.

Yeah.

And then they chop up what I say at the end of the show and like kind of like there's different versions of it.

So I do like a different version and then that gets kind of edited around to be like when I talk about the mailing list or I talk about merchandise or I talk about like live shows that that stuff kind of moves around.

Wow.

Okay, so that and then that goes into every episode, just in case somebody's listening now for the first time to the first episode, like they get the current stuff?

Yeah, they get the current stuff.

So they'll get

they get what we're talking about now.

And if you listen to the pilot now and download the pilot now, you'll get um I think I don't remember if it was Joseph or Jeffrey they do they talk about live shows or something, you know Jeffrey.

Yeah, well, yeah, I heard Joseph talking about like donating to get like and then you can get special content and all that stuff.

Oh, that's so interesting all that special content technology Yeah, yeah, so they can move all that stuff around they can change it It's good because like you don't want to like we want to like if someone's listening to episode 70 and they want to come see a live show we don't they don't want to hear about a live show that happened you know a year and a half ago they want to let them know that they're investigators.

I do slightly feel betrayed

in a heavy way.

I want to hear those old, because that's what I remember when I first listened to it.

It was always Joseph coming in saying there is no Joseph Fink.

And like, here's

how you can support the show.

We are all Joseph.

It's really fun to record.

Let me make some phone calls.

Let me see if I can get those recordings for us to work off of.

Let me see.

I hope we don't have to work off the new ones.

If Good Morning Night Vale is truly like a retrospective show, like I feel like you should go through like an episode later, like pull out some choice ones and play them for the listeners of like

shit.

Good idea.

Thanks for the content idea.

That's a good one.

And then we can submit it to the Smithsonian along with that snowball mic.

It's part of the Night Vale exhibit.

I was wondering

when there's a Nightvale exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum and they have all the artifacts and all the deer paintings and, you know like the laminate for big Rico's pizza that I stole from San Diego Comic-Con you know stuff like that

I actually volunteered to live there for all the children yeah oh really yeah yeah yeah I'm just gonna like in a tank like it's a David Blaine thing but I will have a bed so that's the difference and a body with a towel so I can't do that the artist is present The artist is present and it is Steve Carlsberg.

And you press a button to deliver a low-level electric shock.

It's fine.

I I can deal with it.

You get like food pellets.

I know.

That's what I was thinking.

I was like, food pellets.

It's like

a Carlsberg beer.

Yeah, it's Carlsberg.

If I can solve it, like not even like full, that's not even like full alcohol beer.

Oh, is that a low alcohol beer?

Is it?

Or is it just terrible tasting?

Who knows?

I don't know if I've ever had one.

A Carlsberg?

We should do that.

This tour, if you buy us a Carlsberg beer.

Oh, wait.

No one will hear this.

this episode premieres June the 7th

if you see one of us never mind cut it cut it seven grant cut it I think I think according to Wikipedia I think Carlsberg is a normal beer okay

did you look it up

yeah I did are you multitasking with technology trying to multitask but it's really

speaking of science

dark magic is it a Dutch beer Probably.

Denmark beer.

Is Carlsberg Dutch?

Oh, Denmark.

It's a Danish beer.

Who knows with those people?

Those people who are our fans, who listen to us, who love to go see.

Hey, we love you, Copenhagen.

Oh, my God, right?

Literally, no one is hating on Denmark, like ever.

So they can speak it.

Like, there's a special place in my heart for

Copenhagen.

I want to go there so bad.

I've had such a splendidly shitty time both times I went, but it was like

fireworks of shit.

You know, like the best, like crazy, like travel stories that like in the moment, you're like, this is the longest day of my life.

Is that when they lost it?

It really was.

But it's like, I know future me is going to like eat up every moment of it.

And it's all because of Copenhagen.

Copenhagen.

Yeah.

Do you say Hagen or Hagen?

I say Copenhagen.

I guess you can say both.

I've heard both.

Are both correct?

Or is it just like willy-nilly?

My guess is it's Copenhagen for people who live there, Copenhagen with an American accent.

Maybe.

That's my guess.

Sammy Hagar.

Nope.

Sammy Hagar.

Sammy Hagar.

Hagen dogs.

Yeah.

Hagen dogs.

Hagen.

Hagen does.

Can I get some of that Hagen does?

That's very Chicago.

Hagen does.

Hey, can I have that Aegon Dazz and a hot dog?

Thanks.

Can you get a haggards, please?

Dabers.

Dabairs.

Doubles.

It's funny because I live here.

This is topical.

All right.

Well, this conversation

has been a joy.

Cecil, thank you so much for joining us on the first ever Good Morning Night Fail.

It's so great to hear from you.

Thank you for having me.

Yeah, it's super weird to be talking to you all in a professional capacity with like listeners listening in.

Just

FYI.

It's like they're backstage with us.

Yeah.

Except we're wearing clothes.

Well, I'm wearing clothes.

I don't know, but I can't speak for anyone else on this.

I'm wearing clothes for once.

Kind of.

Kind of.

State of Andreas.

I'm wearing a crop top and leggings.

That's clothes.

And I'm covered in body paint, so I'm good.

I'll say, I'm wearing a full suit from the waist up and nothing from the waist down.

Business on top, party on the bottom.

Yes.

All right, cool.

Well, thanks, Cease.

Party on.

Thanks.

Thanks.

Bye.

Bye.

Bye.

Thank you so much for joining us on our first ever episode of Good Morning Night Vale.

Next week, we're going to talk about the episode two, Glow Cloud.

And we'll be joined by special guest Joseph Fink, the creator and writer of Welcome to Night Vale, and my personal husband.

Amongst other things.

Yo, you'll hear us next time.

You'll hear us next time.

Thank you so much.

Good morning, Night Vale.

Good morning.

Good morning.

Bye.

Good morning, Nightvale is a production of Night Vale Presents.

It is hosted by Symphony Sanders, Hal Lublin, and Meg Bashwiner.

It is edited by Grant Stewart.

It is mixed by Vincent Cascione.

It is produced by Meg Bashwiner.

Theme music by Dispirition.

Special thanks to our guest this week, Cecil Baldwin.

Leave us a voicemail at 929-277-2050 or email us at info at goodmorningnightvale.com to share your theories and ask questions or just to say which one of the hosts is your favorite.

For more information on this show, go to goodmorningnightvale.com or follow us on Facebook and on Twitter at nightvale chat.

Special thanks to Christy Gressman, Jeffrey Craner, Joseph Fink, and Adam Cecil.

Today's adverb.

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