Hello From The Magic Tavern - Bonus: Behind the Tavern – Brooke Breit and Rush Howell

Episode Date: November 15, 2019

This bonus episode from behind the paywall on Stitcher Premium, is a two-for-one! The cast continues their talk about the earliest episodes with Brooke Breit (Flower) and Rush Howell (Larry Birdman). CreditsArnie: Arnie NiekampChunt: Adal RifaiUsidore: Matt YoungBrooke/Flower: Brooke BreitRush/Larry Birdman: Rush HowellCraig: Ryan DiGiorgiProducers: Arnie Niekamp, Matt Young, and Adal RifaiPost-Production Coordination: Garrett SchultzEditor: Anna HavermannSpecial Assistance: Ryan DiGiorgiEarth Games Logo: Allard LabanTheme Music: Andy PolandYou can support the show directly and receive bonus episodes and rewards by joining our Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/magictavern for only $5 per month. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram, and now Patreon!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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And we're good. Hey again, Craig here, cyber attacking the main feed with another bonus transmission of behind the tavern. Behind the tavern is where the simulations, I mean actors and creators of Hello from the Magic Tavern, drop there on air personas and offer fascinating… Is that right? Fascinating? Okay. Insight into how episodes of this unique show are made. Normally, these episodes are exclusive to Stitcher Premium,

so if you like this one and want to hear more, along with past series, such as offices and bosses, earth games, and all the other awesome bonus stuff in the works, go to Stitcher Premium.com and sign up for a free premium trial with a promo code Magic. Now, enjoy this free bonus content. we, of course, have our show. We like to start this show as low energy as possible. We like to start the show with Matt doing his A&K style in person. Yeah. We're basically going through the early episodes,

talking to the people that were in them, sort of going through memories of what it was like, starting the podcast. We're very excited. Today, we're going to talk about the second recording session, the first two episodes we recorded together, and then when it was time to be like, hey, let's really do this podcast. We were reaching out to people that

we were really excited to have on. And episode three was- When did we stop doing that? Right after this. Everyone after, we just opened a phone book and stabbed at it. So we're going to talk to two people. But first, before anybody talks, I think what we should do for Brooke Bright, who plays Flower. I feel like Brooke, you should talk as Flower first before you talk to yourself. Okay, yeah, so, and I think originally, like FlowerCon came into her own as we went along, like the first Flower was, oh, you're a little bit more like... Oh, yeah.

And then I kind of forgot. And then Brooke, what is your real voice? And then my real voice is terribly shocking to people upsetting even. I get that. Yeah. Yeah, all the time. I've had so many people who say that they're fans

of the show describe what they think you look like as the exact opposite of what you are. Take that. It hit a million different ways. Yeah, that's right. So it's always funny to be like, no, she's a very tiny white woman. Yeah, they always say, I don't know.

I think flower is a giant electrified dinosaur. And they're also not wrong. You're all wrong. It's who you think you are. I know that when starting to make the character choice and by character choice I mean stupid fucking voice that it was, I literally thought like what's the dumbest thing I could sound like. So that's what it was.

Okay, I do mean next. Arnie, you processed air somewhat efficiently. Tell her, thank you. Thank you. I do. I do process there fairly efficiently. There's more you could be doing. The voice you did where you said that you used to sound like this was almost like a like a hey you guys you want a plastic bolt? Like, what is that, like, Brooklynite, like the girl that tries to be in the gang in West Side Stories? Oh, there you go.

And it's true, but anybody's, is that character's name? Anybody's? Yeah, really? Yeah, that's a true fact from West Side Story. People, when you ask us about like what goes into figuring out who should be on the podcast, a lot of it is honestly just trying to think about different energies or different types of things

where it's like, oh, we haven't had a real, hidey thing or we haven't had a real this or that. And I remember after the first couple episodes and when did that stop? That stopped right after this session. I remember when we were like, who should be our third guest? I was like, we should just have something fun and silly and high energy. And so, and that's why we should definitely have Brooke on.

Because we performed with you a bunch in world news, and you're just always like very fun and big energy. And, and we just sort of thought that that would be a great like next place to go with a podcast. I love that you thought it was good. I was going to bring a big fun energy. And instead I came in as a suicidal flower that ends up being thrown off a cliff

because I fist you off so much by the end of the episode. But that is its own big fun energy. That's the gift, that's the risk you take and the reward you reap. I do want a real quick, I actually want to attract a real quick listen to the episode. I want a real quick check Twitter on my phone. No, I looked up the email that I sent you

Oh God. About this email is from February 18th, 2015. Brook exclamation point. I'm starting a really weird podcast. I spelled weird wrong. And it seemed right up your alley. W-E-R-I-D. Whoa.

I put it in my own portion. And then I pretty much kind of set out what the premise of the show is. We're going to record a few episodes of Saturday. Can I hear what you put for the premise? Was it basically what you're interested in? I've fallen through a dimensional portal behind a Burger King and into a magical Narnia-esque world.

I host a weekly podcast from a tavern in that world, chatting with knights and monsters. There's a lot of typos in this and random royalty. So far, Adel has been a talking badger, young as a wizard. Waltine has been a prince pretending to be a common poor traveling actor. I'd love to have you on if you're interested. We're going to record a few episodes of Saturday

between noon and three. This is the kind of details people want. Would you be free to maybe be on one of them? And what would you want to be? And Brooke, do you remember what your other pitches were? I don't remember two of them. I remember the flower with a bad attitude. And then something about a lady of the lake.

