Transcript #82

MuggleCast 82 Transcript


Show Intro


[Audio]: What’s up, MuggleCast listeners? If you want to make an impact online, GoDaddy.com has what you need. Get your own dot-com domain name for as low as $1.99, plus world class hosting, fast and easy website builders, and much more. Plus, as a listener of MuggleCast, enter code Muggle – that’s M-U-G-G-L-E – when you check out and save an additional ten percent on any order. Some restrictions apply. See site for details. Get your piece of the internet at GoDaddy.com.

Andrew: This week’s MuggleCast is also brought to you by Borders. Prepare for the upcoming release of Book 7 by catching a glimpse of where it all began. During the month of April you can purchase Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone on DVD for only $14.99 at Borders. Also be sure to reserve Book 7 at Borders at forty percent off and get a free sticker. Choose from “Trust Snape” or “Snape is a very bad man.”

[Intro music begins to play]

Andrew: Because we’re jumping ahead a few episodes to coincide with the page count of Book 7, this is MuggleCast Episode 784 for March 25, 2007.

[Intro music continues to play]

Andrew: [clears his throat] Got an e-mail here this week, Jamie, I’d like to read on the show.

Jamie: Hmmm. Feel free.

[Eric laughs]

Andrew: Okay, this comes from Carrie of Ann Arbor, Michigan. She writes:

Andrew (Toots) – I ponied up a hundred bucks to help bail out Jamie with his – quote unquote – “Waste of Space” campaign. I think that deserves some sort of service rendered, don’t you? I’d like to hear him refer to you as “Toots” exclusively for one episode of MuggleCast, referring to you at least ten times throughout the show.

Jamie: Hmmm.

Andrew: Ummm Jamie, now, Carrie, you might remember, donated a $100…

Jamie: I do.

Andrew: … as her message just said.

Jamie: Yeah.

Andrew: That’s a lot of money. What do you think about this?

Jamie: Well, I have two answers for this question, the first of which is, thank you very much, Carrie, it was actually ridiculously generous of you, and thank you to everyone else who donated. It was an absolute success. But I just can’t bring myself to call Andrew, “Toots”…

Andrew: Jamie, Jamie.

Jamie: …so your 100 bucks will be back in your account soon.

Andrew: Jamie.

Jamie: Okay, I’m lying. Of course I will call you “Toots,” Andrew, for a show.

Andrew: Yes! Yes!

Eric: Dude, you can’t just give in because somebody donates.

Jamie: I can. I can and I will.

Eric: This is a lifelong commitment to not call Andrew by such a stupid name.

Andrew: I don’t believe it’s stupid, I think it’s a very nice name.

Jamie: Eric…

Eric: Oh, you’re British, you always back down.

Jamie: Eric.

Eric: Yeah, just surrender.

Jamie: I’ll just write a retraction after the show, it’s fine. Don’t worry. We’ll sort it out, we’ll sort it out.

Eric: All right.

Andrew: I’m acting like I didn’t hear that.

Jamie: But, yes Carrie, of course I will. So…

Andrew: Alright.

Jamie: …back to you, Toots.

Andrew: Ah, thank you, Jamie.

[Everyone laughs]

Eric: That’s one, Jamie, I’m counting.

Andrew: Welcome to the show this week everyone. I’m glad we got that out of the way. We have a lot of news to discuss this week and we have a voicemail bonanza.

Jamie: Whoo-eee.

Andrew: I’m Andrew Sims.

Eric: I’m Eric Scull.

Jamie: I’m Jamie Lawrence.

Laura: I’m Laura Thompson.

Micah: And I’m Micah Tannenbaum.

Andrew: Why did I say Andrew Sims? I’m Toots.

[Intro music continues to play]


News


Andrew: Micah Tannenbaum is standing by in the MuggleCast News Center with the past week’s top Harry Potter news stories, Micah.

Micah: Thanks, Toots. Of course the big news Scholastic announced earlier this week that the US Edition of Deathly Hallows will contain 784 pages, making it the second longest book in the series behind Order of the Phoenix. The US version of the book will have an initial print run of twelve million, and for those concerned about the environment, the publisher has also revealed that each of these copies will be printed on paper that contains a minimum of thirty percent post-consumer waste fiber.

The big movie news, Warner Brothers announced in a press release on Friday that Dan Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint are all officially signed on for the final two Potter films. Each of the three actors along with producer David Heyman were quoted in the release. Of particular concern for the final two films was actress Emma Watson, but she said, “I could never let Hermione go. She is my hero. I love her too much and love what playing her has meant to me. I’m excited and honored to be finishing what I started and playing her in all seven of the films.”

The Order of the Phoenix video game is slated for a release one week before the July 13th release of the movie. The game’s senior designer has said, “You’re going to see all of Hogwarts based on the blueprints from the movie. It’s all there and it streams without loading. We’re showing some places that have never been seen before, like Grimmauld Place.”

Finally, a group of six youngsters recently caused 50,000 pounds worth of damage to the Hogwarts Express used in the Potter films. The group members, some as young as 10, broke into the West Coast railway depot at the former Stevetown site in Conforth, England, and destroyed the train’s windows using its emergency hammers. Patricia Marshall, managing director of West Coast Railway, said it will take at least one month to repair because so much damage was caused.

That’s all the news for this March 25, 2007, edition of MuggleCast. Back to the show.

Andrew: Okay, thank you Micah.

Micah: Yo.


Micah Impersonations


Andrew: What did you think of the Micah Tannenbaum impressions on last week’s live show?

[Intro music stops playing]

Micah: I don’t know. You know they…

Jamie: Be brutally honest. No, no, be brutally honest. Go on.

Micah: They weren’t up to par. I’m not going to lie.

Jamie: They weren’t, were they?

Micah: Yeah.

Andrew: Well, Micah, nobody can replace you though.

Andrew: So you just got to give them a chance to try to be you.

Jamie: Yeah. Just because you’re so cool that other people can’t even get close there’s no need to…

Micah: I don’t believe those were the words I just used, but…


Live Show


Andrew: Speaking of the live show, Jamie and I would like to thank everyone for coming out who came out. It was a great success, I would say. Jamie?

Jamie: It was absolutely excellent. Our first live show in the UK, and although we were nervous before hand, we thought it went pretty well. And if anyone still has any feedback, please don’t hesitate to e-mail us and tell us. But yeah, thank you everyone for coming out.

Andrew: Yeah, and that format for the live MuggleCast show, strictly MuggleCast, is what we hope to do in the future here in the US, back again in the UK, so we’re looking forward to doing it again, and that show definitely made us confident that we could do some more live shows on our own.

Jamie: Yeah.

Andrew: It was a lot of fun, and I didn’t – we apologize about the audio. Next time everyone will be coming up to a mic to speak. Some people didn’t think it was that bad. I thought it was bad, [laughs] but whatever. So…

Jamie: Yeah.

Eric: You’re such a perfectionist, Andrew.


Deathly Hallows Page Count


Andrew: So, we do have some news to discuss this week, and of course the big story is that we found out how long- how many pages, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows is going to be.

Eric: Hallows.

Andrew: Seven [mispronounces] hallows. [laughs] I’ll never get it right. Hallows. Never get it right.

Jamie: It’s such a weird piece of news because it’s good because you think, “Oh my god, this year, you know, it’s so many pages, think how many we’re going to have to get through, 784, that’s a load.” But then, you know, it’s less than Order of the Phoenix, so you think, even the biggest book that we’ve had… Book 7…the…you know….the sort of ultimate book is going to be smaller than Order of the Phoenix.

Laura: Yeah but it’s not…

Andrew: Yeah.

Jamie: That sounded way too enthusiastic.

Laura: Like it’s the smallest book in the series.

Jamie: I know.

Laura: It’s not by a lot.

Eric: You seem really hurt by that, Jamie.

Andrew: By the way, let’s say how many pages it is. It’s 784 pages.

Jamie: I said that.

Andrew: You did?

Micah: Hey Andrew, do you know something?

Jamie: Yeah. Pay attention, Toots.

Andrew: Sorry. Okay. Sorry, Jamie.

Eric: Oh. Number two. All right.

Andrew: We got some numbers. I have some numbers here: Sorcerer’s Stone, 309 pages; COS, 352; Prisoner of Azkaban, 448; Goblet of Fire, 734; Order of the Phoenix, 896; Half-Blood Prince [in a strange, squeaky voice], 672; and now Deathly Hallows, 784.

Eric: So, actually…

Andrew: Hmm.

Eric: Seeing it as, what you said, 734 was Goblet of Fire in the US.

Andrew: Yeah.

Eric: And this is actually only 50 pages more than that? As opposed to, like, 90 pages more than that? So, I guess you can say it’s in between Goblet of Fire and Order of the Phoenix. Not chronologically speaking, of course, but page numbers.

Jamie: Yeah, just in case you got confused there…

[Laura laughs]

Laura: Just in case you didn’t know that.

[Everyone laugh]

Andrew: You forgot the order the numbers come in.

Eric: No, no, no. But actually, I think it makes sense in a way. I mean, I would have liked it to be, maybe longer? I don’t know, I’m content with it. The thing to realize with Order of the Phoenix is that she had to keep so much rolling with it, you know…

Andrew: [laughs] No pun intended.

Eric: And you know she couldn’t really put an end to anything. So just the fact that this came close to being as long as something, if she was leading us on and continuing to throw storylines and subplots in there. I think it’s a good length because she’s not doing that and she has to add closure. So, it makes me think that she spent a good deal of time doing that.

Jamie: But do you think those 784 pages includes the epilogue that she’s planning on writing? Or is it not?

Micah: You think so?

Andrew: It will include the epilogue, though, because that’s part of the story…

Laura: Yeah, it will.

Eric: Well, part of the – one more thing I wanted to mention about the page counts is that it usually means, if they’re actually confirming this, if Scholastic is confirming this, it means that they have actually reached a final draft? You guys agree with that?

Andrew: Yeah.

Jamie: Yeah, definitely.

Eric: With all of the editing, all of the changing, all of the omitting has been cut out, and if anybody knows about publishing, the pages have been typeset and set into pages for publication.

Jamie: Mhm.

Andrew: Right.

Jamie: It must completely suck if they say it’s going to be 784 pages and then they have to take one word out or it doesn’t make sense and it brings it down to 783?

[Everyone laughs]

Eric: Right, so…

Jamie: What do you do? What do you do then?

Eric: You sue Scholastic, Jamie. That’s exactly what you do. And you make a lot of money.

Jaime: I would definitely. You have a solid case there. You promised it would be 784, and it’s 783. I want 20 million dollars now. I want my page.

Andrew: Yeah.

Eric: Yeah.

Andrew: Actually, I wanted to bring that up, Eric. I’m glad you did that. That blows me away, I can’t believe the book is actually finished already. It was just early, what was it? January… What? Tenth? Eleventh? Twelfth?

Eric: Twenty-first?

