MuggleCast 99 Transcript
Show Intro
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[Intro music begins to play]
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.
[Intro music ends, and starts up different music]
Andrew: The first of many LIVE episodes of MuggleCast this summer, this is MuggleCast Episode 99 for July 15th, 2007.
[MuggleCast intro music continues to play]
Keith Hawk: Good evening!
[Audience cheers]
Keith: Those of you who haven’t attended the entire event, welcome to Enlightening 2007! [Audience cheers] This is MuggleCast!
[More cheers from audience]
Keith: Guys, I have a great show lined up for you tonight; they’re having a whole bunch of discussions, a lot about the movie and other things. So, please, let’s put your hands together and welcome – for three years, he’s been with MuggleNet. From Medford, New Jersey, he’s the lead host of MuggleCast. Please welcome Andrew Sims!
[Audience cheers and applauds]
Keith: For four years with MuggleNet – he wants to be known as the chief operating officer. Right from Kansas, please welcome Ben Schoen!
[Audience cheers and applauds]
Keith: Also four years with MuggleNet, all the way from Suffolk, England, he is the chairmen of International Relations, Mr. Jamie Lawrence.
[Audience cheers, and applauds]
Keith: Two years with MuggleNet, he is the head of marketing and the news guru that you hear every week on the podcast, please welcome Micah Tannenbaum, from New York!
[Audience cheers and applauds]
Keith: You might know this guy, I’m not really sure. Started the website when he was twelve years old.
Andrew: Oh my god!
[Some laughter among audience]
Keith: He is here, in the flesh. All the way from Chicago, Illinois. Put your hands together for the guy you love, Emerson Spartz!
[Audience cheers and applauds]
[Intro music finishes]
Welcome
Andrew: Thank you, Keith Hawk, head coordinator of the trivia contest. Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to the live MuggleCast, the first of several live MuggleCasts here. Well, this summer – we’re going to be all over the world this summer. We can actually say all over the world, not just the United States. Just me?
Ben: Mhm.
Andrew: We’re going to be doing a podcast in London for the book release, Jamie and I.
[A few “wooos” from the audience]
Ben: And Emerson and I will be in Chicago.
Emerson: Oak Park, Illinois. It’s going to be – every year the entire downtown district of the city of Oak Park transforms into Diagon Alley. How cool is that, guys?
[Audience cheers]
Emerson: Over 10,000 fans show up for this every year. They fly from all around the world to this little Chicago suburb, and we’re going to be there counting down to midnight. It’s going to be great.
Jamie: Andrew, it’s only fair that we plug ours now after that.
Andrew: Yeah, it’s definitely going to be a million times bigger, Emerson.
Ben: Oh, I’m sure.
Jamie: One thousand million.
Andrew: Despite the fact we only have 800 tickets, but we will be at – go ahead, Jamie.
Jamie: No, I was just going to one-up Emerson, but it doesn’t matter now.
Ben: They’re going to be in London at Waterstone’s.
Andrew: Waterstone’s at Piccadilly Circus. It’s going to be a huge event. A week from now. A week from now! You two will be in Chicago, Micah is going to be doing something in New York, and me and Jamie will be in London. It’s going to be crazy. It’s going to be a lot of fun. Is everyone excited for the book? In just a week, [Audience cheers] everyone will be waiting in line.
[Audience continues to cheer and applaud]
Andrew: I don’t want it to end. Do you, Emerson?
Emerson: Mhm.
Andrew: [laughs] We were just having a little talk backstage, and it’s funny, because we’ve all grown up with Harry Potter, as most of you have here, and this is a very family-oriented convention, so overall, it’s going to be sad saying “Bye!” to all of that hype that we’ve been looking forward to for 10 years. So…
The Red Carpet
Andrew: Anyway, we have a few things to talk about. We wanted to start with a fun story that happened last week, but we need to set it up first.
Jamie: Can we sort of start with a catch phrase? I don’t know if anyone is going to understand this, but the HMS Bemma has now sailed.
[Audience cheers]
Ben: Sort of. It didn’t really sail.
Andrew: First, let’s set it up.
Emerson: Some necessary back-story here: at the premiere, I was on the red carpet with Andrew – I was on the microphone and he had the camera, and when Emma Watson came down the line, I was thinking, you know, “Should I ask her another one of those boring character development questions, or should I ask her what she really wants to talk about – Ben Schoen?”
[Audience laughs]
Ben: For real.
Emerson: So I said, “Emma, has Evanna Lynch maybe mentioned anything to you about somebody named Ben Schoen?” And she had this look. She was like, “Yeah! Yeah! Are you him? Are you him? I’ve heard…” and I said, “Well, what did Evanna say?” She said, [in a girly and very fake British accent] “Well, I don’t know how to say this without sounding arrogant, but she said he was a big supporter of mine…”
Jamie: That was a dreadful British accent. I won’t lie.
[Audience laughs]
Emerson: “…and he really really wants what’s best for me.”
Ben, Emma, and The After-Party
Ben: That’s completely true, and so somehow, we managed to secure tickets to the after-party following the premiere. So, of course, this is my one big chance. You know, my time to shine. Me and Emma Watson. We’re coming face-to-face, you know? [Audience laughs] So, I pretty much psyched myself up for it all week. The whole week was building up to it, pretty much, you know, where I’m thinking, this is it. This is it.
[Andrew and audience laugh]
Ben: So, we get to the party, and – you know, you’d expect it to be, like, adults sitting around, sipping champagne and being all [in a sophisticated tone] “Oh, yes. David Heyman, that was a great movie. I really enjoyed that movie. It was a wonderful movie,” you know? But it wasn’t like that at all. It was really like a kiddie carnival, almost. There was all these games lining outside, it was, like, “Rope a Hippogriff,” and I don’t know.
Andrew: “Fling the Phoenix.”
Ben: A bunch of games like that. So, I go into – it’s indoors and outdoors – so I go into the indoor part, and I look around and Dan Radcliffe right there, and he walked by me, and oh, Emma’s not in here. Who cares?
[Audience laughs]
Ben: So I walked back out, walked around a bit, and Robert Pattinson! Still no Emma, and finally, I go back in and I see her. She’s sitting on the couch, okay? With her dad – I think it was her dad – and her bodyguard standing behind her, and there’s a line of fans, okay? There’s a line of fans. Don’t worry. I would have taken them out…
[Audience laughs]
Ben: …given the chance, if I could do it all over again. Anyways, so, she’s sitting there and there’s a line of fans and I’m thinking, how can I do this, being as tactful as I am? It would be the best way to do this. So, I go and sit on the couch next to her and I say I’ll wait. I’ll wait until the line of fans is gone. Then, I’ll lean over and strike up casual conversation, and of course, Evanna Lynch did tell her about me, because she’s a big MuggleCast fan, and so she knew who I was. I was going to be like, “Hey! Hi, how’re you? I’m a really big fan, blah, blah, blah, ” and then I was going to be like, “Oh, yeah. I’m that one dude that she brought up.” But anyways, so like I said, I walk in and I see her sitting there, and I can feel it. This is it. It’s going down.
[Andrew and audience laugh]
Ben: I was going to be disappointed if I didn’t at least get a phone number. And so…
[Audience laughs]
Ben: So – okay. So, I sit down next to her, the line’s finally gone. This is it – I’m not nervous at all, by the way. Cool, calm, and collected.
[Andrew laughs]
Ben: Traditional Ben Schoen manner. Anyways, I lean over to her and I tap her on the shoulder. Watch out, no, don’t do that, Emerson.
Jamie: I can’t take part in that.
[Audience laughs]
Ben: I lean over, and – she’s looking that way, and I tap her on the shoulder, and she looks over to me and I say, “You know, does that ever get old having all of these people ask for autographs?” She says, “What?” And then, this guy – this random guy comes and sits right between us.
[Audience laughs]
Ben: There’s, like, literally, a foot gap, okay? A foot gap between us, practically, and this bozo comes and sits between us.
[Audience continues to laugh]
Ben: A complete bozo! I’m just kidding, she might have been close to him – so sorry. But he sat between us. He didn’t know – I don’t think he realized I was asking her a question, so I sit there. I relax, and I say, “Once he gets up, I’ll ask.” And, well, he got up, she got up, and her bodyguard whisked her away, and then that – that is when I pulled out my nunchucks, and I beat the bodyguard down and I kidnapped Emma! And she’s here with us today! Ladies and gentlemen! I’m just kidding.
[Audience laughs]
Ben: So, I didn’t actually meet her, really, at all. So…
[Audience sighs and says, “Awww”]
Ben: Awww.
Andrew: But you got to touch her.
