Transcript #113

September 21, 2007 / MuggleCast

MuggleCast 113 Transcript

Phone Call to Micah

[“Elevation” by U2 plays]

Andrew: Yeah, that’s right, I played “Elevation” again. I was watching in the chat, I’m sure people were going to be complaining about that. Welcome back to MuggleCast Live!

Mikey: MuggleCast Live!

Andrew: 10:30 here on the East Coast. I’m glad Mikey still has some energy.

Mikey: I tried. Kind of hungry again.

Jerry Cooke: Oh, me too.

Andrew: It’s me, Jamie, Jerry, and [pauses] Mikey. I almost forgot your name. And JJ Horgan, a special guest star here on the show.

JJ Horgan: I like that.

Andrew: JJ Horgan is back here. Oh. [laughs] We need to call Micah because – he wanted me to call because he couldn’t be here, and he’s going to be really upset so we’ll get him in the chat and then we’ll carry on with today’s topics at hand here.

[Andrew hums and types on keyboard]

Andrew: Anyway, JJ, what did you want to talk about?

JJ: Okay…

[Phone dial tone starts]

Andrew: While the phone is ringing. Actually, wait one second. [laughs] Sorry!

[Phone dial tone continues]

Andrew: If he doesn’t answer, this is – I ordered my pizza live on the air, JJ.

JJ: Hello?

Andrew: I ordered my pizza live on the air, JJ. That was pretty fun.

JJ: Yeah, I heard [unintelligible] I stopped listening.

Andrew: Oh okay.

[Phone dial tone continues]

Andrew: Geez, and we had Laura Mallory call in, and Dumbledore call in…

[Micah’s voice message plays]

Andrew: And he’s not here. Okay.

Mikey: Wait, wait! Awww, I was going to say let’s leave him a message.

[Jerry laughs]

Andrew: Oh sorry. He’ll call back. I’m sure he’ll call back. All right… [laughs]

Jerry: [unintelligible] hilarious.

Andrew: Go ahead, JJ.

Discussion: Why Didn’t Lily and James Potter Escape Upon Voldemort’s Arrival?

JJ: All right. Well, I was going to try to be organized and put all this stuff together and some well-thought-out statements but then that didn’t happen, so…

Andrew: Really? [laughs]

JJ: Yeah, I know. Surprising, isn’t it?

Andrew: [laughs] Uh-huh.

JJ: Some Harry Potter questions. Now, for the listeners that don’t know about me, JJ Horgan…

[Andrew laughs]

JJ: …I’m definitely a Harry Potter novice, but a casual fan than most. I have some questions about it and hopefully your listeners and maybe even you guys can answer some of my questions. Number one: starting back, not sequentially but chronologically, the whole Harry Potter thing happens, right? Because Harry Potter is the boy that lived, his parents get killed, right?

Andrew: Right.

JJ: And when that whole scene takes place, James is the first one to kick it, right? Voldemort gets him first downstairs or something.

Andrew and Jaime: Yeah.

JJ: And then he comes upstairs to get Lily, right?

Andrew: Yes.

Jaime: Yeah.

JJ: All right. Now, you’re a wizard, you can pretty much do anything. She’s a pretty good wizard, right?

Andrew: Uh-huh.

Jaime: Yeah.

JJ: And one of the convenient things in your bag of tricks is you can make yourself disappear.

[Andrew laughs]

JJ: You can even grab someone and make them disappear too.

Jaime: Ahhh.

JJ: Couldn’t we have avoided seven books about Harry Potter…

[Andrew laughs]

JJ: …if she had just made herself disappear?

Andrew: Dang it, Jamie.

JJ: [unintelligible] has the answer for that.

Jaime: Like in magic – sorry, like in the real world there are degrees of sort of professionalism and degrees of ability. And Voldemort is a master of sort of planning and cunning, and there are ways that he knows that other people do not know. For example, in Book 7 he is able to restrict one person using invisible binds due to his magical ability and because they don’t understand the ability that goes into it, they can’t get themselves out of his bind. So he, I would assume, would cast a spell on that house to stop Lily and James escaping or doing anything to stop him going through with his plan. He’s a psychopath.

JJ: Oh. So it can just be explained like that?

[Andrew laughs]

JJ: He’s a psychopath.

Mikey: He’s a psychopath. He kills people.

JJ: Maybe they should put that in the end notes or something because…

[Andrew laughs]

Jaime: She’s already said he is a psychopath.

Andrew: Yeah, but…

JJ: He could stop people from Apparating just at will?

Jaime: Sorry? I’m sure he can. He can make Hogwarts shake…

Andrew: But…

Jaime: …and anyone who can do that is a master in my book and my strow.

Andrew: And to Apparate, you need to really be focused on where you’re going, right?

JJ: Yeah, but I mean, how many times did we see even in – after the wedding when people are Apparating left and right. I mean, how focused could they have been when the Death Eaters are coming?

Andrew: That’s true. I mean, I was going to say, because…

Jerry: It can be a panic reflex they can’t do it as well, surely.

Andrew: Well yeah, but they…

Jerry: And they can…

Andrew: Yeah.

Jerry: [unintelligible]

Andrew: They could have been all panicking at the wedding too, I guess.

Jerry: Yeah.

Andrew: To what JJ is trying to say. But say you’re Voldemort right into the eye. You can’t possibly Apparate away from that. You want to, but…,

JJ: Well, she tries to keep the door locked, right? Didn’t they say in passing she does something to the door? And he just kind of laughs that off like a joke?

Andrew: I don’t remember that specifically, but…

Jaime: Yes, yes, he did. She put a load of books [laughs] and bookcases and stuff in front of the door and he blasts that off.

JJ: Yeah, come on. Maybe she should have…

[Andrew laughs]

JJ: …concentrated her efforts on Apparating.

Andrew: [laughs] Well…

Jaime: No, no, what she would have done was hid behind the door with a frying pan because although Voldemort is highly…

Andrew: A frying pan?

Jaime: Yeah, he’s not telepathic.

[Jerry laughs]

Jaime: She could have hit him over the head, she could have got him in a headlock and done something to him. There are other ways to…

JJ: She has a wand and you’re saying she should get a frying pan?

[Andrew laughs]

Jaime: No, she can’t duel him on magical ability so she has to find another way.

Andrew: Oh.

Jaime: Perhaps she could seduce him.

Andrew: Yeah.

JJ: So maybe she should have kicked him…

Jaime: In the private area.

JJ: …you know, in the little Voldemort.

[Andrew laughs]

Jaime: You should have written the…

Mikey: In the little Voldemort?

[Andrew laughs]

Mikey: What is that? God.

Andrew: That’s funny. [laughs]

JJ: I hear what you’re saying, Jamie, but in one breath you just said that he can stop people from Apparating just because he’s a psychopath but she should have gotten a frying pan.

Jaime: You don’t know [laughs] the forcefulness behind a woman with a frying pan.

[Andrew laughs]

Jaime: Not that I know, but…

[Jerry laughs]

Andrew: Okay.

Jerry: Yeah.

JJ: It must be a British thing.

[Andrew laughs]

Jaime: What, a frying pan? [laughs]

Jerry: Definitely a British thing.

Andrew: [laughs] So what else…

Jaime: Perhaps she’ll use bacon to…

[Andrew laughs]

JJ: I don’t know, Andrew. Perhaps a caller would like to call in and talk about that. I think I’ve unearthed something pretty significant.

Andrew: Okay. Well, let’s see if someone – here, we have a caller right here. Michelle, do you have anything to add to this discussion?

JJ: Hi, Michelle.

[Prolonged silence]

Andrew: She’s speechless. Okay, let’s try someone else.

JJ: [in a high-pitched voice] Hi, Andrew. It’s me, Michelle.

Andrew: [laughs] Oh, someone called JJ. We’ll have two JJs here. JJ?

Caller: Holy cow, you guys picked up. Hang on.

Andrew: Oh.

Caller: Let me mute my thingy.

Andrew: Okay, thank you. Concerned caller. JJ…

Caller: All right, can you guys hear me?

Andrew: Yeah, JJ, let me introduce you to JJ.

Caller: [laughs] Hey.

Andrew: Were you listening to the discussion at hand?

Caller: Yeah, about the frying pan? About the wand and the frying pan?

JJ: [unintelligible] ten hours.

Caller: Say that again.

[Prolonged silence]

Caller: Can you say that again?

Andrew: Say that again, JJ. Capella.

[Prolonged silence]

Andrew: Repeat.

[Caller laughs]

JJ: [unintelligible] wanted to compliment you guys on this being the best part of the ten and a half hours so far.

Andrew: Oh.

JJ: It’s become riveting once again.

Caller: Yeah.

Andrew: Well, it is riveting, I’ll tell you that.

[Caller laughs]

Andrew: So go ahead, JJ. Caller.

Caller: Which JJ are you talking about now, Andrew?

Andrew: You. I’ll refer to you as…

Caller: JJ 1.

Andrew: …JJ 2. I’ll refer to you as the real JJ.

Caller: Okay.

Andrew: [laughs] Go ahead.

Caller: Wow, I’m actually kind of surprised you guys picked up because this is officially my second time on the show because way back when you guys picked up I’m from Alpharetta.

Andrew: Oh okay. Yeah.

Caller: Remember?

Andrew: Right.

Caller: Not really? That’s cool.

Andrew: No, no, I remember it.

Caller: Okay, so I was listening at the very beginning of the morning and then I finally got back from my audition all day. And I wanted to ask you, Andrew, have you guys talked about Steve Jobs reducing the iPhone by $200?

Andrew: Now, wait a second…

Mikey: Wait, wait, wait, I can’t talk about Apple products at all.

[Andrew laughs]

Caller: I had to ask it, Andrew.

Andrew: [laughs] Mikey just jumps right in.

Caller: So I’m so sorry.

Mikey: Guys, I’m going to have to leave.

Andrew: There’s no reason to fret, because Steve Jobs handed me a hundred dollars the other day.

Caller: There you go. There you go.

Andrew: Those two days. I was very happy about that.

[Caller laughs]

Andrew: But do you want to add to this discussion we’re talking about right now? Do you have anything to add?

Caller: Sure, I’ll add. Okay, give me a little recap again. Sorry, I’m so excited to be on the show. Give me a little twenty-second recap.

Andrew: Well, basically real JJ is saying that Lily could have just Apparated. Or sorry, the first JJ is saying Lily could have just Apparated when Voldemort came up to kill her and Harry.

Caller: Okay…

Andrew: Would you agree with this or what?

Caller: Well, would she have taken her kid? Like, would she have taken Harry with her?

Andrew: Well, you would assume so.

Caller: Okay.

JJ: [unintelligible] this whole time

Caller: I would have done it. Sorry, dude, if I had the chance of Apparating out of my own house with my own kid – like as a girl, I would have done it.

Andrew: No, no, but we’re saying, why didn’t she?

Caller: Why didn’t she? Maybe she just felt really compelled to stand her ground because the guy just murdered her husband. I don’t know.

JJ: Oh, that’s a good…

Andrew: Oh, that is a good answer, yeah. Plus it’s her house that Voldemort is in, you know?

Mikey: I don’t think…

Caller: I mean, maybe she was just like, “Dude, this is my area. Get the heck out of my house. You can’t do this. You just can’t walk into my house and try to kill my son without putting up with me first.”

Andrew: Fair point. Rebuttal?

Caller: There you go.

Andrew: JJ 1?

JJ: No, that’s pretty legit.

Andrew: [laughs] Okay.

[Caller laughs]

JJ: That’s a better answer than the frying pan.

[Andrew and Caller laugh]

Andrew: Definitely.

Jaime: Less practical.

JJ: Very well thought out, JJ.

Caller: Well, why would Harry have a frying pan in his bedroom, JJ 1?

Andrew: No, that point…

Mikey: You guys, come on. I know why.

Andrew: That point was risen by Jamie, actually.

Caller: Sorry, Jamie.

Mikey: Guys, he has a frying pan in his room because…

Jaime: No, I think it’s extremely a bit sort of close minded to ask why he wouldn’t. You should be asking why he would. He could very well have one because something happened as a child, even though he was a child, and he liked frying pans for some reason. Or he was – okay, I can’t think of anything. This is – [laughs] I’m so tired.

Caller: Okay, Jamie, I can play devil’s advocate and think on this one with you. Okay?

Andrew: Go for it.

Caller: Do you want to hear my little rebuttal?

Jaime: Please.

Caller: Okay.

Jaime: I’ll buy you something nice.

[Caller laughs]

Andrew: You have good audio whereas Jamie is incapable of…

[Caller laughs]

Jaime: Yes, Andrew.

Andrew: …having consistently loud audio. [laughs]

Caller: Okay. Well…

Jaime: I’m sorry, my computer turned it down for me…

[Andrew and Caller laugh]

Jaime: …and I can’t do anything about it.

Caller: Okay. Well, to help your theory with the frying pan, Jamie, I’m reading this book right now, Like Water for Chocolate, Laura Esquivel, I think that’s how she pronounced her name. Well anyways, in the book the little baby – [laughs] well, the baby in this book, to stay with her real mother, Tita the main character…

Jaime: Yeah.

Caller: …has to have a frying pan with food in her bedroom to get her used to her mother.

Jaime: That is so true. That is exactly what happened in Harry Potter as well.

[Caller laughs]

Andrew: Okay. Well, that’s just silly.

[Caller laughs]

Andrew: Silly, Andrew? Silly? Are you denouncing someone else’s carefully-written book silly?

[Caller laughs]

Andrew: Well, thank you, JJ, for calling in.

Caller: No problem, Andrew. Pleasure to be on the show as always.

Andrew: Thank you. You win as always. As always.

[Andrew and Caller laugh]

Andrew: Just kidding.

Caller: Bye, dude. [laughs]

Andrew: Bye.

Jaime: Goodbye.

Caller: Bye.

Jaime: I like that person.

Andrew: What were you saying, JJ 1?

JJ: Just reminding all the callers to vote Andrew Sims in the sixth movie.

Andrew: [laughs] Okay.

JJ: Andrew Sims for the sixth movie.

Mikey: Oh yeah, how is that poll going? How far down am I?

Andrew: Oh yeah, let’s check it out. Jamie is winning, I’m in second place, Mikey’s in third, and Ben’s got a close fourth.

Mikey: Woah, you mean I’m actually above Ben? That surprises me.

Andrew: Yeah.

Discussion: Which Character Would You Want to Play in the Harry Potter Films?

JJ: Can I throw out another question here?

Andrew: Yeah, go ahead. And Chloe is on the line now. I think she would be a good person to fight and…

JJ: Well, Chloe can…

Caller: Hi.

JJ: Hi, Chloe.

Andrew: Hi. Oh, and we lost a connection. I’ll call her back. But go ahead, explain.

JJ: Well, Chloe can maybe get on it when you pick this back up, but I’ll pose this and it’s probably something you’ve been told before, but let’s assume that because of your massive Harry Potter hand that you can get you and all your buddies into the next movie.

Andrew: [laughs] Why do you keep bringing this up?

JJ: What part do you want to play?

Andrew: Umm…

JJ: This is a good question for a Harry Potter fan. If you could be in the movie, where do you see yourself?

Jaime: A tree.

Andrew: No, I wouldn’t…

[Mikey laughs]

Andrew: Honestly – that’s kind of a good question. If we were to be in the Harry Potter movies…

Caller: Hi, I’m actually calling as part of the discussion tonight.

Andrew: Okay. Well, hold on one second.

Caller: Okay.

Andrew: This is actually a good question. If we were all offered a part in the movie, which part would we take?

[Jamie and Mikey respond]

Andrew: One at a time now. One at a time now.

Mikey: I want to be part of the Order. That’s what I really would want.

Andrew: Yeah.

JJ: Do you have a specific character in mind?

Andrew: Yeah.

Mikey: Well, if I had to be a specific character, I want to be Harry. But… [laughs]

JJ: Come on, let’s be realistic.

Mikey: No, realistic – I would just like to be an Order member, like we saw some random characters fighting or whatever. Or just a student in the DA, you know what I mean?

Jaime: Yeah.

Mikey: Like who was Nigel? You know what I mean? Give me a random character: Mikey B, who knows?

[Jamie and Mikey laugh]

Mikey: I would love to just have a wand and be like, stick it to the man, stick it to the Death Eaters.

Andrew: A lot of people in the chat are saying Jamie would be great for Teddy Lupin, but that’s not…

Jaime: I don’t think that would work.

Andrew: Yeah.

Mikey: [laughs] I think Alex would be a great Teddy Lupin!

Andrew: [laughs] Yeah!

Mikey: Alex Carpenter from The Remus Lupins, he would be a perfect Teddy Lupin. Just have a quick pan shot of him making out with some girl.

[Jamie and Mikey laugh]

Mikey: He would hate that.

Andrew: I’m going to be lame and say if I had to pick – God, I can’t think of what other role I’d be able to do besides Harry.

Jaime: Slughorn.

Andrew: I couldn’t be Hagrid or Dumbledore. But I mean, at my age. Well, I guess – okay.

JJ: You could be a young Dumbledore.

Andrew: Yeah, if…

JJ: Don’t forget, there’s a young Dumbledore…

[Jamie laughs]

JJ: …in the seventh book.

Andrew: Okay, that’s true. I’ll say…

JJ: Or Dumbledore’s buddy that he duels with because that guy…

Andrew: Grindelwald?

Jaime: Oh, Grindelwald?

JJ: Yeah.

Mikey: Oh, I would love to be Grindelwald. That would be so cool to be a young Grindelwald.

JJ: Ahhh, see? You don’t need to think about teenage…

Mikey: I didn’t even think about it. Wow.

[JJ laughs]

Mikey: Oh, can I be a young Kingsley Shacklebolt? [laughs] I love Shacklebolt. I’m sorry, guys.

Jaime: [laughs] Shacklebolt.

Andrew: Somebody said Andrew for director.

[Jerry laughs]

Andrew: I think I’ll take that instead.

Jerry: Andrew for Ariana Dumbledore. [laughs]

JJ: What do you think, Andrew? Slughorn for me?

Andrew: Slughorn? Actually – well, Slughorn would be good. I would also put you in the Hagrid category.

JJ: Oh, that’s a compliment.

Andrew: No, no. [laughs] No, I’m just saying. I think you’d – never mind. Slughorn, yeah. Slughorn would be great for you. Or how about…

JJ: Hagrid is kind of a giant. I think Slughorn is just a giant waste of space.

Andrew: [laughs] Well…

JJ: [unintelligible] I think I can play that really well.

Andrew: [laughs] Okay, yeah.

JJ: I don’t have visions of grandeur like other people.

Andrew: Nick – Brandon just IM’d me. He said…

Jaime: Andrew for Harry, yeah.

Andrew: …I should be Harry Potter. He still said on the fact that I have the Harry accent which I don’t understand. But thanks, Brandon.

Jerry: “I’m Harry Potter!”

Andrew: Yeah. Okay…

Jaime: Mikey…

Andrew: …so another thing – go ahead, Jamie.

Jaime: I was just going to say, Mikey, someone in the chatroom said that Mikey B should play Mikey B. Apparently there’s a character I missed called Mikey B.

Andrew: [laughs] Yeah.

Jerry: You missed that? If you were reading…

Jaime: Well, I heard he was badass, dude, but I can’t remember him.

Mikey: Because this is what happened is his wand work is just so fast. He’s Mikey B! His wand work is just like [makes dueling noises] round, like…

[Jamie laughs]

Mikey: You guys are totally missing me. My arms are flailing, I’m making sound effects right now. [laughs] It would be so amazing to have a Mikey B character. I’m sorry.

Jaime: No, you see, Mikey, I don’t think you’d use your wand, I think you’d just talk to Voldemort. He’d try and kill you, and you’d be like, “Dude.”

Mikey: “Dude, seriously, relax. Chill.”

Jaime: “What are we doing here, guys?”

Mikey: “What are we doing here?” Yeah.

Andrew: Yeah.

Mikey: I would use logic because again, I’m a lover, not a fighter. I’m a lover, not a fighter.

Jaime: [laughs] There’d be like, [imitating Mikey B] “I’m Voldemort. I’m Mikey B. I’m Voldy. I’m Voldy M.”

Andrew: Okay. Well, let’s get back to the…

Mikey: Voldy M, really? Sorry, Andrew.

Andrew: One more burning topic, JJ. Then we’ll move on.

JJ: I think Chloe wants to…

Caller: I just want to say really quickly – yeah.

Andrew: [laughs] What, Chloe?

Caller: [laughs] I just want to say personally I’d want to be any character that gets to make out with Rupert Grint, but that might just be me.

Andrew: Oh my God. Yeah, I know what you mean.

Mikey: I want to be Lav-Lav.

[Caller laughs]

Mikey: I want to be Lav-Lav, guys. I want to be Lav-Lav.

[Andrew laughs]

Mikey: Really. Lav-Lav.

Caller: Yeah. I have some friends who are like, “Yeah, you should totally go for that.”

Andrew: All right, so JJ?

JJ: Oh, I’m sorry. [laughs] I forget.

Andrew: Yeah. [laughs]

Caller: Shock because… [unintelligible]

MuggleCast 113 Transcript (continued)

Discussion: The Weasleys’ Relationship with the Potters

JJ: All right, I actually did come up with a couple of things. All right, here’s something weird: Harry meets the Weasleys, right, in Book 1?

Andrew: Mhm.

JJ: They completely ran upon him, and he goes back to their house and stuff? And you probably talked about this in an old episode of MuggleCast. How come they’re not like, “Hey, we did know your parents. We were in an order with them. We used to hang out.”

[Andrew laughs]

JJ: It’s kind of like they’re meeting him for the first time, they don’t know anything about him, and they never bring up the fact that they used to really hang out with their parents. Kind of random.

Andrew: Umm.

JJ: Jamie “Frying Pans”, something you got to say about that?

[Andrew and Jerry laugh]

Jaime: I – hmm. Hmm. Hmm. Hmm. Yes, I do believe that they’re such nice people they would not dare to bring up such an emotional subject straight away and would rather keep it quiet for a while.

Andrew: Actually, a lot of people are bringing up the point that they weren’t in the Order at first.

Jaime: Yeah, yeah!

[Andrew laughs]

Caller: Yeah, didn’t they come in second time around?

Andrew: Yeah…

Jerry: I don’t know… [unintelligible]

Andrew: …they weren’t in the Order the first time around.

JJ: They weren’t good enough?

[Andrew laughs]

JJ: But then there’s [unintelligible] because they show pictures.

Jerry: Yeah.

JJ: In the sixth or seventh book, there’s a picture, right? In Sirius’s house that he finds? The Weasleys are in it somewhere or somebody gives him a picture. Or am I wrong?

Andrew: That’s true, isn’t it?

JJ: There’s a picture with the Weasleys, and if I have to go upstairs and find the book, so help me I will.

[Andrew laughs]

Mikey: The Prewetts are in it.

Jaime: Oh, but JJ, you can’t take those pictures as anything more than nice illustrations.

Mikey: I don’t…

Andrew: Well no, a lot of people…

JJ: No, I don’t think it’s an actual picture in the book. I mean they reference having a picture…

Jerry: A description.

Jaime: Oh, I see.

JJ: …[unintelligible] and the Potters.

Caller: Did they really?

Jaime: Are you sure you…

JJ: Did I just make that up?

Jaime: I think you might…

Jerry: Lots of people are saying…

Andrew: Yeah, a lot of people are…

Jerry: …that they were in there, but Molly’s brother or somebody’s brother was in it.

Andrew: Oh okay.

Jerry: Some relation of the Weasleys.

Andrew: Okay. Well, fair enough.

Jerry: Need to check it.

Andrew: So yeah, not too accurate about that. [laughs]

Jaime: It was a good test, though. Well done.

Andrew: Yeah.

JJ: So was I wrong?

Andrew: I think you were wrong, yes.

JJ: I’m going to prove myself right.

[Andrew laughs]

JJ: That’s my goal before you’re done in the next hour.

Andrew: Okay. [laughs] All right. Well, let’s take some other callers now because people are still…

Caller: [laughs] I think you guys have seen enough of me for one night.

Andrew: Yeah, we have, Chloe. All I want is your ticket.

Caller: [laughs] I know. Actually, I’m…

Jerry: Actually use her.

Andrew: Remember, I’ll take – no, I’m not using her. I’m just saying.

[Jerry laughs]

Andrew: If you want to offer me your ticket, that’s cool.

Caller: Yeah, I’m dealing with some moral issues with that right now. My mom is trying to get me to donate it to charity, so…

Andrew: Donate it to charity? How about the charity of Andrew Sims?

Caller: [laughs] The Andrew Sims Charity.

Andrew: Yeah.

Jerry: It’s a worthy cause.

Andrew: Donate it to me.

Caller: Yeah.

Andrew: Okay well, thank you for calling, Chloe.

Caller: Definitely.

Andrew: And we’ll talk to you…

Caller: Oh, before I go…

Andrew: What? Shout-out to who?

Caller: [laughs] Well, you know this person now so I have to.

Andrew: Okay.

Caller: I’ve been talking to her the entire time, Sam Friedman.

Andrew: [laughs] Oh geez.

Caller: She’s just like, “God, when are you going to mention me?” so it’s about time.

Andrew: Well, she’s at work right now so unfortunately – yeah.

Caller: Yeah.

Andrew: Yeah.

Caller: All right, cool. So have a good night.

Jaime: Thank you. Buh-bye!

Caller: I’m turning in.

Andrew: All right. Goodnight!

Caller: [laughs] Bye!

Jerry: 99.

Jaime: Okay, before we move on I haven’t named a vegetable for this hour, so the vegetable for this hour are peas.

Andrew: Peas? Okay.

Mikey: Snow peas or just normal peas?

Jaime: Your choice, really. I’m easy.

Listener Calls: Future Wizard Rock Singles by Andrew, Pickle Pack

Andrew: Nora, you’re on MuggleCast Live. What’s up?

Caller: Hi.

Andrew: How are you doing?

Caller: Hold on, let me mute my thing.

Andrew: Thank you.

Caller: Okay, so I have a message for you guys from my good friend Elsy who is not allowed to have Skype.

Andrew: Okay.

Caller: And she wants to say she wants to thank you guys for MuggleCast and for Pickle Pack because she’s made a lot of good friends through it and Andrew, she wants to know if you have another wizard rock single coming out.

Andrew: Okay, hold on.

[Talking in the background]

Andrew: Hi. Hey, how are you doing? Anyway, what – sorry. No, I don’t have any more wizard rock singles coming out. That’s something that I’m not working on right now. I appreciate your interest, however I’m not working on any right now.

Caller: Okay.

Andrew: However, since JJ is on the line I will say he’s written up some new lyrics for me. They’re a little too inappropriate for public release though.

Jaime: [laughs] I can imagine they are.

Andrew: Yeah.

Jaime: Can I see them? [laughs]

Andrew: Yeah, I’d love to show them to you but…

Caller: [laughs] All right, and I have another question: For Pickle Pack, since just everyone has had a date switch, are you guys ever going to change the links on the sidebar?

Andrew: Yeah, we’re going to work on that. I’ve got to e-mail the coder.

Caller: Okay, because we’re getting really confused lately.

Andrew: Oh okay. Well yeah, sorry about that.

Caller: That’s okay. And we also want to say that you guys should go to Portus because that’s where all the fun is going to be this summer.

Mikey: I’m probably going to be there.

[Andrew laughs]

Caller: So you should definitely go to Portus. There are going to be a bunch of us there and…

Andrew: Yeah. Well, I’m sure there will be a lot of people there.

Caller: Mostly lots of Vultures, so…

Andrew: We actually have a very big MuggleCast fan who works for Portus, Prophecy, and all that. So yeah, we’ll see.

Caller: And my friend Alyssa whose Skype name is Rayne – R-A-Y-N-E-05 – she lives in Norway and it’s really late there and she’s sick and she’s been staying up all night calling you guys, and she really, really wants to talk to you guys.

Andrew: Awww.

Caller: So if you give her a call and if you could answer, she would love it. You should see Alyssa that they had Jamie say “I love you” to.

Andrew: Oh okay.

Caller: So she really wants to talk to you guys.

Andrew: Well, what’s her Skype name?

Caller: Rayne. R-A-Y-N-E-05.

Andrew: Okay. All right, thanks for calling.

Caller: Thank you.

Andrew: Oops, I cut her off. Man, I’m so bad at this!

[Jerry laughs]

Mikey: It’s that button. Guess what I’m eating, guys? I have watermelon.

Listener Calls: If Harry Was a Girl

Andrew: It’s too easy. Darn, now I lost her name. Let’s take another call here. Let’s see who’s calling. Casey Carter. Casey Carter, hello.

Caller: Hi!

Andrew: How are you doing today?

Caller: I’m pretty good.

Andrew: Good.

Caller: I’ve been calling since 12:00…

Andrew: Wow.

Caller: …and I’m really excited. [laughs]

Andrew: Awww. Well, thank you for waiting.

Caller: [laughs] Thank you.

Andrew: What’s going on?

Caller: Not much. Just hanging out. I’ve kind of had a question for a while ago.

Andrew: For what?

Caller: I’ve got a question for a while that I’ve been wanting to ask.

Andrew: Okay.

[Prolonged silence]

Andrew: Darn it.

[Mouse clicking noises in the background]

Andrew: Sorry about that, I screwed up. Continue.

Caller: [laughs] Okay.

Laura: Hey.

Andrew: Hey. Hold on.

[Mouse clicking noises in the background]

Andrew: Sorry. Try one more time. I’m really sorry. [laughs]

Caller: Okay. It’s okay.

Andrew: I’m trying to get Laura back in and it keeps putting everyone else on hold while I put everyone in here. So okay, go ahead. I’m listening now.

Caller: I was just – I wanted to ask a question, what you guys thought.

Andrew: Okay.

Caller: Do you think that Snape would have been nicer to Lily and James’s child if they had a girl that looked just like Lily?

Mikey: Woah, woah.

Jerry: Probably.

Mikey: That brings up a whole lot of weird…

[Jerry laughs]

Andrew: Well, that’s interesting because I mean, what would the girl think? [laughs] Well, I see what Mikey is thinking. But…

Mikey: Well, come on. I don’t think so. I think he would – I don’t know, maybe.

Jerry: You could write exactly the same story with a female lead.

Andrew: See…

Jerry: Harry could have been Harriet. I mean…

Mikey: Yeah, but see, the problem is, though – the reason he hates Harry so much is because it’s always a constant reminder that lost to James because he looks so much like James.

Andrew: Right.

Mikey: If he looked like Lily, you think how much he cared about Lily and kind of like – I think Jamie said it best when he was talking about – it was kind of weird him sitting in the bushes looking at Lily, spying. Can you imagine having a little Lily running around…

Andrew: Yeah.

Mikey: …and him being a teacher for? I think it would be awkward and kind of gross, but maybe my mind is just set up that way.

Caller: [laughs] Yeah.

Mikey: I’m sorry.

Andrew: See, the thing is though, Harry has Lily’s eyes. So wouldn’t that be the same thing as Harry being a girl and looking like Lily? Because he does look like Lily. He has Lily’s eyes. Not exactly, but would a female Harry look like Lily either?

Caller: I don’t know.

JJ: He looked more like his father and they made a big deal about that, and Snape really hated his father, right?

Andrew and Mikey: Yeah.

Andrew: Oh, that’s true.

JJ: [unintelligible] accurate. Like, they clearly state he looked more like his father.

Andrew: Yeah.

Mikey: Yeah. So again, that’s what my point is. He hates Harry because it’s a constant reminder of how much him and James fought. And it’s always the joke – they always say, “I thought you could have put this behind you, Severus.” Blah blah blah blah blah. All that sort of stuff. But…

Jaime: I always thought – I agree on that, but I would say it’s also – he also hates Harry because Harry is the reason the woman he loves is dead as well, basically.

Mikey: Yeah, but honestly, if the lead in Harry Potter, instead of it being Harry, the guy Harry we know, that looked like James, with Lily’s eyes, and was a Lily lookalike with James’s eyes – because it looked so much like Lily, I think it would be a constant reminder and he’d resent that.

Jaime: Yeah, that’s true.

Mikey: But I don’t think he would be able to bring himself to actually treat her the way he treated Harry because it wasn’t the body of somebody he hated, it was someone that he loved. You know what I mean? Like, he hated James and because he hated James it was so easy to hate Harry, even though when he looked at Harry he was still able to see Lily. If he looked at a female Harry and he saw Lily, even though he would hate it because of James and maybe this is the reason that Lily died, I don’t think he’d ever bring himself to really hate a female Harry as much as he’d hate the male Harry. So…

Andrew: I guess that’s a good point.

Caller: Yeah.

Mikey: And again, it’s not being like a double standard, if it’s a boy or girl. I think it’s just the way – because Snape is a guy.

Andrew: Yeah.

Mikey: Now, if you put a female character there, the teacher, and it was a girl, then because there’s none of that animosity of loving the character that it looks like – you know what I mean?

Andrew: Yeah.

Mikey: I think then it would work. But since Snape was a guy and a female Harry would look just like the person that he loved, even though yes, it’s twenty years younger and all that stuff, it would still remind him of his past when he was a little kid and in love with her. And even if – when I said that’s kind of gross, even if nothing like that happened, I don’t think he’d bring himself to be a complete jerk to a female Harry like he was a male Harry.

Andrew: Right.

Caller: Yup.

Andrew: Okay.

Caller: Yeah, I agree.

Andrew: Fair point. Well, thank you, Casey, for calling in!

Caller: Can I just…

Andrew: Do a shout-out?

Caller: …give a shout-out?

Andrew: Oh, of course. [laughs]

Caller: I’d like to give a shout-out to Avalon in the AIM chat. They’re all telling me to.

Andrew: Okay.

Caller: And people are asking, what’s Jamie’s favorite Pokemon?

[Andrew laughs]

Mikey: [imitating Charizard] “Charizard!”

Jaime: Well, Charizard was very cool [laughs] but…

[Caller laughs]

Jaime: …I think – this is an extremely tough question that should really require hours and hours of analytical thought and discussion…

Caller: Of course.

Jaime: …and involve arguing, but as a…

Mikey: [poorly imitating Squirtle] “Squirtle!”

Jaime: Well, Squirtle was a bit weak and a bit sort of poncy, but – [laughs] actually that’s not true. He was very, very cool and he evolved into a beast! But I like Mew a lot, I must say, just because he’s sort of epiphanized innocence and goodness and all that kind of thing. And I love the battle between Mew and Mewtwo. However, I think my absolute favorite would have to be Lugia, who is known as the guardian of the sea. I’m not sad, by the way, I just know this stuff. He was in Pokemon: The Movie 2000 and he was so powerful, he had to swim on the ocean’s floor to stop…

Andrew: [sighs] What a dork. What a dork. What a dork.

Mikey: Hey Jamie…

[Caller laughs]

Jaime: Andrew, what movie have you seen recently? Hairspray?

Andrew: Yeah, I’m a big fan of Hairspray. It’s…

Jaime: Really? I’m a big fan of Pokemon.

Andrew: Oh really? Well…

Mikey: Guys…

Andrew: Okay, that’s cool, I guess.

Mikey: Guys, I need to give a shout-out and the only reason is…

Andrew: [laughs] Okay. Thank you, Casey, for calling.

Mikey: I need to give a shout-out.

Andrew: Yeah.

Mikey: I went to the SPoT chatroom. Guys, I went to the SPoT chatroom, that S-P-lowercase o-T chatroom.

Andrew: Uh-huh.

Mikey: And I have to give a big shout-out to them because someone wrote there “Boomshakalaka.”

[Andrew laughs]

Mikey: Give it up for bringing Boomshakalaka back! I’m going to start saying “Boomshakalaka,” really. It’s like, Boomshakalaka!

[Andrew laughs]

Mikey: Mikey B! Mikey B says Boomshakalaka!

Andrew: Thank God you have energy.

Jaime: Mikey, have you had any e-mails yet?

Mikey: Hey, I just – you know what? Leslie just brought me some watermelon and…

Jaime: Ooh.

Mikey: If you guys don’t know, Leslie is my girlfriend. She’s here with me. And she brought me some watermelon and watermelon is pretty tasty, I must say.

Jaime: It is.

Mikey: And come on, Boomshakalaka!

[Andrew laughs]

Jaime: Mikey, have you had any e-mails with “Mikey B!” impersonations yet?

Mikey: Yeah, I got a few. I got a few. Seriously, send your “Mikey B”…

Jaime: Any decent ones or have they been done before?

Mikey: Send your “Mikey B” e-mails, people. Wait, what? Sorry, I wasn’t paying attention, I was talking.

Jaime: Have they been done before or are they – any original ones?

Mikey: No, there is one. I sent you one on Skype, a link to one, where this person is singing in harmony and it’s like, [singing in ascending scales] “Mikey, Mikey, Mikey!” And then all of a sudden it goes, [sings in a deep voice] “B!”

Mikey’s Tattoo, Prophecy

Andrew: Oh yeah. Melanie, hi. You’re live on the show.

Caller: Hey!

Mikey: Hi, Melanie.

Andrew: Hey!

Jerry: Hey, Mel.

Andrew: How are you doing?

Caller: Mikey and Jerry, what’s up?

[Jerry laughs]

Andrew: Now, wait a second. Jerry addressed Melanie as “Mel,” meaning that I think they know each other.

Caller: Ahhh, no. No, we don’t.

[Jerry laughs]

Andrew: Okay, whatever.

Jerry: Okay, we don’t.

Mikey: Anyway, hi!

Andrew: Hey, Mel. Hey, nickname.

Caller: It’s “South Jersey” Melanie.

Andrew: Oh yeah, I know. I know.

[Caller laughs]

Andrew: I really get offended. People are like…

Mikey: Hey!

Andrew: …”Remember me?” Yeah, I remember you! Why wouldn’t I?

[Caller laughs]

Andrew: Like Melanie, she said that last time I met you wherever…

Mikey: Melanie was one of the first people to see my tattoo done.

Andrew: Why, was she in California?

Mikey: She was at California. She was at The Remus Lupins show that night.

Andrew: Why were you in California? How did you end up out there?

Mikey: Oh, actually no. I got my…

Caller: No, no, my friend Grace, she invited me to California with her and then we weren’t doing anything that night and we’re like, “Oh look, Alex is playing a show,” so we went and we saw the show. It was fun.

Andrew: [laughs] Yeah right, you had that planned for months!

Mikey: Wait, wait…

Andrew: Whatever.

[Caller laughs]

Mikey: Melanie, that was the night I played saxophone with The Remus Lupins, right?

Caller: Yeah!

Mikey: Yeah, I played saxophone with them.

Andrew: Mikey just wanted to throw in there that he [laughs] played saxophone with them.

Jaime: [laughs] Yeah, yeah.

Mikey: Yeah, yeah, I kind of did. I’m sorry.

Jaime: That was the night they closed that billion dollar deal and made five billion pounds.

Andrew: Yeah.

Mikey: Yeah.

Andrew: “I did that thing with those prestigious people.”

Mikey: That thing with the rock and roll band. You know, what can I say?

[Loud beep noise]

Andrew: Owww. Okay.

Caller: But Andrew, I was so confused. You recognized me because I looked so different. I mean, I was wearing pajamas and I had Rita sunglasses on and I had…

Andrew: Was that at Prophecy?

[Loud beep noise]

Andrew: Okay, stop hitting the numbers on your phone. Where was that, Prophecy?

Caller: Yeah, it was the pajama contest.

Andrew: Right, right.

[Caller laughs]

Andrew: Yeah, why wouldn’t I – if I know someone, I know someone.

[Jerry laughs]

Andrew: I recognize their facial features and their physical attributes. Stuff like that.

[Caller laughs]

Andrew: So yeah, okay. So why did you call in today?

Caller: I have no idea.

Andrew: [laughs] Okay. Well…

[Jerry laughs]

Caller: I kept telling Mikey I would listen to MuggleCast again and I hadn’t actually done it.

Andrew: Again? You mean you stopped?

Caller: What? Jen? No, Jen didn’t make me stop.

Andrew: No, no, no, I said “Again?”

Caller: [laughs] Oh.

Andrew: Whatever. Never mind.

[Jerry laughs]

Andrew: I’m confused.

Caller: [laughs] I thought you said – I’m sorry, my brother and my friend are laughing hysterically in the room and I really don’t want to say why they’re laughing, so… [laughs]

Andrew: Oh okay.

Caller: [laughs] No, stop, stop! No, but – oh no, I just got busy and stuff, and things got crazy, so yeah.

Andrew: Okay. Well, thank you for that. Thank you for calling.

Caller: Hi to Chloe and Jacky, by the way.

Andrew: Yeah, shout-out! Woo! I’m just messing with you because I know you.

Caller: Oh, and Iki if she’s listening.

Andrew: Okay.

Jerry: Yay, Iki! Woo!

Mikey: Hi!

[Caller laughs]

Andrew: Yeah, see, Jerry, you do know these people. Thanks for calling in, Melanie.

Mikey: I know…

Jerry: She did name-drop Rita, the lovely Rita, my Facebook wife.

Mikey: Oh, is that Rita Gill we’re talking about?

Jerry: Yeah, yeah.

Jaime: Your Facebook wife.

Jerry: Yes.

MuggleCast 113 Transcript (continued)

Who the Girl Is in Andrew and Jamie’s “Relationship”?

Andrew: Jamie, remember when you and I used to be in a relationship on Facebook?

[Jerry laughs]

Jaime: Oh, I do, yes. That was ages ago!

Mikey: I’m in a relationship with you, Jamie, on Facebook.

Andrew: I only bring that up because there’s rumors in the Ustream chat right now that Jamie and I have something going on.

Jerry: Jamdrew.

Mikey: Ooh.

[Andrew and Jerry laugh]

Andrew: Yeah.

Mikey: Awww.

[Jerry and Mikey laugh]

Andrew: Allison, hi.

[Prolonged silence]

Andrew: Allison, hi.

Caller: Hi.

Andrew: You’re live on MuggleCast. What’s going on?

Caller: Hi. Hold on, let me turn off my thing.

Andrew: Thank you. I love all these concerned people.

Jaime: Andrew, can I just say, I’m extremely concerned that in this chat, I’m the girlfriend.

[Caller laughs]

Jaime: I’m the female in this relationship.

Jerry: Well, you are feminine. [laughs]

Mikey: Since when did Jamie become a female?

Andrew: JJ, what do you think? Who’s the girl in this relationship?

Jaime: It’s clearly Andrew, isn’t it?

Jerry: Who wears the trousers?

Mikey: Well, come on, guys…

JJ: Why are you referring to me to answer…

Mikey: …Andrew is the one that liked Hairspray how many times?

Andrew: Because I know you’ll side with me, JJ. [laughs]

JJ: Yeah, I think we both need to look into our closets to see who has more sweater vests.

[Andrew and Jamie laugh]

JJ: [unintelligible] right, Jamie?

Jaime: Yes, I agree.

Andrew: [laughs] Well, I’ll say right now I did buy one last week. Bought a new one last week.

Jerry: I think the chat is a bit torn about…

Andrew: I admit to it.

Jerry: That should be a poll.

Andrew: I bought a sweater vest. I like the sweater vest. Sorry.

JJ: It takes a [unintelligible] person to be able to pull off the sweater vest.

Caller: It must look amazing on you, Andrew.

Andrew: Oh, thank you, Allison. So anyway, what are you calling in about today?

Caller: Well, I really wanted to be on MuggleCast because it’s been kind of my life’s dream since I saw it.

Andrew: Really?

Jaime: Since you were born.

Andrew: That’s awesome.

Caller: I love it a lot.

Andrew: Oh good, glad to hear you enjoy it.

Caller: And so…

Andrew: Oh God, damn it.

[Prolonged silence]

Andrew: [laughs] I am really going crazy right now, I’m sorry. I’m trying to get Laura in this conversation, I just put everyone on hold and hung up on the caller. So, that was…

JJ: [unintelligible]

Jerry: The next poll will be: Who’s the girl, Jamie or Andrew?

Andrew: That’s a good poll question.

Jerry: Yeah.

Mikey: Who’s the girl in the relationship?

Jerry: Who’s the girl, Jamie or Andrew? New poll.

Andrew: Okay. Let me try to get this caller back. I feel bad now.

Mikey: If I was in this contest I would be the man no matter what. If it was like Jamie or Andrew. Okay, I’m stopping.

Andrew: Yeah, I actually don’t think you win. Here’s someone who…

Mikey: Huh?! [laughs]

Andrew: Karen!

Caller: Hi!

Jerry: I love Karen.

Andrew: How are you doing?

[Callers squeal]

Jerry: Karen is amazing. Karen designed my desktop wallpaper.

Andrew: What’s going on?

Caller: Hi!

Andrew: Hey, are you excited to be on or something?

Mikey: It sounds like there’s more than one person there.

Caller: Hi, this is Karen and Diana.

Caller 2: Hi!

[Jerry laughs]

Andrew: Hi! How are you doing today?

Jaime: Hey!

Caller: Wait, I turned it off so we can’t hear them.

Andrew: [laughs] You hear us now?

Caller: Hey!

Andrew: Hi! How are you doing?

Caller: Hey, this is Karen from the MuggleCast Fan Forums.

Andrew: What’s going on?

[Callers laugh]

Caller: We’ve just been trying all day, yeah.

Andrew: What?

Jerry: They’ve been trying all day.

Andrew: Oh, you’ve been trying all day. Sorry. Well, I’m glad you got through. What’s on your mind? What do you want to talk about?

Caller: Umm, we never really planned it.

[Callers laugh]

Jaime: Anything you want. Anything that’s on your mind.

Caller: Wait, is Jerry here?

Andrew: Who?

Jerry: I am.

JJ: Yeah, I’m right here.

[Andrew laughs]

Caller: Oh, hi. I’ve been talking to you on Facebook for the past day.

Jerry: Really? Can I just say, Karen rocks. She designed a super amazing wallpaper for Fandom ForeCast. So lots of love to Karen.

Jaime: Awww.

Andrew: Very cool.

Caller: Okay…

Andrew: Karen, you’re just the best.

Jerry: Using it right now.

Andrew: All right. Well, Karen, you fail. You don’t have a question so we’re going to try to take some other calls.

Mikey: Awww, don’t say that.

Andrew: No, I mean that nicely. I mean that nicely.

Mikey: Karen, truthfully, don’t worry. Andrew fails at life. He knows he doesn’t have one already so it’s all right, you win.

JJ: Andrew, can we give her a question?

Andrew: [laughs] Yeah, go…

Mikey: Give her a question?

Andrew: Good question – [laughs] I mean good question about the question.

Mikey: Give her a question.

JJ: All right, Karen. Karen, you with me?

Caller: Yeah.

JJ: You’re breathing? You and your friend?

[Andrew laughs]

Discussion: Names of Harry and Ginny’s Children

JJ: We’re okay? All right, here’s a thinker for you: In the epilogue, we find out that Harry and Ginny get married, yes? And they have a kid, and the kid is named Albus Severus. They can throw out some respect for Albus and Severus, but they don’t give a shout-out to the brother of Ginny who died. Any explanation for that? They don’t give a Fred name?

Mikey: Well, how…

Caller: Because George would have named his kid Fred.

Caller 2: They also forgot about Sirius.

JJ: True.

Andrew: Yeah, you can’t name everyone. I mean, what about Cedric and…

JJ: Yeah, but Severus was a jerk.

Caller 2: Well, he tried.

Caller: And it’s already confusing enough. [laughs]

Caller 2: They’re totally ridiculous names that will get them beat up in school.

Mikey: Guys…

JJ: [unintelligible] Severus was just some weirdo perv that liked Lily.

Mikey: [laughs] Guys…

JJ: Right?

Jaime: Ooh.

Mikey: All right. Guys, they can have whatever names they want. They can be Wulfric, all these different names. It would matter, you know why? Because they’re Harry Potter’s son and daughter. Do you realize that automatically makes you cool? You’d just be like, “Oh my gosh, you’re like Harry Potter.”

Jaime: No. Mikey, Mikey, that completely goes against what Dumbledore would say. As Ben – I can’t do it as well as Ben, but it is our choices.

[Andrew laughs]

Jaime: You can’t be cool just because you’re Harry Potter’s son. If you’re awesome, then being Harry Potter’s son just increases that awesomeness. But it ain’t awesomeness for being someone’s child.

JJ: Are you less awesome if your name is Fred?

[Andrew and Mikey laugh]

Mikey: Well, I don’t know. See, my name is Mikey and I have to get it to where – “I’m Mikey B!”

JJ: That has to [unintelligible] your whole life.

Mikey: So you could base it up, but really – [laughs] that’s been my whole life. I’ve been working on getting the “Mikey B” all the way up there.

Jaime: But Mikey…

Mikey: And – yeah?

Jaime: You’ve got to – I think people have to earn the sort of ability to say, “Mi-mi!” You know?

[Mikey laughs]

Jaime: They need to – you can’t just come out with it. You have to be invited into the fraternity. And then perhaps after years and years of telepathy…

Mikey: [unintelligible]

Jaime: …and self-worship then you might, might be able to go “Mik” and then you get stuck and then after twenty more years, you can go “Mi-mi!”

Andrew: All right. Well, thank you, Karen, for calling in.

Mikey: Thanks, Karen.

Andrew: We still got…

Mikey: You don’t fail.

Andrew: Yeah, I’m just kidding, you don’t fail. Let’s take a quick break, get two people in here, and then we will be right back. A lot of people are requesting Spice Girls “If You Wanna Be My Lover,” so this is it.

Mikey: Is that an appropriate song?

Andrew: Yeah.

[“If You Wanna Be My Lover” by Spice Girls plays]

Discussion: Polyjuice Potion and Harry Potter Relationships

Andrew: [sings in time to the music] MuggleCast. MuggleCast Live. MuggleCast Live. Cast Live. Cast Live, Live, Live. [stops singing] We’re back!

Mikey: That was really, really cool.

Andrew: Everyone is more pumped than ever. And two people are back with us now: Alex of The Remus Lupins and Brandon, that random guy…

Mikey: From The Remus Lupins.

[Andrew and Mikey laugh]

Mikey: He’s part of The Remus Lupins.

Andrew: He’s part of The Remus Lupins.

Brandon Nicholas: Oh really?

Andrew: No, you don’t have to say that.

Brandon: Thank you.

Andrew: I’m quoting the newspaper article.

Mikey: Brandon is homeboy of The Remus Lupins.

Alex Carpenter: Our homeboy.

Andrew: [laughs] Homeboy, that’s it!

Brandon: Homeboy.

Andrew: I forgot. [laughs]

Jaime: Andrew, I think we should point out now that we’re in the last fifty minutes of the twelve hours.

Mikey: So what was the last vegetable?

Andrew: Yeah, name the last one. Or is there still one more? I’m confused.

Jaime: No, no. The last one is the one I’m going to say right now.

Brandon: Snow peas.

Jaime: Huh?

Brandon: Snow peas.

Mikey: Was it snow peas?

Jaime: Peas was the last one.

Brandon: Snow peas is the last one?

Jaime: Yeah, yeah.

Andrew: What his peas was. I think Brandon is [laughs] making it differentiate.

Mikey: No, no, I said “snow peas.” I said “snow peas.”

Andrew: [laughs] Snow peas?

Jaime: Snow peas? Okay, okay, fine, fine. The final one is snow peas, there you go.

[Andrew laughs]

Jaime: You’ve been listening for twelve hours, now you have twelve lovely and delightful vegetables.

Andrew: So everyone has to e-mail all the…

Mikey: No, no – eight and eight – sixteen seconds difference.

Andrew: Oh.

Jaime: Mikey…

Mikey: A sixteen second difference between the two, the first place and second place. Yeah.

Andrew: [laughs] Okay, okay. Well, congrats to them. Get their Skype name and then maybe we’ll get them on the show or something.

Mikey: Yeah. Well, here’s her e-mail.

Andrew: Okay. Well…

Jaime: E-mail her and ask her her Skype name.

Andrew: Figure it out. Okay, JJ, you actually had an interesting question to pose to the panel here.

JJ: I did. I’m just trying to think of how to word this. All right, we’ll go to Mikey with this first.

Andrew: [laughs] Okay.

Mikey: Okay.

JJ: All right, Mikey. You look in your bathtub and you happen to find a vial of Polyjuice Potion, all right? You’re in the Harry Potter world.

Mikey: All right.

JJ: Who do you become in order to hook up with a Harry Potter person of your dreams?

Mikey: To hook up with a Harry Potter person of my dreams?

JJ: Who are you stepping in as?

Mikey: Ooh. See, that’s the problem, is…

JJ: Are you a Hermione guy? Are you a Luna – you strike me as a Luna guy.

Mikey: No, no, I’m a Ginny guy.

JJ: Professor McGonagall?

Mikey: I’m a Ginny guy, but the thing is if I can be anybody in Harry Potter that I could impersonate…

JJ: Yeah, but you’re using it for your own…

Mikey: For my own inferious means to – yeah.

Jaime: Yeah, yeah.

Mikey: Well, I’m sorry, I would have to impersonate Harry to – I’m a Harry/Ginny person. I’m a Ginny fan.

Andrew: Huh, interesting. Interesting.

Mikey: Yeah. But if I could be anybody, I’d probably want to be just like Hagrid walking around.

Jaime: Yeah.

Mikey: Because everybody loves Hagrid and he’s so big.

JJ: You like that seven foot, eight foot chick that he hooks up in the fourth movie?

Mikey: No, no, not at all.

[Andrew laughs]

Mikey: Not at all.

JJ: Because that’s what…

Mikey: If I could just be anybody to…

Jaime: That’s what Mikey…

[Andrew laughs]

Mikey: If I can just be anybody to walk around as – dude, Hagrid is like the coolest around because no one can own up to him, come on. He didn’t die – [laughs] he should have died like a hundred times in the last book, but he didn’t. Why?

Jaime: That’s true.

Mikey: [laughs] Because he’s just like part giant. He’s awesome.

JJ: All right. Andrew, how about you?

Alex: And who do you think…

Andrew: Go ahead, Alex.

Alex: I was going to say, just what about Chewbacca? I mean…

Andrew: [laughs] What?

Mikey: Chewy is a Wookie, though.

Alex: We had this discussion last night, sorry.

Andrew: [laughs] Oh okay.

Alex: I was defending Hagrid and Mikey was defending Chewbacca, so I’m going to point that out.

Mikey: It’s Chewbacca. All right, I’m stopping.

Alex: I’m sorry. Go ahead. Go ahead, you guys.

Andrew: Okay. Umm. Geez. [laughs] Oh man. All right – [laughs] now I feel like this is inappropriate for the show. But…

Alex: [laughs] Hour ten. Hour eleven.

Andrew: [laughs] Yeah. Hour twelve, dude! I would have to say Harry as well.

JJ: You’re a Ginny guy too?

Andrew: Yeah. Because I can’t think of any other relationship. I can’t think of any other Harry Potter character that…

JJ: You could be Cedric and there’s Cho Chang.

Andrew: Oh, Cho. Yeah, but that’s not current. That’s – and plus, Cedric is dead, so…

JJ: You could be Lupin if you’re a Tonks guy. Come on.

[Andrew laughs]

JJ: Get it together.

Andrew: Yeah, but…

Mikey: Oh, Lupin maybe. Yeah, still Ginny.

Andrew: I like Tonks in the movie.

JJ: Giant weirdos.

Andrew: [laughs] Yeah, I don’t want to turn into a werewolf.

Brandon: Lupin is pretty boring. I don’t know about Lupin.

Andrew: Yeah, Brandon, who would you transform into?

Brandon: You know, you’re asking a very good question and I would actually go for Samwise Gamgee.

Alex: That’s not…

Brandon: If I could be anybody.

[Andrew and Mikey laugh]

Mikey: Yes! He is Samwise. He is Samwise.

Andrew: Oh my God. Okay.

Mikey: This is turning really bad. Let’s continue.

Andrew: And Alex?

Alex: Are we in Harry Potter or – I forgot because we keep talking about other things.

Andrew: No, we are still on Harry Potter.

Alex: Lupin’s the man, so…

Brandon: Alex from The Remus Lupins, what would you be?

Andrew: [laughs] Yeah. I sort of saw that coming.

Brandon: Alex from The Remus Lupins, what would you be in any book out of…

Alex: Here we go. Are you ready?

Brandon: Yes.

Alex: Are you ready? I would turn into Tonks…

[Andrew and Mikey laugh]

Alex: …so I can hang out with Lupin. [laughs] Because he’s so awesome!

Mikey: [laughs] Alex, you would turn into Tonks to hook up with yourself. That is awesome.

[Alex laughs]

Mikey: Awww, I bow down to you. Not worthy. That’s great.

Andrew: That’s understandable, though.

Alex: I don’t know, I think obviously Ginny is awesome. How can you not want Ginny?

Andrew: Although – yeah.

JJ: So…

Alex: I like Luna though, so maybe I’d turn into Neville.

Andrew: Before you said Ginny though, I was going to say I’ve been reading blogs and things would suggest otherwise but I guess that’s not the case now, so…

Jaime: Ooh.

Andrew: Just me? Just me?

Mikey: What?

Andrew: Just kidding.

Alex: Let’s let that one go.

Andrew: [laughs] I’m just kidding.

[Alex laughs]

Andrew: Anyway, what were you saying, JJ?

JJ: Did Jamie have an answer for that?

Andrew: [laughs] Oh yeah, Jamie.

JJ: Jamie wants to be Mr. Weasley?

Jaime: Yes.

[Everyone laughs]

Jaime: Molly Weasley fills me with joy.

Alex: So true.

Jaime: I would be Ron because Hermione.

JJ: Yeah?

Jaime: Hermione is a… [unintelligible]

Requests for Jamie to Sing

Andrew: Jamie, a lot of people are requesting in the chat that you start singing. Everyone thinks…

Jaime: It’s not going to happen.

Alex: Do it.

Jaime: [laughs] It’s just not going to happen. May as well give up now. [laughs] It’s too late. It’s too, too, too…

Andrew: Well, you sang eight hours ago when it wasn’t too late, so…

Jaime: Oh really, Andrew? I don’t think I was.

Andrew: [laughs] Yes, you were.

Alex: No, Jamie, you said sing.

Jaime: [unintelligible]

Andrew: No, we had a discussion earlier today about the singing thing and you said you would never sing and I said, “Fair point.”

Jaime: Yes.

Andrew: I’m with you on this.

Mikey: Wait, but he sang that song really quietly as a joke and he didn’t realize he was actually singing. So he did sing.

Brandon: Talk about the blowing up, you guys.

Alex: Yeah, you promised, Jamie. You promised.

Brandon: Sing, sing, sing.

Alex: You promised. John Noe, you promised. John Noe.

[Mikey laughs]

Brandon: Jamie, sing, sing, sing. Do it, do it. Sing. LOL. Sing.

Alex: [laughs] You promised.

Andrew: Wait, I’m lost. What does it have to do with John Noe?

Jaime: I’m lost as well.

Alex: I don’t know, I’m just reading the talkback.

Andrew: Oh.

Jaime: [laughs] Oh.

Andrew: Yeah, the chat’s pretty crazy right now.

Alex: [laughs] It’s giving me a headache.

Andrew: It’s giving me a headache, too.

Brandon: Sing.

[Alex laughs]

Andrew: Yeah.

Mikey: Jamie, you should sing “I Did It My Way” because you made it all twelve hours but you did it your way to get through. You left at times, came back.

Andrew: We do actually have one song that Jamie requested for the very end…

Jaime: Yeah.

Andrew: …but I guess we won’t spoil it now.

Alex: Yeah, don’t…

Andrew: That’s the one song that’s prepared for this whole…

Jaime: Not that it takes away to…

Andrew: Alex, we were playing some of your wizard rock over break. Did you see that?

Alex: Oh yeah?

Andrew: Yeah, we played…

Alex: Yeah, I listened to the whole show, man.

[Alex and Andrew laugh]

Alex: I didn’t ever leave.

Andrew: No, no, no, I mean this past break, like twenty minutes ago…

Alex: Oh.

Andrew: …before we got you in here. We were playing “Snape.”

Alex: Oh yeah. I got a lot of IM’s. People were very excited.

Andrew: Cool, cool.

Mikey: See…

Andrew: I’m telling you guys, you need to record a live album! That would be awesome.

Alex: Yeah.

Andrew: I know it would be hard, but it would be awesome. It would be very cool.

Alex: I was actually thinking we might do that. We might do something like that.

Brandon: I don’t think it should be a live CD.

Mikey: Yeah, a live show DVD. We could film it and everything and…

Andrew: There you go! I’d be down for that.

Alex: As long as you guys come out and sing on “Looking for Trouble.”

Andrew: Oh, of course.

Mikey: [singing] “Badaba!”

Andrew: Of course. Actually, can we just cut in a YouTube clip? Because there’s plenty of those…

Alex: [laughs] Sure.

Andrew: …on YouTube. [laughs] That would be fun.

Mikey: Don’t forget that.

Andrew: And on Facebook.

Alex: Jalex. [laughs] That’s amazing.

MuggleCast 113 Transcript (continued)

MuggleCast Summer Tour Stories

Andrew: So okay, we got forty minutes left to go. What do you guys want to do? [laughs] Because obviously – we haven’t looked at the schedule for a while because…

Alex: Can I – wait, wait.

Andrew: What?

Alex: I have to say I’ve been kind of getting in and out of the chat, the talkback thing.

Andrew: Yeah.

Alex: And I don’t want to do a shout-out, but I’m going to do a shout-out to the people who’ve been in this talkback for the last twelve hours. [laughs]

Andrew: Yeah.

Alex: They’ve lost their minds just as much as you guys have.

Jaime: Those are the real champions.

Andrew: Yeah.

Alex: So – yeah, they’re heroes.

Andrew: They’re heroes.

Mikey: They’re heroes. And with great power comes great responsibility, all you chat-back people.

Andrew: Come around hour four – I didn’t think we’d be able to do this but definitely in the future – oh, and to be honest with you, last night I thought this live show wasn’t happening [laughs] because we were having a lot of technical problems.

Jaime: Yeah, we had some serious problems. We thought we were going to have to abandon this show and just do an extra long pre-recorded show.

Andrew: Yeah. But stream it. Yeah, nobody was up for that, instead we were all for the twelve-hour thing. Sorry that not everyone came on as promised, like Micah and Kevin and – well, Ben came on.

Mikey: Yeah, what happened to Kevin?

Andrew: Kevin told me he had a lot of homework. He said he could be on for part of it, but who knows what happens. Everyone keeps saying – making up these lies about Ben in the chat. Don’t really appreciate that. Ben is my friend.

Jaime: Yeah, we don’t like rumors, do we?

Andrew: We don’t encourage that sort of thing. These assumptions that aren’t true. But anyway, Alex and Brandon?

Alex: Yeah?

Brandon: Yes?

Andrew: Give us something to talk about. [laughs]

Brandon: I have some good stories. Some good stories about Alex as a child. I could talk about growing up with him in the meadows in Kansas.

Andrew: The meadows in – wait, I thought you didn’t ever live in Kansas.

Brandon: Yeah, I never did.

Alex: Usually we don’t let Brandon talk.

Andrew: Yeah, now I see why he’s not in the band.

Alex: He’s – oh.

[Andrew laughs]

Mikey: Oh, that is so…

Andrew: These are jokes! Why can’t anyone find this funny? It’s a joke.

Alex: Because you hurt our hearts.

Andrew: But you just said – never mind. Whatever.

[Alex laughs]

Andrew: You – [sighs] forget it.

Alex: Oh my God.

Andrew: I’m done. I’m done.

Alex: Something funny to talk about. You should tell more funny tour stories, I think, because this summer was amazing.

Mikey: Hey, you know what?

Andrew: The tour was great. I can’t think of many tour stories though other than like Ben [laughs] running into cones.

Mikey: Didn’t he crash the car? Did we talk about that?

Andrew: [laughs] Yeah, he did crash the car. Everyone keeps saying he crashed the car. It was…

Mikey: [laughs] I wasn’t in the van. I was in the van with Alex. That’s when we got pulled over.

Alex: Oh yeah, that’s when I got a ticket.

Mikey: Yeah!

Andrew: So you bring that up but I can’t make a joke about Brandon. Okay.

[Andrew and Mikey laugh]

Mikey: You talk about Brandon. I heard Brandon had some strong influence on why Ben did this. He’s like, “I’d be ashamed if you didn’t,” or something like that.

Brandon: I would have. I’m in the car and I see this happening. And it’s going to happen no matter what, you know Ben had his mind set on it, so I kind of was like, “You know what? I’d be upset if you didn’t. Why not?”

Andrew: [laughs] Yeah?

[Mikey laughs]

Andrew: So Ben decides to drive into stationary construction cones that aren’t designed to move, and I didn’t think – I thought he was just going to love-tap one, just sort of like a little tap.

[Mikey laughs]

Andrew: He sort of drives right over it and we knocked out our light and stuff. Did we ever pay extra for that? Do you know?

Mikey: No, no…

Andrew: Mikey?

Mikey: We paid for the…

Jaime: Yeah, it was…

Mikey: …ultra insurance thing, so no matter what happened to the car…

Andrew: Oh right.

Mikey: And I remember…

Alex: Didn’t you guys…

Mikey: Yeah, basically we got the super – honestly, if you ever go through Hertz, get the super insurance because they’ll pay you if your car gets broken into or anything like that happens. And each person had like $10,000 worth of insurance on them.

Jaime: No, Mikey…

Mikey: So if Ben died, we would have gotten money for him.

Jaime: Didn’t we realize that we could send that car back to them in pieces…

[Mikey laughs]

Jaime: …like completely crushed, and everything would be covered?

Andrew: Yeah, the Hertz guy actually said to us you can send it back to us in a box [laughs] and…

Mikey: [laughs] We wanted to.

Andrew: …we’ll be covered.

[Jamie laughs]

Mikey: And we were like, “Wow.”

Brandon: Hey, Alex, why didn’t we get insurance on our van? I mean, if something happened to the van.

Alex: I don’t know, how come we drove into… [unintelligible]

[Mikey laughs]

Alex: …and got our car stuck there?

[Andrew laughs]

Alex: [laughs] Or how come we backed into a pole? How about that?

Brandon: The key word: I did, not we.

Alex: [laughs] Yes.

Andrew: But you got to give…

Brandon: But it sounded like a good idea at the time. I don’t know.

[Alex laughs]

Andrew: But I got to give you guys credit because you’re driving cross-country up to Buffalo, New York, then up to Canada, then back to LA with a million stops along the way.

Jaime: That’s a long, long, long tour.

Andrew: And you all came back in one piece. That’s a pretty good accomplishment.

Alex: Yeah.

Andrew: And you guys had a great tour. So…

Alex: Pretty good summer.

Andrew: Yeah.

Brandon: Although we came back and I had gingivitis and Alex missed a leg, but we were barely…

[Jamie laughs]

Andrew: Missing legs? [laughs] What?

Alex: Luckily I only missed one leg. I only lost one leg. But the thing is the insurance covered it, luckily, so…

Brandon: Yeah, we got paid for his leg.

Andrew: Well, that’s very interesting.

Brandon: Awkward.

Andrew: I commented on Alex’s Wall the other day that every time I see a big blue Ford van I’m always peering in it to make sure [laughs] it’s not Alex in the van driving around somewhere. Brings back memories.

Jaime: Your van was an absolute beast.

Andrew: I think the best part of tour was just being able to – I just enjoyed it some much, the “tour life.” You just have a show day after day, you check into a hotel, you stay the night, you have fun with all your friends…

Jaime: Yeah.

Andrew: …and you’re back on the road.

Jaime: Big Western was our friend.

Andrew: Seriously, I’m a Big Western fan now.

Jaime: Me too. I am now.

Alex: Yes, the…

Jaime: Apart from one thing.

Mikey: Uh-oh.

Jaime: The sink is outside of the bathroom which just…

Mikey: Hey, guys?

Andrew: What, Mikey?

Mikey: Remember how I said Celine was the winner of our contest?

Andrew: Yeah.

Jaime: Yeah.

Mikey: I sent three e-mails and they all get bounced back to me.

Andrew: Uh-oh.

Mikey: Three.

Jaime: Ooh.

Mikey: And I sent them from all different e-mail accounts so it’s not my e-mail program or anything like that. I even logged into the MuggleNet web one and it still got bounced back. So…

Andrew: Well, maybe have her e-mail you and try to prove – maybe she just got one letter in her e-mail address wrong.

Jaime: Probably, yeah.

Mikey: Yeah. So Celine, if you can e-mail us – we’ll wait another ten, fifteen minutes, maybe?

Andrew: Yeah.

Mikey: Before we go to the second place person.

Andrew: That’s fine.

Mikey: Okay.

Andrew: I guess we’ll take a few more callers.

Brandon: Yeah, yeah.

Andrew: And Brandon is very excited about that.

Mikey: Bran-don.

Brandon: I love callers.

Andrew: Well, good. You can talk to them. Here we go.

Brandon: Awesome.

Andrew: Here’s Dana. Oh, hold on a second. Okay, we got to kick someone out. JJ, I’m going to let you go because we are at our limit here. So thanks, JJ, for being on.

Mikey: Bye!

Andrew: JJ?

JJ: Yeah. Oh, I’m sorry, I actually left like twenty minutes ago. I was just sitting here.

Andrew: [laughs] Okay. All right.

Mikey: Listening through here instead of on the other feed.

Andrew: Yeah. All right. Well…

JJ: [unintelligible] show, guys.

Andrew: Thanks for coming on.

Mikey: Buh-bye.

Andrew: Steve Capello. Okay, let’s answer…

Mikey: Who to call?

Andrew: Got to redo this. Here we go. Lena…

Brandon: Why is everything John Noe on the frickin’ talkback?

Andrew: I don’t know. John Noe is not there.

Alex: Let me say something about this.

Caller: Hello?

Alex: This is MuggleCast, you guys.

Andrew: Yeah, this is MuggleCast.

Alex: This is not PotterCast.

Andrew: This is also a twelve-hour MuggleCast meaning this is not what a normal MuggleCast is like.

Alex: Live.

Listener Calls: Harry Potter Connections to Hinduism

Andrew: And we’re trying to do more of a radio program here, not just Harry Potter. It’s sort of an experiment. But anyway, hi Lena!

Caller: Hi!

Andrew: What’s going on?

Caller: I’ve been here since noon.

Andrew: Okay.

Mikey: Yay!

Andrew: Awesome.

Caller: [laughs] Yeah. I’m here with my friend Veronica.

Caller 2: Hi!

Andrew: Hi!

Brandon: Hey!

Caller: I kind of actually had a point that I’ve wanted to bring up. I’ve e-mailed this in to you guys before, but I’m taking a comparative religion class in school right now and we’re learning all about Hinduism. And I know that J.K. Rowling is very Christian and she puts that kind of stuff into the books, but I found some interesting things that are connections to Harry Potter in Hinduism.

Andrew: Oh okay. Like what?

Caller: For example, one of the gods Shiva, they have a snake tied around their neck and the snake is called Naga which is kind of like Nagini.

Jaime: Ooh.

Andrew: Ooh.

Caller: And the god Shiva is the creator and the destroyer.

Andrew: Wow.

Caller: Which is kind of like Voldemort.

Andrew: Yeah.

Jaime: She puts a load of…

Caller: And also…

Jaime: …mythology things in.

Caller: What?

Jaime: She puts a load of references like that in. Like, Fenrir Greyback – the wolf Fenrir from Norse mythology is one of the beasts that’s involved in Ragnarˆk, the end of the world.

Caller: Mhm.

Jaime: So she’s a big fan of symbolism like that. Sorry, go on.

Caller: Yeah, and the crying baby at the end of Book 7 in King’s Cross, that kind of goes back to the idea of reincarnation, that maybe this baby was born after Tom Riddle was killed and it carried all the bad Karma that Voldemort and Tom Riddle had, and that’s why it’s this tortured, mangled baby.

Andrew: Hmm. That’s pretty interesting.

Caller: I don’t know if this is intentional.

Andrew: Oh, you’re wondering if it’s intentional. Like Jamie was saying, there is a lot of religious connections, but – I don’t know. What do you think, Mikey?

Mikey: I would say probably some if not completely intentional. The names like “Remus,” there’s so many different things there.

[Andrew talks in the background]

Mikey: Lupin, come on. It’s wolf and – there’s so many things that – what? Andrew, pay attention.

[Caller laughs]

Mikey: Okay. So anyway, yeah, I think it’s intentional. What do you think, Alex?

Alex: I was just listening to the dance party that Andrew is having.

Mikey: [laughs] I know. It’s a little distracting.

Alex: Yeah, certainly. J.K. Rowling is very well versed in all sorts of literature and she’s drawing from all the sort of – I mean, the names are just a tip of the iceberg if you were to look at it.

Mikey: Yeah.

Alex: In terms of the form of the book. She’s drawing from every sort of fantasy convention ever, and putting it together to make something bigger and better. So the names are just kind of a hint at that.

Caller: Yeah, and I love that. I think maybe just because I’m a huge fan I find connections in everything, but… [laughs]

Alex: That’s really cool though because there’s obvious connections to the sort of Christian tradition, but to see that she is pulling it from all sorts of world religions makes you have even more respect for her.

Caller: Yeah.

Mikey: Yeah, I totally agree with Alex on that. It’s nice to know that she’s not just keeping this narrow mind on it. She’s pulling it from everywhere. Again, with the Norse religion and something. And I know she’s pulled from a lot of other things. I had a world religion class and as I started getting into Harry Potter and I found connections everywhere with all the different religions and stuff like that, I thought it was really cool. But I never really went anymore onto it because there’s all these different things everywhere for it, so – but it’s really cool just thinking about how she’s pulling from everywhere. It’s not just a narrow mind thing that she has. And that’s one of the reasons why I like her so much.

Caller: Yeah. Is Andrew still here?

Andrew: Yeah, I’m still here. There’s a bunch of girls in my room right now. It’s really annoying.

Mikey: Woah!

Alex: [unintelligible]

Andrew: Okay…

Mikey: Oh, poor Andrew.

Andrew: Thank you…

Mikey: Who’s there, Andrew?

Andrew: Thank you, Lena, for calling.

Mikey: Is Becca there?

Andrew: They won’t leave.

Mikey: Who’s in your room?

Andrew: Shut up! Go away! It’s Becca and all of her friends.

[Laughing in the background]

Andrew: For some reason they’re all…

Mikey: [in a silly voice] Becca!

[Laughing in the background]

Andrew: [in a silly voice] Becca!

Mikey: [in a silly voice] Becca!

Andrew: [in a silly voice] Becca! [back to normal voice] Micah called me. He’s ready to come on now.

Mikey: Who, Micah?

Andrew: Yes.

Mikey: Micah. Micah Tan.

Andrew: Go away! All of you! You’re worthless! All of you!

[Micah’s voicemail plays]

Andrew: Of course, he doesn’t answer his phone. Okay. So – will you guys seriously leave?! Seriously! Leave!

Mikey: Becca…

Andrew: Leave!

Brandon: Hey, you guys…

Andrew: All of you!

Brandon: Can I just say that…

Andrew: Hurt yourselves!

Dan the Van Versus Lincoln Navigator

Brandon: …I just noticed the new poll is: Which van is better for tour, Dan the Van or the Lincoln Navigator? And Dan the Van is winning 65% to 35%.

Andrew: Yeah, why is that? We hardly even talked about Dan the Van.

Mikey: [laughs] Okay, wait…

Brandon: I don’t know.

Mikey: …I think we should discuss this, Dan the Van and the Lincoln Navigator. Should we talk about this?

Alex: Yes.

Brandon: Please do.

Mikey: Okay. Well, let’s explain. So…

Alex: First of all, let’s get the terminology right, okay? His name is Daniel Beastius Bugzapper. We call him Dan for short.

[Andrew laughs]

Alex: But he’s got a full name.

Andrew: Okay.

Alex: It needs to be said.

Mikey: And what did we call our van?

Alex: Does the Navigator have a name even?

Mikey: I think I just called it The Batmobile for a while. [laughs]

Brandon: No, it was the 2000 Navigator Limited Edition. Ooh, limited edition.

Andrew: Yeah. 2007 Lincoln Navigator Limited Edition.

Mikey: With iPod connection.

Andrew: [laughs] Yeah.

Alex: That’s like calling your child “The Boy.” It’s horrible.

[Andrew and Mikey laugh]

Andrew: With GPS.

Mikey: Yeah, with GPS! Come on, it was a smart boy. [laughs]

Andrew: See, we only had ours for nine days though. If you had a child only for nine days, you wouldn’t name it, would you? Because then you don’t want a connection to it.

Brandon: Dan had a name like Day 1.

[Andrew laughs]

Alex: Before we even got in the car.

Andrew: Oh.

Mikey: Okay. Well, let’s explain the two cars so we can see which one wins. The Lincoln was the one MuggleCast rented.

Andrew: Right.

Mikey: So it was for all of us, so me, Andrew, Ben, Jamie, Emerson, and Adam in that car. Although not all six of us at once. We only got five in at a time. And Dan the Van – which is a very cool van. It had a nice little moon and werewolf sticker on it on the side, right?

Brandon: Yeah.

Mikey: Or am I making that up?

Alex: So people would know that it was us when you’re coming to town.

Mikey: Yes.

[Andrew laughs]

Mikey: That’s what I thought.

Brandon: The other way they knew we were coming to town was it kind of smelled like you’re coming to town. You can smell it from far away.

Mikey: [laughs] Yeah. We can smell you guys from far away, trust me. Sorry. I’m joking.

Alex: Way to go, Brandon.

[Mikey laughs]

Brandon: I’m sorry.

Mikey: Well, come on…

Brandon: This is a podcast. This is true. This is real life.

Mikey: …it’s because you guys rock. It’s because you guys rock so hard.

Brandon: Yeah.

Mikey: But yeah, these two cars got us cross country and obviously Dan the Van was out there for quite a bit longer. I like that van. I rode in it.

Alex: Can I just say something? I don’t want to use the Trump Card yet but I’m going to have to throw it out.

Mikey: Oh God.

Alex: We had a sunglasses rack in Dan the Van. Did you have a sunglass rack?

Andrew: No, but I do remember that. That was actually pretty cool.

Alex: We needed to…

[Phone dial tone starts]

Alex: Woah. We need to watch out for our PBTs? We had sunglasses.

Mikey: [laughs] Oh yeah, we do!

Andrew: [laughs] Oh yeah.

Alex: [laughs] You know what I mean?

Mikey: The PBTs and sunglasses. If you’re not wearing sunglasses – or if you are wearing sunglasses and PBT is more active, it’s bad for driving. [laughs]

Andrew: Yeah. Micah Tannenbaum…

Mikey: You want to tell that story?

Andrew: Hold on one second. Micah Tannenbaum is joining us now. Micah, where are you?

Micah: I am in Nantucket, Massachusetts.

Andrew: Nantucket, Massachusetts.

Brandon: Your last name is awesome.

Andrew: [laughs] Tannenbaum?

Brandon: I love The Royal Tenenbaums so much.

Andrew: [laughs] Well, it’s not spelt the same way, is it? Isn’t it Royal Tenenbaums, or am I wrong?

Brandon: Yeah. No, it is, but it’s close and he’s got an accent, maybe. I don’t know.

Andrew: [laughs] No, he doesn’t have an accent. Fair point.

Brandon: I don’t know.

Mikey: Hey, Micah? Since you’re here in Nantucket, if you go, “There was Micah from Nantucket -” you do a little rhyme for us? For me? No? Okay. I’m stopping.

Andrew: [laughs] Micah?

Micah: Give a rhyme?

Andrew: A rhyme.

Mikey: A little rhyme. There once was a man from Nantucket, there once was a Micah from Nantucket. And – no, I’m stopping. Let’s just go on. How are you doing, buddy? I haven’t seen you or talked to you in a while.

Micah: Who is this?

Mikey: It’s Mikey.

[Andrew laughs]

Mikey: Mikey B!

Micah: Oh okay. It’s a little different over cell phone than it is over…

Mikey: Skype?

Micah: Over the mic when I can actually see your name and see that you’re actually there.

Mikey: Oh yeah.

Micah: How are you doing, man?

Mikey: I’m doing good.

Micah: I haven’t seen you in a while.

Mikey: Yeah. How are you doing? What’s going on in Nantucket?

Micah: I’m actually at a wedding. Or I was at a wedding. Just wrapping up.

Alex: You’re not actually at the wedding right now?

Andrew: How did it go?

Micah: No, I’m not. It was great. Nice. Good time out here.

Andrew: Cool.

Mikey: Open bar? Open bar? Maybe? No?

Micah: [laughs] What’s that?

Andrew and Mikey: [laughs] Was it an open bar?

Mikey: It’s a wedding, come on.

Micah: Yes, there was some of that. Don’t we have people listening? Or…

Mikey: Yeah, we do.

Andrew: Yeah. It’s okay, you’re of age.

Alex: Hour twelve.

Mikey: It’s fine.

Andrew: Come on, we got…

Micah: That is true.

Mikey: It’s cool. It’s an open bar. Come on, even…

Andrew: Plus this is hour twelve. There’s no secrets on hour twelve.

[Andrew and Micah laugh]

Micah: [unintelligible]

Mikey: Completely the truth.

Andrew: Huh?

Micah: The local beer.

Andrew: Oh okay. Well anyway, what were we talking about? Dan the Van or something?

Mikey: And the Lincoln Navigator.

Brandon: We were talking about the tour vans. The tour vans.

Andrew: Oh yeah. So the point is 2007 Lincoln Navigator wins, despite the fact that it’s still been beaten – it’s 317 votes for Dan the Van, [sighs] 154 for the Lincoln Navigator.

Brandon: What, what.

Andrew: So you’re winning twice over.

Alex: The thing is I’m so happy that all these people understand how awesome Dan is.

Andrew: No, I can understand it too, because you named it. So you should win just because you named it.

Alex: They’re throwing out the support.

Andrew: Yeah. Okay, so…

Alex: Dan is awesome.

Andrew: Dan is awesome.

MuggleCast 113 Transcript (continued)

Future Live MuggleCast Shows

Andrew: Great. So we’re all here now. I want to talk, seriously, about doing – and actually I want to make it the poll, do a serious poll. This show went really well and – at least we think so. Listeners in the thing, chat, do you think it went well? Says “Yes” or “No” right now. We’ll get bombarded once it goes through. We have a yes, we have a yay, we have a yes, yes.

Laura: Yay!

Andrew: Okay, so I’m going to make a poll. Oh, please don’t tell me Firefox just froze on me.

Mikey: Did it freeze?

Andrew: Firefox definitely just froze on me.

Jerry: Ustream seems to run…

Andrew: Oh wait…

Jerry: …a lot better in IE.

Andrew: IE? Yeah, someone mentioned that on the chat and…

Jerry: Yeah.

Andrew: …unfortunately I’m on this [censored] Mac.

Mikey: Awww.

Laura: Ummm…

Andrew: Wait…

Jerry: Poor you.

Andrew: It’s working, it’s just lagging uncontrollably because I asked everyone to say yes at once.

[Jerry laughs]

Mikey: Oh, it’s because everybody [laughs] is all responding.

Andrew: Yeah.

Laura: And everyone just heard your slip, Andrew.

Andrew: Yeah. What? No, that wasn’t a slip. That was completely on purpose.

Laura: Okay.

[Jerry and Laura laugh]

Andrew: I was just kidding. Macs are not poopy.

[Andrew and Laura laugh]

Andrew: Okay, everyone stop typing in the chat. Actually just leave the chat. I don’t even know why I’m in there. Oh, Kelazma is there. Shout-out to Kelazma! Nobody shouted out – okay, now we’re good.

Laura: Yeah, I’m talking to her right now.

Mikey: Yay, Kalasma.

Andrew: Okay. So as I was saying, this went really well. I’m going to make the poll right now. Should we continue to do live shows? Now, not twelve-hour live shows, however I could definitely see…

Mikey: Awww. [laughs]

Andrew: …organized, concise, well-planned two-hour shows.

Jaime: Two-hour shows would be fun, yeah.

Andrew: Two-hour live shows once a week. And overall, it went very well tonight.

Jaime: [laughs] Andrew, imagine if we stuck with our original plan and done twenty-four? We’d be halfway through.

Andrew: Heck no. Heck no.

Mikey: Twenty-four would be so awesome.

Laura: Oh my gosh.

Jerry: We’d be dead.

Mikey: I would be so down for twenty-four. Come on.

Laura: Jamie, you would still have twelve hours left.

Jaime: Oh, it would just…

[Jerry and Laura laugh]

Mikey: Jamie, right now would be like – Jamie, Jamie, listen. If we did twenty-four hours, right now would be the time where we put some music on…

Jaime: Yes.

Mikey: …we’d all go get some food, come back…

Jaime: For twelve-hours, Mikey. For twelve hours.

Mikey: And then, Jamie…

Jaime: Yeah?

Mikey: …the next hour would be like, “Welcome to the Jamie and Mikey…”

Jaime: “With Mikey B.”

Mikey: “…late night rock and roll hour, with Jamie Lawrence and your host Mikey B.”

Laura: Yeah.

Mikey: And it would be so great.

Laura: It would be.

Mikey: We could have a little jazz playing in the background as we’re talking.

Jaime: Awww. And we would talk about nice…

Laura: By about 2:00 in the morning, it would be, [imitating Jamie] “Oh Mikey. Oh Mikey.”

Mikey: And we would be like, “Callers, come in and talk to us.” [laughs]

Laura: [imitating Jamie] “I’m so tired. I’m so tired. Let me go to bed, Mikey.”

Jaime: Laura, that impression is atrocious!

Jerry: And suddenly it would be, [imitating Jamie] “Mikey, Mikey, let me go to bed! Mikey, please! I’m tired!”

Mikey: Yeah, we’d have some good jazz that we have, like Charlie Parker. We’d have all this crazy – oh man, I have an entire jazz collection I want to listen to now. But you know how nice it would be to just be like, “So guys…”

Jaime: I know, it would be amazing.

Mikey: It would be so cool. But again, we’d have another twelve hours and then someone would have to come in and relieve us for – at hour…

Andrew: It would sound something like this.

[Audio clip plays quietly]

[Laura laughs]

Jaime: What is it? I can’t hear it.

Jerry: Too quiet.

Laura: It’s too quiet, Andrew.

Andrew: Oh really? Isn’t it coming through?

Jaime: Can’t hear a thing.

Andrew: [in a silly voice] Oopsies!

[Laura laughs]

Andrew: That’s weird. Let me try one more time.

[Audio clip plays quietly]

Andrew: It’s not working.

Mikey: I think if we did a twenty-four hour one, we’d probably end up – start watching movies together and having people join us.

[Jerry laughs]

Mikey: Because how cool would it be – because I can’t even connect to the Ustream Live, it says “Connection closed.”

Jerry: No, me neither.

Mikey: Yeah, I don’t even know how many people are in there. But how cool would it be to go, all right, everybody. We’re going to watch Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets or whatever we decide to watch. And we all decide to watch at the same time. So there’s literally a thousand of us watching the movie at the exact same time. And it’s not just like a commentary that some other podcasts do, but it’s a live commentary with thousands of people watching at the same time. And we can even take calls while we’re watching it, with people coming in and we can all put our tidbits – that would be amazing. But again, twelve-hour show, we did have the show actually planned out and stuff like that.

Andrew: Right.

Mikey: So we couldn’t do stuff like that. But that would happen at like…

Jerry: [unintelligible] for a movie-watching show.

Mikey: …hour seventeen. Yeah. So a movie-watching show would be kind of cool. Ooh, maybe we should just do a movie-watching show. Pick a movie and we watch it. [laughs] And we all just – everyone just…

Jerry: Welcome to MuggleCast Movie Club.

[Mikey laughs]

Andrew: Hey, I just realized – I don’t know how long we’ve been on it, but we are actually on the main page of Ustream right now. We are the first thing – we’re the stream that comes up when you visit Ustream.tv. So we’re being featured right now.

Laura: Oh cool.

Mikey: Wow.

Andrew: Very cool. Thanks, guys at Ustream! That’s pretty neat.

Jaime: Thank you very much.

Mikey: Well, it’s because we’ve been online…

Andrew: Yeah, I was wondering why the numbers were fluctuating so much, but now I see. So that’s very cool. Thanks to them for featuring us there. We have a new poll up. It’s not getting any – everyone check the poll. Listeners, check the poll. Would you like us to do regular live shows? And the choices are “Yes” or “No.” I’ve only gotten one vote though.

Mikey: I really think a movie-watching – you know what we should do? We should do it one week after Order of the Phoenix comes out. We should do a movie-watching show.

Andrew: Yeah.

Mikey: And we should do a commentary with it. I’m sure this DVD will be good where there’s an actual commentary that we like.

Andrew: Mhm.

Mikey: But we should really go ahead and do a commentary for Order of the Phoenix, all of us get on, I’ll tell all the fans what to do. We’ll find a time that’s not too late at night, not too early in the day for everyone. And we’ll all just start the movie at the exact same time, no pauses in it, and we’ll just go through and kind of like – not criticize the movie but just talk about it, like kind of what you do with your friends. Everyone’s around, joking around with the movies. I’d be like, “Come on. Really? Why is Luna Lovegood really being barefoot in the forest? Come on.”

[Jamie laughs]

Mikey: “She can so step on a rock and that hurts, really.”

Jaime: Yeah, that was just…

Mikey: [laughs] I don’t know. Maybe I’m just crazy.

Andrew: You’re crazy.

Mikey: There’s so many – I am crazy.

Jaime: [singing] “You know I’m crazy.”

Andrew: [laughs] Okay, people are saying they broke the chat – or the poll, and I think they did break the poll because I can’t seem to get it working now.

Mikey: Yeah, and there’s people just going crazy. I can’t even read it all.

Andrew: Yeah. So I think most people did say yes, so if we did start doing live shows, we would keep the call-ins to a minimum, meaning – I mean, we would still have people call in but we would still do organized discussions on our end first, then maybe open it up. So it’s something we’ll have to consider. It would definitely be fun. And someone is telling me now we’ve been number one since 2:00 PM on Ustream, but I don’t think that’s true.

Mikey: No, we’ve been number one but we haven’t been featured.

Andrew: Right, we haven’t been featured.

Mikey: We’ve been number one for quite a while because we had a load – it’s rated by the loudest screams.

Andrew: Oh, wait a second. Wait a second. Now Brickhouse Live is featured. Oh okay, thanks a lot, Ustream. [makes raspberry noises]

Jerry: [unintelligible] scream thing. I did wonder.

Andrew: Thanks. Well, we’re definitely winning in crowd volume.

Mikey: Well, you know why? It’s because Brickhouse Live is…

Andrew: Good?

Mikey: …witty. Well no…

Andrew: Well, and has video. [laughs]

Jaime: Guys, let’s not spend the last ten minutes boasting.

Andrew: We’re not boasting, we’re complaining.

Jaime: [laughs] Sounds like it.

Mikey: Woah, Chris Pirillo has a tech show nightly. I didn’t even know this.

Andrew: Yeah. So…

Mikey: [laughs] I should come to Ustream more often.

Andrew: That would definitely be something to do, live shows, more of, and – neato. So anything you guys want to talk about for the final nine minutes? I am seriously – I really can’t believe we’ve been here twelve hours. That’s kind of crazy.

Laura: I can’t believe you guys have been here for twelve hours.

Andrew: It doesn’t feel…

Laura: Like, I’m tired and I didn’t do the whole thing.

Andrew: This may sound weird, but it…

Jerry: [unintelligible] I’m knackered.

Andrew: [laughs] This may sound – okay guys, whatever. I get your point. This may sound weird, but I don’t feel like it’s been twelve hours.

Jaime: No, it hasn’t. Well, obviously it has.

[Laura laughs]

Jaime: But hours go so quickly because you’ll look at the time and it’ll be 3:15, then you’ll look again and it’ll be 3:27, then 3:35, and 3:46. So as soon as you know…

Laura: I don’t appreciate that…

Mikey: Guys, do you know what time I joined in? Because I think I’ve been in here for quite a while.

Andrew: Okay, Mikey, Jamie and I still trump you in hours.

Mikey: I know! But I just want to know…

Jaime: Easily, Mikey. Easily.

Mikey: …how many hours that I’ve put in. I just want to know – yeah, you guys got like – you’ve been here for twelve hours. I’ve been here for, what, six? Seven?

Jaime: About that, yeah.

Mikey: No, no, because I got here before – I got in at like noon, I think. I don’t know. Noon, my time.

Andrew: Yeah, something like that.

Laura: I don’t appreciate that, you guys. Stop.

Andrew: What? What are you saying? What do you mean?

Laura: People are being obnoxious in the chatroom. I don’t appreciate it. Especially you, John Thrasher! Stop it!

Andrew: Oh. He’s…

Mikey: Wow, there’s this nice echo on Laura’s voice. She sounds so like…

Jaime: Yeah.

Mikey: …[in a deep voice] “John Thrasher, stop it!”

[Laura laughs]

Mikey: “Ahhh!” Actually, you know what? I got here a little bit before noon because there’s a message from Jamie talking about the live feed and everything.

Jaime: Well, there you go.

Mikey: So I’ve been here – so if it was noon and it’s nine o’clock now, I’ve been here nine hours. That’s not bad. I think that’s pretty good for me. Yeah? No?

Andrew: That’s pretty good.

Jaime: That is pretty good.

Mikey: See, then I could – yeah.

Andrew: Let’s take – I’m still kind of disappointed I didn’t get my ticket for J.K. Rowling. A little disappointed about that. However, Chloe – oh, Laura, while you’re away, Chloe actually got a ticket, got two tickets.

Laura: Yeah, she told me. She said that she was trying to give it to me and you were trying to steal it.

Andrew: Oh, wait a second. Wait a second. Wait a second.

Jerry: [laughs] Ooh!

Andrew: She never said she was going to give it to you. She said she was going to give it to me.

Jerry: Live on air.

Laura: She told me that you were trying to steal it, and then she told me that she was going to give it to the Make A Wish Foundation.

Andrew: Oh yeah, then her parents said to donate it.

Jaime: Well, can I…

Andrew: Okay, we just lost the connection on Ustream and I’ve been told by a couple of people they I can’t connect, so apparently Ustream is crashing right now.

Jaime: Okay, I’ve got a message from Celine, the girl who won the thing on vegetables.

Andrew: We’re not live right now.

Jaime: No, I know. I’m talking to you.

Andrew: Okay.

Mikey: Yeah, yeah, I got her address and she doesn’t have Skype.

Jaime: Okay. Well, we’ll just contact her after the show then and give her something.

[Laura laughs]

Mikey: Yeah. I have her e-mail and I have her mailing address, too. So you guys can mail her a T-shirt or something.

Jerry: Speaking of T-shirts, still haven’t got mine. Fail. Pickle Pack.

Andrew: Okay, apparently we’re live again.

Mikey: Ahhh.

Andrew: I think Ustream is going down, I think Ustream has had it with us.

Laura: Yeah.

Andrew: I wonder if they’ve ever had twelve-hour streams before. We were supposed to be on their high end stream, but – or their high end servers, but then once the thing crashed the first time we got put back down to the regular thing. So yeah, that’s what’s going on.

Mikey: Yeah, I think…

Andrew: I don’t know what else to say. I mean…

Jaime: I think…

Andrew: And I’m not trying to – what?

Jaime: I think we should wrap stuff up. We have four and a half minutes to go. Let’s say our goodbyes and talk about what has happened and what it’s become and how we love each other and all that kind of stuff.

Andrew: Actually, what I want to know is, who’s editing the show?

[Everyone laughs]

Mikey: That would be you, buddy.

Laura: Pretty sure it’s going to be you.

Jaime: That’s like a four-week job, isn’t it, Andrew?

Andrew: Yeah. [laughs] Luckily I’m in college.

Jaime: Ooh!

Mikey: Luckily you’re not going to have to do anything.

Andrew: Yeah. Yeah, exactly. I won’t have anything else to do. I got nothing to do. So…

Mikey: So…

Andrew: I think Ustream is really having problems right now. Are there people in the chat listening? Does anyone have the chat open?

Mikey: I have the chat open.

Laura: I can’t tell, they’re just saying so much random stuff.

Andrew: Nonsense?

Laura: [laughs] Yeah.

Mikey: No, no, they can all hear us. Everyone is screaming, “Don’t edit,” “Unedited,” in the SPoT chat, in the Ustream chat. It’s like, “Yeah, this is working.”

Laura: Somebody keeps wanting to…

Andrew: That’s music to my ears, actually. Don’t edit? That’s the most beautiful thing someone’s ever actually said to me.

Jerry: Please don’t edit. Please don’t edit.

Mikey: I think it’s because this was such a special event.

Laura: Oh, Mason! Sorry. [laughs]

Mikey: Yeah, it was such a special event where it’s a live twelve-hour episode. No other Harry Potter podcast has attempted something like this.

Andrew: The words…

Mikey: I think they want it to be unique, special, unedited…

Andrew: Yeah, but it still has to be looked at a little bit. The words “Don’t edit a podcast” are more meaningful to me than say…

Jaime: “I love you.” [laughs]

Andrew: “I love you,” yeah. Or like a wedding proposal.

Jaime: Andrew, I don’t think it’s going to happen. Someone is going to get down on one knee to you one day and be like, “Don’t edit the show.”

Andrew: No, if I had to choose between getting married or not editing a show for one week, I’d actually choose not editing a show for one week.

Jaime: Well, I feel sorry for your future wife.

Jerry: I’m with you. [laughs]

Andrew: That’s – Jerry knows. Jerry does Fandom ForeCast.

Jerry: Yeah.

Andrew: Which I’m supposed to be on tomorrow.

Jerry: You are.

Mikey: Really?

Andrew: [in a silly voice] Starring me! Whoa! Taking the show back! [back to normal voice] Actually I’ve changed my mind. I’m podcasted out. No more.

[Jerry laughs]

Andrew: I’m kidding. I wouldn’t back out on that. Or would I? [takes a deep breath] Okay, I’m cramping right now. Is that bad?

Jerry: Yeah.

Laura: You’re cramping? Where are you cramping?

Andrew: In my stomach.

Laura: Well…

Andrew: Can we have 900 listeners, please? I’m tired of – we’re like…

[Laura laughs]

Andrew: …flirting with 900, and we’re at 880 right now.

Mikey: 882, 889…

Andrew: People, call your friends and tell them to listen in. We need a thousand people. We had over a thousand…

Jerry: It’s going down while you started saying it. [laughs]

Andrew: We had a thousand people watching us read a book, but this is not as interesting as reading a book?

Mikey: Yeah, who knows.

Andrew: I’ll tell you why. I’ll tell you why. Because we never posted this on MuggleNet.

Jerry: Yeah.

Andrew: If this was posted on MuggleNet…

Laura: Yeah.

Andrew: …it would be a whole different ball game. So yeah.

Jaime: Actually, it would be a whole different ball game because it probably wouldn’t work.

Andrew: [laughs] It probably wouldn’t work, yeah.

[Laura laughs]

Andrew: You’re right. You’re right.

Jerry: The server would crash. It would be overloaded.

Andrew: Okay. Yeah. I’m not taking anymore calls, so Lucas, stop calling me. And Sam, stop calling me. So…

Laura: My God! People in this chatroom…

Andrew: What are they saying?

Laura: They’re just…

Andrew: Do I need to lay the smackdown? What’s going on?

Laura: They’re just saying some very crude things. I’m just – I’m somewhat appalled. [laughs]

Mikey: Yeah, there’s – I try not to read the chatroom sometimes.

Laura: Yeah.

Mikey: They move so fast. I give mad props to whoever can read these chatrooms.

Jerry: It’s giving me a headache, yeah.

Mikey: They move so fast, they give me a headache. I can’t do it.

Andrew: I lost the connection. That’s weird.

Mikey: Yeah.

Laura: Uh-oh. They broke it again.

Mikey: Ustream broke.

[Laura laughs]

Mikey: Ustream.

Laura: [laughs] These people are like, “Oh my God! Only two minutes left!”

Andrew: I know, I know.

Mikey: Reparo! Reparo!

[Everyone laughs]

Andrew: I want to be here for the big…

Jerry: [attempts an American accent] “Jamie, do an American accent!”

Andrew: Okay, connecting. Okay, we’re live again!

Mikey: We’re live again!

Andrew: Sorry. I’m really sorry about that. I don’t know what’s going on. I’m just going to have to e-mail the Ustream people and be like, “Hey, it was working great but…”

Mikey: It died.

Andrew: “…this stuff happened.” I’m shouting us all the way up right now. So let’s see, how much…

Mikey: How do you…

Show Close

Andrew: Wait, we got to do a countdown. There’s one minute left, guys. Twelve hour show. There’s one minute left since we started.

Laura: Gosh.

Andrew: The Go Daddy ad was playing. This is really sad. Are we going off air the second the countdown hits zero?

Jaime: Yes.

Andrew: I guess we have to, yeah.

Laura: Yeah.

Andrew: Yeah, that’s silly of me. Should I play “The Final Countdown” now or after the show ends?

Jaime: What about that song we talked about, Andrew?

Mikey: Wait, wait, wait, hold on. When you said “The Final Countdown” – as in the song?

Andrew: Yeah, the song. Yes, the song.

Mikey: Yes! [singing] “It’s the final -“ [stops singing] Okay, go.

Jaime: Andrew, are you playing the song we agreed on?

Andrew: Mason, thank you for doing the ads today. Mason is here now.

Laura: Awww, hey Mason!

Mikey: [in a high-pitched voice] Hey, Masey-poo!

Mason: Yeah, hi.

Mikey: [in a high-pitched voice] How are you doing? [laughs]

Laura: Awww.

Andrew: Thanks for doing the ads today, Mason.

Mikey: Hi, Masey! How are you doing?

Andrew: Thank you to everyone who’s been listening for the past twenty-four – [laughs] twenty-four. Ha! Twelve hours. Jamie, thanks for sticking with me for the last twelve hours.

Jaime: Yeah.

Andrew: You can go to bed now. Well, wait ten seconds and then you can go to bed.

[Jerry laughs]

Jaime: Andrew, are you playing the song we agreed on or are you not playing that song?

Andrew: What song? Name your song!

Jaime: The song you said you were going to play…

[Laura laughs]

Jaime: …but then you’re like, “Oh my God, I can’t download it.”

Andrew: There’s been a lot of songs. Three, two, one. Thank you, everybody!

Laura: Goodnight!

Mikey: Bye!

Jaime: Goodnight! Thank you for listening!

Mason: Go Daddy dot com.

[Everyone laughs]

[“The Final Countdown” by Europe plays]

Mikey: I’m going to sing along.

[Song continues]

Andrew: I’ll join you, Mikey.

Mikey: Yes! You’re going to join me? Good.

Andrew: I don’t know the lyrics though.

Mikey: “It’s the final countdown.” That’s all I know.

Andrew: Is there any lyrics?

Mikey: I think it’s just “The final countdown.”

Andrew: Oh, here we go! One, two, three, four. We’re leaving – oh, I was completely wrong.

Laura: I don’t think there are, either.

Mikey: No, I think the only lyrics are “The final countdown.” “It’s the final countdown.”

Andrew: Yeah, but it starts with “We’re leaving together.”

Mikey: Oh, is it?

Andrew: Mason, do a Go Daddy ad over this right now! Go!

[Song continues]

Andrew: Mason?

Mason: Yeah, yeah, what’s up?

Andrew: Do a Go Daddy right now. Quick!

Mason: All right. Listen up, MuggleCast listeners!

[Andrew laughs]

Mason: I have some excellent news for you. For only $3.59 a month for twelve months, you can get…

[Laura laughs]

Mason: …GoDaddy.com’s economy package. What’s that?

Mikey: [sings with the song] “Together!”

Mason: You don’t know what the economy package is?

Andrew: [laughs] Okay, ad over.

[Jerry and Laura laugh]

[Andrew and Mikey sing badly along to the song]

Laura: Oh, my mind right now.

Mikey: I’m playing air guitar right now. It’s awesome.

[Andrew and Mikey continue to sing badly along]

Mikey: Booyeahyeah! Oh wait, wait, you know what? It’s not Booyeahyeah, it’s Boomshakalaka.

[Andrew continues to sing badly along]

Andrew: [after pausing the song] This is the final one for real, folks.

[Song continues]

Mikey: Andrew, isn’t this song like eight minutes long?

Andrew: What did you say?

Mikey: Isn’t this song like eight minutes long?

Andrew: No, it ends in – well, let’s just skip to the end.

Mikey: Yeah.

[Andrew and Mikey continue to sing badly along]

Andrew: Woah, fade out!

Mikey: Goodbye!

Andrew: [singing] “Goodbye, everybody! I’ve got to go!” [stops singing] Okay.

Laura: Okay, Andrew. You’re done. [laughs]

Andrew: See, I can’t let go. I just can’t let go. Okay…

[Go Daddy ad plays]

Andrew: Woah.

[Go Daddy ad stops]

Andrew: Okay.

[Laura laughs]

Andrew: Goodnight, everyone! [laughs]

Laura: Bye!

Mikey: Bye!

Jerry: Cherrio!

Andrew: Oh my God, somebody kill me. [sighs] I mean – wait, we’re still live.

Laura: [laughs] Are we still streaming?

Andrew: [laughs] No, I’m just kidding. We’re not…

Laura: Okay.

Mason: That would be terrible if…

Mikey: Dude, that was awesome. I am so happy.

Laura: Oh my God.

Jerry: Wow. That was fun.

Mason: Well done.

Mikey: Awww, you know what we should have done? Dude, there’s so many clips – you realize there’s so many clips you could have done for the end, like “We did it! We did it! Yeah!”

Andrew: [laughs] Wasn’t that Dora The Explorer?

Mikey: I’m thinking from Star Wars. Like, “We did it!” like at the end when they blow up the Death Star and everything.

Andrew: I don’t watch…

Mikey: Like “We did it!” Everyone is excited, you know? There’s so many endings…

[Audio ends]

———————–

Transcript #112

September 21, 2007 / MuggleCast

MuggleCast 112 Transcript

Listener Calls: Favorite Harry Potter Book Scene

[“I’ll Be At Hogwarts” by The Remus Lupins plays]

Andrew: MuggleCast Live back now, it’s – oh gosh, 8:30 – 8:27 to be exact – on the East Coast here.

Mikey: 5:25 here.

Andrew: 5:25 on the West Coast. I just ran straight out of the bathroom because I had to use the potty. Big announcement coming up in a few minutes. It’s something we’ve been trying to accomplish over the past few months and finally she has agreed to an interview, so we’re going to get to that in a minute. However, I’m getting word that a certain Mr. John Noe is in…

Jamie: No, no, no, [laughs] no. It’s not going to be John, is it? I mean, I don’t want to say it’s a negative person who clearly it’s not going to be, but…

Andrew: What do you mean?

Jamie: Well, it isn’t really John, is it?

Andrew: Well, apparently it is and…

Jamie: Well, surely John would just call if it was really John?

Andrew: Well, what do you mean?

Jamie: Well, why would it be John? I mean, surely John would just call the show if it was actually John Noe.

Andrew: Well, I think he likes messing with people, too. I don’t – I can’t confirm or deny.

Jamie: In that case, it’s MuggleNet Greg.

Andrew: Anyway – [laughs] yeah, it’s MuggleNet Greg. But I’m trying to open the chatroom. Oh, chatroom’s right here.

Jamie: He doesn’t speak like John.

Andrew: Is – what are you – oh, are you watching the chat too?

Jamie: Yeah.

Andrew: Oh. What’s his name? Is it like…

Jamie: John_Dawlish, which I don’t think John would pick in a chatroom.

Andrew: See, I think that’s him because someone – he put a comment on the feed, saying, “John -” or he said, “Interesting…” Oh wait, maybe it’s not. Would he really say “I speak badger-tongue?”

Jamie: No.

[Laura laughs]

Jerry Cooke: No.

Andrew: Actually he would. Okay, but anyway – okay. Well, let’s take a couple of callers. If that is John Noe, call in, tough guy. I want to see what you have to say about this.

[Prolonged silence]

Andrew: Sorry. Okay, so do you want to take a couple of more callers?

Laura: Yeah, okay.

Andrew: [takes deep breath] Oh man. Okay, here we go. Oh my gosh! We’re getting bombarded! It doesn’t stop! Why do you listen to this stuff? Okay, here we go. Kimmy, hello.

[Prolonged silence]

Laura: Hello?

Andrew: Kimmy, hello.

Caller: Hi!

Andrew: Hi!

Jamie: Hey!

Caller: I’m on here! Oh my gosh!

Andrew: Oh my gosh! Oh my God, I’m on the podcast!

Laura: Awww.

[Caller makes excited noises]

Andrew: What’s going on?

Caller: This is so exciting!

[Andrew laughs]

Laura: Awww.

Andrew: Well, I’m glad you…

Laura: Have you been listening all day?

Caller: [laughs] I’m so excited! I’ve been calling since noon.

Laura: Oh my gosh.

Caller: Non-stop.

Laura: Wow.

Caller: [makes excited noises] Oh my gosh! Hold on, I have to make a shout-out to my friend Bobby because she’s been calling with me, too.

Jamie: [singing] “Dear Bobby…”

Andrew: Awesome!

Jamie: [singing] “…do you remember when…”

[Caller makes excited noises]

Andrew: So what’s going on? Why have you been calling since 12:00?

Caller: Because I love you guys more than life.

Laura: Aww!

Jamie: Aww!

Andrew: Aww, that’s so nice!

Laura: That’s so sweet!

[Caller makes excited noises]

Andrew: Well, thank you.

Laura: Anything you want to say? Any questions or anything?

Caller: [unintelligible] you guys because I bought an entire jar of pickles.

Andrew: Sorry, say that again?

Caller: And I ate them all.

Andrew: You bought an entire what?

Caller: I ate an entire jar of pickles.

Andrew: An entire jar of pickles?

[Mikey laughs]

Andrew: Wow! [laughs]

Caller: Yeah.

Andrew: That’s crazy.

[Caller laughs]

Andrew: I’m not going to lie, that’s pretty crazy.

Caller: Yeah. [laughs] It was yummy, though.

Andrew: Was it? See, I personally don’t like the taste of pickles. I’m not a fan.

Caller: Oh.

Andrew: Anyone else?

Mikey: I enjoy a good pickle every once in a while.

Jamie: Yeah, Andrew isn’t a fan, but Chick-fil-A wasn’t really a catch phrase we could use, was it?

Andrew: [laughs] I take the pickles…

Mikey: Chick-fil-A! Chick-fil-A!

Andrew: I – sorry. I take the pickles off of my Chick-fil-A chicken sandwiches. I don’t really like the taste. Not good. So, did you have anything else to say?

Caller: I was wondering what your guys’ favorite scene from any book was.

Andrew: All-time favorite scene.

Mikey: Oh, I know mine.

Andrew: What’s yours?

Jamie: Voldemort and Harry in Order of the Phoenix.

Mikey: Mine was in – probably not my all-time favorite, but I remember one specifically where I got really excited and I was a total dork about it, was in Half-Blood Prince, when Harry and Ginny finally kissed. I literally stopped and I jumped. I was like, “Yeah!”

Caller: Yes, oh my God, yes!

Mikey: And I was like, “Oh wait, I’m going to continue reading,” and I totally tried to play it down like I wasn’t a dork, but – [laughs] I remember myself being like, “That was awesome.” And I stopped.

Jerry: It brought a tear to my eye.

[Caller makes excited noises]

Jamie: [laughs] Hey Andrew, someone in the chat thinks that we should start “Chick-fil-A Pack.”

Andrew: “Chick-fil-A Pack”? Hey, hey, are you okay, Kimmy?

[Prolonged silence]

Andrew: Kimmy?

Caller: I’m fine, I’m just very excited! [laughs]

Jamie: Aww.

Andrew: Oh okay. I could tell. [laughs]

Mikey: [laughs] She likes that scene, too.

[Andrew laughs]

Jamie: Yeah.

Mikey: We have a common bond here. We’re like best friends. We’re like BFFs now. Did you know that, Andrew?

Andrew: What?

Jamie: Oh Mikey, don’t use that phrase, please!

[Laura and Mikey laugh]

Mikey: What phrase? BFF?

Laura: LOL.

Mikey: LOL. Who wants to be BFF with me?

Jerry: There’s nothing wrong with using young lingo.

[Andrew laughs]

Jamie: It’s an awful expression. Mikey, I’ll pay you a hundred dollars a day not to use that expression.

[Laura laughs]

Mikey: I will not use that anymore, give me money!

Jamie: [laughs] Okay, I will.

[Jerry laughs]

Jamie: I’ll give you a hundred dollars a second…

[Caller and Laura laugh]

Jamie: …as long as you don’t use that God-awful phrase!

Mikey: Okay.

Andrew: Kimmy, everyone wants to know, are you – how do I say – crying right now?

Caller: No, I’m not crying!

[Andrew laughs]

Caller: I’m just laughing and very excited. [laughs]

Andrew: Okay. Well, the chat people don’t believe that. [laughs] But anyway…

Caller: Well, they’re liars!

Andrew: [laughs] They’re lying?

Jamie: Aww.

Andrew: Okay, that’s…

Mikey: Leave my BFF alone, guys. Really, guys.

Caller: They are! [unintelligible]

[Andrew laughs]

Mikey: Leave my BFF alone. Come on.

Andrew: Laura, your all-time favorite scene?

Caller: Oh my God!

Andrew: Okay… [laughs]

Laura: Oh my gosh, there’s so many, but if I had to pick something that I really liked reading about, it was reading about Voldemort as a child in the orphanage. That was just so intriguing, going into his past, and just learning more about him and how evil he was as a child. That’s just terrible.

Andrew: Yeah.

Laura: Also because Jo read it at the reading, so that was just – aww, it was so amazing to see.

Andrew: Yeah. I can’t do this with Kimmy laughing in the background. [laughs]

Caller: I’m sorry!

Andrew: [laughs] I’m just messing with you. I think my favorite scene has to be when Umbridge catches Harry in her office in Order of the Phoenix. Because that scene, my heart just stopped, and that’s when I felt the most emotion to get back at Umbridge and stuff like that. I’ve said previously on the show Order of the Phoenix is my favorite book, and I’ve also said I love the Umbridge aspect of Order of the Phoenix, and just those two combined created my favorite scene. Jamie?

Jamie: I would say either the one in – I like two: when Harry calls Voldemort “Tom Riddle,” and when Dumbledore calls Voldemort “Tom Riddle.” I think that’s just so awesome. It defines the whole thing not being afraid of…

Caller: You’re so right, Jamie!

[Andrew laughs]

Jamie: Oh, thank you. [laughs] And also, what else? And everything…

Caller: Jamie’s my favorite! [laughs]

Jamie: Oh, thank you.

[Caller laughs]

Jamie: Sorry if I sound completely dead to the world. It’s 1:35. I’m dying!

[Caller and Jerry laugh]

Andrew: Oh, here we go.

Jamie: Well, okay, Andrew! Okay, Andrew!

[Andrew laughs]

Jamie: You do it at 1:35!

Laura: [imitating Jamie] Oh, Andrew! Oh, Andrew! I’m so tired, Andrew! Let me go! Let me go!

Jerry: You don’t hear me complaining, Jamie.

Andrew: Ooh!

[Jerry laughs]

Jamie: Jerry, that’s because you stay up until 8:00 AM every day. [laughs] I’m trying to get back onto…

Jerry: Yeah, it’s true. [laughs]

Jamie: …onto a… [unintelligible]

Jamie: Anyway, anyway, I completely agree [pauses] with myself [laughs] that…

[Laura laughs]

Jamie: …both these things are cool.

[Caller laughs]

Jamie: But also, anything involving Sirius, because he was the man about town, the bee’s knees. He was the best, best, best character ever. And I can’t believe he died. I’m going to cry. So, yeah. [laughs]

Andrew: That’s crazy.

Caller: Sirius is up there in the best characters, like Tonks and Luna.

Jamie: No. I mean, you’re welcome to your opinion.

Caller: Yeah!

Andrew: Hey, I want to – if you guys don’t mind – Kimmy, thank you for calling in. Hope you enjoyed the call.

Caller: Bye!

Andrew: I think you did. Bye!

Laura: Bye, Kimmy. [laughs]

Mikey: Did you think she did, enjoy the call?

Laura: Only a little bit.

Jamie: Yeah.

Mikey: Really?

Laura: Yeah.

Jerry: Just a wee bit.

Mikey: We’re BFFs, so it’s okay.

Audio Clip: Jamie Begs For Release

Andrew: Speaking of that clip where Jamie is complaining, I happen to have it queued up right here.

[Laura laughs]

Andrew: Now, I know it’s been only for Pickle Pack members, but do you guys mind if I play it?

Jamie: I mind. I mind.

Laura: No, go for it. It’s so funny.

[Andrew laughs]

Laura: [laughs] It’s so funny.

Jerry: I think the world needs to bask in its glory.

[Laura laughs]

Jamie: I want to give a bit of backstory here, okay? I was pretty ill here, okay? So…

[Audio (Jamie)]: “Laura, can I go as well? I feel so bad.”

[Jerry and Laura laugh]

Jamie: Whatever, Andrew. You are…

[Audio (Laura)]: “Can you live through like…”

Andrew: Sorry, Jamie, what was that? What’d you say?

Jamie: You aren’t safe.

Andrew: What’d you say?

Jamie: You are not safe.

[Audio (Jamie)]: “Please, can I go? I…”

Andrew: Sorry. No, sorry, what’d you say?

Jamie: I think you aren’t safe.

[Audio (Laura)]: “Can you live through…”

Andrew: What? What’d you say?

Jamie: Oh, shut up.

[Laura laughs]

[Audio (Laura)]: “Can you live through five voicemails and Chicken Soup?”

[Audio (Jamie)]: “I’m coughing so badly. No, I can’t. I really can’t. Please, please let me go.”

[Laura laughs]

[Audio (Jamie)]: “Please let me go. I feel so awful and I’m ill and I’m coughing. I’ll do anything.”

[Audio (Laura)]: “Okay, okay, three voicemails and Chicken Soup.”

[Audio (Jamie)]: “No, no, no, no, no, I’ll do Chicken Soup now. Please can I do Chicken Soup now and then voicemails, and then after Chicken Soup I’ll go. And then you three can do voicemails very nicely because you are awesome at voicemails and I’m not very good. Please, please, please! Oh God!”

[Kevin and Laura laugh in audio clip]

[Audio (Jamie)]: “Please let me go, Laura! I’m so tired! Please!”

Andrew: So that went on for like a minute.

[Andrew and Laura laugh]

Andrew: And it’s probably the funniest clip I’ve ever heard in my life. No offense to you, Jamie. I understand, you were tired.

Jamie: But, but, but, but, but, but… [laughs]

Andrew: [laughs] But, but, but.

Jamie: Speaking of that clip, Andrew, I am so tired now. I am so tired. So please…

[Andrew laughs]

Jamie: No, I’m kidding. I’m staying for the whole whack.

Andrew: Okay, good. By the way, are we caught up with our vegetables? Before we get to a call?

Jamie: Oh yeah. What hour are we on? One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight – this is hour nine, right?

Andrew: Yes, this is hour nine.

Jamie: Okay, in which case your vegetable for this hour is cress.

Andrew: What?

Jamie: Cress.

Andrew: Cresp?

Jamie: Cress.

Jerry: Do they even have cress in America?

Andrew: Oh yeah…

Jamie: Perhaps they don’t. Okay…

Andrew: I don’t know what that is.

Jamie: Okay. Well…

Jerry: [unintelligible]

Mikey: Wikipedia, let’s take a look.

Jamie: Oh really? [unintelligible] Well anyway, Jerry, I don’t think we should give in. I think we should stand firm. It’s cress, C-R-E-S-S. That’s your vegetable.

Jerry: Yes. Wiki it, Andrew. Wiki it.

Jamie: Wikipedia.

Mikey: Do you mean water cress?

Jamie: No.

Jerry: No, we mean cress.

Jamie: Mikey, I thought they were the same thing, but they’re not. They’re apparently different vegetables, according to…

Mikey: Well, because there’s water cress, land cress, garden cress, winter cress, and rock cress.

Andrew: Jamie…

Mikey: I’m looking at vegetables related to the article. There’s – yeah, there’s not really an article on it.

Jamie: Okay. Well, either way it’s cress. [laughs]

Andrew: Jamie, one listener wants to know if there is even such a thing as a vegetable in England.

Jamie: No, no, there’s not.

[Andrew and Jamie laugh]

Jerry: No, we eat flandables.

Jamie: Absolutely nothing.

Andrew: Flandables?

Jerry: Yeah.

Jamie: I’ve never heard of one. Andrew was like, before, “Real vegetables use that.” I had no idea what he was talking about.

Andrew: Really?

Jamie: Yes.

Andrew: So what about – [laughs] what about organized dentistry? You guys have that over there?

Jamie: Organized dentistry?

Andrew: Yeah.

Jerry: Yeah.

Jamie: As in a collective pack of dentists? Is that what you’re asking me?

Andrew: [laughs] Well, basically.

[Jamie laughs]

Jerry: The British Order of Dentists.

Jamie: Yes, the British Order of Dentists. I’m sure there’s something like that.

Andrew: Okay, cool.

Jamie: Why? Where was that from?

Interview: Laura Mallory

Andrew: It was just a listener. Hey, we have a very special call we’re about to take right now. Laura Mallory has decided to – during the break she called me back and she has agreed…

Jamie: Really?

Andrew: Yeah! She has agreed to talk to us here on the show live. So I’m very excited about this. Guys, feel free to add your questions while we take the call here. Now, please treat her – respect her, okay? She has an opinion. It’s America. Let’s get her in the conference here.

[Phone rings]

Andrew: I’m nervous, to be honest with you. This is – and my heart’s actually pounding. Okay. [takes deep breath] This is podcasting history, by the way. She has never agreed to give an interview to a Harry Potter fandom outlet. So…

John Noe/Laura Mallory: Hello?

Andrew: Hi, Laura Mallory?

John/Laura M: Who is this?

Andrew: This is Andrew Sims.

Jamie: We’re your worst nightmare.

Andrew: You called me back over the break. You said you’d agree to do an interview.

John/Laura M: Is this the Muggle show?

Andrew: Yeah, this is the Muggle show. This is MuggleCast.

Jamie: Andrew, be reasonable with her. She gets turned down in court five times. How’s she going to remember who she phoned?

[Jerry laughs]

Andrew: Jamie, can we show a little respect here? It’s the number one Harry Potter podcast online. We just had a few questions for you about what you’ve been doing.

John/Laura M: Harry Potter?!

Andrew: Yeah, Harry Potter.

John/Laura M: Harry Potter?!

Andrew: Yeah. [laughs] I know you don’t like to talk about it, but just – can we have an adult discussion about it?

[Sounds of heavy breathing]

Andrew: [laughs] Are you okay? Are you okay, Laura?

John/Laura M: Yes. Yes.

Andrew: Okay.

John/Laura M: It’ll be fine.

Andrew: Huh?

John/Laura M: Okay, let’s do this.

Andrew: Okay. I guess the first question is why? Why have you been fighting so many cases in court?

Jamie: Yeah.

John/Laura M: Because Harry Potter is bad.

Jamie: What do you mean?

Andrew: Do you have any other case besides that?

Laura: Yeah, do you a justification for that? [laughs]

John/Laura M: Witchcraft!

Jamie: Yeah.

Andrew: Witchcraft.

Jamie: No, that is a fair argument.

John/Laura M: [unintelligible] choose to not be witches.

Andrew: You’re not making much sense. Laura, do you have any questions for her? I lost my list of…

Jamie: I have some questions.

Andrew: Okay.