Andrew: Twenty-first? Oh, it was that late? Okay, it was two months ago. It was in January that she finished writing it and already they’ve edited the book? It’s done? I can’t believe that!

Eric: Well…

Andrew: It blows my mind.

Laura: Do we know for sure that she actually finished it then or she hadn’t finished it…

Jamie: No, no she handed it in when it was half finished, Laura.

[Andrew laughs]

Laura: No, no, no. I’m saying…

Andrew: She wrote the date in the hotel room when it was finished.

Laura: Yeah, that’s true.

Jamie: Vandalism.

Andrew: I don’t know much about the prior books, like how long it took them to edit that, but it just blows my mind that the book is actually finished and when you think about it, there’s more to the books than just the text. I mean because there is also the little, like, letters that are written by people that they include and it looks handwritten, and all that.

Eric: Well, for instance…

Andrew: You know what I’m saying?

Eric: Scholastic – and this doesn’t necessarily mean the chapter pictures are done, or anything like that. I mean, Mary Grandpre, because they know how big they’re going to be. To actually typeset the page for anybody who’s taken Publications and everything like that, it means all the indentations and all the text is fit to the page and that’s how they get the kind of page count and they officially released it, so nothing is pretty much changing.


What To Do With a Copy of Deathly Hallows?


Jamie: Can I go off on a slight tangent here and just ask…

Eric: Yes.

Jamie: I was just thinking that it’s actually finished and where is it now and…

Andrew: Yeah.

Jamie: If you happen to get a copy of it- not that you would- and put it on Ebay, not that you would…

[Andrew laughs]

Jamie: And sell it, how much do you think? In all honesty…

Laura: What are you talking about, Jamie? I already did.

Jamie: Well, me too, but I’m trying to hide it.

[Everyone laughs]

Andrew: How much would it go for? I would guess… 10 mil.

Jamie: No, the problem… Actually it would…

Laura: Yeah, I would guess 50 million not that I would know, but…

Eric: Uh…

Jamie: Fine, I guess I’ll guess 100 million, 200 million, 300 million…

Eric: You guys are forgetting that JK would absolutely rip a new hole in eBay. It would be down and the people selling.

Jamie: We’re talking hypothetically, and this is a Harry Potter podcast so, uhhh…

Eric: Well hypothetically there’s a large-ass lawsuit between JKR and eBay right now.

Jamie: Okay…

Andrew: That already exists, yeah.

Jamie: Okay, imagine there was a special type of eBay that allowed illegal items to go on there. If you put it on this thing, how much do you think it will sell for?

Eric: Like a black market eBay.

Andrew: Like MuggleBay!

Jamie: Like BlackBay.com. How much do you think it would go for?

Eric: BlackBay?

[Everyone laughs]

Eric: See, it’s such a shame though, Jamie because things with eBay, etc., it’s all about who has the money to pay for it.


Awaiting The Cover


Andrew: So, all we’re waiting for now is the cover and one thing that we both pointed out in the live show is that since the marketing campaign is starting up on April 17th, the cover has got to be coming very, very soon.

Eric: Ehhh.

Andrew: I can’t wait for the cover! Because we’re sort of in a slow period right now, I mean we are and we aren’t. We have the trailer coming up…


Micah’s Request of Jo


Micah: You know, Andrew, we are in a slow period.

Andrew: We are, Micah.

Micah: We are.

Eric: [sings] We are, we are.

Micah: You know what that makes me feel like?

Andrew: What?

Micah: It feels like I need to request something of somebody…

Andrew: Oh, Micah. Not again. I mean, you know. Don’t you think you’re pushing your luck already?

Jamie: Come on. Yeah.

Micah: No, no. Why? Come on. People want to hear from Jo. People want her to go on the diary and to make a little entry. That’s all I’m saying.

Eric: No, no, no, no, no.

Micah: Nothing major.

Andrew: Well about what?

Micah: Just update us on how everything is.

Andrew: Oh Micah. [laughs]

Eric: Micah, Micah, Micah.

Micah: What, Eric? Come on.

Eric: I’ve always supported you. You know I’ve always supported you, but I just think if we’re finding out right now that the whole book is done editing, I think she was really pretty busy with that kind of stuff and I think maybe she spent a few nights without Neil, or something. Maybe there actually needs to be a little bit more time because they…

Andrew: More Neil time?

Eric: More Neil time because they actually – and her whole family because they actually just…

Jamie: Sounds like a Nickelodeon show.

Eric: They edited this whole book in two months. I think I would not be upset if we went another at least few weeks without a diary entry. Maybe in a month then I would complained because I want it for my birthday, April 23rd, but beyond that I think…

Micah: That was a very subtle way of…

Laura: Yeah, really.

Micah: …plugging your birthday right there.

Andrew: Yeah, really. [laughs] All right, well. Micah…

Micah: But Jo, Jo, you know. We have a connection. So, that’s all I can say.

Jamie: Micah, one day on the last show I want you to sing like [coughs] excuse me. I want you to… [coughs some more] Oh my god, sorry.

Micah: I can do that right now if you want me too. [pretends to cough]

Jamie: Yeah, I’m just so excited, I can’t get this out.

Eric: Just don’t die Jamie, or we’ll never figure out what going to want him to do!

Jamie: What I would love you to do is to serenade Jo. I want you to put on some violin music and start singing a very, very famous love song and see what she does.

Andrew: I think Micah has a little crush on Jo, if you ask me.

Jamie: I think he does. I think he does. So, let’s get some…


Book Length


Andrew: So, moving along. Is everyone happy about the length?

Laura: I am.

Andrew: I mean, I – Laura, why are you happy with the length? Tell me why, Laura.

Micah: And she didn’t even see Equus.

[Andrew and Laura laugh]

Andrew: Hey! Okay, so Laura, what do you think about the length of the book?

Laura: I think it sounds really, really good because I don’t really expect the last book to be as long as Order of the Phoenix, because there’s so much that needs to be covered. And I think Jo knows that. And there’s really not much wiggle room in this book because there’s so much that needs to get done. And I think she knows that. And because she knows that, she probably centered the whole book essentially around what it’s supposed to be about; Harry finding the Horcruxes. Harry defeating Voldemort. That’s what it’s supposed to be about.

Jamie: Absolutely right.

Laura: His final journey. And the idea that 784 pages are going to be devoted to that, really, really…

Jamie: Right.

Laura: …gets me pumped. I’m so excited.

Micah: Yep.

Jamie: Absolutely right. And if you take Order of the Phoenix, everyone admits – and this isn’t to say it was a bad book, but there was stuff in there that could easily be taken out. And you could easily cut it down to like, I don’t know, a 700-600 page book.

Laura: Oh yeah. But see, as a fan, I loved it because there was so much extra stuff in there.

Jamie: Of course, but… Of course but, as you say, Deathly Hallows will probably – every single thing will be essential reading. So, in effect, it’s a book that’s a lot longer than Order of the Phoenix for canon information and tuff like that.

Eric: I kind of – I like that. I like that.

Andrew: Well, yeah. Personally, I think it’s a perfect length. It’s not too long.

Jamie: It’s not too short.

Andrew: But it’s not too short – 784. That’s a big number. That’s a lot of pages. And I think this week the episode number should be MuggleCast Episode 784.


The Number Seven


Laura: Micah, what did you think?

Micah: I thought it was good. I actually got a Miss Cleo-esque email.

Andrew: Yeah?

Micah: From somebody crunching the numbers. I mentioned this to Jamie earlier. It’s a very, very inspiring email, saying that the number 784 is just seven greater than 777.

Andrew: [laughing] Oh, wow.

Eric: Wow.

Andrew: [laughing] That’s, uh…

Laura: That’s amazing.

Eric: Seven more pages than 777.

Micah: That was from…

Eric: Whoa.

Micah: Linda, 15, of New York. So, I’ll give her credit.

Andrew: That is so weird. That is so weird.

Jamie: Also, if you add eight, four, and seven, you get nineteen.

[Everyone laughs]

Jamie: And, if you take twelve away from that, you get seven.

Andrew: Twelve, the number twelve Grimmauld Place. MuggleNet.com’s The Number Twelve.

Jamie: Guys, guys. Anyone listening now, you are listening to amazing stuff. History is happening here today on this show.

[Micah laughs]

Jamie: I can’t take this.

Andrew: And if you take the first two numbers, seven and eight. Multiply them together, you get 56. Divide that by four, and what do you get?

Jamie: I wish I’d taken maths.

[Laura laughs]

Micah: Fourteen.

Andrew: Fourteen. Divide that by two.

Micah: Half of fourteen.

Andrew: What do you get? Seven.

Micah: Seven.

[Andrew laughs]

Jamie: Can I just make one last point? If you take the number seven, it is actually [laughs] the number seven. Oh my god.

[Andrew and Laura laugh]

Andrew: Oooh. That’s my favorite one. Let’s leave it off there.


Announcements


Andrew: All right, well we have a few announcements now, and then we’ll move on to some rebuttals. We’d like to thank everyone for voting for us at Podcast Alley. We’re currently number two on their website right now. We like being high up there because it gets the word out that we’re a big podcast in the podcasting community. We owe everyone, Jamie, two videos.

Jamie: Of me.

Andrew: The first one is the McDonald’s video of you eating five Big Macs. And I have that here, and I’m going to edit it soon.

Jamie: Cool. Thank you.

Andrew: I’ve been kind of busy with school. So, that’ll be up on YouTube very soon.

Jamie: It will.

Andrew: And also the suitcase video. I’m sorry it’s not out now. I’m honestly – I hate to be the one to be like, “Oh, I’m so busy.”

Jamie: Come on, Toots.

Andrew: I’ve been really busy with school. I’m sorry, Jamie. I’m really – I’m busy with stuff from school right now. I’ve got people ready to help me out with it. And once – it’ll probably be sometime next week that I do put it online. I’m sorry.

Jamie: Andrew?

Andrew: I am a waste of space. I admit it.


Listener Rebuttal: Early Screen of OOTP


Andrew: All right, we’ve got some rebuttals now. Couple emails. These are some fun e-mails. They’re not theories. I like to call these f-e-mails? Fun e-mails.

[Everyone laughs]

Eric: F-e-mails.

Micah: Wow!

Andrew: The first one comes from Marie, 23, of New York City. She writes about early screenings that we were talking about, I think, what, two weeks ago?

Hi Guys, love the show. You all brighten my commute every week. I just listened to the Toots episode of MuggleCast, in which you discuss the early screening of ‘The Order of the Phoenix.’ Early on you were wondering why the theater wasn’t packed with movie executives. I work in market research and we often show groups of people concepts for print or TV ads. The people who wrote the ads are never in the room with the people we’re showing the ads because their presence could skew results, even if they’re pretending to be regular people. They usually watch the reactions to the ads remotely on video. Just a fun fact. I’m sure all of the executives were watching, even if they didn’t trek out to the screening.