The first one was lady of the lake, maybe super awkward, doesn't leave the lake much. Oh man, we gotta have that on. We gotta have that on. I mean. Oh. And then your second one was a super nasty and hateful talking flower.

And then your third one was insecure princess, possibly a drug problem. Honestly, with Lady of the Lake, like I love flower, I think we missed out on it. I feel like it doesn't get out much. Still time. I'm around. Do Lady of the Lake.

Let's do it. In my response, I was like, I like them all. The Princess won literally just because it was right after a Prince episode with Waltine. I did not, I didn't reference Lady of the Lake at all. So we fucked up. Yeah, because everybody hates flour. Do you remember when you recorded with us?

It was there like a mentality either coming in or leaving where you're like, oh, this is like weird. Or like, do you remember what that, what that session was like for you? I know for me, I was terrified of fucking up what you guys were doing because I didn't understand what we were doing.

So coming in, because it was very like, I don't know, it's like this thing and then you guys were so open of like, it could be whatever. And I was like, okay, well, I'm gonna come in strong. So the whole time it was like, I'm going to trust you kind of like, if you're, if you're fucking and there's a safe word, but like, so it's going to like, you're perfect analogy. Yeah. And go, okay, like too much. Mm, stop. And the fact that like, it was so joyful all the way through was like, oh, okay, like, this was, it truly

could be whatever it was going to be. It was so fun. And honestly, one of the things I hear or read the most when people talk about the podcast is they're sort of like, oh, when I heard episode three with flower, that's what I knew I had to keep listening to the podcast. They're actually I take that wall team. That's the funny thing though. I also try to say that about Russia's episode I think the mid and zepso for a lot of people is like is also that I think sometimes it's like episode 10

Where we first like really do the bunker the space bunker? I think there are a few in that first run of like 10 or 12 that people are like That's the one that clicked for me and it's not always the same one I feel like I can say the first episode and there's specifically one Joe the fingering this it's not always the same one. I feel like I hear- I feel like I hear- I feel like I hear- I feel like I hear- I feel like I hear- I feel like I hear-

Mostly from second episode on people like get past the first episode and to me it's so funny because like on social media people will be like- The first episode is a little rough and then they find their footing and it's like, yes, the fucking first episode. It's like, the first episode's a little rough, and then they find their footing, and it's like, yeah, it's the fucking first episode. It's like, what do you want? We're just figuring it out, but they're always like, yeah, first episode, which is like all of 18 minutes or something. Rush, I sent you, I realized, almost an identical email.

Honestly, I might have copied and pasted it. So this is Rush Howell from episode four. Please Larry Birdman. Larry Birdman. Let's hear Larry Birdman's voice. That's just basically my voice. And now Rush's voice? Yeah, I wouldn't say there's much difference.

Now Rush, what voice would you use if you were an angry flower? I'm an angry flower. I'm going to get you. I should have gone with that lady of the lich. Or to put a deep filter on that. When I emailed Rush, Rush responded, sure, sounds great.

First thought is, I'm a common poor traveling actor pretending to be a prince, but I'll see if I can come up with something better. LAUGHTER Take that, Waltine. Other thought is, I can dunk on you. Some sort of absurd sport invented by the author of this Narnia-esque tale,

and the rules of the sport suck make no sense I'm really frustrated by it That worked out. That's where we ended up. Yeah, one of the ways that we are Really opposite people is that you remember things and numbers And also height and it can also hide it always amazes me. Like I'm sure some of the rules of Mittens you had originally, like before you came in, but it also seemed like you were throwing out numbers and actually remembering them in a way

that most improvisers can't do. Yeah, I did not have any of the rules planned out, which was a mistake, like I probably should have done that. Unlike most people, when we came in and recorded our first, you couldn't even listen to an episode, right? So we knew the premise, but that was kind of hard to, you know, totally understand like where it would go or how it would work. And so all I knew that was that I, I mean, I love Harry Potter, but I think Quidditch is just so stupid. Yeah. And it cracks me up when like JK Rowling defends it.

You know, it means it's like a nonsensical game where like the snitch is all that matters. Yeah. And then, you know, there can be like perverse incentives in Quidditch where your team is trailing by more than it would, you know, catching the snitch ends the game, but you would still lose. Yeah. So it's like, what if the game, it's like, you know, it doesn't make sense. And so that was really all I had in mind.

And then I was suddenly having to like describe the rules of the game. I'm just kind of got lucky that I didn't say anything that was, that couldn't work. Yeah. And but it was really just like, for two and a half minutes, we made up the stupid rules of it. And I knew, the one thing I knew was there would be one scoring thing that just ruined the game for Larry Birdman, and he would just hate it, because he himself had been a great player prior to the advent of that rule.