Ben: I got to touch her. I touched her arm, one step closer. It’s going to happen eventually, folks. [Audience laughs] Believe me. It’s going down soon.
Jamie: I’m don’t know why you didn’t sort out the guy that sat between you. Was he just more charming, or…?
Ben: Oh, more charming. Of course. Like that’s possible. No, I’m just kidding. He was kind of – I don’t know. It was kind of weird because later on, I saw him – I think they were friends, or something. I think they were probably good friends because later on, I saw him sitting next to her and walking around with his arm around her, but I know she doesn’t – I don’t think she has a boyfriend. So, yeah. It was disappointing, but I still got to mingle with Robert Pattinson and all them, so who am I to complain?
Andrew: Yeah.
Ben: But the HMS Bemma will sail one day. The anchor has just been put in the sea for awhile.
[Andrew laughs]
Jamie: It’s a heavy anchor. I don’t know how it’s going to get back.
[Audience laughs]
Andrew: Well, like Ben was saying earlier, the after-party is interesting because you expect it to be a very classy, dignified event because it is Harry Potter – it is such a big movie and a big franchise, but then you go here, and it’s all of this music you would expect to see at your high school dance. It’s just cool teenager music. It was a pretty cool party, and there was free drinks, free food – lots of good food. You pigged out right away, didn’t you?
Ben: And get this. There was a pizza buffet there. Just for Emerson, I think. I think Warner Brothers got it for Emerson. He has the taste buds of a fifth-grader.
Emerson: I thought one of the most interesting things about being at the after-party is that you see all these normal families, kids, adults, people in suits, and then all of a sudden, you walk by and oh, that guy is Dan Radcliffe. You’re like, “Wow!” They’re just walking around like normal people and everywhere you go, there’s some other famous person.
Jamie: Do they have guards with them all the time? Or are they just walking around?
Ben: They always have a bodyguard with them.
Andrew: Yeah, like, Dan did.
Jamie: Could you have taken them all at one time?
Ben: Most likely.
Jamie: Without the nunchucks and the swords, and the AK-47s?
Ben: Easily.
Andrew: Why didn’t you try? That’s what I want to know.
Ben: Because I’m a big fan of not going to jail.
[Andrew and audience laugh]
Ben: I don’t want to make the black list. The Emma Watson black list.
Andrew: [laughs] She’ll really know you then.
The After-Party Decorations
Emerson: You guys can’t even believe how incredible the decorations are. They went all out. They spent over 400,000 dollars on this party.
Andrew: After-party.
Emerson: You go into the bathroom, you’re sitting there taking a leak…
[Audience laughs]
Emerson: …and all of a sudden you hear [meows] and you look over and you see Umbridge’s office and you see Umbridge’s office and all the cats are staring at you while you take a pee!
Andrew: They’re actually in the bathroom.
[Audience laughs]
Emerson: It’s weird!
Ben: It was also cool on the inside where it went down, or what didn’t go down…
[Audience laughs]
Ben: …there are a bunch of picture frames of, like, the moving video picture frames. It was really cool. And they had all of the Educational Decrees.
Andrew: Yeah, and they had a Hall of Prophecies. It was very well set up. It was amazing. And they actually did more work for that than they did for the actual premiere. The premiere was just a bunch of Order of the Phoenix posters and a bunch of crazy fangirls. Emerson, you and I did a great – well, okay, you did a great job of revving up the crowd with your MuggleNet chants.
Emerson: You did a great job filming them, Andrew.
Andrew: Well, thanks, Emerson.
London Premiere
Jamie: Awww.
Ben: Jamie, Jamie, you did a great job at the U.K. premiere. I just wanted to compliment you.
[Andrew laughs]
Ben: Micah, you did a good jobt oo.
Jamie: Thank you. Actually, there’s a story there, Andrew. We were – I was filming, in the loosest sense of the word, while Andrew was under this huge umbrella and Andrew’s umbrella-holding skills are far from satisfactory.
[Audience laughs]
Jamie: And basically what happened was he was at the front and then it was John. Andrew, what was it?
Andrew: I was at the front, and then Melissa was right next to me.
Jamie: Yeah, that was it.
Andrew: John was behind Melissa. You were behind me.
Jamie: And Andrew holds this umbrella perfectly so it’s lined up with the back of my neck. So, this rain just hits the umbrella. He stays dry, John stays dry…
Andrew: And Melissa stays dry.
Jamie: And torrential downpour just goes down right down my back. So, I’m standing there…
Andrew: And I would keep holding back at him, and he looked like this puppy dog.
Jamie: Yeah, I was completely soaking.
Andrew: You were completely drenched.I felt for you, but there was nothing I could do, because the umbrella…
Jamie: You could have. You could have moved it back a bit. Anyway, I was holding this thousand dollar camera. We didn’t even have a bag to put this camera in because it was raining, so Andrew took off his shirt, he was wearing like he’s wearing now, yeah. So he took off his shirt, and I poked the camera lens through the sleeve and wrapped it around, so I’m absolutely soaking, and I’m filming like this and it was not a nice experience.
Ben: That’s old-fashioned British ingenuity for you.
Jamie: Yeah, yeah.
Andrew: We sort of have a depressing story. Like Ben’s with Emma, we never got to interview Jo. Jo…
Jamie: Yeah.
Andrew: She was…
Ben: So, some bozo sat between you and Jo? Is that what happened?
[Audience laughs]
Andrew: No, no, it was an interview. Here’s the big press pit – it’s just a giant circle and they walk around in this circle, and Jo, for some reason, came over to the people next to us a few spots down, but didn’t work her way over to us, and it was kind of depressing because obviously, we wanted to ask her some questions.
Ben: Really?
Emerson: Shut up.
Andrew: That’s why I said, “obviously.” So, that was a bit of a disappointment. We sort of thought afterwards that maybe she was too afraid that we were going to ask her questions about Book 7, and she probably didn’t want…
Ben: I think she was intimidated by you, Andrew, to be honest. I mean…
Andrew: Yeah, I was pretty scaring wearing…
Ben: A famous billionaire author, you know?
Andrew: Yeah. [Laughs]
The Moaning Myrtles
Andrew: But who was here for the Moaning Myrtles show a little bit earlier today?
[Some of the audience cheers]
Andrew: What do you think of them? Can we bring them up here now? They’re here. There they are. Come on up.
[Audience cheers and applauds]
Andrew: We’ll talk to you guys for a little bit.
[Pause, and audience continues to cheer]
Andrew: We were very impressed by – where is she going to stand? Here, stand over here. No, you don’t have to do laps. Tell us. When does this whole Wizard Rock thing begin?
Nina Jankowicz of the Moaning Myrtles: For us? Or…
Andrew: For you, and for everyone.
Nina: Well, when did Harry and the Potters get together, Lauren?
Lauren Fairweather of the Moaning Myrtles: I’m not sure, but I saw them in…
Ben: Wasn’t it 2001?
Lauren: In 2004.
Nina: Yeah, and then we went together to a Harry and the Potters concert in October 2005, and after we saw them, we thought it might be fun to start a band and Lauren had dressed up as Moaning Myrtle for a book release party for – was it Book 6? That you dressed up as Moaning Myrtle?
Lauren: Yes.
Nina: So I thought that was cool, and it was sort of a joke at first and we wrote “And Then I Died” and put a 30-second clip on the MySpace and lo and behold, two hundred fans within a couple of days, and now we have 10,000. So, it’s kind of taken off from there, but…
Andrew: According to the MySpace, anyway?
Nina: According to the MySpace, yes.
Andrew: Where do you guys get your inspiration for writing this music? Because there’s a lot of Wizard Rock bands out there right now and you guys are probably one of the bigger ones. I know there’s the Remus Lupins, there’s Harry and the Potters, there’s the Hungarian Horntails…
Ben: And Andrew and the Sims.
Andrew: Andrew and the Sims? Oh, okay. [laughs]
[Audience laughs]
Andrew: But where do you guys get your ideas from writing this music? And once Book 7 comes out, are you going to start writing right away?
Lauren: We’re definitely planning on it as soon as the book comes out. Just like, getting more ideas. We really hope that Myrtle is in the next book, so we have some more material, but as soon as we decided on Myrtle, we looked through all the books, post-it-noted all the pages where she was mentioned and just pretty much wrote about the actual references, and then kind of came up with other things on the side.
Nina: We knew we were going to have to be creative at that point because you know, she’s mentioned in every other book, and she has little small scenes, and every time she is mentioned she does something hilarious, so it’s almost like a little bit of fanfiction in our music because we have to draw experiences that may not have been entirely canon in the books. Stop laughing at me. [laughs]
Ben: So, where do you gals head from here? Do you have any more stops? Do you get to perform anywhere this summer?
