Cult Horror Actor Bill Oberst Jr. Hosts New Gothic Goodnight Podcast
Emmy Award and Lon Chaney Award-winning actor Bill Oberst Jr.’s new podcast is meant to put you to sleep. Bill Oberst Jr.’s Gothic Goodnight features the cult actor, known for roles in over 100 horror films (as well as horror-themed episodes of TV shows like Criminal Minds and Scream Queens) lulling listeners to rest with excerpts from Gothic fiction. Each episode of 30 minutes or less features a reading, Oberst’s musings on the piece, and the actor’s famously unsettling voice whispering a quiet “Goodnight.”
The literary selections, which in the first two episodes of the weekly podcast have included works by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Edgar Allan Poe and Robert Louis Stevenson, are chosen by Oberst himself, with an emphasis on what he calls “lush language,” atmosphere and a sense of the tragic. The show was inspired, he says, by the sudden change in social habits brought about by the coronavirus. “This is my little midnight whisper into the vast abyss of loneliness,” said Oberst.
Oberst, who portrays author Ray Bradbury in a touring stage show, says Gothic Goodnight is also his homage to the likes of Vincent Price and Boris Karloff, actors known for onscreen fright whose dark radio readings brought comfort to listeners of their time. “Dark tales are a balm in times of trouble,” Oberst said. “They help us to accept the night.”
Gothic Goodnight Official Site: bill-oberst-jr-gothic-goodnight.captivate.fm/
Gothic Goodnight Ap Links: bill-oberst-jr-gothic-goodnight.captivate.fm/listen
Bill Oberst Jr.Official Site: billoberst.com/