So let's put it this way. You're on a field. It's about 2,000 yards long between 2,000 and 2007, depending on which of the fields you play on. It's about nine yards wide, so very narrow field. Each team is comprised of 31 individuals. You have a baskin, you have what we call a quarter back which you won't understand. There's a baskin, there's 19 hilsmen's, and then there's 10 what we call misalinius. And the misalinius, they can do all sorts of... Right, misalinius? Yes. Misalinius. There's 10 of them, There's 19 Hillsman. Okay, you have a Baskin, 19 Hillsman. Okay, ten Missilinus and then the quarterback. The quarterback? The Missilinus just do assorted things? No, all of the other people do. The Missilinus have one specific task that's very specific. The Missilinus are there to basically distract and try to assist the

baskin in performing the baskin task. And what is the baskin task? Now, the goal of the baskin is to get the potted flower from one end of the pitch, we call it the pitch, to the other end of the pitch. And if the baskin takes a potted flower across 2,000 yards and gets it to the other end, that is one point. Now my principal problem with the game is if a bird comes near the field and you catch it, that's 700 points. That's a lot of... that seems like a lot of...

Did it invent the rules? Don't like that rule. It seems like the team that catches a bird always wins. But it is exciting. This is another in a series of me not getting a joke until much later. Was calling it the FML is that intentionally a fuck my life thing? Yeah, that's why. I didn't get that for a while. Was Mittens derived from anything? I did know before I went in that would be the name and I just wanted like the stupidest

like kind of non-sport like type name that you could come up with would just be like, well, you know, this is a game. Oh, you know what I think? Maybe I was like, I want the acronym to be FML, and so I needed a stupid word that started with him. This is a very cozy, adorable word that seems that doesn't like. Yeah.

Now, Rush, the other thing I think part of what makes you such a natural for this character and this premise is you are, to say that you're like a sports fan is to put it lightly like you participate in one of the craziest Fantasy and inventive fantasy sports leagues. I've ever heard of yeah Yeah, yeah, so I started a thing called the all sports fantasy league and I waste a lot of time Excuse me think about sport my dad was sports agent I know your dad was a super successful Basketball coach. You went the other way whereas I was I was super into sports like We're dead managed

Mark Price, right? Yeah, that was like his first big basketball client and Emmett Smith and some other people like Oh, I didn't know I'm a Smith. Yeah, so he was a sports agent for many years and Yeah, so I'm I mean, yeah, definitely a huge sports fan. Do you mind talking a little bit about the fantasy the all fantasy sports league? No, sure it's like I said it I started it now we're in our 12th season and it's 10 sports and it goes all year round so I mean it really is it's it's stupidly complex it's mittens exactly I think the rules all work with that. Can you, can you list the sports? I know it's like golf and tennis and.

Yeah, so it's like the four pro sports, plus college football and college basketball and then golf, tennis, European soccer and NASCAR. So we wanted to have 10 sports. And you draft like teams and some sports and then individual players and others, right? Yeah, so just NASCAR golf and tennis, you would pick the players.

But so the thought was that, you know, in fantasy football, I don't like how I own the quarterback, but he throws the pass and I own one of the receivers and my opponent owns the other one. So it's not even like, I don't know whether I'm cheering for completion or not. And it's more fun to just be like, I own the field of eagles. I know what I'm cheering for.

Like I want the eagles to win. And so in order to do that, I had to combine a bunch of sports. It actually kind of came up because I mean, huge, huge, huge, Roger Federer fan. And I wanted to be able to do a tennis fantasy league. I didn't think you could really do one unless you married in a bunch of other sports. And I just had this like kind of epiphany one day where I came up with most of the league in about like three or four hours and most of the rules and then got a bunch of people and surprisingly they wanted to do it and we've been doing it for years and years since but it's like the world's dumbest waste of time that I love it.

At what point were you like you know what I think this can work but I'm gonna have to include NASCAR. Yeah you know that's like the like the, that's the controversy, right? It's like a lot of people wouldn't want it in there. There are a few reasons why having 10 sports works. At that time though, like NASCAR was the second most popular sport behind football in the US under certain metrics. And I didn't really know anything about NASCAR. Now I know a lot about NASCAR and I don't think that's like enhanced my life in any way.

So, um, I mean, I wouldn't totally be opposed to taking it out. But what I like now is you have four pro sports, three individual sports, and then three what we call limitless sports because there's so many teams available in couch football, couch basketball, and soccer. And those are divided up and you try to win. You can win a bonus if you win all the individual sports. So taking NASCAR out would have ramifications. And there a game you ever played Tigris and Euphrates, you've never played that board game, probably not. I know of it. It has a scoring system

that I thought was cool where you win that game, you compete in four different categories and the winner of the game is whoever does the best in their worst category. So if my score is 7, 7, 6, and 7, I would beat you if your score is 10, 10, 1, and 10 because all you count is your worst score. So in the All Sports Fantasy League, my favorite rule in it is there's something called the balance bonus where you get a lot of extra points if you have the best score in your worst sport. And so taking NASCAR out would kind of mess that up too. So anyway, that's more than anyone wants to hear. I know, that's super cool. That's really awesome. I would like to, and for Rush and Brooke, I know like Rush

for three years now, maybe around three years, Rush DMs a D&D game that I'm a part of, which I consider if that D&D game was a podcast, I think it would be one of the funniest D&D podcasts ever made. That's how good a job Rush does. And I'll say think it would be one of the funniest D&D podcasts ever made. That's how good a job rushed us. And I'll say one of my biggest regrets of the last couple of years that I, of all the things like I did not have time to do, I remember you asking me when you started it.