[Laura laughs]

Jamie: Do you – I mean, most people after they try something five times and still fail at life…

[Laura laughs]

Jamie: …most of them give up and try something new, but you seem to be beneath that. Are you really that low of a human being? No offense.

John/Laura M: Okay, first off, none of the attempts have been failures. Okay?

[Andrew laughs]

John/Laura M: No matter what the result…

Laura: Except for the fact that you lost?

John/Laura M: …I still made progress!

Andrew: You’ve made progress? What progress have you made? It’s still not banned in any school or library.

Jerry: It’s almost a lack of progress.

John/Laura M: My name is being spread around the world, people are starting to know me, and people are also agreeing that Harry Potter is the worst thing ever.

Andrew: Now, wait a second…

John/Laura M: Witchcraft, wizardry…

Andrew: We have 825 people listening right now and I’m sure they would all have no problem with calling you right now and telling you that it is not the worst thing in the world or [laughs] whatever you just said.

John/Laura M: You have 825 possessed people.

Andrew: Now, that’s not very nice. I mean, they’ve been sitting here listening to our show and we thank them for that. You’re calling them possessed?

John/Laura M: They’re possessed by the book.

Andrew: Now, you were named the Idiot of the Year. 2006 Idiot of the Year by Washington Post. What kind of comment do you have about that?

Jamie: Well, she’s hoping to uphold her award for the next ten years.

John/Laura M: I have no idea what you’re talking about, but you sound like an idiot to me.

Mikey: You know what, Laura Mallory?

Laura: Ms. Mallory…

Mikey: Ms. Mallory, I do have a question for you. Have you read a Harry Potter book all the way through?

John/Laura M: No, I have not and I won’t. I have my four kids and I don’t even have the time to be doing that.

Mikey: Then how can you say…

Laura: But you have the time to appeal it six times?

John/Laura M: All I have the time for is the court cases and progress. Progress! It’s all progress.

[Andrew and Laura laugh]

John/Laura M: Losing is still progress, and I…

Mikey: Progress? Progress?

Andrew: You’re not making much progress though.

Mikey: [laughs] You’re not making much progress. It’s like you’re doing the same thing over and over again, which is losing.

John/Laura M: You all know me, more and more people know me, your 820 listeners know me, and I guarantee that some of them agree with me.

Jamie: Hey, Laura…

Andrew: That’s a fair point. She has made – a lot of people do know her now, so that I guess could be said to be progress.

Jerry: Your personal fame is success?

Andrew: I guess, yeah.

Jamie: Laura, are you married?

John/Laura M: What?

Jamie: Are you married?

Andrew: Are you married?

Jamie: Are you married? Yes…

John/Laura M: Separated.

Jamie: …or no?

Andrew: You’re separated, you said?

John/Laura M: Separated.

Andrew: Oh.

Jamie: Finally realized…

John/Laura M: I have my four kids, I have custody of my kids.

[Prolonged silence]

Andrew: Okay. Your cell phone doesn’t work that well. I mean, maybe you should invest some money into a new cell phone instead of all these stupid court cases.

John/Laura M: They’re not stupid! Nothing is stupid! Harry Potter is stupid!

Andrew: Okay. Well…

Mikey: Oh.

Laura: You want to know what I think is stupid, Laura?

Andrew: Your face!

[Jamie and Laura laugh]

Jamie: Your life!

Laura: I’m looking at this site right now…

[Andrew laughs]

Laura: …this site called HisVoiceToday.org – I think you might know it, I actually think it’s your site – where you don’t cite any of your sources. You pull stuff from people’s MySpace profiles saying that they’re witches.

Andrew: [laughs] What?! What?

Laura: [laughs] It’s true!

Andrew: I’ve never seen this site.

Laura: It’s her site, HisVoiceToday.org. [laughs]

John/Laura M: [unintelligible] No, you’re wrong, girl.

[Laura laughs]

Mikey: What is her site? I’m sorry, I wasn’t…

Laura: It’s HisVoiceToday.org and then if you go to “Articles” and click “Harry Potter,” she has articles, quotes, and testimonies, none of which are cited or sourced. And she like literally pulls somebody’s MySpace profile that says, “I am a witch.”

Andrew: Wow.

Laura: And blames it on Harry Potter. I was just wondering what sort of correlation you found between MySpace and Harry Potter, aside from wizard rock, maybe.

John/Laura M: Because everyone on MySpace…

[Laura laughs]

John/Laura M: …says when Harry Potter will express it. That person expresses just how everyone else wants to express it. People are becoming witches every single day because of this.

Jamie: Laura, there’s a Billy Joel song that’s called “Only the Good Die Young.” If that’s true, then you’re going to live to an old, old, old, old, ripe old age.

John/Laura M: [gasps] How dare you! Who is this?

[Jamie and Laura laugh]

Andrew: Yeah, it’s not funny, okay. I don’t appreciate the unprofessional level my co-hosts are conducting this interview. I apologize for that.

Mikey: Whoa, what have I said?

Andrew: Nothing. Mikey, it’s not you and not even Jerry. It’s just – Laura and Jamie, they’re taking this as a joke. As if it’s funny!

Laura: I’m not! Okay, I’m sitting here asking her – I’m reading stuff from her site. I’m just asking her to back up her information, that’s all.

John/Laura M: [unintelligible] It’s all right there on the site.

Laura: Yeah, but it’s not…

John/Laura M: That’s all it needs to be. It needs to be on the site. You read it, and you’ll sometimes agree with it. I guarantee it.

Laura: [laughs] Okay.

Andrew: Okay. Well, Laura Mallory, thank you for calling in.

Jamie: Yeah.

John/Laura M: You’ll never win! You’ll never win! 820 listeners…

Laura: You would know a lot about that, wouldn’t you?

John/Laura M: 850 listeners, 900 listeners…

[Andrew laughs]

John/Laura M: It doesn’t matter because some day, I will succeed.

Andrew: All right. Well…

Jamie: [laughs] Laura, there’s a – actually, no.

[Jamie and Laura laugh]

Andrew: Okay. Thank you very much for calling in, Laura Mallory. We really appreciate that. Thank you.

John/Laura M: Yeah, keep laughing.

Andrew: Okay.

John/Laura M: Some day I’ll win.

Andrew: All right, you’re crazy.

Jamie: Buh-bye.

Andrew: Goodbye.

Jamie: I hope she’s never heard of the word “slander” or “liable” because we could get into trouble.

[Everyone laughs]

Andrew: [in a sing-song voice] We’re going to get sued. [back to normal voice] But wait, why? That was her.

Jamie: Hmm? Oh, I mean obviously it was her. But I mean, you know.

Laura: Yeah.

Jamie: I was going to say: Laura, there’s a train arriving extremely close to you. I suggest you go and stand in front of it.

[Andrew and Laura laugh]

Jamie: But that could be a bit mean, so…

Andrew: A couple of people in the chat were saying that was annoying and dumb. What? That’s a…

Jamie: Awww.

Andrew: I’m fed up with these people in the chat. They’re talking like this is all a joke, this is a very funny – no! That was Laura Mallory! She called me back! I got her number, she called me back, okay? A legit interview, that was her. [pauses] Allegedly. Let’s move on now to – let’s take some more calls. Take some more calls. Maybe people can comment on that interview we just had.

[Prolonged silence]

Listener Calls: Strangest Reactions From People After They Find Out You’re a Harry Potter Fanatic

Andrew: Hi, Monica. Welcome to the show, Monica.

Jamie: Hey, Monica.

Caller: Oh my God!

Andrew: Oh my God! Hey, how’s it going?

Laura: Hi, Monica.

Caller: Hi! I’m good. How are you?

Andrew: We’re doing good. What’s on your mind? What did you think of the Laura Mallory interview?

Caller: It was interesting. I never knew she had such a manly voice before.

[Jamie laughs]

Andrew: Well, I mean…

Laura: Well, now you know.

[Laura and Mikey laugh]

Andrew: When it comes…

Mikey: Yeah, I know. Really? Who has such a manly voice?

[Caller laughs]

Andrew: When it comes through on Skype, it’s like this weird Skype thing. I don’t know how it works. But…

Caller: Yeah. [laughs]

Andrew: Anyway, what’s going on?

Caller: Nothing really. I had a question but someone asked it, about the conferences. But I have another one.

Laura: Okay.

Caller: What’s the strangest reaction you’ve ever gotten after someone realized that you’re a Harry Potter fanatic?

Laura: Hmm.

Andrew: Ooh.

Jamie: [unintelligible] the emergency room. [laughs]

Andrew: [laughs] Strange reaction. I think when people learn of – I never really describe myself to anyone as a Harry Potter fanatic. But when I tell them what I do, I’m like, “Yeah, I run a Harry Potter podcast,” the first reaction is like, “What? Huh?”

[Caller laughs]

Andrew: “Who? How?”

Caller: Yeah.

Andrew: And then once I explain to them, “Oh. Well, it has this many listeners, and we can do a live show on a Saturday night and get 877 people listening right now.” So it’s always a good reaction [laughs] after the explanation.

[Caller laughs]

Andrew: How about you guys?

Laura: For me, the first question is always, “What’s a podcast?” So many people don’t know what it is and it’s gotten to the point where I just say that I participate in a radio broadcast about the Harry Potter books.

Andrew: Mmm.

Laura: And still people don’t even get that because they think about radio and they think about commercial radio, you know, your regular morning talk shows and that kind of thing. And I have to explain that there’s actually a whole network of people who have podcasts on very focused topics like Harry Potter. And after that, they think it’s pretty cool. But explaining it is somewhat difficult, I think.

Mikey: It’s actually really easy to explain. A podcast is an internet radio show that’s downloadable for you to listen to on your computer…

Laura: I’m not talking about the actual podcasting medium, though.

[Mikey laughs]

Laura: I’m talking about the Harry Potter thing, Mikey.

Mikey: Oh sorry. Yeah, it’s – I have to explain podcasts quite often, so I’ve come down to a science of what a podcast is.

[Andrew and Caller laugh]

Andrew: It’s okay.

Mikey: Sorry, I’m delirious already.

[Caller laughs]

Mikey: I’m up to the point where I’m like, “Wow, I’m still sitting at my computer screen.”

Andrew: See, Jamie, these people talk like they’ve been here since noon.

Mikey: Oh gosh. I’m sorry, guys.

[Andrew laughs]

Jerry: Some of us have to work.

Mikey: Well see, the difference is – Andrew, the difference is I actually have a life and I feel like I’m just wasting away in front of the computer.

Andrew: Thanks. If that’s how you – say that to the listeners one more time.

Mikey: Well no, I love our listeners and that’s why I’m sticking around: for them. But you, Andrew. I’m saying you don’t have a life.

Andrew: Okay.

Mikey: So…

Andrew: Well, let’s put it this way.

[Caller laughs]

Andrew: I could have been out in LA this week, putting up with you guys!

Mikey: I know, you could have been hanging out with us. I’m here because of our fans and I’m sticking out for them. You should come out. You should just come out.

Andrew: [sighs] Whatever.

Mikey: You know what? You should come out for October 13th and hang out with me on my birthday.

Andrew: No, no, no, no.

Mikey: Oh.

Andrew: Sorry, I don’t have a life. I don’t do anything.

Mikey: Oh.

[Laura laughs]

Mikey: Okay.

Andrew: So – I didn’t come home from college or anything to do this, so…

Mikey: I’m so delirious right now.

Andrew: Okay.

Mikey: I don’t know why.

Andrew: Well, thank you for calling in, Monica.

Caller: All right. Thank you. Oh, can I give a shout-out to my friend?

Andrew: Of course.

Caller: I just want to say hi to Ashley. She’s listening right now. She’s been listening since 12:00 AM, I think. [laughs]

Andrew: Oh wow, awesome.

Laura: Oh wow.

[Caller laughs]

Jamie: That’s impressive…

Caller: Yeah.

Jamie: …considering we started at 12:00 PM.

[Andrew and Jamie laugh]

Caller: Oh, 12:00 PM. Sorry.

Andrew: [laughs] Yeah, I was going to say.

Laura: Hey, you guys…

Caller: Thank you!

Andrew: Bye! Yeah, Laura?

Jamie: Buh-bye!

Laura: Not to cut in here, but we just got an e-mail. Somebody found something on Laura Mallory’s site and it says:

“Announcing His Voice Today Radio Show. His Voice Today with Laura Mallory is going on the air. The new radio show will be featured on the local radio station WIMO Newstalk Radio at…”

At what? It starts on September 1st and it’s airing out of Bethlehem, Georgia.

Andrew: Wow.

Laura: So she’s actually – so we should call into her show.

Andrew: Yeah, I’d be up for that.

[Laura laughs]

Jamie: We should.

Andrew: Maybe there’s a live internet stream that we can…

Laura: Yeah.

Andrew: …listen to.

Laura: She can hang up on us.

Jerry: Send an e-mail about podcasting… [unintelligible]

MuggleCast 112 Transcript (continued)

Ustream Poll Question: Does Andrew Have a Life?

Andrew: Yeah. Lucas calling again for the eightieth time. What’s up?

Caller: Yeah. Actually, I was going to call – I tried calling like thirty seconds ago and I was going to say new poll: Does Andrew have a life? But then someone typed it into the chat, so…

Andrew: I missed it, so we’ll create it now.

Caller: Yeah.

Andrew: Do you think I have a life?

Mikey: Everybody, please say no.

Caller: No, I don’t have one either, so…

Mikey: Everybody, please say no just for the sake of getting Andrew mad.

[Laura laughs]

Andrew: Lucas…

Mikey: Everybody, just say no to Andrew, please.

Andrew: Lucas, you really…

Mikey: It would be that much more funny.

Andrew: Shut up, Mikey!

Mikey: [laughs] No. Everybody, please just say no to Andrew. Just say no just for the sake of it.

Laura: Aww guys, don’t do that. Come on.

Mikey: Even if you think he has one. [laughs]

Laura: We love Andrew.

Andrew: All right. Thanks, Lucas. Glad you think that.

Caller: Yeah, bye.

Mikey: Andrew, look at…

Andrew: I’ll be sure to answer your calls… [unintelligible] [makes raspberry noises]

Mikey: [laughs] Aww, Andrew.

Jamie: Ooh.

Mikey: Aww. See, this is what happens when we all talk to each other.

Jamie: This is what happens when…

Laura: And Katie says:

“Tell Lucas I love him. He’s the best. I am now a Lucas fan girl.”

[Jerry laughs]

Andrew: I like his audio quality, but now I don’t like anything else about him.

[Laura laughs]

Fan Encounter at Waterstones Podcast

Andrew: Here’s another frequent caller. Sam, what’s up?

Laura: Hey, Sam.

Caller: Hey.

Laura: Again.

Jamie: What’s up, dude?

Jerry: Hey, Sam.

Andrew: How’s it going?

Caller: It’s fine, thanks. Knackered, but…

Jamie: Now it’s 2:00 AM. How are you holding up?

Caller: Nearly falling asleep.

Jamie: Aww.

Laura: Aww. Are we boring or is it just…

Caller: No, I just…

Laura: Okay.

Caller: …haven’t had much sleep for the past few days.

Laura: Aww, okay.

Andrew: Well, what’s going on?

Laura: What’s up?

[Andrew and Laura laugh]

Jerry: Mikey has met Sam before, I think.

Andrew: Yeah, yeah. We all met him. Yeah, we discussed it earlier.

Laura: Yeah, okay, here’s the thing.

Caller: I’m sorry, I…

Laura: We’ve discussed this on a previous call-in show that I don’t think we ended up using or something like that. And apparently, Sam, you and I met at the Waterstones, but I don’t remember and I feel awful.

Caller: Oh no, it’s all right. You probably met so many people.

Laura: No, no, no, but did we talk? Like, I’m just trying to remember… [laughs]

Andrew: [laughs] Did we talk?

Mikey: Well, usually – Laura, just so you know, when you meet someone you say hello, so you do converse a little bit.

Laura: Okay…

Mikey: [laughs] I’m so sorry. I couldn’t resist.

Laura: …I’m trying to jog my memory.

Mikey: It was right there. Laura, it was right there, like, “Did we talk?”

Laura: Whatever, Mikey.

Mikey: No, not at all. [laughs]

Laura: Whatever.

Mikey: Oh, I love you guys.

Laura: Hey, I have met a couple of people who for reasons unknown don’t speak when they come up, so just – you never know. So…

Andrew: Oh yeah. No, Sam talked. Sam talked.

[Prolonged silence]

Andrew: Hello?

Jamie: Yeah, I remember it.

Andrew: So all right, thanks for calling in, Sam.

Caller: That’s all right. I’ve quickly got a Jack Bauer joke.

Andrew: Oh, you got a joke? Okay.

Jamie: Yeah.

Caller: Yeah.

Andrew: Go for it.

Caller: Professor Charles Xavier from X-Men once tried to read Jack Bauer’s mind. Now he’s sitting in a wheelchair.

[Jamie laughs]

Andrew: Ooh.

Jamie: That is a little inappropriate but thank you very much.

Andrew: Why is it inappropriate?

Jamie: Because – come on, Andrew. I don’t have to spell it out to you… [unintelligible]

[Andrew laughs]

Jamie: …because I have to type it.

Andrew: Okay. Well, type it to me soon. But anyway we’re going to take a break. We’re going to take an extended break. We’re going to take – let’s see, a roughly twelve-minute break or so.

Mikey: Andrew, what music are you going to play?

Andrew: We’re actually going to kick it off with “Elevation” by U2.

Mikey: Oh.

Andrew: Then we’re going to go into “Save Ginny Weasley,” then “Short People,” then The Ramones “I Wanna Be Sedated.” So…

Jamie: [singing] “I wanna be sedated.”

Mikey: Are you not going to play the song I really want you to play?

Andrew: What song?

Mikey: I think everyone – Jackson 5, “ABC.”

Andrew: Oh, I forgot about that. I never downloaded it.

Mikey: Dude…

Andrew: Okay, we still got time. I’ll type it in right now. Jackson 5 – I’m searching on iTunes – ABC. Okay, there we go.

Mikey: Come on, it’s little Michael. It’s little Michael!

Andrew: Searching, Buy Now, just paid my dollar. Okay, we’re good to go.

Jerry: [singing] “ABC.”

Mikey: [singing] “It’s easy as 123.”

Andrew: Thanks, Sam, for calling in.

Mikey: Come on, guys. I’ll sing it.

[Jerry laughs]

Andrew: Okay. Well, we’re going to take a little break. Once we come back, still have a few things planned this evening. We have three hours left. Thank you to everyone who’s been watching us this whole time. We’ll get to the poll results once we’re back. Also, we got some more Book 7 discussion coming up. Also…

Jamie: More vegetables as well.

Andrew: [laughs] Some more vegetables, of course, and we have a – well, a friend of mine is going to be coming on in a little bit to discuss all of his problems with the Harry Potter series. He’s not a fan like the rest of us, so that’ll be pretty interesting.

Jamie: It’s going to be an interesting, unique viewpoint.

Andrew: It definitely will be. For now though, “Elevation” from U2. We’ll be back in, oh, fifteen minutes or so.

Laura: Buh-bye!

[“Elevation” by U2 plays]

Listener Calls: Ticket to J.K. Rowling’s Book Reading

Caller: [laughs] Yeah, I promise that the ticket is actually…

Andrew: Well, congrats on winning!

Caller: I know! I’m…

Andrew: That’s very exciting.

Caller: [laughs] Yeah, definitely. All right…

Andrew: No, no, no, I – people in the chat are saying I don’t believe Chloe. I believe Chloe.

Caller: [laughs] Yeah, I’m not going around fooling everyone.

Andrew: Yeah. No, no, this is not…

Caller: I don’t kid when it comes to J.K. Rowling.

Andrew: Yeah.

[Andrew and Jerry laugh]

Andrew: Okay. Well…

Mikey: That’s awesome.

Andrew: Well, thanks for calling, liar, and I’ll talk to you soon.

[Caller laughs]

Andrew: I’m just kidding.

[Andrew and Jerry laugh]

Andrew: I’m just kidding.

Caller: Yeah, I was going to say, you’re going to lose your ticket pretty quickly. [laughs]

Andrew: No, I’m kidding. I believe you. It was just funny timing.

Caller: Yeah.

Andrew: Just funny timing. But – okay. Well, cool. Keep me updated.

Caller: Definitely.

Andrew: If you do want to take me. I’m not trying to force you.

Caller: Oh no, I just wanted to reach out and…

Andrew: Okay.

Caller: If it’s a possibility.

Andrew: Cool.

Caller: Because to tell you the truth, I would rather go with you than go with my parents anyway.

Andrew: Yeah, I’m more fun.

[Caller and Mikey laugh]

Mikey: Yeah, you are.

[Jerry laughs]

Andrew: I’ll take you to all the nightclubs or – wait, that’s weird.

Caller: Yeah. [laughs]

Andrew: Okay. Awkward now.

Caller: I’ve got another four years to go there.

Andrew: [laughs] And me too. Okay, so…

[Caller laughs]

Andrew: Okay, I’ll talk to you soon then. Stay in touch! Call me!

[Caller laughs]

Andrew: Not my real number though.

Caller: Yeah.

Andrew: That will just annoy me. [laughs] Okay, bye.

Caller: [laughs] Bye!

Andrew: Bye! Okay. Do you guys believe her? I mean, I don’t want to put the effort in if…

Mikey: I think so.

Jerry: I do. I mean…

Andrew: Okay.

Mikey: If it’s not true…

Jerry: Why would she lie?

Mikey: …it’s kind of a mean joke.

Jerry: Yeah.

Ustream Poll Question: Do The Listeners Have a Life?

Andrew: Lucas keeps calling me, but I refuse to answer his call because he thinks I have no life. Sorry, Lucas.

[Jerry laughs]

Andrew: I don’t have time for you anymore. To heck with you.

Jerry: Andrew, though, I think that people agree with him, unfortunately. [unintelligible] percent of the people. [laughs]

Andrew: Oh yeah, let’s take a look at the poll here. You know, it’s amazing. I put all this time into the show with my fellow co-hosts for you guys and 319 people say I don’t have a life, 218 people do.

Mikey: Haha! I win! [laughs]

Andrew: So – here, I’m going to make a new poll.

Mikey: Oh no.

Andrew: Do the listeners have a life?

[Jerry laughs]

Mikey: Yes, they do.

Andrew: Option one: No. Option two: No. Start poll.

Mikey: [laughs] Wow!

Andrew: Okay, go ahead! Go ahead! Vote away! Let’s see who wins this one.

Mikey: All right, everybody, nobody vote at all. Just leave it completely…

Andrew: [laughs] Yeah right.

Mikey: Everybody, don’t vote at all.

Andrew: Too late. Too late. The votes are coming in by the second.

Mikey: Oh.

Jerry: We’re too late. [laughs]

Andrew: Oh gosh, I’m annoying so many people today. [laughs]

Mikey: [laughs] And I’m not. Come on, that’s what we do.

Andrew: Well, yeah. I know.

[Jerry laughs]

Mikey: That’s where our love comes in. So you’re going to come to my birthday, right?

Andrew: If you pay for my flight out there.

Mikey: Oh, you have a free airline flight. We know this.

Listener Jokes: The Dark Lord

Andrew: I’m saving that for New Years though. Diego!

Caller: Hey, how are you doing?

Andrew: What’s going on?

Caller: Nothing, just hanging around here listening to you guys.

Andrew: Cool. Where are you calling from?

Caller: Montero, Mexico.

Andrew: Mexico, wow. That’s awesome.

Caller: I heard what you said earlier.

Andrew: What’s that? Oh, I’m sorry about that.

[Caller laughs]

Andrew: Happy Independence Day!

Caller: Thanks.

Andrew: Yay! So [laughs] what’s on your mind today?

Caller: Well, I got a joke, actually.

Andrew: Oh, a joke. Jamie? Ready for the joke?

[Prolonged silence]

Andrew: Where does Jamie keep going?!

Jerry: I think he’s falling asleep.

Andrew: What a bad podcaster.

Jerry: [unintelligible]

Andrew: Just runs off and think this is, like, not alive. Okay, go ahead. We’ll listen to the joke.

Caller: It’s actually a Harry Potter joke, it’s: how many Voldemorts are needed to light a wand?

Andrew: How many?

Caller: None. He’s the Dark Lord.

Andrew: [laughs] Pun! You guys didn’t get it?

Mikey: Huh? I’m sorry, I was…

Andrew: How many Voldemorts does it take to light a wand? Zero because he’s too dark. Something like that. That wasn’t the exact wording. Get it? Well, I liked your joke, Diego.

Mikey: That’s like on the level of “How many Quidditch players does it take to light a wand?”

Andrew: How many? I don’t get it.

Mikey: Seven: six to work really hard for it, and then one for the Seeker to take all the glory.

[Andrew laughs]

Mikey: It’s a really bad joke, but it’s Harry Potter related, so it’s fun.

Andrew: Right, right.

Mikey: And I’m not saying your joke – well no, I am saying your joke was bad. It’s on the same level – I love those jokes. It’s kind of along the way of “Make like a tree and leave,” which I love.

Andrew: Yeah.

Mikey: Those are just great little jokes.

Andrew: Yeah.

Mikey: On the ones you get on the popsicles, too. Those are fun.

Andrew: Oh, I love those. I love those, yeah.

Mikey: Yeah, those are great.

Andrew: Okay. Well, thank you, Diego, for calling in!

Mikey: Bye, Diego.

Andrew: See ya!

Mikey: It was – yeah.

Listener Calls: Ustream Poll Suggestion

Andrew: That was fun. Bobby?

[Echoing sounds in the background]

Caller: Hey!

Andrew: Hi! How are you doing?

Caller: Hold on, let me turn this down.

Andrew: Oh, thank you. Concerned caller, I like that.

Caller: I have to say hi to Kim from earlier or she’s going to kill me.

Andrew: Oh, where are you calling from?

Caller: Leeds in England.

Andrew: Very cool, very cool.

Jerry: Whereabouts?

Andrew and Caller: Leeds.

Jerry: Oh, Leeds. Cool.

Caller: And since she was screaming so much, she forgot to tell you she wants you to play Spice Girls.

Andrew: Oh man, I didn’t even think of Spice Girls. Yeah.

Mikey: Why did we not think of Spice Girls? Really?

Andrew: Good point. Okay.

Caller: And we want a “How drunk is Ben?” poll.

Andrew: What?!

Mikey: What? Ben doesn’t drink alcohol. He’s under 21.

Andrew: What? I don’t understand what you’re talking about. It’s uncalled for. Ben was at a football game and he was a little excited about the game. And he did his Albus Dumbledore impression. He’s not going to appreciate all these accusations. So anyway…

Mikey: I do. I appreciate every single one of them.

Listener Calls: Most Anticipated Scene in Deathly Hallows Movie

Andrew: Yeah. Okay. Well, thank you, Bobby, for calling in. That was fun. And let’s see, we’re just going to keep taking callers now for the next hour. Here’s someone. I like this guy’s name. Andrew?

[Echoing sounds in the background]

Caller: Hey, how’s it going?

Andrew: Hey. Can you mute your Ustream?

Mikey: Echo.

Caller: Can you hear me?

Andrew: Yeah, we hear you. What’s up?

Caller: Oh, not a lot. How are you guys doing? Are you hanging around?

Andrew: No, but – sort of.

Caller: Are you starting to get tired now?

Andrew: [laughs] Huh?

Caller: Are you starting to get tired?

Andrew: Yeah. Well, everyone is dying on me. Jamie straight up – I think he actually died.

Mikey: I’m still here.

Jerry: [unintelligible]

Andrew: It’s getting late where Jerry is.

Jerry: I worked an eight-hour shift at work and then came home and now here I am. Aren’t I?

Caller: Well, cool. I’ve kind of been listening in and out of the chat all day, so…

Andrew: Oh cool.

Caller: It’s nice to see that you guys are doing this.

Andrew: Well, good. Are you enjoying it?

Caller: Yeah, quite a bit. Quite a bit.

Andrew: Okay. Good, good. So what’s going on? [laughs]

Caller: [laughs] Not a lot. Have you talked about the movies yet?

Andrew: A little bit, but do you have a question about it? We need to get some…

Caller: It’s like what do you – what kind of stuff are you looking forward to in the seventh movie?

Andrew: Oh, we actually did talk about this earlier. One thing I said I was definitely looking forward to was the final scene where Harry is confronting Voldemort, addressing him as Tom, because I think Dan is ready to portray that sort of – to act out that scene very, very well. Thanks to his role in Equus where he’s one unhappy camper.

Caller: Yeah, yeah, I agree. I actually got to – I also got to see him on stage over in London. I went over to London in February, I think. Yeah, back in February, and he was very good.

Andrew: Oh awesome. Do you agree with my theory that Jo went to see Equus, then after seeing Equus, wrote that scene in the book where he has to strip down to hop into the pond?

Caller: [laughs] It’s possible. It’s very possible.

Andrew: I’m pretty sure that’s what happened because I can’t think of another reason why she would do that.

Jerry: She might just want to see Dan topless again.

Andrew: That’s what I’m saying.

Caller: Yeah, maybe.

Mikey: Maybe. Just maybe.

Caller: Didn’t she sort of – Dan said something like that, didn’t he? Didn’t he say that she had told him – didn’t she come backstage after the performance [unintelligible] scenes like that for him.

Andrew: Yeah, it’s probably something like that. Yeah, something like that. Jamie, welcome back.

Jamie: Thank you.

Andrew: Thanks for running off without telling us.

Jamie: Sorry, I went to the bathroom. I didn’t want to interrupt the flow.

Andrew: Oh okay.

Jamie: No pun intended.

[Andrew and Jerry laugh]

Andrew: Okay, Andrew. Well, thanks for calling in.

Caller: Oh, no problem. Thanks for… [unintelligible]

Andrew: Thanks. Okay, no problem. See ya. Andrew Walker, ladies and gentlemen. That was Andrew Walker.

Jerry: I’m just looking forward to the huge bedroom kiss with Harry and Ginny. They better leave that in.

Andrew: [laughs] Oh yeah.

Jerry: I’m a big fan of the snogging thing.

Andrew: Yeah.

Jamie: What are you talking about?

Andrew: The seventh film.

Jamie: Oh okay.

Listener Calls: Epilogue Scene

Andrew: Yeah. Mickel? Michael?

Caller: Hey.

Andrew: Hey.

Caller: Hey. It’s Mika. Actually I’m a girl.

Andrew: Oh, Mika. Oh sorry, I was just reading your Skype name, trying to act like I’m good at this.

Caller: Yeah, that’s cool.

[Echoing sounds in the background]

Andrew: What’s going on? Hey, can you mute your Ustream?

Mikey: Echo.

Caller: My username?

Andrew: No, your Ustream.

Mikey: The…

Caller: Oh. I don’t know. I just turned into this thing…

Andrew: Oh.

Caller: …so I don’t really know how.

Jerry: Echo.

Andrew: Well yeah, turn off your feed so we can’t hear ourselves.

Caller: Ahhh, okay.

Andrew: You know what I’m saying?

Caller: There you go. Is that okay?

Andrew: That’s better. So what’s on your mind today?

Caller: So I just wanted to stand up in defense of the epilogue.

Andrew: In defense of the epilogue?

Caller: Yeah.

Andrew: Okay.

Caller: Because – I mean, I hear everyone saying about it being like fan fiction-y or whatever, but – and I felt like that the first time I read it. But the second time I read it, I was – it just felt so real and rich and emotional, and I really felt like Jo just had – she knew exactly where everybody was and she just wanted to show us this little picture in the sunset, just so we have this big idea. And I think everybody is being a little harsh about it, so…

Jerry: I completely agree.

Caller: Thanks.

Jerry: I for one am very, very happy with the epilogue. I had exactly the same feeling, that she couldn’t…

Caller: Thank you.

Jerry: …[unintelligible] because it’s one little scene that she did it in a way that’s kind of true to the characters, I think. Apart from the names.

Andrew: I’m hoping that – I’ll only accept the epilogue if Jo narrates it in the movie, because that would be sweet.

Jamie: Yeah, now that would be…

Caller: That would be awesome.

Jerry: Ooh. That would be amazing.

Andrew: As we discussed earlier in the show. Yeah.

Caller: Yeah, that would be really…

Andrew: Yeah. So, thanks for calling in!

Caller: Sure. No problem.

Andrew: Okay. Bye!

Jamie: Bye!

Andrew: Oops, cut her off.

[Prolonged silence]

Andrew: Apparently, I already have a call with this user.

Jamie: What’s going on?

Andrew: Nothing’s going on.

Jamie: What are we going through?

Andrew: Nothing. Show’s over.

Jamie: Show’s over, aye?

Andrew: No, I’m kidding.

Jamie: Aww.

Andrew: Add to conference. Molly!

Caller: Hey.

Andrew: Hey. Is this “Mollyfoxsims” Molly?

Caller: No.

Andrew: Oh. See – okay, that’s so weird because your Skype name is Mollychris, so what was I supposed to assume, co-hosts? [laughs]

Mikey: I know, I agree. I agree.

Andrew: [laughs] And from California.

Mikey: Except her name is Mollyfoxsims.

[Echoing sounds in the background]

Andrew: No, but I thought…

Mikey: And this is…

Andrew: Hey, can you mute your Skype thing? Your Ustream?

Caller: Okay, I just did.

Andrew: Okay, thanks. Actually no, you didn’t. Liar.

Caller: I didn’t?

Andrew: No, I still hear ourselves.

Caller: Oh. Well, I don’t know how to do it. Wait. Okay, I got it.

Andrew: Okay. No, you’re lying again.

Caller: No, I did.

Andrew: No, I still hear myself.

Mikey: I hear myself, too. Echo.

Caller: You can hear that?

Jerry: Molly, it’s the regular feedback.

Andrew: That call was weird. Yeah, so that was weird. Okay. Do you guys want to move on to some book discussion? Or are you guys going to poop out? Don’t want you guys to poop out.

Mikey: Book discussion? We can do more book discussion if you want, but I think we’ve discussed that quite a bit today. I think…

Andrew: Yeah.

Mikey: You know what? This is what I’m going to say, is let’s have a listener challenge, let’s have the fan tell us what they want us to talk about.

Andrew: Okay.

Mikey: Yeah.

MuggleCast 112 Transcript (continued)

Listener Calls: Fans Still Have Chance to Win Tickets to J.K. Rowling’s Book Reading

Andrew: Lucas, are you here to apologize to me?

Caller: Yeah. I’m sorry.

Andrew: That didn’t sound very sincere.

Caller: Well, I don’t have a life either.

[Andrew laughs]

Jamie: Lucas, say it like you mean it.

Caller: But yeah, I’m going to kind of defend Jackie, I think it was, that called in and said she’d give you a ticket. You guys called her a liar.

Andrew: You mean Chloe?

Caller: Or Chloe.

Andrew: Yeah.

Caller: I don’t know who it was, but…

Andrew: I believe her.

Caller: Yeah. Well, for people who don’t believe her, when I won tickets to it – or my sister did – we called in to see if my sister can get me tickets which she can’t but…

Andrew: Mhm.

Caller: But yeah, we called in. They’re like if people can’t make it to it then they’ll call more people. So…

Andrew: Oh interesting. So people still have a chance.

Caller: Yeah, you still have a chance for a while, I think.

Andrew: Oh.

Caller: So…

Andrew: Okay, cool. Cool.

Caller: Yeah.

Andrew: Well, thanks for adding that.

Jamie: That’s cool.

Andrew: And – I still don’t believe your apology. I don’t really appreciate it.

Caller: Okay.

Andrew: Let’s check the polls, speaking of that. The question was: Do the listeners have a life? Option one: No. 288 votes. Option two: No. 151 votes. So, choice one no is clearly the leader right now. And we’ll see how that goes. Lucas, what should we talk about? Give us something.

Caller: Horcruxes?

Andrew: [laughs] Horcruxes? We only talked about that a million times.

Discussion: The Dark Side in Star Wars

Jamie: [laughs] Horcruxes. Okay, I have a question. I have a question.

Andrew: Okay.

Jamie: Now, in Star Wars, Mikey – and I think you’ll agree – the Dark Side is not – well, I don’t think the Dark Side is necessarily an evil side because I read some descriptions about it and stuff like that, and it says it’s a side of passion of lust and fiery sort of emotions and stuff like that. And if you submit to the Dark Side, you aren’t necessarily a bad…

Mikey: No, no, no, no. See, right there, the fiery passion – Anakin scene is like, “We’re meant to love and care, and by having love – loving somebody, he’s going down – he’s just doing that perfect and all that.” Well, what happens is by doing that type of emotion because – the only wrong love is great and all, but it is a very intense emotion and by doing a forbidden love and by being anger, fear, aggression – all those things lead to the Dark Side – doesn’t mean that those items themselves are the Dark Side.

Jamie: Yeah.

Mikey: It’s just that once you start down that path, to come back from it is very difficult. Basically, the difference between the Light Side and the Dark Side of the Force – and again, I know I’m just going to a Star Wars tangent. It’s not a Star Wars podcast but I’m explaining to Jamie – is everything on the Light Side of the Force – everything living, they get their energy, they get the power of the Force, from all living things around them, right?

Jamie: Yeah.

Mikey: Whereas the Dark Side is destruction, so they get more power by destroying things, killing, and stuff like that. So…

Jamie: But Mikey…

Mikey: Mhm?

Jamie: …surely you can be a passionate person and – I mean, I would – I’m not going to lie. The Dark Side, from my opinion, is – I don’t blame everyone from submitting to it. I know I try my absolute best to remain light. But when Yoda has that talk with Anakin and says you can’t feel for anyone, you can’t sort of love anyone, but you can, I’d be like, well, I can understand why people submit to the Dark Side. Although obviously I’d be the best Jedi that ever lived. To be the most powerful one, I won’t submit to the Dark Side.

Mikey: No, I totally agree. It’s like you can, but it’s a very fine line you have to walk.

Jamie: Yeah.

Mikey: Because basically there’s a fine line between love and hate. There really is, especially when you – the one thing I love about Star Wars that I think Harry Potter shows a little bit and I think comic books do that a lot is with great power comes great responsibility, the Spiderman line…

Jamie: Yeah.

Mikey: …that everyone says. But with this great power, you have such a temptation to use it for your own personal gain. And we see that in Harry Potter that Voldemort’s lust for power and everything like that.

Jamie: Yeah.

Mikey: And you’re walking such a fine line, having passion.

[Andrew laughs]

Mikey: And so when you – in the Old Republic’s view, Jedi were taught to actually go ahead and control this so they’re very – if you look at Episode 1, I think a lot of people didn’t like it, that weren’t Star Wars fans…

Jamie: Yeah.

Mikey: …because they didn’t understand why Liam Neeson and – oh my gosh. This big fish. Ewan McGregor. [laughs] Gosh, it slipped my mind for a second!

Jamie: [laughs] Ewan McGregor, yeah.

Mikey: The actor that played – Liam Neeson and Ewan McGregor who played Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan, why they were so kind of passive, they were stoney-faced – so you see them go through all these big things and they never had the emotion that Luke Skywalker had. Well, why did Luke have this emotion and these two guys didn’t…

Jamie: Yeah.

Mikey: …was because they were taught to control their emotions that way so that way they’re not tempted to go down to the Dark Side, whereas Luke – he grew up as a young boy. He was looking for adventure and Yoda tells him, “Adventure – a Jedi seeks not these things,” you know what I mean?

Jamie: Yeah. But…

Mikey: And it’s like that’s the difference…

Jamie: No, I see what you mean…

Mikey: Hmm?

Jamie: I see what you mean, but why is not being in control of your emotions a bad thing?

Mikey: No, it’s fine. It’s not a bad thing. In fact, it helps Luke out.

Jamie: Yeah.

Mikey: It helps Luke out. It’s just that you got to take into consideration the passion and emotions – because it’s such a fine line.

Jamie: Yeah.

Mikey: Over thousands and thousands of years of teaching, they see that people that are very passionate have a higher risk…

Jamie: Oh okay.

Mikey: …of going to the Dark Side. Because it’s such an easier path because instead of giving life and protecting and loving everyone and really being a protector of good…

Jamie: Yeah.

Mikey: …all you have to do is kill things and you grow stronger. Destroy things, be mean. And you see it in Voldemort, it’s the drive for power, more power, more power. And that’s what you get, is the minute you realize just by striking down – best example is Revenge of the Sith. You see Anakin Skywalker who’s gone to the Dark Side. Why? Because he wants to save Padme, the person he loved.

Jamie: Yeah.

Mikey: But he’s doing this all for his right reasons but now it’s become selfish, so much that he kills a bunch of little kids in trying to save one person, which by all means try to save that person, but you’re doing it in a completely wrong way. And in fact it’s his actions that lead to her death, and I think that’s one of the nice things that Star Wars has.

Jamie: So do you mean if he’d stopped before he went that one step too far, he could have used the Dark Side stuff while still remained in the…

Mikey: No, I’m not saying he couldn’t have gone. It’s just – people can go to the Dark Side and come back, and perfect example is Darth Vader does come back from the Dark Side at the end of Return of the Jedi. Luke says, “I will not fight. You’re my father. I will not fight you.” He’s telling him “There’s still good in you. I’m forcing you to kill me.” And basically it brings Anakin Skywalker who was dead to Darth Vader back from the Dark Side. And it’s the same thing with any superhero, Harry Potter, any of that stuff, it’s with those awesome powers they have, whether it be magic, Spiderman’s abilities…

Jamie: Yeah.

Mikey: …Star Wars and the Force, whatever, every single good guy and bad guy, there’s a fine line. To make a bad guy a really great character – if we take a look at Voldemort, Snape, and Harry, they all have a similar story. Remember I compared them to salsa?

Jamie: Yeah.

Mikey: Mild, medium, and hot.

Jamie: Yeah, yeah.

Mikey: They all have a similar story, but it’s the line and kind of where they came from – it’s what caused them to cross that line, you know what I mean?

Jamie: Yeah, I see.

Mikey: Harry again could have gone to the Dark Side, especially in Order of the Phoenix. He was all caps Harry, you know what I mean?

Jamie: Yeah.

Mikey: He was so close to – he could have broken down and given up. And really, no one would have blamed him.

Jamie: Completely, yeah.

Mikey: Really, no one would have blamed him for giving up. It’s that point. But he had what it took to go away from it. And same thing with the Dark Side and the Light Side at least in Star Wars, is the Light Side is everything around you is what gives you your energy.

[Andrew laughs]

Mikey: It surrounds us, it binds us, it penetrates us from the Dark Side…

Andrew: You are such a dork! You’re a dork! You’re a dork! You’re a dork!

Mikey: I am a dork! I’m a dork!

Andrew: You’re a dork!

Jamie: Andrew…

Andrew: Let’s move on from Star Wars now, please.

Jamie: …we’ve been podcasting for nine and a half hours.

Mikey: Did I not tie it into Harry Potter? Did I not tie it into Harry Potter, okay?

Andrew: No. [laughs] Let’s take a call now!

Mikey: Oh guys…

Andrew: [laughs] Hello, foreign caller.

Mikey: I’m sorry. I’m not talking about Star Wars anymore.

Listener Calls: Pets Named After Harry Potter Characters

Caller: Hello?

Andrew: How are you doing?

Caller: I’m fine.

Andrew: You got a question about Harry Potter or something?

Caller: Yeah. Do you name any pets you might have after Harry Potter characters?

Andrew: [laughs] That’s a funny question. No. Although somebody I know has named a pet after Harry Potter. Or one of the characters. Anyone know if…

Jerry: I’ve got a friend who called their dog Mollywobbles.

Andrew: Mollywobbles?

Jamie: Okay, that…

Jerry: Yup.

Jamie: I had two guinea pigs called Harry and Ron. Ron died unfortunately.

Andrew: Aww.

Jamie: But Harry has like white streak in his long-haired mane so it’s like a lightning bolt, so that’s why he’s Harry.

Andrew: Someone’s got a cat named Lily, a parakeet named Luna. “My frogs are named Trevor and Luna.” I’m just reading these off the chat right now.

Caller: Also…

Andrew: “Friend’s cat is Mrs. Norris.” That’s funny. Yeah, caller?

Listener Calls: J.K. Rowling Making Book 7 Bets

Caller: Also, do you think that J.K. Rowling might have bet on who died in the last book?

Andrew: Sorry, if…

Jerry: She’d make a fortune.

Andrew: [laughs] If J.K. Rowling bet who died? That would be terrible. I think J.K. Rowling has higher standards than betting on who’s going to die in her books. [laughs] She’s got enough money.

Jamie: She’s made so much money.

Jerry: [unintelligible] does she? [laughs]

Andrew: Yeah, she’s got enough money I think to not have to do that. That would be very – that’s like – there was a story in the US a couple of weeks ago where a referee was betting on basketball games and they were the games that he was…

Jamie: Referees.

Andrew: Yeah, that he refereed. It’s a genius plan.

Jerry: [unintelligible] isn’t it? You just can’t do it.

Mikey: Yeah, it is genius, I must say.

Andrew: [laughs] That’s a great plan. I’m going to start betting on what happens on each episode of MuggleCast.

[Jerry laughs]

Andrew: I guess I’ve said too much. But – all right. So yeah, thanks for calling in!

Caller: Okay, bye.

Andrew: Goodnight.

Mikey: Bye.

Andrew: It’s time to start saying goodnight to people instead of bye. We’re entering…

Jamie: I agree.

Listener Calls: Why Dumbledore Would Beat Yoda in a Fight

Andrew: …late hour of MuggleCast here. Just a quick public service announcement: If you already called in, please don’t call in again. Give other listeners a chance to call in and talk to us. What’s up, Camelio?

Jamie: What an awesome name.

[Prolonged silence]

Andrew: Hello?

Caller: Hello?

Andrew: Good evening, caller.

Jamie: Hey.

Caller: Hey, what’s up?

Andrew: Yeah, aren’t you that Australian guy?

Caller: It’s actually almost – [laughs] maybe.

Andrew: [laughs] Maybe. You can admit to it.

Jamie: You might be Australian.

Caller: [laughs] I’ve got to say, I’ve been watching on this for so long. Mikey?

Mikey: Yes?

Caller: By extension, Dumbledore would own Yoda.

Mikey: Aww.

Jamie: I agree.

Mikey: Why is this? Give me a reason.

Caller: All right, ready? All right.

Mikey: All right.

Caller: Sidious beat Yoda, right? Technically. In the third movie.

Mikey: All right. Okay, technically.

Caller: Yeah? All right? And Darth Vader beat Sidious in Return of the Jedi.

Mikey: Okay.

Jamie: Ahhh, I like this logic. I like this logic a lot.

Caller: Okay? Wait. All right. And Luke beat Vader.

Mikey: Aww.

Caller: Technically. He cut his arm off.

Mikey: All right.

Caller: Wait, wait. If Luke is Harry, then Dumbledore would totally own Harry.

Mikey: Okay.

Caller: That is my explanation.

Jamie: Dumbledore would own Harry any day.

Mikey: Aww.

Caller: We all know Dumbledore hands down would beat Harry in a duel, no worries.

Mikey: All right. All right. Okay.

Caller: That’s my explanation. Yeah?

Mikey: Sure. Why not?

[Andrew laughs]

Mikey: I’m not going to argue. I see the logic there, but it’s…

Caller: No, I see it. It’s a bit cheesy.

Mikey: You’re retching a little. But you know what? It’s all right. It’s all right. You know why? Because I definitely think it’s – you went the extra mile to figure it out, so I’m – good job.

Andrew: Hey, what time is it there in Australia?

Caller: 11:37 AM.

Andrew: Wow.

Caller: I’ve been here since 2:00.

Andrew: Wow! Listening to this?

Caller: Yeah.

Andrew: Aww, good for you. That’s dedication.

Caller: All right, could you do me a favor and answer Alyssa’s call? Because she’s been calling since 12:00.

Andrew: Alyssa? There’s been so many people calling from 12:00.

Caller: Yeah.

Andrew: Alyssa. Okay, I’ll keep an eye out just because you’re funny.

Caller: Thanks a lot.

Andrew: But here’s another caller right now – no problem – David Sydney. [laughs] That’s funny because we had someone from – oh, I just hung up on him. I’m a fool. [laughs] Okay. Thanks, Camelio, for calling.

Caller: All right. Buh-bye!

Andrew: Hopefully I’m pronouncing his name right. That would be kind of embarrassing.

Jerry: Camillo?

Andrew: Camillo? Camilla?

Jerry: Camilla?

Listener Calls: Epilogue & Draco’s Wife

Andrew: Again, anyone who’s called earlier, please do not call again. Let people who have been calling – let’s try David again. David, what’s going on?

[Echoing sounds in the background]

Andrew: Please mute your…

Callers: Hi!

Andrew: Hey! Owww. Mute your Ustream.

Caller: Hi! [unintelligible] and we’re so excited! And I want to shout-out to Ritza and Molly.

Caller 2: Do you guys have an MNI account?

Andrew: Have a what account?

Caller: [laughs] MuggleNet Interactive.

Andrew: No, we don’t.

Caller: Okay. And about the epilogue, I also liked the epilogue. I didn’t think it was her best writing, but that’s not what she’s about. She does the after-scenes and the magic and everything. But it was just really nice to know that they were – oh my God, I’m so excited. [laughs] And…

Caller 2: Who do you think Draco’s wife was?

Jerry: [unintelligible] presumably.

Andrew: Sorry, what did you say? I’m sorry. What did you say?

Caller: Who do you think Draco’s wife is?

Caller 2: Did he marry Pansy?

Andrew: He probably did marry Pansy.

Caller: Like why wouldn’t she say that?

Andrew: Well, J.K. Rowling didn’t say a lot of things about what happened after Book 7.

Caller: Yeah.

Andrew: Yeah. So…

Caller: But I love the fact that Umbridge gets arrested.

Andrew: [laughs] Yeah. Yeah, me too. But hey, we got a lot of people calling so we’re going to let you go.

Caller: And also, I’m a Pickle Pack member. An original Pickle.

Andrew: Pickles!

Jamie: Ooh, an original Pickle.

Caller: Pickles!

Andrew: Yay! [laughs] LOL. ROFL.

Jamie: Thanks for calling in.

Andrew: Thanks! Bye! LOL.

Jamie: Buh-bye.

Andrew: Okay. LOL.

Jamie: Andrew, before you pick one more person, I have vegetable for number ten. And I’m running out of vegetables. I think I’m going to have to Wikipedia “List of vegetables” so I’m going to pick some exotic new ones from there. But Eric suggested this one. This is vegetable number ten. Pretty – quite a good choice considering we’re coming into October. The pumpkin. The fabled pumpkin.

Andrew: The pumpkin is a vegetable?

Mikey: Is it a vegetable or a fruit?

Jamie: Oh okay, I guess…

Mikey: I have a question. I have a question. Jamie, did you ever use [uses US pronunciation] “tomato”? Because…

Jamie: No.

Jerry: You mean [uses UK pronunciation] “tomato”?

Jamie: I think we’d get a million e-mails saying, “No, it’s a fruit!”

[Jerry laughs]

Jamie: “It’s a fruit! It’s a fruit! It’s a fruit!”

Jerry: Yeah.

Mikey: Because somebody said that that’s a fruit in the chat. I’m like, “I know tomato is a fruit. Why are they discussing -” I don’t know. I was confused. Why are they discussing it? Anyway…

Jamie: Pumpkin, anyway.

Jerry: Can I say very quickly…

Jamie: This is my show. It’s a vegetable.

Mikey: Okay. That’s cool then.

Jamie: Shoot, Jerry.

Jerry: Can I very quickly say [pronounces “yog-urt”] yogurt? [unintelligible] say yogurt. I don’t know why.

Mikey: [pronounces “yo-gurt”] Yogurt?

Jerry: [pronounces “yog-urt”] Yogurt. Yeah. [pronounces “yo-gurt”] Yogurt, [pronounces “yog-urt”] yogurt. However you want it.

Andrew: Yeah, it’s [pronounces “yo-gurt”] yogurt.

Mikey: It’s go-gurt. I like go-gurt.

Jamie: [laughs] Go-gurt.

Listener Calls: Future of the Harry Potter Fandom

Andrew: Go-gurt. Hey, let’s take another call right now.

[Prolonged silence]

Andrew: La la la. Here’s someone who’s been calling for a while. Hey, Sam.

Caller: Hey, what’s up?

Andrew: Not much.

Caller: Oh wait, hold on. I’ve got to mute my thing real fast.

Andrew: Oh, thank you. Concerned caller.

Caller: Okay, good. There it is.

Andrew: I couldn’t even hear you. Thank you.

Caller: There it is.

Andrew: There is is! Got it! In the words of Mason.

[Andrew and Caller laugh]

Andrew: Whoa. Owww. So what’s going on?

Caller: Nothing. I just got back from some barbecue. I was out for a while. I was listening earlier, so…

Andrew: Oh okay.

Caller: Yeah.

Andrew: And got any Harry Potter questions or stuff? We want to talk Harry Potter.

Caller: I’m just kind of depressed that the whole thing is over. Like, I was always checking the news every day on MuggleNet and after the book now, it’s like… [pauses]

Andrew: Go ahead. Yeah. I mean, it’s not really over.

Caller: We still have stuff to look forward to, but…

Andrew: Yeah.

Caller: Yeah.

Andrew: I mean, what a lot of people have been saying to me – people outside of this fandom – “So it’s all over. What are you doing now? How much longer is MuggleCast lasting?” And I say to these people, “Well, I like to look at it this way: we have two more movies coming out, a theme park [laughs] that’s going to be opened.”

Caller: Yeah.

Andrew: What else?

Caller: The encyclopedia.

Andrew: The encyclopedia. Thank you.

Caller: Yeah.

Andrew: And just all this other Harry Potter stuff that’s still going on. The fandom is hardly over. The news is hardly over. Then we got the DVDs, we got – stuff like that. [laughs]

Caller: It’s just going to go slower and that’s what I – people don’t like that.

Andrew: Exactly, exactly.

Jamie: And also, we’re fans of Jo Rowling as well as Harry Potter, and she’s a writer and she knows she’s a writer and we know she’s a writer. And I doubt Harry Potter is going to be the last thing she does.

Caller: Yeah, she’s just not going to like it because anything else that comes out is going to be compared to Harry Potter and probably won’t be as good. I mean, she’s a great writer…

Andrew: What?

[Mikey laughs]

Caller: …but I don’t think she can produce anything as good as Harry Potter.

Andrew: Yeah, do you think she would want to produce something as good as Harry Potter? Like, do you think she would want this whole fandom all over again?

Jamie: No, probably not.

Caller: Yeah, I think it’s been…

Jamie: Go on.

Caller: I don’t know if she wants it or not. I mean, she never expected it would be this huge, but…

Andrew: Right.

Caller: I don’t know. It’s the most popular book ever so I mean…

Andrew: Yeah.

Caller: Or one of the most popular, I guess.

Andrew: Yeah. Like, she was – she said she loves the fandom. She said it herself. But I just can’t imagine Jo going through this whole thing again or wanting to go through it. I mean, look at how many books are being turned into the movies nowadays.

Caller: Yeah.

Andrew: If J.K. Rowling came out with another series or a book that was worthy of becoming a movie, all the movie studios would jump on it right away and I just wonder if Jo would really want that again.

Caller: Yeah. Some of the movies – I don’t think the movies have been done great since Sorcerer’s Stone and Chamber of Secrets. Those were done pretty good but the other ones – I guess because of their size.

Andrew: Yeah, yeah.

Caller: Yeah.

Andrew: Well, I agree. So – go ahead.

Caller: No, what were you going to say?

Andrew: No, I had nothing to say.

[Andrew and Caller laugh]

Caller: Of course.

Andrew: Yeah.

[Caller laughs]

Andrew: Now, wait a second. Come on, it’s going on – what was that supposed to mean, Sam?

[Caller laughs]

Andrew: Sam, do you have anything to say? Oh no, you can’t because I just hung up on you.

Mikey: Wow.

[Andrew laughs]

Mikey: You’ve gotten kind of mean lately, dude. Seriously.

Andrew: Oh boy. I’m just playing around. I like messing with people. I don’t mean anything I say on the show, so don’t take anything personally. I’m just doing it to be funny.

Mikey: Again – yeah, I think we all become a jerk occasionally on the show.

Andrew: Yeah.

Jamie: Yeah.

Mikey: And it’s all a joke.

Andrew: And it’s too easy. It’s too easy to hit the hang up button.

[Jamie and Mikey laugh]

Mikey: Yeah. With great power comes great responsibility.

MuggleCast 112 Transcript (continued)

Listener Calls: Harry’s Realization of the Elder Wand’s True Allegiance

Andrew: Exactly, and I love great responsibility. How about Reggie? Hi, Reggie.

Jamie: Hey.

Caller: Oh hi.

Andrew: How are you doing?

Caller: I’m sorry, I’m just really excited.

Andrew: Oh no, it’s cool.

Caller: Okay anyway, I just had a question about Harry Potter 7.

Andrew: Okay.

Caller: We had this book chat at my school where we discussed books that we read over the summer.

Andrew: Yeah?

Caller: And we were discussing Harry Potter 7 and we were talking about the part where Harry is about to kill Voldemort, and he was explaining all the stuff about the Elder Wand and how it passes its power.

Andrew: Yeah.

Caller: Yeah. We were just wondering, when did Harry have time to come up with all that stuff? It just seemed like it came out of the blue.

Jamie: Wait, what do you mean?

Caller: I mean, he was doing all this stuff and then all of a sudden he knew how the wand’s power passed between people. All of a sudden.

Jamie: Harry did, you mean?

Caller: Yeah.

Jamie: I think…

Jerry: Intuition, perhaps?

Jamie: I think it was. I think he was – Dumbledore’s words helped him a lot. And I mean, it’s hard to know who’s Dumbledore’s words were if it happened inside his head and all that kind of a thing. But I think he worked it out himself. It’s nice to see him working something out himself after Hermione has been there for him the entire time. I think he just worked out, as Jerry said, through intuition. But anyone else have any ideas?

Andrew: No, I agree with that.

Caller: Yeah, I guess. Yeah, I was just wondering. I felt that the whole ending was kind of a little bit rushed in the end because there was so much stuff happening.

Andrew: Yeah. Well, I think it was supposed to have sort of a rushed feel to it. I mean – what are you talking about exactly? “The Battle of Hogwarts” chapter or…

Caller: Yeah. I just think that the – I mean, the middle was kind of just them thinking and then everything happened at the end, I guess. There wasn’t the time, I guess. I don’t know.

Andrew: Oh. Interesting. Yeah, I mean, I just think that whole scene in the book was sort of meant to have a rushed feeling, have sort of like a panicky rushed – by rushed, maybe are you trying to say that she should have taken more time with it? Like, explained it more?

Caller: No. I don’t know, I just – I mean, it happened a lot faster than the rest of the book and so I guess there wasn’t the time to explain a lot of stuff. Like I thought that the whole thing with the Chamber of Secrets was kind of just glanced over, things like that.

Andrew: Oh okay.

Caller: Just taking time and the past were just passed by in a second.

Andrew: Well, yeah. I don’t know. It seems like Jo wanted to include the stuff just to mention it one last time. So like the Chamber of Secrets, for example. [laughs] I think that was sort of a silly addition. And I keep going back to Oliver Wood. [laughs] Stuff like that.

Mikey: Well, no – Chamber of Secrets, no. The big thing is there was a Basilisk there and you need the venom. And that’s how you kill Horcruxes. [laughs]

Andrew: No, but what I’m saying is Ron speaking Parseltongue was stupid. Like that stuff…

Jamie: I agree.

Mikey: Yeah, I don’t know. That I – I don’t know. Because I think it’s like – you can mimic a language. Even though I know it’s like a gift to be able to speak it and maybe understand it, but you can speak a language…

Jamie: That is true.

Mikey: …even if you don’t know what you’re saying. If you hear someone say something in French, Japanese, or whatever, you can try to mimic it. You probably aren’t saying it perfectly pronunciation-wise, but you can mimic it, you know what I mean?

Jamie: I think the understanding as you say is the gift and…

Mikey: Yeah.

Jamie: …the ability to have that affinity with the snakes, which I’m sure Ron wouldn’t possess even if he could…

Mikey: Yeah. And I think the big thing people have to understand is at least – I’m still one hundred percent convinced on this – it’s not necessarily the ability to speak Parseltongue that I think opens the Chamber of Secrets. It’s the fact that they are the heir of Slytherin. Only Slytherin’s heir would be able to open it. And every time the chamber has been open, it’s only been opened by someone who had part of Voldemort’s soul with them. Ginny and the diary, Harry – he had part of Voldemort’s soul in him, he’s a Horcrux – and then they had the – what did they have with them at the time? Ron and Hermione had one of the Horcruxes with them which was – the one that Hermione destroyed. I’m trying to think.

Jamie: The cup.

Mikey: Yeah, they had the cup. So every time it’s opened, it’s – I don’t think it would open if someone was just saying snake-type talking because then anyone would be able to get in if they just knew kind of what it was or they read somewhere what “open” was in Parseltongue. You know what I mean? Or – yeah, in Parseltongue. I think it had a special enchantment for only the heir of Slytherin to open and the big thing they went in was because they need to get it to destroy Voldemort’s soul in the cup. You know what I mean?

Jamie: Yeah, but it just seems like [unintelligible] from a machine – or actually more so that the Fiendfyre scene, that was just too damn…

Mikey: That one was just convenient, I feel. I agree with you on that one. That one was pretty darn convenient. But really – come on, we all love the books still.

Andrew: Yeah.

Mikey: Yeah, just let it be. We loved it.

Andrew: Yeah.

Mikey: Nit-picking is not going to help us.

Andrew: Okay, let’s – thanks for calling, Reggie. Thanks for calling.

Caller: Okay. Can I make a shout-out quickly?

Andrew: Yeah.

Caller: I just want to make a shout-out to all the Harry Potter fans at my high school… [unintelligible]

Andrew: [laughs] Woo! Now, wait a second. See, the thing about shout-outs is that shouldn’t they be to people who are listening?

Caller: No, actually I think a lot of them are actually listening right now.

Andrew: Oh okay.

Caller: I know that quite a few of them said they were going to listen to this for basically the entire afternoon.

Andrew: Oh okay. Cool. Very cool. Okay. Well, thanks for calling in, Reggie.

Caller: Okay. Bye.

Andrew: Bye!

Jamie: See you later.

Andrew: I’m trying to get Laura in here because…

Mikey: Is she back?

Andrew: Yeah, Laura’s back.

Jamie: Can I apologize for my sort of come-down in terms of talking.

[Andrew laughs]

Jamie: I’ve just suddenly died. I don’t know what the hell has happened. I just – something’s happened.

Andrew: [laughs] What happened?

Jamie: [laughs] I apologize. I think I fell over and accidentally swallowed a thousand sleeping pills.

Listener Calls: Is “Bloody Hell” a Swear Word in England?

Andrew: Okay, let’s take another call. Oh, this person has – oh, someone had an interesting name. One second. Oh, here we go. Zoe Wang. Hi, Zoe!

Caller: Hi.

Jamie: Hey.

Andrew: What’s going on?

Jamie: How’s it going?

Caller: I’m good.

Andrew: Where are you calling from?

Caller: Ahhh, Washington.

Andrew: Washington. Ahhh, Washington. Cool. What’s on your mind?

Caller: Well, I actually don’t really have a question about Harry Potter but…

Andrew: Okay.

Caller: Okay. So – I have a question but…

Andrew: [laughs] Okay.

[Jamie laughs]

Caller: I was wondering, is “Bloody hell” a swear word in England?

Andrew: Sorry, what’s that?

Jamie: Is “Bloody hell” a swear word?

Caller: Is “Bloody hell” a swear word in England?

Jerry: It’s not a swear word.

Caller: I’ve always wanted to know…

Jerry: It’s just an expression.

Caller: …but I don’t know anyone from England, so…

Jerry: It’s just like an exclamation.

Jamie: It is.

Jerry: It’s like “Oh my God,” “Oh, bloody hell,” “Oh dear.”

Jamie: You probably wouldn’t say it around very young people but…

Jerry: No.

Jamie: …it’s not really. As Jerry said, it’s not really that bad.

Jerry: Yeah.

Jamie: Yeah. I mean, you’d say it – like all TV programs would have it, probably, even the very, very – not completely children’s programs but ones that are on daytime TV. God, I’m slurring my words. This is ridiculous. But yeah…

Mikey: Are you that tired?

Jamie: No, I don’t know what happened, Mikey! Come and save me. Mikey B, Mikey B, Mikey B, Mikey B. Where are you? Where are you?

[Andrew laughs]

Mikey: I’m right here! I’m right here, guys! I’m right here! I swear!

Jamie: Oh, there you are!

[Andrew laughs]

Mikey: Oh, there are you guys. Hey, hey, hey. I’m Mikey B! No.

[Jamie laughs]

Andrew: See, it’s funny, I’m the only one who’s not complaining still.

Jamie: Yeah.

Mikey: Yeah. Well, you have a special kind of personality, Andrew.

Andrew: [laughs] Okay. Well, we should start a new segment on the show, Ask the Brit. Or in this case, Brits.

Jerry: Brits.

Andrew: So, Ask a Brit. Thanks, Zoe, for playing Ask a Brit.

Jamie: Anyone else?

Caller: Okay. Thank you.

Andrew: Okay. Bloody hell.

Mikey: Bloody hell, Harry.

Andrew: Yeah. Harry, your hand’s all sweaty!

[Jamie laughs]

Andrew: I’m tempted to call Ben, but I don’t want rumors to start up again.

Jamie: I would leave Ben.

Andrew: [laughs] Okay.

[Jamie laughs]

Andrew: Let’s call someone who keeps bugging Jerry.

[Jerry laughs]

Listener Calls: Who Would Win in a Fight Between Kreacher and C-3PO?

Andrew: And see what – hi, Suzanne.

Caller: Hi.

Andrew: What’s going on?

Caller: Hold on, I got to mute you guys. Hold on.

Andrew: Oh, thank you. Concerned caller. Concerned caller. Concerned caller.

Caller: Hi, Jerry!

Jerry: Hi, Suzanne.

Andrew: [laughs] You told me you were more excited to see her on the thing.

Jerry: I’m sorry. [in an excited voice] Hey, Suzanne! Wow!

[Caller laughs]

Andrew: So what’s going on?

Caller: Not much. I just wanted to know who do you guys think would win in a fight, C-3PO or Kreacher.

Andrew: Sorry, what was it again? Who or Kreacher?

Caller: Who do you think would win, C-3PO or Kreacher?

Mikey: Oh, Kreacher would totally win. Kreacher would totally win.

Andrew: No, wait a second. Wait a second. Kreacher versus who?

Caller: What?

Andrew: Kreacher versus who?

Caller: C-3PO.

Andrew: C-3PO?

Mikey: From Star Wars.

Andrew: Oh.

Mikey: Again, they bring up the Star Wars thing, so…

Andrew: Yeah. I guess it’s not Mikey’s fault because the callers keep bringing it up.

Mikey: Yeah. See guys, I try to stay away from it when it’s just us, but people bring it up to me.

Andrew: Yeah.

Mikey: But we know Kreacher would win. Come on. He comes out at the end with his bushy ear hairs sticking out all white pus like cotton balls…

[Jamie laughs]

Mikey: …and cleaver to go beat up the bad guys and Death Eaters at Hogwarts. That would be cool.

Andrew: Yes. Yeah. No, I think it would be Kreacher because I’ve never seen Star Wars and I don’t care for C-3P92X, whatever his name is.

Jamie: [laughs] Ooh, Mikey.

Andrew: I’m just saying.

Mikey: Whatever. You know what, Andrew?

[Andrew and Jamie laugh]

Andrew: What?

Mikey: Whatever.

Andrew: Tensions flaring here in the eleventh hour.

Mikey: MuggleCast studios. [laughs]

Andrew: Tenth hour. Whatever hour it is. Oh, but hey, we still have 905 listeners right now. Thanks for calling in, Suzanne.

Jamie: That is pretty nice.

Listener Calls: Use of Dementors to Destroy Horcruxes

Andrew: Still have 905 listeners. I don’t know why but they’re still listening. And I’m looking for a call. Here’s Charisa. Hi, Charisa. You’ve been calling in for a while.

Caller: I have.

[Echoing sounds in the background]

Andrew: Yeah, sorry. Huh? Hey, mute your Ustream because we don’t want to hear ourselves.

Caller: I did mute it.

Andrew: Okay, thanks.

Caller: Okay. [unintelligible] So a long time ago you guys were asking about what you thought was going to be in the book but wasn’t.

Andrew: Right.

Caller: And something that I was really shocked that wasn’t in the book was I thought the Dementors were going to have a bigger – a reason why she created them as a character. I thought it was too much of a coincidence that she created characters that suck out souls and then she has Horcruxes that are these objects with souls within them. And she doesn’t use the Dementors in any way to [laughs] get rid of the Horcruxes. I just thought it was such a coincidence and she didn’t use it. I thought – well, what do you guys think about that?

Andrew: Maybe – has there been too much of the Dementors? [laughs]

Mikey: I don’t know. Like, I agree with you. When Ben told me that theory, I really was like, “Wow, that makes perfect sense as something she would do.” And if you guys don’t know what we’re talking about, it’s the theory that Jo introduced characters, the Dementors, that just happened to suck souls out, and Harry has a piece of Voldemort’s soul and he would use a Dementor somehow to get rid of that soul and that’s how he would destroy Voldemort’s soul. It’s this theory that actually convinced me that Harry was a Horcrux.

Caller: Yeah.

Mikey: Even though other people did not and called me crazy for believing them and said, “Mikey, what have you done?”

Caller: Well, I totally thought he was a Horcrux way back when, even before I heard other people thought he was a Horcrux. I’m like, “He has to be. It’s just so obvious.” And I thought the scene, having the Dementors, was such an obvious thing that they had to have more of a reason for being there and for being created than just being something pretty scary, some plot device in third book to have Sirius run away from and Harry learned Expecto Patronum for.

Andrew: Right, right.

Caller: But yeah. So it’s great. Thank you for taking my call. I’ve been listening to you guys forever, and – thanks.

Andrew: No problem. Thank you.

Caller: Good luck. Thanks.

Andrew: Well, thank you. Bye.

Caller: Bye.

Listener Calls: MuggleCast AIM Chat

Andrew: Oh, I cut her off again. So – okay, hold on. Wait, someone is calling me back. You want to apologize for earlier?

Caller: [laughs] Actually, just because everyone keeps forgetting it and everyone is bothering me about it, I want to give a shout-out to the MuggleCast AIM chat.

Andrew: Okay.

Caller: Because they might bother to death. So…

Mikey: The MuggleCast fan chat, is that what it is? The AIM chat?

Caller: Yeah. Not the crazy one.

Mikey: The crazy one? None of them are crazy.

Caller: [laughs] The AIM chat.

Mikey: Yeah.

Andrew: There’s an AIM chat, too? How many chats are there? There’s like Mebo, there’s Ustream…

Caller: You guys remember…

Andrew: …there’s the MCFCKYCX2…

Caller: [laughs] The originals.

Mikey: [singing] “ABC. It’s easy as 123.”

[Caller laughs]

Mikey: Sorry.

Caller: Hey, we’re the originals.

Mikey: Sorry. Unoriginal song. [laughs]

Andrew: Oh, Mikey, you should have kept doing it. Man, I’m so slow on the uptake!

[“ABC” by Jackson 5 plays]

[Caller laughs]

Mikey: Yeah!

Andrew: Yeah! Come on, everybody!

[Music stops]

Andrew: The sad thing is I’m dancing right now.

[Music continues]

Mikey: [singing] “How to get an A.”

Caller: [laughs] You guys are great.

[Music stops]

[Andrew laughs]

Mikey: Yeah!

Andrew: Funny! Yay! Jackson 5!

Caller: Hooray!

Mikey: Come on, it’s little Michael, everybody! Little Michael!

Andrew: [laughs] Little Michael.

Mikey: Little Michael. He was a little kid then. He’s like, [singing] “How to get an A.”

[Caller laughs]

Mikey: Come on…

Andrew: Do that again. Say that again.

Mikey: [laughs] I’m not going to record it anymore. You already got it once.

Andrew: No, no, seriously. I didn’t…

Mikey: Because he’s like a high-pitched voice, like, [singing] “How to get an A.”

Andrew: Oh, how to get an A.

Caller: Hey look, the Ustream chat is getting all mad because we’re not talking about them.

Andrew: Oh. Sorry. Well, it’s almost as good as this song.

[“Celebration” by Kool & The Gang plays]

Andrew: Just saying.

Caller and Mikey: [singing] “Celebration!”

Jamie: Can you play something, Andrew?

Mikey: Oh guys, I just got an AIM from somebody.

Andrew: What?

Mikey: I don’t actually know who it is.

Andrew: Who?

Mikey: But SPoT – S-P-lowercase o-T – has a chat, too.

Andrew: Oh.

Mikey: So apparently there’s a lot of chats going on. [laughs]

Caller: Yeah, the AIM chat, MuggleCast fan. That is the best chat to be. It is the original.

Andrew: Oh, that actually is the original. Yeah, you’re right.

Caller: It is. It is.

Phone Call to Ryan Sims

[Phone rings]

Andrew: Yeah. Okay, let me call someone who everyone’s been bugging for me to call.

Caller: Okay.

Andrew: My brother.

Mikey: Are we calling John Noe?

Andrew: No. No, I don’t want to talk to him.

Caller: Hey, who are we calling?

Andrew: Ryan. My brother Ryan.

Mikey: Yay!

Caller: Oh.

Andrew: If he answers.

Caller: Cool.

Andrew: I think he might be – hello?

Ryan Sims: Hello?

Andrew: Oh, Ryan. Good, you answered the phone.

Ryan: Yeah.

Andrew: Yeah, hey. We’re doing the live podcast right now.

Ryan: Yeah.

Andrew: And a couple of your fans wanted you to…

Jamie: Hey, Ryan!

Andrew: …say hi. That was Jamie.

Caller: You are live on the air.

Ryan: Oh, no surprise. No surprise.

Andrew: [laughs] No surprise. No surprise.

[Caller laughs]

Mikey: See, I told you. Andrew, your brother is so much cooler than you. [laughs]

Andrew: [laughs] Listen, now what I’ve learned is that he just goes along – he repeats everything that is said on – what’s the show, Ryan?

Ryan: What show?

Andrew: The Suite Life with Zack and Cody, I think it’s called.

Mikey: Dude!

Ryan: Yeah?

Mikey: Isn’t that such a cool show?

Ryan: No, I don’t repeat everything! Okay?!

Andrew: I was watching that show for about five minutes two weekends ago and basically he just repeats everything that is said on that show.

Ryan: It’s a corny show with bad puns.

Andrew: Okay.

Mikey: Okay. You guys, the show is so awesome. Me and Kevin were talking about how cool would it be to live in a hotel.

Ryan: That’d be very sweet.

[Andrew laughs]

Mikey: That would be amazing!

Jamie: I would love to be in there.

[Andrew laughs]

Mikey: You would have so much fun, just be like – I would order room service way too often and be like, “Hi, can I get a bottle of water?”

[Andrew and Mikey laugh]

Andrew: Wow.

Caller: Nice stuff. Yeah.

Andrew: Ryan, your number one fan boy, Sam Blum, is on the line now.

Caller: [laughs] Yeah.

Ryan: Awesome.

[Andrew and Caller laugh]

Andrew: Ryan acts like he’s all tough or something. “Awesome! Very cool!”

Ryan: See, I’m going to take over the podcast and everything one day.

Andrew: Uh-huh?

Caller: One day!

Jamie: Yeah…

Caller: Is that your dream?

Jamie: Andrew, who’s going to be the heir to your podcasting empire?

[Caller laughs]

Jamie: It’s going to be Ryan, isn’t it?

Andrew: No, no. I will always – I’m my own heir to the podcasting empire.

Jamie: You’re going to live forever, are you?

Caller: Until the day you die?

Andrew: Yeah. For everyone wondering in the chat – Ryan, everyone thinks you’re really cute. Ryan is actually not in the same house as me right now. He’s down in Ocean City about an hour away from here. Everyone is wondering how old he is. He’s eleven. He’s not nine. He’s eleven.

[Caller and Ryan laugh]

Andrew: And everyone thinks you’re really cute, Ryan. And…

Mikey: Aww.

Caller: Hey, Andrew, everyone is complaining that you’re not answering landlines, so you might want to get on that.

Andrew: [in a silly voice] Okay! Well, sorry, Sam!

[Caller laughs]

Andrew: You know what, Sam? You run the show now. Go ahead.

[Caller laughs]

Andrew: Go ahead. Make the calls. Whatever you say, I’ll do. Go ahead.

Caller: [laughs] Talk about Pokemon.

Mikey: No.

Andrew: No, no, no, no, no. I was looking for things like, “Okay, let’s take another caller,” stuff like that.

Caller: Okay, take another call.

Andrew: No, you blew it! You blew it. Sorry. Goodbye, Sam.

Mikey: Let’s take another caller, everybody. We’ll cancel someone from the US landline right now.

Andrew: Yeah. I’m only accepting Skype-in calls right now, so that’s all you landline people.

Mikey: The next five callers will be Skype-in calls so landline people, all right?

Andrew: And nobody is calling in right now. Ryan is still on the line. I don’t know if…

Ryan: I am.

Andrew: You are still on the line. I don’t know if I can…

Mikey: Yeah, that would be why, it’s because you can only receive one call from a landline.

Andrew: But they wouldn’t call – really? Okay.

Mikey: Yeah, because I’ve had that problem before.

Andrew: Okay.

Mikey: Sorry, Ryan.

Ryan: It’s Andrew, yes.

Andrew: Okay. So anything else you want to say, Ryan, before we let you go?

Ryan: Thanks for being my fans and…

[Andrew laughs]

Ryan: …all that good stuff.

Jamie: Awww.

Andrew: Okay.

Ryan: That’s about it.

Andrew: [laughs] Okay.

Ryan: Bye!

Andrew: Bye, Ryan.

Ryan: Bye!

Andrew: Okay. That was adorable. Okay, let’s take some Skype-in calls now. Haven’t gotten any. That’s weird.

[Jamie sighs]

Andrew: What’s the problem, Jamie?

Jerry: [unintelligible]

Jamie: I’m not complaining. Hey, hey, I want to say quickly: In two days, September 17th, Prison Break Season 3 starts up again. Everyone prepare for it, it’s going to be awesome!

Andrew: Ooh.

Jerry: I haven’t got the television… [unintelligible]

Andrew: I see nobody coming in through Skype-in right now, so that would mean the landlines. So…

Mikey: Well wait, let’s wait one more minute. Everybody, give us a call at – what’s the number? Give the number.

Andrew: Yeah, I should do that. 128-206-2442? [laughs] No, that’s wrong. It’s 1-218-20 – yeah, that’s right. 1-218-206-2442. In the United Kingdom, 0-208-144-0677. Okay, we have a caller.

Jamie: Or, Andrew, [emphasis on “if”] if…

Andrew: [emphasis on “if”] If…

Jamie: …you want to send in live text feedback, go to MuggleCast.com/Live, and send us your e-mails. We’ll be reading them throughout the rest of the show.

MuggleCast 112 Transcript (continued)

Listener Calls: Favorite Prison Break Character

Andrew: Caller, you’re live on MuggleCast.

Caller: Oh my God. Hi!

Andrew: Hi! How are you doing?

Mikey: Hello.

Jerry: Wotcher.

Caller: Hello? Oh, Jamie. Oh my God.

Jamie: Hey, how’s it going?

Andrew: [laughs] And Jerry. That was Jerry, too.

Caller: Hey.

[Caller and Jerry laugh]

Caller: Oh, I’m so excited about the Prison Break thing even though it’s not on in Australia. [laughs]

Jamie: Are you really? Are you really excited about it?

Caller: Yeah. I love Prison Break! [laughs]

Jamie: Oh, do you really?! That is awesome.

Caller: Yeah.

Jamie: Who’s your favorite character?

Caller: Hey?

Jamie: Who’s your favorite character?

Caller: Oh, I don’t know. Michael? [laughs]

Jamie: Of course. Of course he is.

[Caller laughs]

Jamie: That was a stupid question. He’s everyone’s favorite character.

Caller: No, no, no, I like… [unintelligible]

Jamie: I agree with you.

Caller: And I love…

Jamie: He isn’t really a bad person, is he? He’s just…

Caller: No.

Jamie: …one when he got caught up in a – whereas people like “T-Bag,” you know?

Caller: Yeah, yeah. I hate him. [laughs]

Jamie: Andrew, Michael Scofield is awesome. You should watch it because he’s awesome!

Caller: Yeah, he is so good. [laughs]

Andrew: I disagree. But okay.

[Caller laughs]

Andrew: So do you have anything else to add today?

Caller: No. I’m just wondering, are you going to come to Australia at all for a podcast?

Andrew: You never know. You never know.

Caller: [laughs] It’s like no.

Andrew: Yeah, so – well, thank you for calling.

Mikey: I want to go to Australia. I really do.

Andrew: Yeah, me too.

Caller: Yeah, it’s really good. It’s really nice here.

Mikey: The only problem with me going to Australia is I swear I would never stop saying, [singing] “I come from a land down under!”

[Caller laughs]

Mikey: [singing] “Something with a heart full of thunder.”

[Caller laughs]

Mikey: I would just be singing non-stop, it would be so wrong.

Jerry: I’d get beaten up by… [unintelligible]

Mikey: I know.

Caller: [laughs] What about Jamie?

Jamie: Yeah? What about me?

Caller: Would you come to Australia?

Jamie: Go to Australia? I would love to go to Australia. My dream is to have one home in Australia and one in America so I can follow the sun and never hit bad weather again.

Caller: [laughs] Yeah, that’s a good plan.

Jamie: That would be so, so nice. But…

Caller: [laughs] Yeah.

Andrew: Okay. Well, thank you for calling!

Jamie: Thank you very much.

Caller: Thanks, Andrew. Thanks, guys.

Andrew: No problem.

Jamie: Buh-bye!

Caller: Bye!

Listener Calls: MuggleCast Show in Australia

Andrew: Bye! In all seriousness, not getting any landline calls, people. So if you’re calling in if you want to discuss Harry Potter but not getting anything. There’s a call. Hello, you’re on MuggleCast!

Caller: Hello?

Andrew: Hi. You’re on MuggleCast. What’s up?

Mikey: Hi.

Caller: Not much. I’m from Australia as well.

Andrew: You’re from Australia, too?

Caller: Yeah.

Andrew: But you have a US number. What’s going on? Oh wait, no. Yeah, you have a US number. Oh no, you don’t have a US number.

Caller: Do I?

Andrew: I’m sorry. No, I’m sorry.

Jerry: Maybe because she’s got +61. [laughs]

Andrew: You have one extra number. Sorry to – [laughs] yeah, you’re right. You’re right, Jerry.

[Andrew and Jerry laugh]

Caller: Oh, that’s weird. Anyway, I think you should come to Australia, too. We’re all…

Andrew: Well, maybe we’ll work on that.

[Caller laughs]

Mikey: I think we should go, guys. I think we should go to Australia.

Jerry: You just need a big donation.

Caller: I think Eric should come because he’s in New Zealand.

Andrew: Yeah.

Caller: I could totally see him doing a [unintelligible] MuggleCaster all around Australia and New Zealand.

Andrew: I could definitely see him doing that too. [laughs]

Jerry: He’s got no excuse not to. It’s like me going to France.

Andrew: Yeah. Okay. Well, thank you for calling in.

Jamie: Thank you.

Caller: Thank you.

Andrew: Bye!

Jamie: Buh-bye!

Caller: Bye!

Jerry: Bye!

Andrew: Let me see if I can get someone else in here who’s really concerned about the Harry Potter series. Hold off on calls for one minute.

Mikey: Andrew, I want you to take a look at that, buddy. Click the link I just sent you.

Andrew: Okay.

[Prolonged silence]

[Andrew laughs]

Jamie: Oh, Mikey!

Mikey: Come on, guys! You should all come out! We could all…

Jamie: Mikey!

Mikey: We could do a special podcast from the Scary Farm.

Jamie: You’re the worst torturer I’ve ever seen in the world. You torture people so.

Mikey: Oh, come on.

Jamie: I want to go, Mikey! I know what I’m going to do. I know what I’m going to do. I’m going to shout out “Mikey B!” then as soon as you get here, I’m going to grab onto you so that when you go back I’ll go with you.

Mikey: All right. Yeah, you should do that.

Andrew: Okay. Well, nobody knows what you’re talking about.

Jerry: That’s true.

Andrew: Mikey placed a link to 34th – basically he just sent us a birthday invitation. But…

Mikey: Yeah.

Andrew: …of course we can’t take it. Okay, are our phone numbers not working or something? [laughs] We’re only getting Australian calls right now.

Mikey: Oh, you sound like…

Andrew: Oh, here we go.

Jerry: We had one American calling.

Listener Calls: Campaign to Get MuggleCasters in Deathly Hallows Movie

Andrew: Hold on, here’s an American calling. Steve Capello.

JJ Horgan: Actually, this is JJ Horgan.

Andrew: [laughs] Oh, JJ Horgan. How are you doing?

[JJ laughs]

Andrew: Sorry, I got the wrong – got the Skype…

JJ: [laughs] That’s okay. Easily mixed up on Skype.

Andrew: [laughs] Right. So…

JJ: Yeah. So…

Andrew: We’ve had discussions before. I don’t know you, but we’ve been having discussions before about Harry Potter. You’re pretty upset about some things in the Harry Potter series, you think they just don’t make sense. And you wanted to take callers, I know, to sort of debate people, I guess. Is that what you wanted to talk about?

JJ: Actually, I wanted to talk about something else first. Is this a bad time to bring up something we haven’t previously talked about, even though we don’t know each other? Is this a bad time to bring up something completely random?

Andrew: No, it’s not. I mean, this is…

JJ: I’m not going to ruin the flow of your twelve-hour show?

Andrew: [laughs] No, you’re not.

JJ: [unintelligible]

[Andrew laughs]

Jamie: We’re about an hour in.

Andrew: No, it’s – yeah, we’re fine. I have my finger on the hang Up button, though. [laughs]

JJ: I actually just logged off for a little bit so I kind of missed exactly what you guys were talking about at this point, but is it still Jerry on?

Andrew: Yeah, Jerry’s on.

Jerry: Yeah, I’m on.

JJ: Okay. And still no Ben?

Andrew: [laughs] No Ben.

Mikey: No Ben.

JJ: How about Jamie?

Andrew: Jamie’s on.

Mikey: Yeah.

Jamie: Yeah, I’m here.

JJ: Jamie, how are you doing?

Jamie: Hey, Mr… [slurs]

[Andrew laughs]

Jamie: I’m slurring my words. Something happened to me about an hour ago where I can’t speak normally and I got tired, so I’ll say that again: Hey, Mr. [unintelligible] How are you?

[Andrew laughs]

JJ: Oh, that’s okay. I understand you. Trip over tea falling out, it’s a British thing.

[Andrew laughs]

Jamie: Yeah, that’s…

Andrew: Kind of rude here.

JJ: No, no, it’s a compliment.

Andrew: [laughs] Okay.

Jamie: The strangest compliment I’ve ever heard.

[Andrew laughs]

JJ: Yeah, I want to see – I’m being courteous and I have my listening muted, but I want to see how many people are on right now.

Andrew: The feed?

JJ: Yeah.

Andrew: 900 people.

JJ: 900. Pretty impressive.

Andrew: Yeah?

JJ: Well, good. Then 900 people in the feed I think will be definite big supporters of this. But for those of you guys that knew Andrew, you knew that he blew his biggest opportunity of his lifetime in high school.

Andrew: [laughs] Wait, wait…

JJ: Andrew, do you know what I’m talking about?

Andrew: Does it start with a B?

JJ: No.

Andrew: Okay.

JJ: For those of you guys that don’t know Andrew, his opportunity he blew was – he had the opportunity to start a campaign – a letter-writing campaign, a MuggleCast campaign, or whatever campaign – to get a date with Emma Watson.

[Andrew laughs]

JJ: And he completely didn’t do it because he’s too shy.

[Jamie laughs]

JJ: So with that said, this goes out entirely to all of the MuggleCast listeners, all 900 of you out there now. Are you guys ever going to put this online right to the…

Andrew: Yeah.

JJ: …70,000 or so?

Andrew: Yeah.

JJ: Can all hear this? We need to start a letter-writing campaign because obviously it would be awkward now because Andrew probably won’t be going to a prom again.

Andrew: [laughs] Maybe.

JJ: The Emma Watson thing is out the window.

Jamie: Can you tell us how Andrew was as a freshman?

JJ: I think the next campaign needs to be to get…

Jamie: Sorry.

JJ: …Andrew and maybe Jamie and maybe if Hagrid has got some weird cousin…

[Andrew and Jamie laugh]

JJ: …for the seventh movie, Ben gets into the next movie. What do you guys think?

Mikey: I think you should let us be consultants for the Harry Potter 7: Deathly Hallows movie so that way they can’t do anything to ruin it.

JJ: You want to be consultants?

Mikey: Yeah!

[Andrew laughs]

Mikey: Or maybe – you know, Mikey B to direct Harry Potter 7!

[Andrew laughs]

Mikey: Mikey B! Director!

Andrew: See…

JJ: Maybe Mikey and Jerry can be consultants but Andrew and Jamie definitely need cameos.

[Andrew laughs]

JJ: I think the seventh movie would be kind of awkward because there’s nothing at Hogwarts and they kind of have that young awkward, going to school kind of thing happening.

Andrew: Uh-huh.

JJ: And my wife is sitting here telling me something. She said something about a dead body. Maybe at the end of the book, would you guys like to be a dead body laying there?

[Andrew laughs]

Mikey: I would so be a dead body. I could be…

Andrew: Actually, that’s a great point. JJ brings up a good point. There’s a lot of people who die in the book and the bodies…

JJ: I mean, I know your acting range…

Mikey: Or I could be just somebody in the Order, like in the background.

Andrew: [laughs] Okay, Mikey.

Mikey: As long as I get a wand, like an official wand, that would be so cool!

JJ: [unintelligible] a little bit, Mikey. Maybe a dead guy is in your future.

[Andrew laughs]

Mikey: Because really, can you imagine? You could be like, “I’m a young Kingsley Shacklebolt,” with the dreads and everything.

Andrew: Uh-huh.

Mikey: There’s got to be wizards with dreadlocks and that are all cool like – I don’t know, maybe not.

[Andrew and Mikey laugh]

JJ: And what would it say next to you on IMDB?

Mikey: Who knows.

JJ: Mikey equals third dead guy from the left.

Andrew: [laughs] Yeah.

Mikey: Mikey B! [laughs] Right there.

JJ: What do you guys think? Can we start this campaign?

Andrew: I guess so. I have a feeling it’s not going to work out very well though because for one, they only hire English actors for the jobs.

JJ: Well – okay, so Jamie…

Andrew: Jamie is there.

JJ: …is sort of English.

Jerry: Sort of English. [laughs]

Andrew: Well, I was always thinking the next time we’re invited to the set, we…

JJ: Just hop over a fence and…

Mikey: Yeah.

Andrew: [laughs] Well, it’s more than a fence. I mean…

JJ: …[unintelligible] and you just act like you belong there.

Andrew: [laughs] Fair point. Because now that I’m thinking about it, they don’t really – once you get through the security gate, you just walk in the door and you’re just…

Mikey: Did we talk about how I got on the red carpet at the movie premiere?

Andrew: [laughs] Oh yeah. Well, yeah, you’ll love this, JJ. There’s basically no security on the red carpet.

Mikey: [laughs] All right. So wait, let me explain this. The red carpet movie premiere – only Emerson and Andrew were supposed to be down there and so I’m like, “You know what? There’s no security.” And I put a MuggleNet – no, I wasn’t even wearing a MuggleNet shirt. I just literally walked down onto the red carpet like I was supposed to be there and I’m like, “Hey, I’m down here. They didn’t kick me out!” [laughs] And so I was on the red carpet, and got to be down there and see all the wonderful actors and everything. I was totally happy about that, being able to be up there. I was…

JJ: Right now the security team that was in charge of the red carpet has been fired and your picture is going to be posted everywhere for the sixth movie.

[Andrew and Mikey laugh]

Andrew: I don’t think WB’s listening on a Saturday night right now. Actually – well, who knows.

Mikey: Well, the best part is because I had met a bunch of – no, I’m not even going to talk about that. But it was really cool. They just said, “Yeah, it’s cool for you to be there.” [laughs]

Andrew: Yeah, that was interesting.

Mikey: [laughs] Andrew was, “What are you doing here?! It’s only supposed to be the two of us.” I’m like, “Oh, give me your camera. We’ll be fine.” [laughs]

Andrew: Yeah. That was fun though, so…

Mikey: It was cool.

JJ: So we’re all in agreement we’re going to start the campaign to get Andrew and Jamie and possibly Mikey…

[Andrew laughs]

JJ: …and like I said, it’s kind of awkward…

Mikey: Aww.

JJ: …Hagrid’s cousin, maybe we get Ben a part, too.

Andrew: [laughs] Okay.

JJ: We’re going for the…

Mikey: Ben could be a weird Grawp.

Andrew: [laughs] Grawp.

Mikey: It would be Grawp’s second giant cousin…

Andrew: [uses UK pronunciation] Grawp? You mean [uses US pronunciation] Grawp?

Mikey: [uses US pronunciation] Grawp. [uses UK pronunciation] Grawp. [uses US pronunciation] Grawp. Sorry.

[Andrew laughs]

Mikey: The second giant cousin twice removed, beaten up a couple of times…

Andrew: Uh-huh.

Mikey: …as Ben. [laughs]

Andrew: Yeah.

Jamie: Yeah.

Andrew: Oh gosh, why does everyone in the chat want a new poll? Who cares?

Mikey: What’s the poll right now?

JJ: They want a new poll? What does people in the chat…

Andrew: JJ, give me a poll.

JJ: Give you a poll?

Andrew: Yeah.

JJ: Who should be in the sixth Harry Potter movie: Andrew, Mikey, Jamie, Jerry, or me?

Andrew: [laughs] Well, we can only do four options so we’ll take you out.

Mikey: We all know it’s going to be Jamie. Come on.

JJ: Sorry Jerry, Ben’s got to be on there.

[Andrew laughs]

Jerry: Ooh.

JJ: Best-selling author, Ben.

Jerry: I am so much more British.

Mikey: Ben Schoen, New York Times best-seller author.

JJ: You want a better poll topic there, Andrew? Or is that good?

Andrew: What? Yeah, whatever.

JJ: So I think that’s a good one. I think we’re going to focus around our push to get you in the next movie because I think it’s time you exercised your MuggleCast muscle.

Andrew: [laughs] Okay.

JJ: All summer, all the fans you’ve met and stuff, you know?

Andrew: Yeah.

JJ: If this doesn’t get you into a movie, really the prospects in the future are minimal.

Andrew: [laughs] That’s – except for maybe a career in broadcasting or something. I don’t know. But – and Mikey. Okay, start poll.

Mikey: What? And Mikey?

Andrew: I was talking about the poll.

Mikey: Okay.

Andrew: So far, I’m winning. It’s amazing. As soon as we hit “Start Poll” votes start coming in. Okay, Jamie is winning right now.

Mikey: I know, Jamie is winning.

Andrew: I’m going to stop this before it…

Mikey: I’m so going to lose. It makes me sad.

Jerry: [unintelligible] Jamie is the only British one.

Andrew: Okay, but it’s time to forget about the British actors. This isn’t…

Jamie: I know what’s going to happen. Mikey, I want a part as an Order member and I want you to play my Patronus, and as soon as I cast it…

Mikey: [laughs] Really? Yes!

Jamie: …you’re going to come out of it and be like, “Dude. Look, okay. I’m Mikey B.” And then they say, “Oh really? Oh really?” And then they just walk around and walk off.

[Jerry and Mikey laugh]

Andrew: I don’t know how…

Mikey: Yeah, I’ll just talk to them and be like, “What’s up, guys? I’m Mikey B. You got to knock up a little bit. We’ll go down to the beach together and we’ll back up a little bit”.

Jamie: Exactly! You can start high-fiving the Dementors.

Mikey: I’ll just tell the Dementors to back away. I’ll just talk to them.

Jamie: Yeah. [laughs]

Andrew: I don’t understand how I keep losing all these polls when I’m the one running the show. Does anyone realize I could just hit “Stop Broadcast” button?

[Mikey laughs]

Andrew: Geez. So annoying.

Mikey: Yeah, you could but again, “With great power comes great responsibility.”

[Andrew laughs]

Mikey: You wouldn’t do something like that.

Andrew: Uh-huh.

Mikey: You know why? You’re a good person.

Andrew: Okay. Why isn’t it eleven o’clock yet? I was really looking forward to eleven o’clock. You know, it’s time for a break. We haven’t taken a break in a while.

JJ: All right. Andrew…

Andrew: Yeah?

JJ: …when we come back from a break, maybe we’ll talk some Harry Potter.

Mikey: Can we…

Andrew: Okay, you want to talk some of your burning questions?

JJ: I got to get one or two things off my chest.

Andrew: [laughs] Okay. All right, someone talk for a minute because I forgot to cue up the music.

Mikey: I personally would like to…

Andrew: Never mind, I’m good! [laughs] Go ahead, Mikey. Finish what you’re…

JJ: That was a complete set-up.

Andrew: [laughs] No! I didn’t mean to do that. Mikey, I’m going to play – sorry, Mikey. Go ahead.

Mikey: I was going to say – I don’t know what I was going to say.

Andrew: Okay. Well, with that, we’ll take it to Jackson 5 “ABC.”

Mikey: Yeah!

Andrew: [laughs] We’ll be back in a couple of minutes.

Mikey: I’m excited. Everybody dance.

[“ABC” by Jackson 5 plays]

———————–

Transcript #111

September 21, 2007 / MuggleCast

MuggleCast 111 Transcript

Listener Challenge: Different Ways of Saying “Mikey B!”

[“Rock the Casbah” by The Clash plays]

Andrew: Welcome back to the show, everybody! Rock the cash bar, whatever it’s called.

Laura: Casbah.

Andrew: Casbah.

[Eric and Laura laugh]

Jamie: Rock the cash bar?

Andrew: See, because here’s the thing. Let’s turn it up for a second.

[Andrew turns up the music]

Andrew: Okay, I was going to say it sounds like he’s saying, “Rock the cash bar,” but I guess not. Anyway, welcome back to MuggleCast! It’s 6:14 here on the East Coast. We’re six hours into this live show, entering our seventh hour.

Jamie: Oh my God! Oh my God!

Andrew: I’m Andrew Sims.

Jamie: I’m Jamie Lawrence.

Eric: I’m Eric Scull.

Laura: I’m Laura Thompson.

Mikey: And I’m Mikey B!

[Everyone laughs]

Jamie: Mikey, I was going to be very unhappy if you said “Mikey Bouchereau.”

Andrew: There are…

Mikey: I’m Mikey B! Mikey B!

Jamie: [imitating Mikey] Mikey B!

Mikey: Yeah, I know. It’s the Mikey B thing, what can I say?

Jamie: Oh, Mikey, if anyone – we forgot to say if anyone had any very traditional authentic new original way to say “Mikey B”…

Mikey: I don’t even – did we even release that episode?

Jamie: I don’t think we did, no.

Mikey: Yeah.

Andrew: What’s that? Oh no, we’ll do that for Pickle Packers or something.

Mikey: Well, can we explain what it was, at least? No?

Andrew: Yeah, go ahead. Yeah.

Mikey: Yeah, so we recorded – who was it? It was just me…

Andrew: Kevin, Jamie, and me.

Mikey: Yeah, it was me, Kevin, Jamie, and Andrew, and we recorded a little half-an-hour show. And we never released it because we were talking about this thing being twenty-four hours instead of twelve, and it was the whole thing. And we had a listener challenge but it never got released.

Andrew: What was it?

Mikey: And the listener challenge was to e-mail me, mikey at staff dot mugglenet dot com, a recording of yourself saying “Mikey B” in any different way. Whether it be like… [says different variations of “Mikey B”]

Jamie: [imitating Mikey] Mikey B!

[Andrew laughs]

Jamie: There are so many.

Mikey: And I said the top five, but I think if it does happen, if people e-mail me, I’ll do like the top ten versions of “Mikey B!”

Jamie: We’re looking for originality, aren’t we, Mikey?

Mikey: Yes, we’re looking for originality so if it’s just “Mikey B” you’re probably not going to get picked. It doesn’t mean it’s…

Jamie: You don’t have a chance!

Mikey: Yeah, you really don’t have a chance, especially when you have Jamie here going, “Mikey B!” and you’ve got me going, “I’m Mikey B!” and you’ve got Brandon and you’ve got – all of us, we all do the “Mikey B!”

Jamie: Yeah. Because you’ve got to understand…

Mikey: Yeah.

Jamie: …quite a bit of the tour when we got bored was just coming out with new ways of saying “Mikey B.”

Mikey: [laughs] Yeah.

Jamie: So we’ve done them all, we think we’ve heard them all. If you can prove us wrong, then mikey at staff.

Mikey: Yeah, mikey at staff and I will go ahead and if you guys could – oh, someone in the chat says they’re going to do a beatbox of “Mikey B.”

Andrew: Oh, I like that.

Jamie: [laughs] Ooh.

Mikey: So honestly, be creative. Someone’s like, a Jamaican accent.

Eric: [in a Jamaican accent] Aye! Mikey B!

Mikey: [in a Jamaican accent] It’s a Mikey B, man. Right down by the beach girl!

[Laura laughs]

Mikey: [in a Jamaican accent] We down by the beach! Mikey B! Yeah!

[Everyone laughs]

Andrew: Mikey, you’re really good at that.

Mikey: I have dreads now! I haven’t posted a picture, I think.

Andrew: Dreads?

Mikey: Yeah, I dreaded my hair, so I do have dreads right now because my hair was really, really long. But yeah, so if you guys can come up with something creative, record it and e-mail it to me. And if it’s a really big file, upload it somewhere, and then send me a link.

Eric: It just occurred to me. I just occurred to me that it would be awesome if Frank Oz listened to our podcast…

Mikey: Oh wow.

Eric: …because then he could do an accurate Yoda impression of him saying “Mikey B.”

Mikey: He’d be like, [imitating Yoda] “Urrr.”

Eric: [imitating Yoda] Ooh! Mikey B!

[Laura laughs]

Mikey: You don’t understand, that would be my ringtone, my everything, if Frank Oz did it, because you realize I have Yoda tattooed on my leg also.

Andrew: Yeah, you’re…

Eric: Oh, that’s pretty sweet.

Mikey: So be creative and e-mail us – or e-mail me, I guess – and the top ten that I receive, I will edit together all ten of them with a “one” to “ten” and I will send them all to Andrew.

Jamie: Yeah!

Mikey: And he can broadcast it for us, I think. Maybe by the end of the show or maybe another day, we’ll figure it out.

Andrew: Yeah. Hey, I just posted the links to the fantastic…

[Mikey’s audio lags]

Andrew: Whoa, Mikey. Is it just me or is Mikey laggy? Just me or is Mikey laggy?

[Everyone’s audio lags]

Andrew: We’re stalling. We’re crashing here really quick. Everyone here now?

[Mikey’s audio lags]

Jamie: Andrew?

Andrew: What, Jamie?

Jamie: Can I do my laggy impressions?

Andrew: Yeah, hold on, let’s – oh, and we’re losing everyone right now. Mikey? Laura? Laura? Mikey?

Mikey: I’m here, I’m here!

Laura: I’m here.

Andrew: Okay. Something happened.

Laura: Hello?

Andrew: Yeah, we’re good, I think.

[Mikey’s audio lags]

Andrew: We’re losing everyone! My internet is crashing. Hold on.

Laura: I’m here.

Andrew: Okay. We’re at six and a half hours – I know that but you guys are lagging.

Mikey: I can’t hear you either, I don’t hear your mic at all.

Andrew: I hear you, Mikey. Laura, talk.

Mikey: Call me back.

Andrew: Okay.

Laura: I’m here.

Eric: Are we on?

Andrew: Yeah.

Eric: Are we on still?

Andrew: Eric, you there?

Eric: Because Cyberdime is very upsetting.

Jamie: Hey.

Eric: Yeah, it’s Skynet. Skynet taking over the world.

Andrew: Laura?

Laura: Yeah?

Andrew: Okay. Mikey?

Mikey: Yeah? No?

Andrew: Okay. No, we’re good now. Something happened there. We’ve been rocking this Skype chat for six and a half hours now. [laughs] I’m very impressed by Skype. I’ve never seen…

Jamie: Oh yeah.

Andrew: Even when we record for an hour and a half, it can’t hold up as well.

Jamie: [laughs] Yeah.

Andrew: So it’s a shame. Well, actually no, it’s not a shame. We’ve been doing great. I was – I can’t AIM and talk at the same time. But anyway, like I was saying, I posted the listener challenge winners and the great drawings that Andrea made, over on MuggleCast.com. The links are right there, very top of the top post. Okay? So let’s see, we are going to get Alex on now, and I believe have to call Matt’s screen-name, Mikey?

Mikey: Yeah, Matt’s screen-name.

Jamie: I’m just going to mix things up a bit…

Andrew: Go ahead.

Jamie: …because I’m going to announce the vegetable now instead of later. The vegetable for this hour is broccoli.

Mikey: Ewww.

Andrew: Broccoli.

Eric: Oh, that’s foreshadowing. This is going to be a bad, sour hour.

Mikey: Awww.

Jamie: Say “sour hour.”

Eric: Sour hour.

Jamie: Sour hour.

[Andrew laughs]

Eric: Not that broccoli is sour.

Interview: Alex Carpenter

Andrew: Alex, are you there or is this Matt?

Matt: What? Hello?

Andrew: Yeah, Matt, I called you for Alex.

Matt: Yeah, I know. Alex is coming right now.

Andrew: Okay. Well, why – your time’s over, buddy.

Eric: Hi, Matt!

Matt: It’s my computer!

Laura: Hi, Matt!

Mikey: Happy Birthday, Matt! You should come down and hang out with me today sometime. You and Tasha.

Matt: You were just here last night.

Mikey: I know, but…

Eric: [laughs] We’ve had enough of you, Mikey B!

[Audio lags]

Eric: That’s what it sounded like. I actually mean that, nobody can ever have enough of you.

Andrew: Okay. Alex, you here?

Alex Carpenter: Yeah, hey.

Andrew: All right. Sweet.

Jamie: Hey.

Andrew: Alex Carpenter is back, ringmaster of The Remus Lupins.

Alex: [laughs] I’m so much more awake now.

Andrew: [laughs] Good.

Alex: Than I was earlier.

[Laura laughs]

Jamie: Does Red Bull help?

Alex: We just got back from Denny’s and let me tell you something about Denny’s: it is never a good idea.

Mikey: [laughs] Awww.

Eric: What, going to Denny’s? [laughs]

Alex: Yeah.

Andrew: Except for when it’s like 3:00 AM and you really want some good food fast.

Jamie: And you’re starving, yeah.

Alex: Daytime Denny’s is…

Mikey: Hey, Alex?

Alex: Yeah?

Mikey: Remember how I left last night at like 5:00 in the morning?

Alex: You didn’t go to Denny’s, did you?

Mikey: [laughs] I thought about it. I passed a Denny’s and I was like, “Oh, I should get Denny’s.” And then I ended up saying no. I just went home and watched TV and went to bed. I watched Food Network, though.

[Eric laughs]

Mikey: An episode of Iron Chef was on and I was pretty entertained with that.

Andrew: So…

Mikey: The special ingredient was…

Andrew: We’re having internet problems here. We’re going to have to restart this conversation.

Laura: Yeah.

Mikey: I think you are.

Andrew: Okay, you know what? Let me stop for a second and everyone will still hear me, so – actually, nobody is going to hear me. Okay, everyone bear with us for one second. Let’s restart the convo.

[Prolonged silence]

Andrew: It was Alex’s…

Mikey: Oh right.

Andrew: It was Jamie’s bad joke.

Jamie: It wasn’t bad, it was terrible.

Andrew: Okay, so now that I think we’re all here and ready to go, we want to talk about wizard rock for a little bit because wizard rock is really a large part of the fandom, if I may say so myself. And Alex…

Alex: It’s mostly thanks to you and your rapping skills, Andrew, I have to say.

Andrew: Well, thank you.

[Jamie and Laura laugh]

Andrew: That’s very flattering. I’m sure you feel that way. So, Alex, tell me, when did The Remus Lupins start up? When did you start up, basically? [laughs]

Alex: Wow. [laughs] I started when I was born. I don’t know. The Remus Lupins started, I guess, two Thanksgivings ago, so…

Andrew: Oh wow.

Alex: Whenever the summer was before Goblet of Fire came out was when that band started.

Andrew: Oh okay.

Eric: ’99? Oh, you mean the movie?

Alex: [laughs] ’99?

Eric: Oh. [laughs] I was like, “The book or the movie?”

Alex: Like two years ago.

Eric: Yeah, you guys were…

Andrew: And when was it that you decided you needed a full band?

Alex: I don’t know. I think that The Remus Lupins [laughs] have always wanted to be like a rock band. The music always kind of pushed for that.

Andrew: Oh.

Alex: It didn’t really feel acoustic. So it was just a matter of waiting to have the right people around.

Jamie: Alex, I’m sure you get asked this question all the time – and you’ve told me, I know – but why did you pick “The Remus Lupins” as your name?

Alex: [laughs] I’m sorry that I’m laughing so much. I’ll answer in a second, Jamie, because everybody here is like – so many obscenities are being said.

Jamie: [laughs] Oh really?

Alex: Yeah. I’m trying to shield you from them.

Andrew: Tell them this is a serious program.

Jamie: Yeah, Alex, tell them this is a serious program.

Mikey: Wait, wait. Question: Who is still with you right now?

Alex: Okay, I’ve got to tell them. Hold on. You guys, this is a serious program! [laughs] Matt says, “I thought you were on MuggleCast.”

[Everyone laughs]

Mikey: Wow.

Alex: We’re just hanging out with the kids we – get out of here! With the kids we call “The SoCal Order,” who are pretty rad kids.

Andrew: The SoCal Order?

Alex: Yeah.

Andrew: You’re dorks for calling yourselves “The SoCal Order.”

Eric: The kids.

[Alex laughs]

Mikey: Hey, hey.

Alex: [laughs] Mikey came up with it, so…

[Andrew laughs]

Mikey: I did not come up with that! It’s because I like the song “The Order” from you, that was like a demo that almost died, if I didn’t keep…

Alex: It almost died. Mikey saved that song.

[Andrew laughs]

Alex: Anyway, so Tasha is here, Matt is here, Molly from EvannaLynch.net is here, Chris, Quinn, just a bunch of people who are just hanging out.

Andrew: Cool. So – more like “The Dork Order.” Oh!

Alex: The reason that – “The Dork Order”?

Jamie: Ooh!

Andrew: Yeah, I went there.

Alex: Mikey B, you want to handle that?

Andrew: [laughs] Mikey B is not here.

[Alex and Mikey’s audio lags]

Andrew: Okay, we need to drop somebody from the conversation, I’m afraid, because this is not working out right now. Who wants to drop out for fifteen minutes?

Eric: I got to go, guys. I got to go to work.

Andrew: Oh, you do?

Eric: You can drop me. I got to go to work.

Andrew: Okay. See you, Eric!

Alex: Bye, Eric!

Andrew: Okay, that was easy.

Laura: Bye, Eric!

Andrew: Hopefully that helps.

Jamie: Press the button! Press the button! Press the button!

Andrew: I did! Oh.

[Andrew presses the Easy Button]

Jamie: Yeah!

Andrew: Okay, so go ahead, Alex.

Alex: Okay, the reason I chose Remus is because he was one of my favorite characters – and I didn’t think the band was going to go anywhere, so I just chose a random character and made it plural, because that’s what band names are supposed to be.

Jamie: And Alex…

Alex: Yeah?

Jamie: Going on from that, how annoyed do you really get when people are like, “Alex, I just love your band Remus and the Lupins. It’s just so good”?

Alex: Well, it’s funny because there is another band, actually, now, called Remus and the Lupins, and they are awesome.

[Everyone laughs]

Andrew: Why would you ever admit to that?

Alex: I’m sorry?

Andrew: [laughs] I said, “Why would you ever admit to that?”

Alex: [laughs] Because if you’ve heard Remus and the Lupins, you’d know.

Andrew: Really?

Alex: They have a song called “Think of Something Happy” [laughs] and it’s absurd.

Andrew: Because…

Alex: You’ll hear more about them.

Andrew: If there was another podcast called MuggleCast, and they were better than us, I would never say they were good. [laughs]

Alex: I didn’t say that Remus and the Lupins was better than The Remus Lupins.

Andrew: Oh okay.

Alex: See, that’s the difference with you guys. Wizard rock is all about love. You podcasters, you’re all about…

Andrew: It’s all about competition, my friend.

Alex: …fear and competition.

Andrew: It’s just one podcast…

Mikey: Guys..

Andrew: …after another we have to beat.

[Alex laughs]

Andrew: We always do it, but I mean…

[Laura laughs]

Andrew: So anyway…

Jamie: Alex, going from there, if you could describe wizard rock in one sentence, how would you describe it? Is it about love? Because it is a very special meeting.

Alex: I would describe it as the most awesome thing ever.

[Alex and Andrew laugh]

Alex: It’s a scene where you’ll go to a show, and everyone will be psyched to be there.

Andrew: Yeah.

Alex: I’ve been to a lot of concerts. I grew up in LA, so I’ve definitely spent a lot of time…

Jamie: Yeah.

Alex: …going to shows and…

Mikey: Yeah!

Alex: …[laughs] the wizard rock show at Prophecy was one of the best show I’ve ever been to.

Jamie: Yeah.

Alex: Because everyone really genuinely wanted to be there more than anywhere else in the world, and that’s what a lot of wizard rock shows – you guys know, when you’re out on tour. It’s just like such a happy atmosphere there.

Andrew: Yeah.

Alex: It’s an exciting atmosphere.

Andrew: And I have to say, the podcast/wizard rock combination – having both those there to do this combined show really worked out very well.

Alex: Yeah.

Andrew: Because the podcast listeners and the wizard rock listeners are the same kind of Harry Potter fans, I guess you could say.

Jamie: They are, yeah.

Alex: Awesome, you mean?

Andrew: Well, awesome, yeah. [laughs] And – you love that word, don’t you? [laughs]

Alex: [laughs] Yeah.

Andrew: And they’re – yeah, it’s just a great group of people who are dedicated to what they love.

Jamie: Alex, how much do you enjoy live shows? Because I’ve always thought wizard rock is best live.

Mikey: Oh yeah.

Alex: Absolutely.

Mikey: It is.

Alex: And I think that’s because we don’t know how to record stuff properly.

[Alex and Andrew laugh]

Alex: It’s just funny because all of the – I mean, the wizard rock records are all pretty good, and that’s – they’re fun to listen to in that way, but there’s just something that can’t be captured…

Andrew: See…

Alex: …about the live experience at a wizard rock show. And I think it has a lot to do with the people at the show, that there is an energy that the crowd is putting out unlike anything else.

Andrew: Yeah, this is actually a perfect conversation because we’re bad at live shows, you’re great at live shows. We’re great at recorded shows, you’re bad at recorded songs.

[Alex laughs]

Andrew: So I mean, we could team up and maybe do something here.

[Laura laughs]

Alex: Yeah.

[Andrew laughs]

Jamie: Those are quite big generalizations, although pretty accurate, yeah.

[Andrew laughs]

Alex: Wow.

Andrew: I’m just going off of what Alex just said!

Alex: If you guys do a podcast or something, maybe I could come on it and…

Jamie: I don’t know about you – Alex, I like your recorded stuff and…

Andrew: No, no, [laughs] what I’m saying is we’re better recorded, they’re better live.

[Alex laughs]

Andrew: They admit to being better live, we admit to being better recorded! [laughs]

Alex: No, I see what you’re saying. I see what you’re saying.

Andrew: So it works out.

Alex: Yeah, definitely. I think it’s just there’s this energy there.

Jamie: There is a lot of energy. You can tell, yeah. And you can tell that you get really into it as well, which is…

Alex: I get really into it, actually.

Jamie: No, no, it’s good. It’s good. That’s how it should be, passion.

Mikey: Yeah. Well, my thing is you can tell how much Alex actually gets into it. Has anyone ever tried to give him a hug after the show?

Jamie: Oh!

Mikey: He’s all sweaty.

Alex: Mikey, I hate you.

[Mikey laughs]

Andrew: I don’t try, he comes after me! [laughs]

Mikey: I’m just saying, Alex! I love you, man, but those shows…

Andrew: He’s working hard. He’s working hard.

Mikey: I love you, buddy.

Alex: The best is – so after a show, people come up to me – we’ll be talking to people, and I’m like – I guess I have a reputation now for being a good hugger, so people are like, [in a high-pitched voice] “Can I have a hug?”

[Andrew laughs]

Alex: And I’m like, obviously – I’ve been playing for an hour and a half.

Andrew: Yeah.

Alex: I’ve been sweating profusely.

[Andrew laughs]

Alex: I’m obviously drenched, and then they give me a hug and they’re like, [in a high-pitched voice] “You’re all wet!”

[Andrew and Mikey laugh]

Andrew: Really?

Jamie: What you need to do is…

Mikey: In that – wait. Guys, you’ve got to remember, it’s in that voice that they say that.

Alex: Yeah.

Mikey: [in a high-pitched voice] “You’re all wet!”

Andrew: Yeah.

Alex: [in a high-pitched voice] “You’re all wet!” It’s Mickey Mouse every time, actually.

[Andrew laughs]

Mikey: [imitates Mickey Mouse] “Oh boy! Haha!”

[Alex laughs]

Jamie: Even the boys?

Alex: [laughs] Especially the boys.

Mikey: Yeah, even the boys.

Jamie: [laughs] It’s actually the boys, Mikey.

Mikey: [laughs] I know, come on! I’m always there going, “Give me a hug, Alex.”

Jamie: Alex, Alex, what you need is like a manager of Axe who just brings a load of them along, and you just spray down right after the show.

Alex: We were considering getting sponsored by apple juice, but if…

[Andrew and Jamie laugh]

Andrew: Apple juice?

Mikey: [laughs] Not a brand in general, just apple juice itself.

Alex: [laughs] The contest of apple juice, actually.

Andrew: You guys love apple juice, don’t you, on tour?

Alex: I don’t know, we used to. We thought it was going to be a bigger deal on this tour. We had apple juice like twice.

Andrew: Really? I remember Brandon or somebody buying apple juice. I was like, “Dude, do you like apple juice?” He’s like, “Yeah.” I’m like, “I do, too!”

Alex: People brought it to us, it was pretty cool.

Andrew: Oh. [laughs] People bring us pickles and boxes of Lucky Charms.

Mikey: Remember the pickles that broke in the bag?

Laura: Yeah, I think that we should teach that.

Andrew: Huh?

Mikey: Remember the pickles that broke in the bag and it smelt up the car?

Jamie: Yeah.

Andrew: Oh. Shall we tell that story, real quick?

Mikey: You can tell that story real quick.

Andrew: So we were at Dave & Buster’s, everyone’s having a good time. Ben goes out to the car…

[Alex laughs]

Andrew: …takes out this mini suitcase I’ve had this whole entire tour. And it holds all the Pickle Pack wrist bands, a jar of pickles that a fan gave us, and T-shirts and some other gifts we’ve received. Ben somehow takes it out and throws it on the ground on the street in the parking lot at Dave & Buster’s. So we come out like an hour or two later, and I see it there and there’s like stuff coming out of it. It looks like water laying around it.

[Jamie laughs]

Andrew: And as I get closer to it, I can smell pickles. I’m like, “What is this doing just laying here?” I open it up, the pickle jar is smashed open, pickle juice is all over these Pickle Pack wrist bands, the case smells. [laughs] So I like yelled at Ben and then we just left the case there with all the Pickle Pack wrist bands.

Jamie: We should offer them for a higher price, Andrew.

Andrew: I don’t have them, they’re still laying in the parking lot at Dave & Buster’s in Pittsburgh.

Mikey: Did you really leave them there?

Andrew: I left most of them there.

Mikey: Oh yeah, and then the pillow I was using to sleep in the back seat…

Jamie: Oh yeah.

Mikey: …had pickle juice on it. I was like, “Guys, this stinks really bad. Can we get to where we’re going right away?” [laughs]

Andrew: Yeah. Thank God that was after the last live show but…

Mikey: Yeah. After Ben had just driven into a big old thing and broke the light on the car.

Andrew: [laughs] Yeah. The car was in great condition then.

Jamie: Alex, give us a few details of your tour, because I thought we’d been touring quite a while but you had been touring all summer, haven’t you? How have you found it?

Alex: Yeah, it was pretty crazy. I mean, we’re home now and we’re sort of adjusting to life in the real world again.

[Alex and Andrew laugh]

Alex: Which is really weird.

Jamie: It’s sad, I guess.

Alex: It’s kind of sad but we made a lot of really good friends, and just like everybody we’re trying to keep in contact with…

Jamie: Yeah.

Alex: …this summer and kind of keep it alive.

Mikey: Hey…

Alex: But tour was just so crazy. [laughs] I don’t even know how to put it.

Jamie: Yeah.

Alex: [laughs] We lived in a van for two months, which is out of control.

Mikey: Hey, Alex?

Alex: Yeah?

Mikey: MuggleDog in the chat-room says:

“Alex Carpenter is so dreamy!”

Andrew: Ahhh!

Mikey: I just thought I’d let you know that.

Alex: Let me say really quickly, I appreciate that you guys are all really goofy and Jamie is like a hard-nosed journalist over here. I think it’s very funny.

Jamie: Yeah, I know! I’m trying to act the big part and everyone is like…

Alex: Jamie…

Mikey: But guys, isn’t Alex dreamy? Alex is dreamy though, right?

Alex: That’s not hard journalism.

[Andrew and Laura laugh]

Alex: What I wanted to say was I was hanging out…

Jamie: So, Alex, do tell me…

Alex: [laughs] About the dreaminess.

[Everyone laughs]

Mikey: Sorry Alex, I was picking a little.

Alex: [laughs] I was hanging out in the chat-room before I came on and let me tell you, Jamie, the people in there like you a lot, my friend.

Jamie: Awww, isn’t that nice?

Alex: They are fans of the Jamie Lawrence.

Jamie: I have noticed that they’re telling me to sing, however. I think I’d rather – and then insert something very, very bad here because singing just does not happen on live shows. Singing just doesn’t happen, really.

Mikey: Except in the twelfth hour, right?

Jamie: Except in the twelfth hour when we’re delirious from tiredness.

Mikey: So everybody, keep listening and maybe you’ll hear him sing.

Alex: I’m so excited for that. I’m excited for the end of this show.

Andrew: Me too.

Alex: How you guys are just not even speaking English anymore.

[Andrew laughs]

Jamie: I’m staying away from the journalism thing.

[Andrew laughs]

Jamie: Will you one day dedicate a version of “The Weasleys Are Such An Inspiration To Me” to me?

[Everyone laughs]

Mikey: [singing] “Jamie Lawrence…”

Alex: From now on – here, I’m announcing it, okay? To however many people are listening, from now on, from hence forth, all times that The Remus Lupins play “The Weasleys” are dedicated to Jamie Lawrence.

Jamie: Oh, Alex, I love you. I love you.

[Andrew laughs]

Jamie: That’s my favorite Remus Lupins song. Awww, I love that song.

Andrew: 841 people just heard that, so…

Alex: You’re the witnesses.

Andrew: Yup.

