We are the hosts of the improv comedy podcast Hello from the Magic Tavern. We just started season 4. Ask us anything!

Mmm, Boys Night?

BOOOOYS NIGHT!!!

What should i ask you?

You nailed it already.

Have been listening since season 1! Also a Patreon!

I just wanted to say that it's a great show.

Any chance you guys will bring reading emails back? Also whatever happened to Chunts egg?

Thanks for listening AND supporting the Patreon.
No pressure to other folks but it means a lot when people sign up for the Patreon. Am I allowed to put links here?
Anyway, we absolutely want to get back to reading emails. It's tough in the first stretch of season 4 because we had to stockpile some eps and it's a new location so it may be a bit before the emails can catch up. But we will. Also, I think we should do some regular Patreon episodes where we answer patron questions in character.

Becoming independent is a big step. What do your parents think?

They're just happy I keep myself busy.

S3e80, Usidore's Hat, is one of the best times I've ever had listening to the show. Matt, your talent is always strikingly evident, but were you aware that you absolutely blew it out of the water in that episode?

One of the great things about working with Matt is I can say, "Hey, let's do an episode where Matt plays a hundred different Usidores" and then he does it and it's amazing and I barely have to do anything. That's also possibly one of the annoying things about working with me.

Who would you want to have as a guest that you have not been able to?

The list is endless with lots of sub lists. Here are a couple folks with some Chicago roots that I'd love to have on the show: Sam Richardson, Amber Ruffin
We have friends in common, but they're also incredibly busy. Still, I'd really love to have them on.
Also, I say this all the time, I think John Dickerson would be surprisingly great. It seems unlikely he'd ever do it, but still.

Hi! If any, what are some plot developments you didn't see coming? As in they happened totally on the fly or were the result of a guest's input? It interests me to what extent the arc of the series is improvised. Thanks!

This is somewhat spoilery, but for season one (how do I block out spoilers again?)... the intention for the end of the Dungeon crawling episode was for Arnie to get the lunar sword at the end. (Sometimes we approach episodes as "do whatever, but at the end... do this.") I started doing a nice little scene with TJ (Klax the skeleton) and suddenly Matt yelled out, as Usidore, "I got it! I got the sword!" It was just too funny and perfect in the moment but definitely a surprise.

Hi !! I love the show ! Are you guys planning on any tours soon ? Also has there been any ideas for new merch, like shirts or maybe even stickers ? 💕💕 love u guys so much !!!

No tour planning just yet. Like much of the world we keep tentatively planning some live stuff, then holding off, then maybe, then maybe not yet. Hopefully we'll at least do a one off or two before too long.

Arnie, If you could equate what a red potion tastes like to something on Earth what would it be?

I mostly think about it as my own relationship to Diet Coke, which I've weened off of a bit but it's uniquely addicting. I also started doing that bit around the time I first went on ADD meds and was probably working through some complicated feelings about identity and medication.

How did you get Tim Sniffen as the Mysterious Man? He is probably one of my favourite (non-main) characters. Also when will we hear more from fan-favourite, Can the Wizard?

When I was coming up through improv classes Tim Sniffen was always one of my favorite performers in Chicago. Later when I started working at Jackbox Games (when it was called Jellyvision Games) I got to work with Tim and found out that he's an amazing artist and computer animator. It blew my mind. And I got the sense that people at work didn't realize what an amazing improviser he is. Anyway, he's too good at too many things.

How did the Shattering change how you made the show, or alternatively, how your improv had to evolve through it?

We all had to get expensive home rigs and get used to recording with a little delay. The upside is that it opened us up to having great guests not in Chicago. But it is harder. We used to record three or even four eps in a row in person during one long day and it was usually really social and energizing. Now, we usually do two zoom recordings at a time and we're a lot more exhausted when it's done. Also there's a lot more work that goes into finding out what recording equipment people have and if it's up to snuff. That eliminates some great guests that just don't have anything good. And sometimes we take a risk on a guest's equipment and it sounds bad and that leads to hours and hours of additional work and editing time for our wonderful hardworking editors.

Oh, AND... we quickly figured out that we could make our own audio set ups sound like they were in the same room but we kept the concept of recoridng "via Rune" up for quite a while longer becasue we just couldn't be sure what the audio quality of our guests would be. Eventually we just said "fuck it, lets pretend to be in one location and if the guests audio undercuts that illusion we'll figure something out."

Are there any plans to do another book club (not THE Book Club) episode? If so any ideas on what book?

We're WAY overdue to do a bookclub. We didn't do one in season three I don't think. I love doing it and I think it's kind of the best example of the strange possibilities of what our silly show can be.. so hopefully we'll do one next year. Not sure if we should do it in the main feed or on the Patreon. (Or some combo)
As for what book... I personally think we should avoid reading a fantasy book (which we get the most requests for) because it's most fun to have that disconnect of fantasy characters trying to understand an Earth book. I also personally like doing a piece of classic literature, but it could be fun to do some airport paperback thriller.

The book club episodes are some of my favorites! Some books I would love to tackle for future eps would be: Hitchhikers Guide, The Princess Bride, any Dan Brown, The Babysitters Club or if nothing else......a 20 part mini-series where we read and discuss The Bible.

Babysitters Club is a REALLY good idea.

We could probably fill a whole year of Patreon episodes with reading Babysitters Club books.

How are you?