If I could play, I was like, I know I'm going to regret this. I know I'm going to regret not playing in this game. And I don't like, it's not out of a deep desire to play Dungeons and Dragons. It's just knowing that it would have been fun. It would have been super fun. Yeah, it's like what I look forward to the most every week. But after doing this podcast probably. So I was going to ask like with Rush and like I know like your D&D background like I know

what you what you read and everything and and Brooke I have no idea how big into like fantasy or are the two of you in terms of, do you consume a lot of that? Is that something you had a filter in your head for or any sort of stock ideas? I know for me, I like growing up, I loved fantasy. I was a big wrinkle in time fan, and I think the one video that I would force

my parents to rent from Blockbuster every week was the never ending story. So you made it a never ending story. I did truly made it a never ending story. Um, but yeah, there's elements of that. And I love those kinds of things. And I'm really into a little show called The Magicians right now, uh, which is fantastic.

Yeah, I read the books. But I read the first two books and I think that was one of the things rumbling around in the back of my head when we were thinking about starting this podcast, especially near the end of that first book when they end up in filery, I think, is the name of the show has just gone in totally. I like, and it kind of, again, mirrors what we do, I believe, in a way, if there's like a little bit of self-awareness, but then also just huge jumps and not afraid to make big moves and all that kind of stuff. Yeah, I love that.

I mean, but beyond that, like, yeah, I'm fine with fantasy. It is funny that, like, you kind of play a character that you don't need any knowledge of fantasy, which is the way I like to group myself. Yeah. And, you know, some of our, like, most beloved by fans and ourselves characters are people who are like, I'm not in fantasy, I don't want to play a talking something or other. But also, you do. Like, you, I mean, I know we share a lot of the same TV interests, good and bad.

Yes. And like, you're really into weird fantasy and side-by. You're talking about big brother. Well, I'm also big brother. Well, I like big brother. I love it. Okay. I want a big brother replace NASCAR.

Yeah, I would not be against that. That, I mean, that would be so great. Because how many people are in the all fantasy fantasy league? The all sports fantasy league, we have 15 teams, which is probably close to 30 people, because most most teams have two people, because it again goes year-round. If you had to guess what percentage of them

would be furious if you took out something and replaced it with Big Brother. Oh, and all of them. Yeah, everyone. Yeah, everyone. I do think you could have an all TV fantasy league, because like again, Big Brother, you can't make all TV fantasy league. Because again, big brother, you can't make a good fantasy game off big brother

because if you have a 10 person draft, whatever, each person gets one person, maybe two, and then your person goes out and it's not fun anymore. But if you've got 12 different shows that are all part of it, you know, so that was kind of the concept. Here's what we do. We start a new podcast that's basically fantasy big brother in terms of like it's all weird creatures at a big brother house. And that's

the podcast every episode's an hour. And it's just the shenanigans that happen in the house as one by one they vote each other out. Have I ever told you guys, I mean, I mean, so maybe I've told you guys that for a long time I thought we should do an episode where spin-taxes on Big Brother You did say that you mentioned that yeah, and I feel like I even like it's not crazy that we could get some big brother People to be on. Oh my god. Let's do it. I mean a lot of work put together But I still think that we're very great One of the downsides is that Charlie has never seen a second. A big brother, which makes it even better. I think that's better.

I think the less, and that goes back to the whole like, the less you're thinking about it and the more you're actually just trying to respond to what's happening. Yeah. I think that'd be good for him. Can I just go back to rush what, like, how well versed you are in fantasy in terms of? Have you always played D&D? Have you, like, since a kid kind of thing? No.

I always, I loved the advanced Dungeons & Dragons, like Gold Box computer games. I loved video games as a kid. And so I would play those, and that was my introduction into D&D. I think when I was a kid, I would have been like, well, I don't want D&D is not cool.

I don't want to do that. Superb of a cool boy. Yeah, yeah. So I just played on my computer instead. Super cool. But there was like a stigma. And so I didn't really play until after college. And then I have had a couple chances too. But I always liked fantasy games were like my favorite, like classic RPG games. And then in college, I took took a class a religion class that was like fantasy literature and I love that class and that was I had not read the Lord of the Rings until college and and just thought that was terrific and then you know I I probably read like one fantasy series a year so I'm not like I don't imbibe like everything that's

out there but but I. I see a name of the wind on your kitchen counter. Sure, I read that and I've read the magicians, I've read, like I said, I probably do like one series a year. And then like I kind of gave up on the Robert Jordan stuff, but that was, I really enjoyed that for a whole summer. I like that you're like, I'm not a big fantasy person, but I only read about three to 12 fantasy

parts a year. Right, no, I mean, I love it. I'm over here like books. Books do what? And I know, not to, this isn't putting it on blast or anything, but rush is fuck you. But rush is a coward in a fuck face. Rush is a lawyer full time.

Right. Just because I'm curious, in your day to day as a lawyer, the two of you are two of the funniest humans I've ever met in my life. It's fascinating that you're a like in your day to day as a lawyer the two of you are two of the funniest humans I've ever met in my life It's fascinating that you're a lawyer for your day job. There's some dogs you've met that are a lot fun Do you use improv at all in your work? Because I know you like you we talked about how you remember all the rules of mittens like your your brain is like a steel trap Like do you use that to your advantage as in your profession?