Jamie: Yeah. Are the Weasleys a huge inspiration?

Alex: I changed it. Yeah, absolutely. I love the Weasleys. I think they’re an excellent sort of…

Mikey: Are they an inspiration to you?

Alex: They are an inspiration.

Mikey: Okay.

Alex: They inspire me to do better.

[Andrew laughs]

Alex: But I changed the lyrics in that song for you guys at the tour.

Andrew: You did? Really?

Alex: Yeah. The lyrics used to be “And think about Molly because she does this,” but now it’s “Give it up for Molly.”

Andrew: Oh yeah!

Jamie: [laughs] Yeah!

Mikey: I remember hearing that and I started laughing about it.

Alex: Yeah.

Mikey: I totally forgot.

Andrew: When I was at your show after the tour in New York City – where was that?

Alex: Yeah.

Andrew: That little bar place? You’re sitting there, and you looked at me when you said it. I was like, “Wait a second, did he change the lyrics just for us, or have they always been like that?” [laughs]

Alex: Yeah, I changed it.

Andrew: That’s awesome, that’s awesome. That’s very cool. Well yeah, your shows are a lot of fun to be at, and I…

Jamie: We had an awesome time during it. Absolutely the best eight days of our lives.

Andrew: Yeah. Mhm.

Jamie: I speak for myself, but I’m sure everyone agrees.

Andrew: I agree. And…

Jamie: Apart from Sonic. That is the stupidest fast food place I’ve ever been to in my life.

Andrew: Sonic is a fantastic restaurant.

Jamie: No, it’s not. It’s…

Laura: Why do you say that, Jamie? What’s wrong with Sonic?

Jamie: I’ll tell you why I say that, because [laughs] there’s a door that you can walk into where everyone’s working…

[Mikey laughs]

Andrew: That’s called a kitchen.

Jamie: …and instead of walking in and being normal and ordering there, you have to speak into a wall, which is just pointless.

Mikey: [laughs] Yeah, but Jamie, Jamie, I think the only reason you were upset with them was because you had to go to the bathroom and they wouldn’t let you in the back to see if they had one.

Jamie: Well, that is annoying, yes, but the point – yeah, but apart from that, you do have to speak into something that is just – and then they walk out and give it to you. You might as well walk in. Anyway, I’m sure they make like a billion pounds per year, so I’m not one to talk.

Andrew: I don’t know about pounds…

Laura: [laughs] Yeah.

Andrew: …because I don’t think they’re in the UK, but… [laughs]

Jamie: But Andrew, I can convert it and make it up to pounds.

Andrew: [laughs] Okay. Oh man. You want to – I guess we’ll take a couple of callers now if anyone has any questions for Alex, or we’ll just talk about Harry Potter in general or whatever. Is that okay?

Alex: Yeah, Harry Potter.

Mikey: Are there any other…

Andrew: Yeah, we’ll talk about Harry Potter for once.

Mikey: Are there any wizard rockers on that we can give a call to?

Andrew: Yeah, yeah. Have any, Mikey? Or Alex?

Mikey: I’m looking to see if anyone’s on. I don’t see anyone from The Parselmouths, and I don’t see…

Alex: It’s early.

Mikey: Yeah.

Alex: It’s early for wizard rockers.

[Andrew laughs]

Alex: It’s Saturday, you guys.

Andrew: But this is wizard rock hour on MuggleCast. Oh, and you guys all sleep in until like 8:00 PM?

Alex: Yes.

[Andrew laughs]

Mikey: That’s what wizard rockers – oh actually, speaking of wizard rock, some of the Mikey B songs and things are coming in. I’ve gotten a couple. And one of them made me really laugh already, so…

Listener Calls: J.K. Rowling’s NYC Reading

Andrew: We have a caller now. Chloe. Hey, Chloe.

Caller: Hi!

Andrew: Chloe, are you mad at me because you didn’t win the listener challenge?

[Jamie laughs]

Caller: Not really.

Alex: You should have won that.

Caller: [laughs] I was hoping I would.

Andrew: Sorry. See, I did all the judging last week, because I thought I told everyone just a week, but…

Caller: Oh.

Andrew: Alex, did you see her video?

Alex: [laughs] No, but Facebook told me a lot was going on with it.

Andrew: Yeah, exactly. Yup.

[Alex and Andrew laugh]

Andrew: So anyway, what’s going on? Here, let me make it up to you. What can I do for you, Chloe?

Caller: Okay. Well, I have like three things that I’ve been waiting to say to all you guys.

Andrew: Okay.

Caller: I’m sure I’ll stir something up.

Andrew: Okay. Ooh. Uh-oh.

Laura: Uh-oh.

Caller: [laughs] No, it’s all good. It’s all good.

Andrew: This is going to be like that video.

Caller: [laughs] Oh no, I promise. That video was all good. It was just my love for MuggleCast.

Andrew: That’s what they all say when they talk to us face-to-face.

[Caller laughs]

Andrew: Now, let’s hear your…

Caller: All right, so first, my boyfriend – his school got chosen for the J.K. Rowling signing.

Andrew: Oh, no way!

Laura: Oh my gosh. He’s so lucky!

Caller: I was so upset. [laughs] Yeah, he was bragging all over the place.

Andrew: I bet. Where’s this school? What school is it?

Caller: Eagle Rock High School. It’s in California.

Andrew: Oh okay.

Alex: Eagle Rock?

Caller: Yeah.

Mikey: Give it up! Eagle Rock, California. Woo woo! California! Sorry, I’m done.

Caller: Yeah, he’s going with his best friend.

Andrew: Oh, he’s actually going to it? Oh awesome.

Caller: Oh yeah, he got picked.

Andrew: [laughs] Oh wow!

Alex: Whoa.

Caller: Yeah. I was – well, apparently they did a weird picking system.

Andrew: Yeah, they’ve been doing it differently for every school, I think.

Caller: Yeah, so it was sort of like they just questioned everybody and if you got them all right you got chosen.

Andrew: Oh okay.

Mikey: You had to answer questions.

Caller: But it was really hard questions and stuff. I mean, one of the ones he told me they asked were like, “When does Ron come back in DH?” What page and stuff.

Andrew: Oh okay.

Laura: What page?

MuggleCast 111 Transcript (continued)

Listener Calls: Harry Potter Reading Class

Caller: It was really intense. [laughs] Then my second thing is that my – I just started high school this week and I was really lost for most of my first day. [laughs] And I accidentally walked into this reading class, and it turned out that the reading class, the entire year’s curriculum was based on Harry Potter.

Andrew: Oh wow!

Laura: Oh, that’s cool.

Caller: Yeah. So when I found out that I wasn’t in the class, I was pretty upset. [laughs]

Andrew: Awww.

Alex: Why didn’t you just crash the class?

Andrew: Yeah.

Alex: And go to that?

Caller: Oh, I did! I did! I got pulled out by the principal at the end of the day.

Alex: Yes!

[Andrew and Caller laugh]

Andrew: Fight the power!

Mikey: Dumbledore’s Army forever!

Andrew: [laughs] Yeah.

Caller: Yeah, so I got…

Mikey: Potterwatch!

Caller: [laughs] But – so it was pretty cool. They were really bad, all the kids in the class. They were like, “God, Harry Potter is so stupid!”

Andrew: Really?

Caller: Oh yeah, it was really upsetting. And I was…

Andrew: And what’s number three? Oh sorry.

Caller: Oh no, I was just sitting there with my Harry Potter T-shirt, [laughs] just hanging out.

Andrew: Oh. [laughs] And what’s number three? What’s number three? Come on, come on!

[Andrew and Caller laugh]

Listener Calls: Andrew’s Listener Challenge Response

Caller: Number three was the shout-out to the Vultures. Oh God, I know you’ve gotten a lot of those. [laughs]

Andrew: Oh, you…

Laura: Yeah.

Andrew: Go ahead, do it one more time. I don’t see why not. Everyone’s…

[Caller and Laura laugh]

Caller: Shout-out to all you guys who are in the Skype – actually, the Skype chat now, which is the “Emma Has Lost It” chat, so just have to make a shout-out. They’re saying a lot of things for me to say and I can’t keep track of everything.

Andrew: Here’s something I think you want to say:

[Chloe’s Facebook video plays]

[Audio (Chloe)]: “Hi, my name is Chloe and I’m a huge MuggleCast fan!”

[Caller and Laura laugh]

[Audio (Chloe)]: “I’ve been a MuggleCast fan girl for two years now. And if you’re expecting this video to be like the ifancythetrio’s…”

Andrew: This is her video on Facebook, ladies and gentlemen.

[Audio (Chloe)]: “‘I Eat MuggleCast Fangirls for Breakfast’ video, or another video about Jamie and Andrew, I would turn it off now.”

[Laura laughs]

Andrew: What are you talking about there, Chloe? What videos?

[Caller laughs]

Andrew: I’m glad we have you here, I can quiz you on all this, this whole video.

Mikey: I’m so confused, I don’t even know what video.

Andrew: This is Chloe’s video on Facebook. Basically it’s a video saying…

Mikey: I feel like I’m out of the loop.

Andrew: Well, just listen! Just listen. She was trying to win the listener – she’s basically saying, “I have to win this next listener challenge,” because she’s lost the other ones, right?

Caller: Yeah, basically. [laughs]

Andrew: Okay, let’s continue. Actually no, let’s hear about this. What Andrew/Jamie videos on Facebook are you talking about? [laughs]

Caller: [laughs] Okay, if you – I was – my friend was sleeping over and we were watching all the Harry Potter movies…

Andrew: Uh-huh.

Caller: …in a row in one night, and it got really intense, and in the middle of the second movie we were just like, “Okay, okay, that’s it!” And we looked up “MuggleCast” on YouTube, and for like four pages in a row all we could find were Jamie and Andrew shipper videos.

Andrew: Really? Okay, that’s weird.

Laura: Oh wow.

Caller: It’s a little bit disturbing to watch.

Andrew: Well, let’s…

Laura: How weird is it, Andrew? You joined that Facebook group.

Andrew: I would say – oh.

[Laura laughs]

Andrew: Well, I joined this group. I also joined the “I Want to Be a MuggleCast Co-host” group and – it doesn’t mean anything. But here, let’s continue…

Mikey: Hey, I joined that group and I got to be a co-host.

[Andrew laughs]

Mikey: Not really. I don’t know, I join everything at some point and then I leave.

Andrew: Let’s continue the video.

[Audio (Chloe)]: “Are you calling me obsessive?”

Andrew: Yes.

[Caller and Laura laugh]

[Audio (Chloe)]: “Good, because that’s basically what I am.”

Andrew: Okay.

[Audio (Chloe)]: “Okay, so now that I’ve stepped outside of my usual videos and my usual video blogs, I’ll just get to the point. These Andrew’s Listener Challenges are starting to get to me.”

[Andrew laughs]

[Audio (Chloe)]: “I do every single one, and do I ever win? No. And before you go complaining about how nobody ever wins unless you’re the luckiest person on the face of the earth, stop.”

[Andrew and Laura laugh]

Andrew: I loved your face at the end of that one. It looks like you wanted to kill me.

Caller: [laughs] Oh God. Well, I just want to say one thing. I…

Andrew: Okay. I’m sure this is very embarrassing for you.

Caller: No, I’m an actress, so embarrassing is not something I’m usually scared of.

Andrew: Oh okay.

Caller: But I was doing your last listener challenge with the sign and everything, and I live in this kind of middle-of-nowhere town, just sort of outside of New York City and it’s in Jersey, and we get a lot of traffic from people that commute.

Andrew: Yeah.

Caller: And so my town isn’t really busy a lot. But the one day that I was doing the listener challenge – because there’s no pickle retailers, I held the sign up on my street – was the day that the most people came. And I think somebody who hated Harry Potter passed the tree, because I almost got hit by a car.

Laura: Oh my gosh.

Caller: So yeah, when I say I do basically everything I can, I’m not exaggerating.

Andrew: Are you trying to guilt-trip me? I mean, you’re already a Pickle Pack member. What more do you want from me?

Caller: No, no, no. My mom came outside just as I almost got hit by a car. She was like, “Oh my God! What are you doing?”

[Andrew laughs]

Caller: And I was like, “Nothing,” and she was like, “I swear, if this is that Harry Potter/MuggleCast thing…”

[Andrew and Laura laugh]

Andrew: That’s pretty funny, actually.

Caller: Yeah. [laughs] So that was my “I do absolutely everything I can” reference.

Andrew: I’m looking at more of your videos. What’s this one?

[Andrew’s first wizard rock single plays]

[Andrew and Caller laugh]

Caller: Yeah.

Andrew: Oh, wasn’t there a video where you end it like, “M-U-double G-L-E-C-A-S-and a T”? It was a recent one.

Caller: Yeah, that was the “How’s This for a Listener Challenge?”

Andrew: Oh.

Caller: At the end.

Andrew: Okay, let’s get to the end of this.

[Caller laughs]

Andrew: Actually, I can’t hear it, can I? Because you’re just lip syncing. Oh man, Firefox just crashed on me. Wow, Firefox is not my friend today. Okay. Well, enough of that. Well, thank you, Chloe, for calling in.

Caller: Thank you guys for picking up. [laughs]

Andrew: No problem. It’s just that whenever somebody calls – let me just make a general announcement here. Whenever somebody calls – we get bombarded with like thirty calls at once, so it’s hard to get people.

Caller: Just one last thing before…

Andrew: Okay.

Caller: And I know you’ve gotten a lot of complaints about this before.

Andrew: Uh-oh.

Caller: I joined Pickle Pack – and I realize that this isn’t your fault – or apparently, that’s what I’ve been told – but when do you think I’ll be getting my Pickle Pack T-shirt?

Andrew: You still haven’t gotten your shirt?

Caller: Yeah, I signed up the night of.

Andrew: That’s very strange.

Caller: Yeah.

Andrew: I’m going to be setting up a forum soon for people who haven’t received their Pickle Pack shirts to give me their PayPal ID number and other information, and then we’ll mail the shirts out.

Caller: Okay.

Andrew: Sorry about that. That’s weird. I’m surprised you haven’t received it.

Caller: Yeah.

Andrew: Because I’m pretty sure like 99% of the people who are members have by now, but…

Caller: Right.

Laura: Yeah.

Caller: Yeah.

Laura: Well, thank you for being nice about it.

Andrew: [laughs] Yeah.

Laura: Because at Prophecy at the ball, I got cornered by this girl…

Andrew: There was this girl…

Laura: …[laughs] and she was very threatening, yeah.

Andrew: Yeah. We’re probably talking about the same girl here.

Laura: Yeah.

Andrew: She actually had me by the arm…

Caller: Oh my God.

Andrew: She was under the influence, of course.

Laura: Yeah.

[Caller laughs]

Andrew: She also had me by the arm, would not let go…

[Laura laughs]

Caller: Sounds like Prophecy.

Andrew: …and I said, “Listen, if you don’t let me go, I’m just walking over to the security guard and they’re going to kick you out.” And her friends were like, “No, don’t do that! She’s just – she’s just – you know what. Just let her go.” I’m like, “Get her off of me because I’m not dealing with this. Get her off, blah blah blah.” Anyway – I’m ripped, so I had no problem taking her off me.

[Laura and Mikey laugh]

Andrew: But it was just annoying!

Mikey: Don’t lie, Andrew. Really? Don’t lie.

Andrew: She had a firm grip on me! [laughs]

Mikey: She totally would have taken you out, Andrew.

Andrew: [laughs] No, she…

Laura: She cornered me in the bathroom.

Andrew: Really?

Laura: I was standing against a wall [laughs] and she was like right there in my face.

Andrew: Wow.

Laura: And I was like, “Okay, I’m sorry! [laughs] I don’t have any control over it.”

Andrew: So yeah…

Caller: Yeah, I would never – if I – even if it – I’m telling you, if I still don’t get my shirt in like another three years, I promise I won’t like go and grab you by the arm.

Laura: You won’t kill me? Okay.

Andrew: Nah, I’m sure you’ll get it soon. I’m sure you’ll get it soon.

Caller: Yeah.

Andrew: Okay. Well, thanks for calling.

Caller: Thank you.

Andrew: You’re welcome. Bye!

Caller: Bye!

Laura: Bye!

Andrew: We lost Alex, I have no idea where he went. I think they lost internet over at that house.

Laura: Oh okay.

Mikey: Yeah. No, he’s online still. Give him a call once more.

Andrew: He is?

Mikey: Yeah, Matt Britton, right?

Andrew: No, he’s not. And he also signed off of AIM, so I think they’re having problems there.

Mikey: No, Alex is there. Let me IM his computer.

Listener Calls: Wizard Rock

Andrew: Okay. In the meantime, let’s take a couple of more calls right now. What do you want, Lucas?

Caller: Oh.

[Andrew and Caller laugh]

Caller: All you people who like don’t really – they don’t think they like wizard rock: at first I hated wizard rock. I thought it was really, really dumb.

Andrew: Wait a second, who’s saying they don’t like wizard rock?

Caller: For anybody who just doesn’t like – hasn’t tried it yet or anything.

Andrew: Oh okay.

Caller: At first I didn’t like it all, but then I went to the live podcast in Naperville, I think it was.

Andrew: Yeah.

Caller: And I saw the live show and it was actually really, really good.

Andrew: Oh good.

Caller: So yeah.

Laura: Yeah, Lucas, I agree with you because there was a time when I didn’t really pay that much attention to wizard rock and I was like, “Wizard rock? What is this? It’s stupid. Why would you write songs about Harry Potter?” And then there was Prophecy…

Mikey: Why would you talk about Harry Potter? [laughs]

Laura: Okay, but it’s – never mind. I can’t justify the way I thought about it because I was wrong. And then I went to Prophecy and we went to the wizard rock show, and it was really a lot of fun. I didn’t know any of the songs there, I still really don’t know any of them, but I really enjoyed it. It was a really good time. So I think people just need to give it a chance.

Andrew: Yeah, I agree.

Caller: Yeah.

Andrew: Okay. Well, very good. Thank you, Lucas, for that.

Caller: Yeah, bye.

Andrew: You know why – there are a couple of people I keep accepting multiple times and that’s because they have good audio. When I answer, there’s no feedback, they have good clarity in their voice. They’re good calls. So just FYI for people calling in, remember that we are only taking calls – only – sorry, let me rephrase that. Only call if your Ustream is muted, because we don’t want feedback. Let’s get someone from the UK. Let’s see, it’s approaching midnight there. Hello, UK caller.

Listener Calls: New Ustream Poll

Caller: Hi, it’s Martin.

Andrew: Oh, it’s Martin again. What’s going on, Martin?

Caller: Yeah, the people in Ustream seem to want a new poll.

Andrew: Yes.

Caller: I guess you haven’t updated.

Andrew: I just updated the poll. The new poll question on Ustream right now is…

Caller: That was quick.

Andrew: …”Are you -” thank you. [laughs] It’s “Are you enjoying the show?” And amazingly, 90 votes already for “Yes” – now it just hit 100 – 75 for “I want more of these,” and 0 for “No.” If anyone votes “No,” the show is over. Oh, there’s a vote for “No.”

[Laura laughs]

Andrew: Okay, it’s over. Sorry.

Mikey: Bye!

[Andrew laughs]

Mikey: Bye everybody!

Andrew: Goodnight everyone!

[Laura laughs]

Mikey: We didn’t make it to twelve hours because somebody said they didn’t enjoy the show.

Andrew: Yeah. I mean, I think this is going very well. I don’t even know…

Mikey: Hey, Alex is there. Alex is still there.

Andrew: Where?

Mikey: We have to call him. Matt, or on Matt’s computer – I just posted the Book 5 picture of Eric to you guys…

Andrew: Yeah.

Mikey: …that Andrea drew and then Matt Britton responded, “Is she drawing these as we go along?” meaning there’s a computer there.

Andrew: Oh, now I see him online.

Mikey: Yeah. You should give him a call back.

Andrew: Okay. Now I see him, he’s back online.

Listener Calls: MuggleCast Song

Caller: Hello?

Andrew: Hi caller, you’re live on MuggleCast.

Caller: Hey, how’s it going, Andrew?

Andrew: How’s it going, buddy?

Caller: Not too bad. I’m calling back, I’m Camillo again.

Andrew: Oh!

Caller: Yeah. Is Alex there?

Andrew: Alex is coming in.

Alex: Yes.

Andrew: Yeah, there he is!

Alex: I’m here.

Caller: Alex?

Andrew: You got a question for Alex?

Caller: Yes, a question.

Andrew: Good. You two talk.

Caller: Yeah. Alex?

Alex: Yeah?

Caller: First, you’re the first wizard rock band I ever heard, and you inspired me to make my own.

Alex: Awesome!

Caller: I just thought I’d say that. Yeah.

Alex: Cool. That’s really awesome to hear that.

Caller: And I did what you did, like with the plural and stuff.

Alex: Yeah?

Andrew: Do you have a MySpace or something?

Caller: Yes.

Andrew: Do you want to plug it?

Caller: Yeah. MySpace.com/unspeakablesthe.

Andrew: Unspeakables what?

Caller: The. It’s like “The Unspeakables” backwards.

Andrew: Oh okay.

Caller: Yeah. But I had a question about – you know that e-mail – do you guys have an e-mail set up called mugglecastlive at gmail dot com?

Andrew: Yes.

Caller: Yeah, because I sent my song there. It’s called “MuggleCast is Awesome.”

Andrew: [laughs] Oh.

Laura: Oh cool!

Caller: So if you guys want to play that, that would be cool.

Alex: I’m going to your website.

Caller: Yeah, and Alex, you’re awesome.

Alex: Thank you.

Caller: And there’s a Facebook group called “MuggleCast Should Come to Australia.”

[Andrew and Laura laugh]

Mikey: I would be there in a heartbeat if we could go.

Caller: So if you aren’t doing anything this weekend…

[Andrew and Laura laugh]

Caller: …I was thinking…

Andrew: I like your sense of humor.

Caller: Or even like, in October sometime, just come down. We’ll go out for some beers or something. [laughs]

Andrew: Oh sorry, what did you say?

Caller: We’ll go out for some beers or something.

Andrew: Hey, wait a second now. What’s the…

Mikey: I’m twenty-two.

[Andrew and Laura laugh]

Caller: The legal drinking age in Australia is eighteen.

Mikey: I’m twenty-two, I’m older.

Andrew: Oh, it’s eighteen?

Caller: The legal drinking – yeah, we’re eighteen over here. It’s awesome. We’ll just go to the pub.

Mikey: I think MuggleCast should do a show from the land down under. [singing] “I go from the land down under.”

Alex: You guys want to do…

Mikey: We can sing.

Alex: You guys want to tour down there?

[Andrew laughs]

Mikey: Let’s go to Australia.

Caller: Mikey?

Mikey: Yeah?

Caller: Mikey, did you get my e-mail?

Mikey: No, I’m looking for it. I don’t know – what e-mail address did you send it from?

Caller: Well, I sent two e-mails. I sent one to mikey at staff and I sent one to…

Mikey: Oh.

Caller: …mugglecastlive at gmail.

Mikey: Wait, are you – what’s your name? Mike Jones? No.

Caller: Camillo.

Andrew: [laughs] Mike Jones? Where do you get Mike Jones from?

Mikey: It’s because I’m looking at all the different people that sent “Mikey B’s” in right now. Hold on.

Andrew: That’s a singer.

Caller: Yeah, mine’s a “Mikey B” song. But I didn’t send you a song, but I’m writing it.

Mikey: Okay.

Caller: And it’s got four chords, and it’s pretty awesome.

Mikey: Okay. Actually, yeah. No, I see it. Yeah, okay.

Caller: Yeah, and right now, there’s this girl – wait, Jamie’s not there, aye? Or is Jamie there?

Andrew: Jamie ran out for a second, I think.

Caller: Oh okay.

Mikey: Okay, I see your e-mail address. You’re going to include a Micah impression, right?

Caller: Yeah, the Micah one.

Mikey: Yeah, yeah, Micah. Yeah. No, he’s going to do a Micah Tannenbaum impression.

Alex: Oh.

Caller: Do you want me to do a Micah impression with “Mikey” in it?

Alex: Whoa.

Mikey: Whatever, you surprise me. It’s…

Caller: All right. Ready? All right. [poorly imitating Micah] Hello, Mikey B.

[Everyone laughs]

Caller: That was bad.

Andrew: That was all right. You get points for trying.

Caller: Oh, I’m sorry. But – yeah. So yeah, just come down to Australia when you’re not doing anything.

Andrew: Yeah, we will.

Mikey: We’re not doing…

Caller: And if you could tell Jamie when he comes back…

Andrew: He’s back. He’s back now.

Caller: Oh okay. Jamie?

[Prolonged silence]

Andrew: Sorry, he just IM’d me but – okay, he’s on the phone right now.

Caller: Okay. Well…

Andrew: We’ll pass it along to him.

Caller: All right, cool. Tell him that Alyssa loves him.

Andrew: Okay, Alyssa loves him.

Caller: Yeah. And if he could say something like, “I love Alyssa” or “Alyssa is awesome” or something like that, I’m pretty sure she would die, so just do it.

Andrew: Okay. I just…

Mikey: We don’t want to…

Alex: We don’t want to kill anybody.

Mikey: I know.

Caller: No, no, she’s not going to die. She’s going to be very happy.

Mikey: Me and Alex are like, “No, we don’t want to kill them at all.”

Caller: No, no. She just died on the chat but all right.

Andrew: Okay. Well, I will pass…

Mikey: Wait, I have a question real quick.

Caller: Yeah?

Mikey: Do you like Vegemite? Do you like Vegemite from Australia?

Caller: Yeah, of course I do. Vegemite is great.

Mikey: Really?

Caller: Yeah!

Mikey: Just checking! Vegemite.

Caller: All right.

Mikey: All right, bye.

Caller: Thanks a lot for taking my call.

Andrew: No problem. Thanks for calling in. I like your sense of humor.

Caller: You guys are awesome.

Andrew: And just because you have a good sense of humor and you’re funny, we’ll come to Australia.

Caller: Awesome. Oh, and I got my Pickle Pack shirt finally.

Andrew: Oh good! See, see, Chloe?

Caller: I got it like four days ago.

Andrew: Oh.

Caller: I’m freakin’ stoked. I’ve been wearing it for like four days in a row.

[Andrew and Laura laugh]

Andrew: Awesome.

Caller: Yeah. Sorry, I’m high on V.

Andrew: No, it’s – you’re high on what? What?

Caller: On V.

Alex: Vegemite?

Mikey: Vegemite.

Andrew: Oh okay.

Caller: We call it V. Yeah.

Andrew: I was going to say, we don’t condone that kind of behavior here on the show.

[Caller and Laura laugh]

Andrew: But hey, thanks for calling in.

Caller: All right, cool.

Andrew: You’re a cool guy.

Caller: You guys are great. I love you. See you.

Andrew: Yeah, we love you too. See you.

Laura: Bye.

[Prolonged silence]

Andrew: Whoops, my bad. That was a good call. He had a good sense of humor.

Laura: It was a good call.

Andrew: He was from Australia. Isn’t it amazing people listen to us in Australia?

Mikey: Yeah.

Alex: Let’s rate all the calls from now on.

Andrew: [laughs] Yeah.

Mikey: You know what? He’s working on this – let me show you – I found his e-mail.

“Hey Mikey, I’m working on a ‘Mikey B’ song, in the works now. If I can record it, it’ll be at the next break and it’ll be awesome. It’ll even include a Micah impression.”

Alex: Whoa!

Mikey: So yeah…

Andrew: What’s this e-mail address? What’s his e-mail address?

Mikey: Here, I’ll post it in the chat.

Andrew: No, because I want to find the MuggleCast song he sent in.

Mikey: Well, I’ve – hold on, I think I – I didn’t find it.

Andrew: Alex, I like your…

Laura: Didn’t he say it was called “MuggleCast is Awesome”?

Andrew: No, but I’m trying to find the e-mail. Okay, never mind.

Laura: Oh wait, it was Camillo, right?

Andrew: Oh! Oh, that’s him? Okay, I got it now.

Mikey: That’s his e-mail right there.

Andrew: Okay.

MuggleCast 111 Transcript (continued)

Phone Call to Ben

Jamie: Andrew, can we phone Ben? Phone him. He wants us to phone him.

Andrew: He wants to do it over the phone?

Jamie: Yeah. Well, he’s at the football game. And I love you too, Alyssa.

Andrew: Yeah, Alyssa. That’s it. Yeah, we’ll do it in a second.

Alex: You just killed someone, Jamie. You just killed someone.

Andrew: Yeah. She said…

Mikey: You’re a murderer!

Andrew: Alex, I like your idea. We should just judge everyone who calls. I think that would be pretty…

[Alex laughs]

Mikey: Yeah. See, now guys, everyone who is going to call in, make sure that you’re prepared and you can speak clearly, and you don’t ramble on and on like me, because we’re going to be judging you.

Andrew: [laughs] Right.

Mikey: Yeah. So we’ll have a scale of one through ten, right? And – okay.

[Alex and Andrew laugh]

Andrew: That bombed.

Alex: You’re a little pitchy, dog. You’re a little pitchy.

Andrew: Yeah, that bombed really quick.

Mikey: Yeah.

Andrew: But yeah, a road tour down in Australia I think would be pretty good.

Mikey: Dude, I’m so down for Australia!

Alex: Let’s go!

Mikey: It would be so much fun.

Andrew: Yeah.

Jamie: Let’s just road tour everywhere.

Mikey: Dude, we can see dingos. We can go hang out with Garth, guys! [laughs]

[Phone rings]

Laura: Oh my gosh, that would be amazing!

Jamie: Yes.

Laura: Awww, I miss Garth.

Andrew: Okay, hold on, we’re getting Ben in here.

Mikey: Calling Ben Schoen.

Andrew: If he doesn’t answer…

Mikey: Calling Ben Schoen.

Alex: Where is Ben Schoen? Oh, we’re calling…

Andrew: He’s at a Notre Dame football game.

Jamie: Michigan game.

Laura: How long has he been there?

Ben: Hello?

Andrew: What’s up?

Laura: Hey, Ben.

Mikey: [singing] “Cheer, cheer for Old Notre Dame.”

Ben/Dumbledore: Hello?

Andrew: Hi, Ben!

Ben/Dumbledore: Who am I speaking with?

[Andrew and Laura laugh]

Andrew: Ben, how’s the football game going?

Ben/Dumbledore: Hello?

Andrew: Is this Ben? I don’t think this is Ben.

Alex: [laughs] This is so not Ben.

Ben/Dumbledore: This is Albus Dumbledore!

[Everybody laughs]

Mikey: Oh, we got Albus Dumbledore!

Andrew: Oh my gosh!

Mikey: It’s our choices, right, Albus?

[Laura laughs]

Jamie: Aren’t you supposed to be dead?

Ben/Dumbledore: It is our choices, Harry…

[Everyone laughs]

Ben/Dumbledore: …far more than our abilities, that determine what we truly are.

Andrew: Oh my gosh! Albus Dumbledore. See, I called Ben’s number. I didn’t know you guys were hanging out tonight.

Ben/Dumbledore: Yeah, I’m with Ben at the Notre Dame/Michigan game.

[Andrew and Laura laugh]

Ben/Dumbledore: And I casted magic spells all over the field.

Andrew: [laughs] I see. So are they winning?

Ben/Dumbledore: [pauses] No.

[Everyone laughs]

Ben/Dumbledore: Because I died!

[Everyone laughs]

Andrew: Right, I forgot.

Ben: What’s up, guys? What’s up?

Andrew: Oh man.

Ben: This is Ben.

Andrew: Dude, that’s so…

Ben: I stole the phone from Albus.

Andrew: That’s so sweet. You guys are hanging out now. I didn’t realize you guys…

Ben: Yeah, we’re having a good time. We’re having a good time.

Jamie: Ben, we’ve been doing this for seven hours.

Ben: [unintelligible] You know, you know.

Andrew: We don’t condone that kind of behavior.

Ben: I’m sorry.

Andrew: [laughs] Shoot, what was I going to say? Go ahead, Jamie.

Jamie: No, I was going to say: Ben, we’ve been doing this for seven hours. We’ve got five to go.

Ben: Yeah, that sounds pretty brutal.

Andrew: Yeah. It’s actually been going pretty well though, so…

Jamie: Thank God it’s not twenty-four, that’s all I can say.

Ben: And by the way, the reason my voice is kind of strange is because I’m at the Notre Dame/Michigan game and we lost thirty-eight to zero.

Andrew: Oh, it’s over.

Ben: And I screamed like a little retard for no reason.

Andrew: Okay.

Alex: Thirty to zero?

Ben: There was like three minutes left in the fourth quarter and I was still like, “Come on, [unintelligible]!”

[Andrew and Laura laugh]

Ben: “Whoo!”

Mikey: [laughs] Thirty-eight to zero? Ben, do we need to talk about…

Ben: So how good is this show, guys?

Andrew: It’s going pretty well. Alex is here, we had…

Ben: Who’s all here right now? Who’s all talking to me right now?

Laura: Laura.

Andrew: Alex, Mikey, Laura, Jamie and me.

Ben: Who?

Andrew: Alex Carpenter, Laura Thompson…

Ben: Oh shoot!

[Andrew laughs]

Ben: Alex! What’s up, dude?

Alex: Hey.

Andrew: …Mikey…

Mikey: Mikey B! Get it right!

[Laura laughs]

Alex: I heard your team got owned.

Mikey: Mikey B!

Ben: It was brutal.

Andrew: Yeah.

Ben: It was bad.

Andrew: Yeah, it sounds like it.

Ben: So what Harry Potter stuff are you talking about?

Andrew: Oh, we’ve been talking about everything.

Jamie: We’ve been doing it for seven hours, Ben. We’ve discussed every single book to death. Well, not really. But…

Laura: We actually…

Ben: Do you guys want to ever bring back Chapter-by-Chapter?

Andrew: No.

Jamie: Yeah, we are.

Laura: God, no! [laughs]

Jamie: We’ve done every single chapter from every single book.

Andrew: Yeah.

Jamie: We’re tired of it. Twice.

Ben: I think the next segment is going to be Page-by-Page.

Jamie: Huh?

Andrew: What?

Laura: Page-by-Page.

Ben: I said the next segment is going to be Page-by-Page.

Andrew: Oh. [laughs]

Jamie: Letter-by-Letter.

[Andrew and Laura laugh]

Andrew: Letter-by-Letter.

Jamie: That’s what Eric wants to start, Syllable-by-Syllable.

[Laura and Mikey laugh]

Mikey: Word-by-Word.

Ben: So what is going on, guys? Come on, talk to me here.

Andrew: Nothing, dude. We were counting on you to do the talking. We were just talking about wizard rock and…

Ben: Okay, Oliver Boyd and the Remembralls is the best wizard rock band ever to exist.

Andrew: Now, wait a second. Hold on. Alex Carpenter is here, did you forget?

Alex: Whoa, Ben Schoen.

Ben: [gasps] Whoops. Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh.

[Andrew laughs]

Ben: Of course – second, of course, to The Remus Lupins!

[Andrew and Laura laugh]

Alex: Seriously though, the people who haven’t heard Oliver Boyd, they should check it out. He has a song called “End of an Era” that is so – if you like Harry Potter it will speak to you, and you probably want to…

Ben: It will make you bawl your eyes out. “Train to Nowhere” is another awesome song and so is Jamie’s favorite, “Bridge to the Other Side,” right, Jamie?

Jamie: Oh God, yes. Yes. Awww, “Bridge to the Other Side.”

Ben: Jamie and I were hanging out this summer at my house, and he walks up to me and he sits down. He’s like, “Ben, why don’t you put some ‘Bridge to the Other Side’ on?”

[Andrew laughs]

Jamie: Whatever, whatever. Ben was into it as I was.

[Ben laughs]

Jamie: But he tried to play the hard man and he was like, “Oh okay, dude. If you want, I guess I can do it now.”

[Andrew and Ben laugh]

Jamie: But really, he was so excited. You couldn’t believe it.

Andrew: Oh my gosh. Oh great.

Ben: I’m going to be home in like three hours from now. You guys will still be recording, right?

Andrew: Yeah, we’ll still be recording.

Ben: What?

Andrew: We’ll still be recording, yeah.

Ben: So are you going to release this as one whole episode, or what?

Andrew: No, no, no. We’re going to split it up, maybe in like six pieces or something. I don’t know.

Jamie: Yeah.

Ben: That’s awesome.

Andrew: Yeah. It’s going well, though. We have close to 900 people listening right now. That’s basically how it’s been the entire seven hours.

Ben: Oh, this is going out live right now?

Andrew: Yes!

Laura: Yes! [laughs]

Ben: Oh my gosh! E-mail me! ben at staff dot mugglenet dot com!

[Andrew and Laura laugh]

Andrew: Okay. [laughs] Thank you, Ben.

Ben: Mail-bomb andrew at staff dot mugglenet!

[Andrew and Jamie laugh]

Andrew: Oh my gosh.

Mikey: Oh wow, Ben.

Andrew: Oh man.

Ben: I’m sorry, I’m sorry.

Andrew: That’s okay.

Ben: I’m sorry. Forgive me, please.

Andrew: No, it’s all right. That brought back bad memories.

Ben: Call 609-688…

[Andrew laughs, Ben makes beeping noises]

Andrew: Yeah, I was ready to hang up on you.

Ben: Yeah. [laughs]

Andrew: I had my finger on the hang-up button. [laughs] Okay. Well, yeah. So if you’re back in a few hours we’ll talk to you then.

Ben: Okay. Well, if [unintelligible] will you call me again, please?

Andrew: Yes. Sure.

Ben: Okay.

Andrew: All right, have fun.

Ben: I love you guys. I miss you lots.

Andrew: All right.

Laura: Bye, Ben.

Ben: By the way…

Andrew: What?

Ben: …don’t forget to put the toilet seat down!

Mikey: Ben?

Andrew: Okay.

Mikey: Ben, Ben?

Ben: Yeah?

Mikey: Can you say “Mikey B” before you leave? Just for me, please?

Ben: [imitating Mikey] Mikey B!

[Everyone laughs]

Mikey: Thanks, Ben.

Andrew: Oh, Ben.

Jamie: Tell me about some parties you’ve been to, and sub-parties, very briefly. [laughs] Personal pleasure.

Andrew: What?

Mikey: What?

Jamie: Ben, tell me about some parties you’ve been to and some sub-parties.

Mikey: [laughs] Parties and sub-parties. He’s just got so many parties…

Andrew: Ben hung up.

Mikey: …and sub-parties that he has to go to, right, Jamie?

Andrew: That was really funny. I didn’t – that’s amazing. I really did not know Dumbledore is in the US right now. For the Notre Dame/Michigan game, of all things. That’s amazing. So I think we’re going to take a break and regroup here, and we’ll be back. Alex, are you going to stick around for a little bit?

[Prolonged silence]

Mikey: Alex?

Andrew: Alex is not sticking around for a little bit.

[Andrew and Laura laugh]

Andrew: I see Alex is still on, but Alex is not there. Alex must be busy. Andrew wonders where he is. So coming up in the next hour, we’ll be taking more of your calls and also we’re going to be having a discussion on the fandom. So we will be back in a few minutes. This is MuggleCast Live.

[Prolonged silence]

Andrew: And cue music.

[Prolonged silence]

Andrew: And bring up music.

[“Silly Love Songs” by Paul McCartney & Wings plays]

Discussion: Future of the Harry Potter Fandom

Andrew: We should all be getting together and enjoying this.

Jamie: You know what, Andrew? I think there’s something about Harry Potter that makes it. You don’t see it with anything else. Harry Potter is a huge phenomenon but let’s face it: there are phenomenons as big and there have been things as big. But why hasn’t this happened? Why did Harry Potter create this phenomenon where everyone is a friend, everyone goes to these events, everyone thinks – we met people at Waterstones. Andrew and I met some people at Waterstones who had been in the queue – sorry, in the line. In the line.

Andrew: In the line.

Jamie: For three days. Three days! We should have podcasted for three days and sat with them, Andrew, but I guess we just weren’t as hardcore as they were.

Andrew: Yeah.

Laura: Yeah, I think that shows some serious dedication.

Jamie: Yeah. But why are Harry Potter fans so dedicated but other people just aren’t?

Jerry Cooke: I think the word “awesome” comes to mind again.

[Andrew laughs]

Jamie: It does! [laughs]

Andrew: So where do you guys see the fandom going in the next – let’s say the next – I think the next year, the fandom is going to stay the same but beyond that – say in five years from now. Laura, where do you think the fandom will be?

Laura: Oh my gosh, that’s a really difficult question to answer. Just because even recently – I mean, we’re only a couple of months down the road from – there is already less news and there won’t be speculation anymore, so I think that aspect of the fandom is changing.

Jamie: Laura, you sound like you’re talking underwater.

Laura: But it’s the closeness that we’ve all developed as friends that’s really going to hang on. Like everybody’s talking about going to New York for Jo’s reading. Really?

Andrew: Yeah, let’s try to get her in again. Live show, folks! This is what happens. Okay, Laura?

Laura: Am I better now?

Andrew: Yeah, you’re better now. I think your internet stalled for a second or something.

Laura: Yeah, it probably did.

Andrew: Anyway, you were saying about live shows?

Laura: I wasn’t saying anything about live shows. [laughs]

Andrew: [laughs] That’s what I thought you said.

Laura: Here, I’ll just rephrase what I said, make it a little shorter.

Andrew: Okay.

Laura: Basically, I think that in terms of speculation and that type of thing, the fandom has already changed.

Andrew: Mhm.

Laura: But I think in terms of the friends that we’ve made and the relationships we’ve developed as a result, I think that those are going to be what really keep things going with the fandom. Eventually it will die off a little bit. I mean, I think it will get to the point where the Lord of the Rings fandom is.

Andrew: Yeah.

Laura: There are still a lot of people who are really hardcore about it and there are still tons of fan sites. And I think also Harry Potter is going to be a huge educational tool in the future.

Jamie: Absolutely, yeah.

Laura: Which is kind of what we were talking about earlier today.

Jamie: It’s going to carry on. If you look at TheOneRing.net which was a hugely popular Lord of the Rings site, they still post news. There will always be news related to Harry Potter because we can still post news about J.K. Rowling. People will still come to the main sites, post news about the actors, and very interesting stuff like that. So there will still be – podcasters, there will still be wizard rock. So [unintelligible] as long as people maintain an interest in it.

Andrew: Yeah.

Jamie: So it’s up to the fans. It’s up to us.

Andrew: And Jerry?

Jamie: So it doesn’t die away.

[Prolonged silence]

Andrew: Jerry?

Jamie: Did it die?

[Prolonged silence]

Andrew: Jerry? He’s not here. But yeah, I agree with that. I think that as long as sites like MichaelNet – [laughs] like MichaelNet? Like MuggleNet are still around, as long as podcasts like MuggleCast are still around, as long as wizard rock is still around, as long as – what am I missing from the fandom? [laughs] As long as the movies are still around, there’s still going to be this huge fandom where everyone is still thriving off of it and embracing it.

[Prolonged silence]

Andrew: So we’ve got to restart the Skype chat. We’ll be right back, hold on.

[Prolonged silence]

Andrew: Now we’re back. I don’t know what keeps happening, guys. Sorry about that. It is the internet, it’s not our fault. It’s not like we’re unprofessional or anything, we’re just having some weird issues right now.

Jamie: We know it’s dying.

Andrew: Yeah. As we continue to have our discussion on the fandom. Did you guys hear what I said, though?

Jamie: No.

Andrew: What I was saying was that as long as the fandom – as long as the fans are still around and embracing the wizard rock, the podcasts, the sites like MuggleNet, then we’ll still have this…

Jamie: I agree, I agree.

Andrew: …huge fanbase. Mikey, where do you think the fandom is going? Mikey’s back now.

Mikey: The fandom?

Andrew: The fandom.

Mikey: Yeah, I’m back, everybody. I don’t know. I think the fandom is going to live long, kind of like there’s a lot of other fandoms that are definitely still around, doing a lot of different things. It’s going to definitely go heavily into fan fiction, I think, kind of [unintelligible] people’s thirst for more Harry Potter stuff. Podcasts are going to be around for quite a while longer, I think. I don’t know. Fan movies?

Andrew: Yeah, yeah. Fan movies?

Mikey: Stuff like that. It’s going to be definitely fan oriented.

Andrew: Well…

Mikey: Like fan films.

Andrew: [laughs] We lost Mikey. Are you guys still here? Are we okay?

[Prolonged silence]

Andrew: Laura? Anyone?

Jamie: Yeah, I’m here.

Andrew: Okay. It’s weird, we’re having some weird internet problems.

Jamie: Yeah. It’s being very, very, very weird.

Andrew: We lost Laura. I think my internet has given up on me. It can’t do it any longer. Seven and a half hours.

Jamie: While we’re waiting, I have a story to tell.

Andrew: Okay. Well, tell your story.

Jamie: Okay. Well, half of this hour, we’re going to talk about the fandom. We also wanted this as humor hour, where we tell a few jokes, tell a few funny stories, have some call-ins with funny jokes, and stuff like that. So I have a story to tell where Andrew and I were in Medford, where he lives, in the car, and there was a fan who was texting him and it kept coming in. And he kept phoning and Andrew spoke to him. He said, “Please don’t contact me again.” And the guy did not contact him again. But I thought, “Well, I’m going to phone Andrew,” and what I did was I pretended this guy had called back, and I went and I was speaking to this guy for a few minutes, for like two minutes. And then I went, “Well look, Andrew has a message for you,” and then I screamed into the phone a two-word phrase, the second word of which was “off.”

Andrew: [laughs] And…

Jamie: And Andrew was like, “Oh my God! I can’t believe you just did that! Oh my God! Oh my God! What’s going to happen? Oh my God! I can’t believe you just did that!”

Andrew: I didn’t – I knew you didn’t do that.

Jamie: No, you didn’t, Andrew. That’s not true. Come on. It doesn’t matter, it doesn’t matter. You were like, “Oh my God! Oh my God!” weren’t you?

Andrew: Yeah, I was.

[Prolonged silence]

Mikey’s Birthday Party

Mikey: …my friends will be there for my birthday party.

Andrew: Wait, wait, the Scary Farm?

Mikey: Scary Farm, yeah.

Jamie: [laughs] What the hell is the Scary Farm?

[Laura laughs]

Mikey: All right, guys. Let me explain this.

Andrew: Awww, I’m so jealous now! Ugh!

Mikey: Guys, stop, stop. All right, it’s Knott’s Berry Farm but at night from 7:00 PM to 2:00 AM, it becomes Nott’s Scary Farm where there’s like haunted mazes and monsters running around.

Andrew: Yeah. They have this year, too.

Mikey: It’s every year, and it’s Knott’s Scary Farm. It’s the original one.

Jamie: [singing] “They’re coming to take me away, ha ha. They’re coming to take me away, ho ho, he he, ha ha,
to the funny farm where life is beautiful all the time.”

Andrew: What is Jamie doing?

Mikey: Jamie, what are you doing?

[Laura and Mikey laugh]

Jamie: Sorry, it’s song. [laughs] It’s a song.

Mikey: Yeah, anyway…

Jamie: [singing] “To the funny farm where life is beautiful all the time, and I’ll be happy to see those nice young men in their clean white coats and they’re coming to take me away, ha ha.”

Andrew: Okay. Well, thank you, Emily, for calling.

Mikey: Everybody, we got Jamie to sing, just so you know.

Andrew: [laughs] Yeah, that was a song.

Mikey: That was a song, so he was singing.

Jerry: If you can call that singing.

Mikey: Yeah, but Knott’s Scary Farm is the oldest theme park that will turn into a haunted place. And I go every year for my birthday, and I’m going this year and Alex can’t come.

Andrew: Awww.

Mikey: Because he’s going to be in Jamaica.

Listener Calls: Future of the Harry Potter Fandom

Andrew: Okay, I don’t want to hear about this anymore.

Mikey: Oh, you should fly out.

Andrew: It’s just making me depressed. Fred, you’re on MuggleCast Live.

Caller: Hello!

Andrew: Hello! Sorry, I just mocked you. Hello there, caller.

Caller: Hello, I just want to go back to the fandom thing you spoke about earlier on.

Andrew: Oh okay. Please do.

Caller: Yeah, because one thing that you seem to forget which English-speaking people normally do – for example, I’m Swedish. We don’t have it yet. Okay yes, some of us have been queuing up in London or here in Stockholm to buy the English book, but we are still a few months behind you.

[Andrew and Laura laugh]

Andrew: It’s a fair point.

Caller: We will have to wait until I think it’s 21st of November, so we will stand out in the freezing cold and then we will discuss the book over Christmas while you already think it’s just boring by…

Jamie: Well, your English is pretty perfect.

Caller: Oh thanks.

Jamie: You can just read it in English, can’t you?

Caller: I’ve been living down in Brighton for a while, so…

Jamie: Ahhh, I see. Awesome.

Jerry: Oh wow.

Andrew: So have you read the book?

Caller: Yes. Me and my younger brother, we went over to London to buy the book. We flew to London just to buy the book, actually.

[Andrew laughs]

Jerry: Wow.

Andrew: There is this thing called the Internet where you can order it over the Internet.

[Laura laughs]

Caller: Yes. Yes, I know, but that’s – well, this is the last book so why not be there in the queue?

Andrew: I agree. I was using some cheap American sarcasm. But… [laughs]

Laura: Andrew, I thought you were going to say something else with the Internet.

Andrew: What?

Laura: You were like, “There’s this thing called the Internet,” and for two seconds I thought you were about to say, “where you can download it.”

Andrew: Oh no. [laughs]

Laura: I was like, “Oh God, don’t say that!” [laughs]

Caller: Actually, the book was – I think a few days before it was released – on the Swedish site, The Pirate Bay, and this is the only time ever I wish there were big companies group-locking, busting down file-sharing people because that book shouldn’t be released on pirate space before it was released in the bookstores. So…

Mikey: Wait, the only time you say you like big companies trying to get stuff done? I think stealing is wrong in general. Who would ever download anything illegally? I know I don’t. I work for a major company, and I purchase all my software and music and everything.

[Andrew and Laura laugh]

Andrew: Yeah, okay. And I’m in California right now. All right. Well, thank you for calling in.

Mikey: No, you’re not. [laughs]

Andrew: No, you’re not doing what you said. Okay, thank you for calling in.

Caller: No problem.

Laura: Thanks, Fred.

Andrew: Bye. So that’s a fair point. The fandom is not over yet because there are still some countries that haven’t even had the book released in their country yet. [laughs] It’s a very fair point.

Jamie: That is very true.

Andrew: Okay, let’s take another call. I’m sorry to be sexist but I’m trying to even out the genders that we get here.

Jamie: That’s not being sexist, that’s the opposite of being sexist. [laughs] That’s helping.

Andrew: Well, I guess so.

Laura: Just consider the fact that 74% of our listeners are female.

Andrew: That’s what I’m saying. I have like eighty windows open, all from girls calling. [laughs] So I’m trying to find…

Jerry: I’m sure it’s no coincidence that 90% of the cast are male.

Laura: Yeah.

[Jerry and Laura laugh]

Andrew: What did you say?

Jerry: I said I’m sure it’s no coincidence that 90% of the hosts are male.

Andrew: Oh yeah.

Mikey: It’s because we’re just that good looking, right, Jamie?

[Jerry laughs]

Mikey: Wink wink, nudge nudge.

Jamie: Oh yeah, yeah.

Mikey: Hint hint, yeah yeah.

Andrew: Okay, I am getting way too many calls right now.

Mikey: Just answer a…

MuggleCast 111 Transcript (continued)

Listener Calls: The Potter-Christ Alliance

Andrew: Okay, let’s take a call from Jennay. She was going to be on. Hey Jennay, sorry about earlier. My internet was bad.

Caller: All right. Hi!

Jamie: Hey!

Laura: Hi!

Andrew: How are you?

Caller: Good. I had to miss part of the show, I had to go to a wedding.

Andrew: Oh wow.

Laura: Awww, that sucks.

Andrew: Who got married?

Caller: I’m almost late for the wedding.

Andrew: [laughs] Laura just said, “That sucks.”

[Everyone laughs]

Laura: Okay – no, no, no, here’s the thing: she sounds like she would rather listen to the show.

Caller: I was.

Andrew: There was a union between two people who truly love each other and Laura thinks that sucks. Oh whatever.

Caller: My mom gave me the option to skip, so…

Andrew: Oh cool. [laughs]

Laura: Nice.

Andrew: Oh, well that’s good. So what’s going on?

Caller: Nothing much, just sitting at home. I was about to say I was hearing earlier about comments if everyone has gotten all their T-shirts and stuff.

Andrew: Yeah.

Caller: I was working at my church summer camp…

Andrew: Yeah.

Caller: …and so I wore my Pickle Pack shirt. And all these little kids came up to me. They’re like, “There’s a pickle on your shirt!”

[Andrew laughs]

Laura: Awww. That’s so cute.

Caller: I was like, “Yeah, it’s a pickle.” And then I was really, really sick and at the hospital.

Andrew: Oh no.

Caller: And I was wearing a MuggleNet shirt and this lady comes out, and she’s staring at me and my mom, and I’m like, “Okay.” I wasn’t really paying attention. She’s like, “Have you finished Book 7?” and I’m like, “What?”

[Andrew and Caller laugh]

Caller: I wasn’t paying attention.

Andrew: That’s funny.

[Jamie laughs]

Andrew: Let me take a moment to say to the listeners now, all of you listening in who want to call Skype, see how Jennay sounds? Her voice is crisp, there is no feedback coming through, her connection isn’t breaking up, she’s loud, she’s clear.

Mikey: Your connection is not breaking up.

Caller: This is a brand new microphone.

Andrew: Oh, I see.

Caller: Yeah.

Andrew: Well, this is a good call. This is what we call a good call. Good call, in the words of Mason. [laughs]

Caller: So yeah, I was wondering – because there’s the whole debate of Christianity versus Harry Potter. I actually started an organization, me and my friends, called the Potter-Christ Alliance because we are Christian Harry Potter fans.

Andrew: Oh okay.

Caller: And so I’m trying to get my church involved. [laughs]

Andrew: Oh, very cool.

Caller: It’s hard.

Laura: Oh, that’s cool.

Caller: So we’re trying to have a Harry Potter event in California because we feel rejected in northern California.

Andrew: Awww, why’s that?

Mikey: It’s all about southern California, don’t worry.

Caller: Nobody is ever here!

[Andrew and Caller laugh]

Caller: I did get to go to a Parselmouth show. That was cool. It was a couple of weeks ago.

Mikey: Oh, they’re really cool.

Caller: But we feel rejected. My friend does think Ben and Emerson are jerks.

[Laura laughs]

Mikey: Why?

Jamie: Awww.

Caller: When they came to Walnut Creek, apparently…

Mikey: I was there! I was there at Walnut Creek also.

Caller: Okay. Apparently, there was this little kid, and they did a trivia and it had to do with a joke shop but the answer wasn’t Zonko’s and the little kid yelled it out anyway. So when we took a picture with them, apparently they were talking about the little kid. And so we walk away and my friend just goes, “They’re jerks!” And I’m like, “Who?” [laughs]

Andrew: Really?

Mikey: Oh, I think I remember. I think – no, the little kid at Walnut Creek, we were really impressed with him. I think that’s what they were talking about. They were talking about how they were impressed with the kid even though he wasn’t right on that trivia question, but he did know a lot of stuff. And he was really young, if I remember correctly. He was probably like five or six. I think they were talking about how they were impressed that either – if he’s read the books himself, that’s just pretty amazing. If not, he pays really good attention, because I remember when we’re five, we don’t really – I don’t remember – I had a…

Caller: I will make sure my friend learns that.

Mikey: Because I remember, we didn’t make fun of the little kid. I remember we were talking about how really awesome it was, [laughs] and we think his mom was really cool.

[Andrew laughs]

Caller: I’ll make sure my friend learns that they’re not jerks. [laughs]

Mikey: I was there. I remember what was going on.

Andrew: We do – okay, yeah, I shouldn’t say that. Never mind. Okay. Well, thank you for calling in, Jennay.

Caller: You’re welcome.

Andrew: Good luck with the Potter-Christ Alliance.

Caller: Yeah, it’s fun. [laughs] We do so much stuff together.

Andrew: Do you have a web site or something?

Caller: Yeah.

Andrew: Oh. Well, plug it.

Caller: We have a MySpace, actually.

Andrew: Oh, who doesn’t?

Caller: It’s MySpace.com/potterchrist and the number seven. No, actually no, that’s the other one. It’s potter and then seven at the end, I forgot. We had to change it.

Andrew: [laughs] Oh okay.

Caller: So it’s MySpace.com/potter7, and then you can get to the MySpace for our huge event that we’re trying to have.

Andrew: Okay, awesome. Well, thank you for calling in.

Caller: All right, thanks! Bye!

Jamie: Buh-bye!

Andrew: Bye!

Mikey: Bye!

Andrew: Okay.

Harry Potter-Related Jokes

Jamie: Can we take some jokes now, from callers?

Andrew: Yeah, we can take jokes from callers. Go ahead, Jamie. Set it up.

Jamie: Okay. Well, I want to hear some specifically Harry Potter-related jokes. But if not, just phone in with any joke. Keep them clean, please.

Mikey: I have a Harry Potter joke, guys.

Jamie: Go on then.

Mikey: Okay. So what did the goblin say to the wizard when he brought in a thousand Galleons and he’s like, “I’d like this in small change”?

Andrew: I don’t know.

Mikey: You’re Knuts!

Everyone: Ahhh!

Andrew: Haven’t we heard that before?

Mikey: Yeah, that was on the video game. That’s where I stole it from.

Andrew: [laughs] Oh okay.

Mikey: I’m not going to lie, I didn’t make it up. But it’s from the video game.

Listener Calls: Deathly Hallows Book Cover

Andrew: Caller, you’re live on MuggleCast.

[Echoing sounds in the background]

Caller: Hello?

Andrew: Hi, can you turn your Ustream down?

Mikey: Echo.

Caller: Hello?

Andrew: Hi.

Caller: Sorry.

Andrew: Can you turn your Ustream down?

Caller: Is that better?

Jamie: Yeah.

Andrew: Yes, it is.

Mikey: Yeah.

Andrew: What’s going on?

Caller: I’m good. Not much.

Jamie: Do you have a joke?

Andrew: Yeah, what’s going on? Yeah.

Mikey: Do you have a question?

Caller: I was just wondering if you guys could tell me what the cover for the seventh book is? Because I wasn’t really sure what that was.

Andrew: The cover for the seventh book?

Caller: Yeah.

Jerry: Which one? The US or the UK?

Jamie: Well, if you go and get your copy, it’s on the front.

[Andrew and Mikey laugh]

Andrew: Jamie.

Jamie: Sorry, sorry. I was just kidding. I was just kidding.

Andrew: It’s…

Mikey: On the adult version, it’s the locket.

Laura: Yeah.

Mikey: On the UK adult, it’s the locket. So that’s the cover.

Caller: No, the US.

Mikey: Oh, the US one. The one that – okay.

Andrew: It’s Harry and Voldemort when they’re speaking with each other, and Harry is addressing Voldemort as Tom, and that’s in the Great Hall. And…

Caller: Oh okay.

Andrew: Yeah.

Mikey: Yeah, it’s right when their wands fly out of their hands, and they’re both reaching for the Elder Wand after it fires or whatever.

Caller: Oh!

Mikey: That’s why the one wand is in the air, and Voldemort is kind of looking like he’s being pushed away like scared and Harry is reaching for it, because the wand had just attacked him. And if you take a look at the sky, why does it looks like it’s on fire? The paragraph before said as this happened, the sun had just risen and it lit up the Great Hall sky like it was something, I don’t remember exactly what it read. And I’m going to get yelled at for not knowing the exact words.

Caller: Oh, so that’s why it looks like it’s outside.

Mikey: But yeah, someone actually pointed it out to us because we didn’t know it either. I’m sorry. But yeah, it’s that exact scene. It’s one paragraph as described. But it’s a pretty cool scene, I think.

Andrew: Yeah, definitely.

Caller: Yeah. Well, cool. Thanks.

Andrew: Okay. Well, thanks for calling in.

Jamie: Thank you. Buh-bye!

Caller: Yup.

Listener Calls: Pokemon References to Harry Potter

Andrew: Bye. Still looking for some jokes and things. Here’s someone who keeps calling in. Hi, Kara.

Jamie: Hey.

Caller: Huh?

Jamie: What’s on your mind?

Andrew: Hi!

Laura: Hi!

Caller: Hi! Hello!

Andrew: Hi. I noticed you’d been calling in a lot, so I thought it was time to answer your call.

Mikey: Oh finally.

Caller: Okay, yeah. Cool. All right, so [laughs] one thing that I’ve been wanting to say was that you answered one of my letters a while back. It was about – it was a Pokemon references letter.

Andrew: Okay.

Caller: And – [laughs] yeah. And so it was the one about – here, I have it here. I wrote on Wikipedia that Giovanni died protecting his son from a fire. Now, if Voldemort really did [laughs] have a son that we didn’t know about and Pokemon is going to be the key to Harry Potter, then it could be that Voldemort died protecting his child. And then I said of course that doesn’t mean that Harry Potter didn’t kill Voldemort, and – do you remember any of this?

Andrew: Can’t say I do, no. [laughs]

Caller: And that would undermine the Harry Potter series.

Andrew: Oh okay.

Caller: Yeah, do you remember that?

Andrew: No.

Caller: That was like Episode 80.

Andrew: Oh really? Well, that’s cool.

Caller: Yeah. Yeah anyway, I just think it was funny because [laughs] you all kind of was left speechless after that because I pretty much just said that the Pokemon references undermine Harry Potter referencing.

Andrew: Yeah. Well, we’re very passionate about the Harry Potter references here on MuggleCast. Oh sorry, the Pokemon references.

Jamie: Yes, we are.

Caller: Yeah. So anyway – oh, I also wanted to say that if you guys – you should actually come to Atlanta sometime just because Atlanta has the original Chick-fil-A restaurant. That’s where Chick-fil-A originated.

Andrew: Oh really? Oh yeah!

Caller: Yeah, and they have – it’s called the Dwarf House, it’s the original Chick-fil-A. You should all come and go to that. Also, every year Atlanta has this conference called DragonCon, and that’s a sci-fi/fantasy conference. And they do Harry Potter stuff. I went to it one day, and I got to meet – well, I didn’t get to meet them, but I got to see people from the Harry Potter movies, and it was James and Oliver Phelps, and Matthew Lewis.

Andrew: Yeah, it’s funny you mention that because actually we were invited to that last year, and Laura, Ben, and I were trying to get there, but they weren’t really accommodating us, so…

Caller: Oh no! I’m sorry!

Laura: It was really unfortunate. No, the girl that we were working with, her name is Lily.

Andrew: She was very nice.

Laura: She’s actually a listener, and she was absolutely fabulous.

Andrew: Yeah.

Laura: She was trying to get us in on everything, but unfortunately DragonCon would not give us media passes, they wouldn’t…

Andrew: [laughs] Yeah, they were being really hard about it.

Laura: So we ended up not being able to do it just because of being able to afford it, but…

Andrew: Right, right.

Caller: Oh.

Andrew: So heck with them!

Caller: Will you guys come next year? That would be amazing.

Andrew: Yeah, maybe we’ll come to…

Laura: Yeah.

Andrew: …DragonCon ’08. [laughs]

Caller: [laughs] Okay, cool. Yeah, because they have it every year.

Andrew: Yeah, they do. They do.

Jamie: That’s awesome.

Laura: And I agree with you on Atlanta since I kind of…

Caller: [laughs] Yeah.

Andrew: Used to live there.

Caller: Exactly.

Laura: Used to live close to there.

Andrew: Well, thank you for…

Laura: Will live there in the summer.

[Andrew laughs]

Caller: Yeah.

Mikey: I agree with you on the Chick-fil-A. Maybe I should do the original Chick-fil-A for my first time ever having it.

Caller: Yeah. Okay, yeah, do that. [laughs]

Andrew: It’s quite a trip just for your first Chick-fil-A. But all right, thank you, Kara.

Caller: Oh yeah. And of course, shout-out to the Vultures.

Andrew: Woo! Vultures!

Caller: I love the Vultures.

Andrew: I like the shout-out thing. It’s kind of fun.

Caller: Yeah.

Andrew: All right. So thank you, Kara, for calling in.

Caller: Hey Laura, are you going to be ever visiting Atlanta? Like, coming back for breaks or whatever?

Laura: Yeah, I am coming home for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and summer. So…

Caller: Cool.

Laura: Yeah, I will be back.

[Caller laughs]

Andrew: So maybe you guys can meet up and have coffee or something.

Caller: Yeah. Don’t forget to try to call Laura Mallory back.

[Laura laughs]

Andrew: Oh yeah, we’ll get on that. We’ll get on that.

Caller: Yeah.

Andrew: Yeah. Okay. Well, thank you for calling.

Caller: Okay, yeah. Thank you.

Andrew: Bye!

Caller: Bye!

Laura: Bye!

Andrew: Jamie, nobody’s got any jokes. See…

Jamie: I know. I guess it’s kind of like – I’m pretty out of them, to be honest.

Listener Calls: Harry Potter Conferences

Andrew: Lucas, you’ve got a joke. I’m sure you do.

Caller: Actually I was looking up some jokes, but they just weren’t funny.

[Andrew laughs]

Jamie: Awww.

Caller: So – yeah. But I was actually going to ask you, are you guys planning on going to a convention this summer? Like Terminus?

Mikey: I’m definitely thinking Terminus. I think I’ll probably end up being at [unintelligible] for some reason. I tend to go to [unintelligible] every year.

Andrew: I wish we were invited to – oh, this is – [laughs] thank you, Lucas. I love Lucas. He reminds me of everything. He – no, not he. We – [sighs] I don’t even know if I should bring this up.

Mikey: Don’t do it.

Caller: Do it.

Andrew: No, no, let me put it this way. [laughs] If anyone’s going to Portus – Lucas, I assume you are because it’s right there in Chicago.

Caller: Terminus is in Chicago. Portus is…

Andrew: Sorry. Portus is in Texas, right?

Mikey: Yeah.

Andrew: Yeah.

Caller: Yeah, I think so.

Mikey: Dallas.

Andrew: So Terminus is Chicago.

Jamie: Yeah.

Mikey: Yeah.

Andrew: Okay.

Caller: Yeah.

Andrew: If anyone’s going to Terminus and they would like us to be there, e-mail Terminus, the people at Terminus, and let them know. I don’t want people to do it in a mean way. We would like to go to Terminus but – [laughs] just e-mail them. Let them know that, “Hey, is MuggleCast going to be there? That’d be cool. A lot of fun. Blah blah blah.” That’s all I’m saying.

Caller: Yeah, I’ll e-mail them.

Jamie: Yeah, please do. Please everyone do. We want to go to Terminus.

Andrew: E-mail them. As for Portus, not sure. Next summer, it’s still a long way off so I don’t know. We’re actually going to start our own symposium. It’s going to be right here in Medford, and it’s going to be in my attic.

Jamie: Yes.

Laura: Oh boy, that’ll be…

Jamie: It’s called SimsCon.

Andrew: SimCon.

Laura: …the most exciting conference I’ve ever been to.

Jamie: SimsCon 2008.

Jerry: [unintelligible]

Jamie: I’m going to get a huge Chick-fil-A order, have an awesome time.

Andrew: What did you say, Jerry?

Laura: Jamie will show off more of his awesome dance moves.

Andrew: Yes. But awesome dance moves are allowed at my convention.

Laura: Oh. Well, good.

Andrew: Yeah. He can do them all night, no problem.

Jamie: Yeah, unlike Prophecy where awesome dance moves…

Andrew: Are not allowed.

Jamie: Are frowned upon.

[Laura laughs]

Andrew: Yeah. [laughs] It’s a real shame. I mean, I didn’t see – whatever. But all right. Thanks, Lucas, for calling in.

Caller: Yeah, bye.

Andrew: Bye. See you in ten minutes. Let’s get another caller here.

[Jamie laughs]

MuggleCast 111 Transcript (continued)

Listener Calls: Who Would Win in a Duel Between Dumbledore & Chuck Norris?

Andrew: Hey, caller!

[Echoing sounds in the background]

Jamie: Hey!

Caller: Hi.

Andrew: Hi. How are you doing? Can you turn your Ustream down?

Caller: Yup.

Andrew: So we can’t hear ourselves. What’s going on?

Caller: Okay. Listening to this all day.

Andrew: Yeah? That’s good.

Mikey: I’m so sorry you have to listen to us all day.

Andrew: You know, I have to say…

Caller: No, I…

Andrew: Hold on one second. I have to say, this is going pretty well. Definitely could do this again more in the future. I’m just taking a little stretch break here. [sighs] Okay. So continue.

[Caller laughs]

Mikey: Thank you.

Andrew: Yeah, thanks.

Mikey: Thank you for listening to us.

Caller: This is great. I’m having a lot of fun.

Laura: Awww.

Andrew: Well, good. I’m really glad. We’re all really glad. So what’s going on? Besides listening… [laughs]

Caller: Okay, I have a question.

Andrew: Okay.

Caller: In a duel, who do you think would win? Dumbledore or Chuck Norris?

[Mikey laughs]

Andrew: In a duel?

Laura: Oh my gosh.

Jamie: In a fight?

Caller: Yeah, in a duel. Well, if they both had powers. [laughs]

Jamie: It’s going to be Chuck Norris.

Jerry: With or without magic?

Mikey: It’s going to be Chuck Norris, come on.

Jamie: Because – yeah.

Caller: Well, Dumbledore’s a wizard.

Mikey: Yeah, but still, it’s Chuck Norris.

[Andrew and Caller laugh]

Mikey: Like I don’t – all right, guys. When you guys come to “Chuck Norris versus anyone” jokes or anything, you’ve got to come to the realization that it’s Chuck Norris.

Andrew: Yeah.

Mikey: Okay?

Jamie: Yeah.

Mikey: He’s Chuck Norris. A roundhouse kick will destroy the universe. He’s Chuck Norris.

Jamie: When you ask that question, Chuck Norris laughs because…

[Mikey laughs]

Jamie: …anyone who asks that question is just – it’s a question that he loves hearing, but I’d be careful where you walk in the future because anyone who asks that question has an 800,000 million percent more chance of getting a roundhouse kick to the face.

Mikey: Yeah, really. No.

Caller: [laughs] Okay. Well, I’m pretty tall, so…

Mikey: [laughs] See like – so basically I have a Chuck Norris widget on my computer, and you know there’s a product called “I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter,” right?

Jamie: [laughs] Yeah, yeah. Chuck Norris can…

Mikey: [laughs] Chuck Norris can believe it’s not butter! That’s how amazing he is.

Jamie: The best one I’ve heard – I love the simple ones that are just stupid. Like I heard that – one was Chuck Norris has never lost a fight to a pirate.

Mikey: [laughs] Yeah. Well…

Jamie: This is in fact a lie [laughs] because Chuck Norris only says this to draw more pirates towards him. It’s just – some of them are just – awww.

Mikey: Well, my favorite is – one of my favorites is – you guys all know there’s an old rapper called MC Hammer.

Jamie: Yeah.

Mikey: And he had a song called “Can’t Touch This.” [laughs] Well, Chuck Norris can in fact touch MC Hammer. You must realize, Chuck Norris is like – he’s Chuck Norris.

Jamie: [laughs] He’s just…

Mikey: [laughs] I could go on for ever.

Jamie: Yeah.

Mikey: He’s the Chuck. He is the essence of wow.

Jamie: Do you know that every single Christmas, Chuck Norris selects one extremely lucky child to be thrown into the sun?

Mikey: [laughs] What?

Jerry: Wow.

Jamie: A very lucky child. Awww. I’ve been praying it would be me for years, but [sighs] it’s not happening.

Mikey: Yeah.

Caller: [laughs] You guys are really, really funny.

Mikey: [laughs] Oh man! I’m sorry, guys. I’m going through my Chuck Norris widget right here, and there’s one that says, “Chuck Norris doesn’t play God. Playing is for children.”

[Jamie and Jerry laugh]

Mikey: I’m not saying that Chuck Norris is God, by any means, but he is Chuck Norris. You don’t anger Chuck at all.

Caller: I think Dumbledore could still win.

Andrew: Me too. Actually, no. No, I don’t. Sorry, Mikey. It is Chuck Norris, you’re right.

Mikey: Actually, last night we actually had this big old conversation about this versus battle. So it wasn’t Chuck Norris, because, come on, it’s Chuck Norris. He wins against everybody. But we were talking about Star Wars versus Harry Potter and we really got into it big. People were like, “Really, you think that?” because – all right, don’t get me wrong, I love Harry Potter, Harry Potter, Harry Potter. But in a Harry Potter versus Star Wars thing, I actually think Star Wars wins quite a bit. But there are times when Harry Potter wins, like the big two guys: Hagrid versus Chewbacca. Who would win?

Jamie: Hagrid would win.

Laura: Hagrid.

Andrew: Yeah.

Mikey: But Chewie is a Wookiee.

Caller: But Chewbacca can’t say any words. He doesn’t have any words.

Mikey: He goes… [imitates Chewbacca]

[Everyone laughs]

Mikey: He’s Chewie! Do you guys not realize that? And then it’s like Luke versus Harry. Come on, Luke versus Harry? I love Harry and all, but come on.

Jamie: I agree. Luke would absolutely…

Mikey: He’s a whiny. All right, and then you have the best friend: Han Solo versus Ron. Dude, come on, it’s Han Solo.

Jamie: Yeah, Han Solo. And Mikey…

Mikey: Now, yes, the Princess Leia versus Hermione…

Caller: Hermione would win.

Mikey: Hermione would win. I totally agree, Hermione would totally pwn Lea.

Jamie: Yeah.

Mikey: Don’t get me wrong, I love Leia and especially the slave girl costume, but really? Hermione would win. Now, when you go to Voldemort versus Vader, this is where it gets down to the ubergeek Star Wars fan and the ubergeek Harry Potter fan. And since I’m in the middle for both, I can rationalize this. We know for a fact that lightsabers can absorb magic. In the Extended Universe, the EU, which has been approved by Lucas Licensing, it can absorb lightning as well as other spells from the witches of a planet called Dathomir, I think. I can’t pronounce it right. But we know it can absorb spells, so if it’s Vader versus Voldemort, Voldemort is going to send an Avada Kedavra, Vader will block it with his lightsaber, it will absorb it, and then what will happen – he’ll just be like, “Hahaha, you’re not a Jedi yet,” and just choke him to death. So really…

Caller: So Voldemort will say he’ll make a big plan, and then in the end some little problem will end up ruining it.

Jamie: Exactly.

Mikey: Exactly, Vader would win. But then you go down to – but then here’s the one that you have to think about: Dumbledore versus Yoda.

Caller: Oh!

Jamie: Dumbledore.

Mikey: Oh!

Caller: Yoda’s pretty small.

Jamie: Dumbledore would win.

Mikey: But see – but Yoda would be just bouncing everywhere. He’s just as wise. You know what I mean?

Jamie: No, he’s not.

Mikey: Yoda?

Jamie: Dumbledore could beat Darth Sidious, and Yoda couldn’t beat Darth Sidious.

Caller: But Yoda would talk a lot. He would talk back and confuse Dumbledore.

Jamie: [laughs] Yeah.

Mikey: See, Yoda versus Dumbledore. Come on. And like just think about it, when they’re battling – they both want to use aggressive – if you take a look at Episode 2 and Episode 3, Yoda doesn’t forcefully attack Darth Sidious or Count Dooku. He kind of is like the one that’s kind of backing away and waiting for things to happen. But same thing with Dumbledore. He’s like, “Tom, don’t do this.” So they would both be circling each other, talking to each other for a long time. You really would have no clue with what would happen.

Jamie: Mikey, I love it when you get into things.

Mikey: See…

Jamie: [laughs] I love it when you get into things.

Mikey: I don’t know. I really don’t know who would win. I want to say Dumbledore because I’m Dumbledore’s man through and through, but Yoda is like this little guy that would just be hopping around. I think it would be amazing to see it. So I don’t know.

Caller: Yoda’s kind of like Gandhi, only not. [laughs]

Jerry: Only greener.

Caller: Yeah, only greener. But he’s real peaceful. But I think Dumbledore would win.

Andrew: Martin Warlick is writing in at MuggleCast.com/Live from Raleigh, North Carolina. He says:

“Chuck Norris knows the last digit of pi.”

[Mikey laughs]

Andrew: That’s crazy.

Jamie: He does, he does.

Mikey: Chuck Norris is amazing, I must say.

Andrew: Not to inflate your ego, Mikey, but Bubble from Michigan writes:

“Mikey, I’m officially in love with you.”

Jamie: Awww. Hey Mikey…

Mikey: Yes!

Andrew: John Groves writes:

“Create a poll: ‘Harry Potter’ versus ‘Star Wars’.”

That’s a good idea.

Mikey: All right, guys. Really? All right, right now on this Harry Potter versus Star Wars poll, we all know Harry Potter is going to win. Why? It’s a Harry Potter podcast.

Caller: Yeah, because everyone likes Harry Potter.

Andrew: Oh, that’s true, but let’s do it anyway because we could do a million polls. [laughs] I’m starting up the poll.

Mikey: Wait, I think you guys should make the poll “Yoda versus Dumbledore.” And give it really thought, guys. Even if you don’t like Star Wars, think about. If you’ve seen Yoda fight, he’s this all wisdom – when nine-hundred years old you get, will you look that good? Come on. He’s green! Who doesn’t love him?

Caller: And if lightsabers can absorb magic, then obviously Yoda is going to win.

Mikey: But again though – you remember, they’re both not going to fight each other in the sense of they’re not going to attack each other, not going to use anger and stuff like that. Who knows!

Andrew: The poll is now live, Dumbledore versus Yoda. So feel free to vote.

Mikey: I’m not going to vote on this, I want to see how it turns out. But really, guys, I know we all love Harry Potter, but think about it, Dumbledore versus Yoda, these two great masters. Sorry, this is what I get into.

Andrew: Yeah, I know.

Jerry: Dumbledore can use Occlumency, can’t he? Can Yoda use Occlumency?

Caller: But what about Flitwick and R2-D2?

Andrew: [laughs] What?

[Caller laughs]

Mikey: Wait, who and R2-D2?

Andrew and Caller: Flitwick.

Mikey: [laughs] Oh!

Andrew: No contest.

Mikey: They were played by the same character.

[Caller and Mikey laugh]

Mikey: And Flitwick and – how many characters are played by Warwick Davis in Star Wars? There’s like eight or nine. [laughs] So Flitwick versus eight or nine characters he plays in Star Wars.

[Caller laughs]

Mikey: I love it.

Andrew: Yeah. Okay, thank you for calling in.

Caller: Thank you.

Andrew: No problem. Bye!

Caller: Oh, can I give a shout-out…

Andrew: Sure, sure.

Caller: …to Kenny Davis?

Andrew: Kenny Davis! Woo!

Caller: In Utah. I just moved from Utah and you guys are like my saviors, moving from Utah to Arkansas. [laughs]

Andrew: Awww. Well, good. We’re glad. Thank you for calling in!

Caller: Thank you!

Andrew: Bye.

Caller: Bye.

Listener Jokes: Request

Andrew: Okay, good call. Let’s take – hi, Jackie.

Caller: Hi!

Andrew: How are you doing?

Laura: Hi.

Mikey: Hi.

Caller: Good! I just wanted to say that guys really need to accept the call from Bryan. His Skype name is actually Bryarn. He has an awesome joke for you guys, and he keeps trying to get through and you guys just haven’t answered his call yet, and it would really make his day.

Andrew: What’s his Skype name?

Caller: Bryarn.

Andrew: No, spell it out for me.

Caller: B-R-Y-A-R-N.

Andrew: Okay, Bryarn. Okay. Are you okay?

Caller: Yeah!

Andrew: You’re breathing really heavy, you’re scaring me.

Caller: I really want him to get on because he’s been trying to get on for the longest time.

Andrew: Okay. Let’s see – oh okay. Yeah, I saw he called in earlier. We’re getting him in here right now.

Listener Jokes: Elephant in a Suitcase

Caller: Oh my God.

Andrew: There you go. Hold on one second though, because now you’re not talking with everyone else. There we go. Is everyone in here now? Oh, hold on. Wait. Let’s do this the right way. Man, I’m such a bad podcaster! I’m quitting. Okay, thank you for calling, Jackie. We got him now.

Caller: All right, all right.

Andrew: Hold on, wait a second. Wait a second. One more…

[Prolonged silence]

Andrew: Okay, let’s try this one more time. Okay, we’re good now.

Caller: How are we all doing?

Andrew: Doing great, thanks.

Caller: All right.

Andrew: How are you? What’s your name? Where are you from?

Caller: I’m Bryan. I’m from New York.

Andrew: Okay.

Laura: Okay, cool.

Caller: And I – now, this is actually a kind of inappropriate…

[Andrew laughs]

Caller: …joke, so I was kind of – so what’s the word?

Andrew: See, here’s the thing: we would be the gods of comedy if this wasn’t a children’s program, but we have to censor ourselves so much that we’re not funny. So anyway, what’s your joke? Try to keep it as family-friendly as possible. Substitute words if you have to.

Caller: All right, all right, all right. So I figured out a safe way to fit an elephant in a suitcase.

Andrew: [laughs] Okay.

Caller: And you take the S out of “safe” and the F out of “way.” If you do that, what…

Andrew: So say this again?

Caller: So you have a safe way to fit an elephant in a suitcase.

Andrew: Okay.

Caller: And you take the S out of “safe”…

Andrew: Okay.

Caller: …and F out of “way.”

Andrew: F out of “way”? There’s no effin’ a way.

[Andrew and Laura laugh]

Andrew: I fell right into that one.

Laura: Yeah.

Andrew: [laughs] Oh God, that was good. That was good. I’m humiliated now. I actually…

Laura: [unintelligible] …for how loud you laughed.

Andrew: Sorry, sorry.

[Caller and Laura laugh]

Andrew: I wrote “safe way” on a piece of paper and I was crossing out the letters.

Laura: [laughs] Yeah, so did I!

[Andrew and Caller laugh]

Andrew: Okay, that was good.

Caller: All right, and I just have to make a shout-out to my best friend Wallace and in SPoT – she’s a great person and I like her a lot.

Andrew: Okay. Any other jokes? Now I’m entertained.

Caller: No, I got nothing, I’m sorry.

Andrew: Jamie is silent, though. I think he’s a little upset that he can’t come up with something as good.

[Caller laughs]

Andrew: He’s not even here. Maybe that’s the problem.

Jamie: No, I’m here. I’m here, I’m here. Sorry.

Andrew: Oh okay. It was a pretty funny joke.

Jamie: What was it? I…

Andrew: Tell it one more time, Byran.

Caller: All right, all right. So I found out a safe way to fit an elephant in a suitcase.

Jamie: Okay.

Caller: And you take S out of “safe” and the F out of “way.”

Jamie: You what?

Caller: You take the S out of “safe” and the F out of “way.”

Jamie: I have no idea what…

[Everyone laughs]

Mikey: What he’s trying to say is there’s no letter F in the word “way.”

Andrew: So you say, “There’s no effin’ way.”

Jamie: Ahhh.

[Caller laughs]

Andrew: I guess it’s American humor.

Laura: Yeah.

Andrew: Because I really appreciated that joke.

Jamie: Yeah, that is quite American humor, I’m not going to lie.

Jerry: I enjoyed it.

Jamie: Very funny, though.

Andrew: Yeah.

Jamie: Very funny, very funny.

Caller: All right, thanks for answering.

Andrew: No problem. Thanks for – what did you say about Pickle Pack?

Caller: I didn’t say anything about Pickle Pack. [laughs]

Andrew: I thought you mentioned it earlier, no?

Caller: No, sorry.

Andrew: Okay. I’m nuts then. All right, thanks.

Caller: Thanks, guys. Bye.

Andrew: Bye. There’s no effin’ way, guys. Okay. Well, thank you for that.

Laura: That was funny.

Andrew: That was wonderful.

[Andrew and Laura laugh]

Andrew: Okay. Well, we’re going to take a break now and regroup. And in the next hour we’ll take some more calls. Also, I’m hearing somebody maybe calling us back. Not too sure about that, but we’ll get to that in a second. You are listening to MuggleCast Live. We’ll be back in just a few minutes.

[“Veronica” by Elvis Costello plays]

[“I’ll Be At Hogwarts” by The Remus Lupins plays]

———————–

Transcript #110

September 21, 2007 / MuggleCast

MuggleCast 110 Transcript

Interview: Kenneth Marut

[“Back to School” by Harry and the Potters plays]

Andrew: Okay. Welcome ladies and gentlemen. Back to the show. That sort of ended abruptly, sorry about that. Jamie and Mikey are here.

Mikey: Yeah, I’m back.

Andrew: Okay, good. Got scared for a second. This is wizard rock! You know what I’m saying?

Mikey: Hey, so before we…

Andrew: What’s up?

Mikey: Wait, what are we going to talk about – anyway, [laughs] remember how I was talking about pizza last hour?

Andrew: Yes.

Mikey: I didn’t order any yet, but my roommates – and they were all like, “Dude, yeah. We should order pizza.” So in a bit they’re discussing what kind of pizza, so we’re going to order pizza in a bit. I’m going to eat pizza right now – or in a bit, on air live with everybody.

[Andrew laughs]

Mikey: So you guys should – if you’re in California, order your pizzas now.

Andrew: Okay.

Mikey: Eat with me! Eat with me!

Andrew: Awesome. Well…

Mikey: I like my pizza.

Andrew: Yeah, Jamie, you can join in on this. We are going to add to the discussion now, Kenneth Marut. I think that’s how you produce – pronounce his last name. Let’s get him in here. One minuto.

[Prolonged silence]

Andrew: Kenneth!

Kenneth Marut: Hello?

Andrew: Hey! What’s up?

Jamie: Hey!

Kenneth: Cool. All right, this is great!

Andrew: [laughs] How’s it going?

Kenneth: Pretty good. How about you?

Andrew: Pretty good. Kenneth, people love you on MuggleCast.

Kenneth: Oh, that’s awesome.

Andrew: I’ll start off by saying that. You and your friend Andrew created the – what we’ve been calling Crackpot “Hedwig’s Theme”…

[Kenneth laughs]

Andrew: …that we’ve been using on the show since late August, September, of 2005.

Kenneth: That was about two years ago.

Andrew: Yeah. Well – yeah, we started using it then. When did you guys actually create it?

Kenneth: We did it that summer, actually, but we also – the first – when we came up with the idea, it was about a year before that.

Andrew: Okay.

Kenneth: So we had actually been playing it a year before we sent it to you guys.

Andrew: Yeah. And how long did it take you to actually create the whole thing start to finish?

Kenneth: About a day, I’d say.

Andrew: [laughs] Really?

Kenneth: Yeah.

Andrew: Wow! Yeah, I was stalking your Facebook the other day and…

[Kenneth laughs]

Andrew: …you’re passionate about your music, aren’t you?

Kenneth: Oh yeah, I love it.

Andrew: And I’ve seen some pictures of you going all out on the guitar and stuff.

Kenneth: Oh yeah.

Andrew: It’s awesome.

Kenneth: I love it, yeah.

Andrew: Yeah. And…

Jamie: Why did you want to do it? What sort of – what made the decision for you to record – re-record “Hedwig’s Theme” and rock it up?

Kenneth: Well, my friend Andrew and I, we always play music together and we’re huge Harry Potter fans, and so we just – I don’t know, kind of decided to put the two together and see what would happen.

Andrew: Awesome. And what was the kind of feedback you got when you guys started? Did you show it around to your friends or what?

Kenneth: Oh yeah, we did. Yeah. We did, and we would play it at – in high school, and…

Andrew: [laughs] I was going to say, you performed it live?

Kenneth: Yeah, we did. Yeah.

Andrew: That’s great. How many people – is it just you and Andrew playing that song, or are there – is there a bassist or…

Kenneth: Yeah, well what happened was – yes, Andrew and I played the guitars and the bass, and then we had one of our friends play the drums. And this was a while ago. I haven’t been in contact with him.

Andrew: Okay.

Kenneth: So it’s been a while. But yeah, it’s not us on the drums.

Andrew: Oh okay. And what does Andrew play?

Kenneth: Andrew plays the guitar.

Andrew: And what do you play? I thought you played the guitar.

Kenneth: Yeah, we both play guitar.

Andrew: [laughs] Oh okay.

Kenneth: [laughs] Yeah.

Andrew: That’s very cool.

Kenneth: Yeah.

Andrew: And let me just say that we get e-mails every week from people saying, “Where do I get the ‘Hedwig’s Theme’ song? Where do I get the ‘Hedwig’s Theme’ song?” But I’ll even show it to my friends in school, I’ve played it for them on my iPod, and people just – it sounds like I’m sucking up to you, but people just love it!

[Kenneth laughs]

Andrew: It’s fantastic! I mean, I don’t know what else to say. [laughs] You should be…

Kenneth: That’s cool. That’s cool. Thanks.

Andrew: You need to get in touch with WB or something, and do something with that.

Kenneth: Oh yeah. Yeah, that’d be something.

Andrew: [laughs] Was there any – have you found any rip-offs of your idea? I’ve never heard of – I’ve never really heard a rocked-out “Hedwig’s Theme” before.

Kenneth: No, so far I haven’t heard anybody copying us or anything, but…

Andrew: Mhm.

Kenneth: It’s been pretty good, though.

Andrew: Yeah. And a lot of…

Jamie: What’s next for you?

Andrew: Hmm?

Jamie: Sorry.

Andrew: No, go ahead. Go ahead.

Jamie: I was going to say, what’s next for you? I mean, are you going to do some more rocked-out Harry Potter music? Because I’d like to see an entire Order of the Phoenix soundtrack right now.

Kenneth: Soundtrack, yeah.

Jamie: Yeah. That could be a week’s project or something.

Kenneth: Yeah, yeah. I mean, I’d just have to get together with Andrew and we could have it done like that. [laughs]

Andrew: [laughs] Are you guys in a band together or something?

Kenneth: Well, kind of, but he’s – right now he’s at Duke University, and I’m down in William and Mary in Virginia.

Andrew: Oh okay.

Kenneth: We’re kind of far, far apart.

Andrew: [laughs] Right, right.

[Kenneth laughs]

Andrew: Let me just say to the listeners right now, if there’s anyone who wants to ask a question to Kenneth, feel free to call in.

Jamie: E-mail it?

Andrew: Or e-mail.

Mikey: Hey Kenneth, I have a question for you.

Kenneth: Yeah, yeah.

Mikey: For a while on the Wikipedia page, it was said that the song was actually done by Andrew Sims. Did you get offended at all that people…

Andrew: I never claimed credit for that, for the record. [laughs]

Kenneth: Oh, Andrew.

Mikey: …thought Andrew was the one that did the song?

Kenneth: Oh man. You’re horrible.

Mikey: He’s trying to steal credit for what you did.

Andrew: I never ever claimed credit.

Mikey: I just want to know – what did they say? It was like on his two-watt amp or something. I don’t know.

[Kenneth laughs]

Mikey: Like “Andrew Sims was playing a rock-and-roll version of ‘Hedwig’s Theme.'”

Kenneth: I didn’t even know it was on Wikipedia. That’s kind of cool.

Jamie: Andrew…

Andrew: I think it…

Jamie: …there are loads of requests for you to play it. Is there any chance we can get a live listen?

Andrew: You know, I was actually just trying to get it up. If you give me a – you know what? Where is it – well, hold on.

Mikey: It’s not on Wikipedia anymore. I looked right now.

Andrew: No – yeah. Yeah, let me – I’ll work on getting it. I was going to play it after the interview or something, but here, let’s take a couple of calls here. Let’s see if people actually have questions about – for Kenneth. Peter?

[Prolonged silence]

Andrew: Peter?

[Prolonged silence]

Andrew: Peter?

[Prolonged silence]

Andrew: Not there. Let’s try this call. Hello?

Jamie: Hey.

Caller: Hello?

Andrew: Hi!

Caller: Andrew?

Andrew: Yeah, what’s up?

Caller: Hey, my name is Camillo, I’m from Australia. I called – I sent an e-mail just before.

Andrew: Oh cool.

Caller: Yeah.

Andrew: Hey, you have a question for Kenneth about his awesome “Hedwig’s Theme” song?

Caller: Yes, I do.

Andrew: Oh perfect.

Caller: It’s called “‘Arry,” yeah? It’s like Harry with an apostrophe at the beginning?

Kenneth: Right. Right, yeah.

Caller: Yeah. Well, I just wanted to ask if it was all right if I borrowed that riff, because…

[Andrew and Kenneth laugh]

Caller: …I wrote like a taped one with singing.

Kenneth: Uh-huh?

Caller: And it’s like the hidden track on my CD.

Kenneth: Oh nice. Okay.

Caller: But I didn’t even realize that it was a song by a band.

Kenneth: Oh yeah, don’t worry about it.

[Jamie and Kenneth laugh]

Caller: Are you sure?

Andrew: Just don’t make money off of it.

Kenneth: Yeah, just don’t make money off of it.

Caller: Oh, I won’t. I won’t.

[Kenneth laughs]

Caller: Can I just have a quick shout-out to the Vulture chat…

Andrew: Sure.

Caller: …that’s going on on Skype right now?

Andrew: Sure. You vultures, you’re crazy.

Caller: Yeah.

Andrew: All right.

Mikey: Who are these Vultures again?

Andrew: Oh, let’s not get into this.

[Andrew and Mikey laugh]

Andrew: Thanks for calling! Let’s take some other…

Caller: Thank you.

Andrew: No problem.

Jamie: Hey, Kenneth?

Mikey: [whispers] I know who you guys are.

Jamie: We have a question – well, we have a sort of statement from Hannah L, who e-mails from Chicago, who said:

“Kenneth, I love ‘Hedwig’s Theme.’ Will you marry me?”

[Andrew and Kenneth laugh]

Kenneth: Oh wow, okay. It’s a possibility.

[Andrew laughs]

Jamie: You can play it at your wedding. You can – instead of the traditional sort of love music, you can play a rocked-out “Hedwig’s Theme.” That would be awesome.

Kenneth: Oh yeah, so romantic.

Mikey: Walking down the aisle.

Jamie: Walking – [laughs] yeah, exactly.

Andrew: [laughs] Yeah, that’s pretty romantic. Yeah.

[Andrew and Kenneth laugh]

Andrew: Here’s another caller. Hey, you have a question for Kenneth?

[Prolonged silence]

Jamie: Hey.

Andrew: Hello?

Caller: Hello?

Kenneth: Hello?

Andrew: Hi! You have a question for Kenneth?

Caller: Hey!

Andrew: Hey!

Caller: Yeah, I just wanted to know, what was the inspiration to make the “Hedwig’s Theme” so rock?

Andrew: Good question.

Kenneth: I guess – that’s a hard question.

[Andrew laughs]

Kenneth: I don’t know, I guess we just thought it would be a good idea. That’s a…

Andrew: That’s fair enough.

Kenneth: I don’t know.

Andrew: Yeah. [laughs] Because it…

Kenneth: I can’t really put it any other way.

Andrew: Because all you hear is the John Williams version, and it definitely deserves a sort of…

Kenneth: Right, yeah. And you can get sick of that, and…

[“Waiting” by Green Day plays]

Andrew: Hey there. What is this? Oh, sorry.

Jamie: You sound awfully like Green Day, Kenneth.

[Song ends]

Andrew: [laughs] Okay, shut up!

Kenneth: Yeah.

Andrew: I forgot to hit “Pause” on the radio break. Sorry about that. I’m sorry, I’m sorry, sorry.

Kenneth: Yeah, turn it off.

Andrew: Very unprofessional here. Very disappointed in myself. Okay, cool. Well, thanks for calling in!

Caller: Yeah, sure.

Andrew: Let’s see, who else. Let’s get Ciara. Hey!

Kenneth: Hey!

Caller: Hi!

Andrew: Hi. you have a question for Kenneth?

Caller: Hello?

Andrew: Hi. You have a question for Kenneth?

Caller: Hello?

Andrew: Hi.

[Jamie laughs]

Caller: Hi. I can’t hear you. Can I turn up my volume a little bit?

Andrew: Sure, go for it.

[Kenneth laughs]

Andrew: You have a question for Kenneth?

[Prolonged silence]

Andrew: [laughs] Do you have a question for Kenneth?! Come on! Work with me!

Caller: Yeah, sorry. I’ve never used Skype before. I just downloaded it like five minutes ago.

Andrew: Oh okay.

Jamie: Ooh.

Caller: But I was wondering…

Mikey: Wait a minute, you downloaded it? You mean you didn’t buy it?

Andrew: It’s not for sale.

Caller: No, I just [unintelligible] I don’t know.

[Andrew laughs]

Caller: I clicked the thing that said “Mac.”

Andrew: Oh okay.

Mikey: Okay.

Caller: And I’m calling people on it. Is it free?

Andrew: Well, is it free, Kenneth? It’s free, right? I mean…

Kenneth: Yeah. I mean – yeah. I can’t make money off of it.

Andrew: Yeah.

Mikey: I know I didn’t pay for it, so… [laughs]

Caller: If I call people on it, will it cost money?

Andrew: [laughs] Yeah.

Caller: It will?

Andrew: What’s that?

Caller: If I call people on it, will it cost money?

Andrew: If you copied it?

Caller: No, if I call people on it.

Andrew: If you call people on it?

Caller: Yeah, like I am now.

Jamie: Oh, you downloaded Skype five minutes ago, you mean?

Caller: I have no idea.

Jamie: Yeah, it’s a hundred dollars a minute. Quickly, quickly, quickly! Be quick, be quick.

[Kenneth laughs]

Andrew: I am so confused right now.

Jamie: No, I’m joking.

Caller: I kind of sort of am, too, but – did you guys originally write this just for MuggleNet, or did you just wanted to make a cool version of the “Hedwig’s Theme” thing?

Kenneth: We did it – yeah, we didn’t initially do it for MuggleNet, but we re-recorded it for MuggleNet. We have an older version of it from the year before.

Andrew: Oh really?

Kenneth: Yeah. And it actually had Andrew screaming various incantations.

Andrew: [laughs] Really?

Kenneth: Yeah.

Andrew: Do you still have that, by chance?

Kenneth: Yeah, we still have that.

Jamie: Can we hear it? Yeah. [laughs]

Andrew: Oh!

[Kenneth laughs]

Andrew: Dude, can you send it to me? Can we play it on the show?

Kenneth: [laughs] Oh yeah, sure. It’s pretty funny.

Andrew: Okay. I’ll IM you my e-mail address.

Kenneth: Okay.

Andrew: Via Skype here. Let’s see. We’ll play that – [laughs] that’ll be pretty funny. Okay, well cool. Yeah, thanks for calling in, Ciara.

Caller: Oh wait! Guys, can I say something really quick?

Andrew: If it’s appropriate, yeah.

Caller: Yeah. Well, I just wanted to give a shout-out to everybody in the chat-room. They all wanted to say that Ustream loves Toots, which is your old nickname or whatever.

Andrew: Oh, loves Toots? Oh.

Caller: Yeah.

Andrew: Oh. Well, thank you.

Caller: Everybody has been like dying for everybody who comes on here – everybody always gives shout-outs, but they never say that, and that was the thing that was planned.

Andrew: Oh awesome.

Mikey: Toots, really?

Andrew: Toots, that’s my radio name.

Mikey: I like Simsy. I like Simsy.

Andrew: That’s not a radio name, though. It has to be…

Jamie: Yeah, DJ Simsy is cooler.

Andrew: It has to be something a little better than that. Okay. Yeah, thank you for that.

Mikey: And Toots is that much better? Really?

Andrew: Yeah, Toots. I’m Toots.

Mikey: Oh gosh, you’re back.

Andrew: What’s up, Julia? This is Toots.

[Echoing sounds in the background]

Andrew: And that’s what we call feedback.

Jamie: That is feedback.

Andrew: Let’s get Sarah Alkin here. Hi, Sarah.

Caller: Hey, how are you?

Andrew: Oh, loud. Hi. What’s going on?

Caller: Nothing. I really love your show.

Andrew: Oh great.

Caller: You’re like the awesomest podcast ever!

Andrew: Oh, thank you.

Jamie: Thank you very much.

Andrew: [laughs] Your audio is really loud. Do you have a question for Kenneth?

Caller: Yeah. Okay, just a second.

Andrew: Huh? What? Oh, connection lost. Oops. Let’s try Lauren here. Hi, Lauren.

[Echoing sounds in the background]

Andrew: Okay, here’s the thing: If you’re going to call in, mute your thing so we don’t hear that.

Jamie: While we’re waiting, Kenneth, I have one more question.

Andrew: Go for it. Forget about the callers for now.

Jamie: You should start up a wizard rock band now, and just do rocked-out versions of everything.

Andrew: That’s a good question.

Kenneth: That sounds good to me.

Andrew: What do you think of wizard rock?

Kenneth: Oh, I love it.

Andrew: Do you? [laughs] Awesome.

Kenneth: Yeah. I have like three Harry and the Potters CDs.

Andrew: Cool.

Kenneth: Yeah.

Andrew: May I recommend The Remus Lupins? Good band.

Jamie: And…

Kenneth: Oh, yeah, yeah.

Jamie: The Remus Lupins, and also Oliver Boyd and the Remembralls.

Kenneth: Okay, sounds good.

Andrew: I have…

Mikey: And you can’t forget – you guys can’t forget The Whomping Willows, because…

Andrew: The Whomping Willows? Yeah, very good too.

Mikey: …Whompy’s a tree. Matt’s a tree, so…

Jamie: And Mikey and the Bs.

Mikey: Yeah, the Mikey Bs.

Kenneth: I do like Draco and the Malfoys.

Andrew: Draco and the Malfoys are great, too. Yeah.

Kenneth: Yeah.

Mikey: Yeah. You should also download all the wizard rock singles from Andrew Sims.

[Kenneth laughs]

Andrew: Are you planning on taking a – what are you looking to do as a career?

Kenneth: I’m not sure right now, but right now I’m kind of – I’m planning to double major in music and physics, as weird as that sounds.

Andrew: [laughs] Okay.

Kenneth: Yeah.

Andrew: Well, if you’re passionate about music it makes sense.

Kenneth: Yeah. Not so much physics, but you know, I’ve got to do it.

Andrew: Right, right. Well, again, everyone loves your music. Thank you so much for letting us use it for the past three years. It’s really a perfect theme song for MuggleCast, and as soon as I heard it when – I guess someone e-mailed it in. Maybe it was you? Was it you?

Kenneth: It was Andrew.

Andrew: Oh, it was Andrew, right.

Kenneth: Yeah.

Andrew: As soon as I heard it, I was like, “This is great for the show, because…”

Jamie: “We have to use this,” yeah.

Andrew: Yeah. If we just played regular “Hedwig’s Theme” or any Harry Potter soundtrack song – it’s magical, it’s slow, it doesn’t really fit the theme of the show, but “‘Arry,” it really – is that the official name of it, “‘Arry”?

Kenneth: I guess so. That’s how we named it.

Andrew: Yeah, yeah. [laughs] So thanks again, it’s really a perfect song for us to use.

Kenneth: Absolutely.

Jamie: Thank you once again.

Andrew: Yeah. Kenneth, thank you for coming on today. If there’s any more questions that the listeners bring in, we’ll forward them off to you.

Kenneth: All right, thanks a lot.

Andrew: Okay, no problem. And pass our thanks along to Andrew. Why isn’t he here? I thought he said he was going to be here.

Kenneth: Yeah, I thought that too, but he’s kind of busy right now and he doesn’t have Skype, and…

Andrew: [laughs] Okay. I’m just messing, it’s cool.

Kenneth: Oh yeah, yeah.

Andrew: But we owe you guys a – well, we’ll talk later. [laughs]

Kenneth: Yeah, okay. All right.

Andrew: All right, see you later.

Kenneth: All right, thanks a lot. Bye.

Andrew: Bye. All right, finally we had Kenneth on for an interview. It’s something we’ve been trying to do for a while, and he just so happened to e-mail me earlier this week. And actually, I shouldn’t have taken him off so quick. We’re – he says it’s okay to use his song, the “Hedwig’s Theme” as a ringtone. So soon, on that MuggleCast page I made, we’re going to have “Hedwig’s Theme” ringtones available as well. Okay? Jamie and Mikey, you still with us?

[Prolonged silence]

Andrew: Jamie? Mikey?

Jamie: Yeah, I’m here.

Mikey: That’s going to be cool.

Andrew: [laughs] Okay. We lost you for a few seconds.

Mikey: Yeah, I’m here. You know what? I think I should put that ringtone on my iPhone.

Andrew: Yeah. I should, too. Because Apple screwed that up.

Jamie: Now wait, gentlemen. I thought you couldn’t do that. Oh, unless you illegally hacked it, of course.

Andrew: No, we can do it – yeah, you can do it illegally. Yeah.

[Jamie gasps]

Andrew: I have no problem saying it, because it’s Apple’s fault.

Mikey: And also, just so you know…

Andrew: Yeah?

Mikey: Apple said they don’t mind. The homeroom people that go ahead and open up their phones and hack it – I was last night playing with a friend’s phone – actually, you know Chris Kelly. I was playing with his phone. He totally – I was playing Mega Man on his phone – iPhone. [unintelligible] actually. It was pretty entertaining. Yeah, I think I might have to start opening up my iPhone and doing a lot more to it, but we’ll see.

Jamie: Hey, if you can play that on it, you’ve got to.

Andrew: We got this e-mail…

Mikey: I know.

Andrew: …coming in from Emily sent in via MuggleCast.com/Live. She’s from Michigan and she writes:

“Don’t mean to sound rude, but will any of the PotterCasters be on so you can PWN them at Book 7 trivia?”

Mikey: Wow.

Andrew: It’s funny you bring this up, because we actually wanted to do just that, but they don’t want to. So…

Jamie: We could try and give a call to John. See what he’s doing.

Andrew: I’m kind of surprised he hasn’t called in by now. I was really expecting that.

Jamie: Awww, Johnny! Come on – John, if you’re listening…

Andrew: [laughs] He’s not listening!

Jamie: …send me an e-mail.

Mikey: John Noe. John Noe.

[Jamie sings]

Mikey: Come on, John. Me and you. We can always call his counterpart.

Jamie: [laughs] Yeah.

Mikey: [laughs] His female counterpart.

Jamie: Hey, can we hear the…

Andrew: I don’t have it yet. I don’t have it yet.

Jamie: Okay, sorry.

MuggleCast 110 Transcript (continued)

Mikey’s Pizza Order

Andrew: It’s time now to move into a segment I like to do. Let me wet my whistle first, hold on one second.

[Drinking sounds in the background]

Jamie: Oh. That was weird.

Andrew: Okay. That was a long sip. It’s time for my “HUH?!”…

[Jamie laughs]

Andrew: …e-mail of the week.

Jamie: Ha.

Andrew: Huh?!

Mikey: Wait. [imitating Andrew] Huh?!

Andrew: Huh?! Whaaa? Huh?! [laughs]

Mikey: All right. Andrew, Andrew…

Andrew: What?

Mikey: …if I can come up with something more random than this e-mail, I’m going to be really disappointed right now.

Andrew: If you can come up with it?

Jamie: It’s pretty random.

Andrew: What do you mean if you can come up with it?

Mikey: I don’t know, I’m just – I’m ordering my pizza right now. I’m not paying that much attention to you. Sorry.

Andrew: Oh okay.

Mikey: Wait, wait. Actually, actually, guys, what should I get? I added extra cheese to it, I’m ordering from Pizza Hut.

[Crinkling sounds in the background]

Andrew: Oh, God! You’re making me hungry. Now I have to eat this pretzel I have here.

[Andrew and Mikey laugh]

Jamie: Mikey? Mikey?

Mikey: Yeah?

Jamie: First person to e-mail in with an ingredient, you have to get that ingredient on the pizza.

Mikey: [laughs] Oh no!

Jamie: [laughs] Come on, Mikey. Come on, come on. I’m checking it. I’m checking it.

Mikey: Sure, okay.

Jamie: Come on, everyone.

Mikey: First person to order – please order – put something in nice, guys. Like pepperoni.

Jamie: Yeah. Okay, Debbie K, first of all, says “Fish.” No, I don’t think so. Let’s get another topping.

Mikey: Come on. Debbie, you really want me to eat fish on my pizza?

Andrew: Anchovies.

Jamie: Okay, Mikey – yeah. Oh no, no, we got…

Mikey: No, anchovies are – actually, anchovies aren’t that bad, but no, no.

Jamie: The first one – okay, we have fish, anchovies, liver, pepperoni, olives. I guess pepperoni…

Mikey: Oh, I’ll do pepperoni, guys.

Jamie: Okay.

Mikey: Wait, who said pepperoni?

Jamie: That was Katie from the US.

Mikey: Katie from the US, I am going to go ahead and get pepperoni on my pizza because you said I can do that.

Jamie: There you go. Thank you.

Mikey: And Lexie from Los Angeles, anchovies, really? I’m looking at all of them right now. Pepperoni, olives, pineapple, pepperoni, [laughs] shiitake mushrooms.

Andrew: Ewww.

Mikey: I like that one. [laughs]

Jamie: Shiitake mushrooms. Get that one, please.

Mikey: But – no, it’s spelt very creatively.

Jamie: [laughs] It is spelt very creatively.

[Mikey laughs]

Jamie: Well done.

Mikey: I’m looking at it – peanut butter, ooh. Peanut butter. Jules from Texas said “Peanut butter.” There is actually a place where you can get peanut butter pizza and they have, like, peanut on top. It’s really good.

Jamie: Awww! Oh, Mikey…

Mikey: Sweetcorn…

Jamie: …you’ve got to get pickles as well, considering the occasion, haven’t you?

Mikey: Pickles, yeah!

Andrew: Yeah, get pickles!

Mikey: Ham…

Jamie: Got to get pickles.

Mikey: I like ham pizza. Oh, I’m not an olives fan. All right. Anyway, I think I’m just going to go with – there’s pepperoni, ham – pork topping? What is pork topping, really?

Andrew: Well…

Mikey: All right, I’m just going to do – you know what? I’m going to do half pepperoni because I want half a cheese pizza. You know what I mean?

Jamie: Ooh.

Mikey: So I’m going to do half pepperoni and maybe half – yeah, just cheese. Add my current order. All right, now we’re done with my pizza talk.

Andrew: [laughs] Okay.

Mikey: Sorry.

Andrew: You know, actually…

Mikey: I’m not going to do barbecue pizza. I’m not doing barbecue chicken.

Andrew’s Huh?! E-mail of the Week

Andrew: Actually, we’re going to – what was I going to say? Now I forgot. I’m going to order my pizza very soon because I’m hungry.

Mikey: No, no, you were going to – you were talking about your wonderful – the…

Andrew: Huh?! e-mail of the week?

Mikey: …Huh?! e-mail.

Andrew: Huh?!

Jamie: Yeah.

Andrew: Yeah.

Mikey: Huh?!

Jamie: I refuse to do that.

Andrew: This comes from…

Mikey: Come on, Jamie.

Andrew: Celeste?

Mikey: Wait. No, wait, wait. Stop, stop. Jamie, you need to do it.

Jamie: No way, Mikey. Never ever.

Mikey: We can’t go until you do it. [laughs] Come on.

Jamie: I’m never ever going “Andrew’s Huh?!…”

Andrew: Jamie, you’ve done it before, haven’t you?

Jamie: I’ve done it a couple of times.

Mikey: But see – Jamie, Jamie…

Jamie: Very, very rarely.

Mikey: All right…

Jamie: Yeah?

Mikey: Look – all right, everybody e-mail in saying…

[Andrew laughs]

Mikey: …we want Jamie to do the “Huh?!”

Jamie: No, no, please.

Mikey: Come on!

Jamie: Everyone, don’t e-mail in, please.

Mikey: [laughs] Please!

Jamie: I’ve always been straight with you. I’ve never ever liked it.

[Mikey laughs]

Jamie: Anything but…

Mikey: Jamie, Jamie…

Jamie: Don’t e-mail in and say that.

Mikey: Jamie, Jamie…

Jamie: Yeah?

Mikey: Peer pressure. Peer pressure, come on. Right now, me and…

Jamie: I am…

Mikey: …Andrew are saying “Do it.” “Huh?!”

Jamie: No. I’m refreshing the e-mail inbox.

[Mikey laughs]

Jamie: Please, please. I don’t like you if you sent an e-mail. No. Abby C., Caileen, Lauren. No, no, no.

[Mikey laughs]

Andrew: I’m pretty sure nobody is going to – like he’s not going to do it because once he says he won’t do it, he won’t do it.

Mikey: I know.

Jamie: Ooh, that’s being malicious, Andrew!

Andrew: No, no, no, no, no! I’m just saying that…

Mikey: Ooh.

Andrew: …when you say no to something, you are very stern about it.

Jamie: No, I’m not! I’m open to suggestions. I’m not stubborn.

[Prolonged silence]

Mikey: [laughs] Yeah, you are.

[Andrew and Mikey laugh]

Jamie: No, I’m serious. That is not true. That is not true.

Andrew: Okay. So anyway, back to my Huh!? e-mail of the week. Comes from Celeste, I think her name is, of New Jersey. This is in response to Episode 107.

Jamie: Yeah.

Andrew: She writes:

“I just wanted to say that I loved The Beatles’ ‘Love’ at the end of Episode 107. Two of my favorite fandoms coming together was awesome, and also the welcome of relatively new listeners like me. Keep up the great work.”

Jamie: Awww.

Mikey: Awww.

Jamie: Why is that weird? That’s not really a…

Andrew: It’s weird because it wasn’t The Beatles at all. It was actually “Good Morning Baltimore” from Hairspray.

[Jamie and Mikey laugh]

Andrew: So [laughs] I’m confused.

Mikey: Wait, wait, didn’t she say it was one of her favorite songs, too?

Andrew: Yeah.

Jamie: Yeah.

Andrew: So huh?

Mikey: I love The Beatles. I love The Beatles. No, she had the special Beatles edition episode.

[Andrew laughs]

Mikey: We only have four of them.

Andrew: [laughs] Oh right, right.

[Mikey laughs]

Andrew: Yeah, so not…

Mikey: Huh?! [laughs]

Andrew: Not too sure about that. That’s one big “Huh?!” And another e-mail from Em of Washington in response to this twelve-hour show. She writes:

“Hi, I love MuggleCast and I can’t ‘see’ it on Saturday the 15th, so can you send it to me at…”

Her e-mail address.

“I love you all. Emily”

Huh?

[Jamie laughs]

Andrew: What? Huh?

Mikey: I missed that, I was ordering pizza. Wait, what?

Andrew: Huh? What?

Jamie: I could get confused by it, though. I mean, if you were going to – I don’t know. I think that’s – hmm. It depends if she’s a new listener or not, Andrew.

Mikey: Did you – wow. You can order a side of anchovies for a dollar.

Jamie: Oh, you’ve got to do that, Mikey. So many people want you to get them. Peer pressure. Peer pressure.

[Mikey laughs]

Jamie: E-mail in if you want Mikey to order anchovies with his pizza.

Mikey: Jamie? Jamie?

Jamie: Oh my God, they’re flooding in. Yeah?

Mikey: No.

[Jamie laughs]

Andrew’s Pizza Order

Andrew: I’m going to order my pizza live on the show right now.

Mikey: Hey, wait, are you’re trying to steal away from my wonderful…

Andrew: No.

Mikey: I was…

Andrew: Well, I’ve got to…

Mikey: Yeah.

Andrew: You’ve got to wait for me to – by the way, listeners, coming up next hour, Pickle Pack…

Mikey: Oh actually, you know what? Hold on. Andrew…

Andrew: [laughs] What?

Mikey: …why don’t you make your order online and we’ll hit “Place This Order”…

Andrew: No!

Mikey: …at the exact time?

Andrew: That’s no fun. I want to do it on the air.

Mikey: No, no, let’s see – all right, fine. We’ll see whose pizza gets here faster.

Andrew: Okay, but I have to call. Okay, as soon as I place my order, then you hit “Submit.”

Mikey: Okay. Well, I’ll hit “Submit” when you call. Right when you call.

Andrew: Okay.

Mikey: Because I’m going to pay with credit card because I don’t have money with me. Where is my card – my wallet at?

Andrew: Oh yeah, I wanted to say next hour, Pickle Pack members. Your next – is – [laughs] sorry, let me try this again. Next hour, the five o’clock hour, will be Pickle Pack Hour where we’re taking calls from Pickle Pack members. So Pickle Packers, be ready. And you have to prove you’re a Pickle Pack member because Jamie in one minute will be posting a – no, that’s a bad idea. That actually – that wouldn’t work out. You have to give us your Pickle Pack username, and we’ll verify it. So only call in if you’re a Pickle Pack member.

Mikey: And I mean it. I’ll only talk to Pickle Pack members right now.

Andrew: Yeah.

Mikey: In the next hour. If you’re not Pickle Pack member, I swear…

Andrew: Yeah, and we can verify.

Mikey: I’ll probably be like, “Why did you call?” No, I’ll still say hi because I like everybody.

Andrew: Yeah. Okay, here we go.

Mikey: But Pickle Pack members, this is supposed to be for you guys.

[Phone rings]

Andrew: All right, I’m calling up Papa John’s here. It’s here in Medford, New Jersey.

Mikey: Papa John’s Pizza Hut.

Papa John’s: Thank you for calling Papa John’s in Medford. This is Erica.

Andrew: Hi. Yeah, I’d like to place an order for delivery.

Papa John’s: Okay. What’s your phone number?

Andrew: It’s 609.

Papa John’s: Okay.

Andrew: 953… [muted]

Papa John’s: All right. And what’s your address?

Andrew: It is 4 [muted] Enclave. E-N-C-L-A-V-E.

Papa John’s: All right.

Andrew: Medford, New Jersey.

Papa John’s: And what would you like tonight?

Andrew: Okay, I would like a large cheese pizza.

Papa John’s: Okay.

Andrew: And also can I have a side of your cheesesticks?

Papa John’s: Okay.

Mikey: And anchovies.

Andrew: What? No anchovies. No anchovies.

Jamie: And a side of anchovies, please.

Andrew: No, no. None of that. Stop! And – sorry, I’m on a conference call right now. So I think – yeah, that’s all. That’s all.

Papa John’s: Okay. So you want a large…

Mikey: Anchovies…

Andrew: No! Ignore him.

[Mikey laughs]

Andrew: No anchovies.

Papa John’s: So you want a large [unintelligible] and a cheesesticks?

Andrew: Yes, please.

Mikey: And a Pepsi.

Andrew: Mikey, seriously stop!

[Jamie laughs]

Andrew: Sorry about that.

Papa John’s: I’m sorry, did you say something else?

Andrew: No, no, that’s all.

Papa John’s: All right, your total is $19.67 and it should be about thirty minutes.

Andrew: Okay, great. Thank you.

Papa John’s: Thanks. Bye.

Andrew: Wonderful. Mikey, I didn’t appreciate that!

[Jamie laughs]

Andrew: This is very serious!

Mikey: All right. Sorry, I’m hitting “Place This Order,” okay? Give me a second, it’s processing my order.

Andrew: Oh. Well, listen…

Jamie: Mikey, we should have been like, “I’ll have ten…”

[Andrew and Mikey laugh]

Mikey: Yeah. “Ten anchovy pizzas and…”

[Andrew laughs]

Mikey: “…twenty with everything on it.”

[Jamie laughs]

Mikey: “And my name is Andrew Sims, I live at 4 Enclave, New Jersey.

Andrew: I didn’t think that was very funny.

Mikey: I’m sorry.

Andrew: So…

Mikey: I’m sorry, Andrew. Will you accept my apology?

Andrew: Cool. My pizza, guys. I’m getting pizza. This is exciting. I made a poll on Ustream, “Who is the cutest of The Remus Lupins?” Alex is currently kicking butt right now, with 339 votes.

Mikey: Wait, did you have the “Mikey B” option, though?

Andrew: No, you can only have four options on the poll…

Mikey: Awww.

Andrew: …and I had to fit the actual Remus Lupins.

Mikey: It’s all right. I don’t think I could have won next to Alex anyway.

Andrew: Yeah. There was…

Mikey: [laughs] Oh thanks!

Andrew: Definitely not. We’ve had over 400 votes. Alex is in control of 375 of them right now, so – [laughs] I guess nobody really knows Toby, Tyler, or Brandon.

Jamie: Where is this poll?

Mikey: But Toby is like dreamy, come on. He’s the drummer, everybody loves the drummer.

Andrew: Yeah.

Jamie: Where is this poll, Andrew?

Andrew: It’s on Ustream.

Mikey: Oh wait, you know – wait, I’m just flipping through the e-mails real quick. Sam from Alabama:

“Make a poll, ‘Whose pizza will come first?'”

So Sam from Alabama, that’s his idea.

Andrew: “Andrew or Mikey? Start poll.”

Mikey: I’m going to go vote on this.

Andrew: I think – oh, I’m winning right now.

Mikey: Oh.

Andrew: Well actually, it’s neck and neck, but – okay, so…

Mikey: Guys, remember I ordered mine online with a credit card so it’s already paid for, I have a confirmation e-mail and everything.

Airport Security with the MuggleCasters

Andrew: Well, it doesn’t matter because mine’s going to be delivered in thirty minutes. Okay, you want to take some callers, get some discussion going on in here? We’ll take anything right now, whether it’s about the movies or the books. Lexi is calling back. Oh. Well wait, got to take this one first. Hello?

Caller: Hello?

Andrew: Hi, welcome to MuggleCast Live!

Caller: Hi, I’m Monica.

Andrew: Hi.

Jamie: Hey.

Caller: Actually, I e-mailed in earlier, I don’t know if you’re reading them right now. We’ve already met, we met at the Michigan podcast. I was the one that talked on your iPhone with my friend Ryan.

Andrew: Oh. You talked on my iPhone?

Caller: Yes, I did.

Andrew: Why? I’m forgetting.

Caller: Because my friend Ryan was a Laura fanboy.

Andrew: Oh, oh, oh, oh! [laughs] We were talking about this earlier in the show.

Caller: That’s what somebody told me and I wasn’t home, I had to do community service for school.

Andrew: [laughs] Oh.

Caller: So…

Andrew: Cool.

Mikey: Wait, I’m still freaking out. Why is Andrew getting more results for the pizza? I ordered mine first, guys!

[Everyone laughs]

Mikey: Really?

Caller: I don’t know. Because they heard Andrew order, so…

Andrew: Maybe.

Mikey: Yeah.

Andrew: Yeah, how did that come – how did that sound on the stream?

Caller: It sounded funny except – I was like, “Is he honestly saying his number on the stream?”

Andrew: Did the whole number come through?

Caller: No, something got blocked out. I don’t know, I was…

Andrew: Yeah, good. Yeah, I meant to block it out. Okay. So good, that worked out well then. [laughs] Yeah, I like ordering pizza live when 800 – wow, we have 912 listeners right now.

Caller: And I’m shocked that I actually got on. I’ve been calling in for the past – I don’t know, since I heard that you guys talked about me and Ryan.

Andrew: [laughs] Oh okay. Well yeah, sorry about that. We’ve been disabling calls and stuff. But…

Caller: Oh.

Andrew: Yeah, so – yeah, that was a lot of fun. It was great seeing your guys’ reaction. [laughs]

Caller: It was – we thought it was so funny because we were like, “What is he doing?”

Andrew: Yeah.

Caller: And then – yeah. And Ryan actually has talked to Laura a couple of times since then. She was really, really nice about the whole thing.