Good point. And what is also interesting about this, is that they do it in Chicago in America. They don’t do it in the UK. So, I guess it’s all about the American movie-goers.

Jamie: Must be. Must be. That’s all they care about.

Andrew: Yeah.


Listener Rebuttal: New York OOTP Premiere


Andrew: And then we have another email here. Brittany, 16, of Stoneybrook, NY. She has a question for us.

Hey guys, love the show. Just wondering if you know when the New York City premiere of Order of the Phoenix will be. Will you guys be there and will there be a Podcast? Love, Brittany.

And the reason we wanted to put this in this week is because it’s getting to that time of the year again where people start asking us over and over again when the premiere will be. We don’t know when the premiere will be.

Jamie: That was a bit harsh. That’s a bit harsh. People are just wondering.

Andrew: No, no. I mean that…

Eric: We don’t know.

Jamie: We’re extremely sorry, but we do not actually know, right now, when the podcast is going to be. But as soon as we do, we will let you know.

Andrew: The premiere.

Jamie: Sorry, the premiere.

Andrew: It will be posted on MuggleNet. And, of course, we’ll be raving about it here on the show. And as for a live podcast, yeah, we do have plans to do one. Along with the book release, too. We just don’t know when yet.

Jamie: Or where.

Andrew: We’ll let…

Jamie: When, where and how.

Andrew: Well, if the New York City premiere is in New York City, I’m going to guess the podcast will be in New York City.

[Eric and Laura laugh]

Jamie: We’re coming out with some crackers, this show. We really are.

Laura: Yeah, really.


Andrew and Jamie’s Equus Review


Andrew: All right, yeah so, Jamie?

Jamie: Yes.

Andrew: At the live podcast, we did a little Equus review.

Jamie: Yeah, but…

Andrew: But, unfortunately.

Jamie: …due to technical difficulties, beyond our control.

Andrew: Yes. Or, well, too much control. [laughs]

Jamie: Yeah.

[Andrew and Eric laugh]

Andrew: We accidentally – we missed – the Equus part of our show wasn’t recorded.

Jamie: We did. We did.

Andrew: So, you want to kick off a little review? Do it now for everyone?

Jamie: Yeah. Definitely.

Andrew: For everyone?

Jamie: I think we should sum it up, first of all, and just say…

Andrew: Okay.

Jamie: It was unbelievable.

Andrew: Really was.

Jamie: In so many words. It really was. And I think…

Eric: In a good or a bad way?

Jamie: In a good way. Completely. I can’t talk about Equus without thinking that – for those people who thought, “Oh my god. Is Dan, a.k.a Harry Potter, going to be able to do serious acting, then?” All those people can go watch it and just be completely relieved because he really, really, really can. And I was just amazed. I mean, his voice isn’t exactly theatrey yet, but, you know, that comes with time and practice and more and more shows. But he did an absolutely fantastic job. And…yeah.

Andrew: It really was a good job. And personally, I was impressed when he came out on the stage for the first time.

Jamie: Yeah. Complete confidence.

Andrew: I was just like, “Wow. It’s not Harry Potter. It’s a new Dan Radcliffe.”

Jamie: Yeha. And you realize that first rule, you don’t think, “Oh, it’s Dan. He looks a bit like Harry Potter here.” He doesn’t at all. You realize he’s a completely different actor. And you also realize that he takes his roles extremely seriously, you know. There’s no hint of Harry Potter in him, at all, as he comes out.

Andrew: Yeah.

Jamie: It’s amazing.


Dan’s Performance


Andrew: Yeah. So, there are a couple of things about Dan that we wanted to talk about. He’s got the scenes nailed down perfectly at this point.

Jamie: Oh yeah, yeah. Completely.

Andrew: Clearly, he’s done a great job in the rehearsals and working with the other actors.

Jamie: Can I say, Andrew loves this scene that he is going to talk about now. He was raving about this for ages.

Andrew: Im just really impressed by it.

Jamie: I know. It was impressive.

Andrew: It was fantastic and I got all into it, and he timed it perfectly.

Jamie: Go on, go on.

Andrew: Theres this one scene where he starts to go mad and hes screaming and he says this thing, “Eck, eck, eck.” And the whole mystery through a good part of the play is why he keeps saying eck. And so basically all these lights start going around and the music is all – not the music, but the sound effects – are getting really loud and his voice starts echoing the eck, eck, eck. And then, with the snap of the finger he just shoots up – he was laying down – he just shoots up and just looks around and everything is quiet. It was perfect timing.

Jamie: And just as he sits up, yeah, and all the lights just stop as soon as he sits up. It’s absolutely brilliant.

Andrew: Beautiful timing.

Jamie: Can you think how embarrassing it would have been if everything had stopped and he was still lying there?

Andrew: [laughs] Yeah.

Jamie: Still going, “eck, eck, eck” at the end.

Andrew: And someone offstage is like, “Uh, Dan. Dan, get up.”

Jamie: Yeah.

Eric: This sounds great, and Im not going to interrupt except to say, what is actually – if you give us a summary of what the play is actually about.

Jamie: Okay, it’s…

Eric: Like what happens to Dan, who he is?

Jamie: Daniel plays Alan Strang, who is a 17-year-old, completely normal boy who comes to a child psychologist having blinded six horses with a spike the night before. The play follows the psychiatrists struggle to tap into the boy and see why he blinded these horses. Thats the main plot, but it also focuses on the psychiatrists struggle with his own life; Alans parents struggle with their own life. And it is brilliantly done.

Eric: Well, thank you.


Richard Griffiths’ Performance


Andrew: Another person, the guy who plays the psychiatrist in the play.

Jamie: Ah, yeah.

Andrew: No one other than Richard Griffiths.

Jamie: A.k.a. Vernon Dursley.

Andrew: And he does a – I loved him in this play.

Jamie: He’s amazing. Amazing.

Andrew: I mean if – yeah. I mean, I really thought he was better than Dan just because he was more experienced.

Jamie: Yeah.

Andrew: And I just really enjoyed his acting.

Jamie: But Andrew, in terms of lines, how many do you think he had? He must have had hundreds.

Andrew: He did have quite a few lines. And there is parts of the play where it’s just him talking. For a solid few minutes, too.

Jamie: It’s a complete monologue, yeah. Its, I…

Andrew: And I always wonder how actors can memorize so much.

Jamie: Yeah. It’s brilliant how he does it. He’ll just sit their and lose himself in his script. You wonder how he doesn’t just suddenly wake up and think, Oh, oh I was acting there. You know?

Andrew: Yeah.

Jamie: It was brilliant.

Andrew: And he is so calm and peaceful and serious. And he’s got a cigarette most of the time, he’s just smoking every once in a while. He coughed that smoke up a little, a few too many times.

Jamie: Which just added to the effect, though, I thought.

Andrew: Oh, I think so, but you could tell it wasn’t part of his role. [laughs]

Jamie: Well, yeah.

Andrew: But no. Hes a great actor and just really puts on a fantastic portrayal.

Eric: So, he has more screen time than the Dursleys?

Andrew: [laughs] Yeah, he has a lot more screen time in the play.

Jamie: A lot, a lot. Yeah, yeah. A lot, lot more.

Eric: Good.

Andrew: Him and Dan are on stage for probably 90…

Jamie: Ninety percent of it, probably?

Andrew: Yeah.


Set Design


Jamie: But I also think that we should mention the four boxes as I like to call them. Basically the set involved – It was a sort of a general, you know, standard set with a rotating floor. But on this floor there were four black boxes and everything, all the furniture, all of the, you know, stage furniture was constructed out of these four boxes. So, they’d form a bed, they’d form a seat, they’d form the interior of a shop, they’d form a stable. And even though they were just four boxes, Dans and Richards and all of the other actors movements around them made you think you were actually on these things. It was brilliantly done.

Andrew: Yeah.

Jamie: And they had really practiced it. And they would transition scenes. So they’d walk around this box and suddenly the entire atmosphere would change. Like they’d, you know, walked into a different room, into a different studio. It was brilliant.

Andrew: Right, right. And they would move the boxes. There was no stage crew…

Jamie: Yeah.

Andrew: …to do it, they would do it for themselves. And during a couple points in the play I was like, well, what happens if someone forgets to move a box? [laughs]

Jamie: Yeah, exactly.

Andrew: Improvise or something?

Jamie: I guess they mustve.

Andrew: So that was good.


The Horses


Andrew: Also, we wanted to talk about the horsemen.

Jamie: Oh my god.

Andrew: So, basically, these guys play the horses. They don’t have real horses on the stage, obviously. And, basically, they were fantastic.

Jamie: They were amazing.

Andrew: They wear these masks that are basically…

Jamie: They’re like cast iron.

Andrew: …like helmets, sort of.

Jamie: They’re like…

Andrew: Yeah, like cast iron. They look very heavy.

Jamie: They do look heavy. But these guys as well. Theyre like – these guys are six-foot-five, six-foot-six. You know? :ean, tall. And theyve got the horses actions down to – it’s just absolutely brilliant. Like…

Andrew: The neck movements.

Jamie: Yeah, yeah. The neck movements, the face movements, it’s just absolutely brilliant. You honestly think that you are on stage with these horsemen. And everything they do is just absolutely brilliant. I mean, for me they stole the show completely. I thought they were just absolutely brilliant.

Andrew: Yeah, they were very cool.

Jamie: But didn’t you think the masks were kind of, you know, creepy? They were very well done, but just a bit.

Andrew: I guess they were creepy if you were sleeping and you woke up and one was right over top of you. [laughs] I’d be freaked out a bit.

[Jamie laughs]

Andrew: Yeah, I mean, they were cool. I really thought that they were well done.

Jamie: Yeah, they really were.

Andrew: They also had hooves. They had hooves on the bottom, so when they walked they sounded like horses too.

Jamie: Yeah. It’s brilliant. The effects were just amazing, the sound effects.


The Final Scene


Andrew: Yeah, and then the best part. A little spoiler here. It’s at the end when Dan – everyone knows this – when Alan starts whipping the horses eyes out, and theyre eyes are actually lit up, but to illustrate that they’re…

Jamie: They’re blinded, yeah.

Andrew: Right. The lights in their eyes would go out. And that was very cool.

Jamie: And, can we say, the final scene was just amazing. Everything that has been done so far has built up to this final scene. And whilst there is some humor in the rest of the play, there is a cutoff point about two minutes before the final scene and you just know that there will be no more laughs. The entire audience sort of dies down a bit and, you know, falls back into their shells and just creeps over the edge of their seats in front just to see whats going on. It’s a scary last scene, but it is done so well. Absolutely brilliant.

Andrew: Yeah.


Sound, Lighting and Some Criticisms


Jamie: Criticisms? Should we do – or should we talk about…

Andrew: Yeah.

Jamie: …the effects first, because you wanted to talk about the ocean and lighting.