I think that there are significant advantages to having done all the improv that I did in, in my job, because I'm a trial lawyer. I'm on my feet of fair amount, I try fair amount of cases. And obviously, like legal writing and legal preparation for an argument is totally different than improv. It couldn't be more opposite, right? Because if I'm going up for an argument, I've read tons of cases, I've memorized a ton of stuff, and I know exactly what I plan to say,

but then improv really helps, I think, in two ways. The first is I'm just much more comfortable than the average lawyer, just because it's like the Malcolm Gladwell stuff, right? Like I've had the thousands of hours on my feet in front of an audience, having things go badly and having to figure out how to respond. Also, you just learn how to read an audience.

And so hopefully I'm decent at being able to tell when a judge is buying an argument, when he's not laughing. What is not laughing? You know, or we turn it on. Yeah, or if he or she's getting higher, it's not. You know, we're getting any of my bits. Right. And after a case, you ever like, I don't know.

I really felt like I panned her to that nature. These summations could be a lot more physical. Right. Right. Yeah. We give notes to each other right afterwards for a while, but more evidence work. Right. But the other, I mean, the other aspect of it is, it is better if you can tank on your feet.

And a lot of young lawyers are great if they don't get asked any questions that they weren't anticipating, right? If they can just go up and give their 30-minute presentation, exactly how they had it, they kill it. But if the judge says, yeah, no, I got it, I read your brief, but my question is this, there's a lot of freezing and you see people struggle with that sometimes.

So I think I had a significant advantage from improv and then I certainly don't try to overdo this, right? But I do try to use a little bit of humor in order to build a rapport with the judge or the jury over the course of a trial as well. So you don't want to be the guy doing you know a joke every hour, but if you can do one or two things where they'll remember it, then that's a good way of humanizing yourself in there and maybe even helping with your witness so that the jury will be like, oh right, that was that guy. He did that thing because they remember kind of strange things. Can you give us a taste of as accurate as you can muster a rush-howl court humor moment?

I mean, I could, but you know, I had a guy that works with me, like one of my partners, and he was like, you know, I told that joke that you told him in the court and it just didn't go that well. And I was like, right, that's because it's like context. You know, a moment. Yeah, so fuck that guy. I don't know, he's a good guy. He's a good guy.

But I was like, well, also you're not funny, but no, but. Oh, yeah, was it Steve Walteam? Yeah, it was Walteam. Take that Walteam. Take it. It's like first. I also told you're not a lawyer, Steve.

Why were you even doing that, man? I also don't want to put Brooke on blast, but she cannot hold a job. What did I just saw commercial years, Guy Co? Yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah, it was a good one. Oh, thank you. How much can I lose?

Yeah, it's all for shopping for a yard sale. Look, I want to hear this legal joke. Ah, even if we don't get it. While you're thinking of that from both of you, how often have you been on the set of a commercial? Rush, how often have you been in court in a judge or another actor's like magic tavern? That was a joke.

No. Cause nobody knows who I am. Yeah. Although not to kind of like pimp you into a story. Also, please always set up every single thing that you guys are saying with not to put you on the spot. Not to do it. Just do it.

Not to interviewee, though. But it is harder when we're ourselves and we're just not like we don't have, we can't hide behind the thin veil of being like, my characters, just the fucking weird of dumb dumb. Not to like exaggerate our success, which I think people maybe think is more than it is, but I remember like when the podcast first started

to kind of rumble into some public consciousness, at least in Chicago, I feel like flower was definitely something that people were really excited about and talked about, and I swear I heard a story about you. Do you know what I'm talking about? Yeah, I had an audition one time where it was for some cartoon show that would have been on a cartoon network or something. And they asked, they were like, oh, we specifically asked for you

because we want you to do that voice. And it was like the flower. They want a flower type for this part, which I believe was a tree stump. It was like, I know. We ripped off flower. We ripped off flower. It's a tree stump.

Yeah, it was just totally different. It was a really bizarre show. And then, of course, in a classic move of my life, did the audition and then never heard a goddamn thing. So I was like, is it okay? Nope. Great. Okay. I know that Joy Romaine who played the trans-dimensional delivery man at the first 30 episodes. So funny. He told me he lives out in L.A. and he told me he auditioned for an HBO show and that he auditioned and it went pretty good. And then after he was done, he started to leave and the casting director was like for HBO.

It was like, sorry, before you leave, I'm so sorry to ask you this. This is so weird. Are you the trans-dimensional delivery man? And he's like, oh my god, yeah. And she was like, sorry, before you leave, I'm so sorry to ask you this, this is so weird. Are you the transdimensional delivery man? And he's like, oh my god, yeah. And she's like, would you mind my husband and I are big magic type of fans? Would you, I think she had him take a picture or record something or I can't remember what it was, but he called me freaking out being like,

that was the coolest. And I'm like, did you get the thing? And he's like, no. The only time that it really ever happens to me is usually if I'm at a convention for something, usually for work, and it's when I'm talking to somebody and someone here's my voice walking by. But beyond that, really never accept, I have a handful of times had someone come over and

be like, excuse me, are you on the knee camp? And it's always in a fast food run. Yeah. And I'm always just like, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, I don't know. And they're like, I know your voice. I'm like, I don't know, dude. I always take it the wrong way where I'm like, get out my office and stuff. You take something the wrong way? Yeah, exactly. And then they're like, are you T.D. Magic Tavern? And I've had it in New Orleans. I was calling for an escape room to make a reservation.

