We all know that the first rule of improvisation is “Yes, and.” 

This, of course, is the idea that when scene partners are working together, they must both propel the scene forward and never shoot down the other’s ideas. However, Jess McKenna and Zach Reino of Off Book: The Improvised Musical podcast, say that musical improv has an arguably more important first rule: “Be Brave.” 

In each episode of Off Book, comedians McKenna and Reino perform a never-before-seen and will-never-be-seen-again hour-long musical based entirely on several words thrown out from each episode’s audience. 

After around five minutes of organic chatting about the words they’ve received, the live band starts playing music and McKenna and Reino find themselves building a plot with a genre and all the stops. Their show has also been adapted to the popular “Play it by Ear” segment on Dropout, a platform where they are both staples. 

On Nov. 3, they’ll bring their musical stylings to the WOW Hall for a live podcast recording.

While Reino and McKenna both have extensive musical theater backgrounds on top of their improv careers, many of their guests are not so lucky. As such, McKenna and Reino find that people inexperienced in musical improv get nervous at the prospect of singing and improvising at the same time. McKenna says this is usually because improvising and rhyming proves to be another level of difficulty.

“A lot of advice given in beginning musical improv is to add the rhymes in later,” McKenna says. “And that’s something that Zach and I hold very true. We hold ourselves to a high standard and we want our shows to have awesome melodies and great stories, and it’s amazing if we can hit some harmonies, but we want it to be funny first. And so if I’m in the middle of a verse and I have a great idea for a joke, but it doesn’t rhyme, I’m always gonna go with the funnier line.”

McKenna and Reino say that nervous guests tend to forget the “and” part of “yes, and” in fear of the treacherous rhyme. To demonstrate to EW what they mean, they both burst out into song together and illustrate how it ends up sounding, singing “and you are my friend, my best friend. Friends, Friends. Here we go. Friends. We are friends, best, best friends.” McKenna says, “you still have to add information.”

Now that Off Book is a completely touring podcast, they don’t feature many guests, instead feeding off the energy of the audiences.

The podcast used to be recorded entirely in-studio by Earwolf Productions, but Reino, who didn’t “want to get into the weeds,” says that after six years, the podcasting business model shifted. “By celebrities!” McKenna cuts in, “Conan O’Brien, I’ll name check.” Reino adds, “and stars from The Office.” 

When the two comedians felt ignored by Earwolf advertisers, they decided to take the show into their own hands and onto the stage, touring all over the country to produce their series. Reino says that when going on tour, the two decided “the show will actually be better if we do less episodes. And the live ones have this energy that we love. So we made the decision to fully transition it to that.” 

Reino and McKenna say that their improvisation muscle is something they’ve trained for their whole careers, but that doesn’t mean they don’t run into difficulties, especially after 350 episodes. For instance, Reino says he has encountered moments where “organically, it’s time for me to sing a song about bread here. But I know for a fact that I’ve sung multiple songs about bread before. So now, as I’m trying to make up a new song about bread, I’m also actively trying to not do the three songs about bread I’ve already done, and that’s just a weird place to be in.”

The two met in 2011 while training in an improvisational sketch comedy troupe. Having performed together for a decade and a half, they say that the secret to their tight, synchronous improv is “hours” and “eye contact.” McKenna says that “It’s years of doing it in general, and then it’s years of specifically doing it together. There’s no person I’ve been on this stage with more than Zach.”

Off Book: The Improvised Musical is 7:30 pm Nov. 3 at WOW Hall, 291 West 8th Avenue. Doors 6:30. Tickets start at $30 and are available at WOWHall.org.