Robert Louis Stevenson tells the Midnight Pals "The Tale of the Bottle Imp". Full episodes begin on October 31st.
Throughout October, we'll be releasing weekly teaser mini-episodes of Submitted for the Approval of the Midnight Pals in the run-up to the launch of our first full episode on Tuesday October 31st. In this teaser, San Francisco hipster Robert Louis Stevenson tells the Pals his short economics-horror story "The Tale of the Bottle Imp".
CAST:
Script and production by Robin Johnson. The Midnight Pals is created by Bitter Karella. All characters are fictitious, especially the real ones.
Robert Louis Stevenson's "The Bottle Imp" appears in his short story collection Island Nights' Entertainments, which is available on Project Gutenberg at https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/329.
Find the Midnight Pals at midnightpals.com, on twitter at @midnight_pals, or on bluesky at @midnightpals.bsky.social. Subscribe to Submitted for the Approval of the Midnight Pals now at https://midnight-pals.simplecast.com or via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your podcast site/app of choice.
A transcript of this teaser is available at https://midnight-pals.simplecast.com/episodes/teaser-09-robert-louis-stevenson/transcript
[BELLS CHIMING, SPOOKY ORGAN MUSIC]
VOICEOVER: Submitted for the Approval of the Midnight Pals, created by Bitter Karella.
[MUSIC FADES OUT. OWL HOOTS. FADE IN AMBIENCE OF FOREST AT NIGHT, WITH CAMPFIRE CRACKLING NEARBY]
EDGAR ALLAN POE: Tonight’s storyteller—
ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON: (SAN FRANCISCO HIPSTER ACCENT) Hola!
POE: —is Robert Louis Stevenson.
STEVENSON: Submitted for the approval of the Midnight Society, I call this story... [MAGICAL SPARKLE] The Tale of the Bottle Imp.
HP LOVECRAFT: A bottle imp?
STEVENSON: Yeah, it’s like an imp that lives in a bottle. And it grants wishes.
DEAN KOONTZ: So, a genie?
STEVENSON: No, it’s not a genie. Totally different vibe. Because the wishes this bad boy grants... come with a terrible curse.
KOONTZ: Oh, it’s the Monkey’s Paw!
STEVENSON: No, it’s not the—okay, it’s kinda like the Monkey’s Paw. But here’s the rad twist. If you die while you have the bottle in your possession, your soul goes to hell.
KOONTZ: Oh no!
STEVENSON: That's right, oh no! And the only way to get rid of the bottle is to sell it for less than you paid for it. So one dude buys it for a dollar, and sells it to a lady for fifty cents, and another guy buys it for a quarter—
MARY SHELLEY: Is this a cod economics lesson disguised as a horror story? ’Cause if I wanted to listen to Dan Simmons, I wouldn’t have broken his jaw last time.
STEVENSON: No. Uh. Anyway, the price gets lower and lower until some doofus buys it for two cents and now he’s furious ’cause he can’t get rid of it--
CLIVE BARKER: Whoah. Robert, you just invented NFTs.
LOVECRAFT: I’ll buy it!
BARKER: What?
LOVECRAFT: I mean, the value’s bound to go up eventually, right? (PAUSE) Right?
STEVENSON: Exactly, man. The digital collectible damnation market is primed for a rebound.
[THEME MUSIC PLAYS]
VOICEOVER: Submitted for the Approval of the Midnight Pals, coming Halloween 2023 to wherever you find podcasts. Find us at midnightpals.com
[MUSIC PLAYS OUT. FADE IN AMBIENCE OF 1920s U.S. HOUSE. OLD-TIMEY CARS AND STREETCARS AUDIBLE OUTSIDE. SOUND OF TYPING AND MORSE CODE.]
LOVECRAFT: (HORRIFIED GASP) All my imps are gone!