And I made the reservation at the very end of the call. He goes, great, so you're all set for 8 p.m. Is this out of reply from Hello from Magic Tavern? I'm like, yes, yes. Wow, I guess, good. I feel like Arnie gets recognized by sight. I get recognized by voice, and Matt doesn't get recognized,

because he doesn't sound like. Nobody gives a single shit about anything I ever do. No, people care about you, but they just don't recognize your voice. Yeah, no, I've never, yeah. I didn't mean that you can, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,'t take it that way at all. No, no, it's just funny. I've never had the experience of even like that audition thing.

It appears like not be part of my life. This is, I will tell an embarrassing story about myself. I went to shoot a commercial up in Minneapolis and it was early on in the success of the podcast and I was letting it go to my head just enough that when I showed up on set, the other person who was in the commercial with me, we're just sort of like chatting and getting ready in the morning.

And I was like, well, I'm on this show. I love the match hour in the podcast, pretty popular. And then this person was like, oh, cool. Well, I write Disney cartoons and I, and it was like listed off his resume that was like a thousand times more impressive than mine. I was like, ah, cool. Well, I know my place is still nowhere. Uh, one of the funny, and I also, Brook and Rush, thank you for coming in to listen to our stories. I'm enjoying it. I, one of my favorites. I was on the red line in Chicago, and I was wearing a Yusudor T-shirt.

And this guy, I just saw this guy looking at it, and looking at it, and finally he said, like, hey, what's a story with that shirt? And as well, those things are like, oh, what is even, I didn't even want a bother. And they started like, this is gonna be a long cascade of explaining thing. This looked like a person that probably didn't even like, I was like, oh god, I'm going to

probably have to explain what a podcast is. Period. Let alone like the premise of this thing. So I kind of gave like an abbreviated thing. Like literally there was a minute of being like, yeah, yes, it's sort of like a radio, but you can listen to it whenever. And then yeah, and this is a character and this is a long thing that he says, and the guy very like, that man, John, can you say? You sort of smiling and nodding. And then he said, okay. Would you mind if I told you a little about Jesus Christ?

Oh, no. That was his end. Oh yeah, I mean, it's his end. It's just like something on a t-shirt. Right, who's asking about your shirt? Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Rush, you ready with a sweet, sweet's asking about your shirt? Yeah, exactly. Rush, you ready with a sweet, sweet lawyer joke? Well, I'll tell you, hopefully you'll cut it for time.

But I remember I had a witness and it was important that the judge kind of like him, because he was going to do an important part of this, you know, the testimony that we needed. And he had told me his story, his last name was Hooper, and he told me a story about how he really hates to be called Hopper. And it was kind of a weird story because he was like a cop pulled him over and said, all right, Mr. Hopper, and he was like, my name is Hooper.

And he was like, really gave it to the cop. And I was like, that's a wrong time to stay in the guy on right stand on your, so I get up there and I'm just about to introduce him to the court and I don't know why I did this, but I just said, your honor, this is Mr. Hooper, he's with the firm that he's with, and then I just stop for a second and said, you know, I'll be careful not to call him Mr. Hopper because he hates that, he told me.

In fact, he said one time, you got pulled over by a policeman who called him Mr. Hopper and he got furious and said, my name is Hooper, it's not Hopper, don't get that wrong. You know, the judge kind of smiled a little bit. You know, like the way that when you're doing an improv show, you know that like, you've just bought enough leash to then do a joke and it'll work. So I said, just making it up on the spot, I go, yeah. And the policeman turned around and said, hey, that's no problem. I mean, I get pretty mad if somebody called me a state tropper.

And I hadn't planned to say. And most jokes in the courtroom are like self-deprecating, obvious like pandering. And they get like, ha, ha. But that one like everyone cracked up. Like the judge cracked up, even the witness. And then all also so all the sudden I had accomplished like what I wanted to not that that really mattered but I didn't think it leastedly got everybody focused and relaxed relaxed and then the witness did like a terrific job and I sat back down and the partner is kind

of my mentor who I've worked with for years and years we got to a break and he's like I mean that was hilarious but I cannot believe you did not run that joke by me that you were gonna take. Because it's pretty aggressive to do like a full joke in the courtroom, right? It's a full set up punchline hypothetical grime. Very rare that you were seeing that. And he was like, why didn't you run that by me?

And I was like, oh, I had no plans to do that. But that's like the imbra, right? So you could just, I mean, you know how it is. Like you can just sometimes feel that you have the right leash and the atmosphere is just right to be able to pull off that joke. I mean, it's not a good joke, right? It's like a stupid half pun.

But you know. But you've earned the goodwill. Yeah, yeah, and I think again, it's like, you know, you watch the improv show or we all hate hearing about, right? It's like the satirate Live when people are like, my favorite is when they break. I just love when they break.

And, but it was that kind of thing where, you know, people laugh more when you can tell that the person is just thought of the thing and is kind of amusing themselves with it. So that was one moment that I remember. I have one that went like very poorly. Oh. Much earlier in my career.

