The Glee Podject: Five Amazing Glee Podfic Performances

[klb]

A little over a year ago, I fell into the Kurt/Blaine corner of Glee fandom. At the time, there was little enough Kurt/Blaine podfic that I was able to listen to every single one, and even though I've fallen behind a bit lately, I've still heard at least 90% of them. Glee podfic fandom is small, but it has some extremely talented readers. I thought I'd bring you a sampling of a few of my favorites. And, because it's summertime, I've decided to organize the recs based on everyone's favorite Oxygen channel reality singing competition, The Glee Project.

Week 1: Individuality
Winner: Scholars and Gentlemen, written by mary_flanner, read by nielrian.

nielrian is a masterful performer, and probably the most well-known podfic artist in Glee fandom. Her character voices, especially her Kurt voice, are phenomenal. She has so many great works to choose from, and each performance she gives is better than the last. Tip/Tilt, especially, with its tense, emotional, fierce and broken badboy!Kurt, blew me away. But I had to choose this one, because there is a moment in it that changed my life as a podfic artist, that I have held up as a mentor for my own work ever since it first blew me away, over a year ago.

In the moment in question, Kurt is napping when he gets a call from his dad. Kurt wakes up in a complete panic, after which he has a totally normal phone conversation and is about to go back to sleep. But Blaine, who's been watching the whole thing in bewilderment, asks him what just happened. And Kurt explains that he hates being woken up by the phone, "I guess because I never know who's dead."

And here's the thing: nielrian doesn't dig into the line. She doesn't try to pack layers of emotion into it, sadness or wistfulness or hurt or any of the things that are so tempting to put into that moment. She just throws it away, light and unburdened, and lets it ring with so much more significance because of that. It's a seriously beautiful choice. Listen:

Something that makes this moment even more interesting to look closely at is that nielrian actually went back recently and rerecorded all of Scholars and Gentlemen. Here's the same text, from the newer version.

I think it's really awesome to hold these two side by side, because I feel there are many people (probably not so much readers of this comm!) who feel that the art of podfic is just about the words of the fic. And even more who may feel that it's just about the combination of a specific reader and the words of the fic. But this shows how much the art is also about the acting choices that that reader makes during that particular performance. This is the same fic, the same reader, and even still, the two performances are not at all interchangeable. Listen to the difference in the two versions of Kurt's first "Hello?"—more scared in the first one, sharper in the second. Or the "Nothing dad, just hanging out with Blaine," sweet and maybe slightly put-upon in the first, audibly relieved in the second. The reading in the first version is so relaxed and natural and easy, and in second is a bit more thoughtfully crafted, intelligent and layered, with more time spent lingering on each word and more clear and precise emotional beats. Listen to "still not entirely convinced everything is okay" and you'll hear what I mean.

Anyway, I value both versions incredibly highly, as well as anything else read by nielrian, especially A Conspiracy of Love, Haven't Let You Out Since I Let You In, If There's Hellfire, He's Totally Down With That, and Tip/Tilt.

Week 2: Fearlessness
Winner: My Body Betrays Me, written and read by emilianadarling

My next rec is for an NC-17 Ella Enchanted AU, and as you may suspect from that summary, it has quite a bit of non-con, so be warned. I read it and loved it, and then I discovered that the author was also an amazing podfic artist, so I asked her if she'd consider making podfic of this story. And she did, and she NAILED it. Oh my god. This story has so much intensity, and emilianadarling—in pretty much the first take every time, since she used the clapping method to edit, which blows my mind—dives in with complete commitment to every emotional place the fic goes: uninhibited tears, uninhibited sex scenes, such a variety of complex emotions, and she goes 100% for every one. Just goes for it.

And this is while juggling three different character POVs that she makes feel completely distinct. I'm most impressed by her Karofsky POV, which is just… such an interesting portrayal. It's like there's an added level of really fascinating meta about what she intended for his character woven into the line readings. It's rare that the experience of hearing an author perform their own fic adds so much to my understanding of the characters and story.

The snippet I'm including is a flashback during the first chapter, from Dave's POV. It takes place right after Dave finds out about Kurt's curse—like Ella, he is magically compelled to obey every direct order—and also finds out that Kurt, who he has a massive crush on, isn't interested in him romantically, and that the sexual encounter they just had was caused by Dave accidentally tapping into the curse (the phrase "go fuck yourself" was involved).

Listen to the clarity of the character voices, Kurt speaking vs. Dave speaking vs. Dave's internal voice vs. the narration. Listen to all the different emotional places emilianadarling hits in this short snippet, and how immediately and intensely she goes from one to the other. Listen to the million things going on at once in the line "He could make Kurt so happy." I could seriously write an essay about this 2-minute snippet and everything bit of shading and nuance emilianadarling puts into it.