Andrew: Cool.

Caller: I want to know – can I ask you one question?

Andrew: Sure.

Caller: Is Jamie still there?

Andrew: Jamie? Yeah.

Jamie: Yeah. What’s up? What are you doing?

Caller: I gave Ben a CD and we never heard about it again.

Jamie: You what, sorry?

Caller: I gave Ben a CD at the event and he was like, “Oh yeah, we’ll listen to it in the car.” We never heard about it.

[Andrew and Mikey laugh]

Jamie: I can’t remember. You gave…

Mikey: No, I remember that CD. He’s like, “Oh, a fan gave me a CD,” and I think he put it on the side door or something like that to listen to it another time.

Jamie: What music was on it?

Andrew: It’s probably still in the car.

Caller: It was The Rocket Summer which is like – it’s kind of different but it’s his kind of music, I know it is.

Mikey: Yeah, I know.

Caller: And so…

Mikey: He kept the CD. I don’t think – we never listened to it in the car, but he’s like, “Oh, a fan gave me that,” and put it back in his bag when we got in the airplane. But then – did we tell the story of how we got all searched when we got to the airport?

Andrew: [laughs] No, we never told the story!

Mikey: [laughs] All right, let me tell it. Because I was first. Okay, so basically, because – we don’t know what happened to the CD, it might be in Ben’s bag for all we know. But basically what happened is we got to the – what was it? Philadelphia Airport?

Andrew: Yeah, we were going to Prophecy.

Mikey: We were going to Prophecy, everybody, and this is after our big old MuggleCast tour and everything, and we’re all going through security. And you know you have to take your shoes off and put your bags through. I had my camera there and my laptop. We had a lot of electronics between the four of us.

Andrew: Oh yeah.

Mikey: Me, Jamie – yeah, all four of us. And so I go through, and I have long hair and I’m kind of dark-skinned, whatever.

[Andrew and Jamie laugh]

Mikey: And they look at my passport and it’s me there, from California and I’ve been on a plane in Philadelphia, and they put me in the middle line where you go ahead and get asked, “Where are you going?” Like, “Toronto, Canada.” And he puts me in the middle line. Next…

Andrew: [laughs] Then they quarantine you!

Mikey: [laughs] Yeah, they quarantine me! I’m like, “Okay, whatever.” And then next comes Andrew down the middle line from Medford, New Jersey going to Toronto, Canada too.

[Andrew laughs]

Mikey: And then next is Ben and then Jamie. It’s like – so we have a guy from Kansas…

[Andrew laughs]

Mikey: …England, New Jersey, and California all going to Toronto, Canada from the Philadelphia Airport. So we’re all like quarantined right now.

Jamie: Mikey…

Mikey: And then they proceed to – uh-huh?

Jamie: That was the weirdest thing ever because I wasn’t concentrating, I was so tired and…

Mikey: Yeah, I know. We were so tired because we drove all night. Well, Andrew drove all night.

Jamie: Yeah.

Andrew: Yeah.

Mikey: I slept on his bed when I got to his house.

Andrew: Yeah.

Jamie: We found ourselves just in this huge tiny thing. I was like, “Mikey, what’s going on?”

[Mikey laughs]

Jamie: “Mikey, just sort it out, Mikey. Please just do something.”

Mikey: I’m like, “Don’t worry, we’ll be fine!”

Jamie: And he’s like, “Dude, don’t worry. We just stay here. It’s all going to be okay.” And then they brought out a proximity prober or whatever you call them, and then…

Mikey: Yeah, I was – well no, they even asked us, “We’re going to go through all your stuff, blah blah blah, and we’re going to search you. If you’re not comfortable with this, we can go ahead and do a private screening for you.” I’m like, “No, it’s fine right here! More people watching is better for me. I’m a little worried.”

[Everyone laughs]

Mikey: I was a little worried. No, it’s because he’s like, “I’m going to search you completely.” He literally searched my entire body and is like, “I’m going to be touching you with the back of my hand,” so that way he doesn’t grab anything.

Andrew: Yeah, they were very clear. They were like, “I’m going to be touching you.”

Jamie: Yeah, they were.

Andrew: “I’m going to be -” what’s the word?

Mikey: Patting you down or whatever?

Andrew: Patting you down, yeah.

Mikey: Patting you down but they’re going to use the back of their hands so they don’t grab anything, and so – they were very clear about everything. But the four of us literally got completely searched.

Andrew: [laughs] Yeah.

Mikey: We got wanded and everything. Our shoes – I’m like, “Do you want me to take my socks off also?”

Jamie: And they were like, “Yes.”

Mikey: I was actually – yeah, they were like, “Take your clothes off.”

Jamie: “Underwear, too.”

Mikey: No, they only did that to you. But no…

Jamie: Yeah, that was right. Awww, I still can’t talk about it though, Mikey.

Mikey: Yeah, I know.

Andrew: And then the whole time they were talking to us as if they care about our lives. They were like – the woman was like, “So where are you guys going? Oh Canada, what’s up there? Oh Harry Potter, how did you get into Harry Potter? Oh, what’s your -” it just annoyed me so much and I wasn’t talking.

Mikey: Yeah.

Andrew: You three did the talking.

Mikey: We were talking because they just kept asking.

Andrew: I was just fed up, I was annoyed. I just wanted to go to Canada.

Mikey: Yeah, it was one of those things where it’s just really, really funny. And they searched us and we were going to Canada, and all of us were screened as being terrorists.

Andrew: Right.

Mikey: So yeah.

Jamie: And the funniest thing was they picked up Mikey’s camera and were handling it quite roughly, and this is a nice, nice, nice camera.

Mikey: Oh my gosh, I was – no, but you got to understand. They were like – I’m like, “Oh, it’s a video camera.” They’re like, “Oh, what is it?” and I’m like, “It’s a video camera,” and they were like, “We’re going to have to turn it on and test it.” I’m like, “Please be careful, it’s an expensive camera.” And I’m telling them this, right? And they were like – they couldn’t figure out how to turn it on, so they just took my word for it that it was a video camera. So I’m like….

Jamie: Well, it didn’t exactly look like a food processor.

Mikey: Well yeah, it looks like a heavy duty video camera, right?

Jamie: Yeah.

Mikey: So it’s one of those things where it’s like – they search us so thoroughly and completely. My bag was there…

Jamie: I know.

Mikey: …and they took my laptop out and my GPS system and all the stuff that I had in my bag. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – we all had a copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

Jamie: [laughs] Yeah.

Mikey: [laughs] So we’re not lying. We’re talking about Harry Potter and we all had a copy of the book. All our different versions: my deluxe version, Ben’s normal version, and your guys’ British version. But it’s like all the books are there and everything, and they’re like, “What is this?” I’m like, “It’s a camera.” And I show them the shoulder brace I had and the hard drive – I showed them everything for the camera and they’re like, “Well, we still have to turn it on and test it to make sure that it’s a working camera, not a bomb.” I’m like, “All right.”

Jamie: [laughs] Yeah.

Mikey: And they couldn’t figure out how to turn it on so they just took my word for it, which – I don’t know. Is that – I felt safe that they kind of screened and did all that stuff, but the fact that they took my word for it I was a little – I don’t know if I was happy because we got out of there sooner but I was kind of like, “They’re supposed to be checking for stuff.”

Jamie: It gives you great faith in the security system, doesn’t it?

Mikey: Yeah, it’s like what if it had…

Jamie: If you’re a terrorist, no one…

Mikey: Yeah, what if it was a stick of dynamite with a clock on it?

Jamie: [laughs] Yeah.

Mikey: And it’s like, “What is that?” I’m like, “It’s a camera.” [laughs]

Jamie: [laughs] Yeah.

Mikey: “It’s a digital camera, it’s the new one.” And they’re like, “Oh okay,” and just let it go.

Andrew: Yeah.

Caller: Why didn’t they let you turn it on?

Mikey: Huh? Well it’s because…

Caller: Why didn’t they just let you turn it on?

Mikey: Oh, it’s because we’re not allowed to touch any of our – all right, when you get into these type of screenings – this is my first time I’ve ever gotten one of those screenings, by the way, so it’s not like I get flagged for terrorism at all.

[Andrew and Mikey laugh]

Mikey: And I’m sure Jamie and Andrew don’t.

Andrew: No.

Mikey: I don’t know about Ben. I’m sure Ben gets stuff flagged all the time.

Andrew: Ben probably does, yeah.

Mikey: Yeah. [laughs] I’ve never been flagged before, but apparently we’re not allowed to touch anything so I’m like, “If you just – guys, please be careful.” I’m like – you can imagine, I’m standing a foot away from my camera telling them, “Don’t hold it there. Don’t grab that. That’s the lens. That’s okay to touch.”

[Jamie laughs]

Mikey: I’m kind of like – they won’t let me go any further, there’s like an armed guard there holding me back making sure I don’t touch it, and I’m just like holding myself back from actually going ahead and telling them what to do with the camera. But yeah, we’re not allowed to touch any of our stuff. So we were sitting there shoeless, belt-less, wallet-less – they took our passports too, remember? They were like, “All right, which one is your passport?” I’m like, “The one that has my picture in it?”

Andrew: [laughs] Yeah.

Mikey: Yeah, it was really funny. They – yeah, it was a fun experience.

Andrew: Oh, it was a blast.

Mikey: I don’t know how we missed talking about this.

Caller: Yeah, I’m surprised.

Andrew: I don’t know, it’s just been forgotten. Did you enjoy that story?

Caller: Yes, I did.

Andrew: Okay.

Caller: So Ben’s CD is somewhere lost in…

[Andrew laughs]

Mikey: In security or he had it in his bag and it probably got crushed because they did not do a very good job of re-packing our stuff. I had to say, “Just don’t pack my stuff, I’ll do it.”

Caller’s Mother: Monica?

Caller: Yes, mom?

Caller’s Mother: Oh hi. [laughs] I’m sorry.

Caller: Can you get off the phone for a second?

Caller’s Mother: I was just going to call you on your cellphone to tell you we’re going to dinner at about 5:30.

Caller: Okay.

Andrew: Oh.

Caller’s Mother: At… [unintelligible]

Caller: Okay.

Caller’s Mother: So be ready.

Mikey: Okay.

Caller: Okay.

Caller’s Mother: Okay. Bye.

Mikey: All right.

Caller: Bye.

Mikey: Be ready for dinner!

Andrew: Can I come?

[Caller laughs]

Mikey: Where are you guys going?

Caller: I am sorry!

Andrew: No, it’s okay. I’m actually kind of hungry. Can I come with you?

Caller: Sure. You can come.

Mikey: I’ll have your pizza, Andrew. You just…

Caller: Can I say something also really fast? Because I am a Pickle Pack member and a friend of mine Lindsey Sims who I met through Pickle Pack is actually upset because she was the one who told me that they mentioned me, so she just left me an angry Facebook post and she told me that I sicken her because I called her “somebody.”

Andrew: Awww.

Caller: So Lindsey Sims, I give a shout-out to you.

Andrew: Shout-out! Lindsey Sims! Yay!

Mikey: You guys should go add me on Facebook. I want friends.

[Andrew laughs]

Caller: I think I did and you never added me.

Jamie: Ooh.

Mikey: No, that’s not true. I add everybody.

Caller: Wait, let me check. I am on Facebook right now.

Mikey: Yeah, you really don’t have to.

Caller: Oh, you’re in the Apple network. Yes, you’re here.

Mikey: Oh yeah.

Caller: I am…

Mikey: Don’t – shh!

Caller: Yeah.

[Andrew laughs]

Mikey: [whispers] No one needs to know that.

Andrew: Anyway, thank you for calling in and we’ll talk to you later.

Caller: All right. Thank you so much for taking my call and look up “The Rocket Summer” because I wanted you guys to hear it because I thought that’s your kind of music.

Andrew: All right, we will. Maybe we’ll play a song from that during the live show here.

Caller: Yes, you should.

Andrew: And have fun at dinner, okay? Tell mom I said hi.

Caller: [laughs] Okay, thank you.

Mikey: Yeah, tell her we say hi!

Andrew: All right, bye.

Caller: All right.

Mikey: Bye.

MuggleCast 110 Transcript (continued)

Harry Potter Classes

Andrew: Excellent, excellent. Okay. So Mason, are you here?

Mason: Yeah.

Mikey: Masey! How are you doing, buddy?

[Andrew and Mason laugh]

Mason: How have you been, Mikey?

Mikey: Pretty good. [imitating Mason] GoDaddy.com!

Andrew: Mason is at Northern Arizona University and he…

Jamie: I have a story to tell about Mason very quickly.

Andrew: What is it?

Jamie: [laughs] Mason, you’re probably going to hate me after this, but…

Mason: All right.

Andrew: Perfect.

Jamie: …we were in LA and we found a couple of fake mustache type things. And Mason somehow – I don’t know how it managed – I wasn’t concentrating, and then suddenly Mason walked in and he had one of these fake mustaches on [laughs] and a shower cap from the bathroom. And also like a bathrobe type thing, and I was like, “Hi Mason, how’s it going?” And he just looked at me for like five seconds, grinned, and then fell forward flat on his face straight onto the ground. It’s one of the funniest thing I’ve ever seen. Sorry Mason, but please don’t lie to me. My family are safe, aren’t they?

Mason: No, it’s cool. Yeah, I barely remember that, but yeah. No, it was a good time.

Andrew: [laughs] So Mason, in Northern Arizona University, you decided to – I just want to bring this up quick, you decided to try out a Harry Potter class thing.

Mason: Yeah, pretty much tried it out for one day, hated it, and then left. It was nothing I was expecting, pretty much.

Andrew: What happened, and what were they requiring and all that?

Mason: Pretty much you had to be the ultimate fan. I think everyone in there felt that they were the ultimate fan, and they try and compete against each other, and everyone’s always arguing and – I don’t know, it’s…

Mikey: Wait. Mase?

Mason: Yeah?

Mikey: All you had to say was [imitating Mason] “GoDaddy.com!”

Jamie: Yeah.

Mikey: And they would have been like, “Oh my gosh!” in awe.

Mason: Well, it was funny. The teacher was like, “Okay, new students. Introduce yourselves and say something interesting about yourself,” and I was like, “Well, I kind of do the GoDaddy ads on MuggleCast.”

[Andrew and Jamie laugh]

Mason: And the classroom blew up. It was horrible.

Mikey: Are you serious? Really?

Mason: Yeah.

Mikey: Were they like, “Oh! We like the other podcast better,” or did they say, “We love MuggleCast,” or what?

Andrew: Yeah, what do you mean by blowing up? Did they…

Mikey: They literally blow up.

Jamie: He killed everyone in his class.

[Andrew laughs]

Jamie: It was shocking.

Andrew: No, I mean, was it like, “Wow!” or was it like…

Mason: No, it was more or less like – I recall this one girl who was like – actually she – obviously she goes here but – she’s probably listening right now. She’ll probably hate me for this, but I mentioned that and she was like, “Oh my God! Can you keep talking? I don’t believe you!” And she wanted to hear my voice and I was just like, “No. No.” [laughs]

Andrew: [laughs] That’s pretty funny. But you loved it, you loved the attention.

Mason: And for the people that don’t believe that I’m in that chat right now, that actually is me.

Andrew: Yeah, I was just going to mention, I understand that you’re trying to hand out my contact information right now.

Mason: Yeah.

Andrew: Sell it.

Mason: John Thrasher and I.

Andrew: Yeah, thanks.

Mason: He’s in here as well.

Andrew: I really appreciate that. That’s…

Mikey: Oh, if anyone wants anything…

Jamie: Or you could say, “GoDaddy.”

Mikey: …just add me I’ll definitely send it to you.

[Andrew laughs]

Mikey: I have photos, I have e-mail addresses, I have phone numbers. Yeah.

Mason: We also have Sam Friedman in this room. Her and John, neither of them will get on for some reason. I don’t understand that but…

Mikey: John who?

Mason: Thrasher.

Mikey: Oh.

Mason: One of Andrew’s buddies.

Andrew: Yup. John Thrasher is refusing to come on Skype right now, so he’s a girl. But anyway, I think with that – [laughs] talking to him on AIM. He actually – well, I tried to bring him on to talk about the story of another local college in Maryland, I think this is, where they’re doing a Physics class on Harry Potter. It’s at Frostburg State University, and let me try to find a good part of the article here. What?

[Someone in the background yells, “Did you order pizza?”]

Andrew: Yeah. Okay, my pizza’s here guys. One second. Mikey, I think I won.

Mikey: Awww, Andrew’s pizza is here. Actually, you know what? I’m so far away from the door I don’t know if my pizza has showed up yet. I should probably check.

Jamie: Probably, they’ll knock. [laughs]

[Prolonged silence]

Jamie: Oh, it’s gone all quiet. All quiet. Oh no, I’m on my own.

Mikey: Sorry, I’m back! I’m back. I’m back. I’m back.

Jamie: Hey, dude.

Mikey: Dude, what’s up? So my pizza arrived five minutes ago. That’s what we’re going to say. So my pizza beat Andrew’s.

Andrew: Mikey, I win. My pizza has arrived.

Mikey: I’m already eating pizza, man.

Andrew: No, shut up! [laughs] You did not get it!

[Mikey laughs]

Andrew: So what were you guys talking about?

Mikey: I was saying how I beat you, that I’m eating pizza.

Andrew: Oh okay. Well yeah, I’m sorry about that. Oh good, John Thrasher has decided to call in now and we can learn more about the class at Frostburg. And then we’re going to go to break.

Mikey: I want to take a Harry Potter class!

Andrew: So thank you to the 330 people who voted for me in the poll, because I obviously won.

[Echoing sounds in the background]

Andrew: John! John, mute your audio.

John Thrasher: Yeah, sorry about that. I changed it.

Andrew: Okay, it’s okay. So tell us about this class in – Frostburg State University, it is?

John: Yeah, I went there in my freshman year. I actually didn’t take the class but – [laughs] I think that’s why you had me on here, though.

Andrew: Well no, I didn’t think you did but can you tell us more about it?

John: Well yeah, it’s just a Physics class and it’s apparently – I don’t know much about it but apparently it’s some class where you study the physics of how some of the magic would work, if it were to work.

Andrew: Okay.

John: Like that’s basically all I know. I’m looking for a description on the class right now.

Andrew: That sounds really deep. [laughs]

John: Yeah, it made national news and stuff. Like you saw that CBS news link.

Andrew: Yeah, I sent the link on CBS.

Mikey: Oh, I found the – I just Googled that right now. I saw it a second ago.

Andrew: Oh, they actually quote the professor. It says:

“This is not something where you just show up and talk about ‘Harry Potter’ books and get a grade. This is a college-level class.”

So – see, I don’t think that would appeal to most Harry Potter fans, to be honest with you.

John: That’s what I was thinking.

Mikey: Really?

Andrew: Yeah, because really it’s just – people just want to talk Harry Potter and…

John: Right.

Andrew: …as this college professor who’s quoted as saying, he says:

“This is a college-level class.”

You wouldn’t even – who knows how much you would even…

Mikey: But if it was like in a media arts class or something like that, like a film class or a media literacy or something like that, it would be a fun class then, because it would be like – be Harry Potter talk, and you would talk about foreshadowing and all that different stuff. Like the stuff that we noticed from the first book that was in the seventh book. It would be like, “Is there a way that you can actually have linked this before it happened?”

Andrew: Right, right.

Mikey: So, it’s still theories, so that would be what those type of classes would be. I think that would be kind of cool.

Andrew: Yeah.

Mikey: Going back and looking back at the first book, and being like, “Wow, that’s…”

Andrew: Cool? [laughs]

Mikey: Yeah, yeah. Cool, I guess.

Andrew: Yeah. Okay. Well, thanks, John, about that and seriously, why are you guys trying to sell my information? It’s not…

John: Oh. Well, I was trying to get on there and make a quick buck, actually, but I guess Mason and Sam Friedman beat me to it.

[Andrew and John laugh]

Andrew: Not cool.

John: I’m just saying. I was waiting for you to cover the microphone. I was like, “Bad idea! Bad idea!” but you were smart enough to…

Andrew: Yeah.

[John laughs]

Andrew: Yeah, I muted it just in time.

John: Yeah.

Andrew: But…

Mason: If we actually…

Andrew: What?

Mason: If we actually gave out your cell phone, you’d kill me. You’d flat out kill me.

John: Yeah, that’s what I was saying to Mase. I was like, “He would murder us.”

Andrew: Well, because Ben already gave it out and I still get – I literally get calls daily from it still, from that one time he did, and it’s really annoying. And listen, if you call I’m just going to answer and be mad at you, so don’t call.

John: Oh, you’ll still call me, Andrew.

Mikey: Hey, Mase, Mase…

Andrew: Still what?

John: Nothing, nothing. Go on.

Andrew: Okay.

Mason: What up?

Mikey: Mase, you should send me a link to the chat. I can join in there. We can sell information on Jamie and Andrew.

[Mason laughs]

Andrew: It’s Ustream. It’s Ustream.

Mason: Yeah, it’s just the Ustream chat, that’s all.

Mikey: This Ustream thing confuses me. I don’t even want to deal with it.

[Mason laughs]

Andrew: Okay. Well…

Mikey: Somebody just link me, please. I’m so confused.

Andrew: We are going to – thanks John and Mason for coming on. We’re going to take a quick break.

Mason: [in GoDaddy voice] Yeah, no problem.

Andrew: [in GoDaddy voice] Yeah, GoDaddy.

[Mason laughs]

Andrew: We’re going to take a break. What you’re going to hear now – Kenneth sent it over to me – the original “Hedwig’s Theme” cracked out that he made, with his friend Andrew yelling incantations and stuff like that. So, very cool. You’re listening to MuggleCast. We’ll be back in just a few minutes.

Jamie: Stay with us.

[“‘Arry!” by Advanced Potions-Making plays]

[“Waiting” by Green Day plays]

[“Gryffindor Rocks” by Harry and the Potters plays]

Listener Calls: Elder Wand

Andrew: MuggleCast Live coming at you!

Caller: …going to die with him, but if Harry gets disarmed any time from now until he dies, wouldn’t the Elder Wand pass to someone else?

Jamie: I think it’s extremely sort of context dependent. Ollivander kept saying that wand law is not something that’s set in stone. It’s very intricate, it’s very detailed, it’s very subtle. One thing doesn’t apply to both – to two situations.

Mikey: Jamie, Jamie?

Jamie: Yeah?

Mikey: You’re missing the biggest point here: He’s Harry Potter, defeater of Voldemort. Do you really think somebody is going to be like, “I’m going to duel you, Harry Potter!” Come on, he’s Harry! No one’s going to come up to him.

Caller: Well, he’s an Auror!

Jamie: No, I bet they would. I bet they would. Do you know what it’s like, Mikey? Have you ever seen Highlander the movie?

Mikey: [laughs] “There can only be one Highlander!”

Jamie: There can only be one. There can only be one Elder Wand owner and Harry Potter is going to have to fight all of them to claim the prize.

Mikey: [laughs] Yeah, but come on. He’s like – right now – can you imagine Harry in his later years? People are going to be like, “You’re the great Harry Potter,” and he’s like, “Yeah, you got a problem with that?” and they’re like, “Oh no! Sorry, sir! Sorry!”

Jamie: [laughs] Yeah.

Mikey: Come on.

[Eric laughs]

Mikey: He defeated the big, bad – it’s like, come on, really? Truthfully – let’s see, Dumbledore had the Elder Wand until his old age. Because why? No one is going to go up against Dumbledore.

Jamie: That is true.

Mikey: And it was a complete accident that Malfoy became the owner of the Elder Wand. He meant it to go to Snape, you know what I mean?

Jamie: Would you go up against Dumbledore, Mikey?

Mikey: Or actually to die with him. Yeah, but it was a complete accident. And Harry knows this, and again, come on. And Ginny is going to let anybody come up and pwn Harry? Really? Yeah, yeah. I don’t know, I’m hungry.

[Caller and Eric laugh]

Eric: It’s a fair point, Mikey.

Mikey: [laughs] We’re in hour five, guys.

Jamie: No, we’re in hour six now, aren’t we?

Andrew: This is the sixth hour. Yeah, but, Mikey, you haven’t even been here the whole time. Whatever! Me and Jamie should be the ones complaining.

Jamie: Yeah, Mikey! Yeah!

Mikey: I’ve been here since I woke up.

Jamie: Andrew and I are hardcore.

Andrew: Oh gosh.

Eric: Same here, Mikey. Same here, Mikey, only that was twenty minutes ago.

[Andrew and Mikey laugh]

Andrew: So…

Jamie: What do you think about it then? What do you think?

Andrew: Yeah, let’s hear your thoughts.

Eric: Who? What? Me?

Caller: Well, I wasn’t sure, though.

Andrew: Or Eric, yeah.

Caller: Oh wait, sorry, me?

Jamie: Yeah.

Eric: Yeah.

Andrew: Yeah, whatever.

Caller: Okay.

Mikey: We like you more than Eric.

Andrew: Well…

Eric: Yeah.

Mikey: Fine, I love her.

Caller: Well, I wasn’t really sure. So yeah, whatever.

Andrew: All right. Then Eric?

Eric: Oh. No, I think you guys gave a good answer for it, so that’s good. But whether or not – yeah. I mean, no, you’re right. Mikey’s right, everybody will just kind of back off.

Jamie: But Mikey is hungry so it changes what he thinks.

Eric: Okay, so if that translates to somehow that somehow people won’t back off, I’m going to say that people might back off with Harry. Or that Harry might bury the Elder Wand or something, or just get rid of it or hide it in a – so even if it is somebody else’s…

Mikey: Wasn’t he going to return it where it was supposed to be, like in Dumbledore’s grave?

Jamie: It’s going to be like Jumanji, so he’s going to bury it and it’s going to start booming and someone’s going to find it.

Mikey: Jamie!

Eric: Yeah! Yeah, exactly!

Mikey: Jamie, I just bought Jumanji on DVD. It was only $4.

Jamie: Did you really?

Mikey: Yeah, the collector’s series.

Eric: Just? Oh, come on, I’ve owned that DVD for like a year and a half. Come on.

Mikey: But dude, this is a collector’s series, all right? It was like $4.99. Jumanji! Oh, how I love Jumanji.

[Eric imitates drum sounds from Jumanji]

Jamie: “It’s a stampede!”

[Eric and Mikey laugh]

Mikey: It’s got Robin Williams, come on!

Eric: I know, I know.

Jamie: Yeah, he’s good in this movie. He really is.

Eric: Yeah. That’s an awesome movie.

Mikey: He is amazing. You know what other character I love of Robin Williams’, guys? And sorry, we’re totally off tangent.

Andrew: Flubber.

Mikey: The Genie from Aladdin.

Andrew: Oh yeah, the Genie.

Jamie: Oh yeah.

Mikey: [singing] “You ain’t never had a friend like me!”

Jamie: [singing] “Nya, nya, nya. Wow, wow.”

Eric: [laughs] Mikey, you remind me of the Genie.

Mikey: Really?

Andrew: Yeah.

Eric: In a pleasant way.

Andrew: I agree.

Eric: In a very pleasant way. In a very kind of cool – cool hand Luke type, kind of way.

Mikey: Joking around, always happy?

Eric: Yeah.

Mikey: Yeah, I guess I could be the Genie.

Eric: Yeah, man.

Jamie: You can grant wishes as well, Mikey.

Mikey: [laughs] Yeah, that’s true! I do have magic powers.

Eric: And you do grant wishes. You do grant wishes.

Mikey: I’m kind of magical, so maybe I’m like the Genie.

Andrew: All right, Abby. Well, thank you for calling in.

Caller: Okay, thank you so much.

Andrew: You’re welcome.

Caller: Bye!

Andrew: Bye!

Jamie: Buh-bye!

Eric: Hey!

Andrew: Let’s hear more Pickle Pack members. Oh, and of course there’s a ton. Okay.

[Jamie sings]

Andrew: Hello?

Jamie: Hey.

Caller: Hello?

Andrew: Hi. Pickle Pack username, please.

[Prolonged silence]

[Eric laughs]

Andrew: He hung up. That was weird.

Jamie: I guess she’s not a Pickle Pack member.

Mikey: My roommates are making fun of me.

Eric: Awww.

Mikey: They don’t like Harry Potter much.

Andrew: Hello, Pickle…

Mikey: I quote Paul Friedlander. You know Paul, Andrew and Jamie.

Andrew: Yeah, I know Paul.

Jamie: Yeah.

Mikey: I quote Paul Friedlander: “You are beyond a dork right now, dude.”

[Jamie laughs]

Mikey: I’m like…

Eric: Oh dude, don’t quote him. Don’t give him that.

Mikey: No, no, I’m putting him on this so that way he now is part of MuggleNet. He’s part of Harry Potter now, right?

Jamie: That’s good.

Mikey: Don’t use my full name? His name is Paul Friedlander, everybody. His phone number is 909…

[Jamie and Mikey laugh]

Mikey: I don’t remember his full number off the top of my head. If you guys find him on Facebook or MySpace, send him messages and say, “Don’t make fun of Mikey, your roommate, please.”

Listener Calls: Dobby’s Death

Andrew: Caller, you’re live on MuggleCast.

Caller: Hi!

Jamie: Hey!

Andrew: Hi, are you a Pickle Pack member?

Caller: Yes, I am.

Andrew: What’s your username, please?

Caller: HPHorseGirl.

Andrew: Verified. Proceed with question.

[Eric laughs]

Caller: Okay, you guys were talking earlier about the Deathly Hallows movie.

Andrew: Yeah.

Caller: What do you think they’re going to do about Dobby? Do you think his rescue and death will be cut out?

Andrew: Oh.

Caller: Because as far as we know, we don’t know he works at Hogwarts.

Andrew: Yeah, yeah. No, I think Dobby’s death is a little too important. I can’t see them cutting out any deaths in the book – in the movie.

Jamie: Why is it – it’s important in showing – the only thing I can see it’s important for, and obviously I’m not being mean to Dobby because he was an awesome character, but I thought the reason it’s important is because then Griphook trusts Harry and thinks he’s a wizard – a very strange wizard because he cares for creatures other than his own. And perhaps, if he hadn’t seen Harry bury Dobby in that way, perhaps he wouldn’t have agreed to go forward with the plan. Bless Dobby’s heart anyway, but you know.

Mikey: Every time someone talks about Dobby now after Prophecy, I just keep hearing the Draco and the Malfoys song. [singing] “Dobby.”

[Jamie laughs]

Mikey: [singing] “Kicking Dobby. It’s my favorite hobby.” [stops singing] And I love Dobby, but now I kind of want to just kick him around sometimes.

[Eric laughs]

Jamie: Well, he’s dead. You wouldn’t have much trouble.

Mikey: Yeah. [laughs] Oh, kick him when he’s dead.

Jamie: [laughs] Yeah. I was thinking he’s dead.

Eric: I was hoping that IMDB could shed some light on this and possibly, magically answer the question for us, but so far the actor Toby Jones who voiced Dobby is not listed as any kind of super preemptively – even for the sixth movie – for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

Mikey: I’m going to go add that information right now to let all the fan speculation just roll up.

Jamie: I’ve met Toby Jones.

Eric: You really have?

Jamie: I have, yeah. He’s a surely nice guy.

Eric: Yeah?

Jamie: But he couldn’t do the Dobby voice because he had a sore throat that day.

Eric: [laughs] Oh, the one day you had to meet him, Jamie.

Jamie: I know, I know.

“MuggleNet. Hem, Hem.”

Andrew: I don’t believe that at all, by the way. I was surprised – oh, why am I forgetting her name? – Imelda Staunton did the voice for MuggleNet.

Eric: Yes, yes, Andrew! We know!

Jamie: Yeah, but she didn’t have a sore throat, though.

Andrew: I mean, I don’t mean to brag but that was sort of my thing. I sort of made that happen.

Mikey: Except I was the one that said we should have her do that.

Andrew: You did not! That was my idea!

Mikey: It was so my idea!

Andrew: You did not!

Mikey: It was my idea!

Andrew: No. Nope. Nope.

Mikey: No, no. All right, let’s see.

Andrew: I will…

Mikey: All right, hold on. Us on the red carpet, and when Andrew – what’s his name? – Emerson is like, “Hey, what should we have -” I’m like, “Hey, we should have her say ‘MuggleNet. Hem, hem.’ We should have her do the ‘Hem, hem.'”

Andrew: You are lying!

Mikey: I said, “We should have her do the ‘Hem, hem.'” You know that was all me, Andrew.

Andrew: I’ll call Emerson right now.

Mikey: Call Emerson. He’ll say, “Yeah, it was Mikey who said you should have her do the ‘Hem, hem.'”

Jamie: Oh whatever.

Andrew: Unless…

Mikey: Oh, come on.

Andrew: We need to solve this right now.

[Phone rings]

Mikey: Dude, trust me. Don’t try to take my – you know what? Just because you’re Andrew Sims…

Andrew: Thanks HorseGirl for calling.

Caller: Okay, thank you. Bye!

Andrew: Bye!

Jamie: Buh-bye!

Eric: Thanks!

Andrew: Okay, he’s at the Notre Dame game right now, but this is all too important.

Eric: Oh great, we’re going to get lots of sports fans.

Mikey: He’s not going to…

Andrew: Watch, he’ll say it was his idea.

[Everyone laughs]

Jamie: Yeah.

Mikey: What are you talking about, guys? It was my idea. I’m the one interviewing. Oh okay, yeah.

Emerson: Hello?

Andrew: Yo, Emerson!

Mikey: Emerson, it’s Mikey. Hey.

Emerson: Mikey?

Mikey: So me and – yeah, me and Andrew are arguing right now.

Emerson: Okay.

Mikey: Who told you to ask – who asked – who told you to ask Imelda Staunton – to ask her to say “Hem, hem”?

Emerson: All right, say it again but really, really slowly.

Mikey: All right. Who told you to ask Imelda Staunton to get – to say “Hem, hem” for the premiere?

Emerson: Okay wait, who told me to…

Andrew: Who told you to tell Imelda Staunton to do the “Hem, hem” for the premiere – at the premiere?

Mikey: Remember somebody was giving you all the ideas, named Mikey?

Andrew: [laughs] No!

[Eric laughs]

Emerson: I think it was, yeah.

Mikey: Wait, wait, what was that, Emerson? Say it once more?

Emerson: That was you.

Andrew: No!

Mikey: Thank you.

Andrew: No!

Mikey: It was me, Andrew! I’m sorry. I’m sorry.

Andrew: That’s weird, we just the lost connection with Emerson.

[Mikey laughs]

Andrew: What? No, I did!

Mikey: Dude!

Andrew: No!

Mikey: It was so me!

Andrew: I had that in my head.

Mikey: All right, you – maybe you thought of it, and I just happened to say it out loud. Oh, come on. All right, you know what, guys?

Andrew: I’m sorry, but…

Mikey: Andrew…

Andrew: …I’m not moving my position on this.

Mikey: I’ll say – Andrew needs all the – you know what? It was all you, Andrew. I’m sorry. I’m not being sarcastic at all. [laughs]

Andrew: Wait, what?

Mikey: I’m just saying – yeah, Emerson said it was me, man, because it was me. It’s all right.

Andrew: But that – I’m upset now. I could’ve sworn that was my idea. [laughs]

Mikey: Now, my question is, have you been telling people that it was all your idea?

Andrew: No, I haven’t. I just said that on the show to come off arrogant, but I’m sure that I said that.

Mikey: [laughs] No.

Andrew: I know that was my idea!

Mikey: [laughs] No, it wasn’t.

Andrew: Yes, it was. I know it. [sighs] Anyway, it’s Pickle Pack Hour here on MuggleCast. Let’s get some – wow, they’re all calling in really, really quick.

Mikey: Hey, guess what, guys?

Andrew: What?

Mikey: I’m eating pizza.

Andrew: Mmm, good. Hi, Hannah!

Caller: Hi.

Andrew: Hi. Can you turn your mic up a little bit?

Jamie: Hey, Hannah.

[Prolonged silence]

Andrew: Hannah?

Caller: Hi.

Andrew: Hi. Can you turn your microphone up a little bit?

Caller: Yup.

Andrew: Thanks.

Jamie: Like a thousand…

Andrew: Like a thousand times, yeah.

Mikey: Hey, was that the first time Emerson was on this live twelve hour…

Andrew: Yeah, yeah.

Mikey: Is he going to come back on, or no?

Andrew: He’s – I don’t know.

Mikey: I like Emerson, he’s my buddy.

Andrew: Are you turning it up, Hannah?

Caller: Yeah, I think so.

Andrew: Well, just speak up really, really loud.

Mikey: Talk in a loud voice.

Caller: Okay, is that better?

Andrew: That’s better, yes.

Caller: Okay.

Andrew: Speak really loud! So, what’s on your mind? You’re a Pickle Pack member, I assume?

Caller: Yeah, I am.

Andrew: Good. What’s your username to verify?

Caller: HannahDundee.

Andrew: Okay, typing it in here. All right, verified.

Mikey: Wait. Hannah, are you from Australia?

Caller: No, I’m from…

Mikey: Oh. Because you said “dundee,” I was thinking Crocodile Dundee.

[Andrew laughs]

Mikey: That would’ve been cool. You’re still cool, but you know…

Andrew: So what’s going on, Hannah?

Caller: I don’t know, I’m just talking to some of my friends right now, and – I don’t know. What’s a good question to ask?

Eric: Do you not have a question prepared?

Andrew: Yeah, you should come prepared. This is a live program we do here.

Mikey: [laughs] Oh.

Eric: Yeah, we’ve got a schedule, come on. Seriously. We haven’t got all day. We only have the next seven hours.

Mikey: Because we’re so prepared for everything we say, and I just talk and I don’t really think.

Eric: No, I’m joking.

Caller: Okay, why do you think Jo didn’t put in – why…

Andrew: Do you want us to come back to you later?

Caller: Sure.

Andrew: All right. See you in a bit.

Eric: Okay, bye, Hannah.

MuggleCast 110 Transcript (continued)

Listener Calls: Favorite Harry Potter Books

Andrew: Yeah, come prepared with questions, folks. We’re doing a live program here. Here’s someone who I know will be prepared. He wasn’t earlier, but he’s learned his lesson. Lucas.

Caller: Yeah, people in the chat are asking if Ryan Sims can come on.

Andrew: Ryan Sims can come on, huh?

Caller: Yeah.

Andrew: I don’t know, we’ll work on that.

Mikey: I like Ryan so much better than you, Andrew.

Andrew: Okay, that’s cool, I guess.

[Everyone laughs]

Andrew: You know what? Here, let me leave and I’ll have him host the show. We’ll see how well that goes.

Mikey: Dude, come on. Ryan with Jaime, Eric, and me, it’ll be totally fine.

Eric: Yeah, the Ryan Sims Sunshine Hour.

[Mikey laughs]

Andrew: Lucas, do you have a question or do you guys…

Lucas: Yeah actually, I have a question.

Andrew: Okay, I’ll be right back then.

Lucas: Yeah, what are your guys’ favorite books now that you’ve finished digesting the seventh book and you’ve comprehended it all?

Eric: You mean favorite Harry Potter books in light of Book 7?

Lucas: Yeah.

Eric: Should I go first?

Mikey: Yeah.

Jamie: Sure.

Eric: I think probably – ooh, Book 3, then Book 6…

[Typing sounds in the background]

Eric: …then “4”, “5”, “2”, “1”, “7” – come back to me.

[Mikey laughs]

Jamie: I’ll go. Mine is in reverse order. I think “7” was just awesome, “6”, “5”, “4”, “3”, “2”, “1”. I thought they just got better and better and better and better.

Mikey: You like – wait, hold on. Stop right there. You liked the Harry Potter – the first one less than you liked Chamber of Secrets?

Jamie: I – yeah, I liked – to be honest, I thought the first – I thought her writing improved exponentially from “5” onwards, and I enjoyed them. I thought the first four were awesome examples of storytelling, but the writing wasn’t amazing. But then, “5” onwards – “5”, “6”, and “7” I thought were amazing storytelling and also her character development – I know I sound like a boring old film reviewer, but her character development and how they’re portrayed, but I thought it got a lot better and her writing just got a lot, lot better as well. I thought it was extremely good. I thought – yeah, reverse order.

Mikey: Wow.

Eric: That’s really cool. You could never sound like an old movie reviewer, boring person, Jamie.

Jamie: Huh? No, I wish I could.

Mikey: He does sound – well, he’s got the British accent.

[Eric laughs]

Mikey: He’s got the British accent already.

Jamie: Yeah.

Eric: Yeah.

Mikey: I like the fifth book the best, but I hated the movie, so…

Andrew: Lucas, what’s going on? You got a woodpecker outside your window or something?

Eric: Okay, who is typing?

Caller: No, I was typing because people in the chat are telling me to – yeah, people in the chat said to make a poll.

Mikey: Are they saying to make a shout-out here?

Caller: They’re saying make a poll for the books.

Eric: That’s the thing. We can’t…

Andrew: Sorry, what was your question?

Eric: We shouldn’t read comments…

Andrew: What was your question?

Eric: …from the chat.

Andrew: What was your question? I left when…

Caller: Oh, it was – yeah.

Andrew: What?

Jamie: Favorite Harry Potter book.

Andrew: Oh, there’s only four options. You can only make four options.

Caller: Yeah.

Andrew: So give me your top four.

Caller: Mine?

Andrew: Anyone. Well, what should we do? We’ll start with…

Eric: We can only make four options?

Andrew: Yeah.

Caller: Yeah.

Andrew: We’ll start with DH.

Eric: What kind of a poll is that? [laughs] We’re MuggleNet!

Andrew: No, no, no! This isn’t MuggleNet, this is over Ustream.

Eric: Oh.

Andrew: I’ll just do the most…

Eric: Do…

Andrew: Goblet of Fire through Deathly Hallows. Is that okay?

Eric: Yeah, okay.

Caller: Yeah.

Andrew: Okay. Start poll. All right, new poll is now live. Okay, let me hang up on you and we’ll see – my brother is not actually here right now but we can call a phone number that he may be at.

Mikey: Ooh!

Andrew: He’s actually down in Ocean City, New Jersey right now. So we’ll do this really quick.

Mikey: Is your sister going to be there? Becca?

[Phone rings]

Andrew: My sister is in the room across the hall, actually.

Mikey: [in a silly voice] Becca!

Eric: Let’s get Becca on.

Andrew: [in a silly voice] Becca. Becca talks…

Eric: Am I the only person in favor of that? [laughs]

Andrew: [in a silly voice] Becca talks like this.

Mikey: [laughs] Let’s just have the entire Sims family on.

Andrew: [in a silly voice] Typical Sims girl.

[Mikey laughs]

Andrew: Typical blonde, I mean. Sorry.

Mikey: Hot Sims.

Eric: Is she a natural blonde, Andrew?

Andrew: No. Yes, yes! Yeah, sorry.

[Everyone laughs]

Eric: No, she just pretends.

Andrew: Hence why she’s so dumb.

Mikey: [laughs] Wow!

Andrew: I’m just kidding.

Eric: Wow.

Mikey: Are you calling all our blonde listeners dumb?

Andrew: Just kidding, just kidding. I don’t think they’re at our place down at the shore right now.

Eric: Yeah, they’re in the ocean.

Andrew: [laughs] Yeah, in the 50 degree ocean.

[Eric laughs]

Listener Calls: Remus Lupin

Andrew: Let’s get another MuggleCast caller in here right now. Elizabeth?

Caller: Hello?

Andrew: Hi. Are you a Pickle Pack member?

Jamie: Hey!

Caller: Hi, I’m Elizabeth!

Andrew: Hi! Are you a Pickle Pack member?

[Echoing sounds in the background]

Caller: Yup, I am.

Andrew: Oh okay. What’s your name? What’s your username?

Caller: Wandless.

Andrew: Oh okay. Verifying, verifying. Okay, verified. So what’s going on?

Caller: Hi. I have a question.

Andrew: Okay, and can you mute your stream, please?

Caller: I have.

Andrew: Okay.

Caller: Yeah.

Andrew: Now you did. Okay, cool.

Caller: With Remus Lupin, you haven’t talked about him much. Do you think that – how he sort of spazzed out on Harry, do you think that’s an accurate portrayal of his character? Because I thought that after the whole thing with Tonks he would have been cool about having a baby.

Jamie: That was – Jo is always keen to show that people human, and I thought that was just her way of saying that people – Lupin has always been so nice to everyone and all friendly, and he’s never got angry. And you’ve got to – occasionally, everyone snaps and everyone gets mad, and it’s such a sensitive subject for him and he feels so guilty about it that I think – he didn’t mean to snap at Harry, but – and Harry was kind of mean. Considering all he risked, to call him a coward is quite an insult.

Eric: Yeah.

Jamie: The same as Snape. And Harry is very, very, very quick to sort of criticize someone’s bravery when he doesn’t know the real story, and I thought – we can forgive Lupin that one indiscretion considering he’s had seven books of being nice and being friendly.

Mikey: Can you?

Caller: Okay, cool.

Eric: Well, since Book 3. I mean, I thought it was strange because he seemed to go – he seemed to undergo several different personal phases which where – as Jamie said, Jo wants to show that everybody is human. And that was cool. That was just really – the scenes with Lupin were really intense and really had me on the edge of my seat.

Jamie: I agree, yeah. I mean, it was extremely emotional but I just – for who Lupin is, I think it’s fine but – [laughs] so one outburst in all those books, considering his situation and the potential dangerous nature of the entire thing.

Andrew: Yeah, yeah. And Harry had a lot going on at that time and I think it’s completely understandable that he would just freak out like that.

Jamie: Exactly, exactly. Why, what do you think, Elizabeth?

Andrew: Yeah.

Caller: Yeah, I thought they were great, but then I think he just sort of – I didn’t expect it at all. It was very unexpected because I thought he would sort of be – I thought he had gotten over the whole prejudice thing after marrying Tonks.

Andrew: Yeah, that’s true. I don’t know. I think it’s understandable, the outburst.

Jamie: I agree.

Andrew: Okay, anyone else?

Jamie: Everyone [unintelligible] that one indiscretion.

Andrew: Yup. All right. Well, thank you for calling in, Elizabeth.

Caller: Thank you!

Andrew: Bye!

Mikey: Bye!

Caller: Bye!

Jamie: Buh-bye!

Eric: It’s great to hear from these people.

Andrew: What did you say?

Eric: I said it’s great to hear from these people.

Andrew: Yeah.

Jamie: I like how “Pickles” has become such a catchphrase that some people sign their e-mails as “Pickles.”

Andrew: I know. [laughs] Instead of “Bye” or…

Jamie: Yeah, “Pickles, John” or whatever.

Andrew: Yeah, yeah.

Jamie: It’s funny. I love it.

Listener Calls: Harry Potter Encyclopedia

Andrew: Hi, Kayla.

Caller: Hello!

Andrew: Are you a Pickle Pack member?

Caller: Yes, I am.

Andrew: Okay, let me verify. What’s your Pickle Pack username?

Caller: It’s Kaylasing311.

Andrew:: Okay, I’m verifying, verifying, verifying. Okay, you’re clear. Proceed.

Caller: Okay. J.K. Rowling said she’s probably writing an encyclopedia, right?

Jamie: Yeah.

Caller: What would you guys most like to see in something like that?

Jamie: Everything.

Andrew: Well – yeah, this is Jo’s opportunity to finally get out all this information that she has and all of her notes that she always says she’s been keeping. All of her – all the questions on the – like backstory she’s wanted to reveal. Most notably, Dean Thomas is one person who she said has an interesting backstory. Maybe we’ll learn about that in the encyclopedia. So I think Jo needs to include anything and everything that comes to her mind, in all seriousness. There’s no point – if this encyclopedia comes out in say a year or two, maybe even longer, why not? Why not put everything out there?

Jamie: But Andrew…

Andrew: You’re moving from Harry Potter, now is the time.

Jamie: But I think this encyclopedia can go two ways: it can either go an awesome way like perhaps Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, which I doubt she thought much about fitting it in to the whole sort of book series but tried to just make it cool and interesting. Because it read like that. It read like – the creatures sounded very fun, very made-up, that kind of thing, which is good because I really enjoyed that book and I’m sure everyone else did. But the encyclopedia, I think she’s either going to fit it in perfectly with the story of the books, or she’s going to take it a very fun way and put backstory for everything and just show people as much of the universe as she can. But I don’t know, I think it depends on what she calls it as well. If she calls it Hogwarts: A History, then I think she has to make it true to the books. But if she calls it The Harry Potter Encyclopedia, then I think she can do whatever she likes, really. It just depends on what she calls it.

Mikey: Yeah, if it’s Hogwarts: A History, I want to know all about the founders, like a really comprehensive backstory.

Eric: Yeah.

Jamie: Precisely, yeah. I want her to write Secrets of the Darkest Arts and Moste Potent Potions.

Mikey: I would like to know a little bit more about the Marauders and their high jinks.

Jamie: Yeah, that would be awesome.

Mikey: That would be cool, yeah.

Andrew: Definitely. Hey…

Mikey: I think – well – oh, I was just going to say one more thing. I think she should just write a Harry Potter encyclopedia, and I really think it should just be kind of like one of those things where she should open up the universe to other authors, like George Lucas did to Star Wars, and have other authors write Harry Potter novels.

Jamie: Is she going to do that, though?

Eric: Yeah, but nobody can write as well as her. I mean, I’m not going to say nobody, but a lot of…

Jamie: No, loads of people…

Mikey: No, I’m not talking fan fiction, I’m talking like she approves all the stuff that’s written and let other real, professional authors tackle everything. Don’t get me wrong, fan fiction is cool, but if you have professional…

Jamie: Mikey?

Mikey: Yeah?

Jamie: Can I quote someone from chat-room quickly? Who just said, “Mikey, that’s a crazy idea!”

Mikey: Really?

[Andrew laughs]

Jamie: Anonymous, anonymous.

Mikey: Anonymous, anonymous? Oh, should I go to the chat-room right now and find out who’s talking on me?

Andrew: Hey, Laura is back now. Welcome back, Laura.

Laura: Hey everybody!

Andrew: Hi.

Eric: Hey, Laura.

Laura: What’s up?

Mikey: Hi, Laura.

Andrew: We’re doing a podcast, how about you?

[Everyone laughs]

Mikey: I’m eating pizza right now.

Laura: Okay. Okay, what I meant was, what are we talking about?

Eric: We’re taking listeners, Pickle Pack…

Andrew: Yeah, it’s Pickle Pack Hour here on MuggleCast Live.

Laura: Oh yay!

Listener Calls: Snape

Andrew: Here’s another Pickle Pack member. QuidditchDestroyal – ugh. [in a sing-song voice] I can’t talk!

Caller: Hey.

Andrew: What’s up?

Caller: Hey, this is Tory from Pickle Pack.

Andrew: Hi.

Caller: My username is KishiShyron9112.

Andrew: Yeah, hold on, let me verify. Don’t say another word.

Caller: All right.

Eric: I’ve seen you before.

Andrew: I’m sorry, your username is not turning up any entries. I don’t think you’re a Pickle Pack member.

Eric: Ask a question before we kick you off!

Caller: Sorry?

Andrew: I’m just kidding, I’m just kidding.

[Eric laughs]

Andrew: She missed the joke.

Caller: I was going to say.

Jamie: [quietly] What’s wrong with [unintelligible] ?

Andrew: Get closer to your mic, Jamie. You’re like…

Jamie: Sorry.

Andrew: Fill it out.

Jamie: What’s wrong with [unintelligible] ?

Caller: Oh no, it’s actually a reference to this Harry Potter fan fiction, Shoebox Project. It’s really awesome. It’s like my favorite fan fiction ever, so yeah.

Andrew: Cool. So what’s on your mind?

Caller: I was actually wondering what you thought about the whole fact that the only reason Snape was good was that he loved Lily. Like I know the books are all about love and all, but do you think that was sort of demeaning to his character?

Andrew: Demeaning – sorry, can you repeat it again? Demeaning to his character that what?

Eric: Well, that…

Caller: The only reason he was – he turned out to be good was because he loved Lily.

Mikey: No, I think it adds…

Laura: [unintelligible] I mean, to love somebody is a wonderful thing, so I don’t necessarily think…

Mikey: I think it adds depth to his character.

Laura: Yeah.

Mikey: He was such a jerk through the whole thing, and then finally he has this – he’s a big old softy. It’s like, “Oh, Severus. Come on, you’re not really that mean. You love Lily.”

[Everyone laughs]

Mikey: I think it adds a little depth to him and makes him kind of like, awww, cute and cuddly, but greasy.

[Caller and Laura laugh]

Jamie: People think that Snape was acting only in his interests, but he wasn’t. Jo is trying to say that someone who is that self-centered, and Snape, although he’s a hero and although he’s incredibly brave…

Mikey: He’s still a jerk.

Jamie: Yeah. Love is his overtaking his whole desire to better himself and save himself, and that’s the whole thing in the books. And it shows that Dumbledore has gone through all seven books, just saying, “Harry, it’s all about you. You can love which means that you can save the day.” But it isn’t only him. Bad people can love as well, people can redeem themselves. But not Voldemort because he’s a psychopath.

Andrew: [laughs] Right.

Eric: Yeah, he can’t love. [laughs]

Andrew: Okay. Well, thank you for calling in.

Caller: Thank you. Oh, and one more thing: just a shout-out to the Vultures.

Andrew: Shout-out! Gak, gak, Pickle Pack!

Eric: Oh my God. We actually made through ten Pickle Pack members without a Vulture shout-out.

Mikey: You know what I love about the Vultures, guys?

Andrew: They don’t stop?

Mikey: Well, no, they don’t get on my case at all…

Eric: They’re incessant? They always want to have presents everywhere they go? The Blickes? The sense of community? The close sense of community? Sorry, Mikey, did you already answer the question a long time ago?

Mikey: Yeah, I did but you’re just rambling.

[Andrew laughs]

Eric: That’s what I do, that’s why they made me…

Mikey: Yeah. See, I love the Vultures because they jump on all you guys about missing a day. But they never really get on me and there’s a reason for it, it’s because I don’t have a day. So it’s nice. I like…

Andrew: I’m fine though. I’m always reliable. Mostly.

Mikey: Mostly. For the most part.

Andrew: Caller, you’re live on MuggleCast. Are you a Pickle Pack member?

Caller: No.

Andrew: You’re not?!

[Jamie gasps]

Caller: No, my thing says not a Pickle Pack member.

Andrew: Well, what thing says not a Pickle Pack member?

Caller: Wait, I thought I changed my details, and I thought it said not a Pickle Pack member.

Andrew: I don’t check details, I just hit the answer button.

Caller: Oh. Well, sorry.

Andrew: Here, call back in a little bit, okay?

Caller: I will.

Andrew: Okay, thanks.

Caller: See you! Bye!

Andrew: We still love you. Bye!

Jamie: Buh-bye!

Andrew: Okay.

[Eric and Laura laugh]

Mikey: I only love Pickle Pack members, I don’t know what you’re talking about.

[Eric laughs]

Andrew: Oh, I love everyone and anyone!

Mikey: No, I love everybody too. But this hour, I only have love for Pickle Pack members.

Andrew: [laughs] Okay, here, let’s try this for a second.

Jamie: And me, Mikey?

Mikey: Hmmm?

Jamie: And me, Mikey? You love me, don’t you?

Mikey: Well, Jamie, of course. You’re like an ultimate Pickle Pack member.

[Jamie laughs]

Mikey: You do get in there, don’t you? You have access, right? I have access.

Jamie: Yeah.

Listener Calls: Curse on DADA Position

Caller: Hello?

Andrew: Hi, you’re live on MuggleCast.

Mikey: Hi.

Caller: Hello?

Andrew: Hi, you’re live on MuggleCast. Are you a Pickle Pack member?

Caller: Yes.

Andrew: Awesome. What’s your username? I need to verify.

Caller: AnimagusPadfoot.

Eric: Hello! How are you?

Andrew: Typing, I’m typing, I’m typing. Okay, verified. What’s going on?

Caller: I’ve got a question: Snape as a DADA professor, he was still at Hogwarts in Book 7. Did the – that didn’t really make sense to me, because of the curse and everything.

Andrew: He broke the curse. He broke the curse.

Eric: Well, the curse only says he can’t be…

Caller: But how? How did he break it?

Eric: The curse only says he can’t be DADA for two years.

Andrew: Oh, that’s true.

Laura: Yeah.

Eric: He can’t hold that position for more than one year.

Caller: Oh okay.

Eric: And Snape was – I mean, that’s just speculation, but that’s what I guess, that it’s just that the actual Defense Against the Dark Arts position can’t be held for any length of a period of time. Also, Snape was at Hogwarts under Voldemort’s orders, or at least Voldemort thought he was, so if there was any kind of thing, then maybe that would happen. But yeah, he wasn’t DADA, he was a headmaster, so one of the Death Eaters or something probably would have taken those classes. Didn’t they say, though…

Jamie: The curse can be broken as well.

Eric: Didn’t Neville tell Harry, or Ginny, that it was just Dark Arts classes instead of Defense Against the Dark Arts?

Jamie: Yes. Yeah, that was in – yeah, the seventh book was just Dark Arts.

Eric: Yeah.

Jamie: Going on from there, I want to say that what I thought was awesome was Jo – sorry to completely change the point, but Jo in the seventh book completely made explicit the nature of Voldemort’s power and the scope of his magical ability. Like when Harry was in – there’s an awesome line when Harry is in Hogwarts and the castle shakes, and Harry’s like…

[Mikey laughs]

Jamie: He finally realizes that the castle was under the grip of more sinister enchantments than that of the Order of the Phoenix. Mikey, what’s funny?

Mikey: [laughs] Sorry guys, I’m going through an e-mail right now.

Jamie: [laughs] Oh.

Mikey: And there’s a picture from Andrea, from Venezuela, and she just put a picture. It says, “Book 4 is here,” and it’s “Mikey B and the pizza that was late.”

[Everyone laughs]

Mikey: Hold on, I need to – all right, I’m going to send a message to everybody here to take a look at this pizza. Who else do we have to add in? We have to add in some people. Everyone just…

Jamie: But yeah, that’s an awesome line, isn’t it?

Mikey: Yeah, sorry, I’m just laughing really hard on this because I was – it was funny.

Jamie: What were we talking about before? Yeah, the curse. And also, curses can be broken, so it’s like – Dumbledore was able to break through the ring curse, and I don’t think…

Caller: But how – okay, go. Finish.

Jamie: No, I was going to say that I don’t think that curses can last forever and they can be broken. I’m not sure how, I think curse law is exactly the same as wand law. Very, very subtle rules govern it that not everyone knows, and it’s extremely hard to find out exactly what’s going on with it.

Andrew: Right, right.

Caller: All right.

Eric: Well, in this case, Voldemort’s death broke the curse, according to J.K. Rowling.

Caller: Oh okay.

Andrew: Okay. Well, thank you for calling in.

Caller: Thank you.

Jamie: Thank you.

Andrew: No problem. Bye!

Mikey: All right, did any of you guys see that picture? “Mikey B and the pizza…”

Laura: Yeah, I just looked at it. I don’t get it, but…

Andrew: Where are you sending this? Oh, I got it.

Mikey: Yeah, I sent it to you.

Jamie: You didn’t send it to me.

Andrew: Oh my gosh! [laughs]

Mikey: Yeah, I did. It’s in the chat-room!

Andrew: Was this just made?

Mikey: This was just made. I was looking at the e-mails. That’s why – I was trying to pay attention and I was reading the e-mails, and I just started laughing because like, “Book 4 is here. It’s Mikey B. I really hope you guys take a look at it and all the others I sent before,” so I don’t know if she sent a bunch of e-mails.

Andrew: Is this a she? Because it’s signed “Andrew,” isn’t it? Or is it “Andrea”?

Mikey: No, Andrea. Andrea.

Andrew: Oh okay. Andrea, okay.

Mikey: Yeah, and apparently…

Eric: That’s such a beautiful name and a beautiful signature.

Mikey: Wait, hold on, “Book 4 is here.” I think she probably did one for each book, each hour we’re doing, guys, about something we’re doing. I think we need to go – I don’t know.

MuggleCast 110 Transcript (continued)

Listener Calls: Names of The Trio’s Children

Andrew: Search for her e-mail. Or call in and give Mikey your number so we know what to look for. Here’s someone calling in, Abbey. Hello, Abbey!

Caller: Hi!

Jamie: Hey!

Andrew: Hi. Are you a Pickle Pack member?

Caller: I am.

Laura: Awesome.

Andrew: Oh, what’s your Pickle Pack username? I need to verify.

Caller: It’s Abbey66.

Jamie: That’s a great word, Andrew. “Verify.”

Andrew: I’m sorry, it’s not turning up any entries.

Eric: You tried that the last time.

Andrew: It says you’re a registered Leaky member though.

[Jamie gasps]

Andrew: So we definitely can’t have you on then.

Jamie: Sorry.

Andrew: This is…

Caller: No, it’s…

Mikey: Uh-oh, uh-oh, Leaky!

Jamie: Ooh.

Andrew: Sorry, it’s – yeah, it’s just the system. It’s just what it’s telling me. I’m just kidding! [laughs] Let’s stop.

Mikey: You’re a big jerk-face, Andrew.

Andrew: I know, I’m silly.

Caller: I was just…

Andrew: [laughs] Go ahead.

Caller: I was just calling to see what you guys thought about the names of the kids in the epilogue, because I thought they were kind of stupid.

Jamie: Some were, yeah. Albus Severus was cry-worthy though.

Caller and

Laura: Yeah.

Caller: That one was by far the worst.

Eric: Maybe that was Jo’s last attempt to get us to cry.

Caller: And who wants to be brothers to the guy your grandparent was named to?

Jamie: Well, that is a fair point, but – I don’t know. Albus Severus, I thought personally – I understand some of them are pretty bad, like Scorpius.

[Laura laughs]

Caller: And Hugo.

Jamie: If my name was Scorpius, I think I’d probably kill myself.

Eric: And Hugo.

Caller: Where did Rose and Hugo come from?

Jamie: I have no idea.

[Eric laughs]

Laura: I feel like you can at least live with those, though, because they’re somewhat normal names. But on top of the fact that you’re already Harry Potter’s child and he named you Albus Severus, it’s just one more thing that you have to deal with, you know? Your dad is this famous guy that defeated this great wizard, so you must already get tons of attention, and then on top of it your name is Albus Severus.

Jamie: Well, Laura…

Caller: Yeah.

Jamie: …I have a story about that. One of my teachers from sixth form was a bit detached from reality in some areas. He had a daughter – his name was Neil Kelly. He had a daughter, and we were sitting in Politics one day – he taught Politics – and we were like, “Oh, congratulations. What did you call her?” And he says “Oh, we called her Grace.”

[Laura laughs]

Jamie: And the entire room just went, “Oh my God, you can’t do that to a child!”

[Eric laughs]

Jamie: “She better be beautiful, all the stick she’s going to get, it’s going to be unbelievable!” And he said “Well, I didn’t expect you to know who Grace Kelly was. It’s completely not your generation.” But yeah, we couldn’t believe he called his daughter Grace Kelly.

[Eric laughs]

Laura: Oh my gosh, that’s horrible.

Eric: Mika wrote this song about your teacher’s daughter?

Jamie: Who did?

Eric: Mika.

[Caller laughs]

Jamie: Sorry, who wrote this song?

Eric: Mika? M-I-K-A. Do you know that artist?

Andrew: Oh yes, you do, Jamie!

Eric: [singing] “I try to be like Grace Kelly!”

Jamie: He also does the news on this show, I think.

Eric: Yes.

[Andrew and Eric laugh]

Eric: Yes.

Andrew: Oh, which reminds me, we’ve got to call him sometime, but we’re filled right now so we’ll do it later.

Caller: Yeah, I just frown.

Andrew: Huh?

Caller: I just felt sorry for all of the kids. And then Rose and Hugo – the only real reason J.K. Rowling would name her kids that was if she was a serious Lost fan or something.

Andrew: [laughs] Oh yeah!

Eric: Yeah!

Jamie: Maybe!

Eric: Yeah! Hugo “Hurley” Reyes, baby! Yeah.

Jamie: She should have called him Michael Dawson.

Mikey: They’re still “R” and “H”, Rose and Hugo, Ron and Hermione.

Caller: Yeah.

Mikey: There’s that, too.

Eric: Oh, that’s strange.

Mikey: There’s that too, guys. Plus – I don’t know. I don’t like the name Hugo. Anyone who is named Hugo, I like you, but the name is…

[Caller laughs]

Andrew: If your name is named Hugo, please call in. I want to know how you live your life.

[Laura laughs]

Mikey: Actually, I love the name Hugo. Now, if your name is Andrew, I am so sorry for you. I mean…

[Andrew pretends to laugh]

Mikey: It’s all right, Toots! It’s all right, Toots!

Andrew: Yeah, I’m Toots. I’m bringing Toots back. For the next six hours, I am Toots! Toots coming at you!

Jamie: Andrew, please don’t call yourself that.

Laura: I am not going to call you that.

Jamie: Thank you! Thank you! I love you.

Andrew: All right, that was Laura who said that.

[Caller laughs]

Andrew: Okay…

[Laura laughs]

Jamie: I love you still, Laura.

Andrew: Abbey, thank you for calling in.

Caller: Okay, wait, I have a question.

Andrew: Oh okay.

Caller: For Pickle Pack there is the Vultures, and what’s the other group?

Andrew: The other group…

Caller: Is it SPoT?

Andrew: What is it, Jamie?

Jamie: SPoT.

Andrew: And what is it for again?

Jamie: It’s for the T-shirts.

Andrew: Oh okay.

Jamie: When we post a question a thousand times a day, on the site, to win a T-shirt, you – people would go and find them very quickly, I think, and then e-mail in quickly to get a T-shirt. I think. I’m not too sure on their foundations.

Andrew: It’s something like that, yeah.

Caller: Oh okay.

Andrew: All right, Abbey? We’ve got plenty of people calling in right now.

Caller: Thank you.

Andrew: Okay, you’re welcome.

Jamie: Bye, Abbey!

Andrew: Bye! We’re literally getting an unbelievable amount of calls. I cannot believe how many people are calling in, because it’s…

Jamie: Andrew?

Andrew: What?

Jamie: I have to quickly interrupt. I’ve just seen in the chat-room – one sec, one sec, one sec.

Mikey: Oh, I should go back to the chat-room, huh?

Jamie: Hang on, hang on, hang on. I have a question that if someone is a Pickle Pack member but is too nervous to call in, then this person will then use their name and call in for them. But that is not allowed, so please don’t do that. We only Pickle Pack members.

Andrew: Yeah, yeah.

Jamie: If you’re a Pickle Pack member.

Listener Calls: Meaning of SPoT

Andrew: Hi, Betsy!

Caller: Hello.

Andrew: Hi.

Caller: Can you hear me?

Andrew: Are you a Pickle Pack member? Yeah, I can hear you.

Caller: Yeah.

Andrew: Awesome. I like your Skype icon, it’s like a pickle or something.

Caller: [laughs] Thanks.

[Eric laughs]

Andrew: What’s so funny, Eric?

Eric: [laughs] I don’t know.

Andrew: Okay.

Eric: I just had – an icon with a pickle and it’s funny.

Andrew: You can laugh at the listeners later, if you want.

[Jamie and Mikey laugh]

Eric: I wasn’t laughing, I would like to hear Betsy’s…

Mikey: Wait, are you laughing at the Pickle Patronus?

Caller: What?

Mikey: Sorry, I’m lost.

Caller: I don’t know.

Mikey: I’m stopping.

Caller: I don’t know what’s going on.

Andrew: So…

Caller: I just wanted…

Andrew: Go ahead.

Caller: I wanted to tell you what SPoT really was.

Andrew: Oh okay, good. Let’s hear it.

Caller: It was made for the contest. It stands for the Society for the Protection of Tee-Peeps (T-Shirtless People).

[Andrew laughs]

Laura: Nice.

Andrew: Okay.

Jamie: Ooh.

Eric: T-shirtless people.

Caller: And we were just talking on – we’re not really anything to do with…

Jamie: See, that sounds like you don’t have T-shirts, and you walk around bare-chested.

[Caller and Eric laugh]

Laura: Maybe they do, Jamie.

Jamie: Perhaps they do, you’re absolutely right.

Laura: Do you have a problem with that?

Eric: Yeah, would that surprise you, Jamie?

Jamie: Yes, Laura. Actually, I do. Yes, I do have a problem with that.

Caller: We’ve been through a few of the live [unintelligible] and – like different Spotters. And Ben is kind of scared of us.

Andrew: Ben is?

[Laura laughs]

Andrew: That doesn’t surprise me.

Caller: We would sit there and he would be like, “SPoT!”

Andrew: Yeah, he’s been running that whole thing. So…

Caller: Yeah.

Eric: So Andrew, has the T-shirt thing been fixed? Will there be anymore T-shirtless people? Or…

Mikey: I’m still waiting on mine.

Andrew: Well, I’m sorry to say that that contest thing is over, that giveaway.

Eric: Oh, I meant the regular Pickle Pack members. The ones who joined up, did they all get their shirts by now?

Andrew: Yes, they – oh, all the people who signed up for Pickle Pack? Mostly everyone.

Mikey: Except Mikey.

Andrew: There’s – Mikey – okay, Mikey – [sighs] can we just be honest? Because this is just a bad rep for the show if you’re just going to make it up. [laughs]

Laura: Yeah, he…

Andrew: Mikey, ladies and gentlemen, is not a Pickle Pack member paid for.

Mikey: I know, I’m sorry about that. I would have paid for it eventually, when I had money. I’m broke.

[Andrew laughs]

Mikey: [unintelligible] It really is. I didn’t pay for it.

Andrew: Actually…

Mikey: Actually, it’s all Andrew’s fault. [laughs] Andrew is the one that gave me the account.

Andrew: Yeah. Well, I did because you’re a host! You’re – things. [laughs] So…

Mikey: I do things. I get the idea to do the – to have Imelda Staunton go “Hem, hem,” right?

Andrew: Right. No! Not right!

[Mikey laughs]

[Andrew presses the Easy Button]

Andrew: [laughs] I think that most people have received their Pickle Pack T-shirts. I don’t want to talk about it on here, but…

Laura: I got mine.

Andrew: Oh okay, good. Some international people – most – everyone has them. [laughs] I think, hopefully.

[Mikey laughs]

Andrew: Why do we have to discuss this on the show? Now I’m getting all sad.

Eric: Well, it’s Pickle Pack Hour. We should actually – in addition to taking comments from Pickle Pack, we should talk about Pickle Pack, I think, and where it’s come and stuff.

Andrew and

Mikey: Yeah.

Mikey: I got tattooed. I got a video of my tattoo process on Pickle Pack. I was pretty impressed with that, guys.

Andrew: Yeah, we haven’t…

Mikey: It hurt quite a bit. [laughs]

Andrew: Yeah, that was actually a hilarious video because Toby was there, too.

Mikey: Yeah.

Andrew: He was just sitting there chilling. I’m like, “Toby’s there? What?”

Mikey: Yeah, Toby from The Remus Lupins was there, so was Kristina from The Parselmouths, and I don’t know if you guys noticed the guy with all the tattoos and the dreads, that’s Carlos. He’s in actually Sirius Black, and Dobby and the House Elves. That was his apartment.

Andrew: What do you mean his apartment?

Mikey: I got it done in his apartment.

Andrew: Oh!

Mikey: Because his roommate is a tattoo artist.

Jamie: Sorry. Mikey, you got – oh right. [laughs] Oh, I thought it was just like a group decision. You were just like, “Hey, hey…”

Mikey: No, no, it was at his place, and – yeah.

Andrew: Yeah, it looks like a real tattoo parlor or something. [laughs] But that was funny. Yeah, there’s tons of content going up on Pickle Pack. Thank you, Betsy, for calling.

Caller: Wait, Alice from England…

Andrew: What about them?

Caller: [laughs] She didn’t get her T-shirt yet.

Andrew: Oh. Well, tell her to e-mail – huh?

Caller: She lives in Leeds, England.

Andrew: Tell her her problem is that she lives in England.

[Caller laughs]

Andrew: Okay?

Jamie: Yeah.

Andrew: So…

Caller: [laughs] Okay. Well, she hears you.

Andrew: Oh okay. Oh, I’m just kidding then.

Caller: And I wanted to give a shout-out to Katelin with an “I.” She’s stuck at work and she wanted to be listening.

[Jamie laughs]

Andrew: Awww. Shout-out! Sorry Katelin who couldn’t make it.

Jamie: What happened to the other eye?

[Andrew and Eric laugh]

Mikey: Wow, that was…

Eric: Katelin with an “I.” Making fun of eyeless people here on MuggleCast.

Jamie: Hey, what do you call a fish with no eyes? A Fshhhhhhh.

Mikey: Oh hey…

Andrew: A – what? [laughs]

Eric: No, no, no. There’s a better joke than that. It’s the exactly opposite, Jamie. What do you call a ten-eyed fish? Fiiiiiiiiiish.

Jamie: Oh yeah.

Andrew: I get it, that’s funny.

Eric: Yeah.

Andrew: Okay, let’s take one more…

Mikey: Guys…

Andrew: What?

MuggleCast Fan Art by Andrea

Mikey: Guys, hold on. Remember how I was talking about how the Book 4 was “Mikey B and the late pizza”? I found the – Andrea has sent us every picture. Book 1 is – what is it? “Jamie Lawrence and the fan girls’ vegetables,” Book 1, and it’s a picture of Jamie with vegetables all around him.

[Andrew laughs]

Jamie: That sounds worrying.

[Mikey laughs]

Andrew: Can you link us to these?

Mikey: Yeah, hold on, I think we should post these.

Andrew: Yeah, we should post them on…

Mikey: Yeah. On MuggleCast. And then Book 2 is Laura, and it says, “Laura Thompson and the unnamed radio show.”

Andrew: Yeah. [laughs]

Mikey: Wait, hold on, I’m looking at number three. The third one is Andrew.

Andrew: Oh good, I was going to say, no more show until there’s one for me.

Eric: Wait, so is the next one me, then?

Mikey: I don’t know, maybe. Wait and see. Book 3 is “Andrew and the fake ticket to the J.K. Rowling reading hour”.

[Andrew and Mikey laugh]

Mikey: So yeah – actually, you know what? Let’s just get a chat-room with every – with all of us in it so we can actually – give me one second, so I can send them all to you guys at once.

Eric: Yeah, let’s get more organized here on Skype.

Mikey: Yeah, we should be organized, guys.

Andrew: Yeah. What we’re going to do – someone create a group chat for us.

Mikey: I’m doing it right. Give me one second.

Andrew: Okay, good. And…

Eric: We should take…

Andrew: Let’s take one more Pickle Pack caller. Of course, don’t fret if you didn’t get through. We’re always going to be taking – oh wow, Skype is doing this differently now on me. Hold on one second. We’re going to be taking calls throughout the rest of the evening. We have six hours to go. According to the official Ustream countdown, we have six hours and three minutes left.

Jamie: Hope everyone is still with us and will be with us. We’re fine. These hours go very quickly. You look at the clock it’s twenty past.

Laura: I know.

Jamie: Then you look again and it’s thirty-five minutes past.

Mikey: These are actually pretty good.

Andrew: Okay, let’s take one more call here. Hello, caller!

Caller: Hi!

Andrew: Hi! You’re live on MuggleCast.

Caller: Oh my God!

Andrew: Oh man! How are you? Are you a Pickle Pack member?

Caller: Yeah.

Andrew: Good. Let me verify. What’s your Pickle Pack username?

Caller: HPotter2.

Andrew: Okay, you’re verified. What’s going on?

Caller: First I’d like to give a shout-out to the MuggleCast fan chat.

Andrew: Okay. Shout-out!

Eric: CFC!

Caller: [laughs] And to my friends Ashley and John.

Andrew: Awesome. And what’s on your mind today?

Caller: I just wanted to call and tell you guys that I love MuggleCast.

Andrew: Awww. Well, good.

Laura: Awww.

Andrew: Glad to hear you enjoy the show.

Caller: And I don’t really have a question because the question I had my friend Ashley had and she called a couple of minutes ago. So yeah.

Andrew: Oh okay. Well, that’s okay.

Jamie: Awww.

Andrew: Well hey, what’s your favorite song when you want to have a good time?

Caller: My favorite song?

Andrew: When you want to have a good time. Tonight.

Caller: I love “Loosen Your Tie” by The Remus Lupins.

Mikey: Yes, The Remus Lupins!

Andrew: Well, what if I said a song from the 80s that you really enjoy when you like to celebrate good times. Come on.

[Laura laughs]

Jamie: Come on?

Mikey: Celebrate?

Andrew: Come on. Come on.

Jamie: [singing] “Celebrate good times, come on.”

Andrew: What song? Come on, you have to intro it! Come on, pressure’s on!

Jamie: I don’t know how it starts.

Mikey: Wait, hold on, she likes listening to The Remus Lupins.

Caller: My computer is freezing, I’m sorry.

Mikey: Alex wants to come back on, guys.

Andrew: Okay. Well, after the break. After the break. We need to go to a break and regroup here.

Jamie: Andrew, can we have some Boys Like Girls, please?

Andrew: In a little bit, in a little bit. I got the songs already queued up here.

Jamie: It cut out anyway.

Andrew: Yeah, I let it go.

Eric: These images by Andrea are amazing.

Andrew: They are amazing.

Mikey: Yeah. The pictures are pretty darn good.

Laura: Yeah, they’re way cool.

Mikey: I’m pretty impressed.

Eric: They’re insane, I just…

Mikey: And actually – Eric, she e-mailed me specifically because I messaged her back, and she says she’s working on one like the Comic Relief that Rowling released. Book 5 is for Eric but nothing that’s funny has happened to you yet.

Eric: I know!

Mikey: I think it should be Eric Scull or – wait, wait, I’ve got to read them all quick, hold on. It should be Eric Scull and…

Jamie: Mikey, wait, wait. One second. Andrew, what’s happening now? Are we…

Andrew: Well, we’re going to – yeah, we’re going to go to break. We’re going to go to break.

Eric: I just need something funny to happen to me before we go to break.

Jamie: Eric, wait, wait, wait.

Mikey: Yeah.

Andrew: [laughs] Okay then. We’re all waiting, so do something.

Mikey: [laughs] Come on, Eric. Eric, do something funny.

Eric: Oh, I thought I had funny things acted upon me.

Jamie: We aren’t even on air, so what difference does it make?

Andrew: We are.

Jamie: No, we’re not.

[Laura laughs]

Andrew: Yes, we are.

Jamie: No, we’re not.

Eric: Wait, Jamie says we’re not. Why aren’t we?

Andrew: Oh, that’s weird. It’s – oh good, Skype – Firefox crashed. Well, that’ll be a good reason to not be on air. Why does it keep doing that? Well, it’s only the second time.

Jamie: It’s fine, it’s only every few hours.

Andrew: Yeah, I guess. Other – [laughs] other than that, I think it’s been going really well.

Laura: Yeah, apparently, Andrew, earlier when we thought we weren’t live, we were.

Andrew: Yeah, I think it was only for a real short amount of time, though.

Laura: Yeah.

Jamie: Why, what did we say?

Laura: I was dissing my school’s football team. [laughs]

Andrew: [laughs] Oh.

Laura: Yeah.

Mikey: We’re currently off air. Oh no!

Laura: [laughs] Whoops.

Andrew: Hold on. My shows.

[Prolonged silence]

Andrew: Oh, Leo’s doing a show? We’re competing with Leo on Ustream? [laughs]

Jamie: And we’re winning.

Andrew: Yeah, we are winning. Not right now though because…

Mikey: Are we beating Leo? Really?

Andrew: Yeah, we have a louder “shout” than Leo does. Start broadcast.

Eric: Leo Laporte.

Mikey: Really?

Jamie: Andrew, can you put Boys Likes Girls on in this break?

Andrew: I can’t, I already got the thing – all right, we’re back! All the listeners are coming back in. Apologize for that. It was Firefox that crashed. That’s what happened that time before, too. So Eric, think up something funny. We got to go to break here. Come on, we got commercials. We got money to – I’m not making any sense.

Eric: Okay. Well, I thought funny things happened – did you guys each come up with your own things, or what?

Andrew: Sort of.

Mikey: No, she picked them. Well no, because – all right, let’s say – the perfect example is my pizza. Me and Andrew ordered a pizza at the same time, right? And I ordered a little bit before Andrew and I thought my pizza – I thought it was ensuring that my pizza was going to get there early before Andrew’s but Andrew’s came first, so mine is “Mikey B and the pizza that was late.”

Andrew: Right.

Mikey: And there’s a pizza behind me and I’m all sad looking.

Announcement: Pickle Pack

Jamie: Well, Andrew – Eric, while you’re thinking, we have an announcement to make…

Andrew: Oh, good point.

Jamie: …about Pickle Pack.

Andrew: Yes.

Jamie: So we posted a while ago on Pickle Pack about re-opening it, and after sorting out a few problems we decided that we are going to re-open it for two weeks. And then – and…

Andrew: Wait! Sorry, sorry, wait. I started the broadcast but I didn’t turn the audio on. I’m sorry. We’re live now! Sorry about that. Apologize.

Jamie: Okay.

Andrew: [laughs] So go ahead now.

Jamie: [laughs] Okay, okay.

[Eric laughs]

Jamie: We’re going to be re-opening Pickle Pack for two weeks soon, not sure when it’s going to open, but everyone’s membership is going to last exactly the same time so there will be no extra bonuses for people joining now. But we thought it is fair since some people did miss out and it’s just in time for Christmas as well, so there we go. Also, last thing, I have a vegetable for this hour. What was the last one I did? Okay, I can’t say it because…

Andrew: [laughs] Yeah.

Jamie: …if people weren’t listening – this one’s – this hour’s vegetable is the famous onion. Don’t know if it’s famous.

Eric: The famous onion?

Jamie: It’s the onion. Okay?

Eric: Oh man, you’re going to make me cry, Jamie. You’re going to make me cry.

Jamie: Awww.

Eric: No, no, I actually – I’ve been wanting to cry all week because I’ve been so busy at university. This is the only thing I can think of, that’s quite pitiful. But every week I do my Blickle for Pickle Pack and it’s – you know, it’s just like this constant thing. I’m – if I do something interesting I’ll just bring my camera along and that’ll be that week’s Blickle, and it’s just – very lately, my second trimester of university here at Victoria University in Wellington, New Zealand is going really busy right now. I just had a Philosophy paper. It took me a whole week to do. And this week I have an English paper. It took me a whole week – or it’s going to take me a whole week to do. And then next week I have a paper as well. It’s just really, really busy, not even exam cram time, and I’ve been in school since February. So I don’t know how that can be turned into a really colorful picture by Andrea, but I’m hoping! I’m hoping for Book 5, some kind of craziness at uni study, grades…

Mikey: Guys, should we post these pictures on Pickle Pack for our Pickle Pack members?

Andrew: No, no, let’s do it for everyone since we already mentioned it. [laughs]

Mikey: [laughs] Oh yeah, we’re picking on this – yeah.

Andrew: That means like we’re selling her work then. [laughs]

Mickey: Oh yeah, yeah.

Andrew: Okay, so…

Eric: Use your creative intuition, Andrea! [laughs]

Andrew: We’re going to take a break. During the break we will post those links on MuggleCast.com. Also, coming up in the next hour, we’re going to have a wizard rock hour. Alex Carpenter will be back, we’ll talk about – let’s talk about wizard rock! See where it’s going and stuff like that. Maybe we’ll get some other wizard rockers in. Also, we have a fandom discussion planned but maybe that will go into the next hour. It’s prime time here on MuggleCast, 6:04 East Coast time. You’re listening to Toots and a bunch of losers who like Harry Potter.

[Mikey laughs]

[Music begins]

Mason: What’s up, MuggleCast listeners? This is Mase here with some information that you need. Before we start off this twelve-hour live podcast, I need to tell you about GoDaddy.com. GoDaddy.com’s economy package is just $3.59 a month for a year. With the economy package, you get 250 gigs of bandwidth, 5 gigs of storage, and up to 500 e-mail accounts. But if you think that’s all, you’re wrong because when you check out, you can save 10% by entering code “Muggle.” That’s right, M-U-G-G-L-E, Muggle. Some restrictions do apply. Check the site for details. If you’re planning to build a website, take advantage of this offer. Get your piece of the internet at GoDaddy.com

[“Celebration” by Kool & The Gang plays]

Eric: This was last week’s theme music.

[Song continues]

Jamie: What’s your favorite radio station? Your favorite radio city, the city by the bay, the city that rocks, the city that never sleeps!

Eric: That’s Starship, “Built This City.”

[Song continues]

———————–

Transcript #109

September 21, 2007 / MuggleCast

MuggleCast 109 Transcript

Matt’s Birthday Party

Andrew: Welcome back ladies and gentlemen to MuggleCast Live. We’re entering our third hour here on MuggleCast and let’s see, it’s 2:05 PM here on the East Coast. A beautiful sunny day in Medford, New Jersey. Jamie, how are you doing?

Jamie: I’m very, very good. The kettle is just boiling. I’m going to make a lovely cup of tea, and sit back and get back to what I enjoy the most: podcasting.

Andrew: Isn’t that adorable?

[Jamie laughs]

Laura: Awww, that sounds lovely.

Andrew: [laughs] Okay, we’re trying to get – well, sort of, not really. We’re trying to get a couple of MuggleNet staff members involved here in today’s show program…

Laura: Oh, I know…

Andrew: …thing.

Laura: …who this is.

Andrew: And someone…

Matt: Hi!

Andrew: Hey! Matthew Britton, a MuggleCast transcriber.

[Jamie gasps]

Andrew: And…

Laura: Hey, Matt!

Jamie: Matthew, Matthew, Matthew.

Andrew: How’s it going, Matt?

Matt: Jamie! I’m good. How are you guys doing?

Andrew: We’re good. You had a big birthday party last night. I’m kind of upset…

Matt: Yes.

Andrew: …I wasn’t there.

Matt: Yeah.

Andrew: How did that go?

Matt: It was a lot of fun.

Andrew: Yeah?

Matt: A lot of – well, let’s see, who came?

Andrew: Well, Mikey was there. [laughs] Do you remember?

Matt: Mikey? Oh, Mike. [laughs]

[Laura laughs]

Matt: Yeah, I forgot Mikey went. Yeah, Mikey was here, so was Alex Carpenter and a whole bunch of our Harry Potter peeps.

Laura: Awww.

Andrew: Matt, you are such a celebrity! You had Alex Carpenter at your birthday party? I’m so jealous!

Matt: Yeah, it’s LA, dude.

Andrew: [laughs] No, but at your [emphasis on “your”] birthday party. [laughs]

Matt: Oh, yeah.

Jamie: Matt, I asked him to come to mine and he moaned about something called the ocean.

[Andrew laughs]

Jamie: I was like, “Come on, Alex.”

[Laura laughs]

Matt: Yeah.

Jamie: “Come on, come on, you’re…”

Matt: You can’t really drive across the ocean this fast.

Jamie: No, but you can swim and that is a lack of dedication from him, I think.

[Everyone laughs]

Andrew: If he can road tour cross-country, he can swim the ocean, I think.

Jamie: Yeah. Awww poor, very poor.

Andrew: And then brand new Go-Daddy [laughs] girl, Lauren was also there.

Matt: Oh yeah, Go-Daddy girl was here.

[Andrew laughs]

Matt: She just left though.

Andrew: Awww.

Matt: Yeah.

Andrew: And I hear Go-Daddy guy was invited, but turned it down.

Matt: Yes, our Go-Daddy guy did not come because apparently Arizona and California is still kind of a long drive.

Andrew: If I was in Arizona, I would have went. It’s not that far.

Matt: Well, [unintelligible] Arizona, I would have actually driven and dragged you back.

[Andrew laughs]

Jamie: There you go.

Andrew: Well – yeah, there you go. Cool. Well, I hear you guys are on – well, by hear, I mean you told me – you guys are running off to another party tonight. So that’s what the MuggleCast transcribers do… [laughs]

Matt: Yeah.

Andrew: …if you are wondering where the transcripts are. [unintelligible]

Laura: Yeah, big party. It’s all work for the hosts.

Jamie: What else is on…

Matt: What?!

Jamie: …your mind, Matt?

[Andrew and Laura laugh]

Matt: Laura, I did not just hear that from you.

[Laura and Matt laugh]

Andrew: In all seriousness, the transcribers do put a lot of work into the…

Laura: Yes…

Andrew: …MuggleCast transcripts.

Laura: …they do.

Matt: Yeah, they do.

Andrew: Although, I got an IM from Sam earlier saying you’ve been a little slow on the upkeep. Any comment on that? [laughs]

Matt: Umm, I kind of have a life, Andrew. And…

Andrew: Oh, okay! [laughs]

Matt: [laughs] Yeah.

Andrew: Perfectly understandable.

Matt: I’m not saying that the other transcribers don’t have lives because I – oh my God, they’re going to kill me.

[Everyone laughs]

Andrew: But to be fair, you are the only guy. Or are you not?

Matt: Yeah, I have been – well, technically the only guy.

Jamie: [laughs] Technically?

Andrew: [laughs] What is that?

Matt: No. I mean, Micah is still doing it, isn’t he?

Andrew: Well…

Jamie: Yeah.

Matt: Yes.

Jamie: Yeah.

Matt: Yeah. Micah, you’re still doing it, right?

Andrew: He’s not here.

Jamie: “Technically,” Matt, is something you aren’t meant to say…

Matt: No, I know he’s not here. I’m not that stupid.

Andrew: Oh, okay.

[Jamie laughs]

Andrew: Well, he doesn’t actually transcribe. Or…

Matt: No…

Andrew: …am I the only one who knew that?

Matt: …he just posts it.

Andrew: Yeah, there you go. [laughs]

Jamie: Andrew, Andrew, I have a new idea for transcribing. Do you know those programs that you sort of speak into them and then it writes it down? What we should do is hook those up to microphones that then plays MuggleCast over, and then the program can just write down whatever you want to say. Would that work?

Andrew: No, probably not. It’ll probably be flawed because…

Jamie: I think we should try.

Matt: Yeah, it doesn’t really work because I tried it.

Andrew: And…

Jamie: Really?

Matt: [laughs] Yeah.

Andrew: Did you really? [laughs]

Matt: [laughs] Yeah, I did.

Jamie: That’s awesome.

Laura: What a cop out.

Jamie: Well, that’s a great idea. It shows…

Laura: That’s a terrible thing, Matt.

Jamie: …initiative and drive. I love it.

Matt: It’s all good.

Andrew: Matt wins points for being clever.

Matt: Yeah.

Andrew: So your birthday was the other day. Happy Birthday, by the way.

Matt: Oh, thank you.

Andrew: And yeah…

Jamie: The big 22.

Andrew: 22.

Laura: You’re not old. You were complaining to me about how you were old.

Matt: Awww. Well…

Jamie: No, Matt. I disagree, Matt. You’re old.

Matt: I’m older than a lot of you guys.

Jamie: Yeah.

Matt: That’s sad.

Andrew: Yeah, we’re a bunch of teenagers.

Matt: Yeah…

Laura: We love you.

Matt: …shut up, Andrew.

[Jamie laughs]

Andrew: We’re young and hip.

[Laura and Matt laugh]

Andrew: Although – yeah. So – and Go-Daddy girl and I called you the other day, and that was fun. [laughs] For a birthday song.

Matt: Yeah, that was interesting. That was so nice.

Andrew: We sang like…

Matt: Yeah.

Andrew: …dumb people. It was…

Matt: Yeah, you guys – and you sang pretty loud, too. My roommate could hear it across the room. He was like, “Who is singing to you?”

Andrew: Okay. Well, it was supposed to be joyous, so we had to sing loud…

[Jamie laughs]

Andrew: …and proud.

Matt: You guys were laughing. I could barely hear what you guys were saying for the first three minutes.

Andrew: Yeah.

Jamie: Ooh, it’s all coming out now, Laura. Listen to it.

Andrew: Okay. Well, you know what? Whatever, okay? So…

Matt: Okay.

Andrew: Yeah. And you’re welcome for coming on…

Matt: Oh.

Andrew: …my show, okay?

[Jamie laughs]

Matt: Your show?

Andrew: My show.

Laura: Oh, it’s your show now, Andrew?

Andrew: Yeah, it’s my show.

Jamie: God, Laura, it’s his ticket to the…

Laura: Yeah, really.

Jamie: He thinks it’s his show?

Laura: You know what? I quit, I quit.

[Jamie and Matt laugh]

Laura: I’ve had enough of this. This is ridiculous.

Matt: Awww.

Andrew: Anyway, let’s get back to my show here. So…

[Everyone laughs]

Andrew: So Matt, I announced to everyone that I secured tickets to Kelly Clarkson.

[Matt gasps]

Andrew: And you happen to be one of the people going.

Matt: Are you serious? Oh.

Andrew: You knew that, didn’t you?

Matt: Are you serious? Am I actually going to Kelly Clarkson?

[Laura laughs]

Andrew: Let me look at my chat here. Yeah, yeah, you are actually going to Kelly Clarkson. [laughs]

[Matt sighs]

Andrew: What’s the problem? Wait, wait, wait, what’s the problem here?

Laura: I don’t think that was a problem.

Jamie: No, I think it was a “Ahhh, yeah!”

[Andrew and Laura laugh]

Matt: Oh, yeah.

Laura: Yeah.

Matt: Yeah, I accidentally muted myself. You didn’t hear me scream out, “Yay!”

Andrew: [laughs] Okay, this is kind of weird now. I wasn’t aware you weren’t a fan of Kelly Clarkson. But anyway – hey, is there anything…

Matt: Yes…

Andrew: …Harry Potter…

Matt: …you did!

Andrew: …you want to talk about? Huh? What?! What?! [laughs]

Matt: Yes, you freaking did.

Andrew: [starts singing] “Since you’ve been gone.”

[Matt laughs]

Andrew: So Matt, anything Harry Potter you want to talk about? Because…

Matt: Let’s see. I’m in a house full of Harry Potter stuff, let me look.

Andrew: Oh, whose house are you ñ oh, you’re at Tasha’s?

Matt: Tasha Carter, yeah.

[Tasha says “Hi” in the background]

Andrew: I was just going to say, why hasn’t she yelled into your microphone yet? [laughs]

Matt: Yeah. Well…

Andrew: Tell Tasha I said hi. Or we said hi.

Matt: Yeah. Alex was about to yell in it but he…

Andrew: Oh, wait a second, Alex is here? Alex is still there?

Matt: Yes. He’s asleep.

Andrew: Oh.

Matt: I don’t want to wake him up.

Laura: Oh, who cares?

Andrew: I was going to say, heck with you on the microphone. I want to talk to Alex. He’s a real star.

Matt: Oh geez. It’s my – okay, it’s my computer.

[Andrew laughs]

Matt: I do whatever – it’s your show but I can disconnect at any time, so dude…

Laura: Actually, Brittany from Connecticut says that it’s my show.

Andrew: What? You mean Laura’s show?

Laura: Yes. “Laura, I think it’s your show.”

Jamie: What has she done for the show?

Matt: Wait, isn’t she your roommate?

Laura: No!

Matt: Oh.

Laura: Brittany from Connecticut? No.

Matt: I don’t know!

[Laura laughs]

Matt: One of the small states in the East Coast.

Andrew: I think what everyone is forgetting is that all I have to do is hit the power button on my computer and the whole show is gone.

[Jamie laughs]

Andrew: So whose show is it now, huh? Whose show?

[Jamie laughs]

Laura: Whatever.

Matt: Ha ha ha.

Andrew: But [laughs] in all seriousness, Matt, let Alex know we want to talk to him later on.

Matt: Okay. No, well, you guys just call me and tell me when you want him on so…

Andrew: Are you hanging out with him today?

Matt: Yeah, we’re all going to another birthday party tonight.

Andrew: Oh, I thought ñ okay.

Matt: Dude, Alex goes wherever I go. Come on.

[Andrew and Matt laugh]

Andrew: I have a feeling that’s not so true but…

Matt: Yeah.

Andrew: And then, where’s Mikey?

Matt: He left last night because he had to work.

Jamie: Awww.

Andrew: Oh, he left last night?

Matt: Yeah. Well, this morning actually. I think it was like 3:00 AM.

Andrew: Oh. It was really funny, your voicemail that you left me last night – I’m pretty sure it was him. You were talking to me, and then he yells in the background, he’s like, “Is that Andrew?!” [laughs] It was just so funny.

Matt: [laughs] Yeah, we made – we were going to make a birthday video for – well, my birthday, but we made a video for everybody and I guess it didn’t work, so I was sad.

Andrew: What do you mean? What, for a Blickle? Or…

Matt: Yeah. Or something.

Andrew: Oh. Well…

MuggleCast’s East Coast Tour with The Remus Lupins

Matt: Oh hi, Alex. Do you want to say hi?

Andrew: Is Alex ñ yeah, put Alex on and then we’ll get on with the show here.

[Sounds of a microphone being moved]

Andrew: Good audio they have over there. Alex!

Alex Carpenter: Hey. Morning.

Laura: Hey, Alex!

Jamie: Hey!

Andrew: What’s going on, man? You just woke up. Sorry.

Alex: I just ñ yeah, they just woke me up to come talk to you guys.

Andrew: [laughs] Awesome. We’re actually doing a live twelve hour podcast here and…

Alex: I heard you guys are mounting the marathon podcast.

Andrew: Yeah. Yeah, we’re not messing around. This is all live, and it’s going to be sweet.

Jamie: We add twelve hours every week, Alex, so it’s going to be twenty-four next week.

[Alex and Andrew laugh]

Jamie: And then forty-eight.

Alex: We were hanging out last night, I was talking to Mikey about things you guys should do on the podcast.

Andrew: Yeah? What were your ideas?

Alex: I’m not going to say them now, because you have a lot of time to fill.

Andrew: Oh. Fair point.

Alex: I’ll get back on and…

Jamie: Oh yeah.

Alex: …give you ideas over the course of the time like, “Hey, you guys should do this.”

Andrew: [laughs] Yeah.

Alex: And then you’ll have to do it right then.

Andrew: [laughs] Okay. Yeah, I think Mikey is supposed to be on later tonight, and then he told me he was going to try and get all you wizard rockers on. But…

Alex: Somebody just handed me a Red Bull. [laughs]

Andrew: Oh, nice.

Alex: It was Tasha. [laughs]

Andrew: Tasha Carter. Hey, we were actually talking about the tour and how much fun it was earlier. I miss you, Alex.

Alex: Yeah.

Andrew: It was a lot of fun, man.

Alex: Dude, I miss you too, honestly. I was saying – again to Mikey – that every fourth thing that the guys in my band say to me is like, “We miss the guys from MuggleCast.”

Andrew: Awww, really? [laughs]

Alex: Yeah.

Andrew: Awww, that’s a bummer.

Jamie: Awww.

Andrew: Darn.

Alex: It was the best.

Andrew: It was.

Alex: It was the best part of the summer, man. It was awesome.

Andrew: Definitely, and we’re up for doing it again. I’m going to cry too. Let’s…

Alex: Awww.

Andrew: East Coast Tour. Let’s announce it right now.

Laura: Yeah, I’m jealous now. I want to go on a tour.

[Andrew laughs]

Alex: Well, you should have come. Other than Ben Schoen crashing cars and stuff…

Laura: [laughs] Yeah.

Andrew: Ben Schoen did not crash any cars. [laughs] We tried to have fun one day.

Jamie: [laughs] Yeah.

Alex: And that’s what happens.

Andrew: We left a mark on the car, that’s all.

[Alex laughs]

Jamie: And by small, you mean massive.

Andrew: It wasn’t that big.

Alex: Well, you guys know what happened with our car, right?

Andrew: No, what happened?

Alex: Did you hear anything about that? Okay well, again – so I guess I should say for the people who don’t know, my friend Brandon basically coaxed Ben into crashing into a cone, and it left a serious mark on the car.

[Andrew laughs]

Alex: On the MuggleCast rental car. And later, the last day of tour, we were driving back from Arizona to California and there were these gorgeous sand dunes.

[Jamie laughs]

Alex: Like Tatooine crazy sand dunes.

[Andrew laughs]

Jamie: I can see where this is going, Alex.

Alex: Oh yeah. Brandon thought it’d be cool to drive into the dunes. Now, I maintain I said this was a bad idea. Maybe I didn’t say it loud enough, but – so he drove off of the road into the sand dune, and we’re in a fifteen-passenger van loaded down with gear, and we just sink immediately into the sand.

Andrew: [laughs] Oh my God.

[Jamie laughs]

Laura: Oh my God.

Alex: [laughs] And so we’re like twenty feet from the concrete and just stuck in the sand, running late as usual for our show. It was pretty gnarly. It was a good time because we had to push it.

Jamie: That’s awesome.

Andrew: How deep did the car sink? Was it like really, or was it just…

Alex: No, no, no, it was like – the tires were probably like a foot and a half deep.

Andrew: Oh okay.

Alex: So we had to keep…

Jamie: That’s quite a bit though.

Alex: Yeah. Well, it’s a big van too. But we had to keep digging the tires out and pushing the car…

[Andrew laughs]

Alex: …about a foot forward.

Andrew: Wow.

Alex: Yeah. It was good times.

Andrew: That sucks. [laughs] That’s like – did you take pictures or anything?

Alex: Yeah, Matt from The Whomping Willows filmed the whole thing.

Andrew: [laughs] Oh awesome. We’ve got to see that.

Alex: Yeah, it was great. He didn’t help at all.

[Everyone laughs]

Andrew: Matt is a great guy, too. So do you guys – are you on break for a while now in terms of touring?

Alex: Yeah, we’re just relaxing a little bit. I was actually recording some new stuff with Toby yesterday.

Andrew: Oh awesome.

Alex: My drummer. And yeah, I mean, we’re still working on stuff. There’s a lot going on but not in terms of touring.

Andrew: Okay.

Alex: There’s a big…

Jamie: Alex, we have some live feedback for you.

Alex: Oh.

Jamie: We have an e-mail from Sarah, from New York, who says in capital letters:

“ALEX, WILL YOU PLEASE HAVE WEREWOLF BABIES WITH ME?”

Andrew: What?

[Laura laughs]

Alex: As long as they’re color-changing.

[Andrew and Laura laugh]

Alex: That’s my stipulation.

[Andrew laughs]

Jamie: I agree with that. Fair enough.

Andrew: So you’re working on some new songs and…

Alex: You guys ñ I really think that all your shows should be live. I think that’s really cool.

Andrew: Yeah.

Alex: Live feedback on MuggleCast.

Andrew: Yeah, it’s going well. We can take calls too and stuff. We just need to all be in one place, then we can do a serious radio show. Right now it’s just hack – it’s a big hack over Skype. But…

Jamie: [laughs] Yeah.

Alex: It is kind of funny that this whole thing is just moving towards what’s normal radio already.

Andrew: Yeah.

Alex: [laughs] Like this is so cool for us right now, but people do this all the time.

Andrew: Yeah. [laughs] Yeah, exactly.

[Alex and Jamie laugh]

Andrew: So next summer…

Alex: I miss you guys. Sorry, I keep saying it.

Andrew: Dude, I miss you too. There’s rumors ñ I can’t confirm anything, but there’s rumors that we’re going to be…

Alex: Well, it’s just us talking right now. Nobody is listening to this.

Andrew: That’s true. There isn’t…

[Alex laughs]

Andrew: There isn’t 767 people listening right now.

Alex: Hey.

Andrew: But we may be seeing you in, say New Years, for, how do I say…

Jamie: A gathering.

Andrew: …Vegas? [laughs] Right? Tell me you’re going to be there.

Alex: Oh, I didn’t hear what you said.

Andrew: Vegas, Las Vegas.

Alex: You mean in a month, or two months?

Andrew: No, no, no, it wouldn’t be until – New Years. Vegas, New Years.

Alex: Yeah, yeah.

Andrew: Okay, cool.

Alex: You’re talking about this year not…

Andrew: Yeah.

Alex: …next year.

Andrew: Oh no. Yeah, this year.

Alex: Yeah.

Andrew: Okay, awesome. [sighs] So I guess I won’t see you until then. That’s kind of a bummer. But…

Alex: It is.

Jamie: That’s sad.

Andrew: Whatever. So – hey, thanks for coming on, and we’ll definitely talk to you later on with Mikey or something?

Alex: Yeah. Well, I’m going to think of some trouble for you guys to get into.

Andrew: Okay, cool. And we got a couple of songs cued up for our breaks. We take breaks here on the show.

[Alex laughs]

Andrew: And we’re going to play a couple of your songs in between. Are you laughing?

Alex: No.

Andrew: What, you expect us to – sorry, I haven’t seen any…

Alex: I thought you guys are a little harder-core than you are.

Andrew: Excuse me? I haven’t any twelve-hour concerts out of you guys yet.

[Jamie and Laura laugh]

Alex: That’s next.

[Andrew laughs]

Alex: Is that a challenge?

Andrew: Yeah, it’s a challenge!

[Alex and Andrew laugh]

Alex: All right, guys. Have an awesome time with your marathon.

Andrew: All right. Thanks for calling in.

Jamie: Buh-bye!

Laura: Bye!

MuggleCast 109 Transcript (continued)

Mexican Independence Day

Andrew: Is he switching back over to Matt? Matt, are you coming back on?

[Prolonged silence]

Andrew: Okay, we’ll hang up for now. All right. Well, that was good. That was good.

Jamie: It was fun.

Andrew: Alex and Toby, Brandon, and Tyler, great group of guys in The Remus Lupins. We encourage you to check them out over at FightEvilReadBooks.com. That redirects them to – that redirects you to your Myspace. I want to read an e-mail here. I actually – well, I’m going to start off by saying Happy Mexican Independence Day to everyone.

Jamie: Yes.

Laura: Awesome.

Jamie: Happy ñ yes, I agree.

[Andrew and Laura laugh]

Jamie: But actually, Andrew, it’s tomorrow. No, no, it’s tomorrow.

Andrew: No, it’s today.

Jamie: No, it’s not. The e-mail says that ñ well actually, it’s from the sixteenth, but the celebration starts the day before.

Andrew: Oh okay. Yeah, so O Rodriguez from Mexico writes:

“You have to be joking. September 15th? It’s the Mexican Independence Day! I’m sure I’m going to totally miss it. I wish you could change the date but since I’m probably the only Mexican writing to you guys about this and since I’m sure you wouldn’t care even if I wasn’t, then, well, there’s my complaint.”

Jamie: Awww.

Andrew: [continues]

“So Happy Mexican Independence Day, MuggleCasters. Greetings from that weird country south of the US.”

[laughs] That’s funny…

Laura: It’s not a weird country!

Andrew: I was going to say, that’s funny, because actually that’s what I always call it.

Laura: Oh my gosh.

Jamie: Yeah.

Laura: Andrew…

Andrew: What?

Laura: …you’re terrible. Did you just say that you call it a weird country?

Andrew: No. It’s just the weird country south of the US.

Laura: Oh my gosh.

Jamie: Awww. I have a question. I have a question to everyone listening, please e-mail it in to the live feedback form, which wizard rocker would build a bridge to the other side?

[Laura laughs]

Andrew: I don’t know.

Jamie: No, no, you aren’t supposed to answer. Wait until they – wait until the first person e-mails in.

Andrew: Oh.

Jamie: I’m sitting here refreshing, F5, F5, F5. Come on, everyone. Come on, come on, come on, come on, come on.

Andrew: Yeah. Okay, so let’s do some stuff here.

Jamie: Go for it.

Andrew: So a couple of months ago – actually, sorry, let me get to an e-mail quick, from Lenna Blazer of Baltimore, Maryland. She does clear up the J.K. Rowling ticket thing. She quotes Scholastic:

“All winners will be selected by random drawing. Winners will be notified on or about September 14th, 2007. Odds of winning are determined by the number of eligible entries received. Scholastic is not responsible for late, lost, stolen, misdirected, damaged, mutilated, postage due, incomplete, or ineligible entries or mail.”

“We still might have a chance,” says Lenna.

Jamie: There you go, then. Two people have e-mailed in. Matt says, “The Remus Lupins.” No, Alex did not do it. Lexi says, “Paul and Joe DeGeorge.” No, not Harry and the Potters. But Mary says, “Oliver Boyd and the Remembralls”…

Andrew: That would be it.

Jamie: …which is preciously right. We encourage you to check them out as well at myspace dot com slash – it is “Oliver Boyd and the Remembralls”? I think. If not, use your best friend Google.com and type in “Oliver Boyd and the Remembralls” because Google can find anything. Isn’t that right, Andrew?

Laura Mallory

Andrew: Yes. Laura, could you update us on the Laura Mallory situation, please?

Laura: Well, I’m not really living in Georgia anymore, so…

[Andrew and Laura laugh]

Laura: …I haven’t been paying tons of attention to her. But…

Andrew: I mean, what was the last thing you heard? Has she been laying low, or…

Laura: Last I heard, she wasn’t getting as much media attention as she had been. I know that she was talking about how she was going to appeal again. But to be perfectly honest, I mean, it was actually a pretty hot story in our area, because I only lived about half an hour from her. But it got to the point where people were just like, “Oh, we don’t care anymore.” You know, Laura Mallory, everybody knows who she is and she’s lost like six times now, so no one cares.

Andrew: Right. [laughs]

Laura: Yeah, as far as I know, she’s still working on her case. I don’t know exactly if she has another date set or not.

Andrew: Yeah. Let’s try to give her a call. One more time. People – we’ve been getting a lot of flack about calling her, like as if we’re going to harass her, but we…

Laura: No, not at all.

Andrew: Yeah, we want to honestly ask her questions.

Jamie: Like, “Why are you so weird?”

Andrew: So if she does answer, Laura, you can talk.

Laura: [laughs] Oh, why do I have to talk?!

Andrew: Because I’m…

Jamie: Can I talk?

Andrew: …going to be star-struck. Yeah, yeah, go ahead. Anyone can talk.

Jamie: I’m going to be like, “Hi, Mrs. Mallory. I’m John Smith from the New York – sorry no, from The Wall Street Journal. I’ve got a question about…”

Laura: Oh no, that’s terrible!

Jamie: No, it’s fine.

Andrew: Another thing we can do now – apparently this feature was added to the Ustream thing when it crashed, so I don’t think we’re on the high-speed Ustream anymore. But we can do poll questions now, live poll questions through Ustream, that those listening can actually vote on. And then we’ll get the results instantly. So anyone have a poll question we’ll start up real quick?

Jamie: Yes. “Who would get the ticket to…”

Andrew: Oh.

Jamie: “Whose show is it?” first of all, and the “Who would get the ticket out of you and Laura if you had a fight?”

Andrew: Well, we can only ask one question at a time, so to start we’ll do “Who deserves the ticket to JKR’s book reading more -” excuse me, I just passed some gas.

Laura: Ewww.

Andrew: I burped! I burped! That’s what I’m trying to say.

[Andrew and Laura laugh]

Laura: Vote for me!

Andrew: “Andrew or Laura?” Oops, I typed “Andrew Sims.” “Andrew or Laura?” Start poll. Okay, so the poll has started. Visit MuggleCast.com and go to the live page. And what can you do? Oh yeah, the button update. There’s a little checkbox on the Ustream window, you can click on that, and then click on the poll. That is cool! I like Ustream. That’s a cool feature. So I’m going to go and vote for myself here.

Jamie: Ooh!

Andrew: So far…

Jamie: If Andrew doesn’t talk for the next twenty minutes you know he’s just pressing…

[Laura laughs]

Jamie: …and voting over and over and over and over again.

Andrew: Yeah. Votes are coming in quick. Right now, 80 for me – oh gosh, they’re going up really fast. We’re going to have to wait…

Laura: Haha.

Andrew: We’re going to have to go wait a few minutes. Anyway, let’s call Laura here, Laura Mallory. Get her in the chat. I’m really – if she answered I’d probably be star-struck. I don’t know what I would say.

[Phone rings]

Jamie: [laughs] Star-struck.

Andrew: No, seriously. She’s – I’m really scared!

[Phone continues to ring]

Andrew: We should play “Living on a Prayer” for her.

Jamie: [laughs] Yeah.

[Phone continues to ring]

Andrew: Come on, come on.

[Voice message plays]

Andrew: Ugh! Oh, why – okay, that’s it. We’re leaving a voicemail, I’m sick of this. Hi Laura Mallory, this is Andrew Sims calling from MuggleCast. It’s a Harry Potter podcast on the Internet. We basically talk about Harry Potter and the effect it has on children’s literacy which is huge, quite frankly, and also we discuss and analyze the books. We would just like to call you and have a short interview with you for the show because we’re curious as to your thoughts on the series and where you think it’s going now. And also we want to know if you plan on taking your case to court any further now that all the books are out, or if you’ve just straight up given up. So give us a call back. It’s 1 – our number is 1-218-20-62442, 1-218-20-62442. Okay, thank you very much. Buh-bye.

Jamie: I was going to prefix that – sorry, I was going to suffix that with, “Yeah, it must be quite tough being taken to court how many times and being turned down.”

[Andrew and Laura laugh]

Jamie: “When do you people know when to give up?” but I felt that could have been provocative, Andrew, and you did it so well.

Andrew: Well, thank you. I wanted to come across as professional first and then while we have her live on the air, that’s when we’ll rip her apart. [laughs]

Jamie: Yeah, I agree. Exactly, yeah.

Laura: [laughs] Oh my God!

Andrew: No, we wouldn’t rip her apart.

Jamie: Yes, we would.

Andrew: Just at the end after we get everything we need from her.

Jamie: Yeah, exactly.

Andrew: But if she doesn’t call by midnight tonight we’re going to call again and really tell her how we feel about the whole situation. Is that okay, Laura? I mean, I don’t want to – since she lives close to you, I don’t know what…

Laura: Well, she doesn’t know where I live, so… [laughs]

Andrew: Oh. Okay, I’m looking at the poll, it’s been running for two minutes, forty-five seconds right now. I’m kind of actually ñ well, we’ll get to the poll later. Let’s get to the listener challenge.

Laura: Wait, wait…

Andrew: What? No, it’s not ñ it’s nothing.

Laura: Wait, where can I access this poll?

Andrew: It’s still – no, you can’t. It’s just me.

[Jamie and Laura laugh]

Andrew: Okay, I’ll be honest. 254 votes right now for Laura, 214 for me.

Laura: Keep voting. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen.

Jamie: Ooh.

Andrew: I’m kind of surprised. I have this button here called – it says, “Stop Broadcast.”

[Laura laughs]

Andrew: What would happen if I press that right now? I wonder what would happen?

Laura: You wouldn’t.

Andrew’s Listener Challenge: Winners

Andrew: What’s fair is fair. If you guys want Laura to have the ticket, it’s fine. Unless we can manage to get two. Okay, so now we have the winners to my listener challenge. You guys may remember that back on Episode 107, I challenged the listeners to go out and promote MuggleCast in the pickle area of their store, of a shopping store or – you know what I’m saying. So we had quite a few entries and they are all available now in the MuggleNet galleries. I just realized I actually haven’t posted a link on MuggleCast.com, I’ll do that in a second. We got some great entries and I have to be honest, guys, I had a hard time picking one winner, because there were quite a few people.

Jamie: Yeah.

Andrew: So we are going to award five winners today and each winner will be receiving a Pickle Pack membership ñ [burps] excuse me. Again, sorry. [laughs] Live radio, folks. I have to burp. We have five winners here and two of the winners are actually made up of three people, one group is made up of four and another group is made up of three. So really there’s going to be…

Jamie: About twelve winners.

Andrew: Yeah. No, ten. Ten winners.

Laura: Very nice.

Andrew: First up: Emma, Katie, Becca, and Holly. They created a video ñ they’re all in the UK. They created a video going around and promoting MuggleCast [laughs] and Pickle Pack. And the one girl walked around with a Pickle sign on her, and it was on the front of her and it was on the back. It was a gigantic sign. And they walked in the stores and promoted MuggleCast, Pickle Pack. And it’s a whole video on YouTube, it’s hilarious. We’ll put a link to it on MuggleCast.com during the next break. So they win first prize because it’s actually hilarious, the stuff they do to promote it. They took pictures with people. So great job to them. Emma, Katie, Becca, and Holly. Next, Calanth A. spelled out “MuggleCast” – I don’t know how she did this. She spelled out “MuggleCast” with pickle jars in an entire aisle…

[Jamie laughs]

Laura: Oh my God. [laughs]

Andrew: …of her food store. And I don’t know how that’s possible to get away with unless you work there, or you know someone who works there, or you plead with them. But it’s awesome, so check that out. Third, Abby Carlson dressed up as a pickle in front of the pickles in Deli Market. That was pretty funny. She has a whole pickle costume on. So congrats to her. Vivian F. made a very cool cardboard pickle sign that looks great. And final group of winners: Jackie, Katie, and Kristen also made some great signs, so congrats to all of them. They’re all winning Pickle Pack memberships. I will be in touch with them maybe tomorrow or sometime this week. If you already are a Pickle Pack member in this group of winners, then we’ll mail you a T-shirt or something. So congrats to them. That was a really great challenge. Jaime and Laura, I encourage you guys to check out the gallery because…

Laura: Oh, definitely.

Jamie: I saw some of them. I got an e-mail forwarded to me – or I got one – and the effort that some of the winners put in and everyone else was incredible. I couldn’t believe it. So yeah, I agree. Very well done.

Discussion: Things We Expected to See in Book 7 But Didn’t

Andrew: Yeah. So that is that. No listener challenge today, not any new ones at least. Let’s move along now. What else have we got, guys?

Jamie: I – well, why don’t you do your “Huh?”…

Andrew: Oh no, that’s not – no, I’m saving that until 4:00.

Jamie: Oh.

Laura: Not to backtrack here, but I think I’m seeing that we had a little discussion for the 1:00 hour that we missed.

Andrew: Oh, really?

Laura: That red highlighted one.

Andrew: Oh, you’re right! You’re right! Harry Potter stuff.

Laura: Yeah. That is what this show is about.

Andrew: It is, yeah, and we’ve been…

Jamie: Is it? How come I’ve missed it all?

[Andrew and Laura laugh]

Andrew: So okay, let’s start up a Harry Potter discussion. [laughs] What was one major thing we expected to see – I guess – can we say in the series? Well, no, I guess the final book.

Jamie: Yeah.

Andrew: Or…

Jamie: Yeah.

Andrew: Let’s start with the final book and then – we expected to see, but didn’t end up seeing? Someone else start.

Laura: For me, it was the Department of Mysteries. I really, truly thought that we were going to see that again in the seventh book. It seemed like you would just have to go there again because there was so much about that place that seemed like it needed explaining. So that was the one thing about the seventh book that I was kind of sad that we didn’t see. I was like, “Wow, I really thought that they were going to go back there.” Did anybody else feel that way?

Andrew: Yeah, especially since there was so much emphasis on it in Order of the Phoenix. But even…

Jamie: Yeah, there was.

Andrew: To extend upon that, the veil.

Laura: Yeah!

Andrew: It’s something that’s bothering so many people now. I just – and I think we talked about this during the live thing right after we recorded – or right after we read. It’s just the veil! What? It went completely unexplained!

[Laura laughs]

Andrew: What? Seriously!

Laura: Yeah, I…

Andrew: Ugh! [laughs]

Laura: I mean, even if we didn’t go back and see the veil again, I was expecting some sort of explanation as to what it was. I mean, we know that it’s apparently where dead people or some dead people go, but there was no clarification as to whether or not everyone goes there or what exactly is behind that, if that’s where Harry’s parents are. Like we just don’t know.

Andrew: Yeah.

Laura: So it’s…

Andrew: Yeah.

Laura: It’s all very confusing. I would really like to have that cleared up. I think we should ask her if we go to the reading. [laughs]

Andrew: Yeah. Oh, if that doesn’t get answered by the reading…

Jamie: Well, you can ask, Laura. I think you’ll be getting the ticket.

Andrew: Yeah.

[Laura laughs]

Andrew: You’re still thirty votes ahead of me right now so – [sighs] I’m kind of sad about that.

Laura: It’s kind of like when we were reading the book. I was consistently fifty pages ahead of you.

Andrew: [laughs] Oh yeah! That’s because you started before me. I was working on an e-mail, and you started before me.

Laura: Yeah. Every two seconds you’d be like, “What page are you on?” and I’d be like dadada, and you’re like, “Ugh, I’m still fifty pages behind!”

Andrew: [laughs] Yeah, yeah. We read at the same pace though. That was pretty good. So Jamie, something you expected to see but didn’t?

Jamie: Awww, I don’t know. I – this is probably just a personal thing, but I wish we’d heard more about Sirius. I know he died, and I know he died. [laughs] I know he’s dead, but I wanted the mirror to be something related to Sirius, and I’m glad Harry found it, and I’m glad he remembered it, and I’m glad he used it to contact Aberforth and it helped him save the day. But Sirius was my favorite character bar none, so I wanted to see more of him. And – what else? What else? I don’t know, that really. I really enjoyed the seventh book, so there wasn’t really much for me.

Laura: Oh, I loved it too, but it was just – there was stuff that I was really expecting to see and then I didn’t, and so it came as a surprise which is a good thing. On a level.

Jamie: Yeah.

Laura: We really had a lot of expectations of the book, and I can just – looking back on some of the theories we made, I can tell that we were kind of like, “Oh yeah, that’s got to happen. That’s got to happen.” And then…

Jamie: It didn’t happen.

Laura: …we get this book and it didn’t, [laughs] and she completely just threw us for a loop. So I think that’s great, but…

Jamie: Yeah.

Laura: …I still think that there’s some question that we need answered.

Andrew: Claire wrote in via the feedback at MuggleCast.com/Live. Claire from Alaska, actually. She wrote:

“I don’t think Jo wanted to explore where we go after we decide to ‘go on,’ and that’s why the veil isn’t in Book 7.”

Jamie: That’s interesting.

Andrew: It is interesting because – I think even Jo has said before that death is a very touchy subject, and if she did go into explaining death that could cause… [sighs]

Laura: It could upset people. I understand that.

Andrew: I want to say it could cause controversy.

Laura: Mhm.

Andrew: Because, of course, it is a very important subject, especially when you get into terms of religion. But I think – Jo could have been able to find a way to explain the veil in a little more detail. Maybe she is still, who knows.

Jamie: But perhaps it’s like the veil symbolizes death because death is the unknown. She can’t talk about it since no one really knows what happens to you after you go on.

Laura: That’s true.

Andrew: Yeah.

Jamie: I don’t know. Clutching at straws.

Laura: It’s feasible.

Andrew: Yeah. And let’s see, I guess there wasn’t really anything else I could think of. Want to take some callers now? See what they…

Jamie: Yeah, let’s take a couple of calls on the subject.

Andrew: Okay. Let’s get this guy in. Hi, what’s your name? Where are you calling from?

Caller: Hi, this is Emily.

Andrew: Hi, Emily.

Caller: Hi.

Andrew: Do you have any…

Jamie: Where are you from?

Andrew: Yeah, where are you from?

Caller: I’m from Michigan.

Andrew: Awesome. Do you have – was there anything in Book 7 you expected to see but didn’t?

Caller: Yeah. I really wanted to see the veil, actually. I was really disappointed about that. So that was pretty much it. But I also want to let you know that I do know a school that does a Harry Potter class.

Andrew: Oh, really?

Laura: Oh, really?

Caller: Yeah. My cousin goes to a high school in Indiana, and they were supposed to start this a couple of years ago but the teacher had a baby so they couldn’t, and I think they said they started it.

Andrew: Oh, awesome. Do you know what they’ve taught?

