Cecil Gershwin Palmer

Cecil Gershwin Palmer
Image created by Melissa Shaw
Details
First Mentioned	"Pilot"
Status	Alive
Occupation	Radio host and Journalist
Affiliations	Night Vale Community Radio Carlos (husband) Cecil's mother (mother) Abby (sister) Janice (niece) Steve Carlsberg (brother-in-law) Khoshekh (pet cat) Unnamed Dog (pet) Dana (friend) Old Woman Josie (friend)
Known Physical Features	Not short or tall, fat or thin, has hair
Voice
Voice Actor(s)	Cecil Baldwin
First Heard	"Pilot"

“

And it is possible that I am alone in an empty universe, speaking to no one, unaware that the world is held aloft merely by my delusions and my smooth, sonorous voice.

”

Cecil Gershwin Palmer is the voice of Night Vale and the narrator of Welcome to Night Vale. He works at Night Vale Community Radio as the announcer and self-proclaimed journalist.

Sometimes, Cecil reports on events as they are occurring. It is mentioned he often receives faxes and phone calls from listeners on events, as well as updates from his surviving interns out in the field.

He lives in an apartment of currently unknown location in Night Vale, is in a committed relationship with Carlos, and is also mentioned as owning a car.

Cecil appears in all but two episodes, Company Picnic and Taking Off. He is the main narrator in every episode aside from The Sandstorm (Part B), Company Picnic, Renovations, Voicemail, and Taking Off.

Physical characteristics

It's possible that Cecil is, like the majority of Night Vale residents, human, describing himself as such in passing several times. However he may be immortal or at the very least a century old as he pre-dates the invention of the radio. He is also described by both himself and by Kevin as "a man." Cecil and Kevin are also doubles, Kevin being described as having dark, evil features and black eyes, Cecil could be the polar opposite. We do not know for sure.

He may not have eyes, as he accuses Kevin of lacking eyes, while Kevin says their eyes are the same, implying that he does have eyes. However, Steve Carlsberg seems very struck by Kevin's eyes and doesn't comment on Cecil's. In addition, Cecil describes his phone screen showing a photograph of him before slowly rotting, with a description of "the eyes deepening until they were sunken holes," which implies eyes in the first place. In addition in Well of Night/Life, Cecil specifically refers to his eyes being covered and then uncovered with flesh. And regularly refers to seeing things and events in Night Vale so it is safe to say he does have at least two eyes, as they are always plural.

He is described from a photograph (by Kevin) as being "not too short or tall, not fat or too thin. With hair [resembling Kevin's], a nose [resembling Kevin's] and eyes [resembling Kevin's]." (The Sandstorm, 19A). He also wears a tie, at least in the photograph.

In fan art, he is commonly depicted with a third eye on his forehead, and tattooed arms with either runic or "tentacle-like" patterns.

Cecil has a strange sense of fashion, and he typically wears odd clothing in equally odd combinations.

Cecil describes his first date outfit as "my best tunic and furry pants."

He also at one point wore a honeycomb hat, a Hawaiian shirt and leather pants to sleep and to the radio station the next day.

In Review, Cecil wears sponge clogs and tights to the opera.

When Cecil returns from the Well Of Night, he is wearing a black plastic poncho, cat ears, and galoshes. At first, he believes that this outfit is not what he was wearing before, as he first described the color of the galoshes as yellow, and that he owns orange galoshes. He eventually decided that the galoshes are orange, and that he was wearing the same outfit he wore to the station that morning.

In Ghost Stories, it was implied that, due to his crippling fear of mirrors, Cecil doesn't actually know what he looks like. However, this contradicts claims made in previous episodes. For example, in Sandstorm, it is mentioned that he keeps a picture of himself on his desk, and he is also able to recognize that Kevin looks almost identical to him.

Personality

Cecil is a very genial person and seems very well acquainted with the folks about town. Indeed, though he may not be aware of it, he seems to be one of the town's more prominent citizens: his relationship with Carlos is a frequent topic of conversation, and most of the town is aware of his feud with Steve Carlsberg.