Lauren: Yes, we are doing what we call our poor tour right now. We can’t travel outside of a two-hour radius from our house, so we are playing in New Jersey, and Pennsylvania a whole lot until the book release and then in August, we are doing a few more shows, so it’s…
Ben: So, if I want to go out and see you, where can I find that information?
Lauren: We have – all of our tour dates are on our MySpace, and our website is Moaning Myrtles.WordPress.com, and all the tour dates are on both of those websites with all the information and directions and other fun stuff.
Nina: And if you are one of our fans who keeps messaging us and says, “Play in New Mexico, or play in Salt Lake City, Utah” then buy our CD and maybe we can come there and stop being poor college students. [laughs]
Ben: Yes, everyone buy their CD. Right now. Thank you.
Andrew: Thank you, guys, very much. Good luck on your tour.
[Audience cheers and applauds]
Andrew: The Moaning Myrtles!
MuggleCast Tour Locations
Andrew: That’s one thing; whenever we announce we’re going on tour, we get, like, “Oh, can you please come to – insert my little town made up of 500 people.”
Jamie: Yeah.
Andrew: “We have a bookstore. You can do it here.” It’s nice offers, but we’re trying to go – we’re covering cross-country. Where are we going, Ben, exactly?
Ben: Oh, geez. We’re going to Las Vegas; Albuquerque, New Mexico; Tulsa, Oklahoma; St. Louis, Missouri; Chicago, Illinois; Detroit, Michigan; [takes deep breath] Columbus, Ohio. No, Cleveland, Ohio.
Andrew: Pittsburgh.
Ben: Pittsburgh, then Prophecy 2007. Awesome.
Andrew: And everything will wrap there.
Ben: The Harry Potter blow-out to end all Harry Potter blow-outs. Be there.
Ben’s Hagrid
Andrew: Ladies, and gentlemen, Hagrid has entered the auditorium back there. Please say, “Hi!” to Hagrid.
Ben: [In his Hagrid voice] Rubeus Hagrid!
[Audience laughs]
Andrew: Do it, do it, do it. Do it, Ben. Ben, could we have a Hagrid impression, please?
Ben: [In his Hagrid voice] Rubeus Hagrid! How’re you doing!
[Andrew laughs]
Ben: I don’t know what to say.
Order of the Phoenix
Andrew: [laughs] Okay, well, who saw the movie?
[Some cheers and applause]
Ben: Who didn’t see the movie?
[Cheers stop, and others laugh]
Ben: Just kidding. Of course Micah saw the film.
Andrew: Plus, my dad, also, in the audience.
Jamie: Can I ask a quick question? Is it worse seeing it in IMAX? Because I’ve asked a couple of people now, but…
[Some cheers]
Andrew: See, some people are saying “no.”
Ben: Yeah, I heard from, like, one hundred people, and the answer was “no.”
Andrew: Yeah. Some people are saying no, and they’re saying the 3-D effects just weren’t worth it.
[Murmuring within audience]
Andrew: They’re stupid? We have a “they’re stupid” here. I have “You’re stupid” over here.
Female Audience Member: Only the last 20 minutes.
Andrew: It was the last twenty minutes, right. So, I mean…
[More murmuring within audience]
Ben: You’re the man, dude.
Andrew: Oh, really? Okay. See, it’s weird. At one of the podcast workshops today, we were talking about – that it may have an afterthought, like, they didn’t film it for IMAX because for one, it was the last 20 minutes, they didn’t really come out at you. They sort of did, but it was just the effects.
Jamie: Andrew, I was going to say – you’re a technical guy. Do you have to film it for 3-D, or do you, like…?
Andrew: I don’t know how that works. They did it digitally, yeah. That’s what we were saying. They probably didn’t actually plan to do it – release it in the IMAX, I mean, yeah. We’ll make a quick extra buck, so I don’t know. Anyone here going to see it in IMAX? Micah?
[Some murmuring and agreeing from audience]
Andrew: Well, you guys? Some of you are. I guess it’s worth it. It’d be cool. It’s a good way to see it again. Plus, you have a huge screen that’s like, you can’t see anything but the screen and it’s amazing. Is it not?
Ben: It is amazing, Andrew.
Andrew: Thank you, but – okay, we wanted to talk about some scenes in the movie that really got our attention.
Favorite Scenes
Andrew: First of all, panel. Overall thoughts on the movie. We’ll start with Emerson down there and work our way over.
Emerson: See, I thought the movie was very well done. I don’t know if they could have done much better with it, but the fact that Order of the Phoenix was my least favorite Harry Potter book meant that I didn’t enjoy the movie as much as I enjoyed the third and the fourth, which I do think are head and shoulders above the first two. They’re all good movies, but I’d say Order of the Phoenix falls about number – right in the middle of the movies, but I did enjoy it immensely. It was well done.
Jamie: What about your thoughts, Micah?
Micah: Well, I’d probably have to see the movie first, and then I could [Micah and audience laugh] let you know my thoughts.
Jamie: It could help. It could help. I thought it was pretty good. I thought some small things just ruined it. Well, not ruined it, but just, I thought I couldn’t trust filmmakers that allowed those things to go in, like, for anyone who hasn’t seen it, let me just completely ruin it, okay?
Micah: Go ahead.
Jamie: There’s a scene when Professor Trelawney’s being sacked and then Dumbledore walks away from the scene and he’s like, “Don’t you all have some studying to do?” to all these students around and I just wanted to hit him.
[Audience laughs]
Jamie: Actually, no. I didn’t. I wanted Ben to break out his nunchucks and sort him out as well.
[Audience laughs]
Jamie: But…
Ben: I take care of these boys.
Jamie: Yeah, yeah, he’s got my back. But other than that, I thought it was really good. I thought the battle was good. I liked the whole sort of time thing they did with the flipping through the pages, going to flashbacks, that kind of thing. I think it was the best Potter movie by far. And yeah, it was good, with only a few minor snags that brought it down a bit.
Ben: I echo what Jamie said, but unless I’m directing the movie, I’m not going to be happy with it, you know? The same thing with any Harry Potter fan, and unless they keep every single one of your favorite scenes, they write every line the way that you think it should be written, you’re not going to be happy with it. So, I have a hard time being critical – well, I don’t, [Audience laughs] but I have a hard time being critical in the sense that [laughs] I can’t really critique the “Oh my gosh, they cut so much out, they did all these things.” To me, when you go to see the movie, it’s a lot different than reading the book. I mean, there are two different expectations, and I thought the film was great. Best yet.
Jamie: Yeah, and I was also going to say that you have to see the – sorry – you have to read the book first before you go to the movie, because there are a couple of things you wouldn’t understand, you know, if you didn’t read the book first. I can’t remember any of them, but I just remember at the time there is when I was watching it…
Andrew: Well, the veil, for example.
Jamie: Sorry?
Andrew: The veil, for example.
Jamie: Yeah, exactly.
Andrew: I mean, the veil’s not explained in the movie – it’s not really much in the book either, but of course, Bellatrix puts Avada Kedavra on Sirius, which is not the spell that she puts on him in the book, and I thought about this and I realized that maybe it’s because if she used the Avada Kedavra, they don’t have to explain what happened to Sirius. He’s dead.
Ben: That, and perhaps that clears it up, too.
Andrew: What’s that?
Ben: That would clear it up, too.
Andrew: Exactly.
Jamie: But someone mentioned in the podcast discussion that the spell didn’t actually hit Sirius. You didn’t actually see the spell hit him, like, from the camera angle, you saw the light die from his eyes and you saw him fall backwards, but it didn’t actually hit him.
Ben: Yeah, I remember seeing – he just wouldn’t have stumbled and fallen through. I mean, he does have balance. He stood in front of the veil for a really long time. It wasn’t like he just stepped back and was like, “Whoooooa!” You know?
[Audience laughs]
Ben: I think Bellatrix’s spell had to have hit him because he’s kind of like…
Andrew: Exactly.
Jamie: The point is, is that he tripped, avoiding the spell. That is why he fell into the veil.
Ben: Oh, okay. I see what you mean. Yeah, but I don’t know.
Imelda Staunton
Emerson: Imelda Staunton is the perfect Umbridge.
[Audience cheers and applauds]
Andrew: Hands down. Hands down. Hands down the best Umbridge ever.
Ben: Hold on a second, though, Emerson.
Emerson: There is no way anyone else in the single other person, the six billion on the planet, could ever do that. [Imitates Umbridge‘s “hem hem”]
[Audience laughs]
Emerson: That sickening smile that just…
Jamie: How much is she paying you, Em?