1. As your friendly, neighborhood Unoffical Lore-idiot, is there anything you wish you guys knew more off hand/things that were better documented about your own show that I can fetch for you for the future and shortcut to the wiki?

2. Where is Kern/Lincoln/Tricia-8049 now?

3. Would you be interested to visit more dimensional worlds besides Mirror world, Cowboy, Future, or Kid Friendly? I still have my fingers crossed for Genderswap World.

Love the work you guys do! Thanks for helping me re-ignite some creative spark with the podcast.

Thank you for all the work you do on the wiki. It is immensely helpful. I always like being able to click on a character or location and get an info dump about them, which is usually the most useful thing when we're doing the show I can't remember things or want to prep for an episode.
2. Every year or so I think we should revisit Kern and the Tricia he's trapped with. But I don't know how many listeners would even remember that. And my guess is they're not doing too well.
3. I love doing the alternate realities and think we should do more although they're certainly more work. I think the show overall is a lot more work for a lot more people than most listeners would guess. But we will do more. I like expanding them but I really like wrangling them back into some position of importance. I feel like we're (way) overdue to revisit Cowboy World.

Is there one piece of established Foon lore that you wish you could take back?

I always find moments when we casually throw time travel into an episode as a joke sort of annoying because it breaks everything but I try not to worry about it too much.

Hey Arnie, Chunt, and Usidore! Long time fan of the show. Two quick questions:

1) With season 4 (great first episode btw) being produced independently and with the help of patreon, what is the end goal with the direction of the show? Also, can you speak a little more on this decision as a whole?

2) Now that the Dark Lord is dead will we see a long running story arch be introduced?

I'll avoid spoilers here but the vision for season 4 is to reset a little bit... to settle down (mostly) into a new location for a stretch and really start again from the beginning with letting the listener in on feeling every new brick go into place and feel impactful. Traveling around for a season was really exciting (and we will still jaunt off for adventures here and there) but it makes it difficult to build something so I'm excited about experimenting with digging into a new community. But all of Foon still exists, and big storylines will still return (I mean the thing you blocked out with spoilers is already a pretty complicated situation that we'll address a lot). It's kind of an attempt to have it both ways. Build a new local story and still have access to all 300+ episodes of our past mistakes.
And we have a very big thing we're slowly building to that's much bigger than the season 3 finale. The season 3 finale was supposed to happen earlier in season 3 but got delayed due to figuring out how to record in quarantine. There's a much bigger shoe left to drop.

Hello chaps, thanks for years of laughs - do you know when masters of mayhem might be coming to the patreon?

We're still chatting with Stitcher about what comes back to us and when. It's still in flux but the idea is for that stuff to make it to the Patreon before too long. (Stitcher has been really great in these talks so far by the way)

Are we getting another Chunt for Red October?

Unfortunatley not this year. Next year hopefully.

Have either of you accidentally introduced yourself IRL as your character?

No but I do get people in the outside world who will come up and rather than introduce themselves they'll say a Chunt phrase or line from an episode and I'm always wildly confused for like 10 seconds until I realize what they're doing. Once I leave the house I forget about any of my podcasting.

There was a period of time in the first few years when if someone at a convention or at a show or just out in the world wanted to engage with me as fictional Arnie, they would just sort of be mean to me. Or do a kind of jokey "you're worthless, huh?" And I know it was always (or usually?) an extension of wanting to be in on some perceived joke from the show, but I will say I'm glad I get a lot less of that now.

Who would win, Arnor or Krom?

They'd destroy a lot of stuff and both walk away claiming they won. But I suspect they'd both secretly feel bad that maybe they didn't really win.

Which of Usidore's titles is the most impressive?

Is there an episode that stands out to you as sort of a turning point for the show where you realized you were making something really special?

Grand master of light and shadow?

I really want to clarify if Talbot the Badger was played by Garret Shultz and if so, why “Tugs the Badger” is listed as the credits?

I have googled Tugs the Badger and get a bunch of (less entertaining than Chunt) talking Badger clips from an old UK children’s tv program. 😂 I want in on the joke I am missing.

Thanks for making one of my favorite podcasts!

I thought it would be funny to credit Talbot as being played by a real badger, like how movie bears have funny names in the credits sometimes. I named him Tugs after my brother-in-law's dog. I thought it was a funny name and I also know my brother-in-law likes the show a lot.

Hey Adal, i like 'Hey Riddle Riddle'. I haven't listened to this podcast. That's a weight off my chest, phew. How will my life change if I begin listening to Hello From The Magic Tavern?

I'll take this one. I encourage you to give Magic Tavern at least one episode's chance. Maybe you'll like it. Maybe not. But the AMA bylaws demand you now listen to one. Sorry. You can stop after that if you're not into it, it's okay. How will your life change? This AMA will probably make more sense.

Arnie, what's your favorite thing about Chunt and Usidore?

Matt, what's your favorite thing about Arnie (the character) and Chunt?

Adal, what's your favourite thing about Arnie (the character) and Usidore?

Usidore will always try to save you, no matter how dire. And Chunt will always make time to talk shit about someone with you behind their back.

Hi! How has success changed you (any of you) and how do you prevent crowds from swamping you in public?

I sometimes worry how this show will come off to my kid as she gets older and try to be as thoughtful around that as possible. That's most of it for me.

Can I be on the show? Hear me out... not only do I have no professional improv qualifications, I ALSO haven't even fully caught up to season 4 yet.

But, you know. Bing bong?

Probably not. That said... I bet 10% of our guests are ever fully caught up.