Andrew: The effects are very well done. I mean, this isn’t like your typical musical, and I haven’t seen many other Broadway plays, but this is very bare-bones. You have the boxes, like we mentioned, but also they take advantage of a lot of stage lighting. Like when they transition to an ocean scene. These lights from above shine down on the floor, and it looks like the lights are moving so that it looks like there’s waves and then there is sand. Stuff like that. And then you hear music – or not music, but the beach ambience. It’s very nice.

Jamie: Yeah. “Every Time We Touch” comes on…

Andrew: Yeah. [laughs]

Jamie: …right at the end.

Andrew: Lights start flashing and they start to do back flips.

[Everyone laughs]

Jamie: And then everyone just jumps onto the stage and starts dancing. It’s brilliant, it’s brilliant. Absolutely amazing. But, criticisms. One thing I mentioned already, Dans voice. It would just sort of break, rather than boom, occasionally. Which is just because he isn’t used to theatre, I guess.

Andrew: He’s 17. His voice isn’t even fully developed yet, I don’t think.


The Nude Scene


Jamie: A couple of things I’d say about the nude scene, and of course it’s what everyone waits for. It happens very slowly, and you can feel the intake of breath from the audience as it happens, but Dan does it with complete professionalism. There’s no, “Oh my god, I’m getting naked on stage.” He is an actor now, a complete actor, and yeah, it is extremely well done. He acts as though he isn’t naked. It’s brilliant.

Andrew: Yeah, and now that we’ve seen the play, it was really blow out of proportion, you know?

Jamie: Yeah.

Andrew: All the articles, “Harry Potter goes nude!” and stuff like that. It’s just uncalled for, and it’s really not true – I mean, it’s true that he’s nude…

[Jamie laughs]

Andrew: But it’s not like…

Jamie: No, it’s one hundred percent true. Trust us.

Andrew: It’s unfortunate that it’s been blown out of proportion this much, especially with how serious this play has become, and now I understand why it’s so uncalled for.

Jamie: Oh yeah.


Seating


Andrew: But yeah, that scene was very good. That’s at the end. That whole ending scene was very good. [laughs] Our main problem was that our seats were not the best.

Jamie: I didn’t think that they were that – obviously, we said they were bad, but I just didn’t think they were that bad.

Andrew: They weren’t bad, it was an interesting angle, but we were on stage, up in the seats behind the stage, so basically you’re looking down at the play, like directly down.

Jamie: Yeah.

Andrew: You have to lean over the banister thing. It was uncomfortable. It wasn’t the most…

Jamie: You have to rest your chin on your forearms because you can’t see over the edge.

Andrew: I wasn’t even sitting on the seat at some points; I was on my knees.

Jamie: Yeah.

Andrew: So, I could get comfortable. [laughs] Yeah, it was an interesting angle, it was the fun way to watch a show. I mean, it was just uncomfortable. If we were sitting in real seats…

Jamie: It was a little bit uncomfortable, yeah. And also, because, obviously, the actors talked toward the stalls in the front. Occasionally, a word wasn’t heard.

Andrew: Yeah, exactly.

Jamie: Or a couple of words weren’t heard, but overall, I didn’t think it was that bad. We got so immersed into the play I thought that, you know,…

Andrew: We really did.

Jamie: I thought that wherever you were sitting didn’t really matter. The only problem is, they had booths along the edge of the stage area, and because you’re sitting above two of them, you can’t see what’s happening in them.

Andrew: Oh, right.

Jamie: So, at times, we had a blind spot where we couldn’t see stuff, which, obviously, would have been solved if we were sitting in the stalls. I, overall, didn’t think it was too bad.

Andrew: An enjoyable time.


Worth The Money


Eric: Sorry, final thing. How often does it show – does Equus show? Like, how often? Can you catch an every day matinee or what?

Jamie: Oh yeah. Oh, I think it’s every day at half seven in the evening, and Wednesday and Saturday matinees. And I think it’s showing until June, and it really is worth seeing. I know there is talk of them taking it to Broadway, but obviously Dan won’t be doing that due to the Potter films.

Andrew: Probably won’t, yeah.

Jamie: So, I would really suggest that if anyone can go and see it, go and see it because it’s really just well worth the money.

Eric: Because this is… Yeah.

Andrew: Yeah, and plus Richard Griffiths. He’s never done anything on Broadway, has he? In New York City?

Jamie: I don’t know.

Andrew: I doubt he’d come to America to do that play.

Jamie: Yeah.

Andrew: I think he’d move on by then, but see it now while you can, and make sure you can see those two because they are fantastic.

Jamie: They really were good.

Eric: And that’s really the thing to realize, with theatre, is that they’re doing it everyday.

Jamie: Yeah.

Eric: They are in the character from beginning to end. It’s not just something you watch once. This is Dan going out everyday getting into that character and behaving the exact same way. And that’s what I love about theater.

Jamie: Oh yeah.

Eric: It’s just, Dan Radcliffe will be there, at that theatre, every night from now until June.

Jamie: Oh yeah, completely.

Andrew: Unless he’s got an understudy.

Jamie: Unless he’s got an understudy, yeah.

Eric: That’s another question I wanted to ask. If he can’t come out one night and he has an understudy, wouldn’t people be pissed?

Jamie: Well, perhaps.

Andrew: Yeah.

Eric: Can he not get any breaks because of that, or…

Jamie: Well, that’s what happens. No, no, well, that’s just what happens. I think that’s what you accept when you go to the theatre. There’s a chance there will be an understudy playing, and we should bring up the story that John and Melissa from PotterCast. They went to see Equus a few days before we did.

[Andrew laughs]

Jamie: And they, unfortunately – Richard Griffiths had come down with flu, and they had his understudy. [laughs] In fact, it was a guy who normally has a relatively minor role in the play, and he had been elevated to the part of the psychiatrist. And of course he didn’t know the lines because he had only been told he was getting it a few days before, or a few hours before, so throughout the entire play he had a book open with the lines and he was reading through it. And they said that he was still good and very into the play, but I think that I would have been very disappointed if that happened.

Andrew: Yeah. I wouldn’t have been able to be as drawn into the play seeing him read from the script. [laughs]

Jamie: Yeah. Yeah, exactly.

Andrew: That’s unfortunate, but I guess it happens. Alright, so I think that’s our Equus review.

Jamie: Go see it.

Andrew: If any of you have feedback about your Equus experiences, please email them to mugglecast at staff dot mugglenet dot com, and we’ll talk about it a little more next week, maybe.

Eric: I have to go, but the combined number of pages for the US edition is 4,195. Anyway, alright, peace out, people.

Jamie: See you later.

Andrew: See you.


Voicemail: Emotional Ties


Andrew: Okay, so this week, for everyone, we have lots of voicemails to get to, right, Laura?

Laura: That’s right. You guys ready?

[Audio]: Hey guys, this is Laura from Dallas. I was listening to MuggleCast 81 earlier today, and fans were debating about whether or not Harry should live or die. And on the death side, people never really seemed to bring up that Harry has less and less emotional ties to the Earth every book. And, you know, people are saying that he could die just because of J.K. Rowling not wanting the series to continue after Book 7 and any portrayal of her characters or anything, but I think one of the main reasons that Harry might die, from a literary context, is that he has less and less ties to the Earth because all of his loved ones that he’s lost. I mean, Sirius and Dumbledore and everybody and his parents. I mean, if there is a wizarding afterlife, then that might just be the best place for his character to go. So, yeah. Nobody really brings that up ever, so I thought I should call in. Bye!

Andrew: So, she’s saying that because he’s lost so many people to begin with, at this point he’d be happier dead.

Laura: He’d be happier dead. Yeah.

Andrew: Yeah, someone brought that up at the live show, actually.

Jamie: They did, but I mean she’s saying that he would basically die of a broken heart because I don’t think that’s Harry. I don’t know, I don’t think he’d ever give up.

Laura: I don’t think she’s saying he’d die of a broken heart. I think she was looking at it from more of a literary aspect, thinking that Harry has lost so many people that he loves, and at the end of the seventh book it’s very possible that the only people he could have worth living for would be Ron, Hermione, and Ginny, and she’s kind of wondering what sort of weight that holds against his parents and Sirius and Dumbledore and everybody. That’s assuming that those three don’t die.

Micah: I think that part of the reason that J.K. Rowling has written this character is to show how he perseveres through all of this kind of thing.

Jamie: Exactly. Yeah, I agree.

Micah: And for him to just sort of die because it’s the easy way out, in a sense, to be reunited with all those people, I don’t think that that’s necessarily the case.

Laura: Well, the thing is I don’t think that he’s going to die to be reunited with anybody, but, in her defense, I don’t think that’s what she’s saying. She’s not looking at it from kind of a weakness from Harry’s character, she’s looking at it from a literary point.

Jamie: But I don’t understand. So, is she just saying that in classical literature – in literary devices, people die when everyone close to them is – when they have nothing.

Laura: When they have nothing. Well, yeah, because the thing is, you know how on previous shows we talked about how certain characters, and I’m not sating this is true with every character because then Ben has a heart attack.

[Jamie laughs]

Laura: But certain characters in these books have died because they have served their purpose in the series. I think that is what she’s saying.

Jamie: Oh.

Laura: That maybe after Harry kills Voldemort there is really no point in him being around anymore. [laughs] It’s harsh, but…

Micah: But he is the series, though.

Jamie: A little harsh, but…

Andrew: Well, isn’t it the case that, in any fiction tale, that whenever somebody dies, they have finished or…

Laura: Yes.

Andrew: …served their purpose?

Laura: Thats kind of a literary…

Jamie: No, because people…

Andrew: So, but if we take it that way, then if Harry dies, will he have served his purpose?

Jamie: No, because Sirius didn’t completely serve his purpose, you could say.

Laura: Yes, he did.

Andrew: No, he doesnt…

Laura: Yes, he did.

Jamie: No, because you can say that his purpose was to be Harrys godfather.

Laura: He’s done.

Jamie: Why would…

Laura: He wasnt doing a very good job of it.

Jamie: Im sorry, Laura, that you think that…

[Micah laughs]

Jamie: Everyone should just die, and that would be the end of it.

Andrew: Yeah, we dont follow that attitude.

Laura: Im not Andrew, I dont think that everybody should die.

Jamie: Yeah, he does.

Andrew: When did I ever say that anybody should die?

Laura: I guess that was Ben.

Andrew: [laughs] Yeah.

Laura: But you still think that Harry should die so I dont want to talk to you, but…

Andrew: I do think that Harry should die. He’s…

Jamie: You mean, mean, person.

Andrew: …gotten away with too many things. And this is the seventh book and seven equals everything.

Jamie: Yes, it does.

Andrew: According to everyone, so… [laughs]

Jamie: Yeah.

Laura: Seven equals death, right?

Micah: I dont know. I think…

Jamie: That’s a very logical argument.

Micah: It would depend…

Jamie: Toots.

Micah: …what happens [laughs] in the final book. I mean, I think it depends who else dies.