Emerson: …breaks through everything she says, she says it with that smile, that “I’m better than you and I have more power than you and that there’s nothing you can do about it.”
Andrew: It was perfect. Did anyone see the MuggleNet interview clips on MuggleNet.com?
[Some of the audience says, “Yeah!”]
Andrew: Yeah. Everyone see the beginning? With Imelda Staunton? What do you think of that?
[Audience applauds]
Emerson: “MuggleNet!”
Andrew: Best video clip ever.
Emerson: “MuggleNet, hem hem!”
Andrew: [laughs] Yeah.
Ben: Now, Andrew.
Jamie: That’s scarily good.
Andrew’s Thoughts
Ben: Now, Andrew, we heard the rest of our thoughts about the film, what did you think?
Andrew: [laughs] Thank you, Ben. Well, listen, I came out of it and – many people have talked about this, and came out of the film thinking just, “Huh.” I mean…
Ben: It was kind of mixed. That’s how I felt at first.
Andrew: It’s mixed, it was very mixed, in my opinion. There’s – it’s just, I guess I was expecting so much more. I was looking forward to – I was really looking forward to the scene seeing Snape enter Harry’s mind. I thought there would be a lot more emphasis on that, a lot more drama in that scene, and of course, that was short. The Umbridge stuff was perfect. They did do a few montages which was an interesting way of moving the movie forward.
Ben: What’s a montage? Are you talking about when they put the newspaper thingy in?
Andrew: Well that, but also like, just a bunch of clips all thrown together. Like when Umbridge is wreaking havoc on the school.
Ben: Oh, okay.
Andrew: Well, not wreaking havoc, but laying the smack-down on the entire school. Things like that.
Grimmauld Place
Jamie: One last thing I just want to talk about, which I think we mentioned on a show, which was one more thing which completely spoiled – it didn’t spoil it, once again, it’s just a nagging thing, was when Harry left Privet Drive and went to Grimmauld Place, and instead of him seeing and reading the piece of parchment that tells him where it is, Moody tapped his stick in some kind of Jafar-like action.
Andrew: So dumb.
Jamie: Which I was expecting like…
[Audience laughs]
Andrew: Wasn’t that dumb?
Jamie: …Aladdin Five: Return to the Cave, or something like that.
[Audience laughs]
Andrew: Yeah, that was one of the first things that ruined my enjoyment for the film because it was so far off from the books. It just doesn’t make sense!
Jamie: But that charm is so important in the entire scheme of things, with Sirius and Pettigrew and the secret-keeper for the Potters.
Andrew: Yeah.
Jamie: So it seems like you shouldn’t make that mistake.
Ben: Well I don’t think it’s really a mistake because the secret-keeper charm was explained in the third film, and I had a really good point to make. It was the best point you’ve ever heard in your life, but I forgot it, so I’m going to shut up now.
Critique
Andrew: [laughs] But okay, what other scenes were sort of far off? I don’t want to be too negative, but…
Ben: Oh, oh! I remember now!
Andrew: Okay. Good, I was just killing time.
Ben: Okay, so when Harry – okay, the first thing that I noticed in the film. Okay, I saw the screening in London, and I was writing and taking notes the whole entire time, and this is really nitpicky, but the opening of the film when Harry and Dudley are running, they’re like running side by side, and Dudley’s fat, he can’t do that.
[Andrew and audience laugh]
Ben: The second thing I thought they messed up was when they get back to – oh, it was Figg. Arabella Figg was the worst Figg ever because…
[Audience laughs]
Jamie: Yeah.
Ben: She said, she was just like, [imitates] “Why don’t you keep your wand out, boy?”
[Andrew and audience laugh]
Ben: And in the book she’s angry, almost to borderline, you know, she’s really stern, she’s like, [imitates] “Keep your wand out, are you a fool? Keep your wand out!” You know? But in the movie she was kind of, she was too weak. I thought she was going to be a lot stronger. And then you get back to the house, and there’s Richard Griffiths and he’s all, [imitates] “Oh, I got you now, boy!” but in the book, it wasn’t like that at all! But, I mean, from a movie-goer’s perspective, I thought it was still good.
Andrew: But there was that classic shot I thought was hilarious, when it cuts to him and he’s huddled in the freezer spooning some ice cream. That was hilarious!
Ben: I just think the Dursleys should have been more mad.
Emerson: I just think anytime in the movies where there’s any kind of conflict between characters, whenever they’re fighting or arguing. Whenever you know, Draco Malfoy comes up to Harry and says, [imitates] “P-p-potter!”
[Audience laughs]
Emerson: It’s not realistic at all. Like, he’s trying to be angry, they’re trying to be angry at each other, but that’s not how it actually happens in the real world. That’s just a movie scene kind of argument. You guys know what I mean there? Like, he’s not clever or sarcastic or funny or witty in any way. It’s just saying something I would expect a second-grader to say as an insult.
Ben: He just walks by and he’s like, [imitates] “Mudblood!”
Emerson: Yeah.
Ben: [laughs] Then he’s like, [imitates] “Let me at him! Let me at him!”
[Audience laughs]
Ben: Yeah.
Emerson: He, like, spits at him.
Jamie: Yeah, but it is a movie, and there’s magic in it, so, you know, you can’t expect it to echo the real world completely.
[Audience laughs]
Emerson: Good point.
Ben: I don’t know. Raise your hand if you enjoyed the film. You thought they did a good job.
[Audience cheers]
Ben: Now that’s pretty impressive.
Andrew: Yeah.
Ben: I mean, the reviews out there have been really mixed.
Andrew: Yeah. In comparison to the other films, would anyone call it their favorite film? I know people have been calling it their favorite film, but do you call it that just because it just came out? Like everyone says each one is your favorite. “Oh, Sorcerer’s Stone, oh my gosh, it was amazing!” “Oh, Chamber of Secrets, even better!” “Wow! Prisoner of Azkaban, oh my god!”
Jamie: No. No!
Andrew: “Goblet of Fire, wow, Mike Newell.” “Order of the Phoenix, whoa, Umbridge.”
Jamie: No one has ever said that Chamber of Secrets is their favorite film ever.
[Audience laughs]
Andrew: Well.
Emerson: It was everybody’s favorite film after – when it came out.
Jamie: Yeah, because they had to compare it Movie 1.
Andrew: Yeah exactly, exactly, that’s my point.
Emerson: Yeah. Either way.
Jamie: Which was not difficult at all.
Ben: Okay, here’s what usually happens, I’ve noticed this. After Goblet of Fire, we got out of the premiere, we went to the podcast and started talking about the film, and all that came from up here, back then, was praise. “Oh my god, Goblet of Fire was a wonderful film.”
Andrew: I still think it is.
Ben: Well, hold on a second. And then a week later, all of a sudden, the same people who were like, “Oh, they did a great job!” all of a sudden turned into, “You know, they really messed up this line. They messed up this line, this line, and [gasps] this line.”
[Andrew and audience laugh]
Ben: It’s just like, come on, really? You were just saying how awesome the film was a minute ago, and I don’t know, I just think that sometimes – since we’re Harry Potter fans and by nature we’re going to be very critical and analyze things a little too much. So…
Jamie: But the movies are a learning curve more than anything. They have got better, I think each one has gotten considerably better when people realize what the fans want, what the fans don’t want so, like, I didn’t enjoy one at all, I thought it was terrible, thought two was pretty terrible as well.
Emerson: The one thing I would have liked…
Jamie: Three got a lot better.
Emerson: The one thing I would have liked to see more of in this movie was – because it was like two-and-a-half hours of depressing stuff, and then like…
Jamie: It’s a depressing book, though.
Emerson: And then the one scene of happiness at the end, and I know that’s what it’s like in the book, but I feel they could have used a little more humor to lighten the mood a little bit, because I just came out of the movie feeling a little bit tired, because I just – I felt for Harry and I felt for the characters, and it was just such a dark, dark book, so it was a dark movie too and a little humor, I think, could have injected a little more life into the movie.
Ben: Right.
Jamie: But there was a bit of humor still. They still kept in the teaspoon quote, which I was really pleased about. You know, “the emotional range of a teaspoon.”
Andrew: Yeah.
Ben: Something that I noticed, I was just thinking about it – it came into my mind, was that the first film was rated PG, correct?
Andrew: Yeah.
Ben: And…
Andrew: So was Movie 3.
Ben: Movie 3 was? Yeah, that’s right. So, I don’t know, just how many PG films out there do you enjoy? Because I remember watching this film when I was younger – I remember watching the first three films when I was younger and I was so into those things because it was just – they were amazing movies to me. So, I don’t know, I think maybe they were targeting a different audience back then as opposed to now.