He is very fond and proud of Night Vale, despite its horrors (many of which he has experienced firsthand) and often provides comfort for the residents of the town during times of uncertainty or danger. Though he is quick to praise the City Council, the Sheriff's Secret Police, and their draconian policies, his views on many social issues are surprisingly tolerant for a resident of a police state, and he even occasionally calls out the town's crooked politicians on air, despite the risk of retaliation.

But he has something of a dual personality. He can be serious and cheerful by turns, switching between extreme tones at the drop of a hat. Jackie Fierro and Carlos separately described him as "overenthusiastic about most things". He struggles with impulse control: he outed Steve Carlsberg as the opponent of the drawbridge project, asked his listeners for dating advice despite being aware that his radio show was not the time or place for it, and accidentally alerted StrexCorp to the pending rebellion in Night Vale. He has repeatedly been willing to use his professional reach and influence for personal gain: he set the town against Telly the Barber for the crime of cutting Carlos' hair, makes interns copyedit his fanfic and manage his social media accounts, and helped his niece break into City Hall.

Cecil often comes across as a decent, kind, and ethical person, and describes himself as such--he calls himself "innocent and kind" in A Story About Them. But in cooperation with the authorities, he seems perfectly comfortable with legalized murder, using the radio audience's collective mind power to kill an unknown driver in a lake, and keeping a man in a cage of electricity at the zoo. Though he is rarely malicious, his treatment of Telly the Barber makes his potential for cruelty obvious. His obliviousness about the radio station intern turnover rate is alarming; he seems genuinely hurt and offended by the suggestion that there's anything wrong with his management style.

His broadcasts require a tremendous amount of cognitive dissonance. Often, they are internally contradictory, contain impossible instructions, or are banned midway through and must be renounced. Cecil occasionally gets in trouble with Station Management for describing things which are indescribable or discussing things that are not supposed to be discussed, and he openly worries that he will get in trouble with the authorities. Despite this, he remains enthusiastic about nearly all upcoming events, even those involving death and destruction—so long as they are scheduled by the city's leaders, of course.

There are times when Cecil's cognitive dissonance becomes obvious. In a set of cassette tapes he made as a teenager, we hear fifteen-year-old Cecil already struggling to rationalize his family's strange behavior towards him, and that struggle continues in his adulthood. His broadcasts sometimes evoke the disconcerting sense that Cecil's personal thoughts differ from the words he's actually speaking, even if Cecil himself tries to repress it. It's implied that he's become very good at ignoring the discrepancies in his own memories. He even destroys his adolescent cassette recordings because he can't remember or accept what they reveal about his life.

Cecil's sense of self-preservation is often as questionable as that of the town's other residents. Notably, in the episode Subway, he leaves the studio to board the menacing Night Vale subway system, despite the fact that he hasn't seen anyone exiting it and his intern never returned from riding it. However, Cecil is certainly not immune to horrors and is rendered genuinely helpless and terrified by some events. Most notably, when he is stuck in Kevin's hellish recording booth in Desert Bluffs, he becomes extremely distressed by the blood, organs and other viscera coating the room (especially the recording equipment). He's also described cowering under his desk in fear while being hunted by his menacing boss(es?). He became extremely combative when his cat, Khoshekh, was being attacked. He also curses and cries when he thinks Carlos may have been killed.

History

Cecil existed, along with the radio station, before Night Vale did. Though Cecil ages from adolescent to adult, the "[Best Of?]" episode suggests he exists somewhat beyond time.

When Cecil was five years old, the prophecies were revealed saying that he would become the voice of Night Vale. That was when he first got his Little Reporter's Book of Big Boy Note Taking, a book he makes notes in always, even when he's not aware of it, and even when he's not holding a pen.

He sings the Night Vale High fight song in the episode Cassette, and he says he played Pippin in his high school's avant-garde production of the musical "South Pacific." He was a member of the Night Vale Boy Scouts, earning an Advanced Siege-Breaking Tactics badge at the age of 12 and a Subversive Radio Host badge at an unspecified age.

