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• Photo by Veronica Rose

Welcome To Night Vale, the twice-monthly podcast about a small desert town where weird is the norm, comes to Van Duzer Theatre on Sunday, April 22 at 7 p.m. at ($30) as a live, stand-alone show, perfect for newcomers and long-time listeners alike.

The popular series takes the form of a local community radio broadcast providing spooky updates for the fictional desert town Night Vale. Announcements are delivered in soothing, reassuring tones by friendly narrator, Cecil (Cecil Baldwin). He invites audiences to take a peek behind the Vale with weather reports, updates from the Sheriff's Secret Police and cultural events, each tinged with a bit of the bizarre, a sliver of the surreal. He drolly imparts that there's a faceless old woman who secretly lives in your home, always there — just out of your sight. And then, after a few seconds of hair-raising creepiness, the story turns on a whimsical dime and audiences are charmed again by the curious, ordinary goings on of the town.

Baldwin and guests — plus live music from the series' musician Disparition — recreate the podcast's eerie hilarity in ALL HAIL, a story about fan-favorite The Glow Cloud, a mysterious entity that rains down dead animals and also happens to be the school board president. Welcome to Night Vale.

The uninitiated can poke around the town with the starter's guide on the podcast's website www.welcometonightvale.com before heading to the show on Sunday.