Jamie: Yeah.
Ben: Because people have grown up with the series.
Jamie: They’re more PG books as well. Like, one and two aren’t as dark as three, four, five and six, and probably seven as well. So, I think they’re just going to get darker, the movies. Six is going to be very, very scary, then seven is just going to be NC-17.
[Audience laughs]
Andrew: Well, seriously, with so many people dying in the seventh book? I mean, okay, this is probably a stretch now that I’m actually saying it out loud, but could it be rated R?
Emerson: No.
Ben: No.
[Audience says, “No!”]
Andrew: You guys don’t know what’s happening in book seven!
Ben: [laughs] Everyone’s just like, “Noooooo.”
Andrew: It could be some really nasty stuff going on in there.
Jamie: No, there’s no way.
Andrew: Like stabbing, oh.
Ben: Is that all you’re thinking about?
[Audience laughs]
Andrew: That’s debatable.
Dumbledore
Ben: What about Michael Gambon?
[Audience and Ben “booo!”]
Ben: Personally, I think Keith – Keith Hawk is a way better Dumbledore, where you at buddy?
Emerson: Give him a round of applause.
[Audience cheers]
[Andrew laughs]
Emerson: See, I don’t actually share Ben’s view on this one, even though we tend to see eye-to-eye on most things. Even though there are a couple lines that bother me, just like they bother every other Harry Potter fan because they weren’t Dumbledore-ish.
Jamie: Yeah.
Emerson: But at the same point, Richard Harris was not the same Dumbledore that I read in the books.
Jamie: I agree.
Emerson: Richard Harris was – he acted, and he was actually dying, so he acted like a dying old man. There was no energy, there was no spark in anything that he said. He didn’t have that Dumbledore twinkle that Gambon shows from time to time. I just…
Micah: He had much more of a twinkle than Michael Gambon does.
Emerson: [Speaking slowly] Richard Harris…
Ben: Yeah, he did.
Emerson: …talks so…
Jamie: But he had a known twinkle, a more powerful twinkle. I’d rather have Michael Gambon to save the day, rather than Richard Harris to save the day, yeah.
Emerson: …slowww.
Ben: Well, see, I disagree, I thought Richard Harris to me – he was Dumbledore.
Andrew: Yeah.
[Audience cheers]
Ben: And I thought even though he had the raspy voice – but that was Dumbledore though!
Andrew: But that’s what made him so good though.
Ben: That, to me, is Dumbledore. [in his Dumbledore voice] “It is our choices, Harry, far more than our abilities.” Anyways.
Emerson: I feel like with Richard Harris, I just felt like he wasn’t that – he didn’t seem in control, he didn’t seem able to take command. I felt like a strong gust of wind would knock him off his feet, you guys know what I mean?
Ben: See, but I think Gambon…
Emerson: I know it sounds bad, but the Dumbledore that I pictured in the books was powerful, he was strong, he was kind and he had energy.
Ben: I think Micah would appreciate this. I think Michael Gambon, he’s a feistier Dumbledore, but he’s not even Dumbledore. He’s a feistier person, because Dumbledore isn’t – Dumbledore isn’t supposed to be, you know, when Dumbledore enters the room, he’s supposed to carry the aura of “You wanna mess with this?” You know? And in the movies, I got that from Richard Harris, whereas – because Richard Harris had the look on his face, everything, where as Michael Gambon, to me, I thought he was just way too – he’s just way too angry. You know? Like in Movie 4, when he grabs Harry, he’s like, “Did you put your name in the Goblet of Fire?” you know?
Andrew: Yeah.
Ben: That’s just way out of line.
[Audience laughs]
Emerson: See, I feel like everybody’s judging Michael Gambon based on a couple of lines that were delivered very poorly.
Jamie: Exactly.
Emerson: But I think you definitely see that Dumbledore power when you’re watching that battle in the Department of Mysteries at the end of the movie – can you imagine Richard Harris doing that?
Ben: That would have been a lot better.
Andrew: You see, it would have been a lot different, I mean. Especially…
Emerson: I just can’t imagine Richard Harris seeming that larger-than-life like Michael Gambon can.
Andrew: Yeah.
Emerson: He’s got that spark that I just never saw with Harris.
Andrew: Yeah.
Emerson: And I did think Harris was a good Dumbledore at the time. In hindsight, however.
Micah: But I think it’s hard to compare the two, considering that Richard Harris never got the opportunity to play beyond Chamber of Secrets.
Ben: Good point, Micah Tannenbaum.
[Audience cheers]
Emerson: They still played the same character.
Ben: Yeah, that is a good point because they are different films so, I don’t know.
Andrew: Can you imagine Richard Harris in Half-Blood Prince? Like, I can’t see that. You can see him acting in Half-Blood Prince?
[Audiences says, “Yes!”]
Andrew: I can’t, thank you.
Emerson: I just can’t see it. I – alright, I’m going to stop picking on Richard Harris now. I’m getting too mean here.
Ben: I just think if we had an actor…
Emerson: But can you imagine Richard Harris in that rowboat like, going out to that cave in the middle of the lake and, like – I’m going to stop. I’m stopping.
Ben: Okay, I just think when you have an actor who hasn’t even read the books, I mean, really.
[Audience cheers and says, “thank you”]
Emerson: A lot of the actors haven’t read the books. I was really, really mad…
Ben: Yeah, but they still do a good job.
Emerson: When I found out…
Ben: That’s the difference.
[Andrew and audience laugh]
Emerson: That’s a matter of opinion, Ben. Either way, they don’t all read the books. They should, I think, I completely agree they should, but they don’t all, so you can’t just pick on Michael Gambon for that.
Andrew: Well, one person in our podcast workshop brought up a good point. Michael Gambon doesn’t even wear the glasses. Why is it so hard to wear the glasses? That’s Dumbledore.
Emerson: Yeah.
Andrew: The half-moon spectacles. And Richard Harris was taller.
Ben: See, I thought Gambon did a great job in terms of, like – in this film he had a little more of the wittier lines. He did the funny role a lot better, but in terms of the serious role when he’s talking to Harry and those things, I was displeased with that. But I don’t know.
Emerson: But when it comes to funny, just remember in the first movie, [imitates] “Alas, earwax!”
Ben: [imitates] “Earwax!”
[Audience laughs]
Ben: I laughed. I laughed.
Emerson: Yeah, that was a punch line! That was funny in the book, but in the movie, it was just like, “Huh, huh, huh.”
[Audience laughs]
Sirius
Jamie: Can we talk about Sirius?
Andrew: Yeah, oh, man. Gary Oldman is the man, seriously.
[Audience cheers]
Emerson: He is, he is.
Andrew: He’s the man! I mean, you see this guy – he’s another one who, granted, has not read the books either. He sees it as just a role, he said that. However, he portrays Sirius perfectly.
Ben: He’s amazing.
Andrew: Perfectly.
Jamie: There’s one scene when he’s talking to Harry in the tapestry room, and he’s like, you know, everyone has good and evil thoughts, and it’s your choices and whether you act on good or evil that’s important. It was sad, it was sad.
Andrew: Yeah.
Ben: Awww.
Andrew: Well, it was great, I loved him in Grimmauld Place because he has that one line to Harry. I can’t remember it exactly, but Harry’s trying to argue that he’s old enough to be in Dumbledore’s Army and…
Ben: You mean the Order.
Andrew: The Order, sorry. And Sirius gives him that little wink, the little, like – after he talks back to Molly.
Jamie: He’s just too cool, Sirius.
Ben: I thought that the saddest line in the film was in the Department of Mysteries when – yeah, when he calls him James, that’s like, “Awww!” It wrenched out my little fangirl heart.
[Audience, Andrew, and Ben laugh]
Andrew: We don’t see that very often.
Ben: You don’t see that very often.
Jamie: No, you really don’t.
Andrew: So.
Dumbledore And Voldemort’s Duel
Ben: What else in the films, guys? I mean, Emerson, was there any scene in particular for you that made the film for you?
Female Audience Member: Ginny!
Ben: Ginny?
Emerson: Ginny bringing down the house in the Department of Mysteries was pretty cool, I thought.
Ben: That was awesome. Oh my gosh.
[Audience cheers]
Emerson: That was pretty cool.
Ben: Although, for me, although I didn’t think they did the duel right. I think they could have done a better job. It was still pretty awesome. Like in that scene, I got chills the entire time.
Andrew: Yeah.
Ben: Is anyone with me there?
Andrew: Yeah.
Ben: Oh my god, oh my god, Dumbledore! [laughs] Dumbledore!