[Jamie laughs]

Micah: And that’s what I meant when I said that. I think it matters who else dies. I mean, if he has nothing left for him…

Jamie: Yeah.

Micah: …the people who are closest to him, then maybe. But that is not how his character is built. His character is not built to sort of die just because those who are the closest to him…

Jamie: I do understand what she means, the voicemail girl.

Laura: Yeah, me too.

Jamie: Because, if you think, if Voldemort had been killed the night it had rebounded off Harry, the whole plot of the books – you wouldn’t have a plot because everything that happens is to do with Voldemort. You know, when Harry learns a new spell…

Andrew: Yeah.

Jamie: …it’s to help him in his fight against Voldemort. When they go down to see Hagrid it’s, you know, being friends with the people on the good side because there is a bad and good side because Voldemort is alive. So, I see what you mean. After Vodemort’s gone, what will Harry have to do apart from live a normal life, which he can’t, he can’t possible do that now. He’s had so upset – misfortune that…actually, that was too… Go on.

Andrew: Going back to Micah’s point, actually, Micah, a listener brought up that, at the live show last week, that Ginny can be a deciding factor in the seventh book.

Jamie: Oh, yeah.

Andrew: Because if she dies or – if she dies, that could bring Harry to either really want to kill Voldemort even more or feel like he has no purpose. He has no one left to live for. So it’s strange.

Micah: Well, I…

Jamie: Well, I think it comes down to – sorry, go on.

Micah: I was just going to say, you know, he could have done numerous things to himself throughout this entire series or put himself in even worse positions, I think, but regardless of who has died, and it started with his parents and obviously Sirius and Dumbledore, but he’s still gotten through it. And I know the reason why he has gotten through this has principally been to get to Voldemort. One of the other things that I think, and this may support what she is saying more than the position that I have been taking so far, is just that Dumbledore says that there are things far greater or far worse than death, and I think one of them for Harry would be living in world where he has lost everything.


Voicemail: Harry and Ginny


Andrew: All right, let’s move on.

[Audio]: Hi, MuggleCast. This is Jordan from Michigan. I am listening to Episode 81, I think it is. The “Live in London,” and you’re saying you want to know if Harry actually loves Ginny or what if he really loves Ginny because he liked Cho too. And what I think is he probably does because when Cho was dating Cedric, he never seemed to get extremely jealous and then you see him with Ginny and she’ll be kissing Dean, and the “creature in his chest” roared. Then, when he finally kissed her, it says that the “creature in his chest roaring with triumph,” he ran down to Ginny. And so I really dont think he could have liked Cho that much if he didn’t get as jealous when Cedric was dating her. So, that’s what I think about it. Love the show! Bye!

Jamie: Well, we compared Cho and Ginny saying exactly what – he liked both of them, but how far did that like extend? Did he just have a crush on Cho or has he liked Ginny the entire time, and his feelings have only manifested themselves after he smelled the Amortentia and he realized that he liked her and now he loves her, or is it just a crush like Cho? Thats what we are talking about.

Laura: Mhm. Well…

Andrew: So, what is she saying?

Laura: She is basically calling in in support that Harry actually loves Ginny, and it’s not just a crush, and that he didn’t actually love Cho. And yeah, I think that he does love Ginny. I think there is no doubt about it. I think in a way, he always has. Not to sound cliche, but I think, in a way, he has seen her as his, you know, kind of like his family.

Andrew: Yeah, I was just going to say.

Laura: Because the Weasleys are his family.

Andrew: Hes known Ginny for – since the beginning.

Laura: Since they were kids. I mean…

Andrew: He knows their entire family and he loves Mrs. Weasley and the rest of them, so – he sees Mrs. Weasley as a mother already.

Jamie: Ah, that really annoys me though when in – this is a complete deviation, Im sorry, but in Order of the Phoenix when Sirius and Mrs. Weasley are arguing in the kitchen and she is like – no, he is like, “Well, he isn’t your son,” and he’s like, “He’s as good as.” And that really annoyed me because – Id be really annoyed of I was Harry there because she has to act – she has to care for him because that is how the relationship is. But Sirius has tried his best and it isn’t his fault he got sent to Azkaban. He’s an innocent man and he has tried his best and to be told, he’s as good as my son when you’ve been away. Yeah, I could have punched her then.

Andrew: Yeah. Well, Mrs. Weasley tends to overreact sometimes. She gets caught up in the moment.

Jamie: Stuck in the moment.

Andrew: So, and she can’t get out of it.

[Jamie laughs]


Voicemail: Choices


Laura: All right, our next voicemail got a little messed up when I was downloading it off Skype. So, Chris from the U.K. wants to know:

“If Harry had to choose between sacrificing himself to save his friends, or defeating Voldemort, what would he do? Because, obviously if he sacrificed himself to save Ginny, Ron, or Hermione, there would be nobody around to kill Voldemort because nobody else can.”

So, what do you guys think?

Jamie: Doesn’t it come down to why does, sort of – I think he’d want to think that, you know, “I have a job here and I can’t let anything stand in my way.” But he’s, you know, he cares for people too much. He’s like Dumbledore. He…

Laura: Well, he said so himself, he has a saving people thing.

Jamie: Yeah. Yeah, he really does.

Laura: So, what would he do?

Jamie: Well, I think…

Laura: I mean what if somebody was, like, holding Ginny with a knife or whatever. And they said… [laughs] Oh my god, that’s so bad – they said, “Come here and let me kill you.” What would he do? [laughs] If he hadn’t defeated Voldemort yet?

Jamie: He’d say, he’d say, “Calm down.”

Andrew: “It’s alright. We’ll get through this together.”

Jamie: “It’s fine. We’ll get through this. What do you want?” “Five million dollars in used twenties.”

Andrew: I don’t think that’s how…

Jamie: “Okay. That’s fine. That’s fine.”

[Laura laughs]

Andrew: I don’t think that’s how Jo would end it, though, because…

Laura: No, I don’t think so either.

Andrew: It’s so, like… That’s what you see in the movies and TV shows. I just saw The Departed the other day, great film by the way, and that happens a few times in there. It’s too generic.

Micah: Yeah.

Laura: I’m not saying that’s something that would happen. He’s basically asking a question about Harry’s character. What would he do? Not saying it will happen. Not saying anything like that, even close.

Micah: It depends who it is, I think. I mean – maybe not, actually.

Laura: Yeah, like, I mean, for Ginny he would. Ron, you know, not so much.

Jamie: Ooooh!

Andrew: [laughs] You don’t think so?

Jamie: Laura, Laura…

Andrew: Maybe he would save Ron for Ginny, even if they got in a big fight.

Jamie: And, Laura, you just don’t understand boys’ relationships. We’re, you know, we’re brothers. All men are brothers. You know, we’re…

Andrew: Yeah. Brother from another mother.

Jamie: Brothers from another mother. Yeah.

[Andrew laughs]

Laura: So, if some psycho came up and, like, grabbed Andrew, right?

Jamie: [laughs] Yeah. Toots. Toots.

Laura: And had a knife. What would you do, Jamie?

Jamie: I’d say – Well, because I’m an expert in all forms of martial arts, I’d kick the beep out of him. And then Andrew and I would go and get McDonald’s.

Andrew: Yay!

[Jamie laughs]

Andrew: Even if Ron had, like, you know – Laura, you say that he wouldn’t do it for Ron, but even if Ron was in that situation…

Laura: No, no, no. It was a joke. I was making fun of Micah. [laughs]

Andrew: Oh. Okay.

[Laura laughs]

Micah: How is she making fun of me?

Jamie: In all honesty, though, it’s…

Laura: Sorry, Micah.

Jamie: I don’t know [laughs] In all honesty, though, it’s – you’d hope that he’d see the wider, you know, cause. Because millions of people will die if he saves Ginny. It’s – what’s this parallel? Oh my god, there’s an awesome parallel. What is it? I can’t think of this – would you save? Oh, it’s Spiderman. That’s it. It’s Spiderman. When the Green Goblin holds up Mary Jane on one, sort of, hand. And that thing of school children on the other. So…

Andrew: Oh, yeah.

Jamie: And he manages to save both. I’m sure that Harry would just do the same. He’d just spin some web and kick Voldemort’s ass. And save Ginny.

Andrew: That was a very cool scene, by the way. I thought…

Laura: That was cool.

Andrew: I thought the kids were screwed, for sure.

Jamie: Yeah, I thought they were as well.

Micah: One question is that, how is anybody not able to defeat Voldemort? I mean, once his Horcruxes are gone…

Jamie: Well, exactly. That’s true, yeah.

Micah: Why does it have to be Harry? You know?

Jamie: It doesn’t.

Micah: To me, it doesn’t make any sense.

Laura: Because Harry’s the only that has the knowledge to do it.

Andrew: Because only one may live while the other survives.

Jamie: No, but, he’s absolutely right. Why does it – this is all very complex stuff. But, why does it have to be Harry?

Laura: Because Voldemort made it so.

Micah: I think that the prophecy has a lot more meaning.

Jamie: But why? Why is he the only one?

Laura: Because he’s an idiot.

Jamie: No, but, why is Harry the only one? Okay, after these Horcruxes…

Laura: Harry wasn’t the only one, though. It could have been Neville.

Jamie: But why now is it only him? Now, after his Horcruxes…

Laura: Because Voldemort marked Harry as his equal…

Jamie: But Laura, Laura…

Laura: Nobody else can defeat him.

Jamie: Laura, if Harry took away all of his Horcruxes. Then you tied Voldemort to a chair. And he took away his wand and Snape came along. Are you saying that Snape could not Avada Kedavra him? Because of course he could.

Andrew: He could, but I think – are you just playing…

Laura: I don’t know. I think there’s something…

Jamie: I’m not playing…

Laura: I think you’re just playing devil’s advocate.

Jamie: I’m not, I’m not. I’m not, because the prophecy…

Andrew: I think you are.

Jamie: OK, well, I’m not. Sorry.

Andrew: Because this is the story of Harry Potter. So it can’t be Snape who finally defeats Voldemort.

Laura: It would be stupid.

Jamie: But the prophecy is only – but if Harry turned around now and said, “That’s it. I’m not going to, you know, do it.” Then someone could still kill Voldemort. If someone had all of his Horcruxes.

Laura: I don’t think so.

Andrew: I guess it’s true.

Jamie: Harry…

Andrew: It is true.

Jamie: Of course he could. It’d be…

Laura: But how many people know about the Horcruxes? That’s the whole point.

Jamie: Ah well, yes. You’re absolutely right. But if Harry got rid of them, Voldemort would be a mortal man. Yes, he’d be an extremely powerful wizard, but any wizard could kill him if they managed to, you know? If they had the skill – the magical skill, then they could. This prophecy thing is a bunch of bulls, really. Because…

Laura: I don’t think so. I don’t think so, I think it’s a lot like…

Micah: It’s only as good as the people that believe in it. That’s the thing.

Jamie: Yeah. It’s true. It is really is true.