Cecil was interested in radio hosting early on. At age 15, he started recording himself enthusiastically imitating previous NVCR host Leonard Burton. While recording these cassette tapes, he began to see a mysterious flickering out of the corner of his eye which increased in frequency when he spoke or sang. Eventually, Cecil did land an internship at NVCR, and got to work with his idol, Leonard. But the mysterious flickering got stronger and apparently attacked him. What happened afterward is unclear, as Cecil's current memories don't mesh with the contents of the cassette tapes. Indignant and confused, he destroyed the tapes and vowed to forget.

Cecil claims to have traveled to Europe after college, though it is unclear whether the events he describes actually took place. Cecil specifically mentions the countries of Svitz, Franchia, and Luftnarp, and seems completely unaware that they don't actually exist anywhere in Europe.

Otherwise, he has never mentioned leaving Night Vale and seems unaware of conditions outside of it. Despite living in America, he has never even heard of Michigan or Alabama. He does not have much knowledge of astronomy, as he does not know what the moon is (although he does make various statements regarding Night Vale's secret outer space operations) and doesn't believe in mountains (perhaps due to civic pride). He often doubts his own existence and the existence of other people.

He had a major role in the rebellion against StrexCorp in the episode Parade Day, being attacked by Lauren and Kevin when the rebellion failed. He was captured after the events of Parade Day and taken to the Strexcorp Company Picnic . Afterwards, in Renovations, he described the picnic in cold, uncensored detail.

Family

Parents

Recalling his perspective as a very young child, Cecil briefly talks about his mother, who is described as being as strange and disconnected as the other town residents. Cecil talks about her staring blankly into his eyes and saying, "Someday someone will kill you, and it will involve a mirror." He also notes that he misses her.

Later, from his perspective as a teen, he talks about his mother again. Presumably aware of Cecil's destiny as Leonard Burton's successor, she gave him a cassette recorder for his 15th birthday--but other than that, is again described as being very disconnected and strange, something Cecil struggles to comprehend. When she hides from him for over 3 days (the longest she's ever been gone before), he is clearly confused by her absence, but tries to attribute this to her being proud of him and his recent internship at the station. Following from her earlier warning, Cecil's mother covers all the mirrors in their house before she disappears. In Ghost Stories, Cecil reveals his mother has been dead for at least eleven years, and that she had reappeared several years after the events of Cassette. He also said she had some sort of mental illness and drank alchohol. In Homecoming, Cecil refers to his "late mother" and notes that he is looking forward to the Night Vale High School homecoming game because of the opportunity to speak with her at halftime. The implications, then, are that she was herself an alumna of NVHS (since only alumni (past or future) appear at homecoming).

Cecil has never yet mentioned his father.

Siblings

Cecil has a sister named Abby: Janice's mother and Steve Carlsberg's wife. Though Cecil and Abby do not appear to be especially close (noting, in The Registry of Middle School Crushes, that he has not spoken to her in some time), they do seem to be on good terms: Steve says that Abby loves her brother , and Cecil babysat Janice when Steve and Abby were away .

Fifteen-year-old Cecil mentions a brother, with whom he had a strained relationship. It's not mentioned whether he is older or younger, but the way he is spoken of implies him to be older. His brother was apparently "disappointed" with him and told him he would never make it in radio because he didn't have the right voice for it. He's also described as glaring at Cecil from across the breakfast table with hollow eyes and howling. Towards the end of Cassette, teenaged Cecil says only that his brother is "gone now". Adult Cecil claims not to remember him at all.

Other Family

In the episode The Lights in Radon Canyon, Cecil says he learned the following adage from his grandparents: "A life of pain is the pain of life, and you can never escape it—only hope it hides, unknown, in a drawer like a poisonous spider and never comes out again, even though it probably will, in unexpected and horrific fashion, scaring you from being able to comfortably conduct even the most mundane, quotidian tasks."