Jamie: I’m so glad they left him that line, “You shouldn’t have come here tonight, Tom,” because it just shows how awesome Dumbledore is that he can still call him Tom, even though he’s, you know, one book from death.
Andrew: Those Dumbledore bad-butt lines are the best.
Jamie: Yeah, so cool. I can’t believe he’s dead.
Ben: But the one problem I have with this scene was, in the book, they wrote it as – I was under the impression that the entire time, Dumbledore was in control of that battle, that there was no way that Dumbledore was going to be defeated by Voldemort that night. And in the movie, however, it became a lot more of a struggle.
Jamie: No, no, Ben, no, no, in the book there are a couple times when he’s in trouble, like when Fawkes has to swallow the Avada Kedavra spell, and there’s one more, I think when he has to shake something off, or like a snake comes after him and he just in time whips it into something else, which then goes on to Voldemort.
Ben: Could you do that?
Jamie: I’ll just bust out your nunchucks and sort it out like that.
[Audience and Ben laugh]
MuggleCast 99 Transcript (continued)
Dumbledore’s Leave From Hogwarts
Andrew: That just reminded me, Jamie. Another great scene is when Dumbledore’s getting out of his office when the Ministry comes after him.
Jamie: Oh, he’s so cool.
Andrew: That’s another fantastic Dumbledore scene, especially when Kingsley Shacklebolt says, I can’t remember the exact line, but he says, “Dumbledore’s got style” and that was so – it was perfect!
Emerson: See, I enjoyed that scene, but that was one of my favorite scenes in all the books, and there was a couple of lines in there that I really wish they would have fit in there.
Ben: Yeah.
Emerson: Like when he’s talking to Dawlish and he’s saying, you know, “I’m sure you were a fine Auror and you did well on your N.E.W.T.s, blah, blah, blah,” and then he was basically like, “Don’t make me hurt you.”
Jamie: Yeah.
Emerson: “Because I’m Dumbledore and you’re not!” Why couldn’t they have put that in there? Oh, that was such a good conversation.
Ben: Now, I hate to go back to Richard Harris, but I was thinking about the one moment that made him Dumbledore for me. No, I was thinking about how in the Department of – in Dumbledore’s office when he disappears from the Minister of Magic and all of them. In that moment, I think Dumbledore has to have that aura about him like, you know, “You’re not going to mess with me!” And I don’t think he did that that well. But in Chamber of Secrets when, you know, the writing on the wall, the heir of Slytherin or whatever, when Richard Harris walks up to that.
Andrew: Mhm.
Ben: I think he has it then. At that moment, I got the chills then.
Jamie: I thought Gambon was amazing in there, that he just winked. He knew what was going to happen, like he planned it for ages, he knew exactly what was going to go down and he knew who was going to be there, what was going to happen and Fawkes knew what was going on, you know? I just felt like he had a glint in his eye, he knew that he planned everything, and he knew what was going to happen.
“I Must Not Tell Lies”
Emerson: Another line from the movie that was just too cool to exist was when the centaurs were carrying off Umbridge. [imitates] “I’m sorry, Professor, I must not tell lies.”
[Audience cheers]
Ben: Yeah, that was really good.
Emerson: Yes.
Ben: So.
McGonagall
Andrew: There was – oh, McGonagall also has a good role in the films here. Unfortunately…
Ben: No, they killed her, though. They killed her, basically.
Andrew: Well.
Ben: Because she was supposed to be stronger than she was.
Andrew: She was pretty strong.
Ben: She acted like Umbridge had her number.
Andrew: She stood up to Umbridge, but I think it’s a shame that you didn’t see her play a nicer role. She was always extremely frustrated in this movie, whenever she was on camera. Which is sort of a shame, but I guess that puts across the point that nobody at Hogwarts was really happy about what Umbridge was doing.
Ben: I wish she would have gotten blasted like she does in the book. That would have been cool.
[Audience laughs]
Emerson: You know, if you think about how critical we are of these movies, and how much – to what level we hold the producers of these films at, and the fact that we criticize the tiniest, most inconsequential things compared to what most filmgoers look at, you got to admit, they’re doing a pretty good job.
Jamie: Yeah, they are.
Emerson: We’re a tough crowd, I think. We’re a pretty tough crowd.
Ben: Now, guys, eight days from now. Awww.
A Week Until Book 7
Emerson: I have a question, actually. I’ve been asking myself this a lot lately. Do I actually want the seventh book to come out a week from now?
[Mixed responses from the audience]
Emerson: I don’t know! I think everyone – how could you want it to come out, but at the same time, how could you not want it to? Bittersweet.
Ben: Yeah.
Andrew: I do want to talk about one thing, there’s a new interview with J.K. – you okay?
[Audience laughs]
Jamie: You okay down there?
Ben: She could tell it was about to be funny.
Rowling’s Thoughts On Book 7
Andrew: [laughs] You totally broke my setup now. There was a new interview with J.K. Rowling today. Well, part of it, J.K. Rowling says, “Some people loathe it, they will absolutely loathe it. For some people to love it, other people must loathe it, that’s just in the nature of the plot.” She also said, “I’m really, really happy with it.” Oh my god. O-M-G. So, why would people hate this book? I guess that means really important characters are dying.
Jamie: Yeah, exactly.
Andrew: Like Harry.
Emerson: No! No!
[Audience boos and shouts, “No!”]
Emerson: Nope. Nope. Nope.
Jamie: You can’t write a good book about a war of good verses evil, you know, it’s going to be sad the entire time. So it doesn’t mean automatically that Harry dies, it could just be that some major characters die. It’s going to be a sad book, anyway.
How Will It End?
Ben: I think it’s going to end in a way that we’re all left happy. I don’t think – I think there’s going to be a sense of closure at the end of the book, because that’s what she’s aimed to do all these years. I don’t think we’re going to end it and be, you know, “Oh my gosh, why didn’t she…” – no. I think we’ll be happy with it. I trust her.
Emerson: When I read that line, I actually – for a second there, I stopped and I was like, oh man, what happens if I finish the book and – it’s never happened before, but what if I’m actually disappointed?
Andrew: You can’t be, though!
Ben: I thought he was going to say, “What if I’m wrong?”
Emerson: That line just scared me, it got me thinking, you know, what if I went out after seven books on a bad note? What would happen to me? I would just like, combust, I think.
[Audience laughs]
Ben: No, Emerson, Emerson, I have a question for you. See Emerson and I had a book tour, we went all over the United States promoting our book, What Will Happen in Harry Potter 7. Thanks to all of you for buying it, that was great, we love you all.
[Audience cheers]
Ben: But every single tour stop we went to, Emerson would say, “Raise your hand if you think Harry is going to die” and go ahead, raise your hand if you think Harry is going to die. Emerson?
Emerson: Wrong.
Andrew: Good.
Ben: Yeah, see?
Andrew: Good.
Ben: He has publicly humiliated so many people.
[Andrew and Ben laugh]
Jamie: No, no, no.
Ben: I’m curious, I’m curious, Emerson. If Harry does die, what will you do for these fans? All these fans that you’ve embarrassed, that you destroyed?
Jamie: I have a bet, Em, a food bet that I have to make, so if you want to join in with me and we can do it together.
Emerson: I’ll eat food.
Ben: Jamie has to eat 50 sausages.
Emerson: See, you know what I’ll do, Ben?
Jamie: He’s not going to die, so it doesn’t matter.
Emerson: I’ll probably just move on with my life. We’re making predictions about a book. We’re bound to be wrong about some of them. So…
Ben: No, but you’ve been guaranteeing, like, the Emerson Spartz guarantee.
Emerson: Yeah, it’s more fun that way.
Andrew: [Laughs] Yeah.
Micah: And pay Chris Rankin 10 dollars.
Emerson: Oh, yeah, I’ll owe Chris Rankin 10 dollars, too, because he bet me 10 dollars that Harry was going to die, but…
Ben: It was pounds, dude.
Andrew: Pounds, yeah.
Emerson: Aw man, that’s like…
Micah: Twenty bucks.
Emerson: …twenty bucks!
Andrew: You’re going to be broke.
Emerson: I’m going to be living the life!
Ben: He wouldn’t have done it then.
[Emerson laughs]
Is Harry Going To Win?
Ben: Now, Micah, Micah. Is Harry going to win?
Micah: Is he going to win?
Ben: Yeah, is Harry going to win? Are the good guys going to do it?
Andrew: I think that’s a better question to ask. Not if he’s going to live or die, is going to win, because he might have to kill himself to win. A sacrifice!
Jamie: But how does Harry win? What situation would be Harry winning? Voldemort vanquished?
Andrew: Well, see…
Ben: I think winning would be Voldemort being gone.