Caller: I think they were going to read all the books throughout the year, and take tests on it and stuff like that.

Andrew: Oh okay.

Caller: And I also want to say Gak [laughs] for all of them.

Andrew: Oh gosh. Gosh, stop.

Laura: Oh geez, another one.

Andrew: Why doesn’t it all stop?

Caller: [laughs] Sorry.

Andrew: That’s all right. Thank you for calling in.

[Jamie laughs]

Caller: [laughs] Yeah. Bye!

Jamie: Funny.

Andrew: Bye. Let’s get Lucas in here. Lucas.

Caller: Yeah, hi.

Andrew: What’s up?

Caller: Nothing really. But – what was I going to call about? I completely forgot.

[Andrew laughs]

Caller: I’m dumb.

Jamie: You don’t sound so excited, Lucas.

Andrew: Well…

Caller: No, but…

Andrew: Let me give you a conversation starter: We’re talking about what we expected to see in Book 7 but didn’t.

Caller: Oh yeah, Chamber of Secrets.

Andrew: Really?

Caller: Yeah.

Jamie: We kind of saw it. Well, we didn’t really. We heard of it.

Caller: Well, Hermione and Ron went down there.

Laura: We saw that Ron learned how to speak Parseltongue.

Jamie: Yeah.

[Laura laughs]

Jamie: Which was the most ridiculous thing ever.

Andrew: Now why were you expecting to see the Chamber of Secrets? I mean, was there – did you have a theory or something?

Caller: Yeah, I thought there was going to be a Horcrux down there, but yeah, there wasn’t.

Laura: Okay.

Caller: I thought that’s where the Hogwarts one was going to be.

Andrew: Oh yeah, that’s a fair point.

Laura: Okay, yeah.

Jamie: Anything else on your mind?

Caller: Yeah, there was something else but I completely forgot.

Andrew: [laughs] Okay. Well, call in once you…

Caller: I’ll call in later.

Andrew: Okay.

Caller: I’m staying for all twelve hours, so…

Andrew: All right, see you.

Caller: Bye.

Jamie: Buh-bye.

Andrew: People should write down their thoughts so they’re prepared.

Laura: Yeah.

Jamie: Yeah.

Andrew: Another piece of feedback from MuggleCast.com/Live, Kelly from Idaho writes:

“I was really disappointed we didn’t get to see more of what Snape and Draco did because there was so much about them in the sixth book.”

Jamie: That is very true.

Andrew: That’s another fair point.

Laura: Yeah.

Jamie: And going on from that, the sixth book was about Snape, the Half-Blood Prince. I thought there was going to be more to that – to the importance of that book as a whole. I know there was a huge importance to Snape as a character, but I was expecting more to the book, why she chose to name an entire book after Snape.

Andrew: Right, right.

Jamie: But we didn’t hear much about that. But, Andrew, I think now is the time after what, two hours, thirty seven minutes? To ask how everyone is and how people are hanging in.

Andrew: You mean callers?

Jamie: No, how people are doing, listening in. Because so far, this has been the longest show we’ve ever done, right?

Andrew: Oh, you’re asking us how we’re doing?

Jamie: Well, everyone. You and people…

Laura: Oh okay.

Jamie: Just in general asking everyone – not actually asking, just checking in. See if everyone is okay and still there.

Andrew: I’m fine, thanks, yeah.

Jamie: Not falling asleep?

Laura: Yeah, I’m pretty sure I’m still here.

Jamie: Really?

Laura: Yeah.

Jamie: Don’t be so sure of that.

Laura: Yeah, I…

Jamie: The world is a weird and wonderful place, Laura.

Laura: It really is.

Andrew: Let’s take another call from Bethany. Hi, Bethany.

Jamie: Hey.

Caller: Hi.

Andrew: Hey, was there anything you expected to see in Book 7 but didn’t?

Caller: Hold on, I need to mute Ustream.

Andrew: Oh, thanks.

Caller: Okay.

Andrew: See, a concerned caller. I like that.

[Caller laughs]

Jamie: Awww.

Andrew: I like that in a girl. [laughs]

Laura: Whoa.

Caller: Well, first of all, Ustream says that we all love you.

Andrew: Awww. Who?

Jamie: Awww.

Laura: Awww, yay!

Caller: All of us on Ustream, the chat room.

Andrew: Oh, cool. Yeah, by the way, there’s a chat room. When you go to Ustream.tv and join the room that way, there’s a chat room, like Bethany said. And lots of – how many people are in there? Is it a good chat?

Caller: A whole crap-load. Oh my gosh, everyone is screaming. [laughs]

Andrew: [laughs] Everyone is screaming?

Laura: Awww.

Andrew: “Oh my God, we got mentioned on the live show!”

[Caller and Laura laugh]

Andrew: Cool.

Caller: I’ve been calling all morning, but I finally got in. Yay!

Andrew: Awesome, awesome. Well…

Jamie: Where are you from, Bethany?

Caller: I’m from St. Louis, Missouri. I was at the live show when you guys did the podcast.

Jamie: Oh, St. Louis. That was a fun show.

Andrew: Yeah.

Caller: Yeah.

Andrew: So yeah, was there anything about Harry Potter you wanted to talk about, specifically the thing?

Caller: Well, I wanted to see more about the love room, and the one with the brain and everything.

Andrew: Oh yeah. That’s such a shame, because that would be so cool to see visited. But – it all seems like great Harry Potter encyclopedia material, but…

Jamie: It does, yeah. And also, I think Jo just likes putting stuff in that can only be classed as awesome, like those brains. I’m not sure if they had a purpose there, but they were just cool. And also…

Laura: Yeah.

Jamie: …in the final book, the dust figure of Dumbledore. It was just cool.

Laura: Oh my God!

Jamie: I read it and I just loved it.

Laura: It was amazing!

Andrew: Yeah.

Laura: I know, I…

Jamie: Exactly.

Laura: I’d love to hear more about that. And with the brains, I was kind of expecting something. I don’t know if maybe they really had any relevance, but…

Jamie: Yeah.

Laura: I mean, it talked about how – what was it? Like, thoughts leave deeper impressions.

Jamie: Yeah.

Laura: Or something like that, and Ron still had the scars. And so I somehow thought that maybe that might come into play, like Ron might have some sort of connection to one of the brains in the brain room, and that might have come from somebody important, or something like that. So I don’t know, but…

Jamie: Yeah.

Andrew: Yeah.

Jamie: It could well be.

Andrew: Yeah.

Caller: I also have a concern because I keep getting kicked out of the Ustream chat room. It keeps saying that I’ve been kicked or banned or something.

Andrew: Really?

Caller: Yeah.

Andrew: Well, I’m not moderating it, so I don’t know.

Jamie: The chat room?

Andrew: That’s weird.

Jamie: We’re not sure about the chat room.

Andrew: Maybe because there’s so many people listening. We’re at about 860 people listening live right now. That’s a lot of people!

Caller: [laughs] Yeah.

Andrew: I’m actually getting stage fright right now, I don’t…

[Caller and Laura laugh]

Jamie: How many people are in there, sorry?

Andrew: 860.

Jamie: Ooh, nice.

Andrew: Yeah. So we’re doing good, we’re doing good. And I continue to be disappointed by the poll. Right now we’re looking at 290 votes for me, 327 for Laura.

Laura: Yay!

Andrew: So, thank you everyone. I really appreciate all your support. [makes raspberry noise]

Laura: [laughs] I certainly do.

Andrew: Yeah.

Jamie: [laughs] Yeah.

Andrew: So, all right. Well, thank you Bethany for calling in.

Caller: Thank you.

Andrew: Bye.

Caller: Bye.

Jamie: Bye, Bethany.

Laura: Bye.

Andrew: Awww, I’m so bad. I cut – more live feedback from MuggleCast.com/Live.

[Jamie laughs]

MuggleCast 109 Transcript (continued)

Discussion: Things We Expected to See in Book 7 But Didn’t (continued)

Andrew: Ryan from Michigan says:

“We never found out what Harry’s parents’ professions were. I was dying to figure that out.”

Jamie: Yeah, that is true.

Andrew: That is something Jo said she wanted to include. Didn’t Jo say that?

Jamie: Yeah, she did. Maybe she’ll tell us in the encyclopedia.

Laura: Yeah, I think she said James’s wasn’t important, but she made it sound like Lily’s was.

Andrew: Yeah. But didn’t she say she was going to mention them in – I don’t know.

Jamie: Here’s a very interesting e-mail from Mary from Texas, [laughs] who says that she thought for sure that Dumbledore would come back as Dumbledore the White.

[Andrew and Laura laugh]

Laura: Yeah.

Jamie: Which probably would have made Tolkien…

Laura: Turn over in his grave?

Jamie: Move about in his grave, yeah. [laughs]

Laura: Yeah.

Andrew: Yeah.

Jamie: But…

Andrew: Another e-mail, from Veronica of Long Island, New York. She writes:

“I agree that there should have been more on the veil in Book 7. I actually thought and was almost positive that Sirius would come back because of something Luna said. The line at the end of the ‘Order of the Phoenix’…”

Movie.

“…Luna says something about things having a way of always coming back at the end. Also, they keep that exact line…”

Oh, she did say it in the book? My bad.

“Also, they keep that exact line in the movie, which made me wonder if Sirius would come back at the end of Book 7. Anyone else? P.S. I think Andrew deserves a ticket.”

I did not read that part of the e-mail when I got this e-mail.

Jamie: Awww. A likely story.

Andrew: I think Veronica brings up a good point. A lot of people got their hopes up – especially in the movie, when they kept that line in the movie. Luna says something about things having a way of always coming back in the end. A lot of people got their hopes up about that. And with the two-way mirror, a lot of people were expecting to see Sirius again.

Jamie: Yes. That would have been very, very, very nice

Laura: Yeah.

Andrew: Yeah. Too many people were expecting that to happen, but…

Jamie: Well, the whole Sirius thing – it was left open about what happens when people die, and it was pretty – even though Jo said Dumbledore died, it’s a magical world, and there are ways to contact people from beyond the grave. So it was very tough to know exactly what was going to happen and Jo obviously decided not to pursue it with Sirius…

Andrew: Yeah.

Jamie: …and kind of with Dumbledore. So it’s very…

Andrew: Critical?

Jamie: I guess if you wanted to see Sirius then you’ll be disappointed. If you didn’t then it wouldn’t bother you at all. One e-mail, from Andy, asks why Voldemort would want to hide the cup in Bellatrix’s vault, because that seems like trusting somebody else and Voldemort doesn’t do much of that. And although he couldn’t obviously have his own vault at Gringotts, you’d think there’d be a different place he could keep it.

Andrew: That’s a pretty fair point, but I feel like we’ve talked about this.

Laura: Well, the thing is we know that Gringotts – everyone says that it’s the next safest place to Hogwarts to keep something.

Jamie: Yeah.

Laura: And wasn’t there something along the lines of when you touched it, it burned you and then it multiplied?

Jamie: It did. It did.

Laura: So…

Jamie: But that doesn’t mean – when three seventeen-year-old wizards can do that, then it seems that it isn’t really a tough curse to get around.

Laura: I guess, but I mean, I think that Bellatrix was so fanatical that there wasn’t really a chance that she was going to betray him at all.

Jamie: That is true. But it just seems like trusting someone…

Laura: I mean, you notice that he didn’t give Snape a Horcrux. He didn’t put him in…

Jamie: Yeah, but I think he trusted Snape a lot more than Bellatrix.

Laura: I think…

Jamie: There was an affinity between them that transcended what there was between Bellatrix.

Laura: I don’t know. I always kind of got the impression that Voldemort had the idea that perhaps Snape might not actually be as devoted as he thought he was. He seemed to have no remorse whatsoever in killing him. And not that he would ever have remorse, but it just seemed like it was a bit too easy for him, for somebody who he would think was a devoted follower.

Jamie: I’m not sure about that, because I always thought that that part in the book was written absolutely brilliantly because Voldemort said that he regrets it, but he shows no emotion of it. But I think he really did regret it because he didn’t care about human virtues like emotions and stuff like that. He just cared about usefulness and trust and loyalty and stuff like that. So he did regret it in terms of Snape had always been a loyal servant. He had stuff to offer and he hadn’t alienated Voldemort, he hadn’t gone against him. So he did regret it in terms of the fact that he had to do something which didn’t help him achieve his goals in other ways, but he had to do it.

Laura: Yeah.

Jamie: Whereas he didn’t regret it because he was taking another man’s life.

Laura: Yeah…

Jamie: I think he and Snape had an affinity.

Laura: I guess the difference is that Bellatrix spent like thirteen years in prison for him, so there really could be no doubt there, you know? Why would somebody spend that long in prison and refuse to deny their allegiance to you if they were going to turn around and stab you in the back? So…

Jamie: No, I agree. I just – Bellatrix, I thought, was – even to Voldemort who was a complete psychopath. I don’t think he would’ve trusted Bellatrix because she flew off the rocker too much. She was completely unpredictable whereas he told Snape that he was a very, very powerful wizard. He was obviously a logical wizard. He kept him by his side and trusted him with the most important tasks. So there was an affinity that transcended Voldemort’s very primordial sort of thoughts on friendship. It was – they could help each other, it was mutually exclusive, whereas with Bellatrix it was more a “you’re my servant” thing.

Laura: Okay.

Jamie: But I know what you’re saying.

Laura: Yeah. I can go with that, though.

Andrew: Yeah, maybe it was just that. Maybe – like the e-mailer said, maybe it was just that nobody would’ve expected it to be with Bellatrix.

Jamie: I’d just have thought he’d give it to Snape a lot more – just – I don’t know.

[Andrew and Laura laugh]

Jamie: Maybe not. Maybe not.

Andrew: Maybe just – things. Yeah. Another piece of feedback right now comes in from Jarod of Virginia Beach. He says, going back to what we were just talking about earlier:

“Sirius did come back at the end when Harry was walking to face Voldemort in the forest.”

Well, he didn’t really come back.

Laura: Yeah.

Andrew: Yeah.

Jamie: That’s another sensitive subject with Jo because she obviously points out that when people have died they have moved on, and to think they are going to come back is – it isn’t very healthy for you as a person because they can’t come back, and if you think they are going to come back you’re going to be solely disappointed with the shadow of the former self of the person that does come back.

Andrew: Yeah.

Jamie: So you should move on I guess is the theme she’s trying to put in.

Andrew: Yeah. And we got some more feedback here. Actually this was sort of a good point brought up by listener Martin Warlick of Raleigh, North Carolina:

“Have you noticed the similarity between Dumbledore and Voldemort in that their downfalls included putting too much trust in people? At least before we found out what really happened between Dumbledore and Snape, all we were hearing was that Dumbledore died because he put too much trust in Snape. And Voldemort put too much trust in Lucius by giving him the diary, and in Bellatrix by putting the cup in her vault.”

So I think ultimately, it’s just even great wizards like Dumbledore and Voldemort can make mistakes.

Laura: Yeah.

Jamie: Yeah, but there’s a huge difference between the type of trust that they did. Dumbledore’s was a personality flaw, and his thoughts on human nature and how people weren’t born into bad things, that sort of character, his version of trust and how he saw the best in people and therefore trusted people. Voldemort’s was that he does not trust people but he felt that he had to use someone to his advantage and he just happened to use them a bit too openly. And he learned from his mistakes, whereas Dumbledore sadly didn’t.

Andrew: That’s fair. Another caller coming in right now, Mike.

[Prolonged silence]

Andrew: Mike, you’re live. Mike, live.

Laura: Hey, Mike.

Andrew: Mike, you’re live.

[Someone yells “Mike!” in the background]

Andrew: Whoa.

[Laura laughs]

Andrew: Oh hey. Hey, I think your mom is mad at you.

[Sounds of a microphone being moved]

Andrew: Whoa. Awkward.

Caller: Hey, what’s up?

Andrew: Hey! Nothing.

Laura: Hey!

Caller’s sister: Mike! [laughs]

Andrew: Whoa. Hey. Oh geez, what’s going on there?

Caller: How are you guys?

Andrew: Good. How are you?

Caller: I’m doing fine. I still can’t believe you guys are talking for twelve hours straight.

Andrew: I know. Hey, who’s that person in the background? Tell them to shut up.

Caller: Mel, they say to shut up.

Caller’s sister: Bleh!

[Everyone laughs]

Andrew: So what’s going on? What’s on your mind?

Caller: Oh, I just wanted to call and see how – wow, I can’t believe you guys are going for twelve hours.

Andrew: Yeah. Thanks for continuing to drill it into our heads. We don’t want to be reminded really, but…

[Everyone laughs]

Caller: I have no idea how you guys are going to do it. [laughs]

Andrew: Well, thanks. You’re just a ball of positive energy.

Caller: Yes, I am.

Andrew: Okay.

Caller: [in high-pitched voice] You guys are awesome!

Andrew: Well, thanks.

Jamie: Awww!

Laura: Awww!

Andrew: Cool. Okay. Well, do you have anything else to add?

Jamie: Any Harry Potter questions?

Caller: Well, my sister wants to talk, but… [laughs]

Jamie: Go on, put her on. Put her on.

Caller: All right.

Jamie: Brotherly love.

Caller’s sister: Hey, it’s Melanie.

Andrew: Hey.

Laura: Hi, Melanie.

Jamie: Hey, Melanie.

Andrew: Hold on one second. Let’s get someone else in here. Mikey Bouchereau!

Caller’s sister and Laura: Mikey!

Mikey: Hi, everybody.

[Andrew and Laura laugh]

Mikey: Guess what? Guess what, guys? Guess what?

Caller’s sister: Mikey, it’s Melanie!

Mikey: I just woke up.

Andrew: Oh wow, aren’t you cool?

Laura: You are a bum.

[Mikey laughs]

Andrew: Mikey, where are you?

Mikey: I’m at my apartment.

Andrew: Oh okay. I was – we had Matt and Alex on earlier.

Mikey: Oh yeah. They were at Tasha’s.

Andrew: Yeah. Yes. So they are. You sticking around for a while or what?

Mikey: Oh yeah. I’m good to stick around for quite a while, I guess.

Andrew: Okay. We were actually just talking about what we expected to see in the book, but didn’t.

Mikey: Oh.

Andrew: So tell me, Mikey. What did you expect to see in the book but didn’t?

Mikey: Wand-less magic.

Andrew: Oh yeah. Yeah. Especially since the cover – you don’t see any wands on there.

Mikey: Yeah. Did you guys talk about that already? Or…

Andrew: No, we haven’t. No.

Mikey: Yeah. That’s just one thing I thought because we all were like, “Oh, Harry is going to get super powerful and have wand-less magic,” and we didn’t see that at all. Oh well.

Laura: Yeah.

[Mikey laughs]

Laura: You guys remember what we were saying in London about how we really thought that the US cover was extremely misleading?

Andrew: Yeah.

Laura: It just made it look like they were in this really weird alternate location. We didn’t even know what it was, and it turned out to be the Great Hall and all the shadows just turned out to be Hogwarts students, and we were kind of like, “Yeah, thanks, Mary GrandPrÈ.”

Andrew: I know. Yeah, and we actually talked about this in the first Vegas show we did on the tour and someone who was there had a great explanation for the whole cover. [laughs] And it’s a shame we lost that show, but basically it is accurate that – well, what she was saying was that, “Yeah, it was in the Great Hall. That is the scene in the Great Hall.” It just doesn’t look like the Great Hall though. That’s what was misleading so many people.

Mikey: Yeah. It’s the scene right after their wands both go up in the air, because…

Laura: Yeah.

Jamie: [laughs] Oh, this is…

Mikey: …being the owner of the…

Jamie: I better read this e-mail quickly.

Mikey: Okay, Jamie. Go ahead.

Jamie: It’s from Eric. Not “Eric” Eric, but…

Andrew: [laughs] Okay.

Jamie: …a different Eric who questions Snape’s motives when he gave Harry the Sword of Gryffindor and asks whether Snape threw it into the lake so he could watch Harry take a dip.

[Everyone laughs]

Andrew: Wouldn’t that make Snape sound sort of like a pervert?

Jamie: Yes.

Laura: Well, you never know. Snape might have gone and seen Equus, and…

Jamie: Maybe, maybe.

Mikey: Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait a minute, guys. That scene specifically – have you guys seen that Harry Potter and the MuggleCasters fan fiction?

Laura: No.

Jamie: No. I’m not sure I want to.

Mikey: That scene is described in Harry Potter and the MuggleCasters fan fiction. I got an e-mail the other day, I’m going to see if I can open up my e-mail. I’m on my desktop, not my laptop. It’s the first time I’ve touched it in a while. [laughs]

Andrew: [laughs] There’s actually – what was I going to say?

Laura: A fan fiction?

Andrew: A Harry – [laughs] or not a Harry. An Andrew/Jamie fan fiction… [laughs]

Laura: Oh my God.

Andrew: …in the works.

Jamie: Oh yeah, I’ve heard that.

Andrew: There’s only Chapter 1, it’s like the intro. It’s like a set up for what apparently is supposed to happen.

Jamie: I’m hooked, Andrew.

Laura: Yeah. I know that…

Jamie: I’m going to carry on reading.

Laura: …there was one on MySpace a little while back.

Jamie: See what it’s like on Chapter 2. Oh my God! Sorry.

Mikey: Wow. Yeah. I don’t know, I can’t find it right now. But yeah, that’s the scene from it and I just started laughing.

Laura: Oh. Well, Mikey, you’ll have to link me to this. I’d like to see what I’ve been up to according to the fan fiction authors.

Jamie: Mikey, I’m a bit disappointed, to be honest.

Mikey: Why?

Jamie: Because – you must have had a heavy night last night, because this morning I had some problems with my Apple computer, and I called “Mikey B!” and you didn’t appear. So I thought you must have been in mortal peril or something…

Mikey: Oh.

Jamie: …because that’s the only reason you wouldn’t appear.

Mikey: I know, I know. There’s very few reasons why I wouldn’t appear when people say “Mikey B.”

[Andrew and Laura laugh]

Mikey: Actually, I didn’t get home – all right, so I live on the West Coast, everybody, and West Coast time for me, it was 5:30 in the morning. So that’s when I got home.

Andrew: When what? Oh okay.

Mikey: I got home. And then I ended up watching TV for like another hour and a half, and so I fell asleep. And I literally just woke up because the sun was in my face and I couldn’t sleep anymore.

Jamie: For everyone listening, we had this idea last time that like in Book 7 when you say Voldemort’s name, it’s taboo, and the Snatchers turn up and pick you up and take you to the Malfoy Manor. We now say “Mikey B” and Mikey, wherever he is on Earth, has to magically appear with us in case we’re in dire need of his assistance. Mikey agreed, so now that’s in force and – so yeah, if you ever need anything just say it. Isn’t that right, Mikey?

Mikey: Yup, that’s true. It’s one of those things where – we’ve come to the conclusion that even though Harry Potter is magical, I’m pretty magical too. Just me.

[Jamie and Laura laugh]

Mikey: And so when you say “Mikey B” – if you say it like three times, [clicks fingers] I’m there instantly. And if it doesn’t work, it’s because you’re just not saying “Mikey B” right. So you have to try it different times.

Jamie: Yeah, that’s so true. Yeah.

Mikey: You have to try it a little different – so you can be like, “Mikey B!”

Jamie: Yeah.

Mikey: Or [in various accents] “Mikey B!” “Mikey B!” “Mikey B!” You have to try all the different ways, and – yeah.

Jamie: You’ve got to be very careful because if you don’t say it with enough determination and drive, you’ll splinch Mikey and just his arm will turn up or something.

Laura: [laughs] Oh my God.

Jamie: You’ve got to be like, “Mikey B!”

Mikey: All right, question, guys. Guys, question: What hour is this actually right now, please? [laughs] Because I can’t believe we’re talking about…

Jamie: This is three.

Mikey: Three?

Andrew: We’re about to enter our fourth, right?

Jamie: Yup, we’re almost in hour four.

Mikey: Okay. I’m excited for hour eleven and then the twelfth hour.

Andrew: Me too.

Mikey: I can’t wait to see what we talk about.

Jamie: I’m excited for 11:59.

Andrew: [laughs] Well, according to our live countdown through the Ustream, there’s nine minutes and three minutes – [laughs] nine minutes? I wish there was nine minutes left!

[Jamie laughs]

Andrew: Nine hours and three minutes left. [laughs] So we still got a ways to go. But actually, Mikey, I’m glad you came on this hour because in the schedule we have a discussion coming up after the break which we’ll get to in a couple of minutes, about what we look forward to in Movie 7. And we’ll have a movie talk and stuff like that.

Mikey: Wait a minute, we have a schedule? How come people don’t inform me of these things?

Andrew: We have a schedule and you are a part of it, and I e-mailed it to you. I’m positive I did.

[Jamie laughs]

Mikey: What e-mail?

Andrew: Actually, I’m lying. [laughs] I don’t think I see you on the schedule.

Mikey: Thanks. Thanks, buddy.

Andrew: Was it band videos?

Mikey: Yeah. At Mac. It can be that one or the band videos at the other one.

Andrew: Is it band dot videos or band…

Mikey: Here, I’ll IM – where are you right now?

Andrew: [laughs] Okay.

Mikey: I don’t know where your name is.

Andrew: IM me. IM me. I’m on the MuggleCast Ustream.

Mikey: Yeah.

Andrew: Okay, so let’s wrap up this discussion. One more e-mail, from Allison. She writes:

“I personally expected to see Neville kill Bellatrix and I was surprised when Molly did it instead. I was mad but I did love the Molly line.”

[laughs] Oh God.

Laura: [laughs] Yeah.

Jamie: Why don’t we end on that?

Andrew: Was this not for Mikey or what? I can’t believe I just read this.

Jamie: We’ll go to a break after this. Mikey, take it away.

Mikey: Give it up for Molly Weasley!

Jamie: No, and the actual line.

Mikey: Oh gee, my modified line or the actual line?

Jamie: Umm…

Mikey: Because see, I think it’s really inappropriate.

Jamie: I agree. Modify it.

Mikey: I love Jo, but really she used a word that I think was just a little inappropriate.

Laura: Mikey, I said – I repeated the line like two weeks ago.

Mikey: Yeah, I know and I was a little appalled by that, Laura.

[Andrew laughs]

Mikey: I really was.

Laura: Yes, because you’ve never heard…

Mikey: All right – I’ve never heard that word before spoken out loud.

Laura: I don’t swear.

Mikey: My little cousins listen to the show now.

Andrew: Yeah, see…

Jamie: Ooh.

[Laura laughs]

Mikey: Yeah, and I don’t think…

Andrew: Yeah, we do have some younger listeners…

Jamie: Yeah.

Andrew: …which is why it’s a touchy subject. Maybe we’ll make that…

Mikey: You guys, let’s just give it up for Molly Weasley.

Jamie: Yeah!

Andrew: All right, give it up! Round of applause.

Laura: Yay!

Jamie: Everyone who’s listening around the world, clap now.

Mikey: Can you imagine Molly Weasley in the movie going, “Stay away from my daughter, you witch!”?

[Andrew and Laura laugh]

Mikey: It’s really easy! All you do is change the “b” with a “w” and now it’s PG!

[Andrew and Laura laugh]

Andrew: Yeah.

Mikey: It’s so easy!

Jamie: Yeah.

Mikey: “Stay away from my daughter, you witch!”

Jamie: Andrew, quickly before we go to the break, I have to give the vegetable for the third hour which is cabbage.

Andrew: Cabbage, okay. We’ll be taking a quick break. Let’s hear from GoDaddy guy Mason, then we’ll hit a couple of songs, and we’ll be back in about, oh, a few minutes.

Jamie: Buh-bye!

[Music begins]

[“Come Together” by Beatles plays]

Discussion: Future Deathly Hallows Movie – Director

[“Major Tom (Coming Home)” by Peter Schilling plays]

Mikey: …show obviously, I was with Alex and we were discussing Order of the Phoenix and how he was disappointed in it, and how I kind of felt the same way too, but it was still a well-made film overall. But I want to know what you would do for the seventh movie and all that, and we’ll talk about that in a minute, but this is why Brandon is going to be great because he’s a film guy.

Andrew: Yeah.

Mikey: He knows all his stuff.

Andrew: So…

Mikey: I know, I’m rambling, as usual. [laughs]

Andrew: Yeah, you are rambling because I’m trying to get the stream back up because it went down. Hold on one second. [sighs] Firefox froze.

Jamie: What’s happening?

Andrew: The stream froze, so – well, Firefox froze I think, so…

Mikey: Oh. Yeah?

Andrew: Go live. Good Macs.

Mikey: So, yeah…

Andrew: This is why I want an iMac.

Mikey: Brandon, this is a twelve-hour podcast.

Brandon Nicholas: Yeah. Crazy, guys.

Andrew: Yeah. Alex told me you guys would do a twelve-hour concert.

Jamie: Are we on air, by the way?

Andrew: I’ll tell you in a minute.

Brandon: Hey, just so you guys know, Tyler is here too with me.

Andrew: Oh, really?

Mikey: Oh, is he? Tyler!

Tyler Nicholas: Ahhh!

Andrew: Start broadcast.

Tyler: One quick question. One quick question.

Andrew: All right, we’re good now.

Tyler: Are we allowed to curse?

Andrew: No, no, none of that. This is a children’s program. [laughs]

Mikey: Are we on air?

Andrew: We’re on air again. Sorry about that.

Mikey: Oh okay.

Andrew: Okay, so – okay, let’s get to the discussion. Today we’re – in this hour, we’re going to be talking about what we’re looking forward to seeing in Movie 7, because obviously it was a big book. There are some huge scenes in the book that have to translate through the movie, but then there’s also the question of what the heck is going to get cut. Now, I want to start it off by saying Alfonso Cuaron, the director of Prisoner of Azkaban, said in an interview a couple of weeks ago – actually, this was late July. I quote him as saying, “I would be really tempted because it was really beautiful,” in response to, “Would you direct another Harry Potter film?” “I just started reading the last book and something I respect is the care the producers have put in the film franchise.” So, who here would like to see Alfonso Cuaron direct?

Brandon: I definitely would.

Mikey: I would.

Tyler: Definitely as well.

Andrew: So everyone definitely would? [sighs]

Mikey: I almost think…

Brandon: I think…

Mikey: Well, no. Hold on. As much as I love Alfonso Cuaron – because I think he’s amazing. He’s definitely one of my favorite directors as of right now, and I don’t think he’s done anything that I don’t like right now. I kind of wouldn’t mind seeing Chris Columbus do it, and the only reason why is he did the first two, and to get – those are not my favorite, but they are kind of the closest to the book. You know what I mean?

Andrew: Right, right.

Mikey: And so maybe if Chris took over again – at the very end, to finish it off, his big old thing that he started – we might have this really nice long movie…

Jamie: But these movies are very sort of sparse, so I’ve always thought it would be nice to see a different person for each one, so we get seven individual special, unique movies rather than two done by one or the other.

Andrew: Yeah. But personally I think – I would want to see a lot of care put into this final film, as it’s the final one and who knows if they would ever remake the Harry Potter movie series again. Brandon or Tyler, you want to add something?

Brandon: I definitely think that Alfonso Cuaron would be amazing to film. I personally am not a big fan of Chris Columbus, but I do think it would be really, really cool to bring someone new in. My personal vote would be Terry Gilliam but I know that got voted out, so…

Andrew: What has he directed?

Brandon: He did Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Brazil and…

Jamie: Oh, that was pretty good, actually. Yeah.

Brandon: And he’s just really, really a dark director, but really into fantasy and really one of my favorites, and he could really bring that whole dark element to the film which I think it needs.

Andrew: Yeah.

Jamie: Brandon…

Andrew: I have to – go ahead, Jamie.

Jamie: Brandon – this is too serious – please give me a “Mikey B.”

[Andrew laughs]

Brandon: [imitating Mikey] I am Mikey B!

[Andrew and Jamie laugh]

Jamie: That’s awesome.

Brandon: I love you, Mikey B!

Andrew: That’s adorable. What would you like to see them – I guess we’ll start with leave in. Anyone, go.

Jamie: Doesn’t it – he has to leave in the stuff that – whoever does it has to leave in the stuff that’s important to the entire series as a whole, that is the glue that binds it all. So like, the whole Snape story, loving Lily, is something that no director could leave out. So there’s certain stuff that has to go in. And then there’s stuff like when Harry and Hermione camp the entire time, which probably could be left out a bit more.

Mikey: Yeah. But during the Harry and Hermione camping, you’ve got to make sure that we get Dan to take his clothes off to jump into that lake. Because that’s why we know Jo wrote that scene, right?

Jamie: Yeah, exactly.

Mikey: She wants to see Dan half naked again. And I’m sorry, [laughs] I did not mean to pick on Jo that way at all but – yeah. We have to make sure we put that scene in, him jumping in the lake, not doing what he’s supposed to do and just “Oh, no one’s around. I’ll jump in the water by myself.”

Jamie: [laughs] Naked.

Mikey: [laughs] Yeah. Completely! No.

Jamie: What about Tim Burton, for…

Andrew: Tim Burton? I don’t think – has he ever directed a dark film?

Jamie: Yeah, he has.

[Brandon laughs]

Andrew: Sorry, I’m not up on my directors, so don’t laugh at me!

Brandon: We liked Tim Burton ten years ago or something like that – Edward Scissorhands time, maybe – but not now.

Mikey: You mean not post Planet of the Apes Tim Burton?

Brandon: [laughs] Yeah, exactly. I don’t know, he kind of went downhill from there. I’m not saying that I don’t love the guy still, I think he’s a great director, but he really, really went downhill after. His early films were really handled with a lot of care. I think he really kind of took a turn for the worse.

Mikey: Well, I don’t know about that. I do definitely like – I liked the new Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

Andrew: Yeah, I was going to say, I loved that but I thought that was too – well, I mean…

Mikey: It was stylized, definitely.

Andrew: Yeah.

Mikey: It’s very Tim Burton-esque but I don’t know, I definitely like his older films better, like Brandon was saying. But I think if he was given the task, he might be able to do something really cool with it. The only thing I could see though is like the graveyard scene, all the graves would be skewed, kind of like…

Jamie: [laughs] Yeah.

Mikey: …how he has it in everything. It would be like, “Oh,” you know, in all the movies he has the graves all skewed in a weird way.

Brandon: That’s the thing about Tim Burton though, is he has that specific style. I don’t think you’d want to bring that into a Harry Potter film, because…

Andrew: Yeah.

[Mikey laughs]

Brandon: …the Harry Potter films already has its own style.

Mikey: Yeah.

Andrew: Exactly. Yeah, and it’s all been set up now. I mean, everyone knows what to expect.

Mikey: Yeah.

Andrew: So if there’s this different style, say Willy Wonka style [laughs] introduced with Tim Burton…

Mikey: Well, wait…

Jamie: [unintelligible] …blockbuster.

Mikey: Well, you guys – wait, let’s think back about Tim Burton. Can you imagine him bringing some of his style into the Harry Potter movies? Can you imagine like instead of a Thestral being what it was in the movie, him having the stop-motion animation for the Thestral like The Nightmare Before Christmas, and all these characters not being CGI but actually stop-motion animation, and just being a really weird, crazy, magical world?

Andrew: Yeah.

Brandon: Yeah…

Mikey: I think that would be crazy.

Brandon: …but I think a lot of them would end up having scissors hands or a lot more white makeup.

[Andrew and Mikey laugh]

Mikey: Yeah, white makeup and Johnny Depp in the background. Actually, Johnny Depp should just come in and be in the movies for the sake of just being in the movies as Jack Sparrow or something.

Andrew: Yeah.

Mikey: And being like…

Brandon: Everyone would just be dead, I think.

Mikey: Yeah, he should take over the role as Harry Potter and just win. [laughs]

Andrew: What would you want to see taken out? I mean…

Tyler: I definitely think that the final duel will – it just doesn’t fit.

[Andrew laughs]

Tyler: I think out of all the scenes it just doesn’t carry the movie along any further. I think it should just kind of end as Harry dying.

Andrew: Yeah, that doesn’t really matter, you don’t think?

Brandon: Way to give the ending. [laughs]

Andrew: Yeah.

Tyler: Completely serious.

Andrew: I think you’re trying to be funny. Don’t push it.

[Brandon and Tyler laugh]

Andrew: This is a serious podcast. We – I think I would love to see all that crap taken out when Harry and Hermione are just sitting around camping.

Jamie: Yeah, and cooking fish on bonfires and stuff like that.

Tyler: That’s like half the book.

Andrew: [laughs] I know it’s half the book.

Mikey: Oh, I know what I can get rid of, the Big D and Harry whole thing. It’s like, come on. Dudley’s been played down so much, it’s like, really, do we even need to have “They’re not that bad”?

Jamie: Going back to Johnny Depp, could he play anyone? We just had a couple of e-mails saying that he’d be a good Fenrir Greyback, maybe.

[Andrew and Mikey laugh]

Mikey: Johnny Depp as Fenrir Greyback. Actually, I’m just picturing him as – all right – no wait, guys, please, I’m going to check the feedback in a minute but hold on. Everybody who’s listening, Johnny Depp as a Harry Potter character or Captain Jack Sparrow as a Harry Potter character?

Jamie: Yeah!

Mikey: Because I’m thinking – right away my brain went for this. I saw Johnny Depp as Jack Sparrow with the dreads and going like, [impersonating Jack Sparrow] “Love, you don’t want to mess with me. I’m a werewolf! Pirate!” Something like that.

Jamie: You sound like the Terminator, Mikey. [laughs]

Mikey: Huh?

Andrew: [laughs] “You sound like the Terminator,” he said.

[Jamie laughs]

Mikey: Yeah, you’re missing – the thing is, I talk very animatedly. All the guys will tell me that. And I’m actually doing the sway with my hands up in the air but you don’t see that because I’m just talking, so it came out really bad for sure.

Brandon: [imitating Mikey] Mikey B!

Mikey: Yeah, it’s Mikey B.

[Andrew laughs]

Mikey: Mikey B! It’s what I do.

Jamie: Here’s a personalized question specifically for you: George Lucas?

Mikey: Uh-huh?

Jamie: What do you think?

Mikey: For a Harry Potter film?

Jamie: Yeah.

Mikey: [laughs] No. I love George Lucas, don’t get me wrong, but did you guys see Phantom Menace?

Jamie: Yeah.

Mikey: Or Attack of the Clones?

Brandon: And you’re saying that you did?

Mikey: Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. I think he did very good with the original Star Wars, A New Hope, and I think his THX – you know, American Graffiti was good.

Brandon: THX 1138 is great, but then he re-released it and it was horrible.

Mikey: Yeah.

Brandon: He added flying monkeys in it and stuff. It’s not like Wizard of Oz.

[Jamie laughs]

Mikey: But it was good at one point and also, come on, really? American Graffiti was great.

Brandon: Okay.

Mikey: Yeah.

Brandon: All right.

Mikey: So he did do some good stuff. Plus he did do – I think – I must say, Revenge of the Sith was not too bad. Not too bad.

Tyler: Whoa. Whoa.

Mikey: Dude, that light-saber fight was just awesome, okay? You can’t – come on. And even like – but you know what though? Talking to me about Star Wars is just really bad because I actually like Phantom Menace. The directing on it and the story and just the whole Jar Jar Binks scenes was just bad, but man, that pod race scene was just so cool that [laughs] I had to love it still.

Jamie: Yeah, that was cool.

Brandon: I like Star Wars but just bringing it back to Harry Potter…

Andrew: Yeah, thank you. [laughs]

Brandon: …I think it would be a horrible, horrible, horrible idea to have George Lucas direct anything involving Harry Potter. He would just ruin everything.

Andrew: I agree. He’s probably not even a Harry Potter fan.

Mikey: But come on…

Brandon: Because he’d definitely have [unintelligible] as somebody and he’d have blue screens everywhere.

Jamie: Yeah.

Brandon: And Harry Potter would be computer generated. It would be stupid.

Andrew: Exactly. Thank you. [laughs]

Mikey: Misa Harry Potter! [laughs]

Andrew: Someone said via the live feedback – Christian from Stockholm, Sweden. He writes:

“Stop dissing the camping scenes. They’re the best ones in the book!”

Mikey: Ha ha.

Andrew: What?!

Jamie: If that’s what you like.

Andrew: Yeah. If it floats your boat.

Tyler: But would you really want every single camping scene in the movie instead of the amazingness that’s in the book?

Andrew: Exactly.

Jamie: I agree.

Andrew: Yeah, we do have to…

Tyler: The balance.

Andrew: Exactly, thank you. What else…

Brandon: I…

Andrew: Go ahead.

Brandon: I would love an eight-hour movie. Really, just [unintelligible] it out.

[Tyler laughs]

Brandon: I want to see it.

Andrew: Well yeah…

Mikey: [laughs] Peter Jackson.

MuggleCast 109 Transcript (continued)

Discussion: Future Deathly Hallows Movie – Length

Andrew: …I really think WB should seriously consider investing a little more money into the movie to put – so it is longer. Because – sort of to pay tribute to being the end of the series and just the fact that it’s been something that fans have been wanting for so long, a movie that’s actually longer than two-and-a-half hours. I think one of the movies was two hours, forty-five minutes, something like that. But a four-hour movie is completely feasible for Harry Potter. Fans would sit through it, and Book 7 deserves it, I think, so…

Brandon: And you know what? It’s made them a lot of money too, so I think they just have to give to the fans after giving them so much money.

Andrew: Yeah, Brandon, I don’t know if you’ve heard this yet but Harry Potter is top-grossing motion picture of all time now – franchise.

Brandon: The franchise all together?

Andrew: Franchise.

Brandon: Wow.

Andrew: Top-grossing motion picture franchise.

Jamie: It’s made like four billion dollars.

Brandon: It used to be Star Wars.

Jamie: Yeah, more than Star Wars.

Andrew: It bet Star Wars but all the Star Wars nerds are saying that well, because of inflation, that may not be true. But right now…

Mikey: Oh, come on.

Brandon: [unintelligible]

Andrew: Huh? What did he say?

[Brandon and Tyler laugh]

Jamie: It’s made more than most countries are worth.

Andrew: Yeah, that’s very true. Anything else you guys would like to see cut out of the film? If you cut out the camping, and aside to make this a four-hour film, I think you could fit everything. [laughs]

Jamie: It isn’t a case of cutting out the camping, it’s just a case of cutting out the stuff that is there to make it look like a long journey while still giving you the long journey sort of feeling, if that makes sense.

Andrew: Yeah.

Jamie: So like the only reason they camp all over the place is to show how difficult the task is and how hard it is to stay away from everyone. So if they can still show that whilst have them [laughs] staying in hotels and stuff, then that would be nice. Or they have one camping scene or something.

Andrew: Right, right.

Jamie: Or something like that. What about a Spielberg classic, though? A blockbuster. What do you think?

Andrew: A Spielberg film?

Jamie: Yeah.

Andrew: That would be fantastic, but wasn’t he approached for Movies 1 and 2, and he turned them down? Or at least Movie 1?

Jamie: Something like that, yeah.

Andrew: Yeah.

Brandon: Yeah, he was approached and he said that, no – and he wanted Haley Joel Osment as Harry.

Jamie: Oh my God.

Andrew: As Harry?

Brandon: Yeah, as Harry and they all kind of booed that one.

Jamie: I see Thestrals.

Andrew: What was he smoking when he said that?

Brandon: I have a list of things.

Andrew: [laughs] Actually, Dan Radcliffe has something to say about the book being turned into film. He said this a few days ago:

“‘It’s going to be a hell of a challenge for the writer,’ he said. ‘There’s other bits in other books you can cut, but I don’t see anything in Book 7 you can cut.'”

Which is interesting.

“‘Author Jo Rowling always talks about the chapter she had written in her head before anything, when Harry’s going to face Voldemort, and I’m really looking forward to doing that. It should be powerful – if I don’t screw it up. Of course, I’m saying all this hoping it won’t be cut. I don’t think it can be, it’s so vital.'”

So…

Brandon: Hey, Andrew?

Andrew: Yeah?

Brandon: Why aren’t you doing your Daniel Radcliffe voice when you’re quoting him?

Andrew: I don’t have a Dan Radcliffe voice. [laughs]

Brandon: I don’t know who’s talking. Is it Andrew and then Dan Radcliffe? Can you please just do his accent or something next time?

Andrew: [poorly imitating a British accent] Well, sorry, I don’t have a British accent. [back to normal voice] See that was terrible, I just tried. It was terrible. [poorly imitating a British accent] “It’s going to be a hell of a challenge for the writer. There’s other bits in other books you can cut, but I don’t see anything in Book 7 you can cut.”

Jamie: That would be good if you brought it down a bit. Don’t overstate it so much.

Brandon: Wow, that was uncanny. That was like exactly.

Andrew: [laughs] Well, thank you.

Brandon: I didn’t know if that was Daniel Radcliffe over there.

Andrew: He’s actually visiting me, yeah.

[Jamie laughs]

Andrew: We met after Equus one night and things have been going well. [laughs] But anyway…

Brandon: We should actually have him on the show. You should talk like him and then tell everyone and dude, your ratings would go up way high.

Andrew: You know, we actually had Hagrid on the show once.

Brandon: Wow.

Andrew: Yeah.

Jamie: Let’s not talk about that.

[Mikey laughs]

Andrew: It was an exclusive interview.

Mikey: [imitating Ben] “Rubeus Hagrid!” Ben.

Andrew: And we’re trying to have him on the show today, maybe later tonight. That would be pretty exciting. And maybe Dumbledore too…

Jamie: Yeah.

Tyler: Wow.

Andrew: …because rumor has it he’s not actually dead.

Tyler: The real Dumbledore Dumbledore?

Jamie: Yeah.

Andrew: Oh, the real one, yeah.

Brandon: Wow.

Andrew: Yeah, we don’t – we’re actually a pretty big podcast and we get respect from the fictional characters. So…

Jamie: And from dead people as well, apparently.

Andrew: Yeah.

Jamie: Like Dumbledore.

Andrew: Yeah. [laughs]

Mikey: We should have Hedwig on.

Discussion: Future Deathly Hallows Movie – Plot Holes

Andrew: Oh, hey now. So okay, another question: What holes have the moviemakers dug themselves into from things they have left out of previous films?

Jamie: Not much really. I’m sure they’ve been very careful and I’m sure Jo has told them they can’t – certain stuff, unless it’s a creative license they’re working with and they’re just changing the way stuff looks. They have to be very careful, but they don’t show stuff how it shouldn’t be.

Andrew: Yeah.

Jamie: Because they’ll sort of stop themselves being able to do proper important plot details later on. I’m sure Jo looks over everything and is like, “You cannot do this because it stops me being able to write this bit about where they go in Book 7,” or contradictions. There must be a big part of writing the script that’s got to be making sure nothing contradicts past books, past movies, future books, and future movies, I guess.

Andrew: Yeah. One thing – there was a big story before the release of Order of the Phoenix where it was revealed that J.K. Rowling insisted that they keep Kreacher in the film. And of course now we know why. And I would just think that they couldn’t have made any – they couldn’t have dug any huge holes because if they did, I think Jo would have said something. Can anyone else think of something else they’re in trouble with now?

Jamie: I don’t know, I don’t think so.

Andrew: I mean, I was complaining that with the veil, there wasn’t enough emphasis put on the veil in the film, but now [laughs] it doesn’t really matter.

Jamie: Well, Kendra writes and says that Dan’s eyes are blue and they never changed that, so…

Andrew: Well, that’s silly.

Jamie: No, no, no, that’s what I was going to say, that they can just change them with the contacts for the scene in Deathly Hallows when he looks into Snape’s eyes, if they put that in [laughs] which they probably should do, really.

Andrew: Yeah. That was a lot of people’s favorite scene in the book there.

Tyler: One thing that’s going to be during the movie is – something Alex put out is that there’s not enough tension involved in the film. It’s something that’s definitely prevalent in the Lord of the Rings films where you can actually feel their dread. When there’s so much dread in the fifth book, I didn’t think – yeah, I didn’t seem to feel any pain for the characters. It all kind of just moved along. I kind of just didn’t saw it. I don’t know.

Brandon: There was no climax either. The movie kind of just ended without any kind of resolutions. It’s kind of just boom and there was no height in the sense of the film, no arch.

Andrew: Yeah. I mean, that’s really how all the Harry Potter films end though, don’t they?

Tyler: Well, there has to be a lot more tension involved, especially in the sixth and seventh.

Jamie: Yeah.

Mikey: Well guys, come on. Think about – go back to the movies. Think about our favorite – the Prisoner of Azkaban. It ends with Harry riding a broom. That’s a great ending, right?

Jamie: No.

Andrew: No.

Mikey: [laughs] I’m being – I hope you guys can all hear the sarcasm in my voice. It’s like, “Weeeee!”

Tyler: We should talk about the fifth movie.

Mikey: Okay, strictly talk about the fifth movie. All right.

Tyler: Strictly.

Brandon: Strictly.

Mikey: Yeah.

Jamie: Because Mikey – they can get away with it. First of all, they can get away with flashy finishes and lines like “Don’t worry, I will be.”

Mikey: No – and I’m not being completely sarcastic. I actually liked the way that the third film ended. Not the broom part, but – Sirius said goodbye and everything was nicely closed off and concluded. And the only reason they really put that broom in there is so he’d have it in the next movie. You know what I mean?

Jamie: Yeah.

Mikey: Plus, it was kind of a funny ending. But I think overall, the third movie had a very well-done story. Not just the book, but obviously they changed so much that it was – I think the third movie is still my favorite and it’s probably I feel is the best, because as a movie it moves the story along in such a way that you don’t feel kind of bored. I remember watching the fifth movie – and don’t get me wrong. I still liked it, I thought it was cool, and seeing it in IMAX 3D was awesome. But literally when I saw it for the first time, I kind of was like at times looking at my watch, going, “How long has this movie been?”

Jamie: But Mikey, I’d say that’s because the first four were still sort of establishing the sort of plot details, establishing the sort of overall look of the Harry Potter films whereas “5”, “6”, and “7”, everything is so important in sort of wrapping up what’s happening, going on, because “5”, “6”, and “7” really are just a continuation. So they don’t have as much creative license to put stuff how they want because it’s extremely in-depth how everything works out, how the Voldemort/Harry storyline works out. So I think…

Mikey: Well no…

Jamie: …”5″, “6”, and “7” have got to be truer to the books.

Mikey: I don’t think that’s a good argument because come on, in “5” we get introduced to Dolores Umbridge and we have her walking down the hall the way they want her to do it, and they have that music, and she’s using her wand to tighten ties and move people away from kissing and stuff.

Jamie: I know. I agree, but…

Mikey: That’s style, but it’s – I don’t know.

Jamie: But that style is there because they have to show how evil she is. It doesn’t matter how they do it – it’s like in Goblet of Fire when the – what’s it called?

Mikey: The name came out?

Jamie: The Durmstrang – huh?

Mikey: When the name came out, it’s Harry Potter. What? [laughs] Why is Harry picked?

Jamie: Yeah, that’s it.

Andrew: Yeah.

Jamie: I couldn’t believe it.

[Andrew laughs]

Jamie: No, when Durmstrang and Beauxbatons came in, they have the creative license to give them – to have Beauxbatons walking in and going from side to side with those butterflies and…

Mikey: [imitating the movie] “Ahhh!”

Jamie: [laughs] Yeah, exactly. And Durmstrang to…

Mikey: And Ron looking airy at them.

Jamie: Yeah. And Durmstrang coming with those sticks. It just gave a hint of what those two schools were like and what was going to happen, foreshadowing. But they have the creative license to show what the books say but they don’t have the creative license to change the direction of what’s going on, especially in these last three books when everything is so important.

Mikey: Okay.

Jamie: I think.

Andrew: Here’s something interesting: Kyle e-mailed in via the live feedback form at MuggleCast.com/Live. He’s from Chicago. He writes:

“How about having J.K. Rowling narrate the epilogue?”

That would be sweet!

Mikey: That would be cool.

Andrew: J.K. Rowling needs a part in these films. I think that’s a great way to do it.

Jamie: Well, she’s a cameo as a photographer or something, though.

Andrew: A photographer?

Jamie: I don’t know.

Andrew: What? Oh okay. [laughs]

Jamie: I don’t know.

Brandon: I think Andrew should narrate as Daniel Radcliffe.

Jamie: [laughs] Yeah. Andrew…

Andrew: What is your obsession with me and Daniel Radcliffe?

Brandon: There’s no obsession.

[Andrew laughs]

Brandon: It’s uncanny how close you are to him.

Andrew: [laughs] Oh. Well, thank you. Unfortunately, I think you’re the only one who believes that.

Brandon: Yeah, probably.

Andrew: [laughs] Another piece of feedback, from Rebecca out of LA. She writes:

“They didn’t show the mirror in ‘Order of the Phoenix’ but it’s extremely important in the final book. How will they cover that in the final movie?”

Jamie: Hmmm.

Andrew: I think that’s a great point.

Jamie: That is interesting.

Andrew: Oh well.

Jamie: I don’t know. I mean, there are small things that could have been problems but aren’t problems, like with Cho telling everyone – sorry, ratting on Dumbledore’s Army. That could have been a problem if she had a bigger part, but I assume Jo cleared it, because I don’t see why you’d change that, to be honest, except for the sake of brevity, so you didn’t have to introduce Marietta and all that kind of stuff. But it just seems – that could potentially create a lot of problems.

Andrew: Yeah.

Jamie: Because you’ve got to show that she’s remorseful and that’s why she comes back at the end of Deathly Hallows to fight. But it just seems like – I don’t think Cho would do that.

Andrew: Hmmm.

Jamie: I don’t know.

Andrew: Let’s see…

Jamie: Lexi says that Jo could play – sorry, not Lexi. Camillo says that Jo could play one of the wedding guests in Deathly Hallows which – that’s an idea.

[Andrew and Mikey laugh]

Jamie: There’s a load of extras needed for that.

Mikey: Can you imagine Jo playing Aunt Muriel?

Andrew: [laughs] Yeah.

Jamie: [laughs] Yeah.

Mikey: Actually, would Aunt Muriel really have a major part? Well, she embeds the seed.

Jamie: The Dumbledore stuff, yeah.

Mikey: Yeah, she embeds the seed of “Dumbledore is bad.” And – so I think Aunt Muriel is probably a very pivotal character, especially because if it wasn’t for her, Harry wouldn’t have this major doubt because he doesn’t trust Rita Skeeter already, and…

Jamie: Yeah.

Mikey: You know what I mean? So it’s like he wouldn’t believe it but then Aunt Muriel says it, and she has inside information and all this different stuff to where it’s like now that that seed of doubt that is driving Harry to find out what’s going on and really kind of know more about Dumbledore…

Jamie: Yeah.

Mikey: …is all clicked to her.

Jamie: That’s why she’s important.

Mikey: And I think because she’s so important, Jo should take that role.

[Jamie laughs]

Mikey: I really think that…

Andrew: I really think you’re pushing it.

Mikey: Who better to give us the information about Dumbledore than Jo herself?

[Andrew laughs]

Discussion: Future Deathly Hallows Movie – Rating

Jamie: This could push the movie to an NC-17, 18 sort of rating…

[Mikey laughs]

Jamie: …but I want to see Bathilda Bagshot collapse and a snake come out of her neck. How awesome would that be?

Andrew: Why is that – why would that give it an NC-17 rating though?

Jamie: Well, I don’t know many children who would gain delight in seeing a person’s body completely crumble beneath them, their neck open up, and a huge python come out.

Mikey: [laughs] Huge python. Remember we had that guy who had a python when we were on tour?

Andrew: No.

Jamie: Mikey, I was expecting him to come downstairs, like an eight foot one carried his housemates, and not like a baby around his neck.

Mikey: I know! I was so disappointed. I was like, “Oh my God, he’s got a big old python! Let’s see it!”

Jamie: Yeah.

Mikey: And then it was just like a foot and a half long.

Jamie: Yeah.

Mikey: It was just like, “Wow. Okay, that’s cool.”

Andrew: There’s something else – while we’re on the subject of ratings, what do you think – [laughs] seems like a stupid question but I think it should be seriously considered. What kind of rating should they be aiming for? Why not make it R, I say.

[“Celebration” by Kool & the Gang plays]

Andrew: Sorry, I didn’t mean to do that.

Jamie: Well, because they’re abandoning their demographic, aren’t they? If they do that.

Andrew: Yeah, but say a Harry Potter film is rated R because of how gory and nasty it can get with all the killing and stuff, especially at the end.

Jamie: Yeah.

Andrew: As a parent, I don’t see why you wouldn’t take your son or daughter to see it if it’s the Harry Potter series.

Jamie: It depends on quite a few things. I mean, I think cinema sort of grosses would go down, but then people would still watch it just on DVD and TV and stuff. But it just depends if they want to stay true to the books or if they want to please their demographic and get the Harry Potter movies and market them as children’s.

Andrew: Mhm.

Mikey: Well also…

Brandon: Personally…

Mikey: Hold on one second. A point here is everyone that’s listening today – I pretty much think anyone that’s listening today by the time Deathly Hallows the movie comes out, you may not be seventeen but you’re well in the range of being able to see rated R. By then you’re like sixteen.

Andrew: That’s true, that’s very true.

Mikey: I mean, everybody that’s listening today, by the time that comes out I’m pretty sure – and now I’m not taking – I don’t really know how many eleven-year-olds or really, really young kids listen to the show and I might be completely wrong, but definitely I think if it was rated R, majority of the people that are listening today that grew up with Harry Potter would still be able to go see it.

Jamie: Abby brings up a valid point that R would make the movie no longer a children’s movie and Jo probably wouldn’t like that because she admits that although Harry Potter is for all ages because you can read it, they are marketed and she writes them as children’s books, and they teach things to children, the themes in there are designed to help your development and your childhood and stuff like that. I’ve always thought that. I know what this person is saying and that it wouldn’t be a children’s movie and might change the direction that Jo wanted to take it and I guess she has the veto.

Andrew: Yeah. I was just starting it for argument’s sake, but I agree [laughs] it will just be PG-13 and as someone points out in the feedback – let’s see, that was Emma from Sweden. They’d rather – she says:

“They’d rather remove the scary scenes than make it R rated, they would lose so much money.”

Jamie: Yeah, that probably is true.

Andrew: Too true.

Brandon: But I also think that a lot of times in movies, sometimes just the things they don’t show are kind of scarier than when they actually show it, because it leaves to your imagination.

Jamie: Yeah.

Mikey: Yeah. Like can you imagine Harry going to King’s Cross station and you hear this wailing baby but you never – you only see like kind of a blur.

Brandon: That would be…

Mikey: You never actually see the dis-formed figure that you’re dreading to see, but you hear it and it’s just like a retched sound that you’re like, “Oh my gosh, this thing must be absolutely hideous and scary looking.”

Brandon: I don’t know if you guys have seen the Alien movies, but if you watch the original ones you barely see the alien at all and they’re so scary. And then towards the end like on the later Alien movies like Alien 3, you’re actually seeing the alien and it’s not very scary because you know exactly what you’re seeing.

Andrew: Oh okay.

Mikey: Yeah.

Andrew: Hmmm, that’s interesting.

Mikey: Well, it’s kind of like Jaws even, too. Jaws is actually – if you watch that, it’s a scary movie, you know what I mean?

Andrew: Yeah.

Mikey: And you never see the shark, you see the death of the people so that you don’t see the length and the size of the shark until he says, “We’re going to need a bigger boat.”

Andrew: [laughs] Yeah.

Mikey: And it’s just like…

[Jamie laughs]

Mikey: But you got to remember that this is also a movie that literally made people not go into the water and oceans for a long time. So, I agree with Brandon. If you don’t see something and it’s left up to your imagination it can be absolutely terrifying.

Andrew: Mhm. Let’s see, what else do we want to add about this? [laughs]

Jamie: It’s going to be very interesting to see how they close the entire thing, because it is a completely different movie to every other one just because they can’t fix stuff in later movies, they can’t change stuff, they can’t explain stuff so it all has to be come out there.

Mikey: Yeah.

Jamie: So it’s going to be interesting the angle they put on it, whether they’re going to go for a sort of build-up and then a climatic end, or if they’re just going to go through it – chronologically go through everything in the book and just end it like Jo wanted. And the epilogue as well, what is going to happen with that?

Andrew: Yeah.

Brandon: I think they’ll do endings just like in the end of Lord of the Rings when it’s just like – every single story has a little ending.

Jamie: Yeah, they just close everything. That would be kind of cool.

Andrew: Celia from Alabama writes:

“The books are not written for children. J.K. Rowling has said herself that she doesn’t write the books just for children, they’re for everyone. ‘Deathly Hallows’ is not a children’s book in any shape or form.”

Yes, but they would still lose a lot of money on that front.

Tyler: Yeah.

Mikey: Oh, you know what?

Brandon: And as much as you want to think that it’s nothing about money, it really is. I mean, for making the movie for the [unintelligible], I don’t think. They’re making it for the money for the most part.

Andrew: Yeah.

Mikey: Julia from Texas – I’m reading the e-mails now – she just said the seventh book shows people dead, there’s no blood because it’s magic. So because there’s no blood, no gore like that in that sense, I think them getting an R rating would be really hard because the things they would have to emphasize to get an R rating would be really, really bad.

Jamie: Mikey, if they made 300 with no blood and just magic, it wouldn’t be as gory as it actually is, you know?

Mikey: Yeah, it’d be like…

Jamie: [laughs] If they could kill people with magic.

Mikey: Yeah, I guess. I… [laughs]

Jamie: But I don’t know. Maybe not. Maybe not.

Andrew: Here’s a good idea from Susan of New York. She writes:

“They could show a silhouette of the snake coming out of Bagshot, and Harry’s terrified face.”

Jamie: Like on the wall? That would be good.

Andrew: Yeah.

Jamie: That would be very good.

Andrew: Huh?

Jamie: That would be very good.

Andrew: Yeah. And…

Jamie: I want to say – Andrew, the vegetable for this hour, quickly and now, before I forget…

Andrew: [laughs] Okay.

Jamie: …is beetroot.

Andrew: I hope you’re keeping track of all these.

Jamie: I am keeping a track. Beetroot for the fourth hour.

Mikey: Are you going to eat something for…

Jamie: [laughs] No, no, no. It’s to check if people are listening for all twelve hours. We’re saying a vegetable for each hour, and the first person to e-mail in at the end with a list in chronological order of every vegetable wins a special prize.

Andrew: I’m seriously ordering pizza in another couple of hours. Going to do it live on the air. It’s going to be fun.

Mikey: Wait, I think I want to order pizza right now.

Andrew: Right now?

Mikey: Well, it’s…

Brandon: Can you get pepperoni?

Mikey: It’s noon for me. It’s 12:46 and I haven’t had breakfast yet, so…

Jamie: Awww.

Mikey: No, when I said I…

Brandon: I love pepperoni pizza.

Mikey: I literally woke up, I kid you not, and came straight here so I could join you guys.

Andrew: Awww, that’s so sweet.

Jamie: That’s dedication from you.

Mikey: I really am like looking at my door in my bedroom kind of like, “I kind of want to go to the kitchen and see what food I have.”

[Andrew laughs]

Mikey: But I’m like, if I order pizza, I’ll have a fresh, hot food.

Andrew: Uh-huh.

Mikey: And I could discuss what type of pizza I’m going to order, and – personally, I’m a fan of Pizza Hut right now. They have that dipping strip pizza.

Andrew: So do it!

Jamie: Oh, that is nice. Yeah.

Mikey: That would be entertaining, huh? No?

Andrew: No, it would be.

Tyler: [unintelligible]

Andrew: I’m serious about calling in a couple of hours.

Mikey: Let’s see, I’m going to order online since we’re online right now.

Andrew: Oh okay. All right. [laughs] Okay. Let’s talk about…

Jamie: Oh, but we can’t hear that.

Andrew: No, we can’t, but he can narrate it for us or something. But one thing that we have been considering doing with MuggleCast is – [sighs] I’m going to get tons of complaints about this – turning it into more of an entertainment podcast, and the first step would be – well, the first step I think would be in the right direction, would be talking more about movies in general, besides just the Harry Potter films. Talking more – maybe reviewing movies, maybe talking about the latest news in some industries.

Jamie: Yeah.

Andrew: So…

Jamie: Not for…

Andrew: Huh?

Jamie: Not for a while. Well, I was going to say, not for a while but we want to – obviously, we can’t talk about Harry Potter forever, but we don’t want to stop the show, do we? So it’s more like trying to continue what we’re doing without ending it completely.

Andrew: Right. So one thing I wanted to talk about right now, since we’re on the – unless – did anyone want to bring up something else, about the last film?

Mikey: Deathly Hallows, damn – hands down, best film ever.

[Andrew laughs]

Jamie: Damn.

Mikey: [laughs] I kept saying “damn.” I couldn’t sleep. Hands down, best film ever!

[Echoing sounds in the background]

Jamie: That’s an Emerson Spartz quote for everyone.

Mikey: Emerson Spartz, everybody.

Andrew: From Goblet of Fire. We’re getting feedback now. Come on, Brandon and Tyler, what are you doing?

Brandon: What do you want from us?

Mikey: You guys should get a headset and just like share it. You guys should each have one earbud in and…

Andrew: That’s probably what they’re doing.

Mikey: Oh. I don’t know.

MuggleCast 109 Transcript (continued)

Discussion: Non-Harry Potter Movies

Andrew: Is it? I don’t know. Whatever. I was just messing with you. So, other movies. Do you guys want to talk about other movies? Jamie?

Jamie: We may as well, [laughs] we’ve got nine hours to go.

Andrew: Well, we’re going to take a break in a little bit because then we have a pretty good interview coming up. But…

Jamie: Well, I…

Andrew: What? Go ahead, Brandon.

Brandon: What’s up?

Andrew: Did you say something?

Brandon: No.

Jamie: I think it was me.

Andrew: Oh. Go ahead, Jamie. [laughs]

Jamie: I’m not sure. I’m getting confused. I was just going to say I had a kind of indie sort of mind change going soon. And if anyone knows Play.com, I went on there and had a sort of DVD ordering session and ordered a load of sort of independent movies, and I ordered – now that I’m thinking about it, I can’t remember them. Grosse Pointe Blank with John Cusack, it’s very good. Buffalo 66 which I haven’t seen yet, but I’ve heard very, very good things about it. My Own Private Idaho with River Phoenix, which is a very, very, very good movie. Gus Van Sant, I would like to see him do Deathly Hallows but [laughs] I don’t think that’s going to happen somehow. What else did I order? One sec! One sec! Stay online!

Andrew: [laughs] Stay online? Oh, we are going to close. We are going to shut down. One movie I saw lately was Hairspray. Anyone else seen that?

Mikey: I saw that.

Andrew: Yeah. Mikey, I saw it with you.

Mikey: Yeah.

Jamie: Which movie is that?

Mikey: We saw it with Mase, too.

Andrew: [laughs] We saw it with Mason. Mason, couldn’t – well, we talked Mason into it. Mason didn’t really end up liking it very much. Mikey, you’ve seen it, what, how many times?

Mikey: Twice now.

Jamie: Which movie?

Andrew: I’m kind of embarrassed to say I’ve seen it three times.

Mikey: Have you really?

Andrew: [laughs] Yeah.

Mikey: I’ve only paid to see it once.

[Andrew laughs]

Mikey: I saw it in an advanced screening a month and a half of working them out. It’s a good movie, and I must say…

Jamie: What movie are you talking about?

Andrew and Mikey: Hairspray.

Jamie: [laughs] Oh.

Mikey: You guys got to remember, it’s got Christopher Walken dancing and singing. It’s Christopher Walken!

Andrew: Yeah, come on. John Travolta, dressed as a girl.

Mikey: Like, can you imagine John Travolta’s resume? It’s like, I did Grease and now I did Hairspray. I was a young, hot stud in one movie and I’m an elderly, fat lady in the other.

[Andrew laughs]

Mikey: That’s such an awesome contrast.

Andrew: Yeah.

Mikey: Oh yeah.

Jamie: Well, he’s a versatile actor, I guess.

Andrew: Brandon, did you say you saw it?

Brandon: Yeah. I actually saw it thirteen times. I’m a huge fan.

Andrew: [laughs] On what?

Brandon: I actually like to dress up as most of the characters, going to the shows and waiting in line. It’s a great time.

Mikey: Really? That’s cool.

Andrew: What a loser, you saw it thirteen times? Wow, loser.

Brandon: You’re a jerk, you know that?

[Jamie laughs]

Andrew: Whatever, [pauses] dufus!

Brandon: Oh.

Andrew: Yeah.

Jamie: Ooh, the insults are coming out.

Listener Calls

Andrew: Hey, but I guess we’ll take some calls now, if anyone’s interested in adding some input to our movie discussion, maybe. Let’s keep it Harry Potter related right now, and let’s see…

Mikey: Unless you like a really cool movie you want to talk about that.

Andrew: Yeah. Let’s take a call from Debby. Hi, Debby.

[Echoing sounds in the background]

Caller: Hello?

Andrew: Hi. Hey, turn your feedback down, so…

Caller: Hello?

Andrew: Hi. Turn your feedback down, so the thing…

Caller: Is this MuggleCast?

Andrew: Yeah, yeah. Turn your volume down, so we don’t hear ourselves.

Caller: Oh sorry.

Andrew: It’s okay.

Caller: I’ll just turn it off.

[Prolonged silence]

Caller: Okay, is it better now?

Andrew: Yeah, it’s better. So what’s going on?

Caller: Nothing, but I was wondering, for the listener challenge last week, did you get my Hairspray one?

Andrew: Did I get your Hairspray one?

Caller: I made one about Hairspray.

Andrew: No, I can’t say I did. Maybe you want to make sure you e-mailed it to andrew at staff dot mugglenet dot com? Send it again.

Caller: Hold on one sec. Sorry for this again, but my friends want me to shout out “SPot.”

Andrew: Okay. I have no idea what that means. Okay. Well, yeah, I’ll look for it in a little bit, okay?

Caller: Hello?

Andrew: Hi.

Caller: Hi.

Jamie: Oh, it’s dying.

Andrew: Awww, we lost the call. Darn. Let me get another person in here. Lucas! Welcome back.

Caller: Yeah, hi.

Andrew: Hey.

Caller: I remember what I was going to say earlier.

Andrew: Ahhh, it’s a miracle! Just kidding.

Caller: Yeah. You guys should submit the link to Digg like you did when you did the live reading.

Andrew: Yeah, that’s a good idea, but Ustream is already crashing with the amount of people we have on it right now, so…. [laughs]

Caller: Yeah, maybe.

Andrew: Yeah. You can submit it, go for it!

Caller: Yeah, I’ll do that. I’ll post the link in the chat.

Andrew: Then we’ll get all the Harry Potter haters on Digg, including – Kevin Rhodes included.

Caller: Yeah.

Andrew: [laughs] And then we’ll get rid of Digg.

Caller: Yeah. Thanks, bye.

Andrew: Okay.

Mikey: You can friend me on Digg.

Andrew: No, nobody wants to friend you on Digg.

Mikey: No one wants to friend me in general. It makes me sad.

Andrew: Hi, Abby!

Caller: Hi.

Andrew: Hi. You have anything to add to our discussion today?

Caller: Yeah. I actually just wanted to say that my friend and I were listening to you talk about J.K. Rowling being in the seventh movie.

Andrew: Yeah?

Caller: And we think she would be a wonderful woman to play Draco’s wife.

Andrew: [laughs] Draco’s wife?

Jamie: [laughs] Draco’s wife.

Andrew: What?

Jamie: Does Draco go for that kind of woman?

Caller: [laughs] Well, I think it would be funny to watch.

Andrew: Maybe.

Jamie: It would definitely be funny, yeah.

Andrew: Yeah. Okay. Well, thanks for calling in.

Caller: Thank you.

Andrew: Bye!

Jamie: Thank you. Buh-bye!

Mikey: Bye!

Tyler: Hey guys, I’m actually going to head out. This is Tyler talking.

Andrew: Okay.

Tyler: I have to go to a concert. But it was a blast.

Andrew: Cool, thanks for coming on.

Mikey: Bye, Brandon! Bye, Tyler!

Andrew: Bye, guys!

Tyler: I think Brandon is…

Andrew: Oh, Brandon is staying.

Brandon: I’m sticking around for a little bit…

Mikey: Oh, Tyler is…

Brandon: …if you guys could help me out.

Mikey: No, I love you Brandon. You’re welcome to stay. Definitely.

[Andrew laughs]

Brandon: Cool.

Andrew: Speaking of show-offs, Cole is back.

Caller: [laughs] Hi.

Andrew: [laughs] What’s going on? Do you have anything to add here?

Caller: Well, I was just saying – I heard you before. I had to go for a little bit, but I’m back. I heard you talk before about the seventh movie being four hours.

Andrew: Yeah.

Caller: I was like, “Oh, it has to be at least three hours or I’m going to get mad.”

Andrew: Right. Yeah. It should be, I agree. Nobody wants to build up all this hype to the final film and then – we’re all looking forward to it, “It’s the last time! It’s the last time! We’re going to be all together, seeing the Harry Potter film!” And then it’s short and we’re out of there in a couple of hours.

Caller: Yeah, it’d be like a half an hour movie. It’s like…

Andrew: Yeah. Well, I don’t think – that’d be pushing it. But…

Caller: Yeah, that would just be bad.

Andrew: [laughs] But – yeah.

[Jamie laughs]

Andrew: Maybe we can start up a petition, like what happens every year with a new film.

Caller: Yeah.

Andrew: “Petition to WB to make the movie longer.”

Caller: Yeah. Seven-hour movie.

Jamie: Yeah.

Andrew: And then people ask us to post those on MuggleNet and we’re like, “It’s not going to make a difference, so…”

[Caller laughs]

Jamie: No, no difference at all.

Andrew: Yeah.

Mikey: I think it might though, Andrew. Seriously.

Andrew: Why? No, it wouldn’t…

Mikey: I’m just picking on you. Really? They’re going to do what they want to do regardless.

Andrew: Yeah.

Mikey: It all comes down to the money. Really? That’s what the business is based on.

Andrew: Yeah.

Mikey: And if they can make more money by making it short so that way there’s more times that the movie can play in theaters, which – that’s why a lot of theaters like short films.

Andrew: Yeah.

Mikey: Yeah, they’re going to do that. And it’s not that they don’t want to make it longer, but having movies the length of Lord of the Rings is just really not good for them.

Jamie: That is true, yeah.

Mikey: But then again, you’ve got to think about it. All those really long movies, the big, epic ones like Titanic, Lord of the Rings, they all do really well, so they should…

Caller: Yeah.

Jamie: Ben-Hur.

Mikey: Yeah.

Andrew: What movie?

Mikey: Lawrence of Arabia?

Jamie: All twelve-and-a-half hours of that one. [laughs]

Andrew: How about Roots? Mason, you ever seen Roots? Mason is joining us now.

Jamie: Hey, mate.

Mikey: That was on television, dude.

Andrew: It was on TV, but it’s also now available on DVD.

Mikey: Kunta Kinte!

Andrew: [laughs] Kunta Kinte? Yeah.

Mikey: “Your name is Toby!” That’s such a great movie.

Andrew: Yeah.

Mikey: TV special.

Andrew: Yeah, thing.

Mikey: I love Roots.

Longest Film Ever Created

Jamie: Mikey, here’s a bit of trivia for you: What’s the longest film ever created? Longest movie ever?

Mikey: Oh geez.

Jamie: Weighing in at, I think, 85 hours.

Mikey: Oh, I have no clue. Should I Google Search it and pretend like I know it? Or…

Jamie: Yes, do that. Do that.

Mikey: Okay.

Jamie: But don’t tell anyone.

Brandon: Was the question “the longest movie ever”?

Andrew and Jamie: Yeah.

Brandon: Oh, I have no idea, but I know the…

Mikey: Oh, there it is. I found it!

Brandon: The longest movie in one shot is called Russian Ark. It’s one shot, the whole movie.

Jamie: There’s one shot of the entire movie? Damn!

Mikey: Wow.

Brandon: The entire movie is one shot. They cover over five different films and it’s – yeah, it’s one shot. And it’s all – there’s like thousands of extras. It’s pretty amazing.

Mikey: Yeah, see there’s a list of – on Wikipedia. It’s Wikipedia.org/Wiki/List_of_longest_films_by_running_time.

[Jamie groans]

Mikey: [laughs] And it’s twenty-seven…

Andrew: I got that! I got all that.

Mikey: Yeah. It’s The Burning of the Red Lotus Temple.

Jamie: No, it’s not. It’s The Cure for Insomnia.

Andrew: [laughs] Okay. While you guys fight it out, thanks Cole for calling.

Mikey: All right.

Jamie: I can take you any day, Mikey. Any day, any day.

Mikey: Wikipedia has never been wrong to me, Jamie. It’s never been wrong.

Jamie: That’s very true. It can’t be wrong. It only tells the truth.

Mikey: [laughs] Wikipedia only tells the truth. Oh, actually no, you’re right. “Experimental Film.” Ahhh. I didn’t look at the bottom. I said the answer before it. So Jamie is right. It’s called Cure for Insomnia. It’s 87 hours long, released in 1987.

Andrew: Very good.

Jamie: Why don’t we do that? We should podcast and everyone watches that movie at the same time.

Mikey: [laughs] Yeah, we should all start watching Goblet of Fire and do a commentary of it live with live listener feedback.

Andrew: [laughs] That’s a good idea.

Mikey: That’s unique!

Discussion: Future Half-Blood Prince Movie – Slughorn

Andrew: One more call, and then we’ll take a break. Hi, Sarah.

Jamie: Hey.

Caller: Hi.

Andrew: Hi.

Caller: I was just…

Andrew: Go ahead.

Caller: Hi, I was just wondering – you kept talking about the seventh movie, but I was just wondering because – the sixth movie is almost over, almost coming up, and I was just wondering if you had any thoughts on that. And I know we got some news about – Dan said about how Slughorn – about how he was kind of a comedic character, and I was wondering what you guys thought about that.

Andrew: Well – yeah, that’s pretty interesting. Dan actually said this the other day, because they’ve done a read-through already. They’ve done the read-through of the script, the whole cast. And apparently, Slughorn is going to be, like she said, a funny character, but then he will have his dark moments.

Mikey: Awww, I was sad. I didn’t want Sarah to go because I wanted to ask her…

Andrew: Oh, I’m sorry.

Mikey: I wanted her to do a “Mikey B” but I guess…

Andrew: Why? Does she do it or something?

Mikey: No, I just thought it would be funny because I just thought about it right now while I was actually paying attention.

[Jamie laughs]

Mikey: I mean, I’m always paying attention, but…

Brandon: I’ll do it.

Mikey: Yeah, could you please?

Brandon: Yeah, okay. One – “Mikey B!”

Mikey: Yeah!

[Andrew laughs]

Brandon: There you go.

Mikey: It’s usually – I instantly get transported to different places in the world with this “Mikey B” stuff, so it’s nice.

Jamie: But you must not abuse it. It’s very important you only call it in dire need.

Mikey: Yeah, so when you’re stranded there – or if you need a penny because you’re buying something and you have no extra change, you just need one penny, just go “Mikey B!” and I’ll be there. I’m like, “Here’s a penny!”

Jamie: Yeah.

[Andrew and Mikey laugh]

Mikey: It works!

Jamie: Or most importantly, if you’re in the Apple store and they’re screwing you around – you don’t know what to do. You’re stuck. They’re all ganging up on you – you just say “Mikey B!” and you’ll be out of there with a free iMac, a free MacBook, and five free iPods.

Mikey: Oh geez. Not true at all. Please don’t.

[Andrew and Jamie laugh]

Andrew: Yeah, Jamie, you said too much. [laughs]

Mikey: Yeah.

Brandon: It happened before.

Mikey: Stop. Jamie, no.

Andrew: [laughs] So anyway, Half-Blood Prince film – I’m looking forward to seeing Slughorn because that’s a very important character. But I feel like that whole beginning, when Dumbledore brings Harry to go and visit Slughorn – I have a feeling something like that would be a good candidate to be cut out.

Mikey: You want it to be cut out?

Andrew: No, no, no, I could see it being cut out though, that beginning, because I don’t see that as being…

Mikey: That’s like the introduction though. You can’t have – because that’s a great introduction where they poke him as he’s a big, fluffy couch.

Jamie: [laughs] Yeah.

Mikey: Like you can’t have him come in halfway through the feast in the rain and go [groans] and throw a spell at the ceiling. He can’t do that.

[Andrew laughs]

Mikey: He’s Slughorn, come on.

Andrew: But…

Mikey: He’s like, “I want pineapple.”

Andrew: But how many Harry Potter films have there been where the intro of the book is the same as the intro of the movie? Not many. I can’t think of one. So, any other thoughts?

Mikey: I can think of one.

Andrew: I’m probably wrong.

Mikey: Maybe the first one. The first one.

Andrew: Okay. The first one, and that’s it though. [laughs] Honestly, that’s it. Or is there more?

Mikey: Well actually, no. The first one – the beginning is actually – isn’t it Vernon going to work? Yeah, never mind.

Andrew: The book, yeah. In the book, it’s Vernon going…

Mikey: Never mind. Yeah, never mind. The first one is totally not like the book.

Andrew: But at least it’s before Hogwarts. There’s a scene before Hogwarts.

Mikey: Yeah.

Andrew: I guess that has to be a set-up in the first movie.

Mikey: Because he’s a baby and he has a lightning bolt scar.

Andrew: Yeah.

Jamie: Yeah.

Andrew: But like there’s never been a true-to-the-book opening, so that’s sort of why I can see that happening. And also I think there’s just going to be a lot of focus on the end of Half-Blood Prince, as there is really with every movie, just with going into the cave, Dumbledore’s death, all that. Anything else to add about Half-Blood Prince?

Jamie: No.

Brandon: I like Harry Potter.

Andrew: [laughs] Brandon, thank you so much for being on. You want to come on a little later on if you’re available, or do you have a life?

Brandon: No, definitely. I’ve actually talked about maybe me and Alex can come together.

Andrew: Okay, yeah. Definitely, definitely.

[Jamie sings]

Brandon: Awesome. Thanks so much for having me on. It was great.

Andrew: No problem, buddy. FightEvilReadBooks.com. Brandon is the – Brandon, what would you describe yourself as?

Mikey: The man?

[Everyone laughs]

Mikey: Brandon is just the man. He’s just awesome.

Andrew: [laughs] That’s what his business card says?

[Mikey laughs]

Brandon: Basically I’ve been summed up in a newspaper – I’m not sure which newspaper it was, but they said, “Alex Carpenter: lead man, Tyler Nicholas: bassist, Toby: drummer, Brandon Nicholas: driver, merch boy/homeboy.”

[Andrew and Mikey laugh]

Mikey: Yeah, slash – hey Brandon, can I get a slash homeboy added to my name too? Mikey B/homeboy?

Brandon: Definitely.

Mikey: Okay. I want to be a friend.

Brandon: Slash homeboy. Yeah, definitely. For sure.

Mikey: Okay, cool.

Andrew: Awesome.

Jamie: Oh yeah.

Andrew: All right. Well, Brandon, thank you for joining us today. We’ll have you a little later on when we’re like dying for content. [laughs]

Jamie: Bye, Brandon.

Brandon: See you, guys.

Andrew: All right.

Brandon: Have a good one.

Andrew: All right. Thanks. See you. With that, we’re going to take a short break. Coming up, I’m really, really, really excited about this. We have a live interview with the two creators of the “Hedwig’s Theme” – what we’ve been calling the “Crackpot Hedwig’s Theme.” That is coming up after this break. You’re listening to MuggleCast Live! Whoa!

Mikey: [imitating Andrew] Whoa!

Andrew: Whoa! Play music. Go music.

[“Don’t Stop Me Now” by Queen plays]

Mikey: Ooh, I like this song.

[Song continues]

———————–

Transcript #108

September 16, 2007 / MuggleCast

MuggleCast 108 Transcript

Show Intro

[Intro music begins]

[“Innuendo” by Queen plays]

Micah: Because podcasting has no limits, this is MuggleCast Live for September 15th, 2007.

[Song continues]

Andrew: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen and welcome to MuggleCast Live! Jamie and Laura are here.

Laura: Hey everybody!

Jamie: Hey!

Andrew: We are live on the Internet. This is our first ever twelve-hour podcasting event.

Jamie: Yeah!

Andrew: I’m going to go out on a limb and say this is the first ever twelve-hour podcast.

Jamie: I would agree with you.

Laura: I think that’s a safe guess.

Andrew: That’s a safe guess. Laura is at college right now.

Laura: I am at college dealing with internet that’s somewhat not wanting to work today, so here’s hoping that it pulls through for me.

Andrew: Well, it’s holding right now…

Laura: Yeah. [laughs]

Andrew: …and it’s actually sounding better than Jamie’s connection, but…

Laura: Yeah.

Jamie: Yeah…

Andrew: …nothing we can do about that.

Jamie: …my connection is not particularly good.

Andrew: Jamie, this is twelve hours we’re doing here.

Jamie: This is twelve hours and I don’t think we need to tell everyone that twelve hours is an extremely long time. In twelve hours you can do a lot. You can fly from Heathrow to America twice in a jumbo jet, you can go there and come back. Also, you can go from Heathrow to New York and back twice on Concorde. You can drive almost the entire length of the UK. You can run a very long way, I don’t know how far. If anyone wants to try it, please feel free and then you can write in and tell us. You can cycle a long way, you can even walk a very long way. We’ve worked out that writing at two thousand words an hour, you can write a full graduate degree thesis in twelve hours. And according to the Toronto Film Festival, it is even possible to record and edit an entire movie in that time. So, there’s a hell of a lot you can do…

[Andrew laughs]

Jamie: …in twelve hours. We, however, decided to spend them doing podcasting and we hope you are all going to spend your time with us these twelve hours.

Andrew: That’s right. We also have some contact information for you today. Throughout the entire show, you’re going to be able to call in and voice your thoughts on what we’re discussing or bring up a new idea for something to talk about. If you’re in the United States, you can dial 1-218-20-MAGIC. If you’re in the United Kingdom, you can dial 0-208-144-0677. And if you’re in Australia, the number is 028-003-5668. I almost have that memorized! Also, you can Skype the username “MuggleCast” on Skype. Just download Skype.com, all free stuff. Just one thing to remember, when you are calling in, turn off your stream or just pause it or mute your computer so that we do not hear it, because then there’s going to be feedback and it’s going to sound very, what I like to say, unprofessional. Okay, and…

Jamie: Yes, extremely unprofessional.

Andrew: So feel free to call throughout the entire show. Of course, we’re getting tons of calls right now. Seven hundred and three people listening live right now. And on the Ustream stream, there’s a little countdown. We still have 11 hours and 53 minutes to go.

Jamie: Which is [laughs] a long, long, long, long time.

[Laura laughs]

Jamie: Andrew, I think we should quickly tell them about the prize that you can get if you stay here for all twelve hours.

Andrew: [laughs] Well, we don’t have a determined prize yet for…

Jamie: Well no, first of all, the deal we’ve worked out…

Andrew: Okay.

Jamie: …with super giant Walmart. Okay…

Andrew: Okay.

Jamie: …if you stay with us for the full whack, the whole twelve hours, then you will receive ten brownie points for doing this, okay? Now, if you go into your nearest Walmart, any Walmart, it can be a supercenter – see, I know my Walmarts here – and if you tell them that you have these brownie points, along with a secret phrase which is “Sirius Black is awesome,” you will receive an unlimited gift card that you can spend on purchases of your choice, any purchases, but you have to spend in one twelve-hour period and imagine what you can buy in Walmart in twelve hours. [laughs] And that story might not be true. It’s up to you to decide. You have twelve hours to think about it.

Andrew: [laughs] We’re also running another little contest here on the show if you listen for twelve hours. What we’re going to do – actually, Jamie thought this up about ten minutes ago. [laughs] You want to explain it?

Jamie: [laughs] Yes, of course. Well, it sort of goes on from the whole pickle theme, vegetable theme. What we’re going to do is, each hour, on the hour – well, perhaps not on the hour, but close to the hour, we’re going to say one vegetable and then the first person to e-mail in this list of vegetables in the correct order right at the end of the show, after the twelve hours, wins a prize. We’re not sure what this prize is. So to give an example, at the end of twelve hours, after you’ve listened to everything, you can send in an e-mail to whatever the e-mail address is that says sort of, “Broccoli, carrot, celery, pickle,” all this way down to twelve vegetables in the correct order. The first person to do that wins something nice, so keep your eyes open. Or rather your ears.

Andrew: [laughs] Yeah, it’s going to be mugglecastlive at gmail dot com, that’s the e-mail address you want to send your vegetables in to once we give out all twelve. So the first person to send them in, you said? We’re going to – the first person to send in all twelve, Jamie?

Jamie: Is going to win something exceptionally nice.

Andrew: Right. Okay.

Jamie: We don’t know what yet, though. Still thinking on it.

Andrew’s Mission to Get a Ticket to J.K. Rowling’s Book Reading

Andrew: You can also contact us via the feedback form, MuggleCast.com/Live, okay? And there’s a special feedback form there that will redirect all your e-mails to us so we can read it on the show here today. I’m on a mission today, guys.

Laura: What’s that?

Andrew: I want to go to J.K. Rowling’s book reading, her book tour in New York City, and I couldn’t get a ticket. I entered, like everyone else did, and all the winners have been announced, and there was one person on Facebook who decided to brag that she got her ticket. I didn’t really appreciate that. Did you guys see that?

Jamie: No, that is…

Laura: Yeah, I saw that.

Jamie: That’s just asking for it.

[Laura laughs]

Andrew: It’s kind of arrogant, if you know what I’m saying. So I commented on her bragging post and I said, [laughs] “So, if I take you out for lunch, can I get your second ticket?” and she says no, she needs a parent or guardian. So, I’m on a mission here today. I really have no setup for this or anything, I’m just looking for a ticket to the reading. If anyone has got one…

Jamie: See, Andrew, I…

Andrew: …I’ll take you out to lunch in New York City before the reading and so then we’ll go to the show together. Isn’t that nice?

Jamie: I think you went the wrong way about that. Niceties are so old-fashioned. Don’t say you’ll take her out to lunch. Tell her what’s going to happen if she doesn’t give you the ticket.

[Laura laughs]

Andrew: Well no, no, no! [laughs] That girl on Facebook needs a parent or guardian to go because she’s not eighteen, so it’s like a legal thing.

Jamie: Ahhh.

Laura: I was going to say, Andrew…

Jamie: I see.

Laura: …that you offer to make it like a date thing, like you give me your ticket and I will take you out on a dinner date.

Andrew: Oh, there you go! Okay, I’m up for that.

Laura: Yeah. For some reason, I think a lot of them might go for it. So ladies?

Andrew: Yeah. Call in or e-mail in to MuggleCast.com/Live. That’s a good idea, actually. That’s a good idea. And it could be a guy, too. I mean, I’m not trying to be sexist here, so…

Laura: No, no, not at all.

[Andrew and Jamie laugh]

Laura: And if any guys out there have an extra ticket, I would be happy to take your ticket off your hands, so…

Andrew: But me first, me first. It was my idea first.

Jamie: Ooh, you can fight over it!

[Andrew and Laura laugh]

Jamie: You can have like a – it can be a blind-date type of thing.

Andrew: No, but seriously, me first. Okay, so I was going to answer a couple of calls but – oh, there’s someone calling now, and let’s get them in. Hello, you’re on MuggleCast Live!

Caller: Hi!

Andrew: Hi there!

Caller: This is Shannon!

Andrew: Hi Shannon! Do you have a ticket for me for New York City?

Caller: I’m sorry, I don’t.

Andrew: Oh, I’m sorry, we’re going to have to take another call.

Jamie: Shannon, can I ask you a few questions?

Caller: I wish I did, though. My friend – I’m talking to her on AIM. She really wants one, too, so…

Andrew: Yeah. Jamie?

Jamie: Wow, everyone wants one.

Caller: Well, I’m a Pickle Pack member!

Andrew: Oh. Well, you should have waited for the Pickle Pack Hour! [laughs]

Jamie: Special Pickle Pack Hour.

Caller: I didn’t know when it was! I was looking everywhere and I couldn’t find it.

Andrew: Oh, fair point. We never announced it on PicklePack.com. My bad! [laughs]

Jamie: Very bad. Awww. Shannon, I have two questions for you.

Caller: Okay.

Jamie: First one, since you’re the first person we’ve spoken to who’s listening in to the show, I want to know, what is the sound quality like? Because we’ve had a couple of fans asking about it.

Caller: Well, it’s kind of skipping every few seconds. It kind of skips and so my friend keeps asking me what you guys are saying, and I don’t know either.

Andrew: Yeah, that’s what happens on Ustream. It’s just part of the – I think half the problem is that there’s seven hundred people listening now, so…

Caller: Yeah.

Andrew: …it’s getting a little laggy. However, this is a good opportunity to thank Ustream for their support in today’s show because they’re more than happy to work with us, and I’ve been e-mailing them and asking them to help us out. And they have us on their high quality server thing, meaning that [laughs] we’re apparently are on a better server than most Ustream streams are.

Jamie: Yeah. [laughs]

Andrew: So, that’s what… [laughs]

Jamie: What… [laughs]

Andrew: What?

Jamie: What’s their slogan, by the way? Their sort of motto?

Andrew: “Always on,” I think.

Jamie: Because – oh. Well see, it should be – do you know what it should be?

Andrew: What?

Jamie: It should be, “Istream? Westream? Mystream? Ustream!”

[Andrew laughs]

Jamie: I’m going to e-mail them and tell them to put that up.

[Laura laughs]

Andrew: I’ll e-mail them. I have the owner’s e-mail address. You can work with them there on a new slogan.

Jamie: Oh, do you? Well…

Andrew: I’m not trying to brag. I’m just saying, you know?

Jamie: What are you doing today, Shannon?

Caller: I am – well, I’m actually studying for chemistry along with listening but it’s kind of hard to study, so – I’m trying to listen and study at the same time, but it’s not really working.

Andrew: [laughs] Oh, okay.

Caller: But I’d rather listen, though. I really don’t want to study.

Andrew: Yeah, listen….

Laura: There you go.

Andrew: …I had some work to do in class – well, I had some work I was supposed to do yesterday but I was just so excited, I was like, “Oh, I’ll save it until Monday.” Laura, how’s school going for you, speaking of that?

Laura: Pretty well, actually. I’ve been actually a really good student. I’ve been doing all my homework when I’m supposed to do it. Except for today, so…

Andrew: Yeah. [laughs]

Laura: …I’ll do that tomorrow. But yeah, actually it’s going really well, pretty cool.

Andrew: But it’s Saturday! So…

Laura: It is Saturday, yes.

Andrew: So, why do you have to work? Why do you have to do…

Laura: Because I have weekend homework!

Andrew: Oh.

Jamie: Awww.

Laura: And I want to do it before the night comes, you know?

Jamie: Laura, Laura, can I just say – I think your attitude is fantastic. I’m very pleased you’ve trained yourself into university, okay? But you realize that’s going to last you all of two weeks. You’re going to – in two weeks…

Laura: Okay, I’m starting my fourth week this week, thank you, Jamie.

Jamie: Okay, it will last you two weeks from now. That’s what I meant, Laura.

Laura: Uh huh. Yeah. Okay. Whatever. I love my classes. You can…

[Andrew laughs]

Jamie: So do I!

Laura: [laughs] I won’t say that, that’s a very rude thing to say.

Andrew: We’ll talk about school a little bit later on because we got an e-mail about that. You guys want to talk about some news right now? Because there’s a lot of news going on.

Jamie: Sure.

Laura: Sure.

News: Harry Potter Becomes Top Grossing Franchise of All Time

Andrew: In the things. [laughs] So first of all, Harry Potter top grossing franchise of all time.

Laura: Wow.

Andrew: This was announced by Warner Bros. earlier this week. Of course they’re going to announce this. I mean, this is nothing but good PR for them. It came in a press release, and Alan Horn, the president and chief operating officer of Warner Bros., said, “It would be an understatement to say we are proud of the success of the Harry Potter films. We also want to congratulate all of the extraordinary actors, filmmakers and artists who have shared this remarkable cinematic journey with us.” And the total amount they have made so far, $4.47 billion dollars.

Jamie: Wow.

Laura: Oh my God.

Andrew: Yeah.

Jamie: That is a lot of money.

Andrew: Was anybody – I mean, nobody ever – well, at least personally, I never saw this coming, but is this a surprise to anyone?

Caller: I don’t think it’s very surprising.

Laura: I mean, it’s not really a surprise.

Andrew: [laughs] The caller is still on! I forgot to say bye to the caller!

Caller: [laughs] Yeah, I was like, “Umm, I wonder if they still know I’m here?”

Andrew: Well, you’re still here now so you can chime in, too. Sorry.

Caller: Okay. [laughs]

Andrew: Go ahead, carry on.

[Prolonged silence]

Andrew: Go ahead, somebody.

[Andrew and Caller laugh]

Jamie: Go on, Shannon. You give us your thoughts.

Caller: Well, I didn’t think it was very surprising, I was kind of waiting for it to happen. But I was listening to a podcast that you guys did a really long time ago and it was talking about how Chamber of Secrets was the seventh highest or something, and I was like, “Oh, that just happened, how they were the highest now.” But I think it’s pretty cool that it passed Star Wars and James Bond and things like that.

Andrew: Yeah, that was the one thing. They said that this – well, some critics are saying this might not be very accurate because of inflation. Back when Star Wars and James Bond came out, movie tickets were obviously cheaper.

Caller: Yeah.

Andrew: So the thing is, is this really – is it really the top grossing motion picture franchise of all time? Especially when you think Bond has had, what, twenty-two films now? They’ve all been huge.

Jamie: Yeah.

Andrew: Star Wars has had, what? I’ve never seen a Star Wars film. Actually, I’ve seen one.

Laura: There’s like six of them, I want to say. I don’t know. Jamie, you should know this.

Jamie: What? About Bond?

Andrew: How many Star Wars films.

Laura: How many Star Wars films there are.

Jamie: Why should I know that?

Andrew: Don’t you listen?

Laura: Because – yeah, you like that guy, right, from – the one actor. You think he’s a good actor or whatever.

Jamie: What guy?

Laura: I don’t know, the guy from the Star Wars movies! [laughs] I don’t know, Jamie!

[Andrew laughs]

Jamie: Well, that’s news to me!

[Laura laughs]

Jamie: I’m glad I like him, though.

[Andrew laughs]

Jamie: I’m sure he’s very cool. [laughs] There have been six, I think. There have been the three originals and then the three – I’m sure I’m wrong, though, so…

Laura: Yeah, I thought…

Jamie: I don’t know. There have been three originals, yeah. Yeah, six.

Andrew: Okay. So yeah, I guess it’s a big deal, sort of.

Laura: I think it’s a…

Jamie: Can we say extremely quickly – if you are experiencing skipping audio or anything like that, please, please listen through MuggleCast.com. It’s embedded on there and if you listen through there, it should improve. Is that right, Andrew?

Andrew: Hopefully, because with Ustream – if you listen through Ustream’s website there’s also the chat, and the chat sort of lags the thinger.

Jamie: Yeah.

News: Order of the Phoenix DVD Release Date Announced

Andrew: So moving on, in other news, we finally have a release date for the Order of the Phoenix DVD, December 11th.

Jamie: Yes.

Andrew: Just in time for Christmas.

Laura: That’s a little later than usual, isn’t it?

Andrew: Is it?

Laura: Normally it’s November, it seems like whenever they release those movies.

Caller: I thought it was supposed to come out in November or something?

Laura: Yeah, that’s what I thought, too.

Andrew: Yeah. Okay. Well, I don’t know. Maybe – there are a lot of extra features on this DVD. I’ll read the description:

“Extras on the two-disc release will include ten minutes of additional scenes…”

Which we asked director David Yates about and he gave to us.

“…an A&E documentary, a Trailing Tonks feature with actress Natalia Tena…”

Jamie: Ooh!

Andrew: [continues]

“…various making of featurettes, and a Fun and Games feature in which…”

I think this is very cool.

“…director David Yates and editor Mark Day show us what a difference a good edit makes and allows you to edit a scene.”

So that sounds pretty cool.

Laura: Yeah, that is really cool.

Caller: It seems like more special features than usual.

Andrew: Yeah, and I just wonder how they’re going to let you edit a scene on DVD. It’s probably like you press three buttons or something and it’s edited.

Laura: Yeah.

Andrew: So that’s fun. And then for the first time – well, actually Goblet of Fire was released on HD and Blu-ray, was it? I think.

Laura: I don’t know, I don’t use either, so…

Andrew: Right. Yeah, I’m pretty sure it was.

Jamie: And who cares because you’ve got to sell your house and remortgage it eight times to buy a Blu-ray player, so…

Andrew: Yeah. [laughs]

Laura: [laughs] Yeah.

Jamie: …who cares about Blu-ray, really?

Andrew: Blu-ray players and HD DVD players are both very expensive. They are coming down in price but it’s like – if I may get techy for a second, it’s like the original VCR/DVD player. Those were a few hundred dollars. Now look at them, you can get…

Jamie: Exactly.

Andrew: …a VCR player for 20 bucks and a DVD player for 50, not even.

Jamie: Well actually, Andrew, funny you should talk about that, because I was reading an article on Wikipedia about sort of how computers have gone and progressed and stuff like that. I was reading about a computer manufacturer – I think it was thirty years ago, I think it was called the PWP1 or something like that, and it cost 120,000 dollars and it had sort of two kilobytes of RAM…

[Laura laughs]

Jamie: …it could run sort of half a program at once…

Andrew: Awww sweet!

Jamie: You know, stuff like that. It was – yeah.

Andrew: Can I buy one?

Jamie: It was unbelievable. You should definitely buy one.

[Andrew laughs]

Jamie: It will kill your Macbook Pro into the ground.

Andrew: Yeah. All right, Shannon, we’re going to let you go. Thank you for calling in today.

Caller: Okay. Can I ask you a question real quick?

Andrew: Sure.

Jamie: Of course.

Caller: Well, since you guys are talking about movies, I was just wondering, in the seventh movie, how do you think they’re going to do the epilogue? I would assume they’re going to keep the same actors but it’s supposed to be like nineteen years later. They’re going to be like 20 something by then.

Andrew: That’s a good point. And you know what? Actually, we’ll save that for later on because we’re going to have a movie discussion later on, specifically about…

Caller: Oh, okay.

Andrew: …that final book, okay?

Caller: Okay. Well, thanks for…

Andrew: All right.

Caller: …taking my call.

Andrew: No problem. Bye.

Laura: Thanks Shannon.

Jamie: Buh-bye.

Caller: Bye.

Andrew: Another thing I want to say about the movies is that – do you watch them when you get them on DVD? Like, the second – Goblet of Fire, [laughs] I still haven’t watched my Goblet of Fire DVD.

Laura: I don’t watch them the second I get them, but…

Andrew: Yeah. I actually…

Laura: I mean, I do watch them.

Andrew: Hmm?

Laura: I do watch them, eventually.

Andrew: I actually go straight to Disc Two because that’s all the new bonus stuff, so…

Laura: Yeah.

Jamie: That’s extremely interesting because I don’t think I’ve ever watched the special features. I just – they just don’t appeal to me because it just seems to be the same stuff. Not just Harry Potter, but on every single DVD extras. Interviews with the same people and they always say the same things…

Laura: The same things, yeah.

Jamie: …and the games – yeah, I mean, Laura, the extras on Star Wars and Harry Potter are exactly the same. They were talking about the same stuff…

[Laura laughs]

Jamie: …doing all the same things, so it was – can I interrupt very quickly? Because we just had an e-mail which [laughs] just reads brilliantly. It’s from – I don’t know how to pronounce her name. It’s A-N-E-K-E from Germany, and it says: [laughs]

“Hey MuggleCasters. I just wanted to say that you’re doing an awful job. I love MuggleCast! I’m just sitting in front of my computer in Naila which is a little town in Germany. The time is twenty past six and I’m going to listen during the whole night until 6 AM.”

Andrew: Wait, she said “awful” or “awesome” job?

Jamie: Yeah, so it’s kind of a negative e-mail mixed into a positive format. I like that. [laughs] Are we doing an awful job?

Andrew: I hope she didn’t mean awful or my morale is just going to sink…

Laura: Yeah. [laughs]

Andrew: …through the ground and I’m going to hit the “End” button. [laughs] But yeah, as for – yeah, DVDs are good. I disagree with what you’re saying, though. I mean, they do have – it is a lot of the same, a lot of, “This one’s the darkest one and we’re just all becoming a great big family.” Blah, blah, blah. But there’s the deleted scenes which are always fun to watch, and I think…

Jamie: Yes, they are.

Andrew: …hearing from the director is interesting. I don’t know.

Laura: I think watching all the bonus scenes and the interviews is interesting, but [laughs] all of the games and stuff that they put on those second discs, and – like the stuff like you were talking about creating or editing a scene, it all just comes across as extremely lame because they try to make it easy for little kids, I think.

Andrew: Yeah, that’s true.

Laura: And…

Jamie: Oh yeah.

Laura: …I’m sitting there and it takes me like two seconds to do whatever it is I’m doing, unless of course, for some reason my DVD remote does not like the disc and it won’t do anything…

Andrew: Right, right.

Laura: …which often it does on those DVDs. But, yeah.

Andrew: Yeah. I…

Jamie: It’s a waste of a DVD.

Andrew: Yeah. And the thing…

Jamie: They’re always the same.

Andrew: I would love to see the Order of the Phoenix HD DVD because when the Goblet of Fire one came out, there was an extra commentary from the Phelps twins. And not only that, but the DVDs worked differently because apparently since they have more memory, you can have the menus come up while you’re watching the film and stuff like that. And it’s tailored for high definition, so it’s a pretty cool experience.

Jamie: That is kind of cool.

Andrew: Maybe I’ll use some MuggleCast money to buy that and then keep it, if that’s okay with you.

[Laura laughs]

Jamie: A few people have been e-mailing in saying that when I said where you should go and listen, it cut out which is helpful. So, what you should do is go on MuggleCast.com and listen to the stream embedded there, because there is a chat on Ustream and that can lag.

Andrew: Right.

Jamie: So, go to MuggleCast.com and listen through there.

News: Order of the Phoenix Nominated For Scream Award

Andrew: In other news, Order of the Phoenix nominated for a Scream Award, or should I say a “Yawn Award”? Who cares anymore? Seriously.

Jamie: A what award? What’s it called?

Andrew: A Scream Award.

Jamie: A Scream Award?

Laura: Why don’t we explain a little bit what that is for anybody who doesn’t know?

Andrew: “Honoring the newest and hottest in horror, sci-fi, fantasy, and comic genres.” I called it a “Yawn Award” because the movies get [laughs] nominated for so many random things now, and it’s like the only reason we post it on MuggleNet right now is because news has been so slow lately. [laughs]

Laura: Yeah.

Andrew: But I guess nobody’s…

Jamie: Yeah, it has been.

Andrew: …with me on that.

Jamie: No, no, I agree with you completely. These awards do – I mean, I’m sure it’s a very – these awards are obviously extremely prestigious, but there can just be too many awards. It’s like – and I don’t know if anyone remembers – in the days of GeoCities and sites like that when there would be the Super Dooper Site award and – just from a GeoCities site. And some site would win this award and then happily display a banner on their site…

[Andrew laughs]

Jamie: …that sort of – that says – that’s made in Paint and says, “This award came from Dave’s big GeoCities site,” and stuff like that. There can just be too many awards, you know?

Andrew: Yeah.

Jamie: But I’m sure it’s good if it wins.

News: Daniel Radcliffe Confirms Coming to Broadway for Equus

Andrew: That’s a fair point. Let’s see, to wrap up the news today, we also wanted to discuss Dan confirming he could be coming to Broadway for Equus which is upsetting to me, Jamie, because I flew all the way over there to see him.

[Laura laughs]

Jamie: Yes. But Andrew – but you saw it in London and you got the London atmosphere, and…

Andrew: Umm, I guess.

Laura: Yeah.

Jamie: And you saw him naked in London, so… [unintelligible]

Andrew: So I paid $600 for a flight to see him naked in London?

Jamie: Yeah.

Andrew: When I could just pay…

[Laura laughs]

Andrew: …a $50 train to see him naked in New York City?

Laura: See him in New York. [laughs]

Andrew: Yeah.

Jamie: But it was more natural – okay, I’m clutching at straws so you’re absolutely right.

Laura: It’s more natural in London?

[Andrew and Laura laugh]

Jamie: You should have just waited until he came on Broadway, Andrew. It’s your fault.

Andrew: I’m a little upset. However, he didn’t mention this: one of the casting agents for Equus on Broadway actually picked up my audition tape for the Harry Potter musical and they’re actually considering me now for Equus on Broadway. So…

Jamie: They’re considering you?

Laura: Ooh.

Andrew: So that’s why I’ve been hitting the gym lately.

Jamie: Ahh yes, yes.

Andrew: And we’re going to see how that works out.

Jamie: Tell me, Andrew, do you remember the name of the character [laughs] who…

[Laura laughs]

Andrew: Alan.

Jamie: …you’re going to be playing?

Andrew: [laughs] Alan Strang.

Jamie: [laughs] Oh, you do.

Andrew: Come on, that’s an insult to my intelligence.

Jamie: I’m sorry. You’re absolutely right. You’re absolutely right.

Laura: Well, good luck Andrew. If you get that, we’ll all be there with front row seats just for you.

Andrew: I don’t want you to be that close, especially during that one scene.

[Laura laughs]

Jamie: Why? Do you have something to hide?

Andrew: No. No. What? What?

[Laura laughs]

Jamie: Moving quickly on.

MuggleCast 108 Transcript (continued)

Listener Calls: MuggleCast UK Tour?

Andrew: This is a children’s program. [laughs] Moving along, we’re – let’s take a couple of more calls right now.

Jamie: I agree.

Andrew: And I’ve been wondering why no one’s calling in and that’s because I turned off calling. But calling is back on now, so if you want to call in, 1-218-20-MAGIC – oh, and then we get bombarded. Let’s take someone from the UK!

Jamie: Yeah!

Andrew: Hello, English person.

Caller: Hello.

Andrew: Hello. You and Jamie talk.

Caller: What?

Andrew: You and Jamie talk.

Caller: Okay.

Jamie: Where are you calling from?

Caller: Newhaven in East Sussex.

Jamie: From Sussex? Nice.

Caller: Yeah, East Sussex.

Jamie: I’m probably the only person listening – well, apart from the few UK listeners – who knows where that is.

[Caller laughs]

Jamie: Andrew, are you a fan of Sussex?

Caller: South of England.

Andrew: I do not know where “Suffek” is.

Jamie: No, Sussex.

Andrew: “Suffeks”?

Laura: Sussex.

Jamie: Yeah, there’s “Suffek” and Sussex. [laughs]

Andrew: No, why are you asking me? [laughs] I have no idea.

Jamie: I don’t know, just in case you’re a fan of that place. Perhaps your great uncle came from there or something.

Andrew: No, I can’t say – how’s the weather? Let me guess: cloudy and rainy.

Caller: No, it’s sunny at the moment.

Andrew: Oh.

Jamie: There you go. There you go.

Laura: You fail.

Andrew: I stand corrected.

Jamie: It’s not all bad news. Normally, it is in England but just today it’s sunny. First sunny day in six years. How are you doing today? Are planning on staying in for the full duration?

Caller: No, because it’s so early in the morning and I’ve got to go out tomorrow.

Andrew: Awww man.

Jamie: That is very true. 5:00 AM.

Andrew: What’s your name, by the way? Did we get your name?

Caller: Martin.

Andrew: Marty?

Caller: Martin.

Andrew: Martin.

Jamie: Martin. How old are you, Martin?

Caller: Sixteen.

Jamie: Cool, cool.

Andrew: Got anything on your mind today?

Caller: Yeah. Were you thinking of doing a UK podcast tour or were you just leaving that to the US?

Andrew: Are we doing a UK podcast tour?

Jamie: Hmm.

Andrew: Jamie? [laughs]

Jamie: [laughs] I wouldn’t rule it off the cards, however I would say it is unlikely at the moment.

Andrew: I guess at the moment, yeah. It couldn’t hurt to take some – put up a – sorry, ask for feedback from international listeners or UK listeners, and be like, “Hey, how many of you would show up if we did a tour in these towns?”

Jamie: Yeah.

Andrew: I want to go to Ireland to do a podcast. Laura, you want to go to Ireland?

Jamie: I’m sure she’d like to go to Ireland. She’s just said, “Be right back.”

Andrew: Oh, sorry. I better keep an eye on the chat. [laughs]

Jamie: But yeah, Ireland would be an awesome place to go. Or we should do a tour of Europe. Now that would be fun.

Andrew: Yeah.

Jamie: [unintelligible] …in all the European countries or something like that.

Andrew: Yeah. Wouldn’t hurt. I have a friend in Germany I’d like to visit.

Jamie: Well, there you go then. There you go. We’ll do Germany, UK, we’ll do Ireland if you want to go there, things like that.

Andrew: Sure. Yeah, Ciaran – so yeah, I mean, UK tour, we wouldn’t rule that out. It would be fun. It would just be expensive for us since six out of the seven co-hosts are in the US, so flying – I mean, not everyone would go on the tour obviously, but flying a few of us over would be pretty pricey.

Jamie: Yeah.

Andrew: [laughs] Which is a good time to mention GoDaddy.com is your number one…

[Jamie and Laura laugh]

Andrew: …domain retailer worldwide…

Jamie: [imitating Mason] GoDaddy.com!

Andrew: …no matter where you live.

Jamie: Big shout-out, Andrew, to Mason who does it, who is listening now.

Andrew: Is he listening?

Jamie: He is.

Andrew: Because he just called me on my phone and I turned it off.

Laura: [laughs] Awww!

Jamie: There you go. Hey Mason.

Andrew: But yeah, Martin. So don’t rule it out, buddy. We’ll keep you updated, though.

Jamie: Thanks for calling in.

Andrew: Yeah, thanks for calling. Let’s take a couple of other calls right now.

Jamie: Good idea. Let’s take a few more.

Andrew: I like when people call in because you never know what you’re going to get.

Jamie: No.

[Echoing sounds in the background]

Listener Calls: MuggleCast East Coast Tour?

Andrew: That was my bad. I answered the call the wrong way. Let’s try this. Hello caller.

Caller: Hi!

Andrew: Hi! Where are you from?

Caller: I’m from Hopkinton, Massachusetts, but right now I’m in Hartford because I’m in college.

Andrew: Oh, cool.

Laura: What’s your name?

Caller: Tierney.

Andrew: Tierney.

Laura: Awesome.

Andrew: And what’s going on today?

Caller: Not much. It’s pretty gross out here in Hartford. [laughs]

[Andrew laughs]

Caller: Really rainy.

Andrew: Oh, that’s no fun.

Caller: Yeah. But it’s nice because it’s been like ninety degrees, so…

Andrew: Awesome. Hurricane what’s-its-face is coming towards me. I have to board up the windows and stuff.

Caller: Oh, God! [laughs]

Andrew: Yeah. Actually, I’m just kidding. It’s like a tropical nothing now, so… [laughs]

Caller: Awww. [laughs]

Laura: Darn, I was so hopeful.

Jamie: Don’t worry, because Andrew promised me that he would continue podcasting throughout anything. So even if a hurricane hit his house, he would go down to the basement with his laptop.

Andrew: Yeah, until the power goes out.

Jamie: No, no, no, no, no. Because we bought that generator, remember Andrew? So you can still…

Andrew: I don’t know what you’re talking about.

Jamie: Well… [unintelligible]

Andrew: Anyway – [laughs] okay. Anyway, what’s on your mind today, Tierney?

Caller: Oh, nice job. You said it right. [laughs]

Andrew: What’s that?

Caller: I said “Nice job.” No one ever gets it right, so…

Andrew: Oh. And I’m terrible with names, so…

Caller: [laughs] I was wondering if you guys were – I know you guys just got asked if you were going to the UK, but do you think you’ll ever come back up to New York…

[Andrew laughs]

Caller: …and maybe Boston? [laughs]

Andrew: Okay, here’s the thing, I think I’ve said this before: whenever we announce we’re going to be somewhere, we always get 30,000 e-mails from people saying…

[Caller laughs]

Andrew: …”Why aren’t you coming to my hometown?”

Jamie: Hey, hey.

Andrew: What?

Jamie: I would probably – I’d be the same, though, because…

Andrew: No, I agree.

Jamie: …I used to live in a tiny town, in a tiny, tiny, tiny town. Nothing happened there. There was a shop and…

[Caller laughs]

Jamie: …the whole town got excited when there was a new product coming into the store catalogue or something like that in the shop. So I know what it’s like to live in a small town.

Andrew: Yeah. I would say that – yeah, there’s definitely a possibility we could do something like an East Coast tour or something like that. Boston would be very cool. I have to say – and I haven’t really had time to talk about this on the show yet – that I really just get all – a little emo when I start talking about the tour, when I tell people about the tour. It was seriously the best time of my life, ever.

Caller: Oh, God.

Laura: Awww.

Jamie: Yes. It was a lot, a lot, a lot of fun.

Andrew: It was just so much fun, day after day, eight straight days of show after show. You wake up, you drive a little bit, you get to the place where you’re doing the tour – the show, your podcast – we go to a hotel or we drive a few – it was just so much fun! It was just so much fun and I would be willing to do another cross-country tour, seriously, in a heartbeat.

Jamie: I’d be willing to live on tour. Awww, it would be so cool.

Andrew: [laughs] Yeah. Hopefully we’re going to have Alex Carpenter on later in the show today.

Caller: Oh, cool.

Andrew: And him and I have just – we’ve been going back and forth on Facebook and IM and stuff like that.

Jamie: Yeah. That sounds so romantic, Andrew.

[Caller laughs]

Andrew: What? Well, we are – what’s the word I’m looking for?

Jamie: Engaged?

Andrew: Well, we’re interested in pursuing some sort of relationship, but…

[Jamie laughs]

Andrew: Yeah, I think an East Coast tour would be pretty fun because we get a ton of e-mails saying, “Hey, why don’t you come to Florida,” or “Hey, why don’t you come to Boston,” for example. Boston is a big one, too.

Caller: Yeah.

Andrew: So yeah.

Caller: Great.

Andrew: It could happen. I will say we’re working on doing a show up in New York for J.K. Rowling’s reading.

Caller: Oh!

Andrew: Nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing set in stone yet.

[Caller laughs]

Andrew: Ben’s working on that right now and we’ll see what we can do.

Caller: That’s great.

Andrew: So yeah, that would – again, incomplete – this could not – this could happen – this might not happen at all. It would be October 19th, sometime during the day.

Caller: Hey, but at least it’s something.

Andrew: Yeah, yeah. Would you come to that?

Caller: Yeah, of course!

Andrew: Okay, cool. Have you been to a live show before?

Caller: I haven’t, I’ve wanted to forever. I’ve been listening to you guys for – almost since the beginning, and I’ve just been poor and [laughs] can’t take a train out to New York!

Andrew: Oh, okay.

Jamie: Awww.

Andrew: All right. Well yeah, I would say that that may happen still, we just don’t know yet. We’re waiting to hear back from people.

Caller: Oh, that would be great!

Andrew: Yeah. So keep an eye out, we’ll announce it on MuggleCast and of course MuggleNet.com and all that if, if, if… [repeatedly says “if”]

Jamie: Emphasis on the “if.”

Andrew: [laughs] If, yeah.

[Caller laughs]

Andrew: It might not happen at all and in that case I’m going to look like a fool. However, if we did do that, Laura would be there, right Laura?

Laura: Mhm. That’s right. Well, I’m going to be there anyway, but…

Andrew: Well, right. So will I. [laughs] But yeah, so that’s that!

Caller: All right!

Andrew: Okay, thanks for calling.

Jamie: Thank you very much for calling.

Caller: Thanks guys!

Andrew: All right, bye!

Laura: Thank you.

Caller: You have a good day today!

Andrew: Thanks! Bye.

Jamie: Andrew, I have a technical question for you that’s come in a couple of e-mails: people are asking if they don’t type in the chat room on Ustream, will it stop it lagging?

Andrew: I don’t know. It’s up to your browser, I think.

Jamie: Hmmm.

Andrew: So…

Jamie: You heard it here first.

Andrew: Yeah. And Jamie, can you adjust your mic a little bit? You’re popping a little bit.

Jamie: Sorry, sorry.

Andrew: What was I – oh, I have a big announcement today. I’m really excited about this. I don’t know if you guys heard, but…

Jamie: It sounds like you’re excited.

Andrew: …Kelly Clarkson is on tour.

[Jamie laughs]

Laura: [in a sarcastic tone] Oh, boy. I’m so excited.

Andrew: And I’m happy to report that a friend of ours [laughs] secured tickets for one of her shows.

Laura: And who is this friend?

Andrew: I can’t reveal that on air. However, I’m going to see Kelly Clarkson! Yay!

Jamie: Wow.

Laura: [uncertainly] Yay. [laughs]

Jamie: Wow. I’m actually extremely jealous, but I’m going to hide it…

Andrew: Awww.

[Laura laughs]

Jamie: …and just be like, “That’s cool, Andrew. I’m so happy for you. I’m really, really glad that you’re going to be happy soon, seeing Kelly Clarkson.”

Andrew: I’m just saying if anyone else is going to Kelly Clarkson’s tour, call us. [starts singing] “1-218-20-MAGIC. It’s the question – it’s the number -“ I forget my wizard rock song. I’m sorry.

[Jamie laughs]

Listener Calls: Type of Pickle on Pickle Pack T-shirt

Andrew: Let’s take another call now. Let’s see. Man, we’re getting bombarded by calls!

Jamie: But Andrew, just a quick question. I have a quick question.

Andrew: I already accepted the call, but go for it.

Jamie: Okay, first question is – someone e-mailed me: “I have a question: What do boys like?”

Caller: Hello?

Laura: Oh my gosh. Don’t answer.

[Andrew laughs]

Caller: Hello?

Laura: Guys, don’t…

Andrew: Hi!

Caller: Hi!

Andrew: Who’s calling?

Caller: The person from last night.

Andrew: I know, I just wanted to get your name on air.

Caller: Oh. Yeah, Colin from State College.

Andrew: Sweet. Oh, Pennsylvania, right?

Caller: Yeah.

Andrew: That’s crazy. We know someone who goes to Penn State there.

Laura: Yeah.

Caller: Oh.

Andrew: So you were – what’s your name, buddy?

Caller: Colin.

Andrew: Colin, yeah. Colin was helping Jamie and I out last night as we were testing this stream on Ustream, right?

Caller: The one who was the boy.

Andrew: Yeah. Oh, no, no, we knew you were a boy. Jamie said…

Caller: Well, I wasn’t sure what the whole Jamie saying like, “your little bro” and all that, so…

Andrew: Jamie, do you remember what you said last night? [laughs]

Jamie: I do! It was late. I was tired. It was late and I was tired. And it was late. And extremely late.

Andrew: No, it’s not – I don’t think it’s a big deal. It was just a joke though, he wasn’t serious or anything. It was just a joke. [laughs]

Caller: Yeah, I know, I know.

Andrew: And so – yeah, so cool. So [laughs] you got anything on your mind today?

Caller: Well, I do have a question for you about pickles.

Andrew: Oh, this is good because we’re trying to bring the pickle catchphrase back to…

Jamie: Yes.

Andrew: …MuggleCast.

Caller: Yeah, this is kind of random and it all spawned off from when I was in Las Vegas airport a couple of months ago.

Andrew: Okay.

Caller: And this person who was working at Brookstone saw my shirt and I was wearing my Pickle Pack T-shirt.

Andrew: Uh-huh.

