Every episode that I have listened to so far has started off with a message from earwolf in an advertising type of form. The music and the voice of the lady really draw you into keep listening even though it is an advertisement. The consistency of the same company advertising in each episode, also draws you into looking at what earwolf has to offer for podcasts each week.
In the podcast, they use the same medieval music in the background of each episode at certain points to help set the mood. Arnie’s voice is such a strong podcasting voice for a comedy narrative because of the sound structure that it portrays.The music really helps to set the tone of the story as Arnie (the main character) sets the scene. In Episode 3, Season 1, Arnie refers to the listeners as “Funts” which he explains are fans of Chunt. He also says “Hey there, Babies!”, I personally think that Arnie is trying to make relations with the listeners or help make them feel more welcome or included by trying to reach out with nicknames. He also might be making these nicknames as a joke for a good laugh from the listening audience.
After roughly four minutes of advertisements, the intro starts where in each episode the music is played, Arnie recaps why he is in Foon, and who he will be talking to on the show that week. I haven’t listened to a lot of episodes, but in the ones I have listened to, Usidore has remained consistently the weird character. After the first episode, Chunt and Usidore became a part of the regular cast. Each episode after the first one, has had an additional guest. This week it is a potted talking flower. People move the flower to different locations and sometimes the flower will wake up and not know where she is. The flower uses explicit language that has not been used in past episodes. She is also very judgemental of Arnie and thinks he is being creepy and needs to chill out. When he is just nicely asking her questions. This episode is a little different because of the guest on the show. Chunt informs Arnie that in the world of Foon you should not piss off a wizard or a talking flower. To settle the mood a little bit the characters are going to play something kind of like a drinking game. In this game you compliment each other.
Usidore the wizard still acts out by yelling or mumbling to himself in the middle of the conversation, by doing so he is portrayed as the weird character. Usidore is raging on about how the characters should join him in his quest to defeat the dark lord who must not be named. Over the time period of the three weeks that they have been podcasting episodes Usidore the wizard has not been successful in gaining anyone to join him on his quest.
In this episode it felt a little more turned around compared to the other two I have listened to. Chunt, Usidore, and the Flower all start to make fun of Arnie. I feel that at some points it is justified to make fun of Arnie because of what he is saying about the Flower. On the other hand the Flower is using very vulgar language and isn’t being very nice during the conversation.
Word count: 568
Hi Anna!
“Hello From the Magic Tavern” seems like a super unique and interesting podcast! I love the fact that the main character addresses the audience and gives them nicknames, that feels really personal and it would definitely keep me coming back. It seems like in general, you get a good feel for all of the different characters’ personalities and can become attached to them easily like you would if they were characters from a book or movie.
I think that the various music and sounds that are played throughout the podcast really bring the podcast to life and helps create a connecting narrative between each episode. This is quite similar to “Serial Killers,” the podcast I listened to because it seems that in both podcasts, music helps set the tone of what is happening and provides context to where and when the stories are taking place. The music in your podcast was clearly recognizable to you as medieval music, which probably indicates that it would be just as recognizable to any other listeners and it clearly paints a picture of the setting based on what you may or may not already know about the medieval times. In the podcast I listened to, I feel like music was a crucial part of the storytelling because it got me completely immersed in what I was listening to. The hosts might say where and when a particular story takes place, but it’s definitely way more compelling if the reader can take clues from the music to put together the scene in their mind. Another great thing that music does, is that it can help set up the mood for each part of the story, as you said. Like, the music leading up to a plot twist would be suspenseful, or if something sad happened, the music would be low and somber.
Overall, I think that a big takeaway we can get from the podcast you listened to (based on what you wrote) is that it’s kind of crucial that your audience gets a sense of your personality to build a relationship with you and will keep coming back.
Word Count: 356