Laura: I think that’s true to an extent. But I also kind of feel like, it’s almost kind of like karma. You know? It comes back and it gets you…

Jamie: I know, yeah.

Laura: Whether you did something good or something bad. And it’s not necessarily the prophecy. It’s kind of along the lines of – I’ve completely forgot what they call it. The pact that they make.

Jamie: Oh, okay.

Laura: The Unbreakable Vow.

Jamie: Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Laura: It’s kind of along those lines. Like, you have to do it.

Jamie: But, Harry doesn’t have to, though. That’s the thing.

Laura: It’s just sort of ingrained. But the thing is, they can say he doesn’t have to all he wants, but who has more reason than Harry?

Jamie: To do it. Oh, of course he has reason. But don’t you think it comes down to you either view the prophecy as taking into account all the possible choices that Harry can make? So, like, it’s like the – let’s think. You can’t go back in time to kill your grandfather. Because you’d be dead now, you know? You see. That, you know, grandfather paradox. You can’t say that Harry would change his mind and not go and kill Voldemort. Because the prophecy, which is going to come true, already states that one will kill the other. So, they can’t not come into combat. Or you can take it to mean that that’s the prophecy, but if Harry chooses, he can choose his own fate. Which was…

Laura: Yeah, but I think that the point is…

Jamie: …recurring theme in Mortal Kombat.

[Laura and Micah laugh]

Laura: Great. I think the point is…

Micah: A lot of stories, it’s a recurring theme. I mean, because people choose to do – or it’s more of what people choose not to do. They choose to avoid what is being told to them.

Jamie: Issues. Yeah.

Micah: And it ends up happening as a result. I mean, in so many different things.

Jamie: Yeah.

Laura: But I think the point is, Voldemort is not making that choice. Harry could make that choice all day long…

Jamie: That’s true, yeah.

Laura: And Voldemort still wants to kill him. So, as long as one of them is still going along with the prophecy, they don’t have a choice.

Micah: However…

Jamie: Go on.

Micah: Voldemort doesn’t know the full prophecy.

Jamie: He doesn’t know.

Laura: Yeah, but he doesn’t know the full prophecy, but he’s still going to keep going after Harry.

Jamie: Can I draw my – I’ve just thought of the exact link I was thinking of. Those two different types. For people who have seen Minority Report, the woman in it who created Pre-crime has – for people who haven’t seen it, this is just going to go completely over your head. But, she said that – basically the premise is that these people, the Precognitives, can see into the future of what is going to happen. And they can see murders. And the protagonist – for those people haven’t seen it, again, let me just completely spoil it. The protagonist who works for Pre-crime and sees what the Precogs see and then acts on these and arrests the people who are about to cause these murders, he sees himself killing someone. And then he goes on the run. And then he goes to see the woman who created Pre-crime, and he says, basically, “Why can’t I just sit still here? And not go to the place where I’m supposed to kill the person?” And she says, “Because you are supposed to be at that place. And everything you do will lead up to you going to that place. So, even if you sit still, something will happen to get you to that place. Because every choice that you make now is already reflected in the future. So, there’s nothing you can do now to change your future.” So, either you take that, or you take the fact that you can change exactly. You can just say, “Right. Stop. I’m just going to lie here and completely alter my fate.”

Micah: But didn’t it turn out that that memory was planted?

Jamie: What? Sorry?

Micah: Wasn’t that planted?

Jamie: No, no, no. It actually happened. He actually went to the place where he was about to kill and he was about to kill the person…

Micah: But he didn’t kill him, did he?

Jamie: He did…

Micah: I can’t remember, I saw such it such a long time ago.

Jamie: No, well he… I think he… Actually, wait. Did he kill him? Yes, he did. He fell out the window…

Micah: The window.

Jamie: He shot him – yeah. But because he thought he kidnapped his son, but he actually hadn’t. Very interesting film, though…

Micah: Oh, yeah. Especially the refrigerator scene, that was disgusting. [laughs]

Jamie: What? Oh, yeah, that was awful, yeah.

Andrew: Jamie gives it two thumbs up.

Micah: Yeah.

Jamie: Huh? Yeah. [laughs]


Voicemail: R.A.B.’s Horcrux


[Audio]: Hi MuggleCast! My name is Hillary. I’m from New Zealand and I’m calling about R.A.B. Most of the time when I hear you talk about R.A.B, lets assume it’s a he, you seem to think he knew there were multiple Horcruxes. But whenever I read the books, it is the locket. Because he says “I have stolen the real Horcrux. To me it seems that if he knew there were multiple Horcruxes, he would have said “I have stolen this real Horcrux. I think it can be read both ways though. So, anyway, I would love to know your thoughts. Thank you!

Jamie: Ah, very interesting, very interesting.

Laura: So, what does that mean? I mean…

Andrew: Well, maybe it was just one that they were looking for.

Laura; Well, what if it was – and I kind of thought of this, but it seemed like it would be kind of anti-climactic, like it was the one big Horcrux, like there was something special about that one. But it would seem silly if Harry didn’t get a special one. You know what I’m saying?

Jamie: What? For his birthday?

Laura: [laughs] Yes, Jamie.

Andrew: I think – I think it’s just the Horcrux because it was the one that Regulus was looking for.

Micah: Yeah.

Jamie: Yeah, but did he just split his soul once or did he…

Laura: But why that one particularly…

Andrew: It’s not like…

Jamie: Or did R.A.B think that Voldemort had just, you know, split his soul once…

Laura: Yeah, did he think…

Jamie: And got rid of it.

Laura: He only had one Horcrux?

Andrew: Well, what would be the point of that? I mean…

Laura: Well, it…

Andrew: That wouldn’t be very productive. [laughs]

Laura: Well, it would be if you think about how often people give R.A.B so much credit for…

Andrew: Finding a Horcrux?

Laura: Being a character that we’ve never really seen before. And if he honestly only thought that there was one Horcrux, that kind of just eliminates his character…

Jamie: Yeah.

Laura: Out of being, really. I mean, he wouldn’t have any use in the seventh book.

Micah: Well, what do you guys think…

Laura: So, we’re essentially looking at him being a major player or not.

Micah: Well, I – you know, I’ve always wondered is it possible that Voldemort entrusted information about Horcruxes to different Death Eaters? So, not all of them knew necessarily about all of them, but individually maybe…

Laura: I think he would have been stupid to do that.

Jamie: I don’t think he told them anything…

Micah: Some of them knew.

Jamie: It’s just – he doesn’t take risks, it’s pointless doing something that weakens himself…

Micah: Well, then how would R.A.B have known about this in the first place?

Jamie: Well, there is always a way of finding out. Perhaps he, you know, used Legilimency…

Laura: He read his diary.

Jamie: Yeah, yeah, he read his diary. [laughs]

Micah: Well, maybe he witnessed the killing. That’s a possibility…

Jamie: “Dearest diary, today I killed someone and split my soul. Have a good day.”

Laura: [laughs] Yeah.

Jamie: “From Voldemort.”

[Andrew laughs]

Jamie: That must be a distressing diary to read. I mean, think of the stuff he has done. “Went to kill a young boy, backfired. Damn. From Voldemort.”

[Andrew and Laura laugh]

Jamie: “Don’t worry, killed his parents.”


Voicemail: Is Ginny a Horcrux?


[Audio]: Hey MuggleCast. This is Lucy. I have this great theory that popped into my mind. When Ginny is down in the Chamber of Secrets with Voldemort’s memory of Tom Riddle, Tom Riddle was really making her a Horcrux. He was trying to put the Horcrux that was in the diary into Ginny. So, when Harry stabbed the diary, he wasn’t really killing the Horcrux and he is going to have to kill Ginny because she is the seventh Horcrux. I think this is a fabulous theory and really cool. So, thank you! Pickles!

Laura: Actually, if Ginny were a Horcrux it would mean that Voldemort actually removed his soul from the diary, and that Harry thinks that he has destroyed one, but he hasn’t, which ups the number…

Jamie: Very, very…

Laura: Of Horcruxes, so.

Jamie: But that would just, that would bring into play the “Can Harry kill…”

Laura: Okay…

Jamie: “…Ginny for a worthy cause.”

Laura: But lets discuss it. Yeah, that’s what… that’s what we’re doing.

Andrew: That sort of relates to an earlier voicemail.

Jamie: Yeah.

Laura: Yeah.

Andrew: So, good work.

Laura: Well, I think that a lot of people really responded to your discussion on Ginny, I guess, at the live show.

Andrew: You know what’s so great about the live podcast?

Jamie: She is an important character…

Andrew: Yeah, but you know what was so great about the live podcast? Real quick, it’s the instant feedback…

Jamie: Yeah. Yeah, definitely.

Andrew: People were just going left and right with feedback, and now we have all these great new ideas because we were able to do it so well…

Jamie: Yeah, and out of all the stuff we talked about, I think Ginny was the most productive. You know, she – I don’t think people pay enough attention to her. Not only is she powerful, she’s powerful emotionally, she is the object of Harry’s affections, and she’s…you know? And that is a very interesting point, what would happen if Voldemort had turned her into a Horcrux? It would mean that Harry would have to kill her. Unless he only turned her [laughs] foot into one, in which case he could just cut that off and destroy it.

[Andrew and Laura laugh]

Andrew: Yeah.

Laura: Just cut off her foot.

Jamie: And then…

Andrew: “Ginny, I have good news and bad news.”

[Jamie and Laura laugh]

Andrew: “The bad news: you’re a Horcrux.”

[Laura laughing]

Andrew: “The good news: I’ve just got to amputate your foot.”

[Andrew, Jamie, Laura, and Micah laugh]

Jamie: Scalpel, wand.

Micah: I always thought that Horcruxes had to be inanimate objects though.

Jamie: No, no, no…

Laura: That’s what I kind of had the impression of…

Jamie: Nagini! [pronounces as na-genie]

Laura: But then you think about – yeah, Nagini.

Jamie: Sorry, Nagini.

Andrew: Well, [laughs] and not to mention according to Mugglenet.com’s What Will Happen In Harry Potter 7: Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Falls In Love…

Laura: Oh yeah, Harry is a Horcrux in that book, isn’t he?

Andrew: and How the Adventure Finally Ends, and Harry is a Horcrux.

Jamie: Exactly.

[Andrew and Jamie laugh]

Micah: Was he a Horcrux or his scar a Horcrux?

Laura: Good job, Andrew. Wasn’t that you that wrote that?

[Jamie laughs]

Andrew: Ummm…

Jamie: What? So, he has just got…

Andrew: Look, I have a pen name and then I don’t have a pen name and that one wasn’t written by me. That was the real Andy Gordon.

Jamie: You can’t say that – the thing is when you say that his scar is a Horcrux, if physically his scar is a Horcrux, then all he has to do is excise a centimeter of flesh…

Laura: [laughs] And just cut off…

Jamie: Yeah, and then he’s free from it…

[Andrew and Laura laugh]

Jamie: Which obviously isn’t the case.