Caller: And she asked me what kind of pickles they were.

Andrew: Oh.

[Jamie laughs]

Caller: And I did not know, so I thought I might as well ask you what kind of pickles…

Jamie: They are Egyptian pickles. No, actually I have no idea what they are. What are they, Andrew?

Andrew: Well, actually – I’m actually looking up “pickle” on Wikipedia right now to see what kind of pickles there are.

Laura: I was going to say dills, but…

Andrew: Dills?

Laura: Yeah.

Andrew: Is that like the basic pickle?

Laura: Yeah.

Caller: That’s what I told them, but I wasn’t sure.

Andrew: Okay. Did you ask them why they cared?

Caller: They just said that it was kind of just like one of those things. I also had a person who was at the security desk ask me what kind of pickles they were, and I had a flight attendant on the airplane ask me.

Andrew: [laughs] Really? Geez, I don’t…

Caller: They were all…

Andrew: I don’t even…

Caller: They were all…

Andrew: Huh?

Caller: I have no idea, but they were just all interested in what kind of pickles they were.

Jamie: Wow.

Andrew: Did I mention this on Pickle Pack last week or was it MuggleCast? I said that I was going through Canadian customs and he looked at…

Caller: Oh, yeah.

Andrew: Was that on Pickle Pack?

Caller: I don’t…

Laura: No, I think you mentioned that on the show.

Andrew: Oh, okay.

Laura: You know what? This reminds me of a funny story though. When I was coming back from Toronto, I was getting on the plane, and you know how the pilot and the co-pilot would sometimes be standing right there?

Andrew: Yeah.

Laura: And the co-pilot – I was wearing my MuggleNet shirt and he looked at it and he was like, “Oh, you know MuggleNet?” and I was like, “Yeah, I work for them!”

[Andrew laughs]

Laura: And he just thought that was the coolest thing ever. He was like, “Oh wow, I love MuggleNet.” So I just thought that was really cool. It’s like, even your pilots go to MuggleNet. So…

Andrew: [laughs] Right, right. Awesome.

Caller: Yeah.

Andrew: Okay…

Caller: Last night when I had you guys say like, “Hi Colin, Laura,” that was kind of because I have a best friend who listens to MuggleCast.

Andrew: Yeah.

Caller: And she flipped out when I told her, “Oh, guess what? I was just talking to Andrew and he said blah, blah, blah.”

Andrew: Yeah, I did say “blah, blah, blah.” Those were my exact words actually.

[Laura laughs]

Andrew: Yeah, so thank you Colin for calling in today.

Caller: So yeah, have a good show, guys.

Andrew: All right, thanks!

Jamie: Thank you!

Laura: Bye!

Andrew: I’m liking these calls – oh, I cut him off. These are good calls. These are intelligent, thought-provoking calls. I do want to bring up – that reminds me of one situation on the tour when this guy and girl came up to me, and they were like, “Oh my gosh, we’re huge Laura fangirls!”

[Laura laughs]

Andrew: Well, the guy didn’t say fangirl, but [laughs] he said…

[Laura laughs]

Andrew: …”We’re huge – we love Laura! She’s so great! I wish she was here!” And so I pull out my Apple iPhone and…

[Jamie laughs]

Andrew: …while they’re gushing over Laura, I’m like, “Yeah, yeah, she’s great. Yeah, too bad she’s not here.” I’m dialing her number at the same time.

[Laura laughs]

Andrew: And then I call her and I’m like, “Hey, you got a second?” I’m like, “Hold on.” I hand the phone over to Laura and they go nuts [laughs], right Laura?

Laura: Yeah. I was actually talking to them, and they were saying that they thought it was really weird that they were – like, in the middle of talking to you and you were just like, “Yeah,” and you pulled out your phone and [laughs] you started playing with it. They were like, “Oh my gosh, he’s so mean!”

Andrew: [laughs] Awww. Oh well, geez…

Laura: No, no, no, but then they were like, “Oh, okay.” They realized what you were doing.

Andrew: Right, right.

Laura: But I just thought that was funny. Yeah, they were pretty cool. I was at work, they gave me some entertainment while I was sitting in the break room bored. So…

Andrew: There was actually someone else in Tulsa who – it was a few girls and they were like, “We love Laura!” But then I called you at that time too, and they probably thought I was rude for looking at my phone…

[Laura laughs]

Andrew: …but then you weren’t there unfortunately at that one.

Laura: Yeah.

Andrew: But Laura, I think you win the award for most requested on tour, most requested and most wanted to be called. [laughs]

Laura: Awww. Okay, well then I’ll be sure to come on tour next time.

Jamie: And prettiest dressed as well.

Laura: As long as Ben promises not to drive.

[Jamie laughs]

Laura: Because I heard that story about him, and – no.

[Jamie and Laura laugh]

Jamie: That was fun.

Andrew: Have we told this story yet?

Jamie: I think…

Laura: It was…

Jamie: …we told it at Prophecy.

Laura: Yeah, it was during the live show.

Andrew: Yeah. Oh right, right, right. Ben basically – and then we had some heckler in the Prophecy audience trying to be smart with us. That wasn’t – I didn’t appreciate that. So – Ben was a good driver. So was I. Not to brag but I was excellent.

Jamie: I was a good driver as well, wasn’t I Andrew?

Andrew: Jamie, you didn’t drive a mile. [laughs]

Jamie: Can I just kind of point out though, I would have happily helped out – the point was I couldn’t drive because a) That was a huge car and my first experience of driving on an American road shouldn’t really have been in a 2007 Lincoln Navigator. However…

Andrew: Limited edition.

Jamie: Yeah, limited edition as well.

[Andrew and Laura laugh]

Jamie: But everyone treated me, because I wasn’t driving, as a second class citizen. They were like, “Oh my God, are you sleeping now?” So I was like, “Well, what else am I going to do if I’m not going to drive?”

[Andrew laughs]

Jamie: I felt shunned, I felt in the minority, I felt ill – oh, it was just awful.

Andrew: Uhhh…

Jamie: I’m lying.

Andrew: I was going to say…

Jamie: It was awesome!

Listener Calls: Duel Between Harry and Hermione

Andrew: I don’t believe you. Let’s take another caller now.

[Echoing sounds in the background]

Andrew: Hey, mute your computer so we don’t have this feedback, Elliot.

Caller: Yeah, sorry about that.

Andrew: Oh, no problem, buddy. What’s going on?

Caller: I just had a question for you: I was wondering what you’d think in who would win in a duel with Harry and Hermione?

Andrew: A duel out of Harry and Hermione.

Caller: Yeah.

Andrew: Can you mute your computer? It’s still feed-backing.

Caller: Is that better?

Andrew: Or something is, Skype is. Yeah, there you go. Actually no, it’s not at all. [laughs] Here, I’ll just do this. Oh. No, that didn’t work.

Caller: Is that better now?

Laura: Okay.

Jamie: Awesome.

Andrew: Sort of. Yeah, Laura?

Caller: All right.

Laura: I think that – and Jo actually mentioned this, I think she answered this question. Somebody asked her who would win a duel between Harry and Hermione, and she said up until Book 3 it would have been Hermione, but after Book 3 it was Harry. So I think it was when Harry really got his confidence up by learning how to produce a Patronus, and he just learned so much more about his past and everything, I think that really helped him and I think he kind of came into his own in that book. So I think that Harry would beat her as of now.

Andrew: That’s a great point actually, yeah. Harry is definitely stronger than Hermione now dueling-wise.

Caller: Yeah.

Jamie: No.

Andrew: No?

Laura: Oh, I think so though, Jamie, because Hermione is somewhat limited by the fact that she kind of questions anything that isn’t considered normal magic, and it’s sort of been to Harry’s…

Jamie: She does.

Laura: …advantage that he accepts that there are things out there that can’t be explained.

Jamie: Yes.

Caller: Yeah.

Jamie: No, you’re absolutely right but I would say to that that Harry – I mean, both of them I don’t think could hurt a friend so neither of them would be throwing spells to do any significant damage. But I think Harry would sort of try and throw up a shield charm because he couldn’t hurt his best friend, and then Hermione would be in tears and be like, “Oh no, Harry. This is exactly what Voldemort wants.”

[Jamie and Laura laugh]

Jamie: And then Harry would Expelliarmus her.

[Caller laughs]

Jamie: So neither would win, but Harry would get the upper hand.

Laura: But Jamie, Jo said that Harry would win.

Jamie: What does she know, Laura?

[Caller laughs]

Laura: No, she just wrote the books. I mean, who cares what she thinks, right?

Andrew: Good point.

Jamie: Yeah, she only writes the books.

[Laura laughs]

Andrew: Yeah, I agree.

Jamie: [laughs] You agree?

[Laura laughs]

Andrew: No, I agree with the caller. I agree with the caller [laughs] and Laura.

Jamie: I see.

Andrew: Sorry, I guess? What’s your name? Elliot?

Caller: Yeah.

Andrew: Yeah. Elliot C. I know that because of your Skype name.

Jamie: Well, Elliot…

Laura: Hey Elliot?

Caller: Yeah?

Laura: Emma from Sweden likes your accent.

Andrew: Ooh.

Jamie: She does.

Caller: No, I’m actually from the UK.

Laura: No, no, Emma from Sweden.

Caller: Oh.

Jamie: Likes your accent a lot.

Laura: Yeah.

Jamie: Maybe we can hook something up here. It’ll be our first MuggleCast dating service success.

Andrew: Ooh. Let’s not bring that up. That’s a…

[Laura laughs]

Jamie: Sore point?

Andrew: Sore point in my podcasting career.

[Caller laughs]

Jamie: I see.

Andrew: [laughs] But – all right, Elliot. Thank you for calling in today.

Jamie: Thank you.

Caller: All right, thanks.

Jamie: Buh-bye.

Andrew: I want to have a duel between me and Harry. I think I could…

Jamie: That might be difficult considering he’s a fictional character but…

Laura: Yeah.

Jamie: …good luck, Andrew.

Andrew: I think I could beat him, actually.

Jamie: Yeah? What would you do? What sort of spells would you cast? What would be your tactics? Have you thought about this?

Andrew: No.

Jamie: Planned it out?

Andrew: Actually, I need to work on it more. But I actually have a little story to tell. Actually, let me switch to the e-mails real quick. Nicole from Illinois is asking via the live feedback form at MuggleCast.com/Live:

“I was wondering if any other MuggleCasters are going to be on the show today.”

The answer is…

Jamie: No.

Andrew: …what’s wrong with us? Do you not like us or something? Is something wrong here?

Laura: We could leave.

Jamie: I’m hurt, I’m hurt.

Andrew: Yeah. Also – no, everyone will be along later in the show. Eric is going to be on at some point today. I know Mikey is working on coming on today. Who else? Who else hosts the show? Oh, Kevin is going to be on today. Ben is at a Notre Dame football game right now, but I think he’s going to be on later today. Jamie, do you know?

Jamie: I think so, yeah. When he comes back from it.

Andrew: Yeah. And who else hosts the show? Oh, Micah. [laughs] Micah is going to be on later, later, later on, probably not until later tonight because he’s at a wedding in…

Jamie: Nantucket Bay, which if you are a Billy Joel fan and listen to “The Downeaster ‘Alexa'” you will hear him referencing that, and Micah is extremely excited about that fact because he is also a big Billy Joel fan. And I hope everyone listening is as well.

MuggleCast 108 Transcript (continued)

Birthday Shout-Out Request

Andrew: I sort of am. So I have a little story. I was in my Film Appreciation class yesterday – it was Friday, yesterday Friday – and I’m trying to enhance my education. We’re watching movies, all is well, and I get a call from a random number and ever since Ben gave my number out on another podcast way back when – I’ve been getting these random calls, so usually I ignore them and I ignored this one.

[Jamie laughs]

Andrew: And it was this voicemail here. Hit “Play” here:

[Audio]: Hi, I’m calling because my sister is a huge MuggleCast fan and her birthday is tomorrow, and what I was thinking would make her really, really, really, really, really happy is…

Jamie: Really happy.

[Audio]: …if possible you could call her sometime in the morning, like before 9:30, and wish her a happy birthday. That would be really, really great. So I hope you get this message. Thanks. Oh, her number is…

Andrew: [laughs] Kind of important. And we won’t listen to the rest of the number there. And then he calls back two minutes later while I’m still trying to enhance my education:

[Audio]: Hi, this is Timmy, the guy who just called about my sister’s birthday which is coming up tomorrow, September 15th. And her name is Becca and so…

[Laura laughs]

[Audio]: …if you get this message can you please call me back at this number which is…

Andrew: And so – [laughs] so I thought this was really nice. This kid is calling my phone number. Somehow he got my phone number, I don’t know how.

Jamie: Oh, your cell phone, that is?

Andrew: [laughs] Yeah, this is – I’m playing this on my phone.

Jamie: Oh.

Andrew: And I think we should give her…

Jamie: But isn’t it after 9:30 in the morning?

Andrew: It is, but…

[Caller’s voicemail plays in background]

Andrew: Go ahead, keep talking for a second, Jamie.

Jamie: No, I was going to say, it’s after 9:30 in the morning. Perhaps she’s got work or something like that. But I agree, I think we should try and see what she’s doing. But first, I’d like to answer a very quick e-mail. A very, very exciting e-mail coming from Ben from North Carolina who asked me how psyched I am for the new season of Prison Break, and I hope I speak for everyone listening in now – and Andrew and Laura, although I fear you aren’t as big Prison Break fans as I am, but…

Laura: I’ve actually never watched it.

Jamie: Well, Laura, that is blasphemous, okay? That is just – oh my God. Awww.

Andrew: I haven’t watched it either, actually.

Jamie: Awww. I can’t stay here. I’m going to have to go, I’m sorry.

Laura: I don’t watch Prison Break, I don’t like Boys Like Girls. I mean, what’s wrong with me?

Jamie: [laughs] Well, I can’t answer that question.

[Laura laughs]

Jamie: I have no idea, but…

Andrew: [laughs] Okay, so…

Jamie: [unintelligible] …Prison Break – wait, wait, wait. Andrew, wait, wait. Ben, I am so excited. The sneak preview on YouTube looks amazing and I completely agree, it’s going to be unbelievable. I cannot wait. In fact, I’m watching the first and second seasons in preparation so I don’t miss a thing.

Andrew: You are a fangirl. So…

Jamie: Andrew…

Andrew: …let’s give Timmy’s sister, Becca, a call. And hopefully – I have a feeling we’re going to get the voicemail, because we were supposed to call before 9:30 but we weren’t doing the show then.

[Phone rings]

Caller: Hello?

Andrew: Oh, hi. Becca?

Caller: Yes? Who is this?

Andrew: Okay, you were definitely just listening to the MuggleCast stream, weren’t you?

Caller: Yeah.

[Andrew and Jamie laugh]

Laura: Awww.

Caller: Is this Andrew?!

Andrew: You answered that phone way too quick.

Jamie: She had answered too quickly.

Andrew: Yeah, do you know me? Andrew Sims?

Caller: Oh my God!

[Andrew laughs]

Laura: Awww!

Caller: Hi!

Andrew: Laura and Jamie are here, too.

Laura: Hey Becca.

Jamie: Hey Becca.

Caller: Oh my God!

Jamie: Happy Birthday!

Caller: I was listening, and I guess I didn’t hear Timmy’s name…

Andrew: Yeah.

Caller: …and I was like, “Oh, that’s cool. The girl has the same birthday as me.”

[Andrew laughs]

Laura: Awww.

Caller: Oh my God!

Andrew: That was so nice of your brother to call for you. However, he did call during my Film Appreciation class. I didn’t really appreciate that.

Laura: Oh…

[Caller laughs]

Andrew: [laughs] I’m just kidding. It’s okay.

[Andrew and Caller laugh]

Andrew: So, I met you in Pittsburgh, didn’t I?

Caller: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Andrew: Yeah. And – cool. I’m wondering – not that I care, but how did you get my phone number? [laughs]

Caller: Oh, okay. [laughs] Well, when we went to Pittsburgh, I was with my friend Zoe…

Andrew: Right.

Caller: …whose birthday is Harry Potter’s birthday.

Andrew: Right.

Caller: And her mom had called you, and you guys had talked on the phone about…

Jamie: How did…

Caller: …getting a shout-out for Zoe.

Andrew: Yeah.

Caller: Yeah. So then Zoe had your phone number from the e-mail and so [laughs] she gave it to me.

Andrew: Oh, okay. I see.

[Laura laughs]

Andrew: Well, it’s funny because after I got the two calls from your brother…

Caller: Uh-huh.

Andrew: …[laughs] I got an e-mail from your mom.

Caller: Oh, really?!

Andrew: [laughs] Yes.

[Caller laughs]

Andrew: And she said, “It wasn’t a prank call! It wasn’t a prank call!” I believed it, though. So anyway, what have you been doing today? Why did we have to call you before 9:30? Although obviously you had your phone anyway.

Caller: Oh, because I had a kickboxing class at ten.

Andrew: Oh, geez. Oh, I don’t want to get near you now. You’re tough.

[Caller laughs]

Jamie: Very, very.

Andrew: [laughs] Anyway, well we hope you have a happy birthday and…

Caller: Thank you. This is the best birthday present ever!

Andrew: Awww, that’s so sweet.

Laura: That’s sweet.

Andrew: What else are you doing today, while we have you here?

Caller: I’m going to the March On Washington to stop the war.

Andrew: Oh, awesome! [laughs]

Laura: Oh, cool!

Andrew: That’s very cool. Cool, cool, cool.

Laura: Good for you.

Andrew: We just lost…

Caller: And other than that I’m just [laughs] listening to this.

Andrew: Cool. That’s great. So we hope you have a great day.

Jamie: Happy Birthday!

Andrew: Anything you want to talk about while we have you on the line here?

Caller: Umm, I don’t know. I just – I love MuggleCast and pickles, and I love you all.

[Andrew and Jamie laugh]

Andrew: Oh, good. We love you too.

Caller: Yay!

Andrew: Come on, give us something Harry Potter to talk about. [laughs]

Caller: Okay.

Andrew: Anything.

Caller: Well, I was wondering in the seventh book, Cho is there at the end when Harry gets back to Hogwarts.

Andrew: Yeah.

Caller: And I was wondering why she was there, because she’s in a grade above him.

Andrew: When was this?

Caller: So…

Laura: Well yeah, she was there, but she’s a year older. So if Harry was going to be a seventh year, why would she be at Hogwarts?

Andrew: Oh.

Laura: The only thing I can think of is that she just came back because didn’t – gosh, I don’t want to say that they used the coins from Dumbledore’s Army, because…

Jamie: Who are we talking about here?

Caller: Oh yeah… [unintelligible]

Andrew: No, they did. They did, though.

Laura: Okay, they did?

Andrew: Yeah.

Laura: I just didn’t want to say it in case I was wrong. [laughs]

Andrew: Yeah.

Laura: But I think they might have.

Caller: No yeah, that’s probably right.

Laura: And I’m sure she came to her senses after she was…

Jamie: Who is this?

Laura: …a complete psycho.

Andrew: Cho.

Laura: Cho.

Jamie: Oh. Ahh, yes.

Andrew: Plus I mean, we – well, it seems like Jo wanted to include as many people as possible from – like the Oliver Wood…

Caller: Uh-huh.

Andrew: …reference that I keep bringing up.

Jamie: Yeah.

Caller: Oh yeah.

Andrew: Just to get everyone in there one last time.

Caller: Yeah.

Andrew: So yeah, I guess that would make sense to me.

Caller: Oh, and I also – just before I go I wanted to say me and my friends Zoe and Maria, when we were in Pittsburg we bought a teddy bear…

Andrew: Yeah.

Caller: …and we named it “Jandrewson” after Jamie, Andrew, and Emerson.

Andrew: [laughs] Jandrewson.

Jamie: Nice.

Laura: Geez.

Caller: And it’s really cute.

Andrew: That’s pretty funny. [laughs]

Jamie: Awww.

Andrew: You should take a picture and send it to us.

Jamie: Yeah.

Caller: Oh, okay.

Jamie: We’ll post it on the site.

Andrew: Okay. Well, thank you for calling. Happy Birthday once again.

Caller: Thank you so much!

Andrew: No problem.

Jamie: Have a great day.

Caller: Awww.

Andrew: You’re welcome.

Jamie: Buh-bye!

Andrew: Okay, bye!

Laura: Bye!

Caller: [laughs] Pickles! Bye!

Andrew: Pickles! Yay, Pickles! Okay, that was nice.

Muggle Mail: What The Hosts Would Make Using Various Materials

Jamie: I’ve got a question.

Andrew: Yeah?

Jamie: Someone just e-mailed in and said:

“If you had a piece of rope, a cardboard box, a rubber band, an old sock, and a copy of Deathly Hallows, what would you make?”

Because they had to answer this for an audition for a play, and they want to know what we think.

Andrew: Say it again. What are the materials?

Jamie: A piece of rope, a cardboard box, a rubber band, an old sock, and Harry Potter 7. What would you make? I would make a copy of Harry Potter 7, inside a sock, wrapped in a rubber band, in a cardboard box, hung by a piece of rope from something. What would you make, Andrew?

Laura: And the point of that would be what?

Andrew: How would that make you a good actor…

[Laura laughs]

Andrew: …to be involved in a play?

Jamie: See, you two need to broaden your minds, you know?

Laura: Okay, Trelawney.

[Andrew and Jamie laugh]

Andrew: I have no idea. I would make the same thing you would, Jamie.

Jamie: Wow, great minds think alike, Andrew.

Andrew: Yes, that’s us.

Jamie: Very much so.

Andrew: So I think we are going to go to break. We have a couple of songs for you, then when we come back – coming up in the next hour we have some Harry Potter discussion. We’re going to talk about university and the effect it’s had on…

Jamie: Yeah.

Andrew: …the hosts. And you guys. We want to hear how you’re involving MuggleCast in your university life. Laura will be here for the next hour, Jamie and I plan on being here for a while.

Jamie: The next eleven.

Andrew: By a while, I mean next eleven, yeah. [laughs] And Laura, you’re going to come back later on?

Laura: Yeah, I’ll probably be back later tonight.

Andrew: Okay. We’ll be back in a few minutes. You’re going to be treated to a couple of songs. This is MuggleCast Live, we’ll see you in a couple of minutes.

Jamie: Buh-bye! Stay with us!

Laura: Bye!

[“Love Will Keep Us Together” by Captain & Tennille plays]

[“Radio Nowhere” by Bruce Springsteen plays]

Andrew: Welcome back ladies and gentlemen to MuggleCast Live, September 15th, 2007. The time right now on the East Coast: 1:05 PM Eastern. I’m still here with Jamie and Laura.

Laura: Hey everybody.

Jamie: Hey.

Andrew: What you guys were just listening to is “Radio Nowhere” by Bruce Springsteen. I am the only Springsteen fan in this group. It’s actually off of his new album, Magic. This single was released and his whole album leaked online. It’s actually a pretty good album. And the song before that, Jamie?

Jamie: Umm. It was lagging for me.

Andrew: [laughs] I thought you were going to say it. It’s “Love Will Keep Us Together” by…

Jamie: Ahhh. But I’d also like to say…

Andrew: Hold on. By Captain & Tennille, I want to say.

Jamie: I don’t know.

Andrew: Something like that.

Jamie: But we’ve had a load of e-mails asking what the songs are, so we’ll post a list afterwards of all the songs we play.

Andrew: Yeah.

Jamie: And I forgot to say the vegetable from the first hour.

Andrew: Oh, duh! [laughs] Whoops.

Jamie: So the vegetable from the first hour is the carrot. And can I also say we have no way of policing this, we have no way of knowing, but I think you should feel very, very, very, very, very, very bad if you tell other people what the vegetables were.

Andrew: Well, I don’t see why people would because if you want to win, you won’t go telling people who come in six hours later.

Jamie: Who knows what people do?

[Andrew laughs]

Jamie: People’s actions are illogical. Everyone’s, everyone’s.

Andrew: [laughs] Anyway, second hour here of MuggleCast Live. Actually, on the stream we have a little countdown going. Ten hours, fifty-three minutes and six seconds left to go.

Jamie: Wow.

Andrew: [sighs] Shoot guys, what are we going to talk about?

[Andrew and Laura laugh]

Jamie: What are we going to talk about? Let’s look at the plan.

Andrew: I’m just kidding.

Jamie: What about – oh, sorry. [laughs]

Andrew: Yeah, I was completely kidding.

Jamie: I see what you mean.

Name for Laura’s New Radio Program

Andrew: What I do want to kick the hour off with is a little discussion on school, before we get to some Harry Potter discussion. Laura, I am personally very proud of you.

Laura: Awww.

Andrew: You told me today you were getting involved in what club there at McDaniel?

Laura: Radio club.

Andrew: Yay!

Laura: McDaniel Radio. I’m very excited.

Jamie: What club?

Andrew and

Laura:

Radio.

Jamie: What club is it, Laura, sorry?

Laura: Radio.

Jamie: Are you really? That’s awesome.

Laura: Yes.

Jamie: Well done.

Laura: Yeah, I signed up for it the other day. They haven’t had a meeting yet but…

Jamie: Very, very cool.

Laura: …I’m going to pitch the whole MuggleCast thing to them and hopefully they will let me do some stuff.

Andrew: You’ll shoot right up to the top, I really think so.

Laura: Oh, okay. Well, thank you.

Andrew: I think it’d be fun to hear you do a radio program.

Laura: Yeah, I’m – hmm?

Andrew: Go ahead, sorry.

Laura: Oh, I was just going to say I know some schools have theirs streamed through iTunes. I don’t know if they do that here, but if they don’t, I’m going to see if I can talk them into doing it, because I think that’d be really cool.

Andrew: Yeah. Or get them to start a podcast.

Laura: Yeah. Oh…

[Andrew laughs]

Laura: I should start McDaniel’s first podcast. That would be awesome.

Andrew: There you go, yeah.

Jamie: Yeah.

Andrew: That’s how I plan on getting up in the TV program at Rowan. I’m going to be like, “Hey…”

[Jamie and Laura laugh]

Andrew: “…I’m sort of a somebody in the online world, and you don’t know this but…”

[Laura laughs]

Andrew: So, I was trying to think up a name for your show the other day, what your show should be called.

Laura: Okay.

Andrew: I came up with…

Jamie: Mc podcast.

Andrew: The “Nook” podcast?

Jamie: No, the Mc podcast because she goes to McDaniel’s, right?

Andrew: [laughs] The Mc podcast?

[Laura laughs]

Andrew: Uh-huh.

Laura: Nice, Jamie.

Jamie: And then you can have a section each week that takes a McDonald’s product and sort of evaluate it.

[Laura laughs]

Jamie: You can have some call in saying what they think of the McChicken sandwiches and stuff like that. I’d listen, Laura.

Andrew: I was thinking of something more like Laura’s Lounge or…

[Jamie and Laura laugh]

Jamie: That sounds like a show on TV where she talks about women’s issues, Andrew.

Andrew: Yeah. Well, you can talk about – you can do that on the podcast.

Laura: Oh God, I want to talk about other things.

Andrew: I want people to call in right now with name ideas for Laura’s upcoming radio program. Let’s see here, take Lexi. Lexi, how are you doing today?

Caller: Hi.

Andrew: Hi.

Caller: I’m good.

Andrew: Do you have a name idea for Laura’s radio program?

[Jamie laughs]

Caller: Hmm, what’s a good one? Probably…

Jamie: You can think about it for a bit if you want.

Caller: Yeah.

Jamie: What’s on your mind today, Andrew?

Caller: Hmm. How about…

Andrew: She’s still thinking about the name.

Caller: …Lucky Laura?

Andrew: [laughs] Lucky Laura?

Laura: Lucky Laura, I like that. That’s cool.

Andrew: [in a silly voice] Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen. I’m Lucky Laura!

Jamie: [laughs] Woo!

Laura: And I’ll have you do the voice for me, Andrew. You can be me and do the show.

Andrew: [laughs] That could be your on air – like, you know how radio personalities have their – I don’t have any examples but…

Laura: Yeah, their DJ voices, yeah.

Andrew: Well, not just…

Jamie: Yeah.

Andrew: …their voice, but their name. Like the – I can’t think of one off the top of my head…

Laura: Yeah, I know what you’re talking about.

Andrew: …but you know what I’m saying. You can be the Lucky Laura. Whoa!

[Jamie and Laura laugh]

Laura: And I’ll make that ridiculous noise after I say it, too.

Jamie: I would do. I would definitely, yeah.

[Laura laughs]

Andrew: [in a silly voice] Whoa, look out! [laughs]

Caller: You’ll get lots of viewers.

Andrew: Yeah, I think so. I would listen. But…

Caller: Yeah.

Andrew: Yeah. Anything else on your mind today, Lexi? Lexli?

Caller: Lexi.

Andrew: Lexi.

Caller: Not really, just excited to be the weekend.

Andrew: Yeah, me too, me too.

Jamie: Definitely.

Laura: Yeah.

Andrew: Me too.

Caller: Yeah.

Andrew: How about that? Okay, well we’re going to take…

Caller: And…

Andrew: Oh, go ahead. Sorry.

Caller: Can I say one last thing before I go?

Andrew: Sure.

Caller: Gak!

Andrew: Gak gak, Pickle Pack!

Laura: Oh. Vultures in the house.

Andrew: Kind of weird. Okay, thank you for calling in.

[Andrew and Laura laugh]

Caller: Okay.

Andrew: See – oops.

Jamie: Thank you.

Andrew: Cut her off. I’m bad at cutting people off.

Jamie: I’m bad.

Andrew: Okay, let’s see here, getting lots of calls. Hey, you got a name for Laura’s radio program?

Caller: Hi.

Andrew: Hi.

[Echoing sounds in the background]

Caller: Hello.

Andrew: And mute…

Jamie: Hey.

Caller: Hello.

Andrew: Can you mute your stream please so we can’t hear us in the background?

Caller: Hi, can you hear me? Sorry.

Andrew: Yeah, yeah. Mute your stream. Mute your computer.

Caller: Yeah.

Andrew: Got it?

Caller: When I mute my computer…

Andrew: Your radio.

Caller: …my mic goes weird.

Andrew: Oh, okay. What’s going on? Do you have a name for Laura’s radio program?

Caller: Yeah, I do.

Andrew: Oh, okay.

Laura: Oh, cool.

Caller: How about Laura’s Lowdown? [laughs]

Andrew: I like that.

[Laura laughs]

Jamie: Oh, that’s good.

Laura: I’m writing that down, just so you know.

Andrew: Laura’s Lowdown. [in a silly voice] The lowdown with Laura, hey.

[Caller laughs]

Andrew: So, cool. All right, you got anything else to add?

Caller: Yeah. I am obligated to say that I am talking to the SPoT people right now.

Andrew: Who’s that?

Caller: Have you heard of SPoT? It’s like this group that tried to find the hidden messages on MuggleNet to get the T-shirts.

Andrew: No.

Jamie: Andrew, have you seen…

Caller: Yeah.

Jamie: There’s a post on Pickle Pack, I can’t remember which one it was, in which a slight argument, the hints of an argument break out between the Vultures and SPoTs, and it calmed down in the end.

Andrew: Oh. I missed that.

Jamie: Do you remember that?

Andrew: No, I don’t at all. [laughs] But yeah, okay.

Jamie: Oh well. Well, that’s cool. An awesome shout-out to them.

Andrew: Yeah.

Jamie: Thank you very much for calling.

Caller: So yeah, just shout-out to them, yeah.

Andrew: Cool.

[Caller laughs]

Andrew: Well, thanks for calling in.

Caller: Yup. Okay, thanks.

Jamie: Thank you.

Caller: You guys rock.

Jamie: Buh-bye.

Caller: Bye.

Laura: Bye.

Andrew: Thanks, bye. Yeah, one thing, guys, about when you call in, please, please, please mute your stream, meaning mute your – mute us. Mute how you’re listening to us whether it’s through your computer or whatever…

Jamie: Andrew…

Andrew: …because otherwise – we don’t want feedback. Yeah, Jamie?

Jamie: Cassidy Jordan from Memphis…

Andrew: I know her.

Jamie: [laughs] Oh right. Well, she says:

“Tell Andrew his radio voice is hot, hot, hot.”

So…

Andrew: Whoa! Whoa, hey. Wait a second.

Jamie: Can you give a special message to her in your radio voice, maybe?

Andrew: See, I don’t really have a radio voice. [laughs] It’s just me going, [in a silly voice] “Whoa!”

Laura: This is how he talks all the time.

Jamie: I think that’s what she’s referring to. Try that.

Andrew: This is how I talk all the time. [in a silly voice] Whoa! Cassidy!

[Jamie and Laura laugh]

Andrew: Is that okay? Cool.

Jamie: I’m sure she liked that.

Andrew: Yeah. We met Cassidy on the road tour, actually, and she’s a big fangirl of MuggleCast Mase. They’re actually in a relationship.

Laura: Ooh.

Andrew: I want to start that rumor. That wasn’t me who – I didn’t do that. So, Laura’s Lowdown. I like that idea, Laura.

Laura: Yeah, that’s pretty cool.

Jamie: I like that as well.

Andrew: Another thing – hmm?

Jamie: I want to say, quick reminder if anyone wants to send in any feedback go to MuggleCast.com/Live. We’re getting quite a lot but we can always do with more. So if you want to send anything in, go there.

MuggleCast 108 Transcript (continued)

Hosts Meeting MuggleCast Listeners

Andrew: So with college, Laura has already met a MuggleCast listener who lives right across the hall, right?

Laura: Actually – it’s really weird. I’ve got – my next door neighbor is a listener, and she pretty much freaked out whenever she found out. I was sitting on MuggleNet and she came over. She’s like, “Oh, you’re on MuggleNet,” and I was like, “Oh yeah, I work for them. You know them?” And she was like, “Yeah,” and she looked at me…

[Andrew laughs]

Laura: …for about a few seconds, then she went, “Oh my God, you’re Laura!”

[Andrew laughs]

Laura: And she started dancing in the middle of my room, like jumping up and down.

[Jamie laughs]

Laura: She was like, “You know Andrew and Jamie and Kevin and Micah…”

Jamie: Laura…

Laura: …and freaking out. It was hilarious. Yeah?

Jamie: [laughs] Imagine if she had been like, “Oh my God, you’re Andrew Sims!”

[Andrew and Laura laugh]

Laura: Yeah.

Andrew: We don’t sound alike, I don’t think, in our…

Laura: No, I don’t think so.

Andrew: Our hairstyles…

Laura: I don’t think…

Andrew: …are a little different.

Laura: …we look alike, either.

Andrew: Yeah, that too.

Laura: Yeah, a little longer.

Jamie: Yeah.

Andrew: So…

Laura: But yeah, apparently there’s someone else on my campus that knows about it too, because they write on my Facebook wall [laughs] a lot…

Andrew: Really?

[Jamie laughs]

Laura: …but I’ve never actually seen them in person, so…

Jamie: That’s cool.

Laura: And I don’t think it’s him. I think it’s his friends that listen and then we just started talking on Facebook, but I haven’t actually seen him yet on campus. So yeah, it’s kind of weird. Someone cornered me on the way back from the dining hall the other day, too. [laughs]

Andrew: That’s funny because…

Laura: [laughs] A little weird.

Andrew: Yeah. Well, that’s cool though because you’re meeting people who listen to the show right there where you’re going to school.

Laura: Yeah, it’s not what I expected.

Andrew: Yeah. And then Jamie knows of one.

Jamie: Mhm. [laughs]

Andrew: Don’t you know of one MuggleCast listener in your school who I met, I think?

Jamie: [laughs] Well, you were there, Andrew. We were at Revolver. Do you want to explain Revolver?

Andrew: Revolver is – okay. Well, I’ll prefix it by saying in the UK, the legal age to go to nightclubs and stuff like that is eighteen. So when I was out there a few months ago, Jamie and I went to Revolver, one of the clubs in…

Jamie: Durham.

Andrew: Durham. But see, I don’t remember meeting her there. I remember meeting her before Revolver and you were like, “She’s a huge fan, she’s a huge fan,” and then we went to meet her and she was just – like she didn’t really talk – to me, at least.

Jamie: No, no, I’m talking about a different one. She has listened to the show but I’m talking about when we were at Revolver. Revolver is like a huge MI uni, and there’s a huge downstairs ballroom thing and each Saturday night they turn it into an indie music-style thing. They have a bar there, they have a DJ, and everything like that. And Andrew and I were there dancing with a few friends, and this girl comes up to me and says, “I’m a huge Harry Potter fan.” And I wasn’t thinking straight for some reason or another.

Andrew: [laughs] Oh, by the way, this reminds me of something, but once your story finishes.

Jamie: And I was like, “Oh, are you really? That’s cool,” and she was like, “I listen to MuggleCast.” I was like, “Oh, that’s so cool! I’m really, really pleased.” So yeah, that’s – she’s the fan I know of in Durham, and there’s one more who came to the Waterstones podcast who goes to a college near me who I met who was very nice as well. So yeah, there are a couple which is nice.

Andrew: Yeah, I was – before I get to Jamie’s story [laughs] I’ve only met one person in Rowan who listens to the show, but he e-mailed me on Facebook and he said he lives off campus so it’s not like we’ve really hung out or anything, which is amazing how like wherever we – almost at any college we’ll meet a MuggleCast listener.

Laura: Yeah, I really – I mean, I’m not trying to sound naive or anything but I really didn’t expect that to happen.

Andrew: Oh yeah.

Laura: Like, I didn’t think – especially coming to a small college, I didn’t think that anyone would actually know it here, so…

Jamie: Yeah.

Andrew: Right.

Laura: It’s pretty cool though.

Andrew: [laughs] I agree. So Jamie… [laughs]

Jamie: Yeah?

Andrew: [laughs] We were talking about Prophecy two weeks ago, and we got on the discussion of the Yule Ball and…

[Laura laughs]

Andrew: …how you were just so good for the dance floor that they kicked you right out.

Jamie: Yes, I believe there was a bit of a – I got a couple of e-mails saying, “What happened? What happened” so I’m sure you had fun ripping on me the entire show.

Andrew: No, no, no, we didn’t rip on you! We just said that you were…

Jamie: Okay.

Andrew: …just too good for the dance floor.

Jamie: Yes, that was it. That was precisely what happened.

[Andrew and Laura laughs]

Jamie: My moves were just too impressive and too cool, and they said, “Sorry, you’re just too cool. You have to leave,” so I said, “Fine, I’ll leave.”

Andrew: Oh, Prophecy.

Jamie: That’s precisely what happened.

[Laura laughs]

Jamie: Could not be more spot on.

Andrew: Yeah. So…

[Jamie laughs]

Andrew: …one other thing…

[Andrew laughs]

Andrew: Oh gosh. Laura, did you [laughs] see his good dancing moves that night?

Laura: [laughs] I did.

Andrew: Yeah. Good stuff. I love you, Jamie.

Laura: Fabulous, yeah.

University Courses on Harry Potter

Andrew: So [laughs] one thing else I wanted to mention – I wanted to have a little discussion on Harry Potter in school…

Jamie: Yeah.

Andrew: …because in some colleges now, there are classes – Harry Potter courses, you can go and analyze Harry Potter. And this has really been unheard of especially when – especially right now because of how popular the series is and some schools see it as too commercial. It’s too commercial to study and really take seriously. And then some professors see it as a children’s novel so you could never really study it. I actually – if Mason is listening right now, I want him to call in – I don’t know if he is, though – because he’s going to Northern Arizona University and there’s actually a Harry Potter course. If there is any listeners out there right now that know of any Harry Potter courses feel free to call in. 1-218-20-MAGIC in the United States – [sighs] let me just say: Bryan Veter, stop calling with you and a couple of other people. We don’t accept group calls. So Laura or Jamie, have you heard of any Harry Potter courses?

Jamie: Yeah, somebody told me that they were taking one. Call me old fashioned, but I think it’s a bit – I mean, can you imagine five hundred years ago people going to old stone brick universities with candles walking around studying one book series? It’s just – I’ve always thought university is for a broad education. It can be on one subject, but I just – I don’t know about studying Harry Potter. Perhaps after undergraduate you could specialize and do literature and do Harry Potter, but an actual course in Harry Potter I’m not so sure about. I’m sure I’m just old fashioned though and backwards.

Laura: I really don’t think it’s a bad thing at all. I think it’s actually really cool because – especially as you start getting up closer to your major.

Andrew: Uh-huh.

Laura: And the American university system, you take more focus classes. You don’t necessarily take a class that covers a huge – a very broad subject. You’ll take something that’s more focused.

Jamie: No, I know.

Laura: And…

Jamie: Sorry, go on.

Laura: I don’t know, I think a Harry Potter course would be pretty cool. We don’t have any here, but one of my teachers makes Harry Potter references everyday in class without fail.

Andrew: Really?

Laura: He makes some sort of Harry Potter reference, and I just sit there and I just sort of smile. I’m like, “Yeah.”

Andrew: I know him.

Laura: “If only you knew.”

[Everyone laughs]

Andrew: It’s a lot to explain, isn’t it? Because people ask and then I’m like, “Yeah, I’ll tell you the whole story another time.”

Laura: [laughs] Yeah.

Jamie: Yeah. Yeah, exactly. I don’t normally bother to – well, some people I’ll tell about Harry Potter, but it’s such an effort because if you tell someone you like Harry Potter – like I tell people occasionally. I’ll be like, “Yeah, I like Harry Potter,” and they’ll be like, “You like Harry Potter? What, do you like own all the books or something?”

Andrew: [laughs] “You loser.”

Jamie: And I’m like – [laughs] yeah, I’m like…

Andrew: “You like magic or something, man? [laughs] Magic’s not real.”

Jamie: …”You do not know the half of it.”

Andrew: Yeah.

Jamie: Exactly, and it’s such a story to tell about what happens. But if they’re being annoying about it and they’re being all “Oh my God, do you like Harry Potter?” then they need a smack-down to be laid so then…

Laura: Yeah.

Jamie: …you have to explain the entire thing.

Andrew: Yeah.

[Jamie laughs]

Andrew: Okay, only call in right now if you have something to add about our discussion on Harry Potter in education. Let’s take a caller right now. Hopefully this person…

[Loud beeping noises]

Andrew: Whoa, hey!

Jamie: Ooh.

Caller: Hello?

Andrew: Hi! What’s your name? Where you calling from?

Caller: Hello, I’m Simone and I’m from Australia.

Andrew: Oh, Australia. Do you know of any Harry Potter courses at your local school?

Caller: No.

Andrew: Awww, man.

Caller: No. They’re all kind of against it. It’s really sad.

Andrew: They’re all kind of against it? Do you know why?

Caller: No. My friend and I are like obsessed about Harry Potter but everyone is like, “Ewww, Harry Potter.” And then when the book comes out, everyone reads it but then everyone just gets over it straight away.

Andrew: Right, right. Yeah, interesting. I mean – yeah.

Jamie: Either way – I mean, I think you either want to do it or you don’t want to do it. It’s like – I can understand some universities offering a course in it and some not doing it. I don’t think it’s ever going to be mainstream.

Laura: No.

Jamie: It’s just going to be one of those, you know?

Listener Calls: Ticket to J.K. Rowling’s NYC Book Reading

Andrew: Right. Let’s take another call right now. Cole. Hi Cole.

Caller: Hi.

Andrew: Hi – oh thank God, you sound good. Thank you. [laughs]

Caller: I…

Andrew: Huh?

Jamie: You should probably say that you mean audio quality there, not… [laughs]

Andrew: No. Well yeah, the audio quality, yeah. [laughs]

Jamie: Yeah.

Andrew: What’s up?

Caller: Hi.

Andrew: Hi.

Caller: Before we begin, I just want to say that I get to go see J.K. Rowling in New York read the seventh Harry Potter book.

Andrew: Oh, you show off!

Laura: You want to give me your other ticket?

Andrew: No, I want your other ticket.

Caller: And if I was over eighteen then…

Laura: Awww, man.

Caller: …I would take one of you guys but I can’t.

[Andrew laughs]

Laura: Can I be your legal guardian? Can we just work that out?

Caller: I guess. I don’t know, my parents are like, “Oh my God! We get to go!”

Laura: Oh, okay. I wouldn’t take that opportunity from your parents.

Andrew: I would! How much do you want?

[Everyone laughs]

Jamie: Andrew will take you out on a date and buy you wine…

Andrew: There you go.

Jamie: …and food and everything like that, and then you can have the tickets, right Andrew?

[Andrew and Laura laugh]

Andrew: Right, Jamie. [laughs] What was I going to say? Oh, so when did you learn that you won?

Caller: It was the twelfth, I think. It was two days ago.

Andrew: Yeah? And how were you notified?

Caller: I got a call and they told me.

Andrew: Oh. Awesome. And what did you do? What was your reaction?

Caller: I was ecstatic. I was like screaming and jumping off the walls and everything.

[Andrew laughs]

Caller: I was so happy.

Andrew: Awesome.

Caller: And I actually have another friend who’s talking to me on Skype right now and is like, “Oh, I hate you because you get to talk to MuggleCast.”

[Andrew laughs]

Caller: She also got two.

Laura: Awww.

Caller: Her name is Anna.

Laura: Hi Anna!

Andrew: And how much does she want for her ticket?

Caller: I don’t know. Let’s see. Anna, how much do you want for your ticket?

Andrew: I’m not ending this podcast today until I have a ticket to the thing.

[Jamie laughs]

Caller: She wants me to add her but I don’t think I can.

Andrew: Well, she got a ticket too, you said?

Caller: Yeah.

Andrew: Well, have her call in. What’s her name?

Caller: Anna.

Andrew: We have that technology here, we can group call people. Okay, so do you know where you’re sitting already, or what?

Caller: No, I don’t. They said that you get to pick up the tickets like five days before.

Andrew: Oh, okay.

Caller: At the box office.

Andrew: Oh, you actually have to go pick them up?

Caller: Yeah.

Andrew: What if you live in like [pauses] Detroit? [laughs]

Caller: [laughs] I don’t know.

Andrew: Huh, interesting, interesting. Well, that’s very cool and congrats on getting in. That means you also get a signed book.

Caller: Yeah. I’m very excited.

Andrew: And do you know what the policy is for asking questions? Because she’s answering questions. Do you know about that?

Caller: No, I don’t. I’m kind of confused about that. I want to do some research and figure that out.

Andrew: Yeah.

Jamie: Maybe it comes when you pick up the ticket so perhaps they tell you then.

Andrew: Perhaps. And so what’s your plan? Are you going to go up to New York City for a couple of days?

Caller: Yeah. Well, I live in Jersey, so…

Andrew: Oh, where in Jersey? If you don’t mind me saying.

Caller: Bergen County.

Andrew: Bergen County?

Caller: Yeah.

Andrew: Is that North?

Caller: It’s North Jersey.

Andrew: Yeah, okay.

Caller: I actually have a cousin who went to your school.

Andrew: Oh, really? What, Shawnee?

Caller: At Shawnee.

Andrew: Yeah?

Caller: Yeah. He actually knows you, too.

Andrew: What’s his name?

Caller: His name is Mike Burns.

Andrew: Mike Burns.

Caller: He’s a big lacrosse football player.

Andrew: And he’s at Shawnee right now?

Caller: He’s a year above you.

Andrew: Oh, he was a year above me. Oh.

Caller: Yeah.

Andrew: Oh. No, I can’t say I know him, no.

Caller: I told him about you and he was like, “Oh, he’s the MuggleCast guy,” and I’m like, “Yeah.”

[Everyone laughs]

Andrew: I’m the MuggleCast guy. Yeah, when I was outed I was pretty humiliated.

[Caller and Jamie laugh]

Andrew: That was – there was a front page of my school newspaper. The headline was like, “MuggleCast at Shawnee?” It was terrible. Just terrible.

Jamie: Awww.

Andrew: But hey, what’s your friend’s username or number?

Caller: It’s annabanana, that’s her name. She’s trying to call in. Her username is sevenberries.

Andrew: Oh, I got it now. Okay. Hey Anna.

Caller 2: Hello.

Andrew: Hey, so…

Caller: Hi Anna.

Caller 2: Hello, this is…

[Prolonged silence]

Andrew: This is Anna?

Caller: Yeah.

Andrew: [laughs] So you got tickets too?

Caller 2: Yes, I did.

Andrew: Awesome. And what was your reaction?

Caller 2: Well, I started screaming, and jumping up and down.

Andrew: [laughs] Whoever was making the calls at Scholastic must have been so fed up by like the twentieth time someone went, “Oh my God!”

Caller: [laughs] Yeah.

[Andrew laughs]

Caller 2: Yeah. I actually got my call yesterday at the end of the day.

Andrew: Really? And was it a nice person on the phone or was it – was it Arthur Levine or – who was it? Do you know?

Caller 2: No, it was – I’m not quite sure who it was. It was just some woman who works at Scholastic.

Andrew: Oh, okay. Cool.

Caller 2: I would take you along, but I can’t because I’m under thirteen.

Andrew: You’re under thirteen?

Caller: Eighteen.

Caller 2: I mean under eighteen!

Andrew: [laughs] I was going to say, you sounded older than thirteen!

Caller 2: I mean under eighteen. I am thirteen.

Andrew: Oh, okay. I’m sure you’re lying to me but whatever.

[Everyone laughs]

Andrew: So while we have you guys here, do you ever hear Harry Potter in school? Like a class or anything?

Caller: Well, our school has a club.

Andrew: A club?

Caller: A Harry Potter club.

Andrew: Yeah?

Caller 2: Yeah. Where they listen to MuggleCast.

Caller: Yeah, they – it was actually the description. They were like, “We will listen to a MuggleCast.” I was like, “What’s a MuggleCast?” I’m just like, “Umm okay.”

[Jamie laughs]

Caller: “It’s a MuggleCast episode.”

Andrew: [laughs] Wait, you didn’t know what a MuggleCast was until then?

Caller: No, I did.

Andrew: Oh.

Caller: I did. I’ve been listening for a while, but it’s not a MuggleCast, it’s a MuggleCast episode. So…

Andrew: Right, right, right.

Caller: Yeah.

Andrew: Yeah, I hate when news articles refer to us as “The MuggleCast.”

Caller: Yeah.

[Laura laughs]

Andrew: Like we’re a car or something.

[Caller laughs]

Andrew: But…

Laura: We are a car though, Andrew. Didn’t you know?

Jamie: Yeah, we are.

Andrew: What? No. Are you trying to be funny?

Jamie: Didn’t you know that?

Andrew: It doesn’t make sense at all.

[Andrew and Laura laugh]

Andrew: So yeah, okay. Well yeah, we actually have a Harry Potter club in our – well, in Shawnee we did. The Harry Potter Discussion Association. I know they would listen to MuggleCast – well, a couple of them were MuggleCast listeners. They might be listening right now, actually. But…

Caller: Awesome.

Andrew: Yeah, Harry Potter class – interestingly – I could see it maybe – what? Twenty, thirty years from now? Sort of like a Shakespeare class or something.

Caller: [laughs] Yeah.

Laura: Yeah, I could – I mean, I personally think that Harry Potter is going to go down as a classic just like Lord of the Rings.

Caller: Yeah.

Laura: I mean, there are actually Lord of the Rings classes. They’re actually fairly common. You don’t see them on all campuses, but…

Jamie: Yeah.

Laura: …you see them on several. I’ve got a friend who is taking a Lord of the Rings class right now.

Caller: Yeah, it’ll be there for a long time, Harry Potter.

Laura: Yeah.

Andrew: Definitely.

Caller: It’s just a great book. And then soon we’ll make all our children read Harry Potter and…

Laura: Oh, definitely.

Jamie: And their children, and then their children’s children.

Caller: Mhm.

Andrew: Cool. Well, thank you, Anna and Cole, for calling in today.

Caller: Okay, thanks.

Jamie: Thank you very much.

Andrew: We’re going to talk some more with some other people, okay?

Caller: All right, bye!

Caller 2: Bye!

Laura: Bye!

Andrew: Cool.

Muggle Mail: Harry Potter‘s Contribution to the World

Jamie: I have a quick e-mail, Andrew…

Andrew: Yeah? Go for it.

Jamie: …that is going to shock every listener. It’s from Amber from Nashville. She says:

“Recently, I got into a debate with my uncle about the pay that athletes receive, and my uncle replied back with, ‘If,’ and I quote, ‘the Harry Potter lady deserves the money that she earned, then so do athletes.'”

When Amber replied that, “Yes, she does deserve the money,” her uncle shot back with, “But how has Harry Potter contributed to the world?” And I’m sure that shocked…

Andrew: [laughs] Oh my gosh!

Laura: Oh my gosh! Are you kidding me?

Jamie: …every single person…

[Andrew laughs]

Jamie: Amber, I suggest your uncle goes into the witness protection program because you have five hundred to seven hundred very angry Harry Potter fans listening in now. [laughs]

Andrew: How do sports contribute to the world?

Jamie: How do sports contribute to the world? Well, there you go then, there you go then.

Laura: Yeah, people get violent in front of their television screens.

Jamie: Yup.

Andrew: Yeah.

Laura: [laughs] Yeah, so…

Andrew: Not that I’m not a sports fan, but compared to J.K. Rowling – you know.

Jamie: Yeah.

Andrew: We all know how J.K. Rowling has contributed to the world with reading.

Jamie: Yup.

Andrew: Children’s literacy! Stuff like that.

Jamie: Yup. Every single place – when we were in New York, Andrew, at the reading there were like two or three people – of course, you wouldn’t have known because you slept most of the time, didn’t you?

[Andrew laughs]

Jamie: But there were two or three people… [laughs]

Andrew: Not even going to get into it.

Jamie: …who were like, “You helped my daughter to read. You helped my son to read,” all that kind of thing. So obviously the Harry Potter books are enormously world-changing.

Andrew: Definitely.

Jamie: So your uncle is wrong.

Listener Calls: HP Class at Eastern Michigan University

Andrew: Jackie, you’re live on MuggleCast right now. How are you doing?

Caller: Good, how are you?

Andrew: We are good, thanks. What’s – do you know about any Harry Potter classes in your school or whatever?

Caller: Actually, at Eastern Michigan University, where I want to go for college…

Andrew: Yeah.

Caller: …in order to graduate, you have to have an English elective credit, and one of the classes they offer is a Harry Potter literature class.

Andrew: Oh, perfect!

Laura: Oh, cool! Are you going to take it if you go?

Caller: Definitely! That’d be my first sign-up.

[Andrew and Laura laugh]

Laura: Awww.

Andrew: Do you know – was there a course description or anything?

Caller: No, but my friend is taking it right now. It’s her first year at Eastern, and she said that one of their assignments was they had to listen to a Harry Potter podcast and analyze what they talk about as if they were another co-host.

Andrew: Oh, okay.

Caller: So she listened to MuggleCast because I constantly talk about it to her.

[Jamie and Laura laugh]

Andrew: That’s awesome.

Jamie: Awesome.

Caller: It is. All right, my friends keep telling me to say “SPoT” even though we’ve already gotten a shout-out from you guys.

Andrew: SPoT! Yay!

Jamie: Double shout-out to SPoT then.

Andrew: Well, thank you for calling in, Jackie.

Jamie: Thank you.

Caller: I have a question really quick though, Andrew.

Andrew: Oh, okay. Okay.

Caller: The listener challenge from two weeks ago.

Andrew: Yes!

Caller: You never said who won that and we really want to know.

Andrew: Well, hold on! We have twelve hours of podcasting. I have a list of the winners right here and we’re going to get to it a little later on.

Caller: All right.

Andrew: Okay? [laughs]

Caller: Thank you.

Andrew: I’m being attacked like it’s my fault that we didn’t have a show last week or something, yeah.

Jamie: Andrew, I have an e-mail from Shannon in New Jersey who says Andrew’s voice is, and I quote, “Sooooooo dreamy.”

Andrew: [laughs] That’s funny you mentioned that one because I actually was going to read that. [laughs]

Jamie: Oh. [laughs]

MuggleCast 108 Transcript (continued)

Listener Calls: Make The Connection

Andrew: Sam Watchman is on the phone right now.

Caller: Hi.

Andrew: What’s up, Sam?

Caller: I’m good, thanks. You?

Andrew: We’re pretty good. We’ve met you a couple – well actually, no. One time. No, twice. No, once. You were at the live podcast in England.

Caller: I was indeed, yeah. It was really good.

Andrew: Yeah.

Jamie: Sam, are you planning on sticking around for the whole twelve hours?

Caller: Yeah, although it’s going to be until five in the morning, I might as well.

[Jamie laughs]

Andrew: Well…

Jamie: I agree, I agree.

[Andrew laughs]

Jamie: If you’re going to go into nine, if you’re going to go into ten, why not go for the full twelve?

Caller: Yeah, I may as well go for the whole nine yards.

Andrew: That’s it.

Jamie: Exactly, exactly.

Andrew: Sam was sort of getting on my nerves at the UK podcast. He took my iPhone and I had to pull it off of him. It was kind of annoying.

[Caller and Jamie laugh]

Andrew: Just kidding, Sam.

Jamie: What’s on your mind today, Sam?

Caller: Well, I’ve just started sixth form, I don’t know what the equivalent in America is for that.

Jamie: They don’t have one because we finish secondary school here at sixteen, and then we go to sixth form and then we go to university, whereas over there they finish high school at eighteen and then go straight to college.

Caller: Oh, right.

Jamie: But that’s cool. So you started when?

Caller: I’ve been there for about a week now.

Jamie: And are you enjoying it?

Caller: Yeah, it’s actually good. I’m actually starting to enjoy school for once.

Jamie: [laughs] Oh, really?

[Laura laughs]

Jamie: Awesome. Very, very pleased. Any Harry Potter questions? Any discussion ideas?

Caller: Well, I was just about to say, I was in my drama class and one of my teachers said, “We’re going to be doing something to join in the connections,” and I just automatically smiled.

[Jamie and Laura laugh]

Jamie: Make the Connection?

Caller: Yeah.

Andrew: Do any Harry Potter ones?

Caller: No, I don’t have any.

[Andrew laughs]

Caller: Have you got one for me?

Jamie: I wouldn’t bring it up though because they’ll probably think that you’re weird.

[Jamie and Laura laugh]

Jamie: But I will give you one if you want. Okay, make the connection between Harry Potter and a 19-inch widescreen TFC monitor made by LG. Oh, that’s difficult.

Andrew: [laughs] You are so random.

Laura: Jamie, I’m not sure anything can trump the one that you gave me at the live show in London.

Jamie: What was it?

Laura: Do you remember that one? It was Harry Potter…

Jamie: Oh.

Laura: …and setting a pillow on fire using only friction.

Jamie: Yes, I’m very sorry.

[Laura laughs]

Jamie: That was quite mean.

Laura: Yeah, that was awful.

Jamie: [laughs] That was difficult. Sam, any ideas? It is a tough one, I’m not going to lie.

Caller: Give me a minute.

Jamie: Okay. I can’t think of anything at the moment. Andrew, any ideas?

Andrew: [laughs] No, I’ve got nothing. That’s so random.

Jamie: Technological one? We need Kevin Steck here, we need Kevin Steck. I’m sure he would find some type of component within the LCD display that somehow links to Harry Potter. There’s got to be something, got to be something. If anyone knows anything, e-mail in, MuggleCast.com/Live.

Andrew: Sam, I think I got an e-mail for you here coming in from the live feedback form on MuggleCast.com/Live. It comes from Kathryn and Ellen at a MuggleCast party in Detroit, Michigan, and she writes:

“This guy on the phone has a hot voice.”

Jamie: Ooh.

Laura: Ooh.

Caller: Thank you very much.

Andrew: Sam, do you want their e-mail address, maybe? We can hook you up here.

Jamie: We’re having so many success stories…

[Andrew laughs]

Jamie: …on this one. Wow.

Andrew: Yeah. Sam, why don’t you say “Hi, Kathryn and Ellen” for them.

Caller: Hi Kathryn.

Andrew: And Ellen.

Caller: Sorry. And Ellen.

[Andrew laughs]

Caller: I thought it was just an entire name.

Andrew: Oh, no, no.

Jamie: Yeah. [laughs] It’s French.

[Andrew laughs]

Jamie: Kathryn-Ellen, Kathryn-Ellen. Very nice, very nice.

Andrew: All right. Well, thank you for calling in, Sam.

Jamie: Thanks Sam.

Caller: Thanks very much. Can I give a shout-out to someone?

Andrew: Of course.

Jamie: Of course.

Caller: Rebecca.

Andrew: From?

Caller: She’s listening right now.

Andrew: [laughs] Oh okay, cool. All right. Thanks buddy. See you later.

Jamie: Bye Sam.

Caller: Thanks very much.

Laura: Hey everybody, I just want to make a little bit of an announcement: you do need to call the main MuggleCast line. You can’t call us individually.

Andrew: Oh yeah.

Laura: I’m getting a couple of calls from people. I can’t add you in.

Andrew: Yes.

Laura: We’re doing this through the main number, so – just saying.

Andrew: That’s – yeah. Let’s give out the numbers once again. It’s all available on MuggleCast.com, and then there’s a page to all of our live contact information. You can call us, United States: 1-218-20-MAGIC, United Kingdom: 0-208-144-0677, and if you’re in Australia: 028-003-5668, or Skype the username “MuggleCast.” Do not Skype our personal names.

Jamie: Andrew, I’m missing the old-fashioned one. Well, not the old-fashioned one, but the really excitable one. The…

Andrew: If…

[Andrew and Laura laugh]

Jamie: …[adds emphasis on “if”] “If you want to e-mail in, you can e-mail andrew at staff dot mugglenet dot com or you can call…” [goes into high-pitched mumbling]

Andrew: What?

[Laura laughs]

Andrew: Ever since you guys started mocking that, I…

Jamie: It’s not mocking it, it’s…

Laura: We’ve made him self-conscious now, Jamie. He’s not as [unintelligible] as he used to be.

Jamie: Yeah, but it’s not mocking, it’s impersonating the things you like.

Andrew: Yeah.

Jamie: Which I think is excellent.

[Andrew laughs]

Jamie: I like it a lot. I really do. I really, really do. I think you should keep doing it.

Andrew: You can also go to MuggleCast.com/Live to send in feedback, and then we will get it sent straight to our computers here and we’ll read it online. I’m actually working on getting MuggleCast Mason on here because I want him to talk about the class in school because – this is interesting. I really hope that Harry Potter can start becoming part of English curriculums, because right now I really don’t think you can find it in high school.

Jamie: [laughs] Oh, I very much doubt you can find it.

Andrew: You can’t find it in middle school, elementary school, although Jamie and I both found the Harry Potter books through elementary school. Isn’t that right, Jamie? Isn’t that how…

Jamie: Yeah, we both did.

Andrew: Yeah.

Jamie: Yeah.

Andrew: So…

Jamie: We both got read it by our teachers.

Andrew: Right.

Jamie: And the rest is history, as they say.

Andrew: Right.

[Jamie laughs]

Andrew: But now it’s like – for some reason, they just don’t want to include it in their curriculum and I think it’s just because it’s so commercial.

Laura: Well, I can say that at my old high school, they did read Chamber of Secrets in the British Literature class.

Andrew: Oh really?

Laura: Yes, they did. I always thought that was weird. I was like – when I went to that school, I was like, “Why are you guys reading the second one?”

[Jamie laughs]

Andrew: Yeah.

Jamie: Yeah, that is a bit silly.

Listener Calls: What Sound Does a Vulture Make?

Andrew: Yeah. Let’s get another caller in here right now. Actually, MuggleNet staff member Rosie. Hey Rosie!

Laura: Hey Rosie.

Jamie: Hey Rosie.

Caller: Hey guys.

Andrew: Hey, this is actually your first time on the show.

Caller: Thanks for taking my call.

Andrew: Yeah, no problem. This is your first time on the show.

Caller: Yes.

Andrew: You post news on MuggleNet, and we’ve been joking saying that the new poster on MuggleNet.com is Rosie O’Donnell.

[Andrew and Caller laugh]

Andrew: But no, it’s you, Rosie.

Caller: Yeah, that’s me.

Andrew: So, what’s going on today?

Caller: I just want to say “Gak!”

Andrew: [laughs] She’s a Pickle Pack member.

Caller: And the Vultures want me to ask you if you like cats.

Andrew: If we like cats?

Caller: Yeah.

Andrew: I have a cat.

Caller: That’s cool.

Laura: I like dogs.

Andrew: Jamie loves cats, don’t you, Jamie?

Jamie: I do like cats very, very, very much, yeah. I think cats are awesome. So are dogs, though. All animals. Big animals are…

Caller: Jamie, guess what?

Jamie: Yeah?

Caller: Alyssa, she totally loves you.

Jamie: Well, that’s very nice. Awww, thank you. Hey Alyssa!

Caller: We all love you, Jamie.

Jamie: Shout-out. Awww.

Caller: Everybody loves you, Jamie.

Andrew: Rosie, were you listening to MuggleCast before you became a staff member?

Caller: Yeah. Actually, I listened to MuggleCast before I even got to MuggleNet.

Andrew: [laughs] Oh really?

Caller: Yeah.

Andrew: How’d you find it?

Caller: I don’t know, I was looking on iTunes, and I just came across it and I was like, “Cool.” So I listened to it, and then I was like, “Oh, MuggleNet. Cool.” And I looked on the site and was like, “That’s cool.”

Andrew: Oh, awesome.

Caller: Yeah.

Andrew: Rosie is a perfect example of how you can start as a fan and then become a staff member on MuggleNet, and actually be good.

Jamie: Yeah.

Caller: [laughs] Thanks.

[Andrew laughs]

Jamie: Follow her example. Follow her example.

Andrew: Yeah, yeah, that’s what I’m trying to say.

Caller: [laughs] Thanks.

Andrew: Well, anything else going on today, Rosie?

Caller: No. I just love you guys.

Andrew: Awww. Well, we love you too!

Laura: Awww. We love you too!

Caller: Thanks!

[Andrew laughs]

Jamie: Can I – Rosie, can I ask a question, please?

Caller: Okay.

Jamie: About the Vultures. Now, I’ve been wondering this for a while. If somebody said to me, “What noise does a vulture make?” I’m not going to lie, I don’t think “gak” would come to my mind first.

Caller: [laughs] Really?

Jamie: I would – actually, what noise does a vulture make?

Caller: What would you think it is?

Jamie: I don’t know. [laughs] I guess “gak” is quite a good interpretation, actually.

Caller: [laughs] There you go.

Jamie: Because I can’t think of anything.

Caller: Gak!

Jamie: Gak. I guess that’s quite good. Laura, what do you think they’d say?

Laura: I was never quite sure where “gak” came from, so I just sort of went with it. But the more I think about it, I guess it’s the term that would make the most sense. I don’t know. I’ve never heard a vulture make a noise before.

Jamie: Haven’t you? You’ve lived a sheltered life.

Caller: Awww.

Laura: Yeah, I go out and I sit by dead things, waiting for vultures to come and make noises at me.

Jamie: I do, I do.

Laura: [laughs] Well, you would.

Jamie: What’s wrong with that? Oh-ho! Zing!

Caller: Wow.

Jamie: Wow. Anything else on your mind, Rosie?

Caller: No. I’m good.

Andrew: [laughs] Okay.

Caller: [laughs] I just want to say, the Vultures, they really love you. And the MuggleCast Fan Forums, they love you too.

Andrew: Oh.

Jamie: Awww.

Laura: Awww. We love them.

Caller: And we all love you. We really appreciate you guys.

Laura: Awww.

Andrew: Awww. Well, that’s very nice. We’re enjoying doing this so far. Looking at the countdown, we’ve got ten hours and seventeen minutes left to go. So…

Jamie: Oh, I hope everyone is staying.

Caller: Wow. [laughs]

Andrew: Yeah…

Caller: Good luck.

Andrew: …it’s still – thanks, we’re going to need it.

[Andrew and Caller laugh]

Andrew: All right. Thank you, Rosie, for calling in today.

Caller: Okay. Bye guys.

Jamie: Bye Rosie!

Andrew: Bye.

Laura: Buh-bye, Rosie.

Caller: Seventeen…

Andrew: Oops. Why am I bad at this?

Laura: Awww.

Andrew: What was she saying? Seventeen?

Jamie: Don’t know.

Laura: You just fail, Andrew.

Andrew: I don’t know. I’m sorry. I’m sorry. So…

Jamie: Well, what do we…

Andrew: I think that’s about it for the Harry Potter thing. Mason doesn’t want to talk about it because he’s only been in the class for – he was only in one class and then [laughs] dropped out right away…

Jamie: Nice.

Andrew: …because it was so lame, he said. But not because it was Harry Potter – well, apparently you had to hand in a paper every class or something.

Jamie: Oh.

Andrew: Now he’s calling me expletives over AIM. I don’t appreciate that, Mason. That’s mean.

Jamie: Mason, Mason, come on, come on, that’s just mean.

Andrew: [laughs] Another caller now. Abby, you’re on MuggleCast Live. What’s up?

Caller: Hey!

Andrew: Hey!

Jamie: Hey! What’s on your mind?

Caller: I was calling because I actually – for the tickets to the J.K. Rowling in New York thing…

Andrew: Mhm.

Caller: …I actually was wondering if you knew if they’ve called all the people yet.

Andrew: I heard that all winners were supposed to be notified by the fourteenth, yesterday.

Caller: Didn’t it say like on or around the fourteenth, though?

Andrew: Well…

Jamie: Why? You are still holding out hope?

[Andrew laughs]

Caller: Yes, I am.

Laura: I am, too.

Andrew: I need to look – I’m pretty sure – I’m looking right now.

[Loud breathing sounds]

Andrew: Someone is breathing into their mic.

Jamie: That would be me, sorry.

Andrew: I’m pretty sure – I don’t have it right now, I’m sorry. If someone can find it somewhere around online, can you e-mail it in, please? mugglecastlive at gmail dot com or MuggleCast.com/Live. I’m pretty sure it was on or before the fourteenth.

Jamie: Awww.

Andrew: Of course, I could be wrong about that, so I’m sorry. But I mean, you can start your own podcast and try to get a ticket like I am.

Caller: Yeah.

Jamie: Do it, do it.

[Andrew laughs]

Jamie: You’ve got to speculate to accumulate.

Andrew: But see, I’m really holding out hope here. I mean, we’ve got ten hours. Somebody has to have an extra ticket and not really want to go with one of their friends. They would rather go with me.

Laura: Or with me. laura at staff dot mugglenet dot com.

Andrew: No, no. What? What? What, Laura? You’re breaking up. With me. So…

[Andrew and Jamie laugh]

Andrew: See, now I would feel really bad if someone did offer a ticket, [laughs] and then Laura and I would have to rock-paper-scissors-shoot for it…

Laura: [laughs] Yeah.

Andrew: …or something.

Jamie: Yeah.

Caller: If I had one I would take you.

Laura: And you would be a perfect gentleman and you would let me have it.

Andrew: I don’t…

Jamie: Would you, Andrew? Would you? On the spot here.

[Laura laughs]

Andrew: I don’t know about that for sure. I’m sorry.

Jamie: Quick e-mail from Chelsea from Long Island. She says that the reason “gak” was picked was because it rhymes with pack.

Andrew: Oh, okay.

Jamie: And that’s why the Vultures picked it.

Andrew: Very cool.

Caller: And can I make a shout-out?

Andrew: Sure, go ahead.

Jamie: Of course.

Caller: If I can make a shout-out to Reba?

Andrew: Reba?

Caller: Yeah, she would be listening, but she’s celebrating the Sabbath right now, so…

Andrew: Oh, okay.

Laura: Oh, okay. Cool.

Jamie: Awww.

Andrew: Well, we’re going to let you go because I have someone I want to talk to right now.

Caller: Okay.

Andrew: So thanks for calling in.

Jamie: Thank you.

Caller: Thank you.

Jamie: Buh-bye.

Listener Calls: Ticket to J.K. Rowling’s NYC Book Reading

Andrew: Bye! Okay, Anna, call in right now, please.

Jamie: Who’s this?

Andrew: She wrote in via the live feedback form:

“So I have tickets to the J.K. Rowling event and would be able to give you one.”

Laura: What?!

Andrew: [continues]

“There are a few small concerns, but you should take my call.”

Jamie: Oh!

Andrew: I don’t know her Skype name though, so Anna, call in, please.

Jamie: Corruption, corruption, corruption…

Andrew: I would appreciate that.

Jamie: …corruption, corruption.

Andrew: I’m looking forward to this. I have a good feeling about this.

Laura: Anna. Anna, come now.

Andrew: Mase from Flagstaff, Arizona, writes:

“Hey, I’d just like to say that I love Andrew Sims. He really makes my life.”

Thank you, Mase, for that.

Jamie: [laughs] After all those expletives.

Andrew: Yeah, exactly. Okay, someone talk here [laughs] while I’m trying to get this caller on.

Laura: [laughs] I can’t believe that she’s actually offering a ticket.

Andrew: Well, she said there’s a few concerns so maybe we can work out the problems. Maybe this is Anna, hold on. Hello, is this Anna?

[Echoing sounds in the background]

Andrew: Okay, you have bad feedback.

[Laura laughs]

Andrew: Anyone who has bad feedback gets kicked off from now on. We can’t talk to you.

Jamie: Just like on eBay! Just like on eBay, Andrew!

[Everyone laughs]

Andrew: Yeah.

Jamie: I have something quick to announce: the vegetable of the hour – that’s what it’s called from now on, vegetable of the hour. This hour is celery, okay?

Andrew: Cool.

Jamie: So keep an eye out on that and the next hour, and list all your vegetables in the e-mail that you’re all going to be sending, obviously, at the end of the twelve hours…

Andrew: I wish Anna would call! Huh?

Jamie: How long until the twelve hours is up? Ten hours and twelve minutes?

Andrew: We’re at ten hours and twelve minutes, yeah. Exactly.

Jamie: Awesome.

Andrew: So…

Jamie: Andrew, if you get this ticket from Anna, you better buy a plentiful supply of coffee to keep you awake, because…

[Laura laughs]

Jamie: I don’t know how you’re going to sleep at night, having taken a ticket off someone who’s a Harry Potter fan.

Andrew: Well, frankly – I mean, if we’re talking about who deserves it more, I think that would be me over Laura.

Laura: Umm, no. I think you’re wrong.

Jamie: Why don’t you have a fight to the death? That’s how they settled stuff years ago.

Laura: Okay, sure. Andrew, what’s the midpoint between us? We’re like, what, two-and-a-half hours apart?

Andrew: Yeah.

Laura: Yeah, let’s find some city in the middle and we can just have a showdown there.

Andrew: Okay. First we’ve got to get Anna on the line though!

[Laura laughs]

Andrew: I’m really annoyed. Why hasn’t she called yet? [laughs]

Laura: She probably pranked you or something. She’s probably sitting there…

Andrew: She probably is.

Laura: …in front of her computer, laughing now, like, “Hahaha!”

Jamie: Yeah, yeah. She is.

[Laura laughs]

Andrew: Yeah.

Jamie: You can tell she is.

Andrew: Yeah. We probably need a – let’s take another…

[Weird noises in the background]

Andrew: That didn’t work out too well.

Jamie: Hey, Elizabeth from St. Louis says that in her old grade school, there were recommended books for incoming eighth graders and Harry Potter is on the list. So it can be part of a literature class. Wow.

Andrew: Cool. Cool.

Jamie: So Harry Potter is making its way into all of our schools, slowly, slowly, slowly, slowly, slowly, slowly…

Andrew: Okay, also, Jack from Virginia is writing:

“Hey, it’s Jack again. I have things to talk about. I can also give you one of my tickets to Jo’s NYC event.”

I don’t want people messing with us. I have no problem hanging up on you if you’re messing with us. So…

Jamie: Suddenly all these people have these tickets.

Andrew: [laughs] I know! Exactly!

[Laura laughs]

Andrew: Oh gosh. You have to call in and give me your number so I know which one to call. Let me take this call right now. Hi, do you have a ticket to J.K. Rowling’s book reading? Hi Rebecca?

[Echoing sounds in the background]

Caller: Hello?

Andrew: Hey, do you have a ticket to J.K. Rowling’s book reading?

Caller: No, I didn’t. No, I’m sorry.

Andrew: Hey, mute… [repeatedly says “mute”] [laughs]

[Jamie laughs]

Andrew: Mute your feedback.

Caller: I’m sorry, I forgot to turn it off.

Andrew: Oh, okay. Can you turn it off?

Caller: Yeah, it’s off now.

Andrew: Okay, cool. I don’t think it is. It’s still going.

Caller: No, it is. I promise.

Andrew: I can still hear you!

[Jamie laughs]

Andrew: Myself!

Caller: Okay, there, is that better?

Andrew: Test. No!

[Jamie laughs]

Jamie: Oh, it doesn’t matter.

Andrew: What’s going on?

Laura: Don’t yell at her, Andrew

Caller: Well, I don’t know. I turned it off.

Andrew: What’s going on today?

Caller: I don’t know, [laughs] I’m just spending the day watching you guys. Or listening, rather.

Andrew: Cool.

Caller: And if I had a ticket – I am eighteen, so I would give one of you guys the ticket.

Andrew: Awww man! Man!

Jamie: Awww.

Laura: Now the question is, who would you give it to? Because Andrew seems to think that he’s a better Harry Potter fan than the rest of us.

Andrew: No, I didn’t say that. What I said was I deserve it more than you do, Laura.

Laura: And that’s not saying the same thing?

Jamie: Jerry! Jerry! Jerry!

[Laura laughs]

Andrew: Whatever.

Laura: Yeah, whatever yourself.

Andrew: Whatever.

Jamie: Hey?

Andrew: Huh?

Jamie: We’ve just had a flux of e-mails from people who have tickets [laughs] to the J.K. Rowling reading.

[Laura laughs]

Andrew: Well…

Jamie: That e-mail I was going to – where is it? Where is it?

Andrew: Leave your username or your phone number if you want us to answer, if you have a ticket and if you’re offering it to us, because – seriously, don’t call in just because, [in a silly voice] “Yeah, I have a ticket. Yeah, I’m going to give it to you.” [back to normal voice] We can’t trust people these days. But…

Jamie: Hey?

Andrew: Yeah?

Jamie: I’m sorry, I was just going to say – I’m just going to repeat the vegetable thing because a load of people missed it. On the hour – well, at some point during every hour, I’m going to be saying a random vegetable. What you need to do is you need to write it down and at the end of the twelve hours, you need to present in an e-mail to the live feedback form at MuggleCast.com/Live, a list of all the vegetables mentioned during those twelve hours in order, so from the first hour to the twelfth hour. And the first person to e-mail that in wins a nice prize. We’re not sure what yet, but we’ll know soon and we’ll announce it.

Andrew: It’ll be good, probably.

Laura: And I would just like to say, an e-mail from Maddie just came in and she said:

“In a showdown, Laura would so kick Andrew’s butt.”

Andrew: What?!

Laura: Yes!

Andrew: What kind of showdown?

Laura: Any showdown. I think she’s being very general for a reason.

Andrew: What, like – I mean, come on. Give me an example here.

Laura: I just said, any showdown, I could take you.

Andrew: Okay, I…

Laura: I’ll beat you in a fight.

Andrew: …couldn’t agree any more with that.

Laura: Thank you, Maddie.

Andrew: Okay, but I think we’re going to take a break right now and regroup here. Maybe, hopefully, we can get some tickets.

Jamie: [laughs] Yeah.

Andrew: Here’s the deal: if you have a ticket for us, if you’re serious, Laura and I will take you out to lunch or something. And we both want a ticket, so there we go.

[Laura laughs]

Andrew: But e-mail in, mugglecastlive at gmail dot com or go to MuggleCast.com/Live. Laura, you’re going to hang around for the next hour, right?

Laura: Yeah, yeah, I think so.

Andrew: Awesome. Yeah, it’s going very well. And coming up in the next hour, we’re going to be talking about somebody complaining from Mexico because today is Mexican Independence Day. Also, I want to give someone a call who we haven’t tried to call in a while, Laura.

Laura: Uh-oh!

Andrew: You know who I’m talking about?

Laura: Would that be someone who I share my first name with?

Andrew: That would be correct. And [laughs] hopefully we’ll get through this time. And also, we’re going to have the winners from my listener challenge entries. Right now, “Killer Queen” on MuggleCast Live! We’ll be back in a few minutes.

[“Killer Queen” by Queen plays]

———————–

Transcript #107

September 2, 2007 / MuggleCast

MuggleCast 107 Transcript

Show Intro

[Intro music begins]

Mason: Hey, Laura! Do you want to know about a good deal?

Laura: Why, yes, Mason. I would love to!

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Laura: Tell me more!

Mason: Well, in that case, GoDaddy.com is offering the best deals of a lifetime. For only $3.59 a month for a year, you can get GoDaddy.com’s economy package.

Laura: Amazing! What do I get with the economy package?

Mason: You get 250 gigs of bandwidth, five gigs of storage and up to 500 e-mail accounts. You can get your website up and running.

Laura: I can!?

Mason: Yeah. When you check out, enter code Muggle – that’s M-U-G-G-L-E – and save 10 percent on any order.

Laura: Can you spell that again?

Mason: Yeah, I can. That’s M-U-G-G-L-E.

Laura: Wow! Do any restrictions apply?

Mason: Some restrictions apply, see site for details. Get your piece of the Internet at GoDaddy…

Laura: Dot com.

Andrew: Today’s MuggleNet podcast is brought to you by Borders. In May, thousands of Harry Potter fans descended upon New Orleans for the Phoenix Rising Conference. Borders was there to take in the sites and share a lively discussion of the series that has bewitched the world with some of Harry’s most dedicated fans. Listen in and watch the action yourself. Check out the Phoenix Rising Borders Book Club discussion at BordersMedia.com/HarryPotter or click on the Borders banner at the top of the MuggleNet page.

[Show music begins]

Micah: Because we’re going to have a good time tonight, this is MuggleCast Episode 107 for September 1st, 2007.

[“Celebrate Good Times” by Kool And The Gang starts playing]

Andrew: Oh, ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the show! We are back for our first in studio recording in a long time and we have got a good panel today. I was going to say great but I realized it’s not that great.

Laura: Aww.

Andrew: We have Eric here.

Eric: Hello!

Andrew: Laura.

Laura: Yay!

Andrew: And Micah.

Micah: Hey.

Andrew: All the regulars. And we also have an English guy here. And I know what you’re thinking. You think it’s Jamie. Well, you’re wrong. Jerry Cook is here today!

Jerry: Hello, everyone.

Andrew: And we are celebrating.

Eric: What are we celebrating, Andrew?

Laura: What?

Andrew: We are celebrating being back in the studio…

Eric: Yes.

Andrew: …and making it through the summer without a scratch or a mark or a hickey.

[Eric and Laura laugh]

Andrew: Everything’s good here. I have to ask though, is anyone sad about the summer being over?

Laura: I am.

Andrew: About the summer of Potter? You are, Laura?

Laura: Yeah, it really hit me. Like I’m in college now sitting in my dorm right now and it was like, wow, it all went by really fast. It felt like it was just yesterday we were all in L.A. for the premiere, and now it’s like back to school. So it’s kind of depressing. But exciting as well because college is awesome.

Andrew: Good. Well, I’m moving in tomorrow. Eric? Eric, are you in college now?

Eric: Yeah, that’s what I’m doing over here. I’ve been in New Zealand since February.

Andrew: Oh really? Oh.

[Eric laughs]

Andrew: I was just kidding.

Eric: [laughs] No, I was just letting you know. You know.

Micah: Are you sick, Eric?

Eric: No.

Andrew: You sound a little deeper, Eric.

Micah: Oh. Your voice sounds a little – yeah.

Eric: Yeah. Oh, I think…

Andrew: Eric, have little changes been going on in your body?

Eric: …what Book 7 did for me – I’m growing up now and so I’m hitting puberty and going through all those changes. Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes! But yeah.

Andrew: We’re not aware of that word here on this show. But anyway, let’s see. Micah, how’s school going for you?

Micah: Oh great, absolutely. Just a great, great time. Even though it ended almost two years ago, but that’s okay.

[Jerry laughs]

Andrew: Oh I’m sorry. I didn’t realize. Didn’t realize. All right, so [laughs] we have a great show today for everyone. I am personally ready. I’m excited to be back. I got my hair cut today, so I am set.

Eric: I could use a haircut.

Jerry: Yeah, me too.

Andrew: I’m Andrew…

[Everyone laughs]

Andrew: I’m Andrew Sims.

Eric: I’m Eric Scull.

Laura: I’m Laura Thompson.

Micah: I’m Micah Tannenbaum.

Jerry: I’m Jerry Cook.

News

Andrew: Micah Tannenbaum is in the MuggleCast News Center with the past couple of weeks’ top Harry Potter news stories.

[Show music begins playing]

Micah: All right. Thanks, Andrew. According to The Wilkshire Times, filming for Half-Blood Prince will take place in the village and in the cloisters at Lacock Abbey in Wilkshire, England. This location will be used for multiple night scenes from the sixth Potter book. Shooting will last four days in October between 5:00 PM and 5:00 AM. A sum of 30,000 pounds will be given to the village in exchange, and, in addition, each resident will receive a sum of 200 pounds and a secure parking service.

At a recent lecture in the U.S., John Williams, former composer of the Harry Potter movies soundtrack, was asked if he was hoping to score the last Harry Potter film. He said with confidence that he thinks he will be back for Deathly Hallows, and then added that he hopes he is. As previously reported, Nicholas Hooper will be scoring Half-Blood Prince.

Speaking of movie news, according to a new report released by several British film and tourism bodies, the location of scenes shot in the Harry Potter movies are amongst several recent films responsible for the boost in U.K. tourism. Chief Executive of the U.K. Film Council, John Woodward, said, “British films and television programs play a powerful role in showcasing the U.K. to the rest of the world and boosting tourism. There are countless examples of visitors flocking to locations they’ve seen in films or on TV, and the effect can last for years.” The report also listed several other non-Potter films including The Da Vinci Code, Gosford Park, and Pride and Prejudice.

And various details concerning the upcoming Order of the Phoenix DVD release are slowly starting to emerge. The Movie Informer has received what looks to be the front and back cover of the two-disc special edition DVD. As for a release date, rumors are currently circulating that we can expect to see it in mid-November, many sites reporting November 12th in the U.K.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix walked away with the surfboard for Choice Summer Movie Drama/Action/Adventure at the 2007 Teen Choice Awards. Other movies in the category included Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, Live Free or Die Hard, Transformers, and The Bourne Ultimatum.

Last week, The Sunday Mirror reported that a Harry Potter themed musical is currently in the works to open in London’s West End. The article says producers are working on several script ideas and believe it has huge potential. More on that later in the show. Finally, the author of the Harry Potter novels, J.K. Rowling, and the actress that brings Hermione to life on the movie screen, Emma Watson, have been selected as two of 100 women Premiere has chosen because of their impact on the film industry in 2007. That’s all the news for this September 2nd, 2007 edition of MuggleCast. Back to the show. That’s all the news for this September 1st, 2007 edition of MuggleCast. Back to the show.

Andrew: All right. Thank you, Micah.

Micah: Welcome. It’s been a long time.

Micah’s Birthday

Andrew: Hey! Yeah, and you just celebrated a birthday the other day, didn’t you?

Micah: I did.

Andrew: By the other day, I mean last week. By last week, I mean – I’m not sure exactly when.

Micah: Laura knows.

[Andrew laughs]

Laura: August 17th because I am…

Andrew: Oh, yes.

Laura: …awesome, and I remember people’s birthdays.

[Andrew and Eric laugh]

Jerry: Two weeks ago.

Andrew: Well, see, because I tried to look on Micah’s “About Us” profile, but there’s no birthday. It’s just 24.

Jerry: Sneaky.

Andrew: Just now updated. But Happy Birthday, Micah!

Micah: Thanks.

Andrew: We – what did you do for your birthday?

Micah: I actually went to another friend’s surprise birthday party. So…

[Andrew and Jerry laugh]

Andrew: Oh, okay. Cool, cool. And it was also Ben’s birthday. Unfortunately, he cannot be here today. He has some stuff to do. And then Jerry…

Jerry: Yeah.

Andrew: None of the listeners know you yet, but it’s also – it was also your birthday recently, right?

Jerry: Yep, August 17th, same as Micah.

Micah: Oh, really?

Andrew: Oh.

Jerry: Coincidentally, yeah.

Micah: How old were you?

Andrew: So, why didn’t you guys…

Jerry: 21.

Andrew: …like coordinate a little party?

Micah: Oh.

Jerry: Yeah.

Andrew: 21, you said?

Jerry: Yeah.

Eric: Wow.

Andrew: Oh man, big time. That means nothing over…

Jerry: Of course you’re younger than I am. Yeah, it means nothing here.

Andrew: That means nothing over in the U.K. though, does it? Yeah.

Jerry: No.

Andrew: Yeah.

Jerry: Boring.

Andrew: Interesting.

Micah: Yeah.

Andrew: 18 is the big age over there.

Jerry: Yeah.

Andrew: So, Happy Birthday to you three, and…

Jerry: Thank you.

Andrew: …who’s the next birthday coming up?

Laura: Should be Jamie, right?

Andrew: I’m May.

Laura: December 7th?

Andrew: Oh yeah, Jamie’s December. Yeah.

Eric: Jamie’s December?

Laura: Yeah.

Eric: Oh. Well, I turn 19 and a half on October 23rd.

Andrew: Well, see, Eric, that doesn’t count.

Laura: Yeah.

Andrew: We don’t count half birthdays on the show here.

Eric: Oh. Okay. Sorry.

Andrew: Because I wanted to encourage people to start sending birthday gifts in if it was me, but it’s not me. So, forget about it, and…

[Andrew and Jerry laugh]

Andrew: …anyway, so moving on to some news. Lately, there hasn’t been much in the news. After the book came out it was pretty much downhill.

Eric: It’s depressing.

Laura: Yeah, it really is depressing. Like, how many times has MuggleNet been updated since the book came out? Like twice? [laughs]

Andrew: Yeah, you can probably count them on one hand.

Micah: Yeah.

News Discussion: Order of the Phoenix DVD Release Date?

Andrew: I just posted today about the DVD information. That’s – I guess there’s some information there. Rumored release date right now of November 12th in the U.K.

Jerry: Really?

Andrew: Yeah.

Laura: Hmm.

Andrew: For the DVD.

[Jerry says something unintelligible and laughs]

Andrew: Yeah, you know, I guess it’s good news. Nobody really cares. Another interesting piece of information was the list of deleted scenes, and back at the L.A. premiere, Emerson and I posed that question to David Yates, the director. We said, “What deleted scenes are we going to be seeing on the DVD?” And one of them he talked about that is also listed here: Trelawney eating. And apparently, according to the…

[Eric laughs]

Andrew: …what is this again? The British Board of Film Classification web site, their web site – it’s a two and a half minute clip of Trelawney eating. At least that’s the title. And apparently, David Yates said that – I’m forgetting the actress. Who plays Trelawney?

Eric: Who, Emma Thompson?

Laura: Oh, Emma Thompson.

Andrew: Yeah, Emma Thompson. Eric says it like I’m out of my mind.

Eric: No, no, that’s fine. I forgot the…

Andrew: “Emma Thompson!?”

Laura: You are out of your mind; she’s a fabulous actress.

Eric: Sorry, I think I actually am developing some kind of a cold, so I’m sounding…

Andrew: Oh, that’s not just – I’m just…

Jerry: She’s more of a big deal over here…

Andrew: Yeah. I’m just messing with you, buddy.

Jerry: …so we remember her name.

Andrew: But yeah, apparently it was a clip where Emma Thompson sort of just winged it and was just eating, and I can’t remember what exactly was said.

Micah: Well, see, Andrew, if it was going to be a deleted scene, I would expect that it would have been Professor Trelawney drinking, not eating, but that’s a different story.

[Andrew and Laura laugh]

Andrew: Yeah. Jerry, sorry to put you on the spot here, but what is the British Board of Film Classification? Do you know what that is? Like…

Jerry: Yeah, they’re the people who give it, you know, the eighteen certificate or fifteen certificate.

Eric: Yeah.

Jerry: They watch it and say…

Andrew: Oh!

Jerry: …children can’t see that; it’s too strong.

Eric: It’s like in America, the MPAA.

Andrew: Right.

Eric: Motion Picture…

Andrew: Okay. Because I didn’t understand why this was posted on their web site, but I guess it’s because they just rate the deleted scenes?

Jerry: Yeah, I guess so.

Eric: Well, it’s just like on DVDs you get those disclaimers that say the rights or the views expressed on this do not affect studio thoughts or whatever. Things like that.

Andrew: Yeah, yeah.

Eric: You know, this – I don’t even know how they’ve been able to release all these unrated DVDs, just because the MPAA and stuff regulate that kind of stuff.

Andrew: Right, yeah. Yeah. And usually in the U.S. it says, “This bonus DVD is not rated” or something like that.

Eric: Yeah, yeah, exactly. But a lot of the things, like to put them out, the MPAA – it’s like a law. I mean, you do have to get rated. At least to be a movie in a theater, you have to get rated.

Andrew: Right.

Eric: So…

Andrew: Right.

Jerry: I think it’s about public display, isn’t it?

Eric: It really is, yeah.

Jerry: If there’s no public display, they don’t have to rate it, but…

Eric: Children. Protecting the ears and minds of children.

News Discussion: Ian Rankin – Rowling Working on Crime Novel?

Andrew: So some other news: J.K. Rowling – well, okay, this is a very interesting story. Ian – Ian…

Jerry: Rankin.

Laura: Rankin.

Andrew: Ian – yeah, I’m turning up the story. Ian Rankin said – was quoted as saying that J.K. Rowling was working on a crime novel. And, of course, being the Harry Potter fandom that we are, all the fan sites posted about it, and everyone was like, “Oh, man, she’s writing another novel!” And it wasn’t that surprising because she’s said in interviews before that she probably would work on a – she enjoys writing and reading crime novels, right?

Eric: Yup.

Laura: Yeah, I think I read something about that, but…

Andrew: Yeah. So, then as it turns out, Ian Rankin comes back a few days later and he says, “it was a joke that got out of hand.”

[Eric laughs]

Andrew: So…

Jerry: That’s hilarious.

Andrew: …personally, I don’t believe that. [laughs]

Laura: I know, it’s a really lame excuse, isn’t it? Like, “Oh, I was just kidding!” Like, who kids about that kind of thing? Like…

Andrew: Yeah.

Laura: …how is that funny?

Andrew: He said there were six hundred people in the audience and only one person didn’t laugh.

[Jerry says something unintelligible]

Eric: Yeah. How could you hear…

Andrew: I don’t see…

Eric: How could you hear that one person not laughing? How could you tell? [laughs]

Andrew: Yeah. Good point, yeah.

Eric: So his credibility – I don’t know, maybe J.K.R. is doing a crime novel. Maybe she just didn’t want that publicity out there, you know, this soon. She’s not going to confirm or deny. She’s just put out a whopper and she doesn’t want to be…

Andrew: Yeah.

Eric: …thinking about the future.

Laura: Didn’t she say, though, that the one thing she was looking forward to writing most after Book 7 was that political fairy tale that she talked about? Like it was a children’s book…

Andrew: Yeah.

Laura: …meant for a younger crowd than Harry Potter.

Andrew: Yeah.

Laura: But, I mean, that doesn’t mean that she couldn’t be writing something else.

Andrew: Right.

Laura: Because if, you know, she got interested in something else, of course she’d write it. But I mean, I think it should be treated as speculation for now. But we shouldn’t rule it out because we know from just the basic premise of Harry Potter there’s so much mystery in those books that she loves to write that kind of thing, so…

Eric: Yeah, absolutely.

Laura: …I think it’s entirely plausible.

Andrew: Speaking of that children’s book, she had said at the charity reading back in August 2006 that it was halfway complete. And I imagine she hasn’t been working on it while working on Book 7 at the same time.

[Eric laughs]

Andrew: But if it’s halfway complete, we should probably see it in a couple of years.

Eric: “I just killed Fred…”

Jerry: It might be like a bit on the side, won’t it?

Eric: “I’m going to go write my children’s book now.”

Andrew: Why’s that? I don’t get it.

Eric: It’s just her writing at the same time as Book 7, sorry.

Andrew: Oh, okay.

Eric: “I just exploded Hedwig! What better time to write about the gum drop fairy!” You know, or whatever.

[Andrew and Laura laugh]

Jerry: But you know what? It could be relaxation technique, couldn’t it? Something she enjoys doing and therefore does it as an aside to take the stress away from writing.

Andrew: Yeah.

Eric: Exploding Hedwig or writing children’s books?

Laura: Mhm.

Andrew: Isn’t it a…

Jerry: [laugh] Writing children’s books.

Eric: Oh, yeah.

Laura: Yes, because we often blow up peoples’ pet birds to release stress, Eric. Do they do that in New Zealand?

Eric: Yes, they do – well, I do. I don’t know about the [unintelligible]. My kiwi neighbors.

Laura: Okay, just checking.

Andrew: Harry Potter the musical. The Sunday Mirror broke this story. Jerry, not a very reliable source, right? In the U.K.

Jerry: No. They are a tabloid. They’re not one of the most lying of tabloids, but they’re up there.

Andrew: Okay.

Jerry: If it was the Guardian, or the Independent, then I’d take notice. But I’d take with a pinch of salt, yeah.

News Discission: Harry Potter, The Musical?

Andrew: So apparently they have a source that said that there are producers already working on several script ideas and believe it has huge potential. And I quote the article; it says::

“The difficulty is condensing the seven books into a manageable show. They are exploring various ideas. One possibility is to tell the whole story. Another is to just take a single plot.”

Personally, I think both ideas are bad. [laughs]

Laura: Yeah. I just have this visual, and I know that – I mean it says it’s a musical, but I just have this visual of Harry and Ron going across the stage in ballerina shoes and tights and everything. And I’m just like, no.

Andrew: Well…

Laura: Because when I think musical, I think of extremely artistic, ballet, dancing, songs…

Eric: The Harry Potter Ballet.

Laura: You know, it’s like, oh my gosh, no.

Andrew: Well, I’m not sure what musicals you’ve seen, but…

Micah: Yeah, really, Laura.

Andrew: Not every musical is just ballerinas. [laughs]

Laura: No, not every musical is bad, but what are they going to do with Harry Potter?

Andrew: No, no, ballerinas, ballerinas.

Eric: Ballet.

Laura: I know!

[Andrew laughs]

Laura: But, I mean, Andrew, seriously, it’s not going to be like, We Will Rock You, or any of that other stuff you like.

Andrew: Well, I…

Jerry: But if it was… [laughs]

Laura: They’re going to have Snape sing some really obnoxiously depressing ballad or something. It’s like, no please!

Eric: Yeah, Myrtle’s Moan. Myrtle’s Moan will be the show stopping number.

[Everyone laughs]

Micah: Okay, well…

Eric: No, no.

Micah: …don’t – well, okay.

Eric: No, don’t worry about it.

Andrew: Oh, don’t, wait a second. I’m actually glad you guys brought this up because after I posted this story, a MuggleNet staff member approached me – I’ll keep her nameless for now – and she said – well, she basically encouraged me and said I could possibly have a role in this musical. And I gave it some thought, and I think I want to try out for this. So, Jerry, if you could sort of keep an eye out – if you hear anything, could you let me know?

Jerry: Definitely, definitely.

Andrew: Yeah. I’m asking my casting agents to keep an ear out as well. I don’t know if you guys want to hear this, but I actually already prepared a song for my audition.

Micah: What character are you going to play? Or are you open to anything?

Andrew: Well… [laughs] …the song that I composed could really be placed into any character’s role.

Eric: Let me guess. It’s Tomorrow from Annie.

Andrew: No. No, it’s not that. Do you guys mind if I sing a verse?

Laura: No, go for it.

Jerry: Shoot.

Andrew: [clears throat] I get a little nervous. [singing] “Good morning Hogwarts School…”

Laura: Oh my gosh.

Andrew: [still singing] “Every day is like a swim in the pool! Every night is a fantasy! Every sound’s like a symphony!”

Laura: You know, Andrew, for some reason I…

Andrew: Sorry, I’m a little nervous so my throat might not be on par today…

Laura: I don’t think that there is a – the role of Tracy in this, but…

Andrew: What do you mean? That’s – what are you talking about?

Laura: It just sounds very familiar. It just sounds like another musical that’s out right now.

Andrew: I don’t know what you’re talking about, but anyway, do I have a chance? Is – was it good?

Laura: Oh yeah, absolutely. You should go for it.

Jerry: Definitely, yeah.

Laura: Right now.

Andrew: I thought Harry – I could play Harry, because that’s what that staff member said I could. Would anyone else like to have a turn and maybe sing a little song to audition for the Harry Potter Musical?

Laura: I don’t think so.

Eric: Normally I would jump…

Andrew: Eric?

Eric: …especially to get our names out, you know, here and now.

Andrew: Eric, I was definitely expecting you to do this.

[Everyone laughs]

Eric: Well, if you’re looking for content that way – no. But I will say, it’s just – it’s a practical kind of problem for them to do a condensed story of seven years of Hogwarts because Harry starts out as eleven and ends at eighteen. So they would – to rectify that, they would probably have to have either, you know…

Jerry: Seven Harrys. [laughs]

Eric: Well, seven Harrys or an eighteen year-old playing an eleven year-old Harry, or like a fifteen year-old.

Laura: Hey, it could happen.

Eric: Yeah, I’m just wondering how they’d do that. It’s just – they’d fix it, you know. It’s Broadway. Or would they do it on Broadway, or would they do it on West End? Or what would be the deal?

Andrew: Wasn’t it – I think the article…

Eric: It was an American article, right?

Andrew: What, the Harry Potter musical?

Eric: Yeah, they wanted to do the Harry Potter musical.

Andrew: No, no, it’s The Sunday Mirror. It’s U.K.

Eric: Oh, well, then they should only allow Brits to do it, just like in the movies.

Andrew: Yeah. One thing that does get me about…

Eric: Except – sorry to cut you off – except I did see The Producers on the West End, and I much preferred the American version. So, that’s just me.

Andrew: Hmm. One thing that got me about this article that doesn’t make it very credible is that the article says at the end that they’re hoping to have it in a theater by 2008. By next year.

Eric: That’s crap.

Andrew: That’s impossible.

Eric: Yeah, that’s crap.

Laura: Yeah, that’s not going to happen.

Jerry: You’d have to be working on it for two years already.

Andrew: Yeah, yeah. I think we would’ve heard more about now, so… [laughs]

Jerry: Yeah, quite.

Andrew: But it doesn’t…

Micah: Can I ask you a question?

Andrew: What?

Micah: Does the West End generally draw more adults, or are there a lot of kids’ shows that are in there as well?

Andrew: I think it just depends what’s there.

Jerry: Yeah.

Andrew: I mean, look at say, Equus. That would draw a lot of Dan Radcliffe fans. And it’s not like the West End is out of London. It’s in pretty central London, right, Jerry?

Jerry: Yeah, pretty much.

Andrew: Yeah. It’s just a tube ride away, right? You know what I’m saying?

[Jerry laughs]

Eric: Andrew, we stayed like three blocks from it, so…

Andrew: Yeah. It’s pretty central…

Eric: Really central. Yeah.

Andrew: Yeah. And speaking of musicals in the U.K., I have the record of We Will Rock You. Jerry, have you seen We Will Rock You?

Jerry: I haven’t.

Andrew: It’s great!

Jerry: I mean, we walked by the theater, didn’t we? But I haven’t seen it, no.

Andrew: We did. Yeah, it’s great. I highly recommend it. But anyway, let’s move on now to more of the show. I have some announcements.

Announcement: Podcast Alley

Andrew: Don’t forget to vote for us on Podcast Alley. It’s a new month. It’s now September. So don’t forget to place your vote. You guys have been doing great voting for us without us asking so we really appreciate that.

Thank-Yous

Andrew: Also, thank you to everyone who came out for the summer tour – to any of the live shows that you were at – all of us here. I wonder if Jerry was at the England one, too. We had a great time at all of the live shows so we would just like to thank everyone for coming out. Hope you enjoyed them. Hope you’ve enjoyed all of the live shows you’ve been hearing over the past month, or month and a half, or two months now.

Eric: It was fun to chill with you guys in London. I really – I thought that that was a trip in itself that really went down quite well. And I know you guys went off and you still had a continued amazing summer with the tour and with Prophecy and everything else, but it was just great to see you guys in London. I was very happy for that. And that was really memorable and really cool.

Laura: Yeah. London was really memorable for me just because it was – it was the last book, we were where it all began, sort of – you know, at least we were in the same country. And it was just really, really cool to be there with all of you. I had a really good time with that. I also immensely enjoyed the premiere trip and of course going to Toronto. Best part of Prophecy was the ball, by far, I think. What did everybody think of that?

Andrew: Yes – oh, definitely, definitely.

Laura: [laughs] Oh wait, I think we were the only ones in this group there.

Andrew: Yeah.

Laura: Yeah. Okay.

[Everyone laughs]

Laura: It was really fun though. Yeah, you guys missed out. It was really, really fun.

Andrew: Yeah, it was a good time.

Laura: We danced to the Spice Girls.

Jerry: There’s always next year.

Andrew: Jamie had a great time getting removed.

[Everyone laughs]

Micah: Oh wow. Did he really?

Jerry: Yeah.

Laura: Yeah, he did.

Andrew: Yeah, you didn’t hear that?

Eric: Why?

Laura: Oh Jamie.

Andrew: Well, because he’s a sport. He was just too good for the dance floor.

[Jerry laughs]

Andrew: So, yeah, it really was a fun time at Prophecy. There was something else. Oh yeah, it was funny when Laura – Jamie and I had just arrived in England and we were in Heathrow waiting for our bags, and I’m also keeping an eye on the escalator to make sure I see Laura coming down because she had just arrived at the same time. And as Laura’s coming down the escalator – she doesn’t see me yet – Laura, the look on your face was just priceless.

Laura: What do you mean?

Andrew: You just had this big grin on your face.

Laura: Aww!

Andrew: You just slowly go down the escalator and just looking around, taking all the sites in. And I was like, “wow, this girl is happy to be here.”

Laura: I was so excited, you have no idea. Like I was even nice to the customs person. Like I went up with this huge smile on my face and he was like, “What are you doing here?” And I was like, “I’m here for the Harry Potter release!” And then he asked me the stupidest question ever. He goes, “Oh, you like Harry Potter?”

[Everyone laughs]

Jerry: No…

Laura: And I’m like, “No, I’m just here for the hell of it.” But yeah, I was so excited to be there.

Andrew: I had an awkward moment with a customs guy. When I was leaving Canada I had my Pickle Pack shirt on. And I walk up to him and he just goes under his breath, “The Pickle Pack.” And I was just like, “Yeah, it’s this thing I do.”

[Everyone laughs]

Andrew: So it was kind of an awkward moment.

Eric: I bet he wrote it on your passport: “Possible trouble maker. Likes pickles.”

Announcement: MuggleCast Ringtones

Andrew: Yeah, yeah. Keep an eye out for pickle jars. Which I broke – never mind. I’ll tell that story another time. But hey, moving along now. One thing I’ve been getting a lot of requests for – and we have a new way of supporting the show – it is MuggleCast ringtones. Have you guys seen these yet? I just put them up last night.

Laura: I did.

Jerry: No. I didn’t see them.

Andrew: MuggleCast ringtones. MuggleCast.com. It’s just the Wizard Rock – not to come off arrogant – but it’s just my Wizard Rock singles for now. The problem is we can’t release the MuggleCast background music because it’s not ours, so we can’t really do that. But anyway, these MuggleCast ringtones – they’re five dollars. We get a small cut; we get half. We get two fifty-ish. Not even. I was looking at the thing the other day – or earlier today. And they go to help supporting the show. So if you’d like to have a little piece of MuggleCast on your show. Maybe we’ll take clips from the show and throw those on there too?

Eric: Well, are they true-tone or are they polyphonic? Or how are we doing this?

Andrew: Oh, I don’t know how it works. It’s a service I went through.

[Eric laughs]

Andrew: But a few people have been buying them so far and I haven’t seen any complaints yet. The only problem is that Verizon customers cannot use these. And it’s only U.S., I’m pretty sure.

Jerry: Oh.

Micah: Verizon’s always a problem.

Andrew: Verizon is always a problem. Yeah, sorry, Jerry. [laughs]

Jerry: I know.

Micah: I know.

Andrew: Yeah, so visit MuggleCast.com. There’s a news post there and we’ll put a permanent link around there somewhere. They go to help supporting the show. I know what some of you may be saying – some of you tech-savvy users: “Oh, I can just do that for free! I can just mail myself.” Yes, I’m aware of this. But you can – if you want to support the show, this is the way to do it. MuggleCast.com, look around for ringtones, it should be right there.

Announcement: Poll on MuggleCast.com

Andrew: And lastly – I thought this was very interesting – we put up a poll on Mugglecast.com, “have you finished reading the book?” 98%, 10,138 people, said “yes, I’m finished.” One percent, or I guess it would be a little bit more than one percent, say, “No, I’m still reading.” That was 206 people.

Jerry: My God.

Andrew: So, I was wondering, do we even have to use a spoiler warning? It seems kind of pointless to me.

Laura: I really hope that that one percent of people were just being smart. If you really haven’t finished the book, what are you doing on the Internet? Like, really.

Andrew: Yeah. And this poll was put up two or three weeks after the book already came out. [laughs]

Eric: I’m inclined to say, if they have been able to navigate the spoilers of the past six or seven episodes of MuggleCast that have been out, you know…

Andrew: I just think they’re not listening.

Eric: Well, and that’s fair enough, but what are you doing on MuggleCast? But yeah.

Jerry: Maybe shock, horror there. MuggleCast fans who aren’t Harry Potter fans just listen to your voices.

Andrew: Maybe!

[Eric laughs]

Main Discussion: Deathly Hallows

Andrew: Our voices are wonderful. So that is that. Let’s move on now to our main discussion this week. Of course it’s all about Deathly Hallows. We are going to continue our discussion.

Jerry and Micah Share Their Thoughts

Andrew: First, I actually want to start off with Micah and Jerry’s thoughts, because we have not yet heard your thoughts on the show yet. Oh, actually – no, we heard Eric’s too. Yeah. So, Micah and Jerry.

Micah: Yeah?

Andrew: Your thoughts on Book 7, overall. We’ll start off with overall and then we’re going to get into some e-mails and get nit-picky.

Micah: Sure. Overall, I think it’s kind of consistent with a lot of what people said. I like the book. The epilogue I wasn’t too fond of. I thought it was a little weak in certain areas, but I understand that Jo had things that she wanted to answer on her own and leave to interviews afterwards. But I don’t know. I just didn’t like the epilogue a whole lot. Don’t know if it necessarily even needed to be there. But the book overall, I was content with and I didn’t have a problem with any of the people, other than Dobby, who kicked the bucket, on either side. But I was satisfied. No real complaints other than the epilogue.

Andrew: [laughs] Okay. Jerry?

Jerry: Yeah, I agree. I found it pretty good. The first read through I was a bit disappointed, but I was just so dead from London. But the second read through I was pretty happy. I was fine with the epilogue, even. I think the second read through I was quite happy with it. But I might get shot for saying that.

Andrew: [laughs] Why were you happy with it?

Jerry: I don’t know. I think that maybe it’s a British thing. I don’t know how Jamie found that.

[Everyone laughs]

Jerry: But maybe we’re a bit more cheesy than Americans. Maybe we – yeah.

Andrew: Stephen King really enjoyed it too. He described it as being “delicious,” didn’t he?

Eric: He did.

Micah: Well, he could probably create a mass-murder scene out of it or something.

Eric: Yeah, but Stephen King has said some really nice things about Book 7 and J.K.R. in general. I just love reading – he wrote two or three different articles for, I think it was, Entertainment Weekly or something, completely, completely praising J.K. Rowling. Very well written and very sentimental as well.

Laura: Yeah, you could tell he was a huge fan at the readings for Harry, Carrie, and Garp last summer. Just the way he talked to her you could tell he was such a fan. It thought that was very adorable.

Andrew: Oh yeah, and he was open about it too.

Eric: Oh yeah, and his book reviews at the beginning of some of the books, at least for, I think, Prisoner of Azkaban – there’s a quote from him in the U.S. version I think.

MuggleCast 107 Transcript (continued)

The Epilogue

Andrew: Jerry, that still doesn’t really answer the question, why you like the epilogue. [laughs] I mean, you know…

Jerry: I think it brought me some sense of fulfillment, that everyone was just happy and that sort of thing.

Eric: I think it’s like Jo’s vision; something that stretches beyond. Like Micah said, she had to close it out for herself in her own way. It’s kind of like this overtly, motherly kind of way to close the series with your characters, your children, naming their kids after themselves and stuff and just sending them off to school. I don’t know.

Andrew: Makes sense.

Micah: It just – the one thing I was going to add was that it didn’t seem very J.K. Rowling-ish. That was my problem with it. You go through the whole series and she has a specific way of writing. I just don’t think the epilogue came across written the same way as the rest of the book.

Eric: Well, Micah, I would argue that Book 7 itself didn’t seem J.K. Rowling-ish.

Andrew: Well…

Laura: I don’t agree with that, but I really agree with what Micah’s saying. Looking back on it, at first when I read the epilogue, I was like, “What’s this?” It just didn’t seem like it was on par with the rest of the book at all. And thinking about it, honestly, I’m glad that all the characters got what they wanted. I’m glad that they all grew up and got married and had babies. That’s wonderful. But I think the main issue that I took with it upon my initial reading of it was that it really almost felt like that had been written a very long time ago and that it hadn’t been edited very much. I guess it just seems like the writing style was different from the rest of the book. Not that it was bad, just that it was different.

Andrew: Yeah. I mean, then again, it was set nineteen years later, so it is telling a story in a different way. Like you’re not really seeing it – it’s…

Laura: Well, I mean, the difference was there was no conflict…

Andrew: Yeah.

Laura: …and that’s what the Potter books have thrived off of, is just…

Andrew: That’s true, that’s true.

Laura: …the amazing amount of conflict…

Eric: Yeah.

Laura: …between, you know, Harry and Voldemort, Harry and Draco, so…

Eric: Also, I think it was…

Laura: …that’s why it was different.

Eric: …weird to have had the chapter “King’s Cross” just moments before and imagining this ethereal kind of King’s Cross afterlife type foggy setting. And then to actually be in King’s Cross, but in the distant future, I thought was a little bit weird, you know, that they were back there, like, you know what I’m saying? Like it was – we had just been reading about this kind of afterlife, King’s Cross, and now we’re in this epilogue where we’re imagining, kind of foggily, the future.

Andrew: Yeah.

Eric: You know what I’m saying? Like it was just – like bringing it back again, and I’m like, “Wow.”

Laura: Yeah.

Eric: You know, it was a little awkward…

Jerry: Yeah.

Eric: …but not too unpleasant.

Andrew: Fair point. Fair point. I feel what you’re saying. You want to move along to – anyone else have some thoughts before we get to some e-mails? Lots of e-mails.

Laura: No, I think we can move on to the e-mails…

Andrew: Okay.

Laura: …if everyone else is ready.

Andrew: As you guys can imagine, we’ve been getting a ton of e-mails concerning the book; everyone’s got their own little question. And we have a couple of those, and then we also – we had Jamie dig back into his e-mail – deep into his e-mail – back in July, from when we had everyone e-mail him questions when we were doing the live e-mail-in, so to speak, right when we had finished reading the book. So we have a few of those here and a couple more current e-mails.

Harry’s Career

Andrew: First one comes from Drew Lauten, eighteen, of Orlando, Florida. He writes about the epilogue, actually. He says:

“Was I the only one who thought for sure that Harry was going to become the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher? I mean, an Auror’s cool and all, but when he was teaching the DA I just thought it would be logical for him to fill the position that was available now that the curse was lifted and do something he’s good at.”

I was – we had discussed on the show that he – how confident were we that he was going to be the DADA teacher? [laughs]

Laura: Well, I never thought he would be, because Jo flat out said that none of the trio were going to teach at Hogwarts, so… [laughs]

Andrew: She said that?

Laura: Yeah, she did.

Jerry: And how he does state his own.

Andrew: When did she say that?

Laura: She said it in an interview. She said one of – see, my friend here, who is a Harry Potter fan, is nodding. She’s telling me that I am right. But anyway…

[Andrew laughs]

Laura: …back – I don’t even remember when it was, but she said that someone – one of the characters that we know will become a professor, but it won’t be Harry, Ron, or Hermione. And that’s why everyone thought it would be Neville, because apparently his name means “absent-minded professor” in Latin or something…

[Eric laughs]

Andrew: Oh, okay.

Laura: …so…

Jerry: That’s a detailed translation.

Eric: That’s a spoiler. That’s… [laughs]

Laura: Yeah.

Andrew: It just seems so right for Harry, though. And Drew’s right; after Order of the Phoenix when he’s teaching the Dumbledore’s Army, you know, all these defensive spells, it was almost like foreshadowing.

Micah: It also goes back to Order of the Phoenix, too, and McGonagall had said – not exact quote, but something along the lines of, “I’ll make sure Potter’s an Auror if it’s the last thing I do.” Do you guys remember that?

Eric and Jerry: Yeah.

Laura: Yeah.

Andrew: I forgot about that.

Laura: Also, I feel like – and not to degrade the position of a teacher or a professor – but I feel like Harry’s purpose was something beyond that. Like, I feel like if he was the person who was going to defeat Voldemort, it seems somewhat anti-climactic, to me at least, to have him, after that, be teaching at Hogwarts. It seems like an Auror was far more of a fitting position just because it’s the kind of thing that he was born to do, so…

Jerry: It’s not just that he was an Auror; it’s also that he caused all that reform in the Ministry and, therefore, inflicting such change.

Eric: Yeah, which I really like. Like facing that persecution from the Ministry. There’s nobody better to reform the government…

Andrew: Yeah.

Eric: …as it needed to be done.

Mrs. Weasley Killed Bellatrix

Andrew: Okay, let’s move on to another e-mail. This is from Sheila Salanick, fourteen, of Pennsylvania. She writes:

“Dear MuggleCast, in your most recent podcast, MuggleNet Episode 105…”

[laughs] Not most recent anymore.

“…you mentioned your theories that Mrs. Weasley did not kill Bellatrix Lestrange. You are completely and utterly wrong. My first piece of evidence that Mrs. Weasley killed Bellatrix is on page 736 on the U.S. edition…” and she quotes, “‘Jets of light flew from both wands, the floor around the witches’ feet became hot and cracked. Both women were fighting to kill.’ Also…” she quotes another part of the book: “‘Molly’s curse soared beneath Bellatrix’s outstretched arm and hit her squarely in the chest, directly over her heart.'” Sheila goes on to say, “As demonstrated quite a few times throughout ‘Order of the Phoenix,’ ‘Half-Blood Prince,’ and ‘Deathly Hallows,’ stunners lift the person off their feet. Bellatrix was not lifted off her feet; she just toppled over. Also, we all know that Voldemort does not get emotional about his supporters. Dumbledore said himself, over and over, that Voldemort has no friends. Thus, why would he scream and advance on Molly if Bellatrix was just stunned?”

Laura: I didn’t know that there was any question about her death at all. Like…

Andrew: Well, on one – in one of the live shows, and I guess this is – this would have been Ohio, she says – we were talking about, was Bellatrix killed for sure? Because – whether – I’m pretty sure we said on the panel that she wasn’t still alive, that she was killed. But at any rate, you guys all agree that Bellatrix is dead?

Laura: Oh, yeah.

Jerry: Yeah, definitely.

Andrew: Okay.

Laura: I didn’t question it at all when I read it.

Andrew: All right. Because we did. I think it was because one of the people who were there was like, “Are you sure she’s actually dead?” But all right. The one thing that got us – the one thing that we were discussing to begin with is that J.K. Rowling never says, “Bellatrix is dead.”

Eric: Well, I’m just depressed that Neville didn’t get to kill – well, Neville got to kill the snake, okay, fair enough, but I would have liked to see Neville and Bellatrix…

Micah: That’s going to be an awesome movie scene. You know that.

Eric: Oh.

Laura: Oh, I know!

Eric: “Not my daughter you…”

Micah: No, no. Him slicing off the snake’s head.

Nagini

Eric: No! That was poorly written, I thought.

Micah: Both of them will be. You did?

Eric: When I…

Laura: Why’d you think it was poorly written?

Eric: Just…

Andrew: [laughs] Just because it was poorly written.

Eric: No, no, no! I just thought there was so much happening in that scene, that when I first read it, I wasn’t sure why Voldemort wasn’t right in front of Neville as Neville cut the snake’s head off. And if Voldemort would’ve seen that happen he would’ve killed Neville right then and there. Like, Voldemort is freaking out about his Horcruxes; does he not notice that this little boy just killed one of his Horcruxes? He’s that much closer to mortality because of this kid. Was he right in front of them? I just didn’t understand the placement. I thought that Nagini was wrapped around Voldemort’s neck when Neville took its head off. That’s what I thought, and then all of the sudden I was reading and Voldemort was heading into the Great Hall. So I was like, what is going on? Because Neville should actually be dead right now. And it’s not that I want Neville to die, but if he took the snake’s head off, I’m pretty sure Voldemort would be a little bit more upset than he was and instead focusing on whatever else he was. It was just – I’m sorry, didn’t understand that scene.

Laura: I would have to reread it. I don’t exactly remember the placement, but at the time…

Micah: I don’t remember the sequence of events enough to…

Laura: Yeah. Just thinking about the reading of it at the time, it made sense to me, so I don’t know.

Andrew: Yeah, maybe – Eric, I think Voldemort was just – main concern, all he cared about, was getting rid of Harry.

Eric: Well, I think it would be intelligent to have some kind of sub-objectives, like not losing more Horcruxes.

Andrew: [laughs] But…

Jerry: He did show earlier how much he was willing to protect Nagini in the box.

Andrew: Yeah.

Snape’s Death

Eric: Yeah, in the box. What do you think of Snape’s death? That’s the question for me, because there are a few people who were actually upset about Snape’s death even though it was such a noble death, and afterwards Harry just, you know, forgets about the battle and goes up to the Pensieve and learns all that stuff. Some people think maybe he should have dueled, maybe kind of done something else instead. You know, he just got bit in the neck by a snake…

Andrew: Well, yeah.

Eric: …but it’s an important snake! Maybe it’s important that Snape’s death was kind of – not anticlimactic, but kind of quick and easy, in ways.

Andrew: Well, that’s the thing. It should have been more of a triumphant death, I think. [laughs]

Laura: I thought it was very tragic though, and I think it was fitting because…

Andrew: Oh, it was terrible!

Laura: Yeah, because Snape is a tragic character. I don’t know. I think it would have seemed kind of weird for him to be like triumphantly – well, not triumphantly – but bravely leap out in front of Harry and stop a Killing Curse. That would’ve just seemed out of place to me.

Eric: Yeah. No, I think I agree. When I’m asking about that, as well, I just think, you know what? I actually do like how it was done. Voldemort and Snape had that conversation just moments – and Voldemort was getting tired of Snape, finally kind of seeing things less as equal and decided to kill him. I think that is actually cool, because it’s all about the relationship that Snape has been upholding between himself and Voldemort to protect Harry and stuff. And when he grabbed him and said, “Look at me,” that was actually very dramatic.

Laura: That was so sad. You know what? A lot of people – you know you’ve got a lot of people out there who are huge Snape fans, the ones that write all the fan fiction and apparently there’s a podcast. These people were very unhappy that Snape did not get a funeral.