Andrew: Right.
Jamie: No, because Voldemort could be gone, and all of his friends and all of his family, you know, could die, so that wouldn’t be a happy ending; that would just be Voldemort gone. Which is not happy, it’s just just.
Ben: No, I said Harry winning, I didn’t say it would be happy. [Audience laughs] I just said Harry was going to win.
Jamie: Well, Ben, if I killed the most famous dark wizard of all time, but all my friends and all my family died, I wouldn’t think that I was winning at that time, I’m not going to lie.
[Audience laughs]
Ben: So…
Jamie: I’m not sure about you, but not me.
Ben: Philosophical differences between me and the Brit here.
Jamie: Yeah.
Andrew: Does that conclude our discussion on that for now?
David Heyman
Andrew: Overall, everyone liked it, round of applause for David Heyman and the crew.
[Audience claps and cheers]
Andrew: David Heyman, Emerson, the producer of the movies, really, really is a fan of MuggleNet, isn’t he? Everyone saw the interview?
Emerson: Yeah, he actually – at the premiere, he kind of went on for a while about how he – because I told him that I was very happy – I told him that as a representative of the fans, that I thought he was being a wonderful steward of our series, our beloved books, and he seemed like he was almost on the verge of crying because he really, really wants us to be happy. He wants to do justice to these books. And then he started talking about how they use the website all the time to find out what you guys think about all the changes that they’re making. So, I think David Heyman really is a great guy who means well, and I’m really glad that he is the one making decisions.
Andrew: Yeah. It was interesting because he said he reads, he watches, and he listens on the site, which made me sort of think that he listens to the podcast for some reviews sometimes. So, hopefully, he doesn’t listen to this one, because this one’s harsh.
[Audience laughs]
Ben: If you’re listening, Dave, you did a wonderful job.
[Andrew laughs]
Emerson: I don’t know, I just went on, like, a 25-minute long David Heyman love speech, so I wouldn’t mind him listening to this one.
Micah: Yeah.
Ben: That, and – he is planning on staying on for all seven films, by the way.
Andrew: Yeah.
David Yates And Movie 7 Director Possibilities
Ben: So expect better things to come, and David Yates is going to do the sixth film, so.
Andrew: That’s a good thing I think because we haven’t seen one director direct two films in a row since Chris Columbus so I think that’s really…
Ben: It’ll be good to see what take he has.
Jamie: Yeah, it will.
Andrew: Yeah, after already directing Order of the Phoenix, and he wasn’t too sure about the final film because he said he’ll probably be dead by that point. Because it’s a huge production, it really is.
Emerson: How awesome would it be if we got Peter Jackson to direct seven?
[Audience cheers]
Andrew: That’d be unreal.
Emerson: How cool would that be?
Andrew: Have there been interviews with him? Somebody must have talked to him.
Ben: Yeah, I think someone has asked him before, haven’t they?
Jamie: Every director has thought about it, haven’t they?
Andrew: Probably.
Jamie: They’ve been like, “Well, I wouldn’t mind doing it.”
Emerson: They wouldn’t have to ask Peter Jackson.
Ben: What about Spielberg?
Emerson: He should just say, “I want to do this,” and they’d be like, “Okay, Peter!”
[Audience laughs]
Emerson: And we haven’t read the book yet, so maybe, like, King Kong is in the book, and then it’d be sweet because he already has experience with that guy.
Jamie: They should remake them all after the seventh one has come out. They should remake them with a different director each time, but like some of the mainstream ones like you just said. I want to see Spielberg do one and two, then Jackson do three and four.
Ben: Then M. Night Shyamalan do five and six.
Jamie: Five and six.
[Audience laughs]
Ben: George Lucas.
Andrew: George Lucas, Tim Burton.
Jamie: Yeah, yeah.
Andrew: Tim Burton, he’s, oh god, awesome.
Jamie: Yeah, Tim Burton, and Johnny Depp could be, like, Dumbledore.
[Everyone laughs]
Andrew: Oh, yeah, who would Johnny Depp play?
Jamie: Dumbledore.
Emerson: You know what, actually, I could have seen Johnny Depp as? Now, I think Gary Oldman is the perfect Sirius…
Jamie: Yeah, Johnny Depp, yeah.
Emerson: But if Johnny Depp was Sirius, that’d be pretty cool.
Andrew: Johnny Depp would do good, yeah!
Jamie: That’d be awesome.
Emerson: I think the three best Sirius’ in the entire world would be Johnny Depp, Gary Oldman, and Viggo Mortensen.
Jamie: Yeah.
[Audience cheers]
Emerson: I always, always – when I was reading the books, I saw Viggo Mortensen as Sirius. You know, the shaggy black hair, the dark brooding manner.
Ben: Oh, is he the dude from Lord of the Rings?
Jamie: Yeah, Aragorn.
Ben: Yeah, I always saw him too, yeah. Yeah, that’s who I thought of.
Jamie: It wouldn’t work now because he‘s Aragorn, with that hair, but you know. You could cross the books over, or something.
Making The Connection: The Building
Andrew: Okay, let’s move on to a MuggleCast segment that we do pretty often. Well, Jamie started this on the show a few weeks ago and it has become a big hit because it’s pretty fun. I don’t even think you know what I am talking about.
Jamie: Make The Connection?
Andrew: Oh yeah, yeah.
[Audience cheers]
Jamie: I don’t know if – it’s up to you guys if you want me to do it these people up here and I’ll be significantly harsher or if you want to come up and make the connection.
Andrew: I think you guys should do it down here. For anyone who thinks – who plays it at home.
Jamie: Plays it at home.
Andrew: Anyone who plays it at home along with the show.
Jamie: Interactively.
Andrew: This girl right here, you want to come up here real quick.
[Audience cheers]
Andrew: You want to explain to people how it works?
Jamie: Okay, okay. Make The Connection, because we talk about Harry Potter a lot on the podcast, we need some sort of light relief. So Make The Connection is, I’ll say like, you have to make the connection between Harry Potter and the most random thing in the world ever. So, it can just be – some of the stuff we’ve come up with has just been ridiculous. So, I have to ask you if you want a tough one or if you want an easy one.
Audience Member: Um, do medium?
Jamie: Do a medium, okay.
Andrew: Well first, what’s your name and where are you from?
Amy: Amy from West Chester, PA.
Andrew: Wearing a fantastic MuggleCast t-shirt ladies and gentlemen.
Amy: I’m in Pickle Pack!
[Audience cheers]
[Andrew laughs]
Jamie: Okay, so in producing your medium one, have you seen the film Fight Club?
Amy: Which one?
Jamie: Fight Club
Amy: No.
Jamie: Okay, do that then.
[Audience laughs]
Jamie: No, no.
Amy: Didn’t you do that on the show before?
Jamie: Uhhh, yeah, I think so…
Andrew: That’s what I said and he was like, “Nobody would know.”
Jamie: …I was hoping no one would remember though. Oh, yeah, okay, this is a pretty simple one to start off with, make the connection between Harry Potter and coming to Enlightening 2007, apart from the obvious one in that they’re both – Andrew that’s dreadful.
[Audience laughs]
Ben: That’s not even making the connection, the connection is already there.
Jamie: I just realized how bad that was. Okay, do one between Harry Potter and this wonderful building that we sit in now.
Amy: Okay, well, in Harry Potter, he goes to Hogwarts, which is a very old castle, over 1,000 years old and it has very high ceilings and this room has also very high ceilings.
[Audience cheers and laughs]
Ben: Okay, look at this.
Andrew: Very impressive. That is a connection, very good.
Ben: Oh yeah, there’s the Department of Mysteries with the auditorium when Harry goes back and he has the courtroom scenes, that’s also another connection. That’s what I would have used.
Jamie: This is how we keep our brains in check when we’re recording the show, you know? We take it to – a different one.
Making The Connection: Boeing 787
Jamie: Okay, Ben, can I give you one now because…
Ben: Oh geez.
Jamie: …this is quite a tough one.
Ben: Don’t stump me, don’t stump me.
Jamie: No, no this is going to be quite a tough one.
Andrew: Round of applause, great make the connection.
Jamie: Thank you.
[Audience applauds]
Jamie: Okay Ben, this is going to be quite tough, but I want a connection between Harry Potter and – have you seen the Boeing 787 that’s just been released? Has anyone seen that, the new aircraft? Well, on this Boeing aircraft…
Ben: I haven’t.
Jamie: …well it doesn’t matter you still have to make the connection. On this Boeing aircraft instead of having sliders down for the windows you have this button and this window just darkens up. Okay, so I want a connection between Harry Potter and that feature on the Boeing 787.