And that's the only time I've ever had one that I was like, whoops, you know, dial that one back. But for the most part, you know, I try to use it very sparingly, certainly no more than once a day in like a six hour court day, but just enough to where the, hopefully the judge will like me a little bit more if he or she is a, you know, comedy fan. I do love the idea though if you drop that joke, the state tropper one and then just was like, your witness, like, just like Donnie McFash to that joke killed and sorry.

Drop the mic. Yeah, grab the gavel and drop it. Grab the gavel and drop it. Or you just do a weird sweep out of it across the line. Moonwalk. No questions. No questions. No questions. You know what this is?

A broke a time you were in court. A time I was in court. I will tell a story of winning over my father-in-law with a bad joke. Yes, please. So my husband is Jewish and I did not grow up Jewish and went when we were dating, you know, but getting serious went to a three hour Rochishana service with his family. And like in the middle of it, you know,

I just, in my head was like, oh, man, I got a good joke. I'm gonna do this and I just met his parents and I turned over and I said, excuse me to his father and I was like, would you ask me if I'm enjoying services? And he said, okay, are you enjoying services? And I said, hmm, so far. Which, if you're Jewish, it will kill. He laughed really hard, but then made me repeat that joke

to every family member for the next following week, which, as you would imagine, did not go for as well, you know. Oh, and again, this is gonna to get cut for time for sure. But since we've already done a bunch of Steve Waltean hating, that makes me think of one of my favorite Steve Waltean has many great stories. But one of my favorites, he had a friend who is not in comedy, but really enjoys comedy, right? And this friend went to a movie like, I don't remember the movie,

but let's just call it Iron Man. That's not what it was, but it was a similar, like a huge movie that had just come out. We can all agree. Right, we can all pretend it was Iron Man. I might have been Iron Man too. No, he said huge movie. So this guy is at the movie Pact Theater.

And for some reason, it just, who knows why, it comes over him to like yell a joke at the screen at a moment when everything has kind of gone quiet like a guy says something and he has like a witty rejoinder to it and for whatever reason he says it loudly and the theater like who knows why exactly the timing and everything the theater loves it like as opposed to what you would normally think they crack up and he gets this like you you know, this huge laugh. And so that guy proceeded to buy a ticket. So that same movie, like four or five more times. Oh no, four or five.

To enjoy, because again, it's not something that he did. You know, he didn't, he didn't show his or anything. So it was his way of enjoying that like feeling of just having a joke kill. And he knew it would work and sure enough, played each time. I don't know. Saying the same series of words over and over again

for last, I don't, I can't wait to that. That guy is fucking brilliant. That's so good. That's so funny. Is it attributed to you, Arnie? And I've attributed to Jordan Klepper. In the improv community, there's a story where somebody had a friend who went to a bar.

They got drunk. They went to the bathroom. Oh, I think that, yeah, that's me. They got drunk and they got sick. So this person went into the bathroom of this bar, shoved open the stall door to puke. They shoved open the stall door, got down their knees and barfed, looked up and they had barfed in a guy's lap

who was sitting on the toilet. Oh, this is me. But I got one like this. They buckle up with some of the, they got, so they barfed in this person's lap, they look up, and in their head they're like, I just barfed in this guy's lap while he's taking a shit. I'm gonna get my ass kicked.

So then the person punches the guy in the face on the toilet and knocks him out and then leaves. So the guy wakes up having, having experienced a guy burst into the stall, puke on his lap and then knock him out. Oh wow. No, that's the most. And that guy then went to bars. Like, did that every time? That same thing. Because he was like, oh, it was an amazing feeling. Who do you, here's my question. But it could be those two people who has a better story. Wait, you think that happened to Arnie or Jordan?

I've heard it or it's a story like since I was a student in classes in 2007. I've heard that story and I always heard that it was a friend of Jordan Cleppers, but then I told it in a car ride to a haunted house two years ago. And somebody said, oh, that's her knee cam. But I said, it's a Jordan Clepper story. And then somebody goes, no, that's Ernie Neckamp's. So that was me. But I said, it's a Jordan Clepper story and then somebody goes, no, that's an Ernie Neckamp story. It's Jordan punched Arnie. Yeah. Yeah.

I believe it. But I'm like, I'm friends with Arnie. I would have heard that story if it was an Arnie story. It's a friend of that person. Yeah. Not the actual person. Most of my crazy stories are like, either a my friend or a friend of mine told me this story. At first I thought you were going to talk about a story that I remember hearing in college

about a guy shitting his pants at a bar and going into the bathroom to get rid of like his underwear or whatever. I was like his pants. No one will know. I hear his pants. And as he was leaving, the bouncer came in and saw it. his underwear or whatever. I was like his pants. No one will know. I hear his pants. And as he was leaving, the bouncer came in and saw it and like came back out to yell before the guy left like,

hey, stop, that guy shit his pants and put the underwear in the toilet. He tried to throw it out, thinking no one would know. And his friends rallied to him in that moment and they're like, you gotta turn this around, and they just picked him up and started peritting him around the bar going, shit, his pants, shit, his pants, shit, his pants.

And it apparently it worked. Everybody was into it. Everybody lost an underdog. Yeah. This has been behind the tent. I think we've answered all the questions people might have had about those first two episodes. Really tough.