In the episode Cookies, it emerges for the first time that Cecil is related to Steve Carlsberg, whom Cecil has always shown a great dislike for. This episode strongly implies that Cecil dislikes Steve because Steve is a careless and inattentive stepfather to Cecil's niece, Janice, who belongs to the girl scouts. We later learn, in The September Monologues, that Cecil has other reason to dislike him, as Steve is aware of the workings of The Vague, Yet Menacing, Government Agency and other things that no one is supposed to know about. Cecil didn't want him teaching those things to Janice.

In the episode Old Oak Doors Part B, Steve Carlsberg implies Cecil is his stepbrother--but in The September Monologues, however, Steve confesses to being confused about terms like stepbrother, brother-in-law, brother-outside-the-law, half-brother and double-brother. At any rate, Steve is consistent that he married Cecil's sister, making Cecil his brother-in-law. Steve met Cecil for the first time on his wedding day.

Relationships

Carlos the Scientist: Carlos is Cecil's husband.

Cecil fell in love with a handsome new scientist in town, Carlos, instantly in the first episode, and Cecil's open and complete adoration for him features prominently on the show, with Cecil frequently gushing in lyrical prose over his beautiful appearance and great intellect. It's made very clear that Cecil isn't simply admiring Carlos from afar and does in fact wish to date him, even giving Carlos his home phone number in the hopes he will call. Carlos, however, is initially either unaware of Cecil's affections, or willfully chooses to ignore them, only ever contacting Cecil on matters of business. It's only after a near death experience in episode 25 that Carlos finally calls Cecil for "personal reasons" and, after sharing a tender moment together in the Arby's parking lot, the two finally begin dating. In episode 100, it's revealed that the two are recently married. It seems like episode 100 is the after party of their wedding. With all of their guests giving toasts.

Earl Harlan: Earl Harlan was Cecil's childhood best friend. They were in the Night Vale boyscouts together. It is implied in episode 23 (Eternal Scouts) that Cecil probably had been (or was about to be) in a relationship with him. Earl grabs Cecil's arm during an interview at the station and sadly tells him, "We could have had something, Cecil. Always remember that." Earl is later dragged away by strange mute children, but Cecil wistfully mentions later that he often thinks about Earl's last words to him. In Homecoming, it is mentioned that Earl and Cecil graduated from Night Vale High School in the same year, though neither could remember a specific year. Earl is currently a sous chef at Tourniquet.

The Beautiful Young Man From Luftnarp: Cecil talks about meeting with a "beautiful, ashen faced young man" in a local alehouse in Europe, with whom it's implied he was on the verge of being in a relationship with before they parted ways at the end of the episode. The man sees Cecil off as he boards the bus home and, as the man turns to leave, Cecil wistfully laments over, "this thing between [us], that seemed so possible now already and forever never was."

Mayor Dana Cardinal: Dana Cardinal is a former intern of NVCR, but was elected Night Vale Mayor (despite having not run for the position). Cecil seemed to have a fond friendship with Dana when she was an intern, the only intern he shows any prolonged concern for. They are Facebook friends and kept in contact via text, phone calls and astral projection when Dana was trapped in The Dog Park, The House That Does Not Exist and later when she was traversing the desert that contains The Blinking Light up on the Mountain (later revealed to be a lighthouse that somehow enables travel through time and space) and the Masked Army (whom she, as of A Story About Them, appears to be leading). Cecil then believed for a prolonged period of time that Dana was the owner of Lot 37, Cecil himself, since he was being used to protect her. However, in Review, it is revealed that the actual owner is Hiram McDaniels's purple head, Violet, and he and Dana seem to be okay once again. 

Old Woman Josie: It's mentioned that he used to go bowling with Old Woman Josie and the two used to play on a team together. They speak to each other like old friends, although it seems they haven't been keeping up with each other as much since the bowling alley was invaded by tiny people and Cecil and Carlos started dating.

