Zach Reino and Jessica McKenna Love Musical Theater and Its Regulations, and Tiki Bars

Episode 141

22nd October 2025

Can you improvise a musical? Sure, you can. But isn’t it hard to do? Absolutely. That’s why hardly anyone does it. I mean, who wants to do hard things? Well, Jessica McKenna and Zach Reino do. They’re the hosts and creators of Off Book, a podcast where they improvise a whole new musical with each […]

Episode notes

Can you improvise a musical? Sure, you can. But isn’t it hard to do? Absolutely. That’s why hardly anyone does it. I mean, who wants to do hard things? Well, Jessica McKenna and Zach Reino do. They’re the hosts and creators of Off Book, a podcast where they improvise a whole new musical with each episode. They’ve also appeared on shows like Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, The Goldbergs, and Comedy Bang! Bang! (forgive our use of exclamation points, Sleepyheads). Jessica and Zach travel a lot and they sure do love tiki bars. You know with the pineapples and the garish decor and all that. They join John Moe to talk about the forgotten (and perhaps made up) oyster musical Oyster Ranch, the role of the “Edward Albee” in a theater, and all the things, like airplanes, that should be made tiki.

Hey Sleepy Heads, is there anyone whose voice you’d like to drift off to, or do you have suggestions on things we could do to aid your slumber? 

 

Email us at:  sleepwithcelebs@maximumfun.org.

 

Follow the Show on:

Instagram @sleepwcelebs 

Twitter @SleepWithCelebs 

TikTok @SleepWithCelebs

 

John is on Twitter @johnmoe.

 

John’s acclaimed, best-selling memoir, The Hilarious World of Depression, is now available in paperback.

 

Join | Maximum Fun

If you like one or more shows on MaxFun, and you value independent artists being able to do their thing, you’re the perfect person to become a MaxFun monthly member.



In this episode...

Host
Producer

Guests

  • Zach Reino
  • Jessica McKenna

About the show

Getting to sleep can be difficult sometimes. Now you can achieve that urgently needed rest by taking advantage of our most precious natural resource: celebrities. Each week on the slyly humorous and reassuring Sleeping With Celebrities, host John Moe talks with a different guest from the world of entertainment about something they know a lot about. The conversation is guaranteed to be just interesting enough to draw your attention away from your own swirling anxieties but never interesting enough to keep you awake. No startling revelations, no dramatic screaming confrontations, but plenty of low-key dialogue, intricately laced deadpan comedy, and a ticket to dreamland.

Podcast art by Stefan Lawrence.

People

Host

Producer

How to listen

Stream or download episodes directly from our website, or listen via your favorite podcatcher!

Share this show

New? Start here...