Patreon Newsletter #43: May 2025

Magic Tavern Updates/News: 

• Our merch store (here!) has some new customization features if you’re looking for some sweet summer tee’s! 

• Don't forget! This Saturday, May 10th from 10am to 12pm U.S. Central Standard Time, we'll be doing a Tavern Meet'n'Greet on our Discord! We thought to do a bit earlier than usual so some of our international listeners could join in!

• We recently collaborated with the Critical Role folks for their Narrative Telephone series on Beacon! 

From Arnie:

Another fairly busy month. Went to Ohio to visit family. Had a nice weekend trip to Kansas City with friends for Martin Wilson’s birthday. We ate a lot of barbeque, hung out in fun bars and went to a baseball game (I spent most of the game asking everyone what their favorite stadium snack was). 

We also did a fun collab with some Critical Role folks, guesting on Narrative Telephone, a party game video show they do. It’s currently available on Beacon and will probably make its way to YouTube eventually. 

TV – In no particular order. 

• Andor

• Righteous Gemstones

• Last of Us

• Last One Laughing UK

• Common Side Effects

• The Rehearsal

• Survivor

• Parks and Rec

Movies – Best to less best. The majority of these were rewatching old movies.

• Sinners

• A Complete Unknown

• Baby Girl

• Ghostbusters

• Y2K

• Star Trek: Nemesis

Video Games 

Balatro 

From Matt: 

April 2025

Some really fun experiences this month with more to come as we continue to celebrate the first 10 years of Hello from the Magic Tavern.

Arnie and I saw the live Critical Role show at the Wintrust Arena here in Chicago. It was a lot of fun and the cast did a great job. We also got to guest on their beacon.tv show, Narrative Telephone, which was a ton of fun. Check it out when you get a chance. I hope I didn’t break Matt Mercer’s brain permanently. I think we all had fun and hopefully we can do it again sometime!

Jessye and I are binge watching old seasons of Taskmaster. We never watched it before, and it’s really fun. Also, of course, all of our cooking competition shows. We need to finish Tournament of Champions (no spoilers). Also dipping in and out of some other anime and reality shows, notably Four Weddings which is both helpful for thinking about wedding planning and totally ridiculous.

That was also the weekend of C2E2, arguably the biggest comics show in Chicago now. We went on Sunday and I saw an old friend who writes comics professionally and hung out with some other friends and their kids. All in all, a fun day with low pressure where we mostly bought stuff we’d never seen out of the Artist’s Alley and just enjoyed taking it all in.

Gundam Report: A little over halfway through 08th MS Team, my first Gundam OVA. Very 90s (which is a mixed bag). Got back to building model kits and actually bought some paint, glue, and markers to get some real improvements/customizations going. (I’ll probably just paint Zeon mono-eyes to start).

Spent a SUPER FUN weekend in Kansas City, MO with some friends eating BBQ and watching a Royals game and eating BBQ and trying local breweries and distilleries and eating BBQ and I never want BBQ again. Still what a great time.

Next month…EUROVISION!

Matt

From Adal: 

Here’s what I consumed in April. Let me know if you have any recommendations for me!

TV: 

• The Rehearsal season 2

• Last of Us season 2

• The Studio

• Hacks season 4

MOVIES:

• Conclave

• Thunderbolts (4DX)

• Havoc

OTHER: 

• Jemma and I went to NYC to see some shows. Gypsy was the most impressive. Audra McDonald should have the Tony wrapped up. Maybe Happy Ending was very charming and had some earworms. Floyd Collins was well staged and produced (and Jeremy Jordan was remarkable) but I don’t think it was my cup of tea. 

• Started playing Split Fiction (PS5) with Jemma and we’re having a blast

• Absolutely love Tunde Adebimpe’s new album ‘Thee Black Boltz’. Listening to this made me go about 2 weeks of listening to nothing but TV on the Radio. I’m hoping to catch them on their reunion tour. Also really enjoyed the new Mount Eerie album, ‘Night Palace’ and Destroyer’s new one ‘Dan’s Boogie’. 

• I had a blast guesting on some friends podcasts including A Funny Feeling pod (talking ghosts and spooky stuff in general), Fudgecast (formerly Improv Is Dead) 

• Oh! After 20 years of living in Chicago I FINALLY went to Lou Mitchell’s diner. Big thumbs up. I love me a diner. 

• Hey Riddle Riddle has some upcoming live show dates. You can see all the cities we’re playing HERE

Adal