We really got deep into it. The room was different. We were in the room at the same time. Yeah, the street has right designed. We get to record here at the cards against humanity, shared office space. The memory that I have of that was Arnie could not get the opening right. Because it was like that changing time. That can tell you.

Well, it must have been, it was like 13 or 14 times. Because it was, you know, it's complicated. Yeah. And you hadn't done it that many times yet. But it was just like, take after take after take. And I thought, oh, is it gonna take like four hours for us to get through? Like, where we have to hit this thing and then instead it got rolling. I remember that took, that was like 80 episodes

that you would repeat it four or five times. I also, around 80 episodes, maybe a 75, was one of the funniest things I've ever seen in my life. Ryan told Arnie, Ryan, our audio engineer, told Arnie to clap in front of the mic. So he's like, let me get a sound test. Could you clap in front of the mic? And he's like, let me get a sound test. Could you clap in front of the mic? And Arnie went to clap and missed, right?

I think so. Like somehow he just went to clap and his hands missed. And it's like, how do you miss a clap? Guys, I'm not sure. And I just remember crying, laughing, being like, this is the funniest thing I've ever seen in my life. Well, I don't remember. I was concentrating.

It was very confusing to me. I don't know why. I'm not so different than my character after all. Thin veil. It helped when I started actually saying it the same more or less every time, instead of trying to keep it short, beginning in the important details,

but sort of still trying to let it be spontaneous for a while. I guess the only detail from the first two episodes that's worth putting out is we mentioned the email address for the first time, Magic Tavern at puppies.supplies and me and Ryan to Georgie and Evan Jacoba were trying to figure out what the funniest slash cheapest dumb email address domain we could get for that and we we kind of came up with puppies that supplies. Still our number one email is a few times a day, we get an email to the puppies that supplies

that just says is a surreal email. We get a lot. So you can tell when we have new listeners we're just like that several times a week. Yeah. Do you write back no? I've been recently thinking about the fact that I have started to feel bad

that I have never once responded to an email from the thing. Really? Yeah. Well, I mean, maybe I've responded to a very, very small amount if it was a very significant thing or a special circumstance or something or someone reaching out about wanting to advertise on the show. But it's sort of like starting this dialogue as this fictional quasi-fictional character, and it just sort of seemed like if I answer some,

then I'm deciding which one's to answer. Someone pointed out recently I should set up an auto reply, which I probably should do, wouldn't be that hard. But this is like, could not be a more boring detail. And he had I choose to share it. I was really invested in setting up that we had the email and then responding, but I knew that that would take a while. So in the first episode, we recorded with Brooke, we mentioned the email address for the first time. And then minutes later,

we recorded the one with Rush, but I had asked some people to give me what would be their email. They weren't fake emails, but I gave them like audio of the first two episodes and just asked them if they would have something. So the Matt Demarco email from the fourth episode was that. Now we know. Pretty interesting. That's what they call them the business.

The shit. A Matt Demarco. All right, it is incredibly late and we all are adults who should be asleep, I know. Lady of the lake, it was so great to have you. Oh, wait for it. I mean, what would the Lady of the lake's voice be? Oh, God.

Give me a second, let us tell a story while I think. I got one more movie theater story. That's a good one. Oh, no, I gotta hear it. No, that's right. And then after the story's done, how does the Lady of the lake respond? Do you want me to say goodnight to everybody? Yes.

The lady in the lake? I went to Wally. Wally's a Pixar movie, obviously, and the Pixar movies have Easter eggs. At the end, and it was freezing cold. It was like Chicago in February, probably freezing cold. And it was packed. It was opening night for Wally. And at the end of the movie, every single person

stays in their chair because we all know something's coming at the end, some Easter egg. And the only people that get up are these two women on the center of the third row and they have multiple coats and purses and stuff so it's taking them a long time to get into their gear. And they stand up and this one woman just goes, damn, if that robot can fall in love, you know I can. And the whole theater just clapped. The whole theater just clapped and clapped.

And that was, that to me was the best Easter egg I ever got. And that woman just immediately went and bought five more tickets to that movie. That's right. Thanks for joining us. We've had such a nice time talking behind the scenes. I don't leave the lake much, but when I do it's with my friends. Arnie, all our cats are drowned. Oh no.

I ate them. We can't leave you like you can't. Now, that's a podcast. Behind the Tavern is produced by Arnie Neacamp, Matt Gung, and Adelrafai. Thanks to this episode's guests, Brooke Bright and Rush Howell. You can listen to Rush on the Here's the Situation Podcast found on all your favorite podcast apps and follow the show at TJ and Rush on Twitter. Brooke would like you to buy Jackbox Games Party Pack 6, available now at jackboxgames.com. You can also see your perform with world news tonight,

and improvise Shakespeare at the world-famous I.O. Theater. Post-production Coordination by Garrett Schultz, special assistance by Rindy Georgie, this episode edited by Anna Hoverman, behind the tavern logo by Allard Lebon. If you want to check out more behind the tavern, then go to Stitcher Premium.com and sign up for a free premium trial with the promo code Magic. And you'll want to do that right now because our next mini-series I.M. Spin Tax, the podcast, begins on November 21st. Go sign up! You'll get a month of listening without ads, access to our bonus episodes, and you'll be supporting the show. That's StitcherPremium.com with the promo code Magic. Enjoy! And I'll see you over on that Stitcher Premium! You're so cool!