On Saturday evening in Seattle, Adventurecateers and Night Valians (and other followers of oddly spelled fandoms) filed through the doors of the Moore Theater in order to experience the crossover of the decade. There were fans of all kinds, from those dressed up with glowing clouds on their heads and “scientist coats” (as I overheard) to t-shirts with popular logos and phrases, racing to the merch table and looking for their seats — all of whom were excited to see their favorite voices in person, as actual people, coming to life in front of them.
From a comfy, cozy balcony seat, I sat and watched the various people present for the event. As I wandered and explored the theater, an establishment I’d never been, I couldn’t help but marvel at how small it felt on the outside and how big it felt when in it, like some sort of theater with relative dimensions in space. But, as I entered alone, I couldn’t help but find myself standing back as a wallflower, a conscientious observer who was incredibly fascinated by the people that had assembled for that evening’s performance.
And let me tell you, it was incredibly varied. There were certainly the comic crew from Emerald City present, as you could tell most if not all people in attendance had spent the day at the con as either a working professional (I saw quite a few big name creators) or a fan (often identifiable by cosplay that had nothing to do with either show, but still great). Even beyond what you’d expect, though, this was quite a group of people that had come together; elderly couples out on dates, young children carrying their favorite dolls (who I almost couldn’t believe were fans at first), and more raced to their various seats, often in pairs and groups excitedly leaning together and whispering about their favorite characters or jokes — all of whom were eagerly anticipating the lights going down or singing along to “Everything is Awesome” pumping through the Moore’s speaker system.
As I watched the theater fill up, there was really only one thought that went through my mind: Wow, I can not remember the last time I saw a crowd like this.
Seeing a great amount of diversity at events is not a shock to me, certainly. I’ve been to enough conventions and concerts and what have you at this point that I’m used to seeing large and interesting crowds form to share in the things that I love. And people that defy the stereotypical fan? They’re welcomed with open arms. But still, the amount of people that had come, either to see Thrilling Adventure Hour, Welcome to Night Vale and/or both, speaks volumes to the appeal that both programs have. You would’ve thought that both shows could only really each a specific crowd, but as the night unfurled it became clear that the acceptance and celebration of both shows was far more broad than I had realized. In their own ways, both TAH and Night Vale have spoken through their various quirks and eccentricities to such an incredibly vast audience, and the way that it very clearly touches people is sort of the thing you have to see to believe.
It’s so much different than sitting alone in your car and listening to radio plays as you drive to work, to say the least.
The audience certainly informs you of it, as well. The amount of people cosplaying as Cecil and Carlos, for example, is one of the most exciting aspects of seeing a crowd of Night Valians live, especially since there has never been a firm visual representation of either character. There are probably assumptions, I suppose, but they could be anyone, anything. But when you see two people walk by holding hands, one in a lab coat and the other in headphones, you understand — these weird characters in their weird little world still have so much inherent truth to who they are, how they ostensibly live and love, and people find themselves in this in such visceral ways.
That, and people just shout out at the stage. There were quite a few moans of anguish let out during pivotal moments of the performance, and the amount of people hooting and hollering at callbacks or catchphrases uttered was enough to deafen. There were even a few “I LOVE YOU, ____” and other uncontainable emotional responses quite frequent throughout the show.
Continued belowIt’s just interesting for a radio show, you know?
And it’s the exact sort of thing that I discussed with one of the writer’s of that night’s show, Ben Acker, in the hotel lobby of the Sheraton the morning of the performance. Take a look:
Unfortunately, as expressed in the introduction to the latest episode of Thrilling Adventure Hour, the show itself was not fully recorded. While they had hoped to release it some fashion, apparently there were some technical difficulties along the way, and yadda yadda. Ben Blacker did mention that they would do the show again, though, perhaps even changing or tweaking things for its new audience, so I’ll refrain from directly spoiling the events of the show or getting too specific about plot.
But I will say: it was not what you would’ve expected it to be.
Certainly the photographs attached to this post (and the Ben Acker interview above) give you some clues as to what the show was ostensibly about, but even at the most basic of notions as to what was going on the show still remained unpredictable. In fact, the ebb and flow between the shows as they were each performed live synced up in a rather unpredictable way, even if it was a co-written endeavor by both’s shows creators.
The reason I describe it as such is this — with no inherent disrespect intended, since obviously I’m a fan of both productions, the show very easily could’ve failed. Both shows are known for their idiosyncrasies such as they are, but this isn’t peanut butter and jelly. What makes Cecil Palmer and Steve Carlsberg “work” in their respective universe isn’t what makes Sparks Nevada and Croach the Tracker “work” in theirs. The way characters talk and interact, the way they see the world and understand science or even basic reasoning are all things that couldn’t exist on further places on the spectrum.
And, well, Night Vale can just be weird, right? You know. Thrilling Adventure Hour is more about well placed jokes and timing, but there’ve been some Night Vale episodes that stopped me in my tracks, figuratively and once literally.
Yet despite this, when sharing the stage together, you couldn’t help but see all these new threads and ideas that could be explored by putting these characters and performers together. It was impossibly natural. The Night Vale cast perhaps embodies their characters a little bit more, if only because they are “normal” people (or, their version of normal) and not aliens or robots, but it’s incredibly interesting to watch how these are so much more than voices for the performer. Yes, they are all incredibly emotive and strive for their vocal decisions to carry their performance, but each actor truly allows the character to take over their being even in a show where people mostly just stand at microphones. They may be restrained to one place on stage, but how they interact with the space they have is certainly unique to this type of production.
So it works. Against all potential obstacles, it works. In a theater where the second the house lights go on the light of a thousand cell phone screens are the first to follow, these actors and their voices were still able to capture the hearts and imaginations of an entire theater in a way that is decidedly different from your standard evening out to a show.
I could perhaps spend some time going into a bit more detail on the show here. I could tell you that it was uproariously funny, but I’m sure you know that even without seeing it. I could tell you that the way the show transitioned between TAH into Night Vale was perhaps one of the best written gags of the evening, but again, I think you know. I could tell you how fun it was to see all of these actors perform their characters live, how well the show was written, how good The Weather was — but if you’re a fan of Thrilling Adventure Hour and/or Night Vale, then these are things that you’d just expect.
Every week we get new episodes of either show is always a treat, and of course combining the shows would result in something that was decidedly excellent for fans, both new and old.
Continued belowBut what I got out of spending the evening at the theater was decidedly something more. It was sitting in a crowd of strangers who were very clearly a community, in a way that going to see a movie or even just a Broadway show can not match. It was seeing performers embody characters and ideas in a way that is just so much more intrinsic than you might expect from only hearing it. It’s that notion that you’re with people who find the same weird, silly things as entertaining as you do, people who just “get it” both on stage and off, and it’s seeing how the things you love come together in kooky or peculiar ways and having something new and fun come out of it.
Or maybe it was just seeing Steve Carlsberg try to hug Cecil Palmer while Sparks Nevada stuttered over the word “friend” to Croach.
One of those.
A big thank you to Ladykiller for putting on such a great evening’s performance, arranging our interview and for providing the photos attached to this article. For more, please visit Ladykiller at Ladykiller.co.
