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 Welcome to Hello From the Magic Tavern! This is a fantastic improv comedy podcast. The premise is that Chicago resident Arnie Niekamp, married with a baby, fell through a portal behind a Burger King and landed in the magical land of Foon. Fortunately he had his podcasting equipment in his trunk and found refuge at the Vermilion Minotaur tavern, where he befriended the shapeshifter Chunt (played by Adal Rifai, usually in badger form) and the wizard Usidore (played by Matt Young) who are his regular co-hosts. It's worth tuning in for Usidore's bombast alone.  All of the cast members are improv veterans and it is wonderful to hear them build the in-universe lore week by week. They usually have a guest comedian playing a fantasy character such as sports commissioner Larry Birdman, Krom the Barbarian, and two giant eagles who keep saving Usidore at the last minute. If you're asking if it is strange that Arnie would spend so much time podcasting rather than trying to get home to his wife and newborn daughter... you'd be right, and Chunt gives him grief for his terrible priorities.  New listeners should definitely start at the first episode, and here are some of my favorites so far: Episode 4: The FML (They provide the rules to Foon's greatest sport: the Foon Mittens League) Episode 5: Foon's Greatest Swordman(Usidore's tale of battling small blue people is amazing) Episode 32: Offices & Bosses (Might be the best episode yet, I was laughing like a loon)  Links! Hello from the Magic Tavern homepage (Arnie insists that puppies.supplies is a real URL) Buzzfeed review with lots of fan art Write up in Chicago Reader: Behold! The off-the-wall, always-growing world of Hello From the Magic Tavern More fan art from McKilligan!: 
Hyrax Attack! fucked around with this message at 18:44 on Mar 25, 2016 |
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Jan 5, 2016 04:55
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Oh yeah it is similar to CBB, which is great too. I like that Magic Tavern has lesser known comedians as no one is plugging a new show or coasting on celebrity, and the continuing plot is awesome (I really like the intro/outro segments). Plus the half hour or so episodes make it much easier to binge.
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Jan 5, 2016 19:07
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Nemico posted:I want to make sure that the true URL for the website is in the op: puppies.supplies Hahaha I didn't know that puppies.supplies WAS a real site. Good catch, I added that to the op. Yeah, their callbacks to their own lore is one of the best parts! I like how Chunt's offhand random jokes become full episodes, like the Chunt for Red October.
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Jan 8, 2016 22:58
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rotinaj posted:I'm getting kinda sick of everybody being incredibly nasty and mean to Arnie, even though Arnie is pretty lovely at improv. I am just finishing episode 22, and they kinda kick him around ALL the time. Does this ever chill out? I enjoy that as part of the humor. I don't think the other actors are being jerks to the real Arnie, they tease the exaggerated fictional version of himself that fell through a portal. The angle developed as they established that Arnie left behind his wife and baby and didn't seem to be upset or working on a solution to get home. It's great when a new fantastical guest learns of Arnie's plight and calls him out on his warped priorities. The character of Arnie is not a good person, he mooched off Chunt until moving into the tavern's best room for free by tricking the bar owner into accepting a worthless trade (ads for the tavern that no one in Foon can hear.) Arnie refuses to work or make a serious effort to use his laptop to contact his family. He refuses to attend Chunt's Night for selfish reasons. As a source of humor this works great as it subverts the normal expectation that a visitor to a foreign land would use the tavern to gather a party to defeat the Dark Lord with the ultimate goal of earning his way home. Instead he is still in the tavern, not growing as a person or being any closer to accomplishing anything. I think (real) Arnie is a fine improviser, it's less obvious as the he's the straight man and the framing device is having other actors make up Foon lore for him. When he got to play "Can the Wizard" it showed he was great at making up backstories on the spot. Hyrax Attack! fucked around with this message at 03:01 on Jan 16, 2016 |
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Jan 16, 2016 02:58
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Arnie's quest to recover the magic sword from the dungeon is great, I like how he nearly became the first adventurer ever to lose to Klax the skeleton (even though Klax was letting him win), and then Arnie returned to the tavern to continue his training by eating five sandwiches.
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Jan 20, 2016 17:51
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Tatum Girlparts posted:If you like D&D and junk the magic tavern dudes did a crossover with One Shot, a great tabletop podcast that...well...plays one shot games of RPGs. They play a game set in 'Foon 16' a dimension similar but in no way related to Foon Prime of course using the Dungeon World system. One Shot is done by other Chicago improv people so spoiler alert it's mainly just them riffing on eachother with the occasional 'oh right we're playing a game we should roll dice' moments. Holy cow, good find! This is fantastic, I lost it when Usidore started using a soul gem. And when Arnold failed a charisma check to defend himself.
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Jan 29, 2016 04:51
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McKilligan posted:I drew that earlier this week, nice to see it popping up here too! That is fantastic, good work! I like all the attention to detail, with the goat, the coin imp, and the weird waiter. I added it to the first post.
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Jan 30, 2016 16:34
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Brocktoon posted:In the most recent episode, Arnie's realization of how much time he wasted on "Feline Zelig" when "Gas My Anus" was there the whole time was priceless. Hahaha yeah, his priorities remain terrible. The One Shot episodes are amazing, I liked how upon leaving the tavern Chunt's main goal is to murder Arnold. It's ridiculous how good they are at keeping track of details even in the alternate dimension. (Dark Master, Rainbow Cups, Spintax the Emerald...)
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Feb 4, 2016 16:59
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rembrant posted:Huh, I guess Magic Tavern is on Earwolf now- that explains the server move for the back episodes. I hope they're able to incorporate the ads naturally into the announcer's frame-story (but also hope this means they'll get some money for making a great show). Oh cool, I didn't know that. Earwolf seems to be pretty solid about handling non-CBB shows so they should be in good hands. Honestly I wouldn't mind if they dropped or greatly cut down the announcer story, it had some good moments but recently just drags and seems to be a low-grade improv team next to the humor of the main episode. It's not terrible but seems like a low energy riff that doesn't add much. The show got a good press this week in AV Club's Podmass, including Chunt getting mention in the quotes of the week.
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Mar 8, 2016 06:25
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There is a huge write up in the Chicago Reader about the show. Lots of cool background info, new art, and critical information about what went into creating Clacks the Skeleton:quote:But a great episode isn't contingent upon the guest being so well versed in the show, as evidenced by episode 41, "Skeleton," in which TJ Jagodowski (of iO's legendary weekly show TJ & Dave) plays Clacks the Skeleton. Jagodowski knew less about the world of Foon than many guests. Well worth a read!: Behold! The off-the-wall, always-growing world of Hello From the Magic Tavern Also, I saw on Twitter that Arnie and crew will be doing a live show at PAX East! This show is booming.
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Mar 25, 2016 18:40
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The main cast made an appearance on Comedy Bang Bang. Good stuff. I searched the podcast archives and found an older show, "Arnie Niekamp Presents". About an 8 year old podcast. Lots of regulars from Magic Tavern show up. I'm listening to an episode on Nightmare on Elm Street and pretty good so far.
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Dec 28, 2016 23:30
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