[Laura laughs]

Andrew: [laughing] It’s too easy…

Jamie: It has to have an emotional – exactly.

Laura: [laughing] That’s too funny.

Jamie: It’s like in Saw II when he cuts the bit of flesh from behind his – ugh, that’s disgusting. But, uh…

Andrew: Yeah, he’d be getting one of these: [plays “That Was Easy” button].

Jamie: He would, yeah.

[Jamie, Laura, and Micah laugh]

Andrew: It would just be too easy.

[Andrew, Jamie, and Laura laugh]

Jamie: I would love – Andrew, I would love that. I would pay Jo…

[Andrew laughs]

Jamie: Not that she needs the money, but. To have the final line…

Andrew: You’re going to pay her? Then hell yeah she is going to do it.

[Andrew and Jamie laugh]

Jamie: To be like the final line. “And Voldemort said, ‘Actually, I’m tired of being mean. I’m going to be nice.’ And Harry pressed…”

Andrew: [laughing] Yeah.

Jamie: “His ‘That Was Easy’ button.”

[Andrew, Jamie, and Laura laugh]

Jamie: That was easy.

Andrew: Dun dun dun dun DUN! All right, uh…

Jamie: I would love Harry to have a “That Was Easy” button.

Laura: We’re so off topic.

Andrew: Back, back to our – what were we even saying here?

Jamie: Ginny being a Horcrux.

Andrew: Who had the last real thought?

Jamie: If she was…

Micah: Inanimate objects. [sighs]

Jamie: What would it mean? For the – for Harry? Would it mean he would have to kill her to defeat Voldemort?

Laura: Yes.

Jamie: But wouldn’t that completely ruin his life? You can’t…

Laura: Yep.

Jamie: But he shouldn’t…

[Laura and Andrew laugh]

Jamie: He can’t have a ruined life. Not that it’s too good at the moment.

Laura: He already does.

Jamie: Yeah, that’s what I was going to say.

Andrew: No, but it has to end on a positive note, you’re right.

Laura: No, but, see, here’s the thing…

Jamie: It has to end, yeah.

Laura: Jamie, I mean gosh, if Harry has to kill Ginny then that means that that other voicemail caller talking about Harry having to die, I mean that would fit in quite well. Andrew would be happy because then Harry would probably go jump off a cliff.

Jamie: Yeah…

Andrew: You bet.

Jamie: …and he would get his misery in the books that he loves.

Andrew: See, yeah, here’s the thing: if Ginny dies, like we were saying earlier, he really doesn’t have anything to live for. He’s got…

Laura: Ok, die Ginny.

Andrew: …Ron and Hermione. He’s got his friends. No, but what I’m saying is…

Laura: Yeah, that’s what you’re saying.

Andrew: He’s lost so many people how can he walk on?

Jamie: [sings] Walk on.

[Everyone laughs]

Laura: How did we know that was coming?

Andrew: Seriously.

Jamie: Andrew…

Andrew: Seriously though…

Micah: I don’t like it. I don’t like these theories.

Andrew: Why don’t you like this?

Micah: I don’t like these theories about people being Horcruxes, I don’t know, or parts of people being Horcruxes. I think that…

Jamie: I agree.

Micah: …Dumbledore laid it out pretty well. I think maybe with the exception of Nagini, he may be wrong there. It may just be another object of one of the founders that we didn’t know about. I just, I don’t really like the whole idea that Harry – I just don’t like the idea of people being Horcruxes. I think…

Jamie: Ir does.

Andrew: Yeah.

Micah: …it’s too easy to sort of say Harry’s a Horcrux or Ginny’s a Horcrux. I don’t think that adds any different elements…

Jamie: She could…

Micah: …to the story…

Jamie: She could kill herself as well.

Micah: …that people would be expecting.

Jamie: It’s like, Voldemort wants things that aren’t going to spoil his plan and putting it into a person who could potentially destroy his Horcrux. You know? It just seems, you know. But the reason they thought that Ginny was a Horcrux was she moved in mysterious ways.

Andrew: She really does that.

Jamie: She really does. It’s all right though, it’s all right.

Andrew: But then she was gone…

Micah: The one thing – because we talked about this on the other show. I just – I think there’s so much you have to go through and explain, if she’s a Horcrux, sort of the steps she’s taken throughout the series.


Voicemail: Draco and Dumbledore


[Audio]: Okay it’s Daniel Hinckey from Melbourne in Australia. I have three quotes that I wish you would actually discuss instead of some these recent topics, like whether Harry and Ginny should have chicken or fish at their wedding dinner or should Ron cut his hair. I’m relatively new to the podcast but particularly now you have new name for the book to fit into the possible outcome, so I have some possible discussion points I’m dying for you guys to delve into. Near the ending of Half-Blood Prince, Dumbledore said to Malfoy, “Well, I certainly did have a drink…and I came back…after a fashion,” Why would he use those words, “after a fashion,” he seems to be implying that he was not whole, not all there, only partly returned. It follows after that Malfoy says, “We decided to put the Dark Mark over the tower and get you to hurry up here… And it worked.” Dumbledore answers, “Well …yes and no…” Again with the not really being there insinuation. Also, he says to Malfoy, “It is my mercy, and not yours, that matters now.” What does that mean? One last thing was, why was Dumbledore forcing Malfoy to keep talking? Surely it wasn’t so Harry could hear how he managed to get the Death Eaters in, or [unintelligible] until Snape arrived. Was it because of Snape? I don’t know, that confuses me. So for all that’s good and merciful please talk about the bigger issues again, even if you have in the past.

Jamie: So, Ron’s hair? Long, short? What do we think?

[Laura and Andrew laugh]

Jamie: Should he cut it?

Andrew: [uses a silly voice with a lisp] Personally, I think he should go for a buzz cut.

Jamie: [uses a silly voice] I think he looks so cute with short hair.

Micah: [uses a silly voice] What do you mean?

Jamie: Okay, I’ve always – I thought the last point was very interesting about when he said to Draco, “It is my mercy that matters now, not yours.” I think it comes down to the fact that Draco has got – or Dumbledore has got to die there to save Draco and, you know, continue, you know, continue keeping Snape close to Voldemort, because Snape’s good, obviously. So, he’s saying it’s my mercy because obviously Dumbledore there could get out of his predicament, let’s not fool around here. He may be wandless but he’s not powerless. So, I think easily he could’ve you know – if he can blast apart his office against Dawlish, Shacklebolt, you know, Umbridge, Fudge, all those people in there and come up smiling, then he could easily get out of that problem. So, I think he’s saying that it’s for me to go through with my plan and save you and make it look like you did everything, that’s my mercy and that’s what I’m going to put in to action.

Laura: Yeah, I think so too. As for the quotes about him saying “yes and no” and “after a fashion,” I’m really not 100 percent sure what to think of those. Because, when I read it at the time, I was just sort of taking it as Dumbledore kind of gently reminding Draco that he had an idea of what was going to happen. He wasn’t completely – he wasn’t walking into it completely blind.

Jamie: Isn’t it just a figure of speech. I had…

Laura: Yeah.

Jamie: When you say, “I had a drink,” it implies an alcoholic drink, but he meant, you know, a potion drink, and he said, “Yes, I had a drink… a kind of drink…after a fashion.” I think it just means that. It’s just a…

Laura: I mean, I think – I think he’s kind of looking at this from the standpoint of we have seen specific things that characters have said in the books before that were seemingly meaningless and then…

Jamie: Yeah.

Laura: ..they came into…

Jamie: I think it’s just…

Laura: …you know, a huge light…

Jamie: …a sense of humor though. It’s Dumbledore’s sense of humor.

Laura: Yeah, I think so as well.

Andrew: And Dumbledore’s not going to give Draco full answers anyway, so it’s going to be very mysterious. He’s going to talk in mysterious ways.

Laura: In any case. I don’t think that this supports any sort of Dumbledore is alive theory.

Jamie: No. Which he’s not, so what difference does it make?

Laura: Which is – yeah [laughs], exactly. A lot of people still maintain that he is.

Jamie: Although it comes down to the fact…

Micah: Because Jo didn’t say [laughs] that he’s not.

Laura: Yeah. [laughs]

Andrew: Yeah.

Jamie: Yeah.

Laura: We all just imagined it.

Jamie: And also when someone dies it, it normally means they aren’t alive, so you know…

[Laura giggles]

Andrew: Right. It usually means they’re… oh, what’s the word I’m looking for? Dead.

Laura: Deceased…

Andrew: Yeah. [laughs]

Laura: …maybe.

[Andrew laughs]


Voicemail: What Are The Traits of Other Founders’ Descendants?


[Audio]: Hi MuggleCasters, my name is Ensica (SP?) from Chicago, Illinois, and I have a question for you. I was wondering, you know how all descendants of Salazar Slytherin; they have the noticeable characteristic of being able to talk to snakes. So what would you distinguishes being really smart or for Gryffindor being brave, but do you think there’s something that really makes them different, like how Salazar’s descendents can talk to snakes. Anyway, I was just wondering what you guys thought. Thanks so much! Bye!

Andrew: [in the cowardly lion’s voice] Courage.

Jamie: Yeah, I think it’s…

Laura: Well, yeah…

Jamie: I mean…

Laura: I mean, she mentioned that but…

Jamie: Obviously, they’re more traits than characteristics – I mean, rather then skills, but I think… I mean, obviously Gryffindor is – would be brave, you know, bravery and the ability to fight rather than the flight syndrome, you know?

Laura: Yeah. You know…

Jamie: Things like that.

Laura: When I listened to this, one thought that occurred to me was that Slytherin, his family would really be one of the only ones that would strive to remain pureblood…

Jamie: Yeah.

Laura: …or as close to pureblood as they could, unless you were Merope Gaunt.

Andrew: Yeah.

Laura: But it just seems like that kind of trait would stay within their family just because they practically inbred.

Jamie: Yeah. They are inbred.

Laura: And that’s why – I mean that’s why so many of them have it and I think that any sort of talents that any of the other founders would have, they might appear every now and then, but I think they’d be pretty watered down, just because they’re not prejudiced.

Micah: I think it’s difficult because we don’t know for sure who would be a descendent or who is even a candidate to be a descendent of any of the other founders. So…

Laura: Use your imagination.

Jamie: Yeah.

Micah: Well, I think Hufflepuff, you know… Blast.

Jamie: Diggory?

Micah: Diggory, I mean, you know, I don’t know if there’s any relationship between Hepzibah Smith and Hufflepuff, even though she had the cup. I mean, maybe that puts Zacharias Smith in a position to be a descendant.

Jamie: Oh, that’s an idea, yeah. Or the ghosts.

Andrew: It’s just a really interesting question in general, because twaits [laughs] twaits – traits are – that’s a very cool question.

Jamie: It is.

Andrew: Too bad we don’t…

Laura: Yeah.

Andrew: …know the descendants, so…

Laura: That we know of.