Week 3: Generosity
Winner: It's Not Weird to Want to be Friends with Your Brother's Boyfriend, written by commenalitys, read by jennacorinth

Omg, okay, so. jennacorinth. jennacorinth gives the warmest, most comforting readings I think I've ever heard. She conveys so much humor, and goodwill, and warmth, and love… basically, you know that feeling that songs say you're supposed to get at Christmas time? I get that feeling from listening to jennacorinth's readings.

Those who know me know that I had a couple of really rough months late in 2011, and I can remember one particular morning when I actually was able to pierce a several-days-long funk (a pretty rare feat at that time) by relistening to jennacorinth performance of It's Not Weird to Want to be Friends with Your Brother's Boyfriend. Like, basically if the Care Bear Stare was a real thing, I would suspect its magical powers might have somehow gone into the creation of this podfic.

In the snippet below, Finn has been sulking because he never gets to hang out with Blaine anymore, since Blaine only comes over when he and Kurt have a date, and Finn has been banned from their dates after accidentally walking in on a makeout session due to lack of boundaries. Kurt finally takes pity on Finn and helps Finn arrange a friend-date with Blaine so they can spend some time together.

Listen to the depth of affection in "Finn's ridiculously excited when Saturday rolls around." and "while Kurt takes his time kissing his boyfriend luxuriously." And, of course, the pitch-perfect Finn, sincere and clueless and accidentally hilarious—"no sappy hellos, today's my turn." But mostly, mostly, can you hear what I mean by generosity? There's such generous love in the telling of this story that it spills over into my mind, makes me burst with love for the characters, for their family, for all families, for all friendships and romances, for the creators of this fanwork and for all creators of all fanwork. Just boundless, boundless love, fueled by the feelings jennacorinth shares in this reading.

And, oh yeah, her comedic timing—"Okay, seriously, just stop" is really excellent too ☺

Week 4: Romanticality
Winner: While We Two Keep Together, written by cimmerians, read by oohshinyfangirl

This podfic is also incredibly sweet. The story is about Blaine coming back early from Thanksgiving break, and Blaine and Kurt having a winter day alone together in Blaine's family's empty house. It's simple and lovely and innocent and young, and oohshinyfangirl does a great job of putting all those things into it. In this clip, they get home after a walk in the snow. The last line of this was ringing in my head for days afterwards, and it's one of the main reasons I chose this podfic to rec.

Listen to the emotion she puts in Blaine's voice at "Our house," the warmth of "there was snow melting on his eyelashes," the touch of whisper she works into "I've been pretending," how she conveys the boys' joyful giddiness, surprised and nearly overwhelmed from the intensity of the moment, wavering on the edge of feeling too much, the hint of almost-tears underneath some of the words. Subtle and lovely.

Week 5: Sexuality
Winner: We Are All a Little Weird and Life's a Little Weird, written and read by parsnips.

This is actually the podfic that tipped me over the edge from perhaps-a-bit-fannishly-interested-in-Klaine to I-will-go-down-with-this-ship. I've listened at least 25 times through, making it my most-listened-to podfic, and actually took the file into Audacity after about the 10th time so that I could edit out the repeated line in the middle, since I knew the investment would pay off in the hundred or so listens still ahead ☺

The story itself is perfect for podfic, because it's all about voices and the eroticism contained within, and expressed through, them. It's about the boys stumbling from a normal conversation into spontaneous/unplanned first-time phone sex, and the way it develops, and the way the reader carries it, is just gorgeous. And (to me, at least) very hot. parsnips is so present in the moment of the performance, and it's just, ugh. MAGICAL. I am listening right now and feeling A BIT OVERCOME BY IT ALL.

I mean, parsnips ended up being my favorite author in Glee fandom, and I highly rec her writing. But the performance is a whole other layer. For one thing, I love the way she vocally interprets Kurt, a bit bolder and sassier than most Glee podfic artists. And for another—well, I can't even explain it in words, really, just show you how magnetic and absorbing every second of her reading is. Here's a snippet from the part where it starts to go from normal, if sexy, conversation, to something else, both characters amazed and turned on and a little unsure but completely swept up in it.

And just listen to, god, I don't even know. Listen to the breathless urgency and anticipation in the narration, the perfect mix of humor and sincere panic in "explode in his hand." Listen to the authenticity of Blaine's outburst, to the way she says fuck—GOD, I am completely useless at talking about this one without descending into keysmashing—the boldness and terror and surprised turned-on tone of the fucking PERFECT "take off your shirt," I mean. No. I am not even going to talk anymore. Just listen to it. You'll see.

Season Finale

I teach my students that a good phrase for starting conclusions is "So as you can see." And look, here we are, at the conclusion.

SO AS YOU CAN SEE, podfic is amazing, podfic in Glee fandom is pretty freaking amazing, and there are so many ways for podfic performances to shine. I know there were some commenters recently in another part of fandom trying to posit that podfic performance is not an art, and just… I feel like this is the best counterargument I can make. THIS. These passionate, complicated, thoughtful, skilled, layered, beautiful pieces of art.

So I, uh. Rec them to you.