Eric: Oh, come on! If you’re going to ask…

Laura: I was like…

Eric: …her to write…

Laura: Here’s my point: if we were going to show the funeral of a character that everyone cared about, then you would have had like seventy-five funerals at the end of that book. Honestly, I didn’t feel like that was important to it. I felt like Dumbledore’s funeral was important because at the time he was important to Harry. Harry didn’t realize Snape’s loyalty; he didn’t realize anything like that about him until after his death. And I think that Snape really got – I think that we what Snape was made of and I think that we saw that Harry did come to appreciate him because he named his son after him. So…

Eric: Yeah.

Laura: …I just don’t see the big deal.

Eric: You’re right about the funeral. Just – yeah.

Micah: There was something about his death that always puzzled me. I don’t know if you guys thought about this at all. You know when Voldemort kills Snape because he thinks that it’s going to give him the power that he needs to defeat Harry and the whole issue with the wands? He never kills Snape with the wand so, essentially, he never takes that – at the time he thought he was taking that power away. But how does that work, though, because he had the snake do it. He didn’t actually use his wand. So isn’t that a flaw in his plan?

Laura: Yeah, but that was the whole point. He was flawed in his assumptions. He didn’t know what he was doing.

Micah: Yeah, he was flawed no matter what, though, because of the whole Draco situation, but…

Laura: Yeah.

Andrew: Yeah.

Micah: …he was flawed even more in the sense that even if Snape was the person, he didn’t even kill him with the wand. He killed him with the snake. So he would never have had the power anyway, right? Do you understand?

Laura: Yeah. But that was…

Eric: Voldemort was…

Laura: That was the whole point. I think a lot of it was Snape also protecting the other people connected to the wand. He wasn’t just protecting Harry; he was protecting Draco, too. Like, you’re trying to basically – I think that Snape was acting on Dumbledore’s orders to protect as many people as he possibly could, just like he acted on Dumbledore’s orders to kill Dumbledore in order to protect Draco and in order to keep his position safe.

Eric: But while we’re on the subject of Snape, just thinking about how cruel he would have had to have been as Headmaster of Hogwarts. He couldn’t have been nice, because his under-teachers, the Death Eaters that were – I forget their two names – but they were teaching Unforgivable Curses to the students. I feel like we’ve had such a brief glimpse of Hogwarts from this book and what was actually going on that it’s impossible to say that Snape was – he died a valiant death, but just thinking the beginning of the book, he was the one who took George’s ear off and, I think, killed Mad Eye. Didn’t he?

Jerry: But surely he was doing that in order to protect him, theoretically.

Laura: Yes, and he also killed that Muggle Studies teacher, but I think it was all in order to protect his position.

Eric: Yeah.

Laura: I really think so.

Eric: No, but in the end it was just an end of means, I think, but…

Jerry: He had to be there; he didn’t need to protect – protect the students.

Eric: It’s just something else. And to take orders from Dumbledore’s portrait all year and to really organize things based on that, which I thought was cool. The thing I liked most about it was the Dumbledore/Snape relations as viewed in the Pensieve. That was just cool.

Laura: Yeah.

Andrew: Overall, though – well, first of all… [laughs] …I was off for a second, but the Snape funeral thing, that’s definitely pushing it.

Laura: Yeah, I think so as well.

Jerry: More people would want a Tonks/Remus funeral, wouldn’t they?

Andrew: Yeah, exactly. Exactly. [laughs]

Eric: More people would have wanted them to live, actually.

Harry’s Signature Spell

Andrew: Next e-mail is from Harlene Gambeer. She says:

“It was said earlier in DH that ‘Expelliarmus!’ was Harry’s signature move, and he defends his choice by saying it saved him from Voldemort in Book 4. It’s cool to note that this is the spell that he uses to finally destroy Voldemort and he needs nothing else.”

As we were saying on the tour a lot, that seems to be Harry’s spell for everything in Book 7.

[Eric and Laura laugh]

Jerry: Yeah.

Eric: Oh, there’s a giant snake coming out of an old lady’s face and body, and just magically: “Expelliarmus!”

[Everyone laughs]

Andrew: Problem solved. It’s like the whole Alohamora thing. I just can’t…

Eric: It’s the wizard’s bread and butter, as Dan explains in the movie.

Andrew: Yeah. What’s the point of locks in the wizarding world if everyone can just do a quick Alohamora and open the doors up?

Jerry: Well, they have magic locks, as been proven in the Department of Mysteries, haven’t they?

Andrew: Yeah, but still. [laughs] But still, it’s like – I don’t know.

Jerry: Honesty, Andrew, honesty.

Eric: Well, the only thing they haven’t – what?

Andrew: I guess it is honesty.

Eric: They haven’t undone Permanent Sticking Charms, have they? Because there’s apparently some kind of level of Sticking Charms that you can’t undo; for instance, Mrs. Black’s portrait. Because they said they must have tried everything on it. So there are apparently things you can do to lift Sticking Charms, but not Permanent Sticking Charms, depending on how strong they are. So I’m just thinking about locking doors, etc. You could just put a Sticking Charm on the door, maybe.

Jerry: You could, but you wouldn’t really want to put a Permanent Sticking Charm on a door, would you?

Eric: Well, not unless you could walk through walls. [laughs]

Extent of Dumbledore’s Knowledge

Andrew: In the second part of her e-mail she writes:

“To what extent did Dumbledore know that Harry would survive because of his blood which ran in Voldemort’s veins? I’m also a bit sketchy on this idea since wasn’t it Voldemort who was the withering child at King’s Cross? Wouldn’t they both be in limbo, sort of? Was Dumbledore really all right with raising Harry as a ‘pig for slaughter’ and making him sacrifice himself despite the love that we are assured he has? Is this the grand plan that he tells us about at the end of Book 5? The plan to equip Harry with the power to kill the other Horcruxes and then kill himself? This idea tarnishes Dumbledore’s image for me.”

Eric: Okay, quick answer: No, he did not know at all. Second thing: Yes. No, you’re right. It’s not cool.

[Andrew laughs]

Eric: And third answer: Yes, you should be tarnished in your Dumbledore image because that’s a crap cop-out!

Andrew: [laughs] Oh, man.

Laura: Okay, it’s not a cop-out, though because…

Eric: It’s a cop-out. Harry is a Horcrux?

Laura: Dumbledore’s whole thing – it is not a cop-out.

Eric: What are you going to say? “Harry is a Horcrux”? Come on.

Jerry: Dumbledore was incredibly, incredibly intelligent.

Laura: He was!

Eric: Even if Harry was a Horcrux, he could not…

Laura: He was, Eric.

Jerry: He was a Horcrux, Eric.

Andrew: Don’t tell me we’re getting into this debate.

Eric: Listen, he could not have been a proper Horcrux because he was made accidentally, not with all the right charms, right?

Laura: It doesn’t matter, Eric.

Eric: Even if Harry was a Horcrux, he could not have been a proper Horcrux. There should be…

Micah: He’s a bastardized Horcrux.

Andrew: Eric, Eric, Eric…

Eric: Yes, he’s a dastardized Horcrux, which has to be the title of this episode. [laughs] Dastardized Horcrux.

Andrew: A what?

Eric: Um…

Andrew: Dastardized?

Eric: Dastardized. D-A-S-T-A-R-D-E-L…

Micah: No, no. No, you said he was illegitimate, so – forget it.

Laura: Yeah. [laughs]

Eric: Illegitimate Horcrux.

Jerry: I like that better.

Eric: Not made properly. Harry is also his own private entity, and, not only that, but J.K.R. did not specify, or at all, what part of him is a Horcrux, or if he is a Horcrux, how’s his scar intrinsically linked to that? Because she didn’t remove his scar; she didn’t…

Andrew: I really don’t think that this is up for debate though.

Jerry: But she’s not specified about…

Eric: No, I’m not…

Andrew: Dumbledore explicitly said, “Harry, you are the seventh Horcrux.” And I laugh at people who still try to argue with it.

Eric: Oh, no, no, don’t confuse me.

Andrew: I agree. There should be more details…

Eric: There should be more details; that’s all I’m saying. I will accept that Harry is a Horcrux. I think it was a cop-out…

[Andrew laughs]

Eric: …just because the prophecy – we were told ahead of time how strictly worded that was, and we were guessing and guessing on the prophecy for so long. That didn’t come into play. Okay? It turns out Harry’s this Horcrux. That was anticlimactic.

Laura: Yeah it did.

Eric: And – oh yeah? How’d the prophecy come into play?

Laura: One has to kill the other…

Jerry: One of them killed the other.

[Jerry and Laura laugh]

Eric: Oh, oh, but what about one…

Laura: …for neither can live while the other survives.

Eric: Yeah, but they both died and one of them lived and it’s like…

Jerry: And that’s why…

Laura: But Harry didn’t die.

Eric: But they were both surviving the whole time anyway.

Andrew: Yeah…

Laura: But here’s the point, though: Harry never died. Voldemort died at the end. They weren’t dead at that moment…

Eric: Okay, well…

Laura: …because…

Eric: Okay.

Jerry: One of them died eventually.

Laura: …because the point is – yeah.

Jerry: That’s all that had to happen.

Laura: Yeah. Harry was anchored to the earth with the same protection that his mother gave him. That was the whole point, because as long as Voldemort survived with Harry’s blood in his body, Harry couldn’t die.

Eric: Mhm. So…

Laura: So since Voldemort cursed Harry with Avada Kedavra, it should have killed him, but it didn’t because Harry didn’t try to kill Voldemort.

Eric: Though, according to Dumbledore, Harry had the choice of whether or not he wanted to live or die at that moment, so…

Laura: Yes, and he chose to live because it wasn’t easy. He could’ve died and gone and been with his family, but he didn’t. He chose to go back and finish Voldemort off.

Eric: Okay. So you justified the prophecy; it does come into account. I might stand corrected. But what about the journey? What about the journey, how Harry thought that he had to do it on his own and yet every time in this book it’s someone else who finishes off a Horcrux? I like the idea that all of Harry’s friends get to get their own try at a piece of Voldemort’s soul, but then why emphasize Harry’s lone journey at all? Or the fact that it’s Harry alone? Because he never embraced help, yet every single…

Laura: I don’t think…

Eric: All of his friends got to try at the Horcruxes.

Andrew: He did it himself.

Eric: Why does it have to be Harry? Or why is Harry important at all if all of his friends get to go around and have the power to destroy Horcruxes? If all it takes – I mean, I realize…

Laura: The difference, though…

Micah: I don’t understand what the argument is, though, because, I mean, Harry’s only destroyed one, and the one he destroyed was by accident, really, and what does it matter who’s destroying the Horcruxes? As long as they’re being destroyed.

Jerry: They’re being destroyed, yeah.

Laura: Yeah. See, the point is, Harry – the prophecy never said anything about Harry being the only one to destroy the Horcruxes. It said explicitly that Harry had to kill Voldemort. So I don’t think that it matters that his – that Neville and Ron and Hermione all went after Horcruxes. I don’t think that matters. I think the point is that Harry had to be the one to finish off the last piece of Voldemort’s soul, which was the piece residing in his body.

Eric: Oh, well, then that kind of plays down the prophecy, I think, in my opinion, because the only thing…

Laura: I don’t think so…

Eric: …because…

Laura: …because it was the active…

Eric: …the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord, the one with the power to actually finish him.

Andrew: To actually do it, yeah.

Laura: But, you see, that was…

Eric: Okay…

Laura: Okay, Eric…

Eric: After seven other people…

Andrew: Eric…

Eric: …take care of seven other bits of soul, Harry is the one – this kid at the seventh month, he’s the one who can actually kill him after everyone else.

Andrew: But I think…

Laura: Yes, but see…

Andrew: I prefer to – I think I prefer to see all of his friends help him out.

Eric: I do! I do too, as well! I do, as well. It’s just that…

Jerry: That’s the moral of the story.

Andrew: So don’t complain, sir, don’t complain.

Eric: No, it’s great. But why did Harry not accept that? Or why was it focused on him? For most of the book – and this is a paradox, this is where it pisses me off. This is where it upsets me. For most of the book it’s the trio in the woods, all the way past Christmas, maybe even into – I think it’s Easter by the time they actually do something. Okay?

[Andrew laughs]

Eric: They’re just in the woods…

Andrew: Uh-huh.

Eric: …for the longest bit of time, and they have their own kind of relation. It was all right to read, I guess, but there’s just – among the many problems, it’s just them alone. And they’re secluded from the world. And it’s big emphasis on maybe the trio. Harry, yes, but maybe his closest friends. But yet, at the end, it just never – it didn’t seem to amount to anything. I’m sorry, it didn’t.

Laura: I thought it did, though, because…

Andrew: That’s your personal opinion.

Laura: …you can argue that all of the pieces of Voldemort’s soul all add up together to make the entire thing, but the point is those pieces of soul that Ron, Hermione, and Neville all destroyed, those were all dormant. The point is, Harry destroyed the piece of soul that was out wreaking all the havoc. Harry destroyed the piece of soul that was out killing everybody. He destroyed the big bad guy, in a sense. I mean…

Eric: They’re all the big bad ones.

Laura: Everybody else sort of…

Jerry: I wouldn’t say they’re all dormant, though. I mean, look at Riddle’s diary, the amount of harm that caused.

Laura: But, see, they were – it was – I don’t know. They were dormant unless you started messing with them, in which case they could possess you. But the point was, you had – I really feel like the piece of soul that was inside of Voldemort’s body was the primary. Like…

Andrew: Yes.

Laura: …it was the one out directly…

Andrew: Harry was…

Laura: …causing trouble.

Eric: There’s seven…

Andrew: Harry was the only one who could do it.

Eric: Oh, no, no, Harry wasn’t the only one.

Andrew: No, he – but…

Eric: Harry was the only one who could kill the one part of the soul that was in his body. But…

Andrew: Mentally, mentally…

Eric: But Dumbledore prepared Harry for the Horcruxes. He didn’t – he didn’t go out and invite Ron and Hermione into the classroom and tell them about Horcruxes. Yes, he told Harry that…

Laura: Ah, but, you know…

Eric: …he could tell them…

Laura: But remember, Dumbledore explicitly told Harry that he needed to confide in Ron and Hermione. I don’t think he would have told Harry to tell them what was going…

Eric: Okay…

Laura: …on if he didn’t want them involved.

Eric: …fair enough. But what about Neville? What about – you know, anybody else that – did he – I mean, Dumbledore kind of wanted, or thought it had to be specifically Harry, but yet it was very vague and I – there’s just a lot of problems I have with Book 7 I’m not coming to terms with. This show is a good way for me to…

Andrew: Well…

Eric: …do that.

Andrew: …let’s…

Eric: Forgive me.

Andrew: [laughs] Okay. We should split it up over multiple shows, Eric, because I have a feeling this is going to be…

Eric: Okay. Yeah.

Andrew: …a lot.

Eric: No, that’s fine.

First Snitch Made in Godric’s Hollow

Andrew: Let’s move on though to another e-mail for now, and, Eric, you can do your thing later. Another one comes from Deborah Bailey. She says:

“Is there any significance that the first Golden Snitch was made in Godric’s Hollow?”

Not really, I don’t think.

Jerry: Just a coincidence.

Andrew: I think it’s just a fun fact.

Eric: Yeah.

Laura: I think it’s just…

Andrew: Yeah.

Laura: …a cool fact.

Andrew: Yeah.

Eric: Just like a plot thing.

Harry Going After the Hallows

Andrew: Another e-mail from Matthew Rulestone:

“Did you feel betrayed that we had built up too much to Harry going after the Horcruxes, then halfway through, he was choosing between the Horcruxes and the Hallows, which he didn’t really know so much about?”

Eric: Yes.

Andrew: He didn’t really know so much about. Yeah, but there had to be a new plot introduced in the book, I think. A new – a new – what’s the word I’m looking for?

Eric: I know what you mean, Andrew, because I was feeling this…

Andrew: A new factor…

Eric: Yeah…

Andrew: …or a new…

Eric: …or a new – kind of like all the books have been separate in a way. Even if they’ve tied to Harry, the overall story they’re separate books.

Andrew: Yeah. Like Book 6 focused on Horcruxes and…

Eric: Like the Philosopher’s Stone, like the Chamber of Secrets, you know, that kind of thing.

Andrew: Right. Right. Right.

Eric: But yeah, the inter…

Andrew: And there had to…

Eric: Yeah.

Andrew: What? Yeah.

[Andrew and Eric laugh]

Eric: Yeah! I – no, Andrew. I agree with you. That’s…

Micah: Well, I was going to say I thought it was…

Andrew: Micah?

Micah: …important because it showed what Dumbledore was working towards for so long. You know, that was sort of his means of trying to combat Voldemort, I thought.

Andrew: Right.

Micah: And it was important, I think, to learn about that because it offered an alternate means. I’m not saying that it – I don’t think it took anything away from the Horcruxes. It was just an alternate decision for Harry to make. “Which way do I go?” And it just turned out that the destruction of the Horcruxes was the easier way for him. I don’t – I mean, I’m not upset that it was introduced but it was kind of the whole basis for the book.

Eric: It tied in what several things I think J.K.R. wanted to do to the Hallows story. It gave us a lot of Dumbledore’s past, it presented Harry, as Micah
said, with a chance, even at the last moment, to possibly do something different. Go an alternate route. Especially with all of his loved ones – his deceased loved ones showing up in the woods before he threw the stone down.
That was – you know, that’s pretty cool. Introducing the Hallows this late in the game was – I don’t know that it was perhaps done the way I wanted it to be done. But
at the same time, it was – it did present things to the novel that made it – made it kind of interesting in one of the ways. And you have to see this book as one of the books in the series, but also just a distinct book, I think. It was – it was an interesting plot line to add. I thought…

Micah: The thing was though…

Eric: …that this…

Micah: …the Hallows weren’t introduced in this book. They were there pretty much the whole time with the exception of what was inside the Snitch, what Dumbledore put inside the Snitch. So, it’s – with the Invisibility Cloak and the Elder Wand, they were always there; we just didn’t know…

Eric: And…

Micah: …they were there…

Laura: Mhm.

Eric: And the ring…

Micah: …which…

Eric: …even…

Micah: Yeah.

Eric: I mean in Book 6.

Micah: Yeah…

Eric: That’s…

Micah: …that’s what I meant.

Eric: …what I didn’t like though. I mean – I mean I liked how intrinsically linked they were from the past. But Voldemort made a Horcrux out of something that was a
Hallow without even knowing it was a Hallow, and I’m pretty sure nobody except Harry ever understood the rules of the Elder Wand. I still don’t.

Laura: Well, that’s probably a good thing.

Eric: Yeah…

Laura: I’m assuming that…

Eric: …but the rules though.

Laura: …not everybody knows about the Elder Wand.

Eric: No no, I mean the rules of the Elder Wand.

[Andrew laughs]

Eric: The rules of the Elder Wand. The rules of the Elder Wand! When Voldemort was fighting with Harry, okay,
and Harry’s like, “Booyah! It’s Draco Malfoy!”

Laura: Okay, but then that would have…

Eric: I did a double take.

Laura: …been completely – that would have been completely pointless if Voldemort had understood the rules of the Elder Wand. They would have been in check basically.

Eric: Oh, it – if Voldemort had a – I mean, it’s just – it’s carelessness on Voldemort’s part. I think Voldemort’s pulling a Harry. He’s taking some of Harry’s traits now by not – by not knowing anything, really. I mean, that’s a very offensive comment, I’m sure, but I…

Jerry: I think it’s…

Eric: I was just disappointed.

Jerry: …also all about how he’s discovered it, isn’t it? How he’s taking the time to fully understand this has all happened because – because he’s discovered all the stuff along the way. I mean, he’s showing that Voldemort’s
losing his intelligence. Dum – Voldemort was, once this dominant character, has now slipped down. Harry has been learning all of what Voldemort hasn’t been learning and
that enables him to defeat him in the end.

Eric: With Expelliarmus.

The Chamber of Secrets

Andrew: Another question comes from Aria Hersh. Sorry if I got your name wrong.

“How did Ron and Hermione get out of the Chamber of Secrets?”

Eric: [laughs] Oh, well…

Jerry: Well…

Eric: …here’s a question.

Andrew: Fawkes saved the day.

Eric: Geez.

[Laura laughs]

Eric: I don’t know! Can – it’s like, can you speak Spanish without speaking Spanish? I mean, do you even get in? Like, you know, can you…

Andrew: Hmm?

Eric: …say “amigo” without actually knowing…

Laura: You speak Spanish to get into the Chamber of Secrets, Eric?

[Jerry laughs]

Eric: No, I’m saying that another language such as Parseltongue – what did Ron say that…

Laura: [laughs] No, I’m just kidding.

Andrew: Le gusta…

Laura: Well, didn’t…

Andrew: …Secret…

Laura: …Ron have…

Andrew: …de Chamber.

Laura: Didn’t Ron have a broomstick in his hand?

Andrew: Did he?

Jerry: Yeah.

Laura: After he came back? I thought he did.

Eric: There was a broomstick. There was a broomstick.

Jerry: Yeah.

Andrew: So he did.

Eric: You know, I wanted to see the Chamber of Secrets come back. I wondered – now obviously, after they discovered it in Year 2, for five years, did Dumbledore never go down there? Looking for traces of Voldemort?

Jerry: They could use it for something. They could convert it into useable space, surely.

Eric: They could have made it into useable space. Maybe…

Jerry: Painted the walls?

Eric: …since there’s only room for like five – four poster beds in the Gryffindor dormitory, they could have housed some more Gryffindors.

Jerry: Or a whole new House.

Andrew: That’s a good point.

Jerry: That’s an awesome point.

Eric: Or used it to house anyone really. But now, thinking about that, that was such an abscess. I can’t believe – and thinking back I don’t know why I never brought up the question before, but the Chamber of Secrets – I mean, even though it’s been postulated what – or pondered – what has been happening down there, it seemed like very empty. She – I didn’t even know if she ever answered the question and she still hasn’t – if any of the teachers ever went down there. Because I mean, apparently, it had been looked for and actually searched for a long time.

Andrew: I think that’s just irrelevant information though.

Eric: I don’t think it’s irrelevant. It’s a big hole in the – in Hogwarts. Students could have been using it afterwards for secret things.

Andrew: Yeah. I think Jo’s answer would just be, “Dumbledore sealed this.”

Eric: Well, I would like that answer, just to clear it up.

Andrew: [laughs] Just to clear it up, yeah.

Eric: But yeah, Hermione and Ron going down there, I can understand why we didn’t see it in the first person because it wasn’t Harry, but I would have liked to kind of read about them in the Chamber a little bit more. Obviously, I mean, it was at the end of the book, everything else was happening. “Oh, by the way, we’ve been down in the Chamber.” You know.

Andrew: Yeah.

Eric: Nothing has happened there for five years but we pulled up some more Basilisk fangs; we’re ready to kick some Horcrux ass.

Andrew: Yeah. Hey, hey!

Eric: We’re ready to kick some Horcrux bum.

Micah: PG.

Andrew: What kind of language is that?

Eric: Sorry.

Laura: Hey, she used – she used “bitch” in the book, so…

Andrew: Oh!

Eric: Oh yeah, yeah…

[Laura laughs]

Andrew: Gosh, you guys, stop, my ears are bleeding.

Jerry: Good enough for J.K….

Eric: Good enough for MuggleCast, yeah.

Andrew: Well, yeah, we can curse with limits. Well… [laughs] …I hate to be like, “we can curse now,” but whatever.

[Eric laughs]

Rules of Apparition

Andrew: I guess our listeners are growing up. Hey, another e-mail now, unless anyone had anything to add to Eric’s thing. Jessica writes:

“I had always thought that in order for a witch or wizard to Apparate somewhere, they would need to have been at the place before in order to picture the place in their mind. But the trio was able to Apparate to Godric’s Hollow and various forests. Hermione couldn’t have camped at all of them when they’ve never been there before. How were they able to get there?”

Jerry: Well, they never say that you have had to have been somewhere to Apparate there, do they? It’s never stated.

Andrew: Yeah, you just got to – I think they’re just thinking of the location. At least I was…

Laura: Yeah, I mean, I guess you could also argue that Harry has been to Godric’s Hollow. The only problem with that argument is of course he really doesn’t remember it.

Andrew: Yeah.

Laura: His only recollection of it is the actual attack by Voldemort.

Andrew: Yeah.

Laura: But, I mean, I don’t know, it sounds like – I mean didn’t Hermione ever – it’s like they went to the forest of Dean or something and Hermione said she’d been there camping. I mean…

Andrew: Yeah.

Laura: …I don’t think it’s entirely impossible.

Eric: Oh, that’s true.

Jerry: That just means she could picture that place really quickly because it was a split second decision to go there, wasn’t it? So…

Laura: Yeah.

Andrew: Hmm. And…

Eric: Read the e-mail…

Andrew: Let’s see, where did I leave off here?

Eric: …from Lexie. Well, you skipped Charlotte Hutchens.

MuggleCast 107 Transcript (continued)

Should the Houses be Disbanded?

Andrew: Yeah, I thought so. Sorry. Another e-mail now from Charlotte Hutchens. She writes:

“Should the Houses of Hogwarts be disbanded in the wake of the wizarding war considering all the enmity that it created? You’d think that after war meant to separate people into worthy of life and not worthy of life, that they might realize that it doesn’t matter if you’re smart and cunning, bold and loyal, sweet and love-able, or the wittiest person on the planet.”

Personally, I think that the Houses create a little fun competition in the school.

Eric: Yeah.

Andrew: It’s like sporting. It’s sporting teams, it’s a sporting event.

Eric: It is sporting, it’s not…

Jerry: I went to a school with Houses, and it does. It creates camaraderie with people.

Laura: I think the point there is that there’s always going to be some amount of – I don’t want to say prejudice – but there’s going to be some amount of competition between people no matter what you do, no matter how many wars there are. I think what we saw as important was Harry, who had started off the series with a completely negative view of the Slytherin House, told his son that it didn’t matter if he ended up in Slytherin because it was your choices that define you, it wasn’t – it wasn’t what House you were in or anything. And I think that people like Harry and people who revolutionized the Ministry knew that. I think the people who really changed the world knew that, and I think that’s what matters. There are always going to be people out there who hold grudges and that kind of thing, and you really can’t change that whether or not you get rid of Hogwarts Houses.

Eric: That’s really brilliant, Laura.

Andrew: Yeah.

Eric: That’s a brilliant comparison between how Harry at the end didn’t mind if his son was in Slytherin. I like that a lot.

Micah: What surprised me also was him saying that the bravest man he ever knew was in Slytherin. Why would somebody who is – their biggest character trait is being brave – be in Slytherin as opposed to Gryffindor? But…

Laura: Yep. And Dumbledore even said sometimes I think we Sort too early.

Jerry: Yeah.

Eric: Ooh.

Andrew: Yeah.

Jerry: Because people’s personality traits slide as they grow older, don’t they?

Andrew: Oh yeah.

Eric: Yeah, they slide.

Andrew: Oh yeah, oh yeah. Although it seems that all the characters that we know that – I can’t really think of a specific example where someone’s House would change, could you? Could anyone?

Laura: Maybe Hermione.

Jerry: Yeah.

Laura: I mean the Sorting Hat wanted to put her in Ravenclaw at first.

Eric: Yeah, which was interesting when she said it. But I think also, drawing – being drawn into the story of Harry Potter, we’ve been basically pitting Gryffindor against Slytherin. And that was like, obviously, I think, the rivalry with the most fuel in it. You know, for anything beyond simple rivalry, you know, anything with prejudice would be Gryffindor and Slytherin. Do you want only Mudbloods – I mean, only pure-bloods – to be trained as Slytherin did? Or do you want all people like Gryffindor? I mean, that was like the fundamental, kind of – if it were a story about Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw, you know, there might not be that much enmity between the Houses. And there wasn’t that we know of. I mean, I think it’s just – if there was going to be a prejudice, it would’ve been Gryffindor against Slytherin, and we’ve been drawn into that…

Andrew: Yeah.

Eric: …through the books.

Jerry: I would’ve thought it’d be more natural to have a prejudice between Hufflepuff and Slytherin since Hufflepuff was loved [unintelligible].

Eric: Yeah. I kind of think so too.

Jerry: That’s kind of the opposite of Slytherin.

Andrew: That would’ve been – I mean, the students themselves love the whole Housing situation, I believe. So if you were to merge them altogether…

Jerry: You’d have huge dormitories.

Andrew: We…

Laura: Yeah.

Andrew: We had a show once called Gryffravenhufflerin something.

Laura: Hufflerin. Yeah. [laughs]

Andrew: Yeah. [laughs] As coined by – who made that up? Eric?

Laura: Jamie. I thought it was Jamie.

Eric: No, I think it was definitely Jamie or it was – because…

Andrew: I’m thinking Greg Porter…

Eric: Really?

Andrew: …for some reason. Maybe not. I don’t know.

Eric: We tried – even on the episode we had five or six names, and I had one that was obscure and didn’t make much sense in a way. It wasn’t…

Andrew: Oh yeah. We picked the one that flowed the best, I think. [laughs]

Eric: Yeah, I think it was Jamie, actually, but I could be correct. But about the Houses, do you guys think – because I really liked for – one of the things I liked about Book 7 was the Lost Diadem, or tiara for short, of Ravenclaw. Like, and – that kind of back story on the Bloody Baron and Rowena Ravenclaw’s daughter and that kind of thing. That it took us back to the founding days of Hogwarts, kind of way.

Andrew: Yeah.

Eric: Because I wanted to see or hear more about the founders of Hogwarts because they were the greatest witches and wizards of their day.

The Ghosts

Micah: You what I liked about that, is that we had a show way back – I think it was one of the Halloween episodes – and a bunch of people were like, “Why are you discussing the ghosts? They’re not going to play any role in the…”

[Everyone laughs]

Micah: “Nobody cares about them.”

Laura: Joke’s on you.

Micah: Well, you know what?

Eric: Eat your words, listeners!

[Everyone laughs]

Micah: And Ben.

Laura: You were wrong.

Andrew: And Ben. [laughs]

Eric: And Ben. [laughs]

Laura: You know what I find interesting about that whole situation, though? There seems to be so much mystery surrounding the founding days of Hogwarts and that type of thing. And then we find out that the Grey Lady was the daughter of Rowena Ravenclaw, and I’m like, you pretty much have a walking encyclopedia of Hogwarts history right there…

Eric: Yeah.

Laura: …so why are there so many questions?

Andrew: Yeah. [laughs]

Laura: I was like, that seemed a bit weird. Maybe she just willing to talk about it; maybe not that many people knew who she was. But I was – I find that kind of peculiar.

Eric: Well, I think you need the manly charisma and boyish good looks of Tom Riddle to get anything out of her, and – or, of course, Harry. Because she said – she confessed the Diadem thing, but to Tom Riddle was the only one she ever told about that. Like, which is kind of upsetting like – I did like the story. I didn’t like how it was crammed into the end with the Battle of Hogwarts, but I did like the story. You could tell J.K.R. had so thought that out about the founding days of Hogwarts and stuff. That was cool.

A “True” Gryffindor

Laura: So, you guys, I just had an interesting question posed to me. My friend who’s here in the room – she’s actually sitting here listening while we record – her name’s Lauren. Say hi, Lauren.

Lauren: Hi.

Laura: Okay.

Andrew: Wait. Is she the MuggleCast listener?

Laura: Yes, she is actually.

Andrew: Okay.

Laura: She’s my next door neighbor. That was a weird coincidence, but…

[Andrew and Laura laugh]

Laura: She’s asking – we were talking about the Houses and stuff, and she’s asking – it says, “It takes a true Gryffindor to pull the sword out of the hat, like Harry and Neville both did. Could someone else of a different House do that if they were sorted wrong or too early? Or does it just take some time to realize you full House potential? So for instance, if Snape should have really been a Gryffindor, could he pull the sword out of the hat? Or is it like a arbitrary thing?

Andrew: Well, no, because you have to be a true Gryffindor. [laughs]

Laura: But just because you’re sorted into Slytherin, does that mean that you are a true Slytherin? Like Dumbledore…

Andrew: Well – oh.

Laura: …was saying that we’re sorted too early.

Eric: Well, Snape’s brave.

Jerry: But he’s also very cunning, isn’t he? So…

Eric: He’s also very cunning and also very – I mean, I don’t think anybody is one House and only has those traits. You know, everybody’s got traits…

Andrew: Yeah.

Eric: …of all the Houses. It’s just, which ones are – not necessarily emphasized. I mean, you’re right, Snape’s underlying thing was probably the bravery he had for doing everything, or the courage, you know, to go through with stuff. But at the same time, as a well-rounded person – it’s a good question though, with the Sorting Hat. Just ask J.K.R., please. Just…

Andrew: I guess it just depends what’s running it.

Laura: Okay, I’ll call her up and ask her.

Andrew: [laughs] I guess it just depends the – it just depends on what’s in your magical blood.

Laura: Yeah.

Andrew: Because, yeah…

Laura: Do you think so? Because Harry wasn’t descended from Gryffindor, so…

Andrew: Oh, well, okay.

Jerry: No, and Sirius just descended from a strong Slytherin house.

Andrew: Oh yeah.

Eric: Though Harry was descended from the Peverells and so is Voldemort, Laura.

Andrew: All right. You guys got me; you guys got me.

Laura: Yeah.

Andrew: Well, yeah. I don’t know.

Laura: I mean, I was…

Andrew: Maybe Fawkes did something.

Laura: …just – I was just thinking, like, is it exclusive to people who were actually sorted into that House? Or if you – or say if like Godric Gryffindor rose from the dead and walked over to Snape and said, “You are very brave. I consider you a true Gryffindor.” Would he be able to pull the sword out of the Hat?

Jerry: If that happened, however unlikely.

[Everyone laughs]

Andrew: I guess I’ll say, I don’t think it could be a verbal change.

Eric: Yeah.

Andrew: If you know what I’m saying.

Eric: I don’t know. It’s got a cool connection, the Hat and the Sword, especially after Griphook had the Sword. To think that it would still be retrievable, if you needed it, from the Hat, is cool.

Laura: Yeah.

Andrew: Yeah.

Eric: And it kind of answers the question about whether or not it was actually Godric Gryffindor’s, or whether or not he stole it from goblins or tricked goblins in making it, or whatever the controversy was. I think it was – the sword is still associated with wizard. And that’s kind of, I think, a small triumph in – despite any of the prejudices that would have gone on, that Godric’s sword was still credited to him, and his hat could pull it even after Griphook had it.

Jerry: I’m pretty sure Jo responded to that. I’m sure I read somewhere that she responded to that in saying that Griphook was mistaken and that Godric hadn’t, in fact, stolen it.

Eric: Oh, cool.

Jerry: But I might be wrong.

Andrew: Really? Oh, oh. Yeah, I think you’re right. I think she said that in the web-chat or something.

Eric: Which I only got the second half of, yeah.

Laura: Yeah.

Andrew: Yeah.

Eric: I think you’re right.

Andrew: Okay, yeah. Okay, there you go. Well, let’s keep moving. We’re getting…

Laura: Okay.

Andrew: Showtime’s running long.

Eric: We’re almost done, yeah.

Laura: Yeah. [laughs] We’re getting kind of long.

Andrew: Yeah. Let’s see here.

Eric: Lexie.

Pettigrew’s Death

Andrew: Lexie:

“Were any of the guys disappointed with how…” – or girls. Sorry, Laura.

Eric: [laughs] Girls!

Laura: She said, “you guys.”

Eric: “You guys.”

Andrew: Oh, “you guys.” [laughs]

Laura: Andrew, you can’t read.

Andrew: “Were any of you guys disappointed with how Pettigrew paid Harry back as well? I kind of expected something with more grandeur…” [laughs] “…and I guess I had a little bit of trouble sensing the significance of what ended up happening.”

Yeah. I guess I was a little disappointed. I mean, that wasn’t the best way you could pay Harry back. He just killed himself.

Eric: I thought it was.

Jerry: No. If he’d kill himself and kill Voldemort…

Laura: I thought…

Jerry: …that’d be cool, but…

[Everyone laughs]

Laura: I don’t know. I mean…

Eric: Yeah, I thought it was cool that his hand…

Laura: …I thought it was fine.

Eric: …had a mind of its own.

Andrew: It was helpful.

Eric: You know, how the hand had a mind of its own and Voldemort…

Jerry: I think it was the hand reflecting his true personality, wasn’t it, rather than reflecting his mind.

Eric: No, I think it was that Voldemort created the hand and the minute that it went against Voldemort’s means, it would strangle him. I thought that was actually a little bit of a terrifying moment where it’s like, “Wow! Your own hand is strangling you. How much must that suck?” [laughs]

Jerry: Yeah.

Eric: But no, I liked it. That was one of the parts I liked, Pettigrew paying Harry back. Because it was quick. I mean, people were dying left and right. J.K. had her death stick, everybody was dying. Pettigrew, I thought that was cool. You know, where Harry just shouted at him, there was a moment’s hesitation where Pettigrew – there was kind of some good that might have been in him, and then his own hand finished the business. I thought that…

Micah: Yeah, it was…

Eric: It’s a true reaping of what you sow.

Micah: Like you said, Eric, it was a recognition factor, I think, from the hand that Voldemort put there. And once – it was almost – it sounds weird to say – it was, in a way, like an activation. And as soon as Harry said out loud that he needed to pay him back in some way and that he had saved his life, it was like a trigger effect.

Andrew: Mhm.

Micah: I mean, I don’t have a problem with it. He was going to go at some point, and I think there was a lot going on. And it prevented him from doing Harry anymore harm or anybody else that was on his side anymore harm. So I don’t necessarily see a problem with how it happened.

Andrew: Yeah, I agree.

Eric: If you’re – this is just to Allison. If you’re – no, this is to Lexie. If you expected something with more grandeur out of that, I’m just curious what your thoughts were on the rest of the book.

Scrimgeour

Andrew: Yeah. Final e-mail today comes from Allison:

“Do you think Scrimgeour’s last act was really intended to protect Harry?”

Jerry: Well, obviously.

Andrew: I think so.

Eric: Yeah! That was…

Laura: Yeah.

Eric: That was good, too. Scrimgeour, come on! He died.

Andrew: Hey, he came back.

Eric: Yeah! He was pretty much eating his words. I mean, everybody around him had been infiltrated. And all his coworkers, all of everything that Scrimgeour was working for as a Minister. Even if he was not a nice guy or whatever, I think Scrimgeour in some form believed that what he was doing was right. And to actually have Death Eaters having infiltrated everything and are now torturing you.

Andrew: He still doesn’t give up the information.

Eric: He doesn’t give up the information that he was working so hard to get. I mean, he still maintained – he changed sides that quickly, in a way. He knew that protecting Harry was the right thing to do after all, because what Harry had been working against, the corrupt Ministry, was actually reality.

Andrew: Yeah. Anyone else?

Eric: That was a darn good character trait.

Laura: No, I think that’s good.

“HUH!?” E-mail of the Week

Andrew: That was a darn good answer, Ali – Eric. [laughs] Okay, we’re going to do a segment now that we haven’t done in a while. And, unfortunately, I’m out of water here, so it won’t roll out of my mouth as well as it usually does. Somebody actually asked me to do this in Pittsburgh. I think they were recording it, too. I don’t know what they would do with it, though. It’s time for my “HUH!?” E-mail of the Week. That was terrible. [clears throat]

Laura: That was really bad.

Andrew: It’s time for my “HUH?!” No? Better?

Laura: Yeah, that was better.

Jerry: Better, yeah.

Andrew: “HUH!?”

Laura: You sounded a bit like Scooby-Doo there.

Andrew: I can’t do it like I used to! I think I just have to like…

Micah: You sound like a donkey.

Eric: Get it in the belly. Feel it in the belly, feel it in the belly.

Andrew: Okay, maybe I need to sit up straight, have better posture.

Jerry: Be the “huh.”

Andrew: It’s time for my “HUH!?”…

Eric: Yeah.

Andrew: It’s a little better.

Eric: Yeah, a little bit better.

Andrew: …E-mail of the week. Becca Bates, fourteen, of Reading, Eric’s hometown.

Eric: Oh my gosh!

Andrew: Subject line: “Auditioning for Harry Potter.” Her message:

“How do you audition?” Next line: “And where?” Two lines down: “When?” Two lines down: “Time?”

Jerry: Was this after you posted the – about that musical perhaps?

Andrew: No, this was actually before that.

Jerry: Oh, okay.

Andrew: We get these kind of e-mails a lot, actually. People ask us – whenever filming starts up again for the upcoming Harry Potter film, we always get these e-mails from people, saying, you know, “How do I audition?” And the first problem, Becca, is that you’re from Reading, and…

Eric: Hey, wait a minute, don’t say Reading people never amount to anything.

Andrew: Well, Reading, Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania, United States.

Eric: Right, yes, of course.

Andrew: Yeah, I wasn’t saying…

Jerry: Not in the U.K., for instance.

Eric: No, I know, Andrew, I’m just joking. It was awesome.

Andrew: Oh, there’s a Reading in the U.K.?

Jerry: Yeah, quite a big city, yeah.

Andrew: I’d better track this I.P. [Andrew laughs]

Eric: It could be Reading, England man. Because that’s where the original name – William Penn named it after Reading, England.

Laura: Well, if you are from the U.S….

Eric: No.

Andrew: Go on, Laura.

Laura: …they haven’t – they don’t cast Americans. I’m sorry.

Jerry: Hear, hear.

[Jerry and Laura laugh]

Andrew: Yeah.

Laura: Not to rain on your parade, because I actually – and this is a story – when they were casting for the first movie, I did send in an audition tape. I was eleven. I had just turned eleven, I had just read Goblet of Fire, and they were doing casting, and I sent in an audition tape. I’m sure that some WB exec still has it and plays it every now and then to laugh.

[Andrew and Jerry laugh]

Laura: But…

Eric: Laura, are we going to see that…

Laura: …I did, so…

Eric: …that video as a special on Pickle Pack?

Laura: No…

Jerry: I think we should.

Laura: …because there was only one copy of it, and it’s in England somewhere.

Andrew: You should get it back! That’d be perfect.

Eric: Get it back! We have contacts at WB, don’t we?

Laura: Oh no, no. Oh my God, no, I hope they burned it.

Andrew: The other problem is that – well, I mean, you could have been a little nicer in your e-mail to me, that would have been nice. And at this point if – you need to go to an open casting call; you can’t just submit tapes anymore.

Eric: Yeah.

Andrew: I don’t think. I mean…

Laura: Yeah, I don’t think you really can.

Andrew: …because they have all the roles, so…

Jerry: You need an agent.

Andrew: …unless like Emma’s – yeah, oh yeah, you need an agent too, that’s kind of important. So, there’s my “HUH!?” E-mail of the Week. Don’t send any stupid e-mail on purpose because it’s pretty obvious when they’re on purpose. You write it…

Laura: Yeah.

Andrew: …obnoxiously bad. So there you go.

Dueling Club

Andrew: Dueling Club. Haven’t done one of these in a while. Laura?

Laura: Oh, yeah, and you made me come up with it this week. Looks like we have a couple of them. First one is going to be Neville versus Luna. Who do you think…

Andrew: Neville.

Laura: …would win? I think Neville, yep. I agree.

Jerry: Yeah, definitely.

Laura: I think we should probably back up our statements here, but…

Andrew: Yeah.

Laura: …I think that definitely Neville, because Luna is very whimsical, and, not to say she’s unintelligent, because she’s certainly not, but I think that a lot of her talent and her capabilities lie in the world of discovery, I suppose. Like discovery of new things. Almost like a scientist in a way. And Neville’s actually very magically inclined. He’s also, you know, proven himself to be very brave, so…

Andrew: Yes.

Jerry: Yeah.

Andrew: Yeah.

Laura: I think they’re a different kind of smart.

Andrew: When you were coming up with these I was like, “make them Book 7 relevant.” And Neville’s really changed, so that’s why I’m thinking Neville.

Eric: Neville kicked bum.

Laura: Yeah

Eric: Yeah, Neville was great in Book 7

Andrew: He grew up.

Jerry: A Crumple-Horned Snorkack won’t help you in a fight.

Eric: Well, no, and…

Andrew: Yeah. [laughs]

Eric: …that’s the thing. With – what was it – Mr. Lovegood – Xenophilius Lovegood – it was kind of a shame when he had to – when Luna had to accept that her father had been pretty much lying to her about – well, first of all, the big Crumple-Horned Snorkack thing, but her father is kind of – I don’t want to say deadbeat dad, but just, you know, not really as reliable as she would of hoped he’d be.

[Micah laughs]

Jerry: It’s like a rite of passage, though, isn’t it? Growing up and finding out your parents aren’t infallible. And they make mistakes.

Eric: Yeah, yeah, exactly, though. But Xenophilius…

Andrew: Yeah.

Eric: But people who – this just reminds me, this Dueling Club – people who ship Neville and Luna, what do they call it? Do they call it NevilleLuna? Or LuNeville? Or…

Jerry: Nula? [laughs]

Laura: Leville.

Andrew: Nula.

Eric: Nula?

Laura: Nuna. [laughs]

Eric: Oh God.

Laura: Oh my gosh.

Andrew: Neviluna. Neviluna.

Eric: Okay.

Andrew: Nevuna.

Eric: The next’s ones…

Laura: We could make an entire show coming up with ship names. Okay, anyway…

Andrew: Yeah.

Laura: The next one is Griphook versus Kreacher.

Micah: Wow.

Eric: Kreacher! Kreacher! Kreacher! Kreacher!

Micah: I want to see Griphook just get it.

Andrew: Yeah, I guess… [laughs]

Laura: I have a – it’s…

Micah: I didn’t like him.

Jerry: We don’t know enough about dwarf magic though, do we really? What they possess in terms of fighting.

Laura: Well, just based off of what we do know. I mean, we’ve seen that – Gosh, it’s difficult because, especially with Kreacher’s character transformation, I want to say that it is a correct assumption to say that, in general, House-elves are more trusting than goblins are.

Jerry: Hmm.

Andrew: Mhm.

Laura: Especially Kreacher’s…

Jerry: I don’t think they think for themselves quite as much, do they?

Laura: What?

Jerry: They don’t think for themselves quite as much, do they? They’re quite…

Laura: No, that’s the – they’re not really as selfish as goblins, and it seems like – I don’t know – it seems like a goblin would be more inclined to cheat or do something…

Andrew: Yeah, yeah.

Laura: ….you know, play dirty. That type of thing.

Andrew: Yeah. [laughs]

Laura: I mean, no one said the Dueling Club was fair.

Andrew: Yeah. [laughs]

Laura: You could win by default of being a jerk, so…

Andrew: But I mean – well…

Eric: Yeah, I would assume that’s true.

Laura: I mean…

Andrew: I mean, even Kreacher could be accused of cheating. I mean, up until…

Laura: Yeah.

Andrew: …Book 7 he wasn’t always the most honest of people. [laughs]

Eric: That’s really weird. Kreacher kind of replaced Dobby in Book 7. I mean, in Book 6…

Andrew: Yeah.

Laura: Yeah.

Eric: …there was this whole wonderful kind of, “Dobby is going to do the right thing, Kreacher is just going to hate what he’s doing the whole time,” and then in Book 7 Dobby died, and Kreacher pretty much took over for the whole – the whole absence of Dobby, really.

Laura: Okay, but who…

Andrew: He turned into a really cool House-elf.

Micah: No, see, I don’t agree with that though, because he really came in before Dobby died.

Laura: Yeah.

Micah: His transformation occurred before Dobby was killed off…

Andrew: Yeah.

Micah: …by Bellatrix, and – I don’t know. He wasn’t really seen again until after – or during the fight with Voldemort.

Laura: Yeah.

Micah: I mean Kreacher’s transformation really was there during their whole stay at Grimmauld Place, which was before Dobby…

Laura: Yeah.

Micah: …kicked the bucket.

Eric: I suppose you’re right.

Jerry: We do know that Kreacher was there hacking at ankles though, because J.K. has told us. Even though she doesn’t mention it in the book.

Laura: Yes, he was. But who seriously didn’t sit there and just let out a huge, “Aww!” when Kreacher made them food? Like when he made them breakfast?

Jerry: Yeah, it was good.

Andrew: Oh yeah, oh yeah, it was so good seeing a nice Kreacher.

Laura: It was like, “Aww, that’s so cute!”

Eric: But when Kreacher would be expecting them home and then the Death Eater guy or whoever was there instead.

Laura: Aw, and then Harry felt bad, yeah.

Eric: Yeah, Harry felt bad. That was amazing.

Laura: I know.

Micah: Yeah.

Andrew: Okay, so is that it?

Laura: So, Griphook. I say Griphook.

Andrew: Yeah. Same. Micah? Eric?

Eric and Micah: Kreacher.

[Jerry laughs]

Andrew: Oh, hmm, okay.

Micah: I mean, look what he did for the whole Horcrux thing.

Andrew: Yeah.

Eric: He drank the potion and survived.

Laura: Yeah.

Andrew: Well, he’s got a tough stomach.

Jerry: Yeah.

Andrew: We know that.

[Andrew and Laura laugh]

Eric: He’s got a tough stomach. [laughs] He could outdrink Griphook. [laughs]

Andrew: Since we’re kind of split, do you want to make it the poll on MuggleCast.com this week?

Laura: Sure, yeah.

Andrew: Semi-split. We’ll see.

Eric: If you’re looking for a poll. [laughs]

[Jerry laughs]

Andrew: Huh?

Eric: I said, if you’re looking for a poll, sure. I mean we update weekly, right?

Andrew: Oh, well, no. We don’t update…

Eric: Oh.

Andrew: …the poll weekly. [laughs]

Eric: Well, you should make the poll thing anyway.

Andrew’s Listener Challenge

Andrew: I mean – yeah. So, okay, let’s move on to another segment we haven’t done in a while: Andrew’s Listener Challenge. It comes from – it stems from this e-mail I got earlier this week. I was in this nice little conversation with Tiffany, and in one of her responses to me she said, “Question: Why don’t you say ‘pickles’ anymore?” And I was like, “Hmm, good point.” We have the Pickle Pack, we have lots of people enjoying the Pickle Pack, getting lots of exclusive bonus content…

Eric: Putting out a shirt.

Andrew: …that you’ll all missing out on. Ha-ha.

[Jerry laughs]

Andrew: No, everyone has their shirt now.

[Eric and Jerry laugh]

Andrew: It’s a good point; we don’t say “pickles” anymore on the show, guys. It used to be a big catchphrase on the show.

Eric: Was it?

Andrew: Yeah, it used to be a big thing.

Laura: Yeah.

Andrew: I remember even one show, I went as far as to go, “Pickles, pickles, pickles, pickles, pickles, pickles, pickles, pickles, pickles, pickles, pickles, blah!”

Eric: Nothing beats you doing that, Andrew.

Andrew: Mhm.

Laura: Well, I think she probably got her fix just there, Andrew.

Andrew: Yes. But, wait, I don’t want to stop there, Laura. For my Listener Challenge this week, it’s time to bring the pickle catchphrase back to MuggleCast. So for the Listener Challenge this week find your nearest pickle retailer, create a sign that says, “Want more pickles? Visit MuggleCast.com” or whatever you want. Just make sure it has “MuggleCast.com” on there. Take that sign, go to your nearest pickle retailer, and put that sign right on the pickle stand. Now, I want, of course, you guys to take pictures, send them in to andrew at staff dot mugglenet dot com with “Pickle Listener Challenge” in the subject line. We’re bringing pickles back to the show! Now the next time someone’s looking for pickles in their pickle retailer, they will find the sign, they’ll go to MuggleCast.com, and, hey! Maybe we’ll get an extra few MuggleCast listeners out of it.

Eric: Sweet.

Laura: Very nice.

Andrew: So that’s the Listener Challenge. I don’t think there can be one winner unless you do something extremely extravagant. I don’t know what you could do. [laughs]

Jerry: Well, people can vote for the picture or something.

Laura: Oh, someone will think of something.

Andrew: Okay.

Eric: You can get jars of pickles and spread them out on the beach. Like along the beach.

Andrew: No, but it has to be a pickle retailer.

Eric: Well, a pickle…

Andrew: Pickle retailer!

Eric: Well, I don’t know any beach-side pickle retailers.

Andrew: Well, here’s what you do: whoever creates the most extravagant pickle/MuggleCast display at a pickle retailer in the pickle area… [laughs] …take a picture. Hopefully you’ll keep it up in the store and just run out and never return again. And, by the way, parents, we’re not endorsing any of this immature behavior, it’s just for show. If people do it, whatever.

Laura: We’re not liable.

Andrew: We’re not making people do any of this…

Eric: No fast-suits.

Andrew: …it’s just – yeah, we’re not liable, good point, Laura. Thank you. So, send your entries in to andrew at staff dot mugglenet dot com with “Pickle Listener Challenge” in the subject line. Most extravagant wins…

Eric: A shout out.

Andrew: …a Pickle Pack membership. How about that?

Laura: Oh, that’s nice! Let’s do that!

Eric: I don’t know if you can do that, though, legally. Like, I don’t if you can…

Andrew: Why not?

Laura: Well, why not?

Jerry: However not? Why couldn’t they?

Eric: Okay. Well, because the registration was closed – oh yeah, I get it. Okay, cool.

Jerry: Yeah, but he…

Andrew: Yeah, but still – we’re not like…

[Jerry laughs]

Andrew: Win a membership to Pickle Pack. So if you missed out – Pickle Pack listeners still – if a Pickle Pack winner – if a Pickle Pack member wins, then we’ll give them a MuggleCast t-shirt. MuggleCast Summer Tour t-shirt or something like that. Okay.

Eric: I need one of those.

Andrew: Yeah, well, I’ll mail that out right away.

[Jerry laughs]

Andrew: I’ll get right on that. [laughs] I’m just kidding, Eric. I’ll mail it…

Eric: Yeah, that’s cool, that’s cool.

Andrew: …sometime in the next year or so. Okay.

Chicken Soup for the MuggleCast Soul

Andrew: And now it’s time for Chicken Soup: Hurricane Dean Edition. I love the special editions of Chicken Soup; they’re the most fun. But somber at the same time.

[Eric laughs]

Laura: Okay, this comes from Jessica Chung in Kingston, Jamaica. She writes:

“I live in Jamaica and Hurricane Dean hit on Sunday. I was praying that I could download the latest MuggleCast before they cut off electricity. Actually, loading MuggleCast on my iPod was the last thing I did before the power went out. Anyway, I’d just like to thank you guys for keeping me entertained during the hurricane. MuggleCast was one of the few things that kept me sane during the three-day power cut. I love MuggleCast. Keep up the good work.”

Andrew: Aww!

Laura: Aww!

Andrew: Good! We’re glad it kept you safe…

Laura: Entertained.

Andrew: …and happy and entertained.

[Andrew and Laura laugh]

Andrew Wonderful.

Laura: Glad you’re okay, too.

Andrew: So, with that, I think that wraps up today’s show. Good show, guys.

Laura: Yes…

Eric: Good show, guys.

Laura: …it was…

Jerry: Yeah, great.

Andrew: It’s been a while.

Laura: It has been a while. But it was good to get back. I’m glad to get back into the regular scheme of things.

Andrew: I think we got back…

Laura: Hit the ground running.

Andrew: …in the words of my easy button…

Easy Button: That was easy.

Andrew: Yes, it was.

Laura: The Easy Button returns.

Contact Information

Andrew: Here’s another thing we haven’t heard in awhile: the contact information.

Eric: Ooh.

Andrew: Laura, what’s the P.O. Box if somebody wants to send us something?

Laura: It’s going to be P.O. Box 3151, Cumming, Georgia, 30028. There are some people asking questions about that. No, I do not live in Georgia anymore. Yes, my mother is going to continue checking the P.O. Box and sending out people’s mail for me, so…

Andrew: Thanks, Mamma Thompson!

Laura: Yes…

[Micah laughs]

Laura: …the Muggle-Mom, as I like to call her now.

[Eric laughs]

Laura: So keep sending mail. She’ll make sure it gets sent out. And every now and then, you know, give her a little tip. Put a couple of dollars in there.

Eric: Yeah.

Andrew: Hey, hey, hey!

Laura: In the envelope or something.

Eric: Send some cards to Laura’s mom! Postcards, that can do.

Laura: Yeah, very nice! Yeah. Write to my mom.

Andrew: Actually, I – yeah!

[Eric and Laura laugh]

Andrew: I should address this quickly: we have been having many, many, many, many, many, many, many new listeners, so if you are a new listener, on three. One, two, three: welcome! Yay!

Eric: [singing] Welcome…

Laura: Yay!

Eric: …to MuggleCast.

Andrew: I was hoping everybody would chime in. Yeah, we hope everybody continues to listen. Seriously, though, the numbers have been through the roof! It’s been a – it’s been good. So the P.O. Box is just a little fun extra thing we do here on the side if people like to send us some fan-mail, or maybe a craft, or maybe a fun, quick recipe or…

Eric: Like macaroni?

[Show music begins]

Andrew: Whatever. They can send whatever as long as it is legal, and we appreciate that. Here’s another way of contacting us here on MuggleCast: you can call in a voicemail question, comment, or even a listener rebuttal. Just remember to keep your question under 60 seconds and eliminate as much background noise as possible. We have several phone numbers you can use to contact us. If you’re in the United States, you can dial 1-218-20-MAGIC – that’s 1-218-206-2442. If you’re in the United Kingdom, you can dial 020-8144-0677. If you’re in Australia, you can dial 02-8003-5668. You can also Skype the username “MuggleCast” at Skype.com. Get Skype. Free program. Really cool. Most people know about that already. You can also e-mail in a question, rebuttal, comment, or whatever else you want. Just visit MuggleCast.com, click on “Contact” at the top or contact any one of us at our first name at staff dot mugglenet dot com. Jerry, you’re Jerry at staff, right?

Jerry: Yep, yep.

Andrew: J-E-R-R-Y at staff dot mugglenet dot com. We also have some – several community outlets, ways to interact with fellow MuggleCast listeners, or even the co-hosts: us. Hee-hee! We have a MySpace at MySpace.com/MuggleCastFans. We have a Facebook group, YouTube group, Frappr group, Last.FM group, which is a music community. You know, we haven’t done this in a while. Why not?

Laura: Mhm.

Andrew: We’re not on a time limit here; let’s see the most popular artists MuggleCast fans are listening to right now. This is what Last.FM is all about. The Beatles is the top artist this week.

Laura: Oh, finally!

Jerry: Wow.

Laura: Something good!

[Everyone laughs]

Laura: Thank you! No more Fall Out Boy.

Eric: No more Fall Out Boy.

[Micah laughs]

Andrew: Rounding up the top five: Coldplay, Death Cab for Cutie, Fall Out Boy, and The Killers. What – what’s up with you emo people?

[Laura laughs]

Andrew: Why are you all emo?

Eric: Well, no. The Beatles are an essential part of music history, and I must say that I just downloaded – I just put my two albums of The Beatles that I brought with me to my iTunes library, and I have been listening repeatedly to the song “Being For the Benefit of Mr. Kite,” originally from Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.

Jerry: So it’s you, Eric. It’s entirely your fault that it’s gone right to the top of the list.

[Jerry and Andrew laugh]

Andrew: Yeah.

[Laura laughs]

Jerry: All you’re doing.

Laura: Yay, Beatles!

Eric: Yay, Beatles.

Andrew: We also have the fanlisting and the forums over at MuggleCastFan.net. You can also Digg the show at Digg.com. Don’t forget to vote for us once a month at Podcast Alley, and rate and review us at Yahoo! Podcasts.

Eric: [singing] “Do-do-do!”

Show Close

Andrew: Jerry, you’re also running a little website and podcast right now.

Jerry: I am. A little old thing. www.FandomForecast.com. We’re a far less well-known weekly podcast called ForeCast, and we talk about…

Andrew: Now it’s known.

Jerry: …the fandom and events and rock concerts and conferences, and all that.

Andrew: Awesome.

Jerry: So, yeah, check it out.

Andrew: Awesome, because…

Laura: Very cool.

Andrew: …even though the final book is out the fandom is still thriving. And that’s a great idea you and Jennifer put together, so…

Jerry: Thank you.

Andrew: Very cool. I think that’s about it. Once again, I’m Andrew Sims.

Eric: I am Eric Scull.

Laura: I’m Laura Thompson.

Micah: I’m Micah Tannenbaum.

Jerry: And I’m Jerry Cook.

Andrew: We’ll see everyone next week for Episode 108.

Andrew and Laura: Buh-bye!

Eric: Ooh! That has special Lost significance.

[Show music ends]

[“Good Morning Baltimore” from Hairspray plays]

———————–

Transcript #106

August 27, 2007 / MuggleCast

MuggleCast 106 Transcript

Show Intro

[Intro music plays]

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Mason: Yeah. When you check out, enter code Muggle – that’s M-U-G-G-L-E – and save 10% on any order.

Laura: Can you spell that again?

Mason: Yeah, I can. That’s M-U-G-G-L-E.

Laura: Wow! Do any restrictions apply?

Mason: Some restrictions apply, see site for details. Get your piece of the Internet at GoDaddy…

Laura: Dot com.

Andrew: Today’s MuggleNet podcast is brought to you by Borders. In May, thousands of Harry Potter fans descended upon New Orleans for the Phoenix Rising Conference. Borders was there to take in the sites and share a lively discussion of the series that has bewitched the world with some of Harry’s most dedicated fans. Listen in and watch the action yourself. Check our The Phoenix Rising Borders Book Club discussion at BordersMedia.com/HarryPotter, or click on the Borders banner at the top of the MuggleNet page.

[Show music plays]

[Audience cheers]

Andrew: Oh-ho-ho! Hey! Wow!

Mikey: Hey, thanks! Welcome!

Andrew: Geez! Oh man, guys, geez, wow. Thank you, thank you, thank you. [laughs]

Mikey: All right!

Andrew: What a big surprise! Hi, everyone, welcome to MuggleCast Live in Pittsburgh!

[Audience cheers]

Andrew: Thank you, everyone, for coming out. You’re in store for some good Deathly Hallows discussion and some awesome Wizard Rock from The Remus Lupins.

[Audience cheers]

Andrew: [laughs] We’re also celebrating a couple of birthdays today! Does everyone know? Harry Potter and J.K. Rowling! Brandon, can you do me a favor? Can you give me that Target bag over there? We were just at Target shopping for birthday supplies, and there’s a few birthdays today. Thank you. Would anyone like some hats or some streamers?

[Audience cheers]

Andrew: Well, we have one little bag. We didn’t really buy for everyone. I was sort of addressing the panel.

[Murmur from the audience]

Mikey: It’s her birthday.

Andrew: It’s her birthday? What’s your name? Oh, it’s not? Oh, okay. Is there someone named Zoe here? Zoe? Is that you? Can you come on up?

Jamie: Andrew, why don’t you card her just to make sure, because everyone’s saying it’s their birthday now.

Andrew: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Can we see some identification, please?

Audience Member: I have my student I.D.

Andrew: No, no, no! I trust you, I trust you, I trust you! I’ve been talking with your mom. You didn’t know that, but I was. [laughs]

Audience Member: No way!

Andrew: Yeah, way! I have her number! We call each other all the time! [laughs] Anyway, it’s Zoe’s birthday today! It’s also Harry Potter’s birthday today. It’s also J.K. Rowling’s birthday today. So to kick off the show why don’t we have a rousing rendition of Happy Birthday? I’m sure we’ll do it again later with The Remus Lupins, okay? So on three, guys.

Jamie: What are we doing?

Andrew: Happy Birthday. Happy Birthday song. Is it in the U.K.?

Mikey: This is going to be bad.

Jamie: No, I’ve never heard of it!

Emerson: I’ll do it!

Andrew: We’ll teach you.

Mikey: We can’t sing.

Andrew: Okay, we’ll all do it!

Emerson: Okay, good.

Andrew: Okay, on three. One, two, three.

MuggleCasters: [singing] Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday dear…

Andrew: Zoe, J.K. Rowling and Harry Potter!

Mikey: Harry Potter!

[Audience cheers]

MuggleCasters: [singing] Happy Birthday to you!

Andrew and Mikey: Yay!

[Audience cheers]

Mikey: Party hats, everybody! Whoo!

Andrew: Wonderful! Wonderful! I guess.

Mikey: Fine, Emerson, just take my party hat.

Andrew: There we go. Yes! Okay, anyway, we’ll get to the rest of the party stuff later, but has everyone read Deathly Hallows, first of all?

[Audience cheers]

Andrew: All right. That’s good.

Audience Member: No spoilers allowed!

Andrew: I’m sorry.

Emerson: We’re going to spoil the heck out of you if you stay here.

Andrew: We’re going to be discussing the book today.

Emerson: So…

Andrew: We’re going to be talking Deathly Hallows today because the book’s been out for like a week now.

[Audience laughs]

Andrew: We can’t speculate anymore. There we go. I said a week! Sorry, a week. Seven days. Something like that. Anyway…

Emerson: It came out on the 21st, guys.

Ben: I’d say a week and a half.

Andrew: A week and a half.

Mikey: Ten days.

Andrew: Sorry!

Mikey: Came out on the 21st, it’s the 31st…

Andrew: Sorry, sorry, everyone.

Mikey: I can count.

Andrew: Okay, so anyway, let’s get on track here. We’ve been having a main discussion at all these shows that we’ve done. We’ve talked about Snape, Dumbledore, Voldemort, Ron, Hermione. So who better to talk about today than Harry Potter?

Jamie: I agree.

Mikey: Woo!

[Audience cheers]

Jamie: But before we get there, I just want to say that after doing…

Audience Member: Let’s talk about Fudge.

Andrew: No.

Jamie: No.

Audience Member: That’d be so cool. I dress up as him.

Jamie: I just wanted to say that after we’ve been to all these Borders and all these libraries, this is such a nice change for doing a podcast inside one of these things. This is very cool, don’t you agree?

Ben: We do like the outdoor…

Jamie: We do like the outdoor.

Mikey: It’s very pretty. It’s pretty.

Main Discussion: Harry Potter

Jamie: But on to the main discussion. As Andrew said, we’ve been taking one character for each stop on our podcast tour. We’ve covered Snape, Dumbledore, Hermione, Ron, and I think someone else who I can’t remember.

Mikey: Voldemort.

Jamie: Yeah, Voldemort. So now we’re going to take everything to its culmination and discuss Harry, since, obviously, Harry Potter and everything – he’s the main character. So, what we wanted to talk about is how he’s changed in the first six books and then how the seventh book has completely changed our perceptions of him, whether we think he’s more angsty, more brave, all those kind of things, or not. So, why don’t we start with a few points here from the panel.

Harry’s Growth

Andrew: Mikey?

Mikey: Well, I think Harry definitely kind of grew up in Book 7. Definitely. He kind of figured things out. Hermione was – louder? Stand up for people to see us as we talk. Okay. Anyway, Harry definitely…

[Andrew laughs and audience applauds]

Mikey: …grew up quite a bit during Book 7.

Andrew: We [unintelligible] book tour-ish.

Mikey: Yeah. It’s been a book tour, so we’ve been sitting down in the lounge area relaxing and talking about books. But Harry grew up in Book 7, I think, especially when it came down to he realized he had to kind of die, which was nice. Yeah? Maybe? But he came up and he realized – he grew up there, versus Book 5, The Order of the Phoenix, where it was all caps Harry, very angsty and angry, like: “I’M ANGRY AT YOU!”

Jamie: But, Mikey, I’d like to disagree and say that Harry hasn’t grown up because you keep making the point that any grown mature man would not jump into a pool of icy cold water with a Horcrux around his neck.

Emerson: Completely naked.

Jamie: Completely naked, yeah.

Mikey: You speak for yourself, sir. You speak for yourself!

Jamie: I personally would.

Emerson: Mikey, just because you’re a nudist doesn’t mean all rational people do that.

[Andrew laughs]

Mikey: Ah, you know…

Emerson: See, you mysteriously find Godric Gryffindor’s sword laying at the bottom of this ice freezing cold pool…

Jamie: No, no, but it could not be a sword as well. He thinks it’s his sword, but he could be wrong.

Emerson: This is after chasing this mystical, ghostly animal through the forest. You see this sword at the bottom of this freezing cold pool. So what do you do? You strip naked and jump in.

[Audience laughs]

Emerson: No, you go back, you tell Hermione what happened, you let Hermione, the adult, figure it out, sort it out, be rational.

[Audience chatter]

Jamie: I’m sure there’s a spell he could have used.

Mikey: You know, I think he just wanted to take a dip. He was kind of hot.

[Audience laughs]

Mikey: Just cool himself off. He saw something in the water. Who knows?

Jamie: That’s very true.

Harry’s Narrow Escapes

Mikey: Anyway, Jamie, what do you think about Harry?

Jamie: What do I think about Harry?

Mikey: Has he grown?

Jamie: I think he’s grown up a bit, but I think he’s realized what he can and can’t do now. So he isn’t clever like Hermione, and he’s actually pretty dumb, to be honest, isn’t he?

Mikey: [in high-pitched voice] I’m Harry Potter!

Emerson: I think Harry Potter is innately talented, but I think – and I’ve made this point a couple times before – Harry is given this quest by Dumbledore in the sixth book where he has to track down all these Horcruxes and ultimately kill the greatest wizard alive. And so what does Harry do in his free time? He just kind of sits around and goes with the flow, whereas Hermione uses all her time and energy to read books and to further her skills, and learn more magic, and Harry just takes everything completely for granted, and he gets lucky over and over and over, and I love the kid. We really do. We love Harry Potter. We run a Harry Potter website. But if it weren’t for Hermione saving his butt over and over and over again in that last book…

Jamie: He’d be dead by now, so easily.

Emerson: Yeah.

Jamie: And we’ve been talking about – throughout every stop, we’ve been talking about…

Mikey: These are fun.

[Horn sounds]

Jamie: We’ve been talking about how Harry will wake up completely not knowing where he is – probably camping again – and there will be Hermione standing next to him all bushy haired saying, “Wow, Harry! That was a close one again.”

Emerson: Yeah, he has a near-death experience every three pages in that book.

Andrew: Well, that was the thing we were talking about. One of the things we sort of speculated about in the first 100 episodes of MuggleCast. I mean, Harry has made so many narrow escapes. I just said now it’s time for him to bite the dust. I mean, he’s missed out too many times. And J.K. Rowling has even said that she has considered having the trio – one member of the trio dying. So it’s not that absurd of a statement to make.

Harry Did Not Die

Jamie: Well, he kind of died, didn’t he?

[Horn sounds]

Jamie: Or did he?

Emerson: No! [sighs] No, I’ve been making – this is another one of those points I’ve been making. Harry Potter did not die in that book. He absolutely did not die. You cannot die and come back to life. J.K. Rowling has been very, very clear about that in the past. She said in the interview that we did, or – sorry – the transcript on Monday that Harry was not dead. She said he was in a limbo between life and death, and we had a theory before, which was confirmed, and she said that the fact when Harry, when he was having this – when he was lost in his mind somewhere, and he’s at King’s Cross Station, that was sort of the purgatory when he has to decide whether, you know, which direction to go, to get on the train or not to get on the train, to choose between living or dying.

Jamie: Okay, but…

Ben: He kind of died. He kind of died though. Sort of.

Emerson: No, you can’t kind of die!

Andrew: Well, okay, but…

Emerson: You’re either alive or you’re dead.

Andrew: Yeah, J.K. Rowling said he was in limbo.

Emerson: Yeah, limbo. But you can’t be half dead.

Andrew: So…

Mikey: Guys, guys.

Andrew: I think the answer is…

Emerson: Harry Potter is not Jesus.

Andrew: Emerson, I think the answer is he wasn’t alive, he wasn’t dead, he was just in limbo. He was sort of between the two.

Emerson: He didn’t die, though. Because in order to die he would have actually had to get on that – to choose death – he would have had to get on the train…

Andrew: Right.

Emerson: …and he would’ve had to choose to end his life. Because in so many interviews, J.K. Rowling has made it very clear that when a wizard is dead he does not come back. And Harry Potter was clearly alive at the end of that book.

Jamie: Who was Dumbledore then?

Emerson: Thus he did not die.

Jamie: Who was Dumbledore at King’s Cross? Was he a real Dumbledore come back to talk to him or was he just a part of Harry’s brain telling him things he already knew?

Emerson: It was probably – well, he was in limbo, so somehow Spiritual Dumbledore, who was already dead, was able to communicate with Harry while he was in that kind of purgatory.

Jamie: I think that’s pretty good.

Andrew: Fair enough.

Mikey: Maybe, maybe. We’ll see.

Andrew: Anything else you want to address about Harry before we call up the audience members up?

Mikey: Well, what about Ben Schoen? I haven’t heard from him yet.

Andrew: Ben?

Ben: It’s really hot in here.

[Andrew and Mikey laugh]

Mikey: “I’m Ben Schoen. I’m hot.”

Ben: I don’t know. The rest of them pretty much covered it. I think that he’s still kind of an idiot, even after seven books, but he started to figure out a little bit more, which is more than you could say for most people, so…

Jamie: But has he really though?

Harry is Only Human

Andrew: Someone was kind of angry at Jo at the web-chat. During the web-chat, someone said to Jo, “Well, why on earth did you have him use the Cruciatus Curse? Why would you make him do that? He’s Harry, he wouldn’t do that.” And Jo said he’s just as – I can’t remember the exact words she said…

Ben: He’s human, so he’s mortal, basically…

Andrew: Yeah.

Ben: Like the rest of us, like Dumbledore.

Andrew: Right.

Ben: He has his own set of problems. And it was an…

Jamie: He has weaknesses.

Ben: …extreme circumstance, too. I mean, he needed to do it in order to control the situation, so it wasn’t like he just did it out of cold-blood and trying to hurt somebody. He did it because he had to.

Andrew: Yeah.

Mikey: Yeah. Harry’s not perfect, and Jo said that. So his two biggest fallacies is his anger and kind of his pride at certain times.

Harry was Helped

Jamie: But do you think he won because of himself, or do you think the entire battle was won because of Hermione and his friends and the people who helped him?

Mikey: I think it was Harry himself. Like I said, Harry, I think, matured a little bit. He realized he had to die, and by him giving up himself for his friends and family, that was still – actually, there was no family left anymore – but for his friends, it kind of put it so that way he grew up, and it was him that gave them the extra protection and everything.

Jamie: But he got so much help throughout the entire books; Dumbledore telling him what to do, Snape then led him.

Mikey: Oh yeah.

Jamie: Without these people, Harry would not have had any idea where to go for the Horcruxes or anything like that.

Emerson: Is everybody able to understand – like, follow all of this – understand what we’re saying? Because I’m hearing a lot of feedback, and I’m just not sure if you guys in the back can hear us okay. So give me some heads or some…

Mikey: Yeah? No?

Jamie: Okay, good.

Mikey: Thumbs up? All right!

Andrew: We’re good, Emerson. We’re good, Spartzy. So you want to open it up now for feedback?

Jamie: We can talk about it there, yeah.

Andrew: Does anyone have any thoughts about Harry, say, like any problems you have? Raise your hand if you do.

Jamie: We’ve got people right here.

Mikey: Or favorite scenes with Harry. You know.

Andrew: Any thoughts?

Mikey: Did he say something funny? Come on up here and say your name.

Andrew: Harry Potter had two semi-naked scenes in the book.

Jamie: Yeah!

Andrew: And someone came up to me yesterday and was like, “I think I know exactly why Jo did that.” And I said, “I think I know, too.” It’s probably because J.K. Rowling went to see Dan Radcliffe in the flesh again…

[Audience cheers and laughs]

Andrew: Exactly what I was thinking.

Jamie: Did she say that? Did this girl say that?

Andrew: Yes.

Jamie: Oh, wow.

Harry’s Ability to Speak Parseltongue

Andrew: So anyway, what’s your name? Where are you from?

Audience Member: Kate, from Pittsburgh. When the part of Voldemort that was in Harry got killed, did Harry lose his ability to speak Parseltongue? Did he lose…

Ben: Yeah, she said that.

Audience Member: …any greatness that he had? So he’s just the dumb guy he would have been without Voldemort to begin with?

Jamie: Yup.

Audience Member: So he’s even worse than through the seven books?

Mikey: Yes.

Ben: I wouldn’t say he’s even worse. I mean…

Mikey: Well, no, he just doesn’t have the powers…

Ben: He just doesn’t have the ability to speak Parseltongue anymore. I mean, it was never really explicitly stated in the books what powers Harry – there wasn’t a list of powers that Harry got from Voldemort. I’m sure he’s still pretty adept magically. I don’t think you have to worry about that.

Mikey: Plus I’m sure Harry’s happy not to be able to talk to snakes anymore. It’s kind of something from his past he doesn’t want to bring up. I don’t know, I just would – I don’t picture Harry wishing he still had the capability to talk to snakes later on in his life.

Andrew: Yeah, he’d just want to move on.

Mikey: Move on, touch his scar, go, “It’s not hurting anymore.”

Andrew: Any other thoughts? Questions?

Mikey: Anybody want to come up and tell us about Harry?

Andrew: If you do have something to say…

Mikey: Come on up.

Andrew: …come up, make a line on either side.

Harry Using the Unforgivable Curses

Mikey: We have somebody right here. Name, where you’re from…

Andrew: Come on my side to win…

Audience Member: I’m…

Andrew: …a free party hat.

Audience Member: …Zoe. I’m from Pittsburgh.

[Audience cheers]

Andrew: Yes! Yes! Pittsburgh!

Audience Member: And we were talking about Harry using the Unforgivable Curses, but he used – yeah, he used the Imperius Curse, but Griphook told him to, so – yeah, but…

Jamie: So he’s even more useless than we thought, first of all. [laughs]

[Everyone laughs]

Audience Member: But Griphook – Griphook…

Jamie: Yeah.

Audience Member: …told him to, and it was an extreme circumstance because he was going to get killed by the Gringotts people, and yeah. But – and then he did use the Cruciatus Curse. He used it in the sixth book too. He tried to use it on Bellatrix. Or the fifth. The fifth! Sorry! He tried to use it on Bellatrix but it didn’t really work. He wasn’t mean enough. He didn’t mean it. Then he did. Like he took her advice, which is a little weird.

Jamie: Yeah, obviously, there are separate circumstances and when he used the
Imperius Curse, I think the war had gone so far then that, you know, everything went. Voldemort would use them. Harry has to beat Voldemort, so Voldemort should have the same powers that – sorry, that – so Harry should have the same Vol – powers that Voldemort has the entire way. So I think everything went by then.

Mikey: Do you want to go on this side?

Jamie: Should we take another point?

Andrew: Yeah. Hi. What’s your name where are you from?

Harry’s Trust in Neville

Audience Member: I’m Claire from D.C. And I was wondering…

[Audience cheers]

Andrew: D.C., yeah!

Emerson: Wait, did you say, D.C., as in Washington, D.C.?

Audience Member: Yeah, as in Washington, D.C. [laughs]

Emerson: That’s…

Mikey: Wow. Five hours?

Audience Member: It’s five hours.

Emerson: Five hours? Yeah? Ben and I made that drive…

Jamie: Wow.

Emerson: …in the middle of the night about a month ago. Lesson – was anybody – did anybody come and see Ben and I when we were here in Pittsburgh?

[A few audience members cheer]

Emerson: About a month ago? Got some hands up. Cool. Cool.

Andrew: MuggleCast brings out the real crowds though…

Mikey: Yep. I think Remus Lupins do.

Claire: Okay. So why do you think in the last scene, Harry chose only to talk to Neville? He didn’t talk to Ginny, he didn’t tell Ron or Hermione where he’s going, he didn’t tell any of the Weasleys where he’s going. He talked to Neville. Why did he trust Neville?

Jamie: Because they shared the connection. It’s sort of – it could have been Neville who was in Harry’s place, I think. And Harry trusted him because Neville has never ever led him astray. He’s shown him loyalty unlike people like Seamus who have once in a while said, “Well, I don’t think you’re telling the truth.” But Neville has always been there for Harry, even through Books 1 – even in the first book he was his friend straight away.

Andrew: Yeah.

Jamie: And he’s still his friend now, so that’s probably why he trusted him.

Andrew: And Harry saw how much he changed in the book. I mean, Harry – Neville really did a full 180, which is one of the reasons why I sort of assumed he would be one of the people who was going to get knocked off.

Jamie: But instead he knocked off the snake.

Andrew: Mikey?

Mikey: I…

Andrew: Yeah.

Mikey: …also think it was kind of convenient that Neville was just right there as he was…

Andrew: Exactly.

Mikey: …walking away.

Andrew: Yeah.

Jamie: Yeah.

Andrew: That was the whole thing.

Mikey: So I think that’s probably why.

Andrew: Yes.

Mikey: I don’t know.

Andrew: Thank you for playing.

Mikey: I was just…

Jamie: So if – so, Mikey, if Voldemort had just been standing there, would he have entrusted it to him?

Mikey: Maybe. It’s like, “Hey, Voldy. You need to kill that snake because – yeah.”

Andrew: Mikey…

Mikey: Maybe not.

Andrew: Mikey…

Mikey: Who knows.

Andrew: …for one more final time…

Mikey: Everybody, let’s…

Andrew and Mikey: Give it up for Molly Weasley!

Mikey: Seriously!

[Andrew laughs]

[Audience cheers]

Mikey: …how cool was that?! How cool was that?! Yeah, Ben Schoen. Yeah. Yeah, Ben Schoen. Molly Weasley everybody. It just – come on. Can you not imagine the movie? You know, you got – you got Hermione, you got Ginny, and you got Luna dueling Bellatrix in like a triangle formation. It’s going all cool. And then Bellatrix is like, “Avada Kedavra,” and misses Ginny by like just a hair. And Molly Weasley’s like, “Get away from my daughter, you witch!”

[Audience laughs]

Mikey: Yes, we replaced the “b” with a “w” on MuggleCast because it’s still a kids’ show.

Jamie: I love how you act it out…

Mikey: I always…

Jamie: …as well.

Mikey: …act it out!

Jamie: It’s brilliant.

Mikey: It’s amazing! It’s just like – it’s going to be so cool! I get a little excited…

Jamie: Ben…

Mikey: …when I talk about books…

Jamie: …wouldn’t you agree that it was Mikey’s choice to act it out? And there’s one character in the Harry Potter series – okay.

Mikey: So why – why would Molly Weasley do such a thing, Ben Schoen?

Jamie: There is a reason, I’m sure.

Mikey: I’m sure there is.

Jamie: Dum…

Ben: No idea.

Mikey: [laughs] Aww! I think Dumbledore may have said it best, Ben Schoen.

Ben: [as Dumbledore] “It is our choices, Harry, far more than our abilities…”

[Audience cheers]

Ben: “…that determine what we truly are.”

Mikey: He goes to work into every show. Ben Schoen, everybody. How amazing is he?

Jamie: We have a lot of questions. Should we send it off?

Andrew: The thing is, though, now that J.K. Rowling has said that “b” word, I think that means we can.

Mikey: I don’t know. I feel – that’s kind of a potty word.

Ben: So can I call you that on the show? I mean…

Andrew: No.

Ben: …is that cool?

Andrew: No, that’s still offensive, Ben. The Alcatraz shirt on today. Anyway…

Mikey: I’ll still call him a witch.

Andrew: Here’s a party hat. What’s your name? Where are you from?

Mikey: We have people over here.

Andrew: Oh, sorry. Let me give you a mic because that’s important.

Ben: Name…

Rowling’s Forgotten Character

Audience Member: All right.

Ben: …age…

Audience Member: I’m Elizabeth.

Ben: …where you’re from.

Audience Member: From Pittsburgh, here. And…

[A few audience members cheer]

Audience Member: …I…

Mikey: Pittsburgh.

Audience Member: My question is, if you guys have figured out who learned magic later in life. Like, have you…

Ben: She…

Audience Member: …thought about that before?

Ben: …brought that up on the web-chat too. She said that – yeah, she forgot about that and just sort of…

Andrew: No, no, no…

Ben: She changed her mind basically.

Mikey: By Book 3 she decided, “Ah, it’s over. I don’t need to put that in anymore.”

Andrew: Yeah. Which doesn’t make sense. I mean…

Mikey: Yeah.

Andrew: Didn’t she say that after Book 3, or is that just a quote everyone’s been dwelling on?

Mikey: I don’t know. She can do whatever she wants. She’s Jo Rowling.

Andrew: Yeah. Her excuse is that she said that before Book 3, but then she changed her mind, so whatever. Luckily someone brought that up in the web-chat, because otherwise we would’ve been like: [speaks nonsense in deliberately clueless voice]

Mikey: I think it was Andrew Sims who got magic, everybody. Anyway, we have some people over here. What’s your name, where are you from?

Harry Was a Horcrux

Audience Member: I’m Marissa from Pittsburgh and my question was, do you think the only reason that Harry was going to be sorted into Slytherin was because a piece of Voldemort was in him?

Emerson: Yes, we do, actually, and that brings me to another point, that, yes, I have been making for the past several events, because you have to understand, Ben and I spent the entire summer – every single city we went to – we spent probably about half each trip defending a certain theory that was not popular. Extremely unpopular actually.

Mikey: He’s right though.

Emerson: It actually got lots of nasty looks and lots of nasty arguments over, that we were suddenly found to be vindicated over in the seventh book. We proposed that Harry was a Horcrux, and we were laughed at.

Mikey: Over, and over, and over.

Emerson: Over and over.

Mikey: I believed them though.

Emerson: So now we take a moment here to toot our own horns. [blows party horn]

Andrew: He’s waiting for an applause, folks, so if you just give it to him, you’ll make him happy.

Mikey: Toot our birthday horns for Harry Potter, everybody.

[Audience cheers, horns toot]

Jamie: We also…

Mikey: I’m having fun.

Jamie: We also offered odds that Dobby wasn’t going to die at a 100 to 1, so that kind of gets away from that, but I think we did well.

Emerson: Okay, we didn’t accurately predict the death of every single one of the thirty-five million characters who died in the book. I apologize for that.

Jamie: Yeah, all thirty-five million. [sighs]

[Audience laughs]

Ben: There’s a lot of behind-the-scenes.

Andrew: What were your odds for somebody stabbing him in the chest?

Jamie: Like quite high. If you’d put money on that, you’d be a millionaire by now.

Andrew: Two to one.

Mikey: How sad was Hedwig’s death? Really. That was sad.

Ben: A moment of silence for Hedwig, please.

Mikey: It’s a bird.

Ben: Okay, that was good.

Andrew: I like how J.K. Rowling explained that, though, in the web-chat. She said that that marked the end of his childhood, which I thought…

Jamie: The symbolism’s all there, with the pure, brilliant, white snowy owl and that dying, and the animal symbolism, so I guess that’s pretty good.

Andrew: Yeah.

Mikey: I guess that’s good, Andrew.

Jamie: Should we take the next question?

Mikey: Let’s take another one.

Andrew: Sure. Hi, what’s your name and where are you from? Where’s the party at? Oops, sorry.

Mikey: I guess that’s the better line. They get free gifts when they go to that side. I’m sorry, guys. Andrew doesn’t give me stuff.

The Secret-Keeper Discrepancy

Audience Member: I’m Caitlin and I’m from Kane.

Andrew: Yes, Kane. Woo!

Audience Member: That’s in Pennsylvania, by the way.

Mikey: Wow, give it up for Kane, Pennsylvania.

[Audience cheers]

Audience Member: Four thousand people in Kane.

Mikey: Yeah!

Audience Member: Going back to the Secret-Keeper thing on her website, the discrepancy, do you think she just changed her mind or did she forget that she wrote that?

Jamie: It’s to do with Dumbledore dying and it going into his – do you want to explain it a bit more, because I’m not entirely sure.

Andrew: Yeah, what are you…

Audience Member: On her website she said that when the Secret-Keeper dies, the secret dies with him so no one else can find the place but the people that were in on the secret. But in Deathly Hallows, when the Secret-Keeper dies, everyone in turn becomes a Secret-Keeper. So…

Jamie: I think she probably just…

Ben: I think it makes sense. I think what she said on her website was that the secret dies with him, but if they share the secret with other people, she never specified on her website whether or not that makes them a Secret-Keeper, which is what she cleared up in the book.

Andrew: Wasn’t that explained in the book though?

Mikey: No, no, no, what was said on the website, because I actually was reading the website today for some reason. It was actually that the curse, or the protection charm, does not get lifted, but she never explained how it went on beyond that. She said that the charm still exists, and then in Book 7 she explained that everybody who knew who was in on the secret becomes the Secret-Keeper. And now with the thirty-some odd people from the Order and the kids and everyone, and they knew the secret, they all were kind of at risk at revealing their secret. I think so.

Jamie: Sounds about right.

Andrew: Yeah, thank you.

Mikey: Okay, we have some people over here. What is your name?

MuggleCast 106 Transcript (continued)

No Offspring Named After Sirius

Audience Member: Maddy from Pittsburgh. My question is, why didn’t Harry name a kid after Sirius?

[Audience cheers]

Audience Member: I mean, he named one after every single person in the world except for Sirius.

Jamie: She actually posted on her website that Albus Severus – she missed out his third middle name. It was Albus Severus Sirius.

Mikey: And didn’t they get a black dog named Sirius too? I’m making that up.

Jamie: We’re joking, by the way, yeah.

Mikey: I’m sorry, they made that up. They didn’t call it Padfoot or Sirius. It’s called Ben Schoen.

Foreshadowing in Movie 3

Andrew: Next question? Hi, where are you from? Here’s a party hat. Let’s all celebrate the festivities today!

Audience Member: Hi, I’m Spencer from Pittsburgh. I was wondering, I don’t know how long ago it was that J.K. Rowling said that she saw something in the Prisoner of Azkaban movie that she thought people would look back on and think was foreshadowing something from Deathly Hallows. I was wondering what it was and if it could be that she thought people would think Snape conjured the Patronus…

Jamie: Yeah.

Audience Member: …at the lake with the Dementors. Because he has a doe Patronus and it might be mistaken for a stag.

Jamie: Oh!

Mikey: Huh.

Andrew: That’s an interesting question, because…

Emerson: Something someone else pointed out at another event we did was maybe it was when – it was either Fred or George was joking about after Harry falls off his broom, that they made a joke about falling off of the Astronomy Tower, which then in Half-Blood Prince, Dumbledore obviously falls off of. So they were saying maybe that’s the foreshadowing that they did unintentionally.

Jamie: That’s quite a small hint, though. That’s like…

Emerson: Yeah.

Jamie: I know what you mean, though, yeah.

Emerson: But if it was unintentional, then it probably wasn’t anything major.

Jamie: I like the doe thing, though.

Andrew: Yeah, yeah.

Jamie: I think that’s a good idea. Very good idea.

Andrew: Yeah.

Mikey: He thought it was his dad, though.

Jamie: It was the Shrunken Head!

Andrew: Someone’s got to ask Jo.

Jamie: That was…

Andrew: Yeah, the Shrunken Head.

Mikey: Shrunken Head’s like a Horcrux. [imitating the Shrunken Head] “Take it away, Ern!”

Jamie: Take a question from that side.

Mikey: Yeah, a question from this side.

What If Snape Had Died Sooner?

Audience Member: Hi. I’m Katie from Pittsburgh, and my question was just – Harry seemed to be in the right place at the right time when Snape died. And what do you think would have happened if he had gotten there after Snape died?

Jamie: He’d be covered in the memories and he’d just have to scoop it up off his body and put it into a glass.

Mikey: Wow.

Jamie: Sorry.

Mikey: That’s kind of gruesome, Jamie.

Ben: Had he not died, I think – had Harry not been there, I mean. He probably would’ve faced Voldemort and – I mean, he never would’ve known Snape’s true loyalty, obviously, and he wouldn’t have known that he was a Horcrux, but – I mean, I don’t know if it – would it have changed the outcome, you think?

Jamie: Yeah, because he wouldn’t – he wouldn’t have found out everything about him, so he wouldn’t have wandered into danger knowing he had to die and all that kind of thing. It was instrumental, but it was just luck, as you say, that Harry was there at the right time.

Mikey: Yeah. He also wouldn’t have known he was a Horcrux, too. So he wouldn’t have been able to open the Snitch and all those wonderful things…

Jamie: [laughs] Yeah.

Mikey: …that just coincidentally happened because Harry is so lucky as the Boy Who Lived and gets everything handed…

Emerson: The Boy Who Lucked Out.

Jamie: Yeah, that’s his new name.

Mikey: Yeah, he has a murderer after him. He’s a very lucky boy.

What Happened to the Resurrection Stone Ghosts?

Andrew: What’s your name, where are you from?

Audience Member: Oh, it’s my turn? My name’s Mary and I’m from Pittsburgh. Do I get a party hat?

Andrew: Sure.

[Audience laughs]

Audience Member: Sweet.

Mikey: That’s why she came up here. She just wants a party hat. I still got the blow thingys, though.

Audience Member: Okay. Did anybody else wonder what happened to the people that the
Resurrection Stone was used on? Because it said that they came back sort of as ghosts, but do you think they stayed like that, or they went back to being dead? Because as…

Ben: I think that they went back to being dead.

Audience Member: Because everybody’s argued…

Jamie: Yeah. I agree.

Audience Member: …”oh, he didn’t actually die, he was in limbo.” But he assumed that they would go away after he sacrificed himself and died. So what happened to them then?

Mikey: They went away when they dropped the Stone. So the Stone itself is what gave him the power to bring them back, but he doesn’t actually bring them back to life. And since he dropped the stone – Jo actually answered in her transcript what happened to it – since he dropped it somewhere in the Forest, she’s like, “I imagine one of the centaurs stepping on it, and it getting buried, and no one ever finding it again.” So I hope that kind of answers your question where it’s like, the Stone is what has the power, because it’s one of the three Deathly Hallows.

Jamie: I always imagined it like a Priori Incantatem thing, when they came out, but they were vapory, and they didn’t last long, and you knew they weren’t real, but then they went away, you know.

Mikey: I thought of them as like pudding because it’s kind of tasty.

[Audience laughs]

Emerson: By the way, that hat looks a bit like…

Mikey: Bad joke.

Emerson: …a bit like an erumpent horn. And those are bad news…

Jamie: Yeah, they are.

Emerson: …so be careful with that thing. Be careful with those.

Jamie: That’s very true.

Back to Harry Using Unforgivable Curses

Audience Member: Okay. Hi, my name’s Josh from Pittsburgh, and I’ve sort of have a question and a sort of thing. And I sort of agree with you guys when you said that Harry was a Horcrux, because technically he does follow the definition of one. Part of his soul cut out into something.

Jamie: Are you going to “but”?

Audience Member: Huh?

Jamie: But…

Audience Member: No, I’m not going to say “but.” I’m just agreeing with you guys.

Jamie: Oh, okay. [laughs]

Ben: Okay, good. Well…

Jamie: Thank you.

Audience Member: Well, also, she said that Harry didn’t mean the curses in the books. And that just sort of, kind of, makes me confused. Because when he did the Cruciatus Curse on Bellatrix, I think he would have meant it because his godfather had just died and she had killed her. I don’t really know what’s up with that.

Jamie: I think – I always thought the point was that you have to want to hurt them, whereas she just wanted – sorry – whereas Harry just wanted revenge. He didn’t…

Ben: Well, she said that…

Jamie: …actually cause pain.

Ben: …sheer emotion alone isn’t enough to actually make the curse work.

Jamie: Yeah.

Ben: I think it has to be something you’re conditioned to do. You have to be conditioned to be just at the art of hurting people. I mean, I really think that’s what it is.

Jamie: Yeah. And he just wanted to get her out of the way. He didn’t want to cause her pain. He just wanted to kill her. That’s probably it. But…

Mikey: Okay.

Andrew: Okay.

Jamie: Next one.

The Mandrakes

Andrew: What’s your name, where are you from?

Audience Member: I’m Lani. I’m from Pittsburgh.

Andrew: Say that again.

Audience Member: I’m Lani. I’m from Pittsburgh.

Andrew: Woo! Anyone here from Exton? Exton? Murrysville? Yes! I used to live there. All right.

Mikey: Wow.

Audience Member: When Neville and Professor Sprout and all of the people who are carrying Mandrakes to throw at the Death Eaters, they all have earmuffs on. But Harry passes them and he doesn’t have earmuffs. And all of the others on the castle and grounds, why don’t they die? Because the cry of the Mandrake is fatal.

Andrew: See, J.K. Rowling, when she writes these books, is not perfect.

[Audience laughs]

Andrew: I don’t – is there a good explanation for that? I mean, I guess that’s why that chapter was called “The Flaw in the Plan.”

[Audience laughs]

Emerson: Maybe – did they cast Muffliato and he didn’t hear it perfectly?

Andrew: Do you have to really hear it?

Audience Member: The Mandrakes were in the pots.

Emerson: Oh, yeah.

Audience Member 2: They were in the pots, and they were going to pull them out of the pots.

Audience Member: Well, yeah, but when they throw them, why doesn’t everyone else on the grounds die? [laughs]

Andrew: Rar!

Audience Member 2: Because…

[Audience laughs]

Audience Member 2: Didn’t Flitwik cast the Muffliato curse – charm on the castle? Wasn’t that one of the things he was doing?

Audience Member: I don’t think so.

Andrew: I don’t know, let’s keep an eye on these two. I have a feeling there’s going to be a brawl after the show.

Mikey: I’ve got an answer. I’ve got an answer for that.

Audience Member: We know each other.

Andrew: Oh, okay. They know each other, folks. All right, I don’t…

Mikey: It’s a book. It’s not perfect.

Andrew: …maybe they were in the pot. Maybe they still were in the pot. Maybe they weren’t pulled out yet. But they did have earmuffs.

Emerson: See, I always feel like the – they’re kind of like one of those little creatures that can be used – if it was real for whatever reason – they could just throw one of them in the middle of the Hogwarts grounds, and it would be like a magical bomb. Because everybody around them would just drop.

[Andrew laughs]

Emerson: Okay.

Andrew: What’s your point?

Emerson: I’m done.

Mikey: Could you imagine just going [makes multiple sounds] and then you die.

Andrew: They were flying around his head, I’m sure.

Jamie: They should pack a hundred Mandrakes into a bomb and then just drop it. That would work. That would cover everywhere.

Andrew: By the way, this guy right here – I can’t help but notice – he’s wearing the MuggleNet shirt from the England podcast. Were you there? Yeah, you were there, yeah, I recognize you. What are you doing here? Just out of curiosity.

Audience Member: I work at the airport.

Andrew: Oh, nice. Wow. Check that out, Jamie.

Jamie: That’s pretty cool. That’s very cool.

Andrew: Waterstones called the podcast – can you turn around and show the audience? – “MuggleNet’s” – what does it say? – “biggest ever podcast event.” That was the name of it.

Audience Member: It was the 100th episode.

Andrew: Yeah, it was the 100th episode, yeah. Yeah, nice shirts. Not for sale, sorry, folks. All right. Oh, hold on. On the right there.

Jamie: Well, he can sell it if he wants to. It’s not ours.

Andrew: Yeah, he could sell his, sure. On the right.

Jamie: We’ll start the bidding at…

Andrew: On the right, Mikey?

Is Snape Still Evil?

Audience Member: Hi, I’m Allie. I’m from Manaka, Pennsylvania, and my question is, Voldemort killed Snape, but do any of you think Snape is still evil?

Andrew: No.

Mikey: He’s a jerk.

Andrew: I’m going to refer to the web-chat again. J.K. Rowling sees Snape as a hero. An anti-hero, yeah, exactly. So if J.K. Rowling doesn’t think he’s evil, then I don’t think we should.

Jamie: I agree.

Emerson: After the event yesterday, someone actually came up and asked a really good question that made me think for a second. They said, “Which character do you think had the worst life?” And I was thinking about all the characters who might’ve had bad childhoods, like Voldemort, and Dumbledore, and Harry, and I was thinking, it has to be Snape.

Jamie: I agree, yeah.

Emerson: Because Voldemort was obviously in a different kind of ball game, because he wasn’t capable of feeling love, and he didn’t feel that hurt that Snape must have been feeling every minute of everyday by not having – by never being able to get Lily, and by being mistreated, and always being an outcast.

Jamie: Voldemort enjoyed his life near the end, as well. He liked the power, he liked operating alone; whereas Snape, you know, he went from the horrible childhood that you just described into a life where he was playing double agent. He didn’t know who to trust, everyone else hated him, so – and then he died with Hogwarts thinking that he was a traitor. So I agree, he had the saddest life, easily.

Ben: What about Harry, though? I mean his was pretty bad, too, wasn’t it?

Jamie: Yeah, but at least he’s now grown up with a person he loves, and the children he loves, as well. And he saved the day.

Andrew: And not dying early at the hands of Voldemort.

Jamie: Yeah, exactly. I think Snape. I agree.

Andrew: Okay, next question.

Jamie: That was a nice moment.

Who Helped Harry the Most?

Audience Member: I’m Jess from Pittsburgh, here. And my question is, throughout the books we’ve seen so many people help Harry. Who do you guys think helped him the most? Like…

Ben: Hermione.

Audience Member: …the absolutely most?

Jamie: Hermione, yeah.

Ben: Oh, wait, Dumbledore a lot, too, though.

Jamie: Yeah.

Andrew: Dumbledore, too.

Ben: But he wouldn’t be able to – he wouldn’t have been able to win, had Hermione not been there, so…

Andrew: Yeah.

Ben: …I’m going to say Hermione.

Audience Member: He would be dead the first [unintelligible] without Hermione there.

Jamie: Yeah, he would.

Emerson: He would have died about ten thousand times by now without Hermione. Hermione just – she’s read so many books. She always knows the right spell for the situation. And Harry – his strategy is just to go barging into whatever house, or whatever thing he’s trying to figure – like Godric’s Hollow, whatever. Hermione said, “No, Harry, slow down. We need a plan. And make sure we cast all the right spells and we’ve covered all of our angles.” But Harry, he’s such a Gryffindor. He doesn’t really plan things out, like maybe he should. Like in the fifth book, when he gets this image of Sirius in his head, and, “Oh, I know what I’ve got to do. I’ve got to go by myself into the Department of Mysteries to go face Voldemort. And, yeah, I’m going to go take him down. I don’t know how, but I’m going to do it.”

Jamie: Well, I’ve always seen it…

Ben: And then Hermione’s like, “no, Harry, you need us,” and she was absolutely right.
Harry would have been completely screwed on his own.

Jamie: I’ve always seen it as like a triangle, so at the top you have Harry, then you have Dumbledore and Hermione. Dumbledore gives Harry the clues but he’s too stupid to figure them out, so then they go down to Hermione, she figures them out then tells Harry.

Andrew: That’s a good one.

Jamie: That about sums up every book.

Mikey: Except in Deathly Hallows where Harry figured out the Deathly Hallows before
Hermione.

Jamie: Wow, one thing in seven books.

Emerson: And Hermione kept him alive through the first 500 pages, so…

Ben: And something that’s bugging me, by the way…

Mikey: I’m just saying, Harry figured out.

Ben: Something’s bugging me. It’s Hallows, not Hollows, by the way.

Mikey: Hallows, hallows, hallows.

Andrew: I’ll never get it right.

Ben: Just to clear that up.

Mikey: I keep messing it up, I’m sorry.

Jamie: Wait, what is it? It is Hallows.

Ben: Hallows.

Mikey: Hallows.

Andrew: Hallows.

Emerson: I just feel weird saying Hallows. I don’t know why.

Mikey: Hallooows! Ha-ha, that’s a funny joke, right, everybody? No, okay. We have a few
more people.

Ben: Good one, Mikey.

Elder Wand Rules

Audience Member: Hi, I’m Justine from Pittsburgh. At the end of the book, Harry said that if he dies a natural death that the Elder Wand’s powers will go away, but Malfoy gets the wand from disarming Dumbledore and then Harry gets it from disarming Malfoy, so if someone disarms Harry won’t they get the…

Jamie: Yeah, they will.

Ben: So is it really as simple as disarming somebody though? I mean…

Jamie: Well, no, they say that wand-lore is very precise, so it might work sometimes, it might not work the next time. So I think it just depends on the context of the situation. That’s what Ollivander said.

Mikey: Really, do you guys think anyone in the Wizarding World’s going to be like, “All right, Harry beat Lord Voldemort, I want to go duel Harry,” because, come on. I’m going to be like, “Yeah, I’m going to disarm you, and…”

Ben: I’d want my shot, I don’t know about you.

Jamie: Yeah.

Mikey: You know what? I wouldn’t want to try even! I would rather shake his hand, be
like, “Good job, guy, I don’t think I could do that.” Who knows. We’ll have to see
from Book 12 or something like that to come out.

Andrew: Next question?

Emerson: See one question I’d like to ask J.K. Rowling is what happened to the wand? After he uses it to fix his own wand, would he destroy it? Would he – I wouldn’t imagine – he’s going to bury it? Like…

Jamie: That is so stupid and rash, I know.

Emerson: I mean, in the magical world, you’re just going to bury something? I think he
would like…

[Audience Member talks]

Jamie: Yeah, that’s a fair point.

Emerson: What?

[Audience Member talks]

Emerson: But I feel like Voldemort already got it out of there once, why would he really just decide to leave it in the tomb and then hope no one goes and digs up the tomb, like one person just did a hundred pages ago. I feel like Harry – I feel like he should destroy the wand.

Jamie: Hermione will be there and cast all the charms over it that protect it, and
she’ll help him out. That’s what’ll happen.

Voldemort Opening Dumbledore’s Tomb

Andrew: One thing that really bothered me in the book, that I sort of found like borderline disgusting, was when Voldemort opened up Dumbledore’s tomb to get the wand out. That was just like…

Ben: That was kind of bad, yeah.

Andrew: It was so disrespectful. Not that Voldemort cares, but still, I felt offended. I was like, “What!? Why open it up?” Not cool.

Emerson: Well, he’s Voldemort, what do you expect?

Jamie: I didn’t expect him to drop down and kneel and pray before his grave, you
know…

Ben: The point that he was trying to make is just that it was kind of like a gross
thing that happened.

Andrew: It was gross, yeah.

Jamie: Oh it was, yeah.

Andrew: Eww.

Emerson: I mean, this is the same guy who’s chopping his soul up into like – to
make a soul kind of soup so he doesn’t care about looking at another corpse. He’s already killed so many people.

Andrew: Yeah.

Mikey: He also used his Dad’s bone to come back to life, which is kind of gross too, when you think about it. Dad, bone.

Andrew. Yeah. Okay, moving on. Next question.

All Four Marauders Died

Audience Member: I’m Jordan from Princeton, West Virginia, and I know before Book 7 came out there was lots of speculation that all four of the Marauders had to die, and I wondered what you guys thought about that, especially since Lupin wasn’t originally intended to die but then he did.

Ben: And did anyone else notice that they did end up dying in reverse order? Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, Prongs? Yeah.

Andrew: They did or didn’t?

Ben: They did end up dying in reverse order.

Andrew: Yeah, that was a big theory. Everyone was really relying on that for some reason.

Ben: Who here – I was kind of disappointed with Wormtail’s death. I expected it to actually be something really sacrificial, rather than him just killing himself.

Jamie: I didn’t think you could strangle yourself either.

Ben: Well, I think it was the hand, the magic ability behind the hand, that did it.

Jamie: I agree.

Andrew: All right, two more quick questions and then we’ll wrap it up. Sorry, guys, sorry! I know, I suck.

Harry’s Ability to Get Into Grimmauld Place

Audience Member: I’m Jolie from Shaler, outside of Pittsburgh. I wanted to know how Harry was able to just get into Grimmauld Place simply by saying, “I didn’t kill you.” Wouldn’t Snape have been able to say the same thing and get in?

Mikey: Harry was always able to get into Grimmauld Place, just like Snape was, but
it was the – kind of the dust Dumbledore was the way to repel that, was to say that you didn’t kill Dumbledore.

Audience Member: Didn’t Snape say that?

Jamie: Exactly, that’s what I thought. What would Snape had said if he’d come in?

Mikey: Well, I would assume Snape would just conjure a dust buster and…. [makes vacuum noise] Bye, Dumbledore.

Andrew: Dust buster. [laughs]

Jamie: Probably, Mikey, that would be a good one.

Mikey: That would be kind of cool…

Andrew: Dust Buster!

Mikey: …seeing that in the movie or something like that.

Jamie: That would be very cool.

Mikey: But no, to get into Grimmauld Place, you just had to know where it was at, and he was able to get in, but we did find out in the chat that Snape did go back to Grimmauld Place, but right after Dumbledore’s death, to get the second part of the letter. So before Moody had…

Jamie: Had the chance to put those enchantments on, yeah.

Mikey: Yep, exactly.

Andrew: All right, last question for today from this guy right here. Happy Birthday. It’s not really your birthday. Anyway, what’s your question, where are you from?

Audience Member: Hi, I’m…

Andrew: Whoops, sorry.

Dumbledore’s Letter to Petunia

Audience Member: Hi, I’m Tyler from Bradford, and in the book we learn that Petunia wrote a
letter to Dumbledore, and Lily said that it was really kind, so what do you think his
response was?

Andrew: Lily said that it was really kind?

Audience Member: The return letter from Dumbledore. The letter Dumbledore wrote back was really nice.

Andrew: Oh, oh, so you’re asking what the response was? Any theories?

[Audience members talk]

Jamie: Actually, yeah, yeah…

Andrew: Right, because it was – her original letter was asking to go to Hogwarts,
right?

Audience Member: Yeah.

Andrew: So Dumbledore’s – okay. Maybe it was just like, “Sorry, but you’re not…”

Ben: “A witch”?

Andrew: “…fit for this.” A witch, yeah.

[Audience members talks]

Andrew: What’s that?

Mikey: No, but she didn’t have any bags with her. I wouldn’t go to Hogwarts with no
bags. Who knows? We’ll find out in the encyclopedia maybe.

Andrew: Good question, though. I’m sure whatever it was, Dumbledore was working his
magic, and he probably sent little chocolate covered frogs, or something like
that.

[Audience laughs]

Jamie: Yeah.

Emerson: So, we have a girl right here who came all the way from Connecticut, so I say we should give her a question.

[Audience applauds]

Andrew: Yay!

Mikey: One more question. Eight-hour drive. Seriously. Or Remus, I guess you should say.

Dumbledore and Aberforth Live Near Each Other

Audience Member: Hi, I’m Sarah from Connecticut, and I was just wondering, since Dumbledore’s brother, Aberforth, he didn’t like Dumbledore, why did he live so close to him? He
lived like right down the street.

Mikey: I think real estate was probably cheap in Hogsmeade.

[Andrew and audience laugh]

Mikey: He had the Hog’s Head there, plus there was probably an abundance of goats
around.

[Audience laughs]

Mikey: I don’t know. I can’t answer that. Jamie?

Ben: Maybe his job thrusted him into living there.

Jamie: Yeah. He moved away to Hogsmeade and he had to be a bartender there instead…

Mikey: Yeah.

Jamie: …of somewhere else where he was. And he just liked being there. And, on a serious note, he was part of a greater plan and I’m sure even though Dumbledore and him hadn’t reconciled, I think he probably told him a bit of stuff about the plan.

Ben: Yeah, and the distance is really as far as you make it anyways. I mean, just because they were that close to each other doesn’t mean they actually had to see each other, so…

Jamie: And distance isn’t really important in the Wizarding World when you can disappear and reappear a thousand miles away in one second.

Andrew: Yeah.

Mikey: Yeah, I guess that makes sense.

Jamie: Everyone is everyone’s neighbor.

Mikey: We do have one more person to come on up here.

Andrew: Alex, man.

Alex: Hi.

Mikey: Hi.

Andrew: It’s the end of the road for us. I’m getting a little emo right now.

Alex: Don’t be sad. It’s all right.

Mikey: We’ll see you guys in a – whoa.

Book 7 Page Count

Audience Member: I came all the way from Virginia, and I was wondering, according to your site, Book 7 is supposed to have 784 pages, but…

Andrew: I got an answer to that.

Ben: Actually, I gave you that answer, so…

Andrew: Yeah, okay. [laughs] Go for it.

Ben: When Scholastic does the page counts, they don’t do the number – the number doesn’t matter. They count every individual page, so including the acknowledgements, including the dedication, including all that, because Order of the Phoenix was originally listed as 898 pages, but the last page number is actually 870, so there you go.

Jamie: That explains that one.

Show Close

Andrew: Thanks for playing. You’re welcome. So, we’ve been on tour for the past eight shows. I got to say, we’ve all really enjoyed it. Thank you for letting us come on.

Alex: Thank you guys for coming and talking about Harry Potter.

Andrew: I’m going to cry.

Alex: Don’t cry, Sims.

Andrew: I’m not crying. Just kidding.

Alex: Okay.

Mikey: We’ll see you in two days, really.

Alex: Yeah, we’re going to see each other in a couple days. But I wanted to bring up one person, who’s a very special person who came all the way out for our last show. You guys, Sean Astin is here.

Mikey: Sean Astin, from Lord of the Rings, everybody!

Alex: Sean Astin, ladies and gentlemen.

[Audience cheers]

Mikey: Get on my back, Mr. Frodo!

Alex: And Sean wanted to say something.

[Audience applauds]

Sean: I just wanted to say that I think that J.R.R. Tolkien was the original writer of Harry Potter.

Andrew: Aw, come on now.

Sean: I mean, the whole thing with Samwise, and…

Andrew: I’m pretty sure you haven’t read the books so I don’t think you have any room to talk.

Alex: It is pretty similar. Sean, “Mr. Frodo” and “Harry.” It’s like the same exact thing, basically.

Sean: It’s the exact same thing.

Mikey: Wow.

Alex: Thanks, Samwise.

Ben: RUDY, RUDY, RUDY, RUDY! [laughs]

Andrew: Thanks for letting us come on this tour, seriously.

Mikey: Anyway…

Andrew: Brandon, thank you for your help with all the technical thingys over there that you’re doing. Also, thanks to Mikey for organizing this thing for us. Mikey, you’re the man.

Jamie: Thank you, Mikey.

[Audience cheers]

Emerson: And before we let you all go, the Remus Lupins are going to come up here in
a minute and they’re going to rock, hardcore, all you guys, but after the show we are going to have merchandise for sale. You can buy all the Remus Lupins’ CDs and buttons and t-shirts. MuggleCast tour t-shirts; you can only buy them here. And also, six months ago Warner Brothers made us stop selling t-shirts, MuggleNet
t-shirts on the website, but tonight we have a few left for sale, so after the show you’ll have an opportunity to buy those for $15 each.

Mikey: And that’s after the Remus Lupins play.

Andrew: Yeah, so stick around.

Mikey: So, after everything is done, so we don’t have to worry about missing them at
all.

Andrew: Then we’ll do the merchandise and the meet and greet, so meet and greet,
merchandise after the Remus Lupins play. They have a great show coming up. You guys
are going to love this music. It’s a lot of fun, so thank, everyone, for coming out.

Jamie: Thank you for coming!

Emerson: Thank you!

[Audience cheers]

Mikey: Yes! MuggleCast Episode 193.

Andrew: We’ll see you guys in a little bit.

———————–

Transcript #105

August 20, 2007 / MuggleCast

MuggleCast 105 Transcript

Show Intro

[Intro music begins]

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Laura: …dot com.

[Intro music begins]

Andrew: Today’s MuggleNet Podcast is brought to you by Borders. In May, thousands of Harry Potter fans descended upon New Orleans for a Phoenix Rising Conference. Borders was there to take in the sights, and share a lively disscussion of the series that has bewitched the world with some of Harry’s most dedicated fans. Listen in or watch the action yourself. Check out the Phoenix Rising Borders Book Club Disscussion at BordersMedia.com/HarryPotter or click on the Borders Banner at the top of the Mugglenet page.

[Show music begins]

Jamie: Andrew’s doing some technical stuff now. You ready?

Andrew: Yeah, sorry, sorry. We’re ready to go. How’s everyone doing today?

[Audience cheers]

Andrew: Welcome to MuggleCast Live in Canton, Ohio.

Ben: What number is this?

Mikey: What number?

Andrew: It’s not Cleveland. So it sounds like we hit a big town.

Mikey: No, it’s Canton.

Andrew: How far away are we from Cleveland?

Audience Member: 60 miles.

Andrew: 60 miles? That’s not too bad. It’s the first outdoor podcast we’ve done.

Jamie: Yeah.

Andrew: Ever. [laughs] And…

Emerson: Ben and I are veterans, Andrew. We…

Andrew: Oh, sorry, sorry, Spartz. I forgot.

Emerson: We did an event in Oak Park, Illinois, actually, where it was in front of four or five thousand people. It was outside; it was really cool. To be in front of a crowd that big is just one of those wonderful experiences that you don’t forget.

Jamie: There’s a picture of you on your Facebook where the camera’s behind them and it’s looking into the crowd, and he loves it because there’s like a light on him and he looks like a rock star playing his guitar.

Emerson: Yeah, basically. I felt like one of the Remus Lupins for a second there.

Jamie: Yeah.

Andrew: Yeah. [laughs]

Mikey: Wow.

Andrew: First of all, has anyone not finished reading Deathly Hallows?

Jamie: Yeah.

Ben: Testing, testing.

Andrew: Because we are going to be discussing it today, so…

Jamie: You’re going to be royally spoiled…

Ben: Whoa…

Andrew: As well as the people playing soccer back there; they’re going to be royally spoiled if they…

Jamie: They look like Harry Potter fans to me, so they probably will be.

Web-chat Discussion

Andrew: I’m sure there’s a few over there, Jamie. Anyway, there’s been a lot of news lately. Of course there was a web-chat with J.K Rowling earlier today. So did anybody catch up on that? Yes? Okay, a couple of people. If you all went on MuggleNet before the show you would have caught up on the news. That’s a good place to get the news.

Jamie: [microphone makes a strange noise] Oops.

Andrew: So there’s been a few things Jamie, you found pretty interesting. You were really proud of some of the people in that web-chat because you were like, “Oh wow, these questions!”

Jamie: Oh, yeah. They asked some really good questions like…um…

[Andrew and Audience laugh]

Jamie: Can you pull it up, Andrew, and I’ll…

Andrew: Oh, I’m pulling it up. I can’t move far though.

Jamie: Okay. Um…

Emerson: We finally found that – Dudley’s – what his worst memory was was when the…

Jamie: Yeah.

Emerson: …Dementor was on him, was that he was seeing himself who he really was for the first time, and it scared him.

Jamie: Yeah, and the one about Dumbledore’s Boggart, as well, that it’s his sister’s corpse.

Andrew: His sister’s.

Jamie: Arianna’s corpse.

Andrew: Yeah.

Emerson: And that Dumbledore’s – when he looks into the Mirror of Erised, he sees his family, happy and together and alive.

Jamie: And you have to draw the Harry parallel there, because that’s basically what Harry saw when he looked in. What other questions were there?

Andrew: Well, it was interesting that this was asked, because we had a little debate, “Is Snape a hero?” And someone directly posed that question to J.K. Rowling, basically said, “You think Snape was a hero?” and she said, “Yes, I do, though a very flawed hero. An anti-hero, perhaps.” But he laid down his life for Harry, and J.K. Rowling says that’s pretty heroic.

Jamie: He must be a hero then, yeah. We had this huge debate about whether Snape was a hero or not. Have you put it online?

Andrew: I can’t remember what show that was.

Jamie: Yeah, well, if you heard it. Well, it was vicious at best, wasn’t it?

Andrew: We also found out that the Dementors won’t be at Azkaban anymore. They’re going to use some new system to protect Azkaban. Or they are using it now.

Mikey: Yeah, the Dementors were part of the…

Andrew: Your mic’s not working. Group?

Mikey: My mic’s not working?

Andrew: Do you have an on switch?

Mikey: No, there’s no on switch. Anyway, the Dementors were part of the corruption that the Ministry had, and so now that they’re reforming the Ministry, the Dementors are leaving away.

Jamie: Where do they go?

[Audience laughs]

Jamie: Where do you – huh? Where do you send a Dementor? And they don’t listen to you either, so there’s like a troublesome creature. Anyone have any ideas? [laughs]

Mikey: Hmm.

Andrew: Nope, no ideas.

Jamie: What a very uninspired crowd.

Mikey: Wow.

Jamie: Come on!

[Audience laughs]

Jamie: Come on.

Mikey: We’ll all go to Kansas to hang out with Ben.

Jamie: Yeah.

Andrew: Someone said to Jo, “Was Minerva in love with Albus?” and J.K Rowling said, “No, not everybody falls in love with everybody else.” It’s amazing how people just pair these people together.

Jamie: It is, it is, it is.

Ben: Yeah, everything’s romance, for some reason.

MuggleCasters: Yeah.

Mikey: I was a little sad Hedwig and Fawkes didn’t get together.

[Audience laughs]

Jamie: Who? Who?

Mikey: Hedwig and Fawkes, you know.

Jamie: Yeah. Yeah.

Andrew: Oh, she did explain that.

Jamie: It was the travesty of the book series.

Mikey: That’s a joke, everybody.

Andrew: She did explain that, and we’ve been wondering this too, someone said to Jo, “Why did you feel that Hedwig’s death was necessary?” And J.K Rowling replied, “The loss of Hedwig represented the loss of innocence and security. She has almost been like a cuddly toy to Harry at times. Voldemort killing her marked the end of childhood. I’m sorry, I know that death upset a lot of people.” Anyone upset by the death here? It was just – were you upset upset or were you just like,”Aww, Hedwig”?

[Audience Member yells something and Audience laughs]

Jamie: Oh my God.

Andrew: Does that really exist? Hedwig’s not…

Jamie: There’s a slight flaw in that plan though, Ben, isn’t it? On the website.

Andrew: I have a feeling that’s not going to work out very well, though.

Jamie: Well, yeah, the slight flaw being that she is.

Andrew and Mikey: Yeah…

[Andrew laughs]

Emerson: They had theories, but Harry/Hermione shippers had theories for the last three books too, so…

[Audience laughs]

Jamie: But, Andrew, I know exactly what you mean when you say that people just pair people together, because I’m surprised in the last book when Dudley’s like, “Well, actually, Harry you’re a really great people.” I’m surprised…

Ben: Dudley/Harry shippers?

Jamie: Yeah, Dudley/Harry shippers. They’re going to come at some point, they may as well come now.

Andrew: Yeah. [laughs] Someone asked, “Does Winky still drink a lot of Butterbeer?” J.K. Rowling replied, “She’s dried out a bit now.” I wonder if – like, she obviously doesn’t have this all in her head. Before this web-chat she wasn’t thinking…

Jamie: Exactly!

Andrew: …”Does Winky still drink a lot?” She makes this up on the fly!

Jamie: There are a couple like that, yeah. She makes them up. There are some more; there are loads like that.

Emerson: Yeah, you can definitely tell reading the book. I mean, but she can do that, though, because she’s J.K. Rowling, and it’s the last book, so…

Jamie: But then she has to write it down just to make sure she remembers that she’s made something like that, or…

Andrew: Yeah, yeah, exactly. And she’ll go – oh, she did explain who was the person who displayed magic later in life. She said, “I’ve changed my mind about that one. That one actually did not happen.”

[Audience laughs]

Ben: She’s allowed to do that too.

Emerson: So, basically we wasted a lot of our lives…

Andrew: Yeah. Because we’ve been discussing that…

Emerson: …thinking about something that was a complete waste of time…

Andrew: Yeah, we’ve been discussing that on tour if you’ve heard the shows. We were like, “Duh – who was it?” But now it’s a…

Jamie: Myrtle.

Andrew: Yeah, we don’t know it all.

Jamie: What other questions were there?

Andrew: Well, I was trying to find…

Mikey: We’ve found out who killed Remus and Tonks, which is kind of sad, but Bellatrix…

Ben: Why does Bellatrix kill everybody?

