Matthew Jacobson

The Spectrum

There's one crucial thing you need to know about the podcast "Hello From the Magic Tavern," the show that follows a dimension-hopping host, a boisterous wizard and a talking badger: It's entirely made up on the fly.

And that, my friends, is why I enjoy it so much.

Chicago-based improvisers Arnie Niekamp, Matt Young and Adal Rifai have been performing together for years. Before they took a trip to a magical realm for their critically-acclaimed podcast, they made people laugh at iO Theater's "Whirled News Tonight." It's a comedy show that invites the audience to choose articles from newspapers, which the improvisers use to craft scenes.

In fact, Matt and Arnie have been improvising together for nearly a decade.

"We're improv married," Arnie says about Matt.

"And I'm their son!" quips Adal.

"We're doing a terrible job," adds Matt.

The history of 'Hello'

I've been playing email tag with the group for a while – they've got a lot on their plate, after all. But I was lucky enough to catch up with the trio via Facetime after their recent excursion to Emerald City Comicon in Seattle. It was during this call I got to find out about the history of "Hello From the Magic Tavern."

"I have this deep love of podcasts," Arnie tells me. "I've been listening to them forever. I had a couple of littler podcasts that have been kind of notable in Chicago, but not much beyond that."

With the success of films like "The Hobbit" and shows like "Game of Thrones," Arnie began toying with idea of setting a story in a place where he could interview magical creatures – a "high-concept podcast" that essentially boils down to a talk show hosted by an Earthling in a fantastical world akin to Middle-earth.

He brought the idea up to Adal, and the response was an enthusiastic, "Let's do it!"

"That was all the encouragement I needed," Arnie says. "I wanted to do it with Adal and Matt because they're so funny, and they would bring so much to it."

Adal tells me that in "Whirled News Tonight," he would often portray animals. If there was a cat in a story, for instance, he would "rush out to play that animal that would be, a lot of times, disrespecting Arnie."

So Adal opted to be an animal in "Magic Tavern," which, consequentially, disrespects the fictionalized version of Arnie on the podcast.

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"I decided to play a badger with the caveat of he shape shifts," Adal says. "So he has some wiggle room."

To help lend gravitas to the stories on "Magic Tavern," Matt opted to play a wizard who knew all about the magical realm and could corroborate any improvised facts.

"I chose to be Usidore because you feel like you want someone who's a pompous character who's also kind of foolish in their own ways," Matt tells me. "He's kind of like a sh---y Gandolf, and he helps the guests look good."

In "Hello," Arnie is trapped in the magical world of Foon after accidentally falling through a dimensional portal behind a Burger King in Chicago. He uses the WiFi signal from the Burger King on the other side of the rift to upload a weekly talk show where he interviews various fantastical creatures he meets – all of them improvisers, most of them from Chicago. Joining him each week are co-hosts Usidore the Wizard, played by Matt, and a shapeshifter who usually takes the form of a talking badger, brought to life by Adal.

I'm almost certain I can't print the name of Adal's character here, but feel free to look up the full cast and their characters at the podcast's website, hellofromthemagictavern.com.

Building the world of Foon

In the past 100 episodes, Arnie, Adal and Matt have helped create an astonishingly expansive universe with a history and rules that rival anything J. R. R. Tolkien has written, although the "Magic Tavern" universe is far more entertaining. Each episode features a new and often magical character, from talking flowers to unicorns to singing swords to puddles of sludge. Many of them recur with evolving story lines. But there's also a unifying theme to each episode, a longer plot that continues to develop each week. And while it appears on the surface to have been written, the guys make it absolutely clear that it's all improvised.

"The question we get dozens of times, and we can't stress this enough, is that 99 percent of the show is improvised," Adal says. "That's something that I think we're always wanting to let people know as much as possible."

Because of the improvisation, it's been the mistakes that have helped shape the world of Foon the most.

"That's one of the joys of improv, actually," Arnie says about the moments when they forget about a rule they've established and have to compensate for it. "It's remembering and re-contextualizing stuff. ... The same piece of information from a previous episode can be interesting and new in a new situation."

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An example of just such a re-contexualition, which will forever stick out in my memory, comes early on in the show. It's established at the beginning that Arnie's podcasting equipment is the only electrical accoutrements in the land of Foon. A few episodes later, though, the talking badger discusses a local open mic night. When Arnie points out that the badger made it clear there weren't any microphones in Foon in a previous episode, the talking badger clarifies that it's "open Mike night," where their friend Mike gets on stage and rips himself open.

Just recalling that moment has me laughing.

"It's best not to think of us as inconsistent," Matt says. "That thing that's inconsistent is also the thing that is true. All of this is true. ... If you make a mistake while weaving a basket, you just repeat that mistake so it becomes a part of the pattern. The same is true for improv."

"The best stuff comes from a mistake," Adal says.

"A weird moment of desperation," Matt adds.

Audience participation

My incredibly sub-par description does absolutely no service to the show itself. It's genius in its absurdity, peppered with pop culture references that seem to be more for the amusement of the improvisers than for the audience – a fact which makes the show all the more funny.

But probably one the best aspects of "Hello From the Magic Tavern" is the show's connection to its audience.

When I spoke with the group, they'd just finished a live taping of the show at Emerald City Comicon. Every once in a while, they'll do live episodes that are then available for download. It's clear, listening to the audience, that the fans are invested. The live shows almost seem to be akin to a screening of "Rocky Horror Picture Show," with audience members showing up in costume and even participating in callbacks during a certain segment of the show.

Although, I won't be able to confirm the accuracy of that comparison until I'm actually able to see a show live.

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Listeners are also able to connect via email (it's magictavern@puppies.supplies – and yes, that's the real email address), and the guys will read them on air. Fans are also able to mail Adal, Matt and Arnie physical objects, and they get a lot of stuff – from art to candy to clothes to what Adal describes as "straight-up trash."

At the heart of it, "Hello From the Magic Tavern" is truly a listener's podcast because the listener has so much ability to interact with the show.

Arnie, Adal and Matt are funny and they're genuine, and the world story they've created is an entertaining one to follow. That combination resonates with audiences.

Now let's lift a rainbow bowl to the next 100 episodes.. (You'll get the reference when you start listening to the show.)

You'll get the most from the show if you star listening from episode one. Subscribe to the show on iTunes, or check out the website at hellofromthemagictavern.com. "Hello From the Magic Tavern" is rated E for Explicit.

Follow Matthew on Twitter and Instagram, @MatthewJGeek; email him at MJacobson@TheSpectrum.com; call him at 435-674-6234.