Andrew: Because, I mean, traits could be a lot of things. It could be physical traits…

Micah: Yeah.

Andrew: …it could be, well, in the case of Slytherin…

Jamie: Emotional traits.

Andrew: …speaking traits…

Jamie: …skills, yeah.

Andrew: …emotional.

Jamie: It could be anything.


British Joke of the Day


Jamie: Improvised British Joke of the Day here. What does dough and Merope Gaunt have in common?

Micah: Dough as in, like…

Andrew: What?

Jamie: Dough.

Andrew: Doe, a deer?

Jamie: No, no, no.

Andrew: A female deer?

Laura: No, dough as in like, cookie dough.

Jamie: Yeah. [laughs]

Andrew: Oh.

Jamie: They’re both inbred.

[Everyone laughs]


Laura and Andrew Go To College


Andrew: Good stuff. Well, hey, guys. I think that wraps up our voicemails for this week. We didn’t get to as many as we hoped to, because, I mean, we went – we answered quite a few of them in depth, so we’ll get to some more next week. I say, unless the cover comes out next week, or the trailer.

Micah: Or Jo updates her site.

Andrew: Yeah. Okay, so Laura, you and I – I just wanted to… We got another e-mail, or “f-e-mail,” Joanna, 22, of Jupiter, Florida. I wanted to include this e-mail this week because it’s very timely. She writes:

“Hey MuggleCasters, a few of you, Andrew, Ben, and Laura, I think, are getting ready to graduate high school and move onto college. Just wondering where you all are planning on going and what you would like to major in. Don’t worry, I’m not a stalker or anything (poor Emma), I was just curious and I’m sure many of the fans are also curious.”

So, Laura, within the past week or so, you and I have both found out…

Laura: Yeah.

Andrew: …where we’re going to college.

Laura: Yeah, good news.

Andrew: Where are you going to college?

Laura: I got into McDaniel College in Westminster, Maryland, and I’m pretty excited about that. It was my first choice, and I actually visited up there…

Jamie: Congratulations.

Laura: …in November. Really, really gorgeous.

Andrew: Awesome.

Laura: So, I’m excited.

Andrew: And just the other day, I got accepted into Rowan University, which is, was my top pick, too. So, we’re both…

Laura: Yay! [laughs]

Andrew: We’re both happy campers this week. And Ben was accepted to Miami University, and…

Laura: Was he?

Andrew: …at least one other. Yeah.

Laura: Oh, cool.

Jamie: I didn’t know that.

Andrew: So, he’s not too sure what he’s doing exactly yet. I didn’t know either, until I told him I was accepted…

[Jamie laughs]

Andrew: …and he was like, “Oh, by the way.” [laughs] So, yeah. So, yeah, we’re all going to college, thank god. Micah, where are you going to college?

Micah: I don’t know yet, you know?

[Andrew laughs]

Jamie: Well…

Micah: I was talking to Jamie about it earlier.

Jamie: You have a few years to decide.

Micah: We’re still trying to figure it out.

Jamie: We’ve got no rush, so we thought we’d think about it for a bit, you know, and then decide in a few years where we’re going.

[Laura laughs]

Andrew: I hear all the cool kids go to Notre Dame. Guess we’re not cool enough.

Laura: I disagree.

Jamie: Yeah, I didn’t hear that.

[Andrew and Laura laugh]

Jamie: I expressedly did not hear that. So…

Micah: No, no.


Chicken Soup For The MuggleCast Soul


Andrew: Okay, well, that’s that, and we’re going to wrap things up today with a Chicken Soup for the MuggleCast Soul. This comes from Mark W., 22, of Indianapolis. He writes:

“First off, I love the show. My entire family are ‘Harry Potter’ fans and we make a habit out of listening to the show each week as a family.”

Jamie: That’s awesome.

Andrew: That’s nice.

Laura: Aww.

Andrew: Family listening, that’s very cool.

Jamie: We encourage that.

Andrew: Yeah. So, he writes:

“On a more serious note now, the reason I choose to contact you today: I have a simple request that I sincerely hope can be incorporated into a future episode of the show. My brother, Michael, was diagnosed with a rare cancer last year. He underwent chemotherapy and seemed to be getting better, but recently took a turn for the worse. His spirits have been down, but he still looks forward to each new episode of the show and listening to it always makes him smile.”

Jamie: And in that family, I think Michael’s listening, so, enjoy the show, Michael. Your brother tells us you really enjoy it, so…

Andrew: Yep, shout out to Michael. He’s 15, and lives out in Indianapolis, Indiana. So…

Micah: And thanks for listening.

Laura: Yeah, thank you.

Andrew: Definitely. And thanks to Mark for writing in.


Show Close


Andrew: So, before we completely wrap up the show today, I want to remind everyone about our contact information. So if you want to send us some parcel mail, you can always mail:

MuggleCast
PO Box 223
Moundridge, Kansas 67107

And if you have a voicemail, you can always call them in to 1-218-20-MAGIC in the United States, if you’re in the United Kingdom, you can dial 020-8144-0677, and if you’re in Australia, you can dial 80 – sorry, 02-8003-5668. You can also Skype the username MuggleCast, just try to keep your message about a minute. And we’ll get to some more voicemails next week. You can also contact us using the handy feedback form located on the contact page of MuggleCast.com, or you can e-mail us with our first name at staff dot mugglenet dot com.

[Show music begins to play]

Andrew: You know what, guys?

Jamie: What, Toots?

Andrew: I think I’m tired of the name Toots.

[Jamie laughs]

Laura: Thank god.

Jamie: I agree.

Andrew: I think I’m going to retire it. It was fun for a few shows, but I think it’s done.

Micah: Awww.

Andrew: And then, don’t forget, you can [laughs] use our community outlets: MySpace, YouTube, Facebook, Frappr, Last.FM, Fanlistings/Forums. Guys, we’ve reached 7,000 friends on MySpace.

Jamie: Wow.

Micah: And I’m not even one of them.

Andrew: Oh, you know, once we get to 7,777 friends, I think I’m just going to stop.

Jamie: Yeah, definitely, yeah.

Andrew: I’m just going to stop. No more friends.

Jamie: We’re going to stop adding people.

Andrew: So, get your friend request in now. [laughs]. And, of course, you can Digg us on Digg.com. Vote for us once a month on Podcast Alley, and rate and review us on Yahoo! Podcasts. Jamie, one last thing real quick. We owe people two additional shows.

Jamie: Oh, we do, yeah. I’m going to do something special for them. I don’t know what yet, though. I’ll think on it.

Andrew: Okay. Well, two very special shows will be coming out within, not this week, but the following week. We’re going to have the two extra shows on two Wednesdays.

Micah: Cool.

Andrew: I believe they’re going to be Episodes 84 and 86. All right, so that wraps up today’s show. Once again, I’m Andrew Sims.

Jamie: [saying goodbye for Eric] I’m Eric Scull.

Jamie: I’m Jamie Lawrence.

Laura: I’m Laura Thompson.

Micah: And I’m Micah Tannenbaum. Jo…

Andrew: Thank…

Micah: …I’m counting on you. Don’t let me down.

[Jamie laughs]

Andrew: Another request. And I feel, I feel it coming, “Miker.”

[Jamie and Laura laugh]

Andrew: So, we thank everyone for listening and we’ll see everyone next week for Episode 83. Bye bye.

Jamie: Bye, Toots. Bye, everyone.

Laura: Bye.

[Show music ends]


Bloopers


Jamie: Just because you’re so cool that other people can’t even get close, you know, there’s no need to rub it in.

Micah: I don’t believe those are the words…

Jamie: [sneezes] Excuse me.

Micah: …I just used, but…

Jamie: [sneezes] Excuse me.

Andrew: I couldn’t hear you [laughs] over Jamie’s sneezing.

Jamie: Sorry.

Micah: I said, I don’t think those are the words that I used, thank you, Jamie, for speaking for me there. [laughs]

Jamie: No, no.


Jamie: He’ll just be – his head’ll be spinning. He will just be in “vertigo.”

Andrew: [laughs] But listen – but sometimes you can’t make it on your own. Oh, there are so many.

[Jamie laughs]

Laura: Oh my god!

Jamie: I hear that the huge battle is going to be on a Saturday, so it’s going to be “Sunday, bloody Sunday.” [laughs]

Andrew: [laughs] Yeah.

Micah: So it won’t be a “beautiful day.”

Andrew: Yeah. [laughs] But even after all that he “still wouldn’t have found what he’s looking for.” [laughs] Terrible grammar.

Jamie: Looking for, yeah. But… Oh god. I can’t think of anymore. [laughs]

Andrew: [laughs] I’d have to bring up my iTunes to keep going on this.


[Music plays in background “Double Trouble (team rocket)”]

This is the boss, and I’m sick of waiting!
I want Pikachu and this time don’t screw it up!

Prepare for trouble
Make it double
Prepare for trouble
Make it double

We’ll be the richest rogues of all time
Creators of a grand design
I’ll be the king
I’ll be the queen

I’ll be the joker… of crime

Prepare for trouble
Make it double
Prepare for trouble
Make it double

To protect the world from devastation
To unite all people’s within our nation
To denounce the evils of truth and love
To extend our ach to the stars above
Jessie, James
Team Rocket blast off at the speed of light
Surrender now or prepare to fight.
That’s right!

Team Rocket’s rockin’
Talkin’ trouble, walkin’ trouble
Double trouble big trouble
And the trouble’s gonna follow you

Team Rocket’s rockin’
Talkin’ trouble, walkin’ trouble
Double trouble big trouble
And the trouble’s gonna follow you
We’re gonna capture Pikachu

Prepare for trouble
Make it double
Prepare for trouble
Make it double

We’re Team Rocket and we fight for what’s wrong,
For mayhem, and madness, and rare Pokemon
I’m so gorgeous
I’m always the man
You’re just the players in my master plan

Team Rocket’s rockin’
Talkin’ trouble, walkin’ trouble
Double trouble big trouble
And the troubles gonna follow you

Team Rocket’s rockin’
Talkin’ trouble, walkin’ trouble
Double trouble big trouble
And the troubles gonna follow you
We’re gonna capture Pikachu

We’re always gonna’ try it
No one can deny it
We can cause a riot in Sunday school
We’ll have you believing
Truth can be deceiving
‘Do unto others’ is our Golden Rule

Jesse: This is our most ingenious plan ever, if I do say so myself.

James: Even we couldn’t screw this one up, Jesse.

Meowth: Would you two stop yappin’! Here they come!

Prepare for trouble
Make it double
Prepare for trouble
Make it double

Team Rocket’s rockin’
Talkin’ trouble, walkin’ trouble
Double trouble big trouble
And the trouble’s gonna follow you

———————–

Written by: Micah, Adrienne, Allison, Amanda, Briana, Cindy, Jessica, Laura, Leah, Mandie, Margaret, Matt, Megan, Sapna, Sarah, Shannon, Shelly, and Tina