Ben: That one single feature.
Jamie: Yeah.
Ben: Okay, when you press the button on the aircraft and it become black, it’s similar to when the Dementors approach Harry and everything turns black. Beat that.
Andrew: [laughs] That’s exactly what I was thinking.
[Audience applauds]
Ben: I always win at this game.
Jamie: That was quite a short answer, anything else?
Ben: Ummm.
Jamie: Can I have one? I just said that it’s – the act of pressing that button and everything turning to black is kind of symbolic of the books as they’ve progressed. It starts off light and then it gets dark as it gets down to the end.
Ben: So we press the button to make it happen to?
Jamie: Yes, yes we do.
Ben: Just checking.
Jamie: I don’t know about you, but I do.
Emerson: Couldn’t you just, like, as a copout to any question you could say that – I mean say if Jamie asked me to make a connection between Harry Potter and phytoplankton, couldn’t you just say that in the Wizarding World there’s stuff and stuff is made of atoms and molecules.
Andrew: So?
Ben: Oh, that would be a great connection.
Emerson: So it’s phytoplankton.
Andrew: Sorry, Emerson…
Jamie: Oh my god.
Emerson: I’m so good at this game.
Andrew: …let’s see your segment on the show.
Jamie: That’s the end of that segment then.
Spy On Spartz
Ben: Spy on Spartz. Ladies and gentlemen this is this weeks Spy on Spartz, Emerson is at Enlightening, he’s having a good time. That concludes Spy on Spartz.
[Audience laughs]
Andrew: [laughs] Tune in next week for another edition of Spy on Spartz.
Audience Debate: Harry And Ginny Back Together?
Andrew: Did you still want to do this theory defense?
Jamie: Yeah I do, yeah.
Andrew: Okay.
Jamie: Okay, shall we introduce it?
Andrew: Set it up.
Jamie: I can’t think of anymore connections now, my mind’s gone blank, but we did this thing at the London Podcast where we choose three people from the audience for one side of a debate and three people for another side of the debate, so it would be like Snape is good, Snape is evil. And each sort of team would have two minutes to debate and put forth their argument and then right at the end the audience would vote on it. And, yeah. So, what could our issue be now? Should we do Snape is evil? Even though it’s been done to death.
[Andrew and Jamie speak off mic]
Jamie: Okay, so our first one is going to be will Ginny and Harry get back together in Book 7 or not. So, I need three people for the “Yes, they will”.
Andrew: This guy right here. Yes, he did a fantastic job at the podcast workshop today.
Jamie: Yeah. And then three people for “they won’t”.
Ben: They won’t.
Jamie: Far side just over there.
Emerson: You guys really don’t think…
Jamie: And you as well.
Andrew: No, in the book.
Emerson: You guys aren’t Harry and Hermione ‘shippers are you?
Ben: I hear the D-word coming along.
Andrew: Yeah.
Jamie: Yeah.
Ben: The D-word.
Andrew: So one side stands over here and the other over there.
Participant: What?
Emerson: I’ve been watching my language lately.
Andrew: One side stands over here and the other over there. You’ve got a minute to plan, so plan quick.
Jamie: Yes, you’ve got, like, one minute to come up with a plan…
Enlightening 2007 Thus Far
Andrew: So, we’ll have some idle chat right now. Do you guys enjoy your time at Enlightening so far?
[Audience cheers]
Andrew: It’s been a really fun event. The opening feast was amazing when the owl flew across the great hall. I seriously thought it was actually flying because I didn’t see the string until it got right above my head.
Jamie: Andrew, it was. It was actually flying.
Andrew: No, there was a string.
Ben: I thought Dumbledore was hot.
Jamie: Yeah.
Andrew: Keith.
Jamie: That beard is just, oooh.
[Audience laughs]
Andrew: Do some Dumbledore impressions.
Ben: Aw, man. Okay, give me a quote.
Jamie: Come on, Ben, pass the time.
Ben: Give me a quote. Tell me what part.
Jamie: No, no. Do the scene in the Ministry of Magic when they’re fighting. I want to hear the, “You did not have to come here tonight, Tom.” No, no, “You shouldn’t have come here tonight Tom.” Yeah?
Ben: Well, see, it depends on – I can’t do a Gambon Dumbledore. I can do a…
Andrew: Richard Harris.
Ben: …I can do a Harris Dumbledore.
Andrew: Harris, Harris.
Ben: Harris. No, but Gambon’s more fun sometimes because.
Andrew: Okay.
Ben: It’s like, “The evidence that the Dark Lord has returned is incontrovertible.” Or, “It is not in the nature of a Dementor to be forgiving.” That line used to give me chills when I saw the film. I’m better at the Harris Dumbledore.
Andrew: Do it.
Ben: “It is our choices, Harry, far more than our abilities that determine what we truly are.”
[Andrew laughs and Audience cheers]
Andrew: Yeah, we used to do that on the podcast.
Emerson: Okay, are you guys ready?
Ben: “I can’t, your hands all sweaty!” I can also do a good, “He was their friend!”
[Audience laughs]
Jamie: That’s better than Dan in that book, Ben. You should have taken that part. Should we get ready?
Ben: It was like… [makes whimpering] His crying has gotten much better, by the way, I think you would all agree with me there.
Andrew: Yeah, thanks to Equus.
Back To The Debate
Andrew: Are we ready here?
Jamie: Okay, let’s go.
Andrew: Which side is who?
Participant: We’re affirmative.
Andrew: Okay, affirmative.
Jamie: Okay, do you want to go – starting in four seconds, you’ve got two minutes as to why Harry and Ginny are together, and go!
Kristen: Okay, well, Harry and Ginny have to get back together because Ginny looks exactly like Harry’s mom and Harry looks a lot like his Dad, other than the eyes. And so they have to get back together because his parents got married, and plus, like, because Ginny looks exactly like his mom there’s going to be a connection between there and so, yeah.
Rachel: Plus the whole theme of the books is that love is going to conquer all, so if love is going to conquer all then the perfect example of that is Harry and Ginny and them coming together and being able to conquer Voldemort together because Ginny is so strong in what she – in, like, magic and being able to use those charms and use those magic spells to help Harry and help the Order. And by showing the theme of love conquers all, using that pairing is going to bring that message across way more.
William: Yeah, and also I think because Ginny is – because she’s so powerful as you said, that she’s going to go with them and she’s the only person besides Ron and Hermione that knows what Harry is going to be doing for the next year – probably a year. Harry doesn’t know that but – and then she’d be definitely the closest person to him – female to him besides Hermione and obviously that’s not going to happen so yeah.
Second Participant: And plus the first person that everyone dates, like with Hermione and Victor, and then Ron and Lavender, and Harry and Cho, like the person that they end up with next…
Andrew: Thirty seconds.
Rachel: What?
Jamie: Thirty-five seconds.
Andrew: Thirty seconds.
Rachel: Okay. The person that we end up – that they end up with next, because we all know that Ron and Hermione are totally going to get together. We know that like – that they are going to stay together forever because they are made to be, so that means that Harry and Ginny have to get together and just – because they are made for each other.
Kristen: And they’re all a big happy family.
Jamie: Fifteen seconds.
Ben: Fifteen seconds, any final thoughts?
Jamie: Round of applause for that. Okay, go on.
Kristen: I’m Kristen, and I’m from Northern Virginia.
Rachel: Hi, I’m Rachel, and I’m from Phoenix, Arizona.
William: Hi, I’m William Myer, and I’m from Princeton, New Jersey.
Andrew: Excellent.
[Audience applauds]
Andrew: Alright, guys, stay up here, stay up here. Hi, I’m Andrew Sims, and I’m from Medford.
Ben: I’m Ben Schoen, I’m from Moundridge.
Andrew: [laughs] Okay.
Ben: I put Moundridge on the map. No, I’m just kidding.
[Andrew and Ben laugh]
Jamie: Okay, now we’ll have the side for against in five – huh?
Ben: Give them a mic, dude. Emerson, give them your mic.
Jamie: And it’s gone past the five second countdown.
Andrew: First say your names real quick. Say your names real quick.
Catherine: Oh, I’m Catherine, I’m from Vineland, New Jersey.
Aubrey: I’m Aubrey Carry from Wayne, Pennsylvania.
Nora: I’m Nora Neely from Malverne, Pennsylvania.
Georgia: I’m Georgia from Salt Lake City.
Andrew: Excellent.
Georgia: Utah.
Jamie: Almost there. Bad silence. Okay, go.
Catherine: I think that when Harry says something he means it. When he does something he means it, so when he broke up with Ginny I think he meant it. And also in the seventh book Harry has so much on his mind, I don