Cecil harbors a deep disgust for the following: 

• Desert Bluffs, presumably because of town rivalry.
• The Apache Tracker, for being a racist and culturally appropriative "asshole".
• Steve Carlsberg, who has an annoying habit of pointing out what he considers the flaws in such noble municipal projects as government-approved clone sandstorms and the construction of a drawbridge in the desert, and recently revealed to be a deadbeat stepfather to Cecil's niece, Janice (along with accusations of Steve being a gambling addict, and having horrible taste in shoes). Steve and Cecil reconcile at least temporarily after Steve defeats Kevin in Old Oak Doors Part B, although Cecil still expresses disdain for Steve's "stupid ideas about the world."
• Telly the Barber, for cutting Carlos' beautiful hair short.
• He has also had a major distrust of new station owners StrexCorp, while never publicly stating so on air (aside from a brief pirated message), he has tried to subtly show his displeasure with their rise to power. This has seemed to hit a new peak after their StrexPet severely injured Khoshekh, an event that clearly left Cecil highly disturbed, and implying a desire for revenge. This ultimately led to Cecil helping Tamika Flynn lead a rebellion against StrexCorp, that is ultimately stopped by the rest of the town's unwillingness to fight StrexCorp, leading to the rebellion being captured (including Cecil being surrounded by Lauren and Kevin).
• Kevin, due to his monstrous nature and because he is affiliated with StrexCorp and Desert Bluffs.( Thought it should be noted that he and Kevin did seem to bond a bit during the episode Triptych.)

Trivia

• The first time Cecil was referred to as Cecil by himself or others in episode was in episode 5, The Shape in Grove Park (episode). His full name was revealed in episode 33, Cassette.
• He shares his first name with his voice actor, stage actor and director Cecil Baldwin, who lives in New York. As of Cassette, we find out that he does not share the rest of his name with the real-life Cecil, which many fans had previously assumed was the case.
• Cecil Baldwin said in a Nov 15 2013 interview, that the character's surname of Palmer was chosen by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor as an homage to David Lynch's cult classic horror series, Twin Peaks. Presumably it is a reference to the character Laura Palmer, whose murder most of the series revolves around.
• He claimed to be fighting lyme disease during Station Management, a claim that was reiterated in the Thrilling Adventure Hour & Welcome to Night Vale Crossover.
• He seems to enjoy alcohol, and is mentioned getting tipsy on cheap wine during his college days while in Europe and leisurely drinking brandy while on the phone to Carlos.
  • Cecil may have had a more serious issue with alcohol, at least during the duration of Carlos' absence from Night Vale, as his horoscope flatly states that he might "perhaps take up drinking while crying in a quiet room."
• He seems to be fond of westerns. He mentions enjoying the 1965 western comedy movie Cat Ballou so much that he's unable to tear himself away, missing an important phone call. Carlos suggested that they could rewatch The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, during the events of Orange Grove. He has also mentioned that he has seen all of Lee Marvin's films.
• He mentions being glad that he got to see how popular TV series, Breaking Bad ended.
• He has admitted to owning a hamster with an unknown name, but the hamster died two weeks after being in Cecil's care.
• He has claimed to be a dog person and not fond of cats, but has grown very attached to Khoshekh, the floating cat in the men's bathroom at the station. He also gushes over the cuteness of a cat video he saw on the Internet.
  • He also mentions that he would never bring his dog to the Dog Park, implying he has a dog.
• He has a Tumblr blog. He uses it to share his wood carvings of Khoshekh.
• He has written a Jaws slash fic, which he got Intern Maureen to copy-edit. He's also briefly mentioned writing multiple Hannibal fanfics, though its unclear whether he's referring to the TV series, or the movie franchise.
• He is an Aquarius, meaning he was born sometime in January or February.
• It's implied during [Best Of?] that he may have had a relationship with Marconi when he was in Europe.
• Joseph Fink confirmed that as of the live show "Ghost Stories" that Cecil is Jewish. Cecil refers to his Jewish roots by mentioning that he attended Torah school in episode 90: "Who's a Good Boy: Part 2." This also explains Khoshekh's Hebrew name.