Mikey: I know! Bellatrix did Tonks in. It was really sad. Sirius. No, it’s Remus, not Sirius. [laughs] I love that joke.

Andrew: About the person displaying magic later in life, Jo said, “My very earliest plan for the story involved somebody managing to get to Hogwarts when they had never done magic before, but I changed my mind by the time I’d read the third book.” Which is pretty early on, so – someone here said it was Dudley?

Jamie: If she’s changed her mind by the time she wrote the third book, not read it.

Andrew: I don’t know.

Jamie: You’d think so.

[Audience laughs]

Andrew: That’s a good question.

Jamie: Though if she writes it and then reads it, she’ll be like, “Oh no!”

Ben: Though she wouldn’t read it until she had changed her mind.

Andrew: Who would it have been? Because she didn’t say who it was. So she must of had this…

Ben: Hagrid?

Jamie: Maybe it was a new character?

Ben: Not Hagrid, but Dudley?

Andrew: Yeah. [laughs]

Jamie: Dudley, yeah.

Andrew: I guess Dudley would make sense. But if he went into the school, how would he – what would that do? What would happen?

Ben: Perhaps she had a story line for that we didn’t hear about.

Jamie: Probably.

Andrew: Exactly. How did Voldemort get his wand back after he was in exile? Wormtail, desperate to – Emerson, didn’t you say you called this in the book or something?

Emerson: Yeah, in the book. If any of you have read MuggleNet.com’s What Will Happen in Harry Potter Seven?, we did say Wormtail had to be at Godric’s Hollow the night that Voldemort killed James and Lily, because he would have had to pick up his wand, and that’s how Voldemort was able to kill Bertha Jorkins in Albania. And speaking of the book MuggleNet.com’s What Will Happen in Harry Potter Seven?, you have to take a moment here, because, you see, Ben and I spent the entire summer traveling around the country, standing in front of bookstores – over thirty total, including one in Canton here. And was anybody at that event, by the way? Okay, a few hands, few hands. And we basically spent – we would say some of our theories about Harry living, and Snape loving Lily, and Snape being a good guy and all that, and then we’d get to the Harry a Horcrux theory. And we would proceed then to spend the rest of the event – probably about half an hour per event – just defending the theory from angry, angry people!

Ben: It wasn’t very popular.

Emerson: It wasn’t a popular theory at all! But we held firm in our convictions, and we were vindicated in the book, and I just…

Ben: We were proud. We were proud.

Emerson: We’re very proud of that, actually.

Jamie: You’re very proud of this, aren’t you?

Emerson: We really are! We took so much heat this summer, you have no idea! Every bookstore, as soon as we tell the theory, everybody would start snarling at us.

[Audience laughs]

Jamie: I can tell every time you tell that story, because your voice levels out and it becomes emotion-filled, and I just think that’s very impressive.

Ben: Okay, guys, okay, who here’s…

Emerson: Because there’s one event, in particular, where there’s a woman in the second row who, I swear to God, she was about to lunge at us at any minute.

[Audience laughs]

Andrew: Hold on one second. Actually, yeah. Sorry, I had my mic up to my face, hold on. My bad. Anyway, one last thing we wanted to point out here. Someone said to Jo, “Why did Dumbledore want Ron to keep his Deluminator?” And J.K. Rowling said (I thought this was nice), “Because he knew that Ron might need a little more guidance than the other two. Dumbledore understood Ron’s importance in the trio; he wasn’t the most skilled or the most intelligent but he held them together. His humor and his good heart were central.”

Emerson: Aww!

Main Discussion: Ron Weasley

Andrew: Which leads to our main disscussion today. We wanted to talk about Ron. We’ve been covering a series of characters who played big roles in the book. We’ve gone through Snape, Voldemort…

Andrew and Jamie: Dumbledore…

Jamie: And we talked about Hermione yesterday. Yeah.

Andrew: Today we’re going to talk about Ron.

Jamie: Talk about Harry tomorrow. Yeah, we’ll talk about Ron today. I’ve always seen quite a bit of mixed opinion on Ron. Some people who like him, some people who thinks he’s tagging along with Harry, and Harry’s a real hero. Some people think it’s him who’s the real hero because he has to put up with Harry’s outbursts at times and how he’s always being overshadowed by his family, and in the seventh book there’s a lot of changed things about Ron, how he runs away and then Harry and Ron really, really, really, really unite for the final time, and we know they’re going to be friends forevermore. And he helps Harry a lot, like when he just turns up at the pool when Harry jumps in with the Horcrux and saves the day. So – go on.

Tangent: MuggleCasters Accuse Each Other of Stealing Jokes

Mikey: Oh, well, I was going to say, about Ron – what about his mom in Book 7?

Ben and Mikey: Give it up for Molly Weasley!

[Audience cheers]

Andrew: [laughs] I can’t even talk about it anymore!

Emerson: What’d you do, Mikey?

Mikey: Well, anyway!

Jamie: Should we explain why…

Mikey: Well, let’s explain why…

Jamie: …we just changed tangent?

Mikey: …we’re laughing real quick. Ever since the first podcast we did on this tour, I’ve been saying, “Molly Weasley,” because that’s just an awesome scene, really. But then – I think two days into it – Ben took that. He took that line twice from me and I was just like, “Dude! That’s my line!”

Jamie: However, Mikey is…

Mikey: [unintelligible] …the story. So then I proceeded to steal four of his jokes, just to get back at him.

Ben: Whoa, whoa, whoa, okay!

[Andrew laughs]

Jamie: That’s Mikey’s story…

Ben: Day one happens, then day two, Mikey stole everybody’s jokes.

[Andrew laughs]

Ben: So day three, we decided to steal jokes back from Mikey to get him back.

[Andrew laughs]

Jamie: Mikey stole one of my jokes once and from…

Mikey: I’m sorry, I apologize, I apologize!

Jamie: …there it was downhill. That’s the way it was. No, it’s all good, it’s all good. And we tried to get…

Emerson: Oh yeah! Well, listen to this: one time, Mikey went to the bathroom and he didn’t wash his hands!

Mikey: That’s a lie, sir!

Emerson: Mikey, touche, bro! Don’t call me out in public like that.

Ben: I saw it, I saw it.

Audience Member: I do that a lot!

Emerson: That’s right. And you thought you heard enough about Mikey.

Mikey: [sighs] Anyway…

Andrew: We had a member of the audience say, “I do that a lot.”

Emerson: Everybody has skeletons in their closet.

[Audience laughs]

Jamie: The Life and Lies of Mikey Bouchereau. It’s going to come out next.

[Audience laughs]

Mikey: Wow. That’s the next MuggleNet book right there?

Jamie: Yup. We’re going to print it soon.

Andrew: Anyway, back…

Mikey: Anyway, back onto Ron Weasley.

Reactions to Ron Leaving Harry and Hermione

Andrew: Was anyone surprised by how he sort of just left Harry and and Hermione? I mean…

Ben: Yeah, that was weird.

Andrew: …they’ve been best friends for seven years now, so, why would…

Jamie: I always thought – sorry, go on.

Andrew: Sorry, my cup’s falling over.

Ben: Honestly, I think it’s good that he was ashamed of it. I mean, that was weird.

Emerson: The whole fight – even though I understand there was a lot going on in their lives and they had every reason to fight with each other – but it really was immaturity that kept Ron from leaving or that made Ron leave. Harry and Hermione would never get to a point where that would happen, because Hermione is so much more mature than both of them combined that she would just drop it and she’d realize that there was nothing to come out of that.

Ben: And Ron’s kind of whiny.

Jamie: Yeah.

Mikey: Yeah, he is. Really.

Ben: …compared to Harry, I think.

Mikey: Well, I also thought that it was kind of lame that he forced Hermione to choose between him and Harry at that point.

Emerson: It’s immaturity.

Andrew: That just shows his immaturity level. He’s like…

Mikey: …”Choose between me and him,” and, of course, she chose Harry.

Ben: Of course. Because, you know, in that position you’re usually – the person who makes you make the choice is the one you’re not going to go with just because they’re making you choose, so…

Emerson: That is something you’d see someone who has the “emotional range of a teaspoon” saying.

The Horcrux’s Effects on the Trio

Jamie: You sure it wasn’t just the Horcrux that was causing them to do that?

Emerson: I mean, the Horcrux probably exaggerated that, but he was still being a little whiny, immature baby.

Ben: Well, I think the Horcrux still had everything to do with it. I think the reason that…

Jamie: I agree.

Ben: …he got so upset was because he had been emotionally dragged down by that thing, by that object. And it just got to the breaking point where that – he got so emotionally drained to where it was his affecting his behavior and his attitude towards Ron and Hermione.

Jamie: Yeah. But even though…

Ben: Harry and Hermione.

Jamie: But even though that was extremely immature, he grew up towards the end of the book when he was all about House-elves’ rights and that kind of thing.

Ben: Jo answered that too. She said – she talked about writing that scene, how she loved writing the scene – the kissing scene between…

Andrew: Oh, yeah.

Ben: …Ron and Hermione.

Andrew: Yeah.

Jamie: Yeah, she did.

Andrew: Ron finally earned his S.P.E.W., I think she said.

[Audience laughs]

Jamie: Aww. That was a bad choice of words.

Ben: I don’t think she put it that way, but…

Andrew: A little pun there. Yeah, she did.

Ben: Find it.

Mikey: I think she did. Anyway, going back to Ben and the Horcrux, I totally agree with you, Ben Schoen, on that one, simply because when Ron had to actually destroy the Locket-Horcrux, it was him that had given the Horcrux enough of his emotions, kind of like how Ginny had given the diary a lot of her own emotions and thoughts, and so it was him that saw the Harry/Hermione regurgitate and his worst fears, and it was him who had to destroy that Horcrux, rather than Harry. It was also him that grabbed the sword because Harry jumped into a lake naked…

Jamie: I agree.

[Audience laughs]

Mikey: …with the Horcrux on.

Tangent: Harry Potter Discussion

Emerson: See, that’s just such a Harry Potter thing to do, though, isn’t it?

Andrew: It’s like…

Emerson: “I’m alone in the middle of the woods! I’m going to dive into this freezing ice-cold lake by myself, with no one watching, so I can go drag down this mysterious object.”

Ben: Why did he leave the locket on?

Mikey: “With a piece of the Dark Lord’s soul around my neck!”

Ben: Who knows this movie? [imitating Rose from Titanic] “I want you to draw me wearing this…only this.”

[Andrew and Audience laugh]

Ben: Titanic? Have you seen Titanic? Yeah.

Andrew: No one here is going to want to see that film.

Emerson: That scene right there is – I mean, wouldn’t any rational person just go, “Hey! Hey, Hermione! I found the sword! Come and help me; we’re going to go to the lake and we’re going to get it out together. We’re going to think out a way to get down there.” No, no. He just strips and jumps in.

[Audience laughs]

Emerson: He’s not that smart!

Jamie: He’s not.

Emerson: Like, he’s lucky! I love Harry and I’m glad that he won and he’s alive and he’s a good person, he’s a great friend, but he’s not that intelligent. He really isn’t.

Ben: Now, Emerson. Emerson.

Emerson: Smart people don’t dive, naked, into ice-freezing cold lakes…

Ben: Now, Emerson…

Emerson: …by themselves, in the middle of the night after chasing a ghostly doe into the woods.

Ben: Emerson, Emerson, I have a question for you. Jo did happen to say – someone asked Jo the question specifically, “When Harry died where did he go?” She said he died, dude. How do you handle that?

Andrew: That was the question. That wasn’t Jo’s words.

Emerson: Yeah, that was the question. Jo said, in the transcript, that when he thought he was dead, he was in a limbo between life and death. And we’ve been saying for the past couple of podcasts now, there was a theory we heard that we thought was really good, that the train station at King’s Cross, at Platform 9 and 3/4, was a sort of a purgatory, like you decide by getting on the train which way you’re going to go; living or dying. Harry chose life. So he didn’t die in the book. He didn’t.

Andrew: No. And we said, Emerson, on another podcast, that if – you cannot come back after you die. And Jo’s made that clear.

Jamie: He couldn’t have died though.

Andrew: Even with magic. Yes.

Jamie: Exactly.

Mikey: He was in limbo, like she said.

Andrew: Yeah.

Mikey: Anyway…

Andrew: There was something I was going to say, now I forget, but another thing Jo said in this chat – I just wanted to go back to, real quick…

Jamie: Can we continue about Ron?

Andrew: Yeah.

Jamie: Does anybody have some points on Ron they want to make, about how he’s changed throughout the books, or him in the seventh book, or anything like that.

Mikey: Anyone want to come up and comment about Ron Weasley?

Jamie: Anyone at all.

Mikey: Anyone in the Weasley family?

Andrew: Right here.

Mikey: Come on up.

Jamie: Come on up.

Mikey: You guys can be on MuggleCast.

Andrew: [imitating fangirl] Yay! I’ve always wanted to be on that show!

Mikey: Say who you are, where you’re from.

Emerson: Your phone number.

Mikey: Social Security number.

Ron Had to Snap

Audience Member: My name’s Meg. I’m fourteen, and I just wanted to say that my friend and I made predictions, and I totally called the Ron snapping thing, because I said someone in the trio was going to snap, and I think it was going to be Hermione, and my friend said, “Well, it’s not going to be Harry, because he already snapped in the fifth book.” And so I said, “It’s going to be Ron,” and I got so excited at that part, because even though he left…

[Audience laughs]

Andrew: It was bound to happen. A snap was bound to happen at least, since one of the characters didn’t actually die…

Audience Member: Yeah.

Andrew: …which Jo said she’s put a lot of thought into. Killing one of them.

Ben: Well, now that Emerson and I have had our chance to boast, she has, has anybody else? By all means, come on up. Do you have a thought?

Andrew: What’s your name…

Jamie: We should ask them for proof on these boasts, Ben.

Andrew: What’s your name and where are you from?

Give Ron Some Credit

Audience Member: I’m Sarah, I’m from here in Canton. The thing about Ron that really gets me, is my friend’s always like, Ron’s such a bad person, but people don’t give Ron enough credit, because it’s so hard. You’ve got to think about it. He’s got six brothers and sisters, and they’re all so much cooler than he is, and…

[Audience laughs]

Mikey: Aww.

Audience Member: …and – well, except for Percy. But – and he has to share everything. He grew up having hand-me-downs, and I think people just don’t give Ron enough credit. So that’s pretty much all I had to say.

Emerson: See, I feel like Ron is just so incredibly normal.

Jamie: Yeah.

Emerson: Like, I feel like he’s just – there’s nothing about him that just really stands out. He just seems like a really normal teenager who had been living a life with lots of brothers and sisters. Harry is normal
in the sense that he’s normal concerning what he’s been through, but he’s not had a normal upbringing.

Ben: He’s like the Chosen One too.

Emerson: Well, I mean that makes him a little different.

[Audience laughs]

Emerson: Other than that…

Andrew: Yeah.

Jamie: Actually, he isn’t different – so sorry – he’s completely different, isn’t he? Because everyone knows his name. I’d say that, and that’s changed him.

Emerson: I mean, like his personality, though.

Jamie: Oh, you mean for a normal teenager. Yeah, that’s true.

Andrew: Yeah.

Jamie: That’s a good point.

Mikey: Nothing to add.

Andrew: Any other questions?

Jamie: What about over there?

Andrew: They’re starting to build up. See, it’s – yeah, yeah, we’re talking about Ron, so yeah, come on up. See, it’s funny, because whenever we start asking for questions, there’s nobody….

Jamie: Nope. Mhm.

Ben: Yep. And then at the end there’s a flood of eighty people who all of a sudden have a question.

Andrew: Exactly. There’s a flood. And then we can’t get to everyone. So here, come on.

MuggleCast 105 Transcript (continued)

Give Ron Even More Credit

Audience Member: Hi, I’m Becca from Sto. I’m fifteen, and I’d have to say that Ron is my favorite character, and he’s always been my favorite character because he’s normal, but he has to – he is able to put up with his best friend, famous Harry Potter. And even though he’s belittled by every one of his friends, he stays loyal to them. And he went back to his friends, and I think that shows him being more mature. And also, he grew a lot because he almost lost both of his friends throughout this book.

Mikey: I think in Book 7…

Ben: In the words of Dumbledore…

[Audience laughs]

Ben: …. [as Dumbledore] “It is our choices, Harry,
far more than our abilities that determine what we truly are.”

[Andrew laughs]

Ben: The fact that Ron made the decision to come back is a great choice.

Mikey: That’s a good one, Ben. I was waiting for that one. But, I was going to say, it definitely showed Ron growing up a lot in Book 7. You know, he got a book – he gave Harry a book, How To Charm a Witch. And we saw him do that with Hermione quite a bit, you know. There’s a line in there that I started laughing at where Harry’s like, “You’re just choosing her side so you can get on her good side.” And he’s like, “Yeah, so?”

[Audience laughs]

Mikey: It was like, “Come on, really!”

Jamie: Harry should know that by now.

Andrew: Hi.

Ben: Speaking of Weasley – we have a Weasley here.

Andrew: What’s your name? Yeah – a Weasley. What’s your name? Where are you from?

Fred and George

Audience Member 1: Hi, I’m Jimmy from Ottery St. Catchpole.

Audience Member 2: Yeah! [laughs] I’m Angie. And I’m from Kent. And I’d like to say, who needs maturity? Fred and George all the way!

[Audience cheers]

Mikey: Don’t you mean George?

Jamie: Yeah, just George now.

Ben: Can I just point out one of them died. Just so you know.

Audience Member 2: I know. I do. And – and it’s sad.

Jamie: I know what you mean, though. It’s like common sense doesn’t come from – well, it doesn’t only come from maturity. You know.

Mikey: Yeah.

Jamie: Actually, I think it does.

[Jamie and Mikey laugh]

Emerson: I don’t actually think – even though Fred and George have a great sense of humor and it can seem immature at times – I don’t think they’re actually immature.

Jamie: I agree. They’re so clever, as well.

Ben: I agree.

Emerson: There’s different types of maturity.

Ben: They’re too smart.

Mikey: I’ll disagree. They’re goofy. “U-No-Poo?” Really?

[Audience laughs]

Emerson: Yes, they’re businessmen!

Mikey: Really.

Emerson: They have acute skills.

Ben: Really, Mikey, yes, really.

Emerson: If they give it a clever, catchy name like that they’re good marketers.

Mikey: That’s a marketing skill.

Emerson: They make more money which they can use to support their family. Thus they are mature.

Mikey: Okay. Okay.

Ben: You don’t see them making any poor decisions, really. I mean, really?

Andrew: No.

Mikey: [laughs] Really?

Ben: Really?

Emerson: Really, Mikey, really?

Andrew: Okay, concerning Ron, J.K. Rowling said that…

[Audience Member yells something]

Andrew: Oh geez, oh no.

[Audience laughs]

Andrew: J.K Rowling said one of her – the funniest moment she’s written in the series is the one where Ron says, “Really captures the scope and tragedy of the thing, doesn’t it?” And, okay, I’m sorry, which book was that from?

Audience Member: Deathly Hallows.

Andrew: Oh, was it? Okay. My bad. I just read it.

Mikey: Read the books, Andrew Sims. Read the books.

Andrew: I was thinking it was a book way back and I was trying to think of one of the first six. But anyway. The Pickle Pack vultures are these girls in Pickle Pack who – who attack us whenever we’re not on time with something. But here, come on up.

Jamie: Which is happening quite regularly now.

Andrew: Don’t get near me.

Emerson: Wow.

Audience Member: I love you guys!

Andrew: I’m just kidding.

Ron and the Mirror of Erised

Audience Member: I’m Joy. I’m sixteen from Cleveland, and I just have to – I just have to wonder if – what would Ron see in the Mirror of Erised if he looked at it now that the battle’s over and he’s lost his brother? And would his desires change?

Andrew: I think it would be his whole family together again.

Mikey: I think it would be his whole family, yeah.

Mikey: Including Hermione.

Jamie: Yeah, including Hermione.

Ben: I don’t know, though.

Jamie: And Hugo!

Mikey: And Rose.

[Audience laughs]

Jamie: And Rose.

Mikey: Hugo and Rose. Ah.

Ben: Because his family wasn’t really that ripped apart. I mean, they lost Fred…

Mikey: An ear.

Ben: They lost Fred…

Mikey: And an ear.

Ben: …but they regained Percy though…

Mikey: Yeah. But they also lost an ear.

Ben: …because Percy might as well have been dead. Who?

Mikey: They lost an ear.

Emerson: But also Ron didn’t care.

Mikey: Sorry.

Emerson: I mean, even though Ron obviously loved Percy, as you can only love your brother, he was obviously more attached to Fred, as he’d been living with him for a
lot longer. Percy left when he was fairly young. So I think – I think he would actually see his family back together again. And I do think Hermione would be there too; Harry and Hermione.

Mikey: I agree.

Andrew: Yeah. Okay.

Jamie: Next question?

Ron Coming to Terms with Harry’s Fame

Audience Member: My name’s Andrea and I’m from Columbus. And back to Ron growing up in the seventh book…

[Audience cheers]

Audience Member: Hi! Back to Ron growing up in the seventh book, I think one of the biggest ways he did that is that in the beginning he was always really jealous of Harry and him being famous and everything. But in the seventh book he sort of grows to accept that; he even makes jokes about it in the end – in the epilogue where all the kids on the train are staring back and he’s like, “Oh, it’s just me. I’m extremely famous.” So I think he really comes to terms with Harry being famous and just being out of the limelight so long.

Andrew: Yeah.

Audience Member: And that he gets his own, basically, [unintelligible].

Ben: What I think happens is, eventually you just come to accept what your role is. And Harry’s the Michael Jordan and Ron’s like the guy on the bench eating a hot dog.

[Everyone laughs]

Emerson: Not even Scotty Pippin, Ben?

Ben: Not even Scotty Pippin.

Mikey: Wow. What about Luke Longly?

Ben: Hermione’s Scotty Pippin.

[Mikey laughs]

Ben: You kids – did anyone else actually follow basketball in the ’90s besides me and Emerson?

[Andrew laughs]

Mikey: Can you imagine Scotty Pippin with long, bushy hair? Anyone? No? It would be amazing.

Andrew: Yeah. Okay. Well, it’s about Ron. Well, just hold on. We’ll take random questions in a minute. That are on topic, of course.

Hermione Has it Worse

Audience Member: Okay. Hi, I’m Erin from Hudson. Okay, back to Ron being a little bit immature. I think it was a lot harder on Hermione because since had to leave her parents and they had to forget her. And I think that would be a lot more difficult on her, and I’m surprised she didn’t throw that in his face. Like, “I have to deal with that compared to you.”

Andrew: I don’t know – did it really seem like it bothered Hermione at all, that she sent her parents to Australia.

Jamie: I wonder if she’s going to tell her parents ever that she…

Andrew: Well, actually in the web-chat…

Ben: Did what bother Hermione, exactly?

Jamie: That she put a charm on her parents, sent them to Australia, and told them that they didn’t have a daughter, which would get under some people’s skins, definitely.

Andrew: Yeah, but it doesn’t…

Ben: I think you just get to the point where you know what the mission is, and that you have to do whatever it takes.

Andrew: Yeah. And Jo said in the web-chat today, that right after this whole thing ended, she went straight back to Australia and got her parents.

Emerson: I think that’s just a sign of extreme maturity. In order to be able to do that you really have to be able to put other people in front of yourself and your wishes or desires.

Jamie: Yeah, you do.

Mikey: I kind of don’t think she really minded too much, considering we know she’s kind of kept a lot from her parents in the sense of Voldemort coming back and a lot of bad stuff happening in the Wizarding World. And what she gets into with Ron and Harry.

Ben: At the end of the year, though, like coming home from school year. Just being like, “So what went on this year?” [laughs] “You have no idea.”

Andrew: See, that would be a corny line they’d put in the movie at the very end.

Jamie: That’s the end of it, Ben. There’s like a flash screen at the end.

Ben: You heard it here first, folks.

Andrew: “MuggleNet.com’s What Will Happen in Half-Blood Prince and Deathly Hallows Films.

[Audience laughs]

Andrew: There you go, Emerson.

Mikey: There you go.

Ben: You’re a machine.

Andrew: [laughs] He’s thinking now.

Mikey: This has to come out after The Life and Lies of Mikey Bouchereau.

Jamie: Yeah, yeah.

[Andrew laughs]

Jamie: That’s going to be a best-seller, that one.

Mikey: It’s going to be.

Emerson: It’s going triple platinum.

[Andrew laughs]

Mikey: Books go platinum?

Andrew: Yeah.

[Audience laughs]

Emerson: Yeah, they do. Or they could.

Mikey: That would be an album of…

Andrew: Every single Wizard Rock career?

Mikey: Maybe. Every single Wizard Rock career.

Jamie: Mikey, the audiobook would go triple platinum.

[Andrew laughs]

Mikey: The audiobook read by…

Emerson: Read by Stephen Fry.

Mikey: Yeah, Stephen Fry. And Jim Dale. Combined. Anyway, back to Ron Weasley.

Ben: Actually, I want to do Mikey’s voice on the audiobook.

Andrew: You both come up.

Mikey: Uh-oh. They have to do this together.

Andrew: Oh, geez.

Mikey: I’m scared.

Andrew: This is going to be a well rehearsed question.

Mikey: It’s going to stump us.

Andrew: Or complain about us. Okay. Nice shirt.

The Importance of Ron Coming Back

Audience Member 1: Okay. I’m Sarah and this is my twin sister, Bethany.

Audience Member 2: We’re actually from a family of seven kids and we fall in the same place where Fred and George do.

Audience Member 1: There are six girls in the family and one boy. It’s really weird. But anyway, like coming from a family as big as ours and the inverse of the Weasleys, it’s very easy to understand where Ron’s coming from. He’s constantly being outshone by his brothers, and when
you’re in a big family you really have to strive to find your own place where you fit in in the family. And Fred and George had their thing, and Percy had his weird thing where he kind of disappeared…

Audience Member 2: He was power-hungry.

Audience Member 1: Yeah. And, you know, Bill and George were like the cool older brothers, and Ginny was the only girl; she automatically had her place. And then Harry comes to school, and he becomes friends with Harry Potter, and he’s being outshone again, and he’s kind of like chilling there, like, “What’s going on?” [laughs]

Audience Member 2: And just – I think it said a lot, really, when Ron turned around and came back. You know, it’s twice as hard to come back than it is to stick with it. And I think it really does, Sarah’s right, it shows something about his heart. He knows what it’s like to be loyal to his family, like he’s stuck with it, and he’s going to stick with – he’s stuck with Harry and Hermione until the end.

Andrew: Careful. You’re right in front of the speaker.

Emerson: That was well said.

Andrew: That was very well said.

Mikey: And it only took a few chapters for him to come back, unlike Percy, where it took him like two books.

[Audience laughs]

Mikey: So I think it shows a lot about Ron’s character, where it’s like forty pages versus like two whole novels.

[Andrew laughs]

Mikey: Like at the very end of the last one.

Andrew: Yeah.

Ben: That was kind of weird, though, wasn’t it? How like Percy shows up out of nowhere. He’s like, “Guys! I’m back on your side now!”

Mikey: “I’m sorry, I know…”

Andrew: At least that was explained. Percy said like, “I’ve been giving it a lot of thought, but I couldn’t really say anything in the Ministry, otherwise they would have killed me.” Stuff like that.

Jamie: Yeah, but you’d think they’d check him for Imperious Curses and Polyjuice Potion and not just accept it that it was him.

Andrew: Yeah…

Jamie: That was stupid.

[Audience laughs]

Andrew: …because I sort of thought he might have been two-faced, he might have been trying to work for the Ministry still.

Jamie: Exactly.

Emerson: And kill Harry.

Andrew: And I didn’t trust him, personally.

Jamie: I didn’t trust him, either.

Andrew: Was anyone like, “Oh, wow, Percy’s back. Thank God.”

[Audience laughs]

Andrew: Were you? Or do you have a question? Okay.

Mikey: Come on up.

Andrew: I just can’t – are you giving away that Dobby? Because we’ll just take it.

[Audience laughs]

Andrew: We’ll glue it to the top of the car.

[Audience laughs]

Jamie: That is the best idea I’ve ever heard.

Mikey: [imitating Dobby] Dobby’s free!

[Audience laughs]

Andrew: Where can you buy those? Weren’t those for sale?

Audience Member: No, we got this free.

Andrew: Free?

Audience Member: At Wal-Mart.

Andrew: Wal-Mart?

Jamie: Mikey, can we stop there on the way home?

Mikey: Let’s go to Wal-Mart. Let’s get [unintelligible] for the cars.

Andrew: Roll-back. Oh, okay.

Jamie: We’ll glue like seven to the top, so there’s just a swarm of Dobbys on top of the car.

Mikey: We’ve got to get a wolf for Alex’s car and have like this werewolf thing going around the front.

Andrew: We might have to take him out to the car just for a second. I mean, we’ll bring him right back, but…

Mikey: For a picture.

Andrew: …just for a second.

Emerson: Yeah, we’ll have like fifteen straight state trooper cars like outside within like a minute.

Andrew: [laughs] Yeah.

Emerson: Like child abuse.

[Everyone laughs]

Mikey: Wooooo!

Jamie: Yeah, because at eighteen miles an hour they could look quite real.

Ben: Okay so…

Emerson: What did you do to that poor kid’s nose?

Ben: So what were we talking about again?

Mikey: We were waiting for a question for Ron Weasley.

Audience Mom Impressed With Ron

Audience Member: Hi, my name’s Mary. We drove about two and a half hours to get here from Columbus. My gosh, is this countryside. A lot of people from Columbus. I just wanted to say from a mom’s point of view that I always admired Ron, because he had to always over-extend himself in order to be able to do the things with Harry and work with Harry and sometimes save Harry from himself, and so I just wanted to say I think he grew a lot in that position, and I was always really impressed with him.

Andrew: Mikey?

Mikey: I’m speechless. I don’t know.

[Andrew laughs]

Mikey: I’m trying to think of something witty to say. I can’t, I agree.

Andrew: It’s very fitting, too, because a lot of people have been saying that in Order of the Phoenix, the film, he really made a turn around.

Jamie: Yeah, he did.

Andrew: It’s the real Ron, so to speak. But yeah, that’s a good point. Someone came up to us yesterday after the show – it was a mother – to Jamie, and Ben, and I…

Jamie: Oh yeah.

Andrew: …and she was saying that – what was she responding to? Something about a mother’s love. “Never doubt a mother’s love.”

Jamie: Yeah.

Andrew: She was convinced that Mrs. Weasley had killed Bellatrix…

Jamie: Couldn’t it – because we were talking…

Mikey: Because I reread that book to us, remember, like on one of the shows? In the book, when Molly goes up to Bellatrix – because she goes “Stay away from my daughter, you witch!”

[Audience laughs]

Jamie: With a slight change.

Mikey: It says a curse flew at Bellatrix. It never says what curse, and I find it really hard to believe that Molly Weasley would use Avada Kedavra to kill,
even though I understand it’s like a mother’s protective love and all that. But one of the things that makes me really not believe it and think it’s more like the Stunning Spell is because the book is from Harry’s point of view and it says, “Harry knew exactly what was going to happen, just like what happened to her cousin Sirius before he fell through the Veil.” Shock in the face with Bellatrix and everything. And the spell that actually hit Sirius was a Stunning Spell, and so I think Molly actually used a Stunning Spell, and it caught Bellatrix off guard, and she went down. And then she was probably rounded up afterwards and went to Azkaban like all the other Death Eaters.

Andrew: Yeah.

Mikey: But I find it really hard to believe that Molly Weasley would use…

Jamie: We said that it’s because, you know…

Mikey: …the Killing Curse.

Jamie: …she’s so nice, she doesn’t have the potential to kill. But then the lady came up and said don’t ever underestimate a parent’s love for their child, and
that anyone could do it.

Andrew: Yeah.

Jamie: If put in the same situation.

Andrew: Yeah.

Jamie: So we weren’t really sure about that.

Andrew: Yeah. But the description was the same as what was described when Sirius was killed.

Mikey: Yeah, when Sirius was killed.

Andrew: Square in the chest.

Mikey: But that was a Stunning Spell, not the killing spell.

Andrew: Yeah, and now I’m all ticked off, too, because no one posed that question to Jo in the web-chat. Isn’t – I don’t know.

Ben: They said she had like 115,000 questions though, so…

Jamie: Yeah, so she couldn’t…

Ben: They would give her a little bit of a break.

Jamie: There were two questions up there. Do you still want to…

Emerson: I think it’s time we can probably start taking some general questions.

Andrew: Yeah, let’s take some general questions about the book, where the fandom’s going, is MuggleCast done?

Mikey: Favorite scenes, maybe.

Andrew: You can come up.

Mikey: Come on up!

Andrew: Yeah.

Mikey: Anyone have a favorite scene they want to tell us about?

Jamie: Yeah.

Mikey: Have us kind of discuss or something?

Andrew: Here’s our first…

Mikey: Come on up! Get in line. Not too many.

Andrew: Sorry, we’re like – no, you can stay here.

Mikey: Stay here.

Obliviation Rules

Audience Member: All right, I’m Alex. I’m thirteen. I’m from Cleveland. Woo!

[Andrew and some audience members cheer]

Mikey: Cleveland rocks!

Audience Member: One thing that I was kind of wondering, and before Deathly Hallows this was kind of a theory between me and my friends, why the Dursleys never had any Obliviator visits. We were thinking, does that mean Petunia’s a witch or something? But Jo didn’t really explain that in Deathly Hallows and we were wondering what that meant.

Andrew: Has the Ministry just accepted that since Harry stays with them that…

Ben: Probably. I mean, it was probably special circumstances with Harry.

Andrew: Yeah.

Mikey: And also, with family, Hermione’s families don’t get Obliviated.

Audience Member: Yeah.

Mikey: They’re the family. And also, Petunia grew up with her sister as a witch and she even wanted to go to Hogwarts, we know that.

Ben: I’m sure there are exceptions to the law when it relates to Muggle-borns and Harry probably has the same.

Andrew: So, yeah, that makes sense. Good question, though.

Mrs. Weasley and Bellatrix

Audience Member: Hi, I’m Megan. I’m from Ashtabula. I was just thinking about what you were talking about with Mrs. Weasley, and when they first started dueling, wasn’t there something in the book about how Harry noticed that both women were fighting to kill and that they were really going at it? It was mentioned in the book, so I was just…

Mikey: No, it was actually – I was reading the book word for word, and actually, they don’t really even duel. She comes running at her and does one spell. The big duel is between the other two.

Audience Member: Because I swear it says that both women were fighting to kill right before it started.

Ben: I thought it would be that they circled each other.

Jamie: Where did you get that from?

Mikey: It’s the last chapter.

Audience Member: I don’t know, but…

Jamie: I’ll make sure someone finds it.

Mikey: Maybe I’m totally wrong, but…

Audience Member: It was before when they first started dueling. It’s not when she actually killed her or stunned her. When they first started dueling did Harry notice that…

Mikey: I think they just circle each other and they never…

[Audience members chatter]

Andrew: We have the U.K. one, unfortunately.

[Audience laughs]

Jamie: Unfortunately?

Andrew: Well, I mean…

Ben: They have different numbered pages.

Audience Member: Right here: “Both women were fighting to kill.”

Emerson: Page 736?

Audience Member: It’s right at the bottom.

Mikey: Wow.

Audience Member: I don’t know. So that’s why I thought that she was.

Mikey: Man, that sucks.

Ben: So Bellatrix is dead, then. Sorry, Mikey. You were wrong.

Andrew: That’s probably – well, it doesn’t clearly state that, though. So, we can’t…

Jamie: Why would Bellatrix…

Mikey: But it says right there: “Molly’s curse soared beneath.” It doesn’t say which curse she used.

Jamie: We’ll make a…

Mikey: I still like to think Molly Weasley would make pancakes for everyone and not kill Bellatrix Lestrange. Because I think that’s just wrong. Killing is bad.

Andrew: But if they were fighting to kill, if Jo said they were fighting to kill, I think it could be assumed that they were.

Emerson: Yeah, it does say that jets of light were flying from the wands, so they were clearly dueling.

Andrew: Yeah.

Emerson: Honestly, when I first read it, I thought that she’d actually killed her, but when you were talking for a second, I thought maybe I misread it because I only read the book once at this point.

Andrew: Has anyone read it more than once? Someone said they read it three times already. Yeah, twice? Yeah, couple of times?

Ben: Once.

Andrew: Twice?

Jamie: Once.

Andrew: I haven’t read it at all yet. Is it good?

[Audience laughs]

Emerson: We’re all due for a rereading soon, but…

Andrew: I read the Spark Notes.

Andrew: I read the Spark Notes, Ben! But anyway, [laughs] next question.

Mikey: I have the audiobook. I never actually read it; I just listened.

Andrew: Okay. This girl first.

Snape’s Reliable Source

Audience Member: I’m Corey from Kent, and I was just wondering who Voldemort thought Snape’s source was in Chapter 1 at the Malfoys’ when he’s telling him the date.

Jamie: When he says he has a reliable source, yeah.

Audience Member: Yeah. And I wanted to know who that source was. Like, I don’t know who it could be.

Ben: Did we get it cleared up? Wasn’t it Mundungus who spilled the beans?

Jamie: But he wasn’t the real source. It was the fake source who Snape was pretending to be the source just in front of Voldemort, right?

Mikey: Yeah, it was Mundungus. Because Dumbledore tells Snape to Confound Mundungus and tell him to suggest the seven Potters. And it’s him that also gives him the actual proper date, and so that’s how Snape tells Voldemort. Yeah, okay. Am I right, Ben Schoen?

Ben: You’re right.

Mikey: Thank you. Just wanted to double check.

Andrew: Let’s go right here. Do you have a favorite scene? You got a really excited one

[Audience laughs]

MuggleCast 105 Transcript (continued)

Neville

Audience Member: Hi, I’m DJ, I’m from Broadview Heights.

[Audience member shouts “Yeah!”]

Audience Member: Yeah!

Mikey: Yeah! Broadview Heights!

Audience Member: No one knows that. Okay.

Mikey: I do.

[Audience chatter]

Audience Member: Yay! Anyway, I have two favorite scenes. One is just the line, “the Snape-shaped hole in the window.”

[Audience laughs]

Audience Member: That’s just hilarious.

Mikey: It’s kind of like Roger Rabbit.

[Audience laughs]

Andrew: It’s exactly how I…

Mikey: Right through the window.

Audience Member: My second favorite scene is when Neville is being all like, “Oh, I just got this cut from like speaking out…”

Jamie: [laughs] Yeah.

Andrew: “…I got this cut from there.” He’s just being all bad and stuff.

Jamie: He was boasting about them, wasn’t he?

Mikey: Yeah. He was, like, awesome.

Jamie: Insane.

Andrew: Neville’s someone who really changed in this book, and that’s why we had sort of – we were sort of – well, I was speculating that he might have been the person that had got the reprieve…

Mikey: Yeah.

Andrew: …because he was acting so different in this novel. I thought maybe Jo would have considered killing him because he was so – he…

Jamie: Yeah.

Andrew: …grew so…

Jamie: He – he…

Ben: Why? Why?

Jamie: He did do much…

Ben: Why would…?

Andrew: Just because he – he – his head got a little…

Mikey: You’re a jerk, Andrew Sims.

Andrew: Because I’m saying his head got a little too big…

Mikey: So you should kill him?

Andrew: …and maybe he went out there and tried to duel someone, and somebody killed him…

Mikey: Well…

Andrew: …whether it’s Bellatrix, because Bellatrix would have made sense.

Mikey: …you know, he did try to almost duel Voldemort and he just took a sword and was like, “Whack!” and…

Andrew: Yeah.

Mikey: …chopped off that snake’s head and it goes flying through the air.

[Audience laughs]

Andrew: Yeah.

Mikey: That would be cool.

Andrew: I like your sound effects, Mikey.

Mikey: I always use sound effects when I’m talking. It’s like in real life too. It’s weird.

Snape

Jamie: On that Snape point as well, I’ve been thinking over the past couple of days – I’ve been reading the Snape scenes and I feel so sorry for him now. I really feel sorry for him. I think he was one of my favorite characters, but I…

Ben: Particularly when he says…

Jamie: …didn’t really realize that…

Ben: …at the end of the – the chapter when he dies, and he says – his last words are, “Look at me.” It’s obvious that the reason he said that is…

Jamie: So he can look at Lily’s eyes, yeah.

Ben: …because the – one of the last things he would see would be Lily’s eyes.

Andrew and Mikey: Aww!

Jamie: It’s the importance – but didn’t she say something about Snape that – because…

Mikey: He loved Lily!

[Audience laughs]

Jamie: Because he abandoned Hogwarts, his portrait didn’t go on the wall straight away, but she said that Harry would make sure it did…

Andrew: Yeah.

Jamie: …which I was very pleased about.

Andrew: Yeah, that was interesting. We did…

Jamie: Poor Snape.

Andrew: …learn a lot in this web-chat. Oh, and James always suspected that Snape harbored deeper feelings for Lily, which is – which was a factor in James’ behavior to Snape. I thought that was pretty interesting too.

Ben: And she also said that Snape and Lily could have fallen romantically in love had Snape not joined the Death Eaters.

Jamie: The story would have been so different then.

[Audience laughs]

Ben: Yeah. That would be crazy.

Jamie: Oh my God.

Ben: She said that Snape would have thought that she – that Lily thought he was cool. That’s the reason he did it because it was associated with power.

Andrew: Come on up. Aw, so kind. I was going to rip on you for the Harry and the Potters t-shirt.

Audience Member: I’m Stephanie and…

Mikey: Oh!

Audience: Oooh!

Andrew: I’m sorry.

Mikey: Oh!

Andrew: Apparently I struck a – I’m just saying! I’m saying…

Audience Member: Now we got to do a knock-knock joke!

Andrew: I’m just saying because this is a…

Mikey: Knock-knock.

Andrew: …Remus Lupins concert. That’s all I’m saying. Here.

Audience Member: Um…

Jamie: There’s a lot of hostility…

Audience Member: …I’m Steph.

Jamie: …around here, isn’t there, Andrew?

Andrew: I know.

Jamie: Very bad vibes.

The Basilisk in Movie 2

Audience Member: Okay. [laughs] I’m Steph and I’m from Canton.

[An audience member cheers]

Andrew: Whoo!

Audience Member: And I was wondering – I had a little bit of trouble following the second movie, and I was wondering why the snake was following him through the tunnel and who that was and why. I don’t know. I don’t…

Ben: Why the…

Audience Member: I had trouble.

Ben: …snake was following him?

Audience Member: Yeah, and…

Jamie: The Basilisk, you mean?

Audience Member: Yeah. Who was it?

Jamie: The Basilisk.

Ben: It was the Basilisk.

Mikey: It was Slytherin’s monster.

Ben: It was the beast. It was the beast in the…

Audience Member: That was…

Ben: …Chamber.

Audience Member: …trying to kill him? Or…

Ben: Yeah.

Mikey: Yeah.

Audience Member: Oh, because I had trouble. [laughs] Okay. Thanks.

Andrew: No problem.

Mikey: Uh-oh. [singing] Harry and the Potters.

An Audience Member Delivers Some Jokes

Audience Member: Ow! She just stepped on my foot. Okay, I wasn’t going to do this joke and they all wanted me to, but now that you – since you guys ripped on Harry and the Potters, we have a knock-knock joke for you real quick. Okay? And then I’ll get to my real question. All right so, knock-knock.

Mikey: Who’s there?

Jamie: Who’s there?

Audience Member: Dead Hedwig!

Ben and Jamie: Oh.

Mikey: That’s not even – that’s not even funny. That’s just mean.

[Audience laughs]

Mikey: Really, like…

Audience Member: Wait, I have something that makes it better. Why did Harry cross the road?

Mikey: Why?

Audience Member: Because Hedwig is dead.

Mikey: That’s so mean right there too!

Jamie: You wouldn’t have the nerve…

Mikey: Wow. You know what?

Jamie: …to tell Jo that, would you?

Mikey: I was really sad. I liked Hedwig.

Emerson: I’m not going to lie, actually. I heard that like yesterday, and I thought it was funny yesterday.

[Everyone talks at once]

Jamie: Hey, why don’t we all talk at once?

Meaning of “Remember My Last”

Mikey: I have a good Harry Potter joke if you want.

Audience Member: Okay, I want to do my question now – get to the earlier question. Okay. They never really explained why – what Dumbledore meant by his letter to Petunia about “remember my last.” And we kind of were talking earlier about it, that either – that he was either referring to the letter that he sent to Petunia about Harry or his letter that’s the last letter he sent to Petunia about not being accepted into Hogwarts. And I wanted to know what you guys thought about it and what he actually meant by that because nobody ever came out and said what exactly he meant.

Jamie: Didn’t we…

Ben: Well, I think “remember my last” would have to be referring to that letter that he left with Harry that night on the doorstep because…

Jamie: I agree.

Ben: …that makes the most sense. “Remember my last” – because at that point in time in Order of the Phoenix is when Harry was about to be expelled, about to be thrown out of the house. Vernon was saying, “the boy has to go,” and then all of a sudden he changes his mind after talking to Lily, so I think it’s pretty obvious that “remember my last” was referring to the letter he left with her.

Mikey: Also because probably in that letter Dumbledore explained the protection that Harry has while in their home.

Andrew: Yeah.

Mikey: I know. I’m saying – I’m agreeing with you, Ben Schoen.

Andrew: Someone up here? There are a lot of questions today. Geez.

The Dursleys’ Fate

Audience Member: I’m Amanda, and I’m from Canton, and I was wondering what you guys think happened to the Dursleys. Do you think Harry ever went back and tried to find them?

Andrew: Or at least go hang out with Dudley, because apparently Dudley really likes him.

Jamie: Yeah.

Andrew: Poor Dudley.

Mikey: Can you imagine him and Big D hanging out?

[Audience laughs]

Andrew: I don’t know, I…

Mikey: [unintelligible] punch Big D.

Andrew: I don’t know if Harry would really be in a rush to go back to the Dursleys. Maybe just a visit, show him the kids, stuff like that.

Jamie: Yeah.

Andrew: Other than that, though, I mean they never really had a relationship.

Jamie: That would be so awkward.

Andrew: And even when Harry left Mr. Dursley, he couldn’t even – he gave him a handshake but he didn’t say bye to him, right? It was just like a silent handshake, wasn’t it?

Ben: And Jo also talked about that in the chat. She talked about what Petunia was going to say to Harry. Do you know what I mean? Did you read that part?

Andrew: What are you saying?

Ben: I was saying that Jo also talked about that moment when Harry left and Petunia acted like she was going to say something.

Andrew: Oh yeah, yeah.

Ben: But she said like she had been so hardened about, you know, from her magical hatred over the years that she wasn’t able to…

Andrew: Yeah, you’re right. That’d be another…

Ben: …go for it.

Andrew: That’d be another good question to ask Jo because I sort of assumed that was going to be explained later in the book, because we were supposed to learn something more about Petunia, weren’t we?

Mikey: Yeah.

Andrew: So – oh well. Hi.

The Fate of Weasleys’ Wizard Wheezes

Audience Member: Okay, my name’s Kirsten from Dublin, and first off, this Dobby statue here is really depressing me, because I cried so hard when he died.

Andrew: Aww.

Jamie: Does anyone have a knife and we can stab it through his heart?

[Audience laughs]

Mikey: [in high-pitched voice] Dobby is dead.

Jamie: It’d be more realistic.

Andrew: It looks kind of worried now.

Emerson: He does look rather corpse-like.

Jamie: He knows he’s going to die. I bet like a week ago that face was so happy, then now it’s sort of…

Mikey: He was smiling and now he’s – [gasps] Anyway…

Audience Member: All right, my question was, do you think George would still run the joke shop now that Fred’s dead?

Ben: Actually, Jo addressed that too. She said that Ron actually went on to help George run the joke shop and they made lots of money together.

Jamie: Yeah, so ití’s still Weasleys’ Wizarding Wheezes.

Andrew: Yeah. Who’s over here?

The Epilogue

Audience Member: My name’s Katie, I’m from Massillon. This is more about my favorite scene, but from the epilogue, I thought it was cool how she showed everybody in the future and how everything was okay since Voldemort was gone.

Andrew: Yeah.

Audience Member: I always thought that Ron and Hermione would end up together. And I think it’s cool that Harry and Hermione – not Hermione – Ginny named one of their kids after Snape and Dumbledore since he found out that Snape was actually a good guy. So I just thought that was cool.

Jamie: I agree. I thought that was such a nice touch.

Andrew: Yeah. The name Albus Severus was pretty interesting.

Jamie: It isn’t as bad as Scorpius, though, so there again.

Andrew: It’s kind of scary.

Mikey: Scorpius.

Andrew: We had a little ten year-old come up to us at the show yesterday and say, “What’s up with the name Scorpius? I wouldn’t like to be named Scorpius.”

Jamie: Yeah, I wouldn’t either.

Andrew: It was pretty cute. We only have time for a couple more questions, so let’s…

Audience Member: Hi, my name’s Maggie. I’m from Broadview as well.

Ben: Broadview in the house!

Snape’s Connection to Harry

Audience Member: I wanted to know if I was the only one who caught that Snape really liked Harry throughout all seven novels. Because there was that scene where he’s talking to Dumbledore, and Dumbledore tells him that Harry’s going to die, and Snape wigs out.

Jamie: No, but I’d say that that was because that was the son of the person he loved, not because it’s…

Audience Member: Well…

Jamie: Because it’s a human being. Snape doesn’t, you know, Snape…

Audience Member: Dumble…

Jamie: Snape doesn’t do things because he’s Snape.

Audience Member: Dumbledore asks him, like – he asks him like after all these years, have you come to love this, or come to care for this boy that you despise so much? And then Snape looks at him and says, “Always.” Like he’s…

Jamie: When was that?

Audience Member: …always cared for Harry.

Jamie: I don’t remember that.

[Audience members chatter]

Audience Member: What?

Mikey: He’s talking about the…

Jamie: Yeah, he was talking about when Snape cast the doe Patronus and you can’t fake a Patronus. So, you know, it’s a reflection of what you really feel. He says “still” about Lily, about his love for Lily, and then Snape says, “Always.” And then to look in his eyes, which is very sad.

Mikey: If anything, Snape would resent Harry because it’s a constant reminder that he lost Lily to James Potter.

Jamie: And the eyes.

Mikey: And the eyes are what reminds him of Lily. And that’s again why he died, like Jamie said, “Let me look at your eyes.”

Andrew: Yeah.

Jamie: And that’s probably why when they were – when Harry was learning Occulemency, Snape was like, “Eye contact is essential,” just so he could look into…

Andrew: Yeah.

Jamie: …Lily’s eyes.

Andrew: All right…

Jamie: I didn’t get that before.

Andrew: …we have time for two more questions. One over here and one over here. I’m sorry.

Mikey: Sorry.

Andrew: We’ll talk after the show. We really got to wrap things up now.

Saddest Death

Audience Member: I’m Alex and I’m from Dayton…

[Audience cheers and Alex laughs]

Audience Member: …and I was just wondering – I mean, I know all the deaths were really sad, but to each of you, what did you think was the saddest death? I mean, personally for each of you.

Andrew: Dobby, because the way Jo described the death – I’ve said this in a few shows now – she would say the way Harry carried his small body…

Jamie: Yeah, yeah.

Andrew: Just these little adjectives…

Jamie: And the way that Harry…

Andrew: …that made him small and innocent.

Jamie: …got the shovel out in the blaring hot sun and he’s digging this grave when he could just…

Andrew: And then Griphook – Griphook was just like, “You’re a crazy wizard” or something because you could’ve just…

Jamie: Yeah.

Andrew: …dug it with magic, but instead he did it manually, which was a really nice way to pay tribute to Dobby considering how much manual labor he does.

Jamie: Mikey?

Mikey: I’m going to say Dobby also. [laughs] I was really sad with that. Maybe Mad-Eye because I kind of…

Andrew: That one – that came so quickly.

Mikey: That was kind of sad. And then his eye was just like – Umbridge had it, and I was just kind of like…

Ben: It was an insult to Mad-Eye’s memory.

Mikey: I know! I was like, wow, that’s really mean.

Andrew: Yeah.

Mikey: I like Mad-Eye. He was cool.

Andrew: Yeah. Jamie?

Jamie: Well, I really wasn’t sad for anything and I’m not just saying that. It’s because when Sirius died, I didn’t think feel I could feel anymore emotion for any of the characters. He was my favorite character, bar no one, so I couldn’t cry for Dumbledore or anyone in this book. But after reading this book and seeing how much Dumbledore has done, I think if I re-read Book 6, I might bawl.

[Andrew laughs]

Jamie: But Sirius’ was just so sad and he was my favorite character, so that’s why I didn’t really feel sad about anything.

Andrew: Ben?

Jamie: I’m just, you know…

Ben: Eh. I wasn’t really…

Mikey: Voldemort, maybe? Did you shed a tear when Voldemort died?

[Audience laughs]

Ben: Actually, yes. Of all the characters, probably. No, I mean, Hedwig – I didn’t really – it was just a bird.

[Andrew laughs]

Ben: Mad-Eye was old.

[Andrew laughs]

Ben: Lupin and Tonks didn’t even get a death scene and besides that – Fred was pretty sad.

Andrew: Yeah.

Ben: That was kind of like the loss that, you know, it kind of hit home. Like if Fred Weasley can be killed, anybody can.

Jamie: That’s true. Yeah.

Andrew: Dobby? Not sad for you?

Ben: It was sad…

Jamie: He was just a House-elf right?

Ben: Yeah, just a House-elf.

[Andrew laughs]

Mikey: He’s not part of SPEW.

Andrew: He’s not just any House-elf. Look at the guy!

Emerson: He wants to make sure he alienates every single person in this crowd right now. I thought one of the coolest things in the whole book was after George lost his ear and then Fred and George were just like – they were taking it completely in stride and making all these ear puns.

Mikey: Amazing!

Emerson: You know, “‘Ear, ‘Ear,” “Your holiness.” You know, I thought that was so cool that they could do that.

Ben: So that was your favorite death? That was the most emotional death in the book for you?

Jamie: The loss of an ear?

Emerson: I cried like a baby when he lost his ear.

[Audience laughs]

Andrew: All right, one last question for today. I’m sorry, guys.

Lord of the Rings Parallel

Audience Member: Hi, I’m Emily, eighteen, from New Hampshire.

Andrew: New Hampshire?

Audience Member: Yeah, college tour.

Andrew: Oh, okay.

Audience Member: So I noticed when the locket, when Harry was putting on the locket, he was talking about getting heavy and sort of burning into his chest, I was kind of remembering Lord of the Rings.

Jamie: Yeah.

Audience Member: So I was really glad that Ron actually left, because it made it different, and so there wasn’t that whole – it made a different dynamic around the Horcrux instead of having it be this sort of thing that has its own mind the same way – it’s not taking it from people to people, person to person, excuse me. So I just that was really – it came really close to almost making me feel a little bit uncomfortable with the parallels I was drawing, but – so – I don’t know. I just thought of that earlier and hadn’t gotten up until later. Also, my friend read Aeschylus, which is that quote in the very beginning of the book, and he said that the basic idea behind that is that heroes will live and have a happy life, and so I thought that was really interesting in how it ended up turning out.

Jamie: So if we had read that first we would have known that Harry was going to live.

[Audience laughs]

Andrew: Exactly.

Jamie: Why didn’t we think of that?

Andrew: It was really interesting. I thought it was really nice how Jo had those two quotes in there. I didn’t even read them because I just wanted to get to the book. But then also in the U.S. edition, it says, “We now…” What does it say exactly?

Ben: “We now…” Something about the seventh installment.

Andrew: “We now present the seventh and final installment.” That was really a nice little touch there, but in the second edition that’s just going to be reviews about the book. It won’t actually say that there. So, anyway, we want to thank everyone for…

Show Close

Mikey: We have one more person.

Andrew: Oh. Sorry. Alex. I forgot.

Mikey: Alex has something to say.

Andrew: All these rehearsals and then I screw up.

Alex: Of course.

Andrew: Alex of The Remus Lupins. Round of applause for Alex.

[Audience cheers]

Andrew: He’s going to do a little Wizard Rock in a minute. Alex, what was the saddest death for you?

Alex: Well, Hedwig, but Hedwig’s not actually dead, so it’s okay.

[Audience laughs]

Andrew: Don’t start this.

Alex: I’ve read some theories.

Andrew: Don’t start this, please.

Alex: No?

Ben: I think, actually, Hedwig made a Horcrux. We just didn’t hear about it.

[Audience laughs]

Alex: That’s the whole – that’s the encyclopedia.

Audience Member: [unintelligible] Elder Wand!

Alex: Yes. Whatever you just said.

Andrew: [laughs] We are going to do a raffle real quick to give away the Dobby, I think it was?

Mikey: No. You can’t give the Dobby away.

Andrew: I tried, guys.

Mikey: And the winner is Mikey B. Oh!

Audience Member: We got a copy of Deathly Hallows?

Andrew: Oh, a copy of Deathly Hallows.

Mikey: Deathly Hallows.

Andrew: Uh-oh, you lost one. There it is.

Mikey: There’s the winner. It’s got to be.

Audience Member: Are you picking?

Andrew: Sure, I’ll pick.

Mikey: Andrew Sims is going to pick.

Andrew: This is really exciting for me.

Mikey: Who’s going to pick, Andrew Sims?

Andrew: I’ll pick from the bottom. Winner of the copy is Ashley Gregga, phone number – oh, I shouldn’t say that. Ashley Gregga?

Mikey: Hey, Ashley.

Andrew: Is she here?

Mikey: Ashley, come get a free copy of the book.

Audience Member: She’s over here.

[Everyone cheers]

Mikey: Yay! A big hand for Ashley. Come on.

[Audience applauds]

Mikey: All right. So…

Andrew: Don’t move. I have your phone number if you do.

[Audience laughs]

Andrew: Well, we want to thank everyone for coming out today. Make sure you stay here for some awesome Wizard Rock from Alex and his band.

Ben: And also remember MuggleNet t-shirts and MuggleCast t-shirts available.

Andrew: Momentarily.

Mikey: And Remus Lupin CDs. Don’t forget that.

Andrew: Yes, of course.

Emerson: I should also point out real quick that this will be the first and last time that MuggleNet shirts will ever be available for sale. On the website six months ago we were asked by Warner Bros. to stop selling them, so we have our few remaining shirts available for sale here tonight.

Mikey: I’m wearing one. They’re pretty cool, guys.

Andrew: And we have the MuggleCast tour shirts which will also be here.

Mikey: One time only!

Andrew: One time only.

Mikey: So, guys, get ready for the Teddy Lupins. The Teddy Lupins, right? Because Remus is dead.

Andrew: One last quick notice: we’re going to do the meet and greet after the Wizard Rock concert. So make sure everyone sticks around for that, then we’ll be happy to meet everyone afterwards, all right?

Mikey: Here comes the book for you.

Andrew: Here comes the book. Yay.

[Audience applauds]

Andrew: Get reading, it’s a long book. Thank you, everyone, for coming. We’ll see you next time.

———————–

Transcript #104

August 13, 2007 / MuggleCast

MuggleCast 104 Transcript

Live From Novi, Michigan

[Audio]: Hey there, MuggleCast listeners. I am back to inform you of some excellent news. GoDaddy.com is having better deals than ever. For only $3.59 a month for 12 months, you can get GoDaddy.com’s economy package. With 250 gigs of bandwidth, five gigs of storage and up to 500 e-mail accounts, you can get your own website up and running with success. And as usual, enter code Muggle – that’s M-U-G-G-L-E – when you check out and save an additional 10 percent on any order. Some restrictions apply, see site for details. Get your piece of the internet at GoDaddy.com.

Andrew: Today’s Mugglecast podcast is brought to you by Border’s. In May, hundreds of Harry Potter fans descended upon New Orleans for the Phoenix Rising Conference. Border’s was there to take in the sights and share a lively discussion of the series that has bewitched the world with some of Harry’s most dedicated fans. Listen in and watch the action yourself. Check out the Phoenix Rising Border’s Book Club discussion at BordersMedia.com/HarryPotter, or click on the Border’s banner at the top of the Mugglenet page.

[Show music begins to play]

[Audience cheers]

Andrew: Oh, hey. Wow! Geez! Hello everyone, welcome to MuggleCast live in – oh gosh, where are we now? Detroit.

[Audience yells “Novi”]

Novi. Novi. Sorry. It says, “Detroit,” on the website. I checked the website first. How’s everyone doing today?

Ben: Hello.

[Audience cheers]

Mikey: Yeah.

Andrew: Thank you for coming out. We’ve got a good crowd here. How’s the panel doing?

Jamie: Well, I’d just like to take a moment to apologize for our bad appearances, because we just left Emerson’s about four hours ago after no showers. We just woke up and jumped into the car.

Emerson: That’s what this line is here. You guys have to keep back a little bit so we don’t all suffocate you.

Ben: I had a shower. I had a shower.

[Andrew laughs]

[Audience cheers]

Emerson: I love how you guys are cheering for the fact that Ben had a shower.

Andrew: Yeah.

Jamie: There’s a first for everything.

Andrew: Anyway, so at all these live shows we’ve been doing a little – well, first of all, let me ask, everyone happy with the book? Deathly Hallows?

[Audience cheers]

Mikey: Has… [Microphone cuts out] What? Okay.

Andrew: Has everyone read the book?

[Audience says, “Yes”]

Mikey: Okay, good. Because if you haven’t, we’re going to be talking about it, and we don’t want to spoil it for you. So it would be very, very sad.

Andrew: So leave.

Jamie: Leave.

Andrew: Leave now, or forever hold your peace, or risk being spoiled.

Jamie: Leave quickly.

Andrew: Mikey, I think you need a new mic, buddy.

Mikey: Oh, I saw someone in the back leave.

Andrew: Yeah.

Emerson: We wouldn’t have a lot to talk about if we didn’t talk about what happened in the book.

Andrew: Yeah.

Emerson: We could make more predictions about what’s going to happen, I guess.

[Everyone laughs]

Mikey: We could always talk about Emerson’s personal life.

Andrew: Oooh.

Emerson: Whatever.

Ben: Spy on Spartz.

Mikey: Well, he’s sitting right next to us, you know?

Character Discussion: Hermione

Andrew: So at every live show we’ve been doing a main discussion, a character discussion, because quite a few characters have developed in this book, and today we’re going to talk about Hermione. Jamie?

Jamie: We are. So far we’ve talked about Snape, Dumbledore, and – have we talked about anyone else? Voldemort. It’s been really, really interesting to get everyone’s views and their thoughts about the characters’ change with the release of the seventh book. All through the first six they could have had a really, really strong opinion of this character, and then in the seventh, everything’s just been thrown upside down with the new information we’ve got. So with Hermione, we’ve been thinking, she has always been clever, always been very – she’s always wanted to help her friends. There’s always been a bit of controversy over why she was in Gryffindor and not Ravenclaw, and often people have wondered that. And then in the seventh book, she was a big help to Harry. In fact, Ben and I think that without Hermione, Harry would probably not be alive today. Because, and we keep saying this, Harry just keeps waking up, doesn’t know where he is, and Hermione’s there, looking all bushy-haired and covered in ash saying, “Oh that was a close one again, Harry.”

[Audience laughs]

So she always seems to save the day, Hermione.

Emerson: It does seem like the seventh book, it was just – every like, two pages they’d have another near-death experience, and then through luck or whatever, miraculously they’d pull through somehow.

Jamie: A camping trip.

Ben: Or Harry would just throw some Expelliarmus, because that’s how he wins everything.

Andrew: Please hold for a microphone change.

Mikey: Does it work? It works. Yay.

Emerson: All right, cool.

Hermione Throughout the Books

Jamie: So what did you guys think of Hermione in the first six books?

Andrew: Well, I mean, in Book 7, it’s basically exactly how Hermione’s been throughout all six books. But now, Hermione – all this help she’s been providing Harry from like Sorcerer’s Stone to Half-Blood Prince, has all come together in Deathly Hallows, and just the whole book is just her helping Harry. Like, that’s all she’s doing.

Emerson: What I love about Hermione is the fact that Harry has this task, obviously, and the odds of successfully tracking down all the Horcruxes and destroying them, and then defeating Voldemort, his odds aren’t good, and yet he spends all his time just kind of going with the flow, whatever happens to him, happens. But Hermione is taking all this time that she has to learn as much as she can about magic, and to improve herself as much as she possibly can. So in the seventh book, you see every time they’re in a tight situation, you see Hermione always knows the right spell to use, because her knowledge of magic is so superior to Harry’s, even though he may be a powerful wizard, just because it’s just in him. But Hermione makes the most of what she has, and that’s what I really am most impressed with, because she’s very bookish, and I really like that about her.

Andrew: Yeah. Mikey?

Ben: That’s his biggest turn-on, by the way.

[Everyone laughs]

Mikey: If you can read books. No, I totally agree with both of you guys. Hermione has definitely stepped up, and I think she showed a lot more courage in this book than previous books. Normally, she’s kind of the one that doesn’t want to break the rules, doesn’t want to go underneath the Invisibility Cloak, and stuff like that.

Andrew: Yeah.

Mikey: But now, she’s like, “We need to do this.” She realizes that it’s either them or losing to Voldemort, so they have to – she uses all her books, you know? I remember reading the scene where she’s packing up books, like which books to take and which ones not to take, and I just started laughing, going – I could totally picture, you know, Emma Watson or my Hermione in my head, doing this. Just going, “I really want to take this book, but it’s about nargles,” or something, something absolutely, completely irrelevant.

[Audience laughs]

And she’s like, “We never know, we might run into it,” and puts it in the pack. I could just see the stacks being totally lopsided, where it’s just like, a hundred books I need to take, and one book about, you know, Mugglenet.com’s What Will Happen in Harry Potter 7, not needing to be taken.

Emerson: You can’t leave the house without that one, Mikey.

Jamie: Because – no, you can’t.

Mikey: I don’t know, she’s living it, so she might not need to take it, but it’s like, everything she’s taking, her knowledge is just beyond Harry’s.

Ben: She should have taken it with her, because we were pretty darn right.

Andrew: Yeah.

Mikey: Who knows. But yeah, I can just imagine, Hermione – without Hermione, Harry would have been lost.

Jamie: He was, yeah.

Mikey: You know, especially every time he wakes up and is like, “Thank you, Hermione, you saved me again.”

Emerson: He seems like he’s usually mad at her, like when she broke his wand. I mean yes, he has the right to be mad at her, but she also did save his life.

Jamie: Yeah.

Emerson: That;s a little more important than his wand.

Ben: Yeah.

Emerson: And I couldn’t help but think, Harry, come on, dude, priorities here. Priorities.

Mikey: Yeah, it’s like, face Voldemort without a wand, or have Hermione save you again.

Jamie: There were so many instances where she just did stuff that she didn’t even think of, like she cast protective spells around their campsite, which, you know, they were camping a great deal, so she did all that, and then she told him stuff he didn’t know, like at Grimmauld Place, after they got back from the Ministry, Yaxley got his arm round her just as they Disapparated.

[Audience laughs at his pronunciation]

And so like—Disapparated, sorry…

Mikey: Disappeared, disapparated, same thing.

Jamie: It’s been a long drive.

Mikey: Long drive.

Jamie: Long drive, yeah. So, yeah, she just did stuff that he had no idea how to do.

Mikey: One thing I also – I kind of got upset with Hermione about, was she’s too logical at certain times. Like when Harry had figured everything out, he’s like, “This is what we’ve got to do,” and she’s like, “No, it’s just a story, it’s just a fairy tale.” It’s like, “No, it’s the Deathly Hallows, it’s the three things we need to get.” “No, no, it’s a fairy tale, Lovegood is just totally out of his mind.” “No, it’s true.” Harry was like positive, and she was completely wrong, and I liked that Harry kind of proved her wrong a little bit.

Andrew: Yeah.

Mikey: I like Harry.

Emerson: See, as somebody who normally prides rational decision-making, and that’s why Hermione is one of my favorite characters, I actually thought that what happened when they had that divergence where Harry had to go with his gut and Hermione was wrong, I think her logic actually failed her at that point, because logically we could all see from Harry’s perspective that the Deathly Hallows were obviously the reason that the Invisibility Cloak existed, and all these other – the pieces were fitting together. Harry was actually being more logical than Hermione, and it was a gut feeling. It was a combination. So Hermione…

Mikey: Well…

Ben: I think Hermione just had a hard time believing in like a three – a story about three kids, or whatever.

Mikey: Well, I think the biggest thing for us, as readers, was that’s the title of the book.

[Everyone laughs]

Andrew: Yeah.

Mikey: So maybe it’s important. I don’t know.

Andrew: Yeah. It’s interesting. One of the other titles, I don’t know if you guys have heard, but one of the other titles that Jo was considering was Harry Potter and the Elder Wand, which I think would have been more fitting, especially with the U.S. cover, because apparently the cover is depicting them reaching for the Elder Wand, Harry and Voldemort.

Mikey: After they shot spells at each other, and Harry’s the Master of Death, and the wand goes, “Whee!” up in the air.

Andrew: Right, right. What other character are you really proud of, Mikey?

Give it up for Molly Weasley

Mikey: Oh, give it up for Molly Weasley, everybody. Come on.

[Audience cheers]

How awesome was that? Really, like, can you imagine, at that final battle, like Molly Weasley just like, “Stay away from my daughter, you… witch!” And just like, she goes after Bellatrix, you know, imagine the movie, she’s going to be running, her cloak flies off her, she’s like, “Come on, no.” Now, you guys have to remember, she doesn’t necessarily kill Bellatrix. It’s just a curse. So Molly Weasley probably uses like a Stupefy, because she’s not a mean person, but she still takes out Bellatrix. Well, no, no, because it says Harry knew exactly what was going to happen before it even happened, just like what happened to Sirius. Sirius was hit by a stunning spell and fell through the Veil.

Andrew: Straight in the chest.

Mikey: Straight in the chest, right below the heart. So who knows what it was? I really can’t picture Molly Weasley using Avada Kedavra. Probably she could if she really wanted to, but I can’t see it. Come on, she’s always making food and come on, you know, really? It would be a stunning spell, I think, or it could be Expelliarmus, because that’s the spell of the book.

Ben: The solution to everything.

Emerson: And that’s Harry’s.

Mikey: Open a door. Expelliarmus.

Harry Used Unforgivable Curses

Ben: I thought it was cool that Harry used Unforgivable Curses. That was awesome. He was just like telling people what to do. Yeah.

Mikey: Yeah. Imperio.

Crowd Reaction to Hermione

Jamie: Does anyone have any thoughts on Hermione? So like, how she’s changed with the seventh book, how she’s developed?

Andrew: Get in the audience here.

Mikey: If you have a thought, why don’t you come on up and we’ll give you a microphone and you can tell us, and we can respond. Is anybody brave enough to get up?

Andrew: Anyone?

Mikey: I know the floor’s pretty comfortable.

Jamie: It’s pretty exciting, hearing the responses so far.

Did Harry Die in Book 7?

Emerson: One thing I’ve really been itching for a debate about is, having read the book, a lot of people told me that in the book, Mugglenet.com’s What Will Happen in Harry Potter 7, we predicted that Harry would live, and I’ve been getting a lot of my friends calling and saying, “Ah! Harry died, you were wrong. Well, you were half right, but you were wrong because he died.” But I don’t think he died.

Jamie: No.

Mikey: No.

Andrew: No.

Emerson: Because I think it’s pretty clear that Harry wasn’t dead. Dumbledore actually says, when Harry asks him, “Am I dead?” and Dumbledore says, “On the whole, I think not.” Clearly you can’t be–you’re either dead or you’re not. Like, there’s–and Harry’s clearly in like a transitional, kind of between life and death, but there’s – J.K. Rowling has been very clear in the past that you can’t come back from the dead.

Andrew: Right.

Emerson: So he wasn’t dead. So if anybody wants to debate that, I’m spoiling for a fight right now.

Mikey: He’s very angry.

Jamie: Yeah.

Andrew: This guy back here wants to say something.

Emerson: All right, no challengers.

Mikey: Why don’t you come on up here and use the microphone, because it is an audio podcast. We want to hear your voice on the podcast. So you can go download it yourself, and be like, “That’s me everybody, listen.”

[Audience laughs]

That’s what I do. Every time I’m on the show, I’m like, oh, it’s me. What’s your name? Where are you from?

Steve: My name’s Steve, I’m from Jackson, Michigan. Prison city.

Mikey: Yeah.

Steve: Anyway, I was just kind of curious. I don’t think he was really dead or alive. He was the Master of Death, I think that’s why he was given the choice kind of in that purgatory of the train station, and Dumbledore said, “Well, you can either go,” because as you know, his scar was gone, he no longer needed his glasses, so in a way I think he was kind of dead.

Emerson: Well, no, I agree with you. I think that train station was probably – someone mentioned at an event in Valparaiso, Indiana, that maybe the reason he was in a train station for the purgatory was because it’s very symbolic of having to choose. Which train do you get on?

Andrew: [sings] Should I stay or should I go?

[Audience laughs]

Emerson: Well played.

[Everyone laughs]

Steve: Thanks, guys.

Emerson: But either way, we’re in agreement, he wasn’t dead. He didn’t decide to get on that train.

Jamie: No, it was all in his head.

Mikey: It was all in his head, that’s what Dumbledore says.

Ben: And as Dumbledore explained that he still had the anchor to life because of the whole blood thing with Voldemort’s blood.

Andrew: Yeah, but I think the point about, what Jo has said multiple times – once you’re dead, you cannot come back even in the magical world.

Jamie: Exactly.

Andrew: Jo was very clear about that.

Mikey: Except as Inferi. As zombies.

Jamie: Well, you can come back. You just can’t come back as yourself.

Andrew: Right.

Jamie: You can come back as your…

Andrew: Right, but Harry is himself.

Jamie: Huh? Yeah, he is. Yeah.

Andrew: So…

Missing: Inferi and Veil

Mikey: Actually, hold on, I have a question about the dead. Did anyone think that Inferi were going to play a role because they had been talked about. I was expecting Harry Potter and the Zombies.

[Audience laughs]

But there was no Inferi. It was a big part in Book 6 as the ring – or the locket, and that was it.

Jamie: That was awesome if it was a kind of Sixth Sense thing where we think Harry came back from the dead, but he didn’t really. He’s actually dead.

Mikey: Yeah.

[Audience laughs]

Jamie: And nobody talks to him now. He wonders why for so long. And the he realizes – and then Ginny just takes off her ring and throws it down and everything fades to black.

Mikey: Awww, I like Ginny.

Jamie: What a fitting end.

Emerson: I think the thing that surprised me the most is that we never saw the Veil again.

Andrew: Yeah.

[Audience says, “Yeah”]

Emerson: I thought the Veil…

Ben: Or the Department of Mysteries, in general.

Emerson: Yeah, the mysterious locked door. I thought that was going to be almost central.

Andrew: Yeah.

Emerson: I thought that might even be where the end of the book is or that would just be crucial to the final – the final plot.

Jamie: Well, I read a spoiler online that I though was a spoiler originally where Voldermort and Harry go to the Ministry of Magic and they are in that circular room where the Love Door is, and they were fighting and I can’t remember how they were fighting, but Harry opens this door to the Love Room and this huge burst of light comes out and it completely destroys Voldemort. But it heals him because he is pure at heart. And I believed it. And I have been told off for believing this because it doesn’t sound realistic, but if you’d have read it, you would have believed it too.

[Audience laughs]

Mikey: But you know what? Jamie, I think I read the same thing, but this time Harry sent him a Valentine’s Day card and killed him that way.

Jamie: I believed that one too.

[Audience laughs]

Kreacher and House-Elves

Emerson: Well, while we’re making random observations, I thought one of the coolest scenes in the whole movie, was when Kreacher rallied the House-Elves to come fight in the battle.

[Audience cheers]

Andrew: Yeah.

Emerson: And…

Andrew: Kreacher really made a full 180 in this book.

Emerson: He really did. We did not see the Kreacher storyline. We saw the first part with Regulus Black and the Horcrux, but we didn’t think a little bit of kindness towards Kreacher would turn him into this cool, little House-Elf. But I thought one thing that surprised me a little bit is these House-Elves are supposed to be capable of some really, really powerful magic, so why do they come out…

Jamie: With knives, yeah.

Emerson: Why are they banging on their knees with spatulas and eag beaters and stuff.

[Audience laughs]

Jamie: That is very true, yeah.

Emerson: I thought they would be really laying the smackdown with some seriously powerful magic, but…frying pans.

Jamie: It reminded me of – have you seen The Mummy, the film? Anyone see The Mummy?

Andrew: Yeah.

[Audience says, “Yeah”]

Jamie: It reminded me of those beetles that come over and devour you in one second. I can just imagine all these House-Elves crawling on top of Voldemort and him just going down and seeing a hand disappear.

[Audience laughs]

Or at the end like that.

Emerson: That is a really weird mental image.

[Audience laughs]

Jamie: As I said, it was a late night.

Tangenet: Star Wars and Pokemon

Mikey: For the House-Elves, I kind of saw them as Ewoks, you know? They just come up and they’re taking – they’re swinging from the rafters.

Emerson: Oh yeah, Ewoks!

Mikey: With cleavers and be like “Ahhh!” It would be cool.

Emerson: Oh yeah, straight out of the third Star Wars movie.

Mikey: Exactly. Sixth, technically. But anyway.

Andrew: Am I the only one who has never seen Star Wars.

[Audience member responds]

Mikey: Yeah…

Andrew: Thank you, thank you.

Mikey: Pretty much.

Ben: I’ve seen it.

Andrew: Sorry.

Mikey: It’s all right, Andrew. We still care about you.

Andrew: I just don’t get of these references you make. Or Lord of the Rings, never saw it.

Jamie: Oh, no.

Ben: Pokemon.

[Audience laughs]

Andrew: I’ve seen Pokemon.

Jamie: That is the biggest crime, I tell you.

Mikey: The Pokemon one.

Emerson: Jamie likes to draw parallels to Pokemon all the time.

Jamie: I do, I do.

Andrew: I do. There are a lot of them.

Jamie: There are, the are several.

Andrew: Yeah.

Jamie: I like them.

Andrew: Can’t come up with them right now.

Mikey: Okay, anyway.

Question: Kreacher

Jamie: Anyone have any more thoughts on Hermione?

Mikey: Come on up here. Yep, yep. Come up here. You got to come up here. You got to be on the microphone.

Andrew: Kreacher? Kreacher? Fine. Fine. Come on up.

[Audience laughs]

Mikey: Kreacher, Hermione – they are kind of like the same character.

Jamie: Hermione, Kreacher.

Mikey: Not really, but…

[Audience laughs]

Andrew: Here, use this mic.

Mikey: Exactly.

Andrew: What? Whoa! Where you going?

[Audience laughs]

Mikey: She wants Jamie’s microphone.

Andrew: Fine, you don’t want to talk to me? It’s cool.

[Audience laughs]

Arianna: I still love you guys.

Andrew: No, we’re over it really.

Arianna: All right. My name?

Andrew: Yeah, your name.

Mikey: Name, where you’re from.

Andrew: MySpace url.

Arianna: My name is Arianna Beemer. I am from [cough] New Baltimore, Michigan.

[Audience cheers]

Arianna: That’s my friends.

[Audience laughs]

Arianna: About Kreacher, what I thought was – about how he changed after Harry showed kindess to him, is another example of how love plays such an important role in the books. Like, all Kreacher really wanted was for somebody to love him and that’s why he felt connected to Mrs. Black and Narcissa and Bellatrix because they showed care – they cared for him or they pretended to at least. So, when Harry started to care for him, he really started to come around and be more good t
han he was.

Emerson: I thought it was a really almost like a sweet story.

Jamie: Yeah.

Emerson: Like, you think about how -I might turn into a puddle of tears in a minute, but…

[Everyone laughs]

Andrew: Awww.

Emerson: All it took was a little bit of kindness and I wonder, you know, if there is someone in each of your lives, or in my life that I maybe haven’t treated kindly and some people you just really, really dislike and you…

[Everyone laughs]

Emerson: And maybe if I showed him a little bit of kindness, you know, at some point…

[Audience says, “Awww”]

Emerson: Maybe he would – maybe Mikey would, maybe love me back.

Mikey: Awww, I do Emerson. I do.

Dudley’s Kindness

Andrew: Speaking about love and kindness, how about Dudley showing some love right for Harry.

[Cheers from audience]

Ben: That was lame.

Andrew: I mean…

Mikey: [Dudley impersonation] “I’m Big D.”

Ben: I didn’t know he was capable of being so romantic.

Jamie: Me too.

Mikey: [Dudley impersonation]: “Put it down, Harry Potter! I’m Big D.”

Emerson: “I don’t think you’re a waste of space.”

Andrew: That was just one of those things you were its just, no…

Jamie: No, that’s just me.

Andrew: It’s so out of place. It doesn’t make sense. Maybe if we had some more explanation, but there was none.

Jamie: Can I just check? Is your name the same as Dumbledore’s…?

Arianna: Yes, it is.

Jamie: I hope you’re life is better than her’s.

Arianna: I got texted from people saying, “Oh my god. You’re in a book!”

Jamie: Really?

[Everyone laughs[

Andrew: What’s your name?

Mikey: But you’re alive.

Ben: Arianna.

Jamie: Yeah, you’re a live, that’s the difference.

Mikey: That’s the difference there.

Emerson: And not crazy.

Andrew: Yeah.

[Everyone laughs]

Emerson: Okay.

Mikey: She wasn’t always crazy.

Jamie: And not kept…

[Something said from audience]

Jamie: Oh, all right.

Emerson: You’re out in public, though. Clearly you’re safe.

[Everyone laughs]

Mikey: Are you a witch?

[Something said from audience]

[Everyone laughs]

Mikey: Anyway, moving on.

Jamie: Any other points?

Andrew: And then we’ll open up the floor. We’ll just have an open discussion about the book. Anything that’s been bugging you. Or anything that hasn’t been bugging you.

Movie Discussion

Mikey: Has anyone seen the fifth movie yet?

[Audience cheers]

Andrew: First, this girl.

Jamie: Yet? Yet?

Mikey: You guys saw Kreecher in that, right?

[Most in audience say, “Yeah”]

Mikey: Now, now, now, remember after Harry’s nice to him, he got all nice and clean with puss of white. It’s going to be amazing to see. He’s just going to be a really goofy looking House-Elf.

[Everyone laughs]

Mikey: So, I’m exciting for that, too.

Andrew: This whole time I was reading the book, I couldn’t help, but think about what they’re going to do for the movie because we just came out of the movie so, I couldn’t help, but have it on my mind and they’re going to have to cut so much. It’s going to be disgusting, some of the things that they’re going to do.

Mikey: It’s going to be an eight-hour movie.

Andrew: Yeah, there you go.

Mikey: That’s what I’ve been saying. Peter Jackson doing an eight-hour movie.

Andrew: So…

[Murmuring from audience]

Mikey: Peter Jackson: The Harry Potter Story.

[Murmuring from audience]

MuggleCast 104 Transcript (continued)

Question: Hermione

Andrew: What’s your name and where you’re from?

Jackie: I’m Jackie and I’m from Birmingham, MI.

[Some cheers]

Jackie: Those are my friends. Ok, Mikey had said that Hermione was way to logical when they were talking about the Deathly Hallows and I don’t think that’s true because if you look Xenophilius Lovegood, he’s completely insane.

[Some laughter]

Jackie: He wears a hat, and he’s cross-eyed…

[Everyone laughs]

Jackie: And the book is from, I don’t know, The Babbity Rabbit – I don’t know what it’s called anymore, but there children stories, she’s right. I think if I was in that situation, I would agree with…

Mikey: Well, my one argument to that is, Dumbledore gave her that book, and Dumbledore is a pretty smart guy.

[Everyone laughs]

Jackie: Well…

Emerson: That’s why I think that actually, Hermione was being illogical for once because she was ignoring the evidence the fact that the Invisibility Cloak existed, that’s already evidence of atleast one of the Deathly Hallows and then Harry thinks he figures out where the stone is, and then Voldemort is obviously looking for the wand, and Voldemort’s pretty smart, so, all those pieces fallen together should indicate that maybe it’s more than just a story.

Mikey: I agree with, Emerson.

[Some laughter]

Emerson: See? Things are turning around between us.

Mikey: High five! Yeah!

[Some laughter]

Mikey: We’re friends again!

Emerson: Friends.

Mikey: Forever.

Andrew: I wonder why, Mr. Lovegood – I don’t know how to pronounce his first name, so…

Mikey: Xenophylis.

Andrew: Xenophilis?

[Audience says, “Xenophilius”]

Mikey: Xenophilius.

Andrew: I wonder why he trusted the Deathly Hallows so much. Like, that story. Why was he part of this group of people who were dedicated to searching for it?

Jamie: No, what it reminds me…

Andrew: Why does he need it?

Jamie: What…

Andrew: Why does he care?

Jamie: What other quest does it remind you of? Like the search of three other things like that?

Emerson: Like the Holy Grail?

Jamie: Yeah, that’s exactly what I got reminded of. I got reminded of The DaVinci Code, Dan Brown? If anyone’s read it, and like, searching for a group of people coming together, mostly in secret because no one else knows really to search for them. That was interesting.

Question: Dobby

Andrew: Yeah. Good point. This girl, Jamie.

Amanda: I just wanted to see what you guys thought…

Andrew: What’s your name and…?

Amanda: Amanda Batten, and I’m from Toledo, Ohio.

Andrew: Woohoo! Toledo!

Amanda: Well, my brother’s favorite character is Dobby and so when he was reading the book, he was like, “Oh my God, the worse thing just happened!” And I was freaking out.

Andrew: Yeah.

Amanda: And then I read it and saw that he died, and me and my sister were reading it ‘What Will Happen In the Seventh Book?’ and said ‘Dobby 100 to 1 that he wasn’t going to die.

[Andrew and everyone laugh]

Amanda: So, I want to know what you thought about that.

Andrew: We can’t be perfect…

Ben: Ummm, we did not sign off on that. It was a misprint.

[Everyone laughs]

Emerson: Frankly, I’m glad…

Ben: Future editions of the book will be changed to reflect the true odds that we intended.

[Andrew laughs]

Jamie: Yeah.

Emerson: 1/100. Frankly, I’m kind of glad we didn’t predict Dobby’s death. I would feel like a slimy person if I predicted that death.

Ben: Yeah.

Emerson: Same with Hedwig. How do you predict the death of an owl?

[Audeince says “Awww”]

Jamie: You don’t.

Mikey: Was everyone sad when Hedwig and Dobby died?

Andrew: Yeah, that…

Mikey: That was one very sad deaths.

Andrew: Dobby was one of the saddest…

Ben: Sad.

Andrew: Dobby?

Ben: or Hedwig? How is Hedwig sad?

Mikey: Hedwig has been with him…

Ben: So? I mean…

Mikey: …all these years.

Ben: I didn’t feel any emotional attachment to her. I just thought it…

[Murmuring from everyone]

Andrew: No one had any emotional attachment to Hedwig. Except for Harry.

Jamie: it was just one of those things.

Andrew: But seriously, it just came so fast. It was a surprise. Did anyone else here find it emotional? Emo?

Ben: Did you cry, Andrew?

Andrew: No, I didn’t. I did feel for Dobby, though because of the way that JK Rowling described it. “Harry picked up his little body and carried it over,” it was very sad.

Ben: Awww.

Andrew: So…

Ben: I just didn’t expect him to die at Bellatrix stabbing him. That was kind of weird, but..

Jamie: Yeah.

Andrew: That would have been, like what? 10,000 to 1 odds?

Ben: Yeah.

Jamie: Yeah.

Mikey: Except I predicted it.

Question: The Love Room and House-Elves

Andrew: Hi, what’s your name and where are you from?

Jillian: Jillian and I’m from Canton, MI. Not Ohio. No, I’m good. This is far enough for me to travel. I have two things to say, though. 1 about the veil, or about the locked room. They explained in the fifth book in that room was pure love, and I think bringing that into the story later would have made it really corny and hoaky and really would have taken away from Harry Potter in general.

Jamie: Why did she mention is, though? Because she made a big deal out of all of it.

Jillian: She mentioned it because Dumbledore was talking to Harry about it – about how fought off Voldemort in the book because he loved Sirius and he was full of so much love, an that was what it was brought up to when they were talking about Sirius’ death. And I think the only reason we ever saw the door was as a setup for that scene with Harry and Dumbledore. And then as far as the House-Elves go using the knives and spatulas and that stuff, they were all essentially enslaved I guess. They worked for Hogwarts, and so they could only be -They could only use magic when they were given permission to when the Headmaster was Snape and Snape was already dead by then.

Jamie: Yeah.

Jillian: Dobby only used magic on another wizard because that was illegal, after he was freed in Chamber of Secrets and that was only to protect Harry.

Jamie: And also they’ve just come from the kitchen and if you can’t find knives and forks there, what can you find?

Jillian: Right.

[Rustling with the microphone]

Andrew: Thank you.

Question: Hermione’s Story

Danielle: Alright, I’m Danielle Meiro from Saint la Shores, Michigan.

[Little cheers from audience]

Andrew: Yeah!

Danielle: I just wanted to go back to Hermione because I think her story had its own theme to it entirely. At first when you see her, she’s smart and she’s clever and she always follows the rules, and as the books go along she keeps breaking more rules and more rules and getting used to it. And I think it really teaches people civil disobedience and how it’s not always right to go along with what everyone else is saying. it’s not always the right thing to be doing.

Emerson: They are more like guidelines anyway.

[Everyone laughs]

Andrew: Here, this guy right here. This guy has been waiting. Right here. What’s your name? Where are you from?

Question: Snape and The Headmaster’s Office

Les: My name is Les. I’m from Farmington, Michigan. Not too far from here.

[Audience cheers]

Les: How, in Snape’s memory, when he’s talking to Dumbledore from behind his desk and he’s talking about giving the sword to Harry and how he’s going to tell the Death Eaters the real date. How is he talking to Dumbledore when he’s not the Headmaster yet? He doesn’t become Headmaster until the Ministry falls and that doesn’t happen until after the wedding.

Jamie: Perhaps Dumbledore put enchantments on the thing so Snape could get in. Didn’t we talk the other day about…

Andrew: We didn’t reread that chapter. Was that after…

Mikey: That was during “The Prince’s Tale,” correct?

Les: It was his whole memory situation, and it was essentially how the whole situation with him and Dumbledore get set up. Dumbledore uses Snape to plant everything…

Jamie: Well, Andrew… Andrew, didn’t we discuss, I think it was yesterday, that the office opens in terms of worthiness and not on whether you’re the Headmaster. So even though Umbridge was the Headmistress at the time of Book 5, it wouldn’t open for her, first of all, because it doesn’t think she’s worthy, whereas I think Snape would have been a very, very worthy person to get in.

Andrew: Yeah, we did talk about that.

Mikey: My only thing I can think of is, possibly, that because it is summer, there’s no students in the castle, and I’m sure the protections would be to keep the bad people, Death Eaters out, but since Snape is supposed to be able to get in, Dumbledore would have made assurances for that. He probably could have gotten into the Headmaster’s office.

Jamie: He needed to get into the Headmaster’s office then, as well.

Mikey: He needed to be able to get in, as well, and be able to talk to Dumbledore.

Les: So he snuck in before he was Headmaster.

Mikey: Yeah, he probably snuck in because, again, there’s probably nobody there other than maybe Filch and Mrs. Norris, or something like that. And I am sure that Snape could have probably avoided them.

Tangent: Harry is a Horcrux

Emerson: And for a completely unrelated tangent here, I just want to, just real quick. Ben and I, we spent the entire summer take – every book, we went to over 35 cities and every city we went to we spent usually a good half hour just defending a certain theory that was not popular, and…

[Audience laughs]

Emerson: …I just want to take a moment real quick to toot our own horn: Harry is a Horcrux. And…

[Audience cheers]

Ben: We called it. We called it.

[Audience cheers]

Mikey: Give it up for Ben Schoen and Emerson Spartz. They know what’s up.

Ben: And Jamie Lawrence, who also wrote the book.

Mikey: And Jamie Lawrence too, I forgot. Sorry, Jamie. Sorry, Jamie, you’re always right to me.

Emerson: But it’s just extremely – I – we just feel extremely vindicated now because everybody hated us for liking that theory and we got so much pressure to, like, to give in, right, Ben?

Ben: Mhm. Thank god, we held firm. We held firm.

Andrew: We still haven’t released the Los Angeles Leaky Mug because there was a big debate there.

Ben: Oooh, between…

Andrew: And we should still release it, just to…

Emerson: It was basically – I had it out with John and Melissa over the Horcrux theory. It was pretty, pretty intense.

Andrew: And Melissa was paging through the book the entire time trying to prove them wrong.

Ben: And then a few days later we get this e-mail from Melissa saying, “Oh, I have it now. There’s no way you can get your way out of this one.” She gave us like this big explanation for why Harry couldn’t be a Horcrux, how it was absolutely impossible for him to be a Horcrux.

[Andrew laughs]

Ben: And then she went to PotterCast.com and made the same post, and yeah.

[Andrew and audience laughs]

Mikey: Dumbledore says, “Harry is a Horcrux.”

Ben: “Harry, you are the seventh Horcrux.”

Andrew: I got so excited when…

Ben: Bam!

[Audience laughs]

Andrew: …I read that line. Yeah.

Emerson: That was like Ben’s reaction, he’s just like, “AAAHHH!”

Ben: I just went nuts.

Jamie: Okay, next question.

Question: House Ghosts

Steven: Okay, I’m Steven, I’m 13, and I’m from Grosse Pointe Woods, Michigan.

[Audience cheers]

Mikey: Wooo! Pickle Pack member, too.

Steven: And I was wondering about the House Ghosts. We learn a lot about them at the end of the seventh book because we learn that the Grey Lady from Ravenclaw was the daughter of Rowena Ravenclaw. And she was killed by the Bloody Baron. And I was just wondering, like the other two ghosts, the Fat Friar and Nearly Headless Nick, if they have some relation to Hogwarts, like some event in their life happened there that made them the ghost of Hogwarts. So, I was wondering if we might find out about that when she writes the Encyclopedia. So…

[Someone in the audience speaks]

Andrew: Not if, she said she would. She said she was going to.

Jamie: That is the kind of thing she would write about, the Hogwarts’ ghosts.

Andrew: We don’t know when, it might be a while.

Jamie: That is the kind of thing she’d write about, Hogwarts’ ghosts and their background. Because she said she’s going give background on a lot of characters, Dean Thomas, specifically.

Andrew: Yeah.

Jamie: So, there’s going to be a lot of information in there.

Andrew: Yeah.

Emerson: And she did mention that right now she’s writing two different things. One of which is for kids and the other isn’t. So I think she may be working on the Encyclopedia as the one for kids, or it maybe even something else.

Jamie: Yeah, probably.

Emerson: And the one for adults would be some kind of – like I really think she’s going to write fiction, and it could be crime fiction or mystery. She obviously loves mysteries, so…we’ll see.

Andrew: Well, she’s been working on a children’s book. A short one, a very short one, but no word about that yet, like what exactly it’s about. So, let’s go here and then you can come up. Hi!

Question: Ron’s Character

Carla: Hello, my name is Carla Cost and I’m with the Central Michigan University Chapter of Dumbledore’s Army.

[Audience cheers]

Carla: That’s right, we’re cool. And the thing that I really wanted to point out is, we were talking about how Hermione had changed so much as a character, but I think we kind of neglected Ron a little bit, and the reason I bring that up, especially between Harry and Ron – their relationship – is the part where Ron sort of comes back and admits that he was wrong. And I just think that that is such a departure from the fourth book when he couldn’t even apologize for not believing in Harry and sort of not talking to him for half the year.

Emerson: But he did eventually, though.

Carla: Not really.

Emerson: Well, like…

Mikey: That’s how guysa pologize.

Ben: He didn’t apologize, but he came back…

Carla: Not in the same way.

Jamie: That is how guys apologize.

Mikey: That’s how – come on, me and Emerson just made up in front of all you guys. That’s how we do that.

Emerson: See, we were feuding.

[All talking at once]

Carla: But that was a Book 7, sort of, apology. There was a hug.

Mikey: That’s tomorrow’s talk.

[Carla laughs]

Jamie: Yeah.

Emerson: That was also the feud, you know?

Mikey: On, Ron.

Emerson: …the fight in Book 7, it was a much bigger fight than the one in Book 4, I thought, because the circumstances were so much different, but I do agree. Ron has matured, somewhat.

[Audience laughs]

Carla: I mean he’s still the same Ron, but I think that he’s come a long way, since…

Emerson: He has, yeah.

Ben: But now he’s read a book on how to charm a witch. Or whatever it was.

[Audience laughs]

Carla: Yeah.

Emerson: Thus doubling his knowledge of the subject, probably.

Mikey: Is Harry considered a witch? Did he charm Harry?

[Audience laughs]

Emerson: He may have used some of the techniques, Mikey.

Mikey: I don’t know, we have to read more into it.

Jamie: Okay, we should stop this conversation right now.

Mikey: [laughs] Let’s stop.

Jamie: I can’t hear any more from this.

Andrew: Thank you. This woman right here.

Question: Quirrell and Horcruxes

Kelly: Hi, my name’s Kelly, I’m from Converse Township, and I want to talk to you guys about Professor Quirrell a little but. Now that we know all of the Horcruxes and how they were determined and found out and destroyed, what do you guys think about, or I guess what’s the common theory about what Quirrell was, as far as had he stumbled upon a Horcrux? Had he – how did Voldemort posses him and does it have anything to do with the Horcruxes?

Ben: I think, okay, to me a Horcrux – the Horcruxes themselves, the night that Voldemort was killed it wasn’t like Pettigrew or someone had to go activate a Horcrux so that piece of soul could be floating around or whatever, he was just that, “Vapormort,’ as I like to call it.

[Audience laughs]

Ben: He was just that apparition of his former self, you know, it was that soul or whatever you want to call it, floating around, and as long as the Horcruxes remained on the earth that airy soul, or whatever, can remain also.

Kelly: And so that’s what…

Ben: And so that’s what possessed Quirrell. Quirrell didn’t find a Horcrux.

Jamie: Yeah, but I think it was like a voluntary possession from Quirrell. I don’t think Voldemort took over him, I think there was like a talk and he persuaded him and he manipulated him to his will.

Andrew: Yeah.

Jamie: And that’s why he was on the back of his head for an entire book.

Andrew: Yeah.

Jamie: That must be weird.

Andrew: Yeah.

Mikey: Can you imagine walking backwards to see? It’s like…

Emerson: Can you imagine showering?

Jamie: That must have been tough. They must have practiced that a bit.

[Audience laughs]

Mikey: Oh, that would have been weird. It’s like, “Don’t get the soap in my eye.”

Emerson: No privacy there.

Jamie: Yeah, and when he sits down on the toilet Voldemort just has to…

Mikey: Yeah, every time.

Jamie: …face a wall for like…

[Audience laughs]

Jamie: …fifteen minutes.

Andrew: All right. Another question?

Jamie: That can’t be fun. Next one?

Question: The Snitch – A Tribute to Past Books

Robin: I’m Robin Cohen and I’m from Lavonia, Michigan.

[Audience claps and cheers]

Robin: And so when I was reading the first one I always thought it was like kind of corny how Harry caught the Snitch in his mouth, and that was like he swallowed it, I couldn’t really see that, but I thought it was pretty cool how it – I never thought it would tie back into the seventh book where it would’ve – it helped him so much, because when he was trying to like see if it would open and it touched his hand and, you know, if he would have just caught it then it would’ve opened and they would have saw that the stone was in it, but he did the mouth thing and I thought that was pretty cool.

Andrew: Yeah, in this book there’s a lot of things that you see coming back. I think it was just Jo’s way of paying tribute to everything in the past six books. Take, for example, Oliver Wood making the random appearance in the book.

[Audience laughs]

Andrew: Mikey commented the other day that he’s definitely going to be one of the things cut from the actual movie.

[Audience laughs]

Mikey: Yeah, sorry, Wood.

Jamie: I don’t know, Mikey, he’s pretty central.

Ben: There’s still – there’s probably still that petition out there, I don’t know if you guys remember that.

Jamie: Yeah, “Bring Oliver Wood Back.”

Other Things That Returned

Andrew: Yeah. I’m trying to – what other little things were in the book? I just remember reading throughout the entire book a lot of little things that reflect…

[Audience members yell]

Andrew: Norbert, yeah. Ummm, what’s that?

[Audience member says, “Norberta”]

Andrew: Norberta, ahh good point! Good point!

Mikey: Oh yeah.

[Andrew laughs]

Jamie: Percy Weasley coming back was good, as well.

Andrew: Percy Weasley coming back was good.

Ben: I was hoping we’d see the Mirror of Erised. I was hoping…

Jamie: Yeah.

Ben: …that was going to be one of the Horcruxes. Like the Ravenclaw one or something.

[Audience member says, “The Chamber of Secrets”]

Andrew: The Chamber of Secrets coming back, yeah, that was another thing. Ron suddenly learning Parselmouth.

Ben: No, it’s because he had the diary, dude. Not the diary but the locket.

Andrew: The Horcrux around his – yeah.

MuggleCast 104 Transcript (continued)

Tangent: Ron Speaking Parseltongue

Emerson: I still don’t really understand that at all.

Jamie: Understand what?

Emerson: Like, why Ron was able to just hiss and suddenly speak Parseltongue.

Jamie: Hiss? Yeah.

Ben: Well, I don’t think it was that simple. I mean the reason that Ginny was able to open the Chamber of Secrets is because she had the diary and Ron had the locket so it’s like the same thing.

Jamie: But I always thought…

Emerson: But for, I mean for destroying the Horcrux, I mean Harry had to use the basilisk venom to do it.

Jamie: Yeah.

Emerson: And Ron was able to open it up just by…

Jamie: Hissing.

Emerson: If that’s all you need to speak Parseltongue, wow.

Mikey: Hiss.

Emerson: It just seemed it was kind of strange.

Jamie: And Em, Em, I always thought the ability to speak Parseltongue was an ability rather than a learned thing. So, you can’t learn it like another language here.

Emerson: Kind of like how chimps – we can speak chimp. [makes chimp noises]

Jamie: But they can’t speak human.

Emerson: But they can’t talk like this, you know?

Andrew: Someone is saying that imitating the sounds works the same way, but I don’t…

[Audience members talking]

Jamie: Yeah.

Andrew: Ron didn’t know what he was saying. That’s true, yeah.

Emerson: You can listen to the zillions of combinations. You can listen to someone try to speak English and then you probably won’t get any English right anyway, because you can just make up words that sound like English, but actually aren’t.

Jamie: That’s true.

Emerson: Because if you…

Ben: I think it’s clear that the reason he was able to do it was because he had the locket. I mean…

Andrew: Yeah.

Ben: …he was wearing the locket, otherwise…

Andrew: He just imitated the sound.

[Audience members talk]

[Mikey laughs]

Andrew: Oh wait, there’s a lot of debate going on. What?

Ben: More with the book.

Jamie: That normally means we’re wrong.

Ben: Andrew, I swear he was wearing the thing.

[Audience member talking]

Ben: Get mad, okay? Get angry!

[Audience laughs]

Andrew: We’ll double check.

Ben: Get fired up.

Andrew: Yesterday in Chicago everyone seemed to agree with it, but, come on up.

Mikey: Well, hold on one second about that. The Chamber of Secrets is only supposed to open for the heir of Slytherin, by him having the locket and even having a little bit of the essence of Voldemort’s soul, who was the heir of Slytherin, it would have opened for him. So, I back Ben completely on it. It was destroyed but it had been there, you know what I mean?

[Audience talking]

Mikey: He had the cup! He had the cup.

Ben: He had one of the Horcruxes, that’s all I meant, okay?

Mikey: Exactly.

Ben: We’re just splitting hairs here, people. Come on.

[Audience applauds and cheers]

Mikey: So, regardless, it opened because he had part of Voldemort with him.

Andrew: Somebody could have just said that.

Mikey: Someone could have just said…

Ben: He had a Horcrux in some shape of form.

[Andrew laughs]

Jamie: Ben, Ben, that was an excellent test, and they passed. They passed with flying colors, well done. They realized it was the cup.

Mikey: You guys did read the book.

[Audience laughs]

Mikey: All right, guys.

Jamie: Well done.

Mikey: Ben was right. All right, let’s go on.

Jamie: Next question.

Andrew: Maybe we should read the book now. So it’s…

[Audience laughs]

Emerson: You think they’re going to find us out, Andrew?

Ben: I only read the Spark Notes, sorry.

Mikey: “Chapter One.”

Question: The Malfoys

Alex: Okay, hi, I’m Alex and I’m from Allen Park, Michigan.

[Audience says, “Wooo!”]

Alex: Wooo! Really small. I was wondering – I thought it was interesting how in the seventh book it was like the Malfoys were like this amazing family now, they like help him out just because they’re worried about Draco. And before it didn’t seem like they really cared. And now it’s – yeah, and now it’s just like, “Oh my gosh, my son!”

Emerson: I agree, that was a bit…

Ben: I think that came from Narcissa more than Lucius, but eventually, in the end, he came around. I don’t know, I thought it was kind of a sweet way for the Malfoys to go out, because I thought Draco and Lucius were definitely goners, but we were wrong.

Jamie: Yeah.

Andrew: Even in Half-Blood Prince it seemed like Narcissa cared for Draco. She was worried for him, wasn’t she?

Jamie: Yeah.

Andrew: So, next question?

Ben: Because the difference is that their loyalty to their son was much greater than their loyalty to Voldemort.

Question: Harry and Voldemort Related

Kate: Okay. I’m Kate from Manchester, Michigan.

Emerson: Interrupt first. I remember you. You were – I did an event in Merriville, Indiana a couple weeks ago, and I remember it was way after the event was over. She came with her family afterwards.

Kate: Yeah, we went late.

Emerson: Yeah, we just saw this girl come in with a MuggleCast shirt way after the event and went, “Hmmm, wonder what she’s here for?”

Kate: Yeah, but I was just thinking. Okay, if Voldemort was descended from the Peverells, and Harry was, wouldn’t they be related? I just think that’s weird.

Andrew: Like, distant, distant, distant.

Kate: Right.

Ben: Like, third cousins second removed.

Kate: Yeah, but I don’t think Harry’s related to Slytherin, because that would just be weird.

Andrew: That’s like saying – there’s a saying, we’re all five degrees away from Kevin – six degrees away from Kevin Bacon.

[Audience laughs]

Andrew: I haven’t confirmed that with me, personally, I don’t know if anyone has, but yeah, so let’s get someone from over on this side?

Jamie: Yeah.

Question: The Elder Wand’s Master

John: I’m John, 26, from Wayne, Michigan.

Andrew: Wooo!

John: MySpace slash orco33

Andrew: Thank you! You’re the first person to actually do it.

John: Yeah, I thought so.

[Audience laughs]

John: I’m still wondering why Harry was the master of the Elder wand. He took Draco’s Hawthorne wand from him, but he didn’t take the Elder wand from him, so why was he the master of the Elder wand?

Ben: It’s because – Mikey?

[Audience laughs]

Mikey: Okay, …

Jamie: Yeah, this theory that Mikey’s been doing for this has been amazing. Go on, Mikey.

Mikey: Okay, well, all right. Voldemort first went to Ollivander and asked why did his wand not beat Harry’s, blah, blah, blah, and all of that. And he asked Harry once Harry rescued Ollivander, does the person who gained possession, or win the wand, have to kill him? No. That’s what actually Dumbledore did to Grindelwald. He didn’t kill him; he still had the wand. The person that disarmed and actually won the wand from Dumbledore was Draco. It doesn’t mean he even has to have it in possession. He is now the master of it. The wand recognizes the master, regardless.

Ben: Once he was defeated, though.

Mikey: I agree, but he also – Harry disarmed and defeated Draco, who was the master of that wand. The master recognized that Harry was the one who had earned it, who won it. Now, afterwards, even though Voldemort thought he was the master, the wand recognized that Harry was the actual master and would not try to kill it’s own master, because it recognized that he was the rightful owner. That’s why the spell backfired.

Ben: Give it up for Mikey B., everybody.

[Audience cheers]

Andrew: Yeah, all right!

[Audience applauds]

Mikey: All right.

Ben: A wonderful explanation.

Andrew: Okay, this girl right here.

Question: Ron and Hermione

Catherine: Hi, I’m Catherine. I’m from Detroit, Michigan, and I was just wondering – I just wanted to say finally, Harry – I mean, Hermione and Ron, I mean, give it up, finally!

[Audience cheers]

Catherine: And I just wanted to know what you guys – if you thought it was going to turn out any other way.

Andrew: I didn’t think it would turn out with a kid named Hugo.

Ben: No.

[Audience laughs]

Ben: Yeah, Hugo’s kind of – that was a bit weird.

Emerson: See, I actually thought – I was a secret Harry/Hermione shipper all these years.

Andrew: Ooo!

Ben: Ooo!

[Audience laughs]

Emerson: On the website, when I called all Harry/Hermione shippers delusional, I was just kidding, you know? It was all a front.

[Audience laughs]

Ben: I thought it was funny, though – I thought it was kind of funny how Jo gave Harry and Hermione shippers a little bit of hope in that one instant when Ron comes up upon the whatever they were, the figures that, yeah, started making out.

[Audience laughs]

Ben: Yeah.

Emerson: I feel like she may have dashed their hopes a few times in the past, to where they shouldn’t be getting their hopes up for any reason at all.

[Audience laughs]

Ben: Yeah, but you don’t know Harry/Hermione shippers, they…

Emerson: I think I do, actually.

Ben: …cling to every strand of hope possible.

[Andrew laughs]

Mikey: What about when they actually finally got together and kissed? Like, can you actually imagine Harry going like, “Guys? We have a Horcrux…” like, tapping his foot.

Jamie: I can’t let that go. I’m sorry, Mikey.

[Mikey laughs]

Jamie: I can’t let that go. That’s my joke that I’ve used every single show so far.

[Audience laughs]

Stolen Jokes

Ben: Mikey has stolen, like, ten peoples’ jokes this show.

Andrew: There’s been this running thing on this tour where we started out the first show with all these new and original hilarious jokes, and now with it being the fifth show in now, we’re all just stealing each other’s jokes. Whoever can steal the joke first. So Mikey’s thing about give it up for Molly Weasley was stolen by Ben yesterday, I think?

Mikey: No, twice. Twice in a row! And so I had to do it right away in the show, so Ben couldn’t do it.

Andrew: Before I said, “Mikey, don’t even waste time. Don’t even say hello, just go right out and say, “Give it up for Molly Weasley.”

Mikey: Because, come on! Molly Weasley, everyone! She was awesome!

[Audience cheers]

Mikey: See! Yeah! Take that, Ben Schoen.

Jamie: Ben, Ben, do you want to form like an alliance with me against Mikey stealing jokes?

Emerson: Remember Kreacher. Remember Kreacher.

Jamie: I’m going to quick fire all of Mikey’s jokes out straight away.

Ben: I would tell you how many jokes, today, Mikey’s stolen of mine, but that would take way too long because it’s been like ten.

Andrew: [laughs] There is one thing you’ve been doing every show you haven’t done yet.

Jamie: Oh, Ben, Ben, I think it’s nice to have an inspirational quote every show. You know, something that teaches us about life, so do you have any?

Ben: [imitating Dumbledore] :It is our choices, Harry, far more than our abilities, that determine what we truly are.”

[Audience laughs]

Andrew: Thank you, Ben.

Ben: Thank you, thank you.

Andrew: All right, we’re almost out of time, so a couple more from this side.

Question: Harry’s Spells

Ella: I’m Ella from Lavonia, and I was wondering why you think that Harry never does anything worse to all the Death Eaters that are coming after him than stun them or use Expelliarmus? And why doesn’t he do anything worse? I mean they keep coming after him.

Ben: Because he doesn’t know anything.

[Audience laughs]

Ella: I mean, you’d think he’d do something!

Emerson: If you’re looking at it from a completely rational point of view, you think that Harry should at least do the full body-bind or something that’s not going to wear off right away.

Ella: Yeah.

Emerson: Or something – because, he’ll Impedimenta them or something and thirty seconds later they’ll be chasing him again, and you’re thinking, “Harry, what are you doing, man?” I don’t really understand. You can’t be too rational about spell choice, because it seems like you could only use like – you just use Imperio on every single person in a battle and then you’d have your own little army of people.

[Audience laughs]

Emerson: I mean, you can’t rationalize it. I’ve tried too hard; my brain hurts.

[Audience laughs]

Andrew: All right, thank you.

Emerson: This guy.

Andrew: Is your twin here today?

[Audience Member says something]

Andrew: Oh, okay.

[Audience laughs]

Question: Room of Requirement in Movie 5

Steve: It’s Steve from Jackson again. I was just curious, if anyone else was angry that they were able to break into the Room of Requirement in the fifth movie.

[Audience agrees]

Steve: Because I was – It totally defeats the point of the room for the rest of the movies.

Andrew: I agree. These are the stupid cuts that they have to keep making in order to cut down the movie.

Ben: But how does it…?

Mikey: But doesn’t that make you hate Umbridge a little bit more because she’s the one that actually does it? I’m sorry, Ben. I hate her.

Andrew: It was just like, they had already screwed up. They had Neville walking in front of the wall and it just opened up. And then, so it was just this dumb little thing. They do have to cut out on time, but it’s a shame that they do this.

Question: Number of Horcruxes

Katie: Okay, my name’s Katie Rick, I’m from New Baltimore, Michigan, and I was just wondering if anybody else was kind of confused about the fact that Voldemort had said the entire time that he wanted a seven part soul. Now that would include the part of soul that was in his body. So, if Harry was the seventh Horcrux, and there were seven Horcruxes, then wouldn’t it technically be more?

Jamie: He didn’t mean to make Harry, though. That’s the…

Katie: Oh, yeah, that’s true.

[Audience laughs]

Jamie: So, he’d of had six, originally, and then he was hoping to kill Harry, so then he’d of had the six Horcruxes and himself, so the seventh one would still be in him.

Katie: Wait, but…

Jamie: He accidentally made Harry a Horcrux, so he split his soul one final time one time when he didn’t mean to, and half of it went inside Harry. Dumbledore says it got encased – no, sorry, it latched…

Ben: It latched itself to the only living soul in the room.

Jamie: …itself to the only living thing in the room, which was Harry, so he didn’t mean to make Harry a Horcrux.

Katie: But wasn’t he going to make a seventh Horcrux with him, or…

Jamie: No, he already had seven.

Mikey: No, he had six.

Ben: With Nagini. Nagini was the…

Jamie: Was the final one, yeah.

Ben: Right, and he hasn’t had Nagini that long, I don’t think. I don’t think he made Nagini into a Horcrux until after he got his body back or the death of Frank Bryce.

Jamie: That’s a point.

Ben: So, actually, there be eight Horcruxes then? Or…

Jamie: Yeah, there were eight. There were eight in the end, yeah.

Katie: Ha, ha, Voldemort sucks.

[Audience laughs]

Mikey: No, eight pieces of soul, seven Horcruxes.

Jamie: Yeah.

Andrew: Yeah.

Mikey: Yeah, because there’s still the master soul that Ben calls it, you know, it’s fooling around.

Jamie: Yeah.

Andrew: All right, one last question for today. You corrected me when I said Norbert was – I said Norbert. Norberta. Norbert’s a girl, right?

Question: Draco’s Son

Collin: Yeah. I’m Colin from Fenton, Michigan…

[Audience cheers]

Mikey: Wooo!

Collin: …and I was thinking that in the epilogue when they saw Draco and his wife and his son, it was kind of mean to name his son Scorpius.

[Audience laughs and cheers]

Collin: Scorpius, the evil…

Andrew: Would you like to have been named Scorpius?

Collin: No.

[Audience laughs]

Andrew: How old are you?

Emerson: I would love to be named Scorpius!

[Audience laughs]

Colin. I’m ten.

Andrew: Ten years old. Give it up for this guy, he’s a smart kid.

[Audience cheers]

Andrew: Scorpius! What did you think of Hugo?

Collin: I didn’t like that.

Andrew: Hugo. Yeah, it was weird. We had read the epilogue before the book came out, and I could have sworn it was a fake because of the name Hugo. I was like, “Jo wouldn’t name someone Hugo!”

[Audience laughs]

Jamie: Andrew, shouldn’t you check that no one here is named Hugo first, or has any friends named Hugo?

Andrew: Any Hugos in the audience?

Ben: Actually, no, the thing about Hugo is, somebody sent me an e-mail that gave a reason, like, what Hugo means, like the etymology.

Andrew: Why?

[Audience members talk]

Andrew: Sorry, what?

[Audience members talk]

Jamie: Oh yeah.

[Audience laughs]

Andrew: Oh!

Ben: Well why…

Emerson: It could’ve been Harry or something. They didn’t have to name him Hugo!

Ben: Harry, yeah.

Andrew: Why not Harold?

Emerson: Because Harold’s not much better than Hugo.

Jamie: Yeah.

Ben: So, I read reason that it was something to do with the etymology behind the name – the word Hugo, whatever it was. It was good, though. That’s all I remember, but next show.

[Andrew laughs]

Emerson: The Scorpius name was probably from the constellation. You know, Draco’s a constellation, you know, Scorpius, there’s probably a trend there.

Jamie: Sirius.

Alex and The Remus Lupins

Andrew: Is Alex around here?

Ben: Alex Carpenter!

Mikey: [sighs] Where is Alex at?

Ben: [sings] Give me some of that Wizard Rock! Where is he at?

Jamie: He’s elusive.

Mikey: We can have a…

Andrew: He’s warming up. Is he coming? What’s he doing? Why…

Mikey: We can have a… He’s working.

Andrew: There he is.

Mikey: Oh, there he is.

Andrew: Alex Carpenter, everybody, The Remus Lupins!

[Audience cheers]

Andrew: Alex, how you doing today?

Alex: This store is really big.

Andrew: Huh?

Alex: I was just in the back, but it took all that time to get up here.

Andrew: You’ve got your set list right now, you’re all ready to go up?

Alex: Yeah. I forgot what songs we were supposed to play.

Andrew: We’re going to get out of here for now, but Alex is going to play some awesome Wizard Rock…

Alex: Yes!

Andrew: …music in just a minute.

[Audience cheers]

Ben: And once again, once again, before we go, thank you to the wonderful Borders staff, and also, thank you, Adam Bromberg, running the merchandise table. He’s been great, and wonderful, and fun, and awesome.

[Audience cheers]

Emerson: And speaking of merchandise. You would… It’s been over six months since we’ve been able to sell MuggleNet t-shirts, and for the first and last time, you have an opportunity to buy them now for $15. The ones we’re wearing up here, they’re slightly different, but they’re cooler. We’re not allowed to sell them on the website anymore, but we have some in stock, so…

Andrew: Also, MuggleCast t-shirts, Remus Lupins shirts too.

Ben: And other merchandise.

Andrew: All cost $15. How much are your CDs? How much are they, five?

Alex: Just come and say, “Hi!” after the show. Let’s not do a commercial right now.

Andrew: [laughs] Okay. All right, fine. Also, I’d like to thank Brandon back here for doing the audio. Thanks, buddy!

[Audience cheers]

Mikey: Give it up for Brandon.

Alex: And thank you guys for coming and being awesome, right, Andrew?

Andrew: Yes! Yes, Alex, yes. One other thing. Just stick around here. We’ll meet you guys after the Wizard Rock show. So, stick around, Alex is going to start up.

Alex: Bye everybody.

Andrew: Bye, everyone!

———————–

MuggleCast 113 Transcript

Phone Call to Micah

Discussion: Why Didn’t Lily and James Potter Escape Upon Voldemort’s Arrival?

Discussion: Which Character Would You Want to Play in the Harry Potter Films?

MuggleCast 113 Transcript (continued)

Discussion: The Weasleys’ Relationship with the Potters

Listener Calls: Future Wizard Rock Singles by Andrew, Pickle Pack

Listener Calls: If Harry Was a Girl

Mikey’s Tattoo, Prophecy

MuggleCast 113 Transcript (continued)

Who the Girl Is in Andrew and Jamie’s “Relationship”?

Discussion: Names of Harry and Ginny’s Children

Discussion: Polyjuice Potion and Harry Potter Relationships

Requests for Jamie to Sing

MuggleCast 113 Transcript (continued)

MuggleCast Summer Tour Stories

Listener Calls: Harry Potter Connections to Hinduism

Dan the Van Versus Lincoln Navigator

More MuggleCast Summer Tour Stories

MuggleCast 113 Transcript (continued)

Future Live MuggleCast Shows

Show Close

MuggleCast 112 Transcript

Listener Calls: Favorite Harry Potter Book Scene

Audio Clip: Jamie Begs For Release

Interview: Laura Mallory

Listener Calls: Strangest Reactions From People After They Find Out You’re a Harry Potter Fanatic

MuggleCast 112 Transcript (continued)

Ustream Poll Question: Does Andrew Have a Life?

Fan Encounter at Waterstones Podcast

Listener Calls: Ticket to J.K. Rowling’s Book Reading

Ustream Poll Question: Do The Listeners Have a Life?

Listener Jokes: The Dark Lord

Listener Calls: Ustream Poll Suggestion

Listener Calls: Most Anticipated Scene in Deathly Hallows Movie

Listener Calls: Epilogue Scene

MuggleCast 112 Transcript (continued)

Listener Calls: Fans Still Have Chance to Win Tickets to J.K. Rowling’s Book Reading

Discussion: The Dark Side in Star Wars

Listener Calls: Pets Named After Harry Potter Characters

Listener Calls: J.K. Rowling Making Book 7 Bets

Listener Calls: Why Dumbledore Would Beat Yoda in a Fight

Listener Calls: Epilogue & Draco’s Wife

Listener Calls: Future of the Harry Potter Fandom

MuggleCast 112 Transcript (continued)

Listener Calls: Harry’s Realization of the Elder Wand’s True Allegiance

Listener Calls: Is “Bloody Hell” a Swear Word in England?

Listener Calls: Who Would Win in a Fight Between Kreacher and C-3PO?

Listener Calls: Use of Dementors to Destroy Horcruxes

Listener Calls: MuggleCast AIM Chat

Phone Call to Ryan Sims

MuggleCast 112 Transcript (continued)

Listener Calls: Favorite Prison Break Character

Listener Calls: MuggleCast Show in Australia

Listener Calls: Campaign to Get MuggleCasters in Deathly Hallows Movie

MuggleCast 111 Transcript

Listener Challenge: Different Ways of Saying “Mikey B!”

Interview: Alex Carpenter

Listener Calls: J.K. Rowling’s NYC Reading

MuggleCast 111 Transcript (continued)

Listener Calls: Harry Potter Reading Class

Listener Calls: Andrew’s Listener Challenge Response

Listener Calls: Wizard Rock

Listener Calls: New Ustream Poll

Listener Calls: MuggleCast Song

MuggleCast 111 Transcript (continued)

Phone Call to Ben

Discussion: Future of the Harry Potter Fandom

Mikey’s Birthday Party

Listener Calls: Future of the Harry Potter Fandom

MuggleCast 111 Transcript (continued)

Listener Calls: The Potter-Christ Alliance

Harry Potter-Related Jokes

Listener Calls: Deathly Hallows Book Cover

Listener Calls: Pokemon References to Harry Potter

Listener Calls: Harry Potter Conferences

MuggleCast 111 Transcript (continued)

Listener Calls: Who Would Win in a Duel Between Dumbledore & Chuck Norris?

Listener Jokes: Request

Listener Jokes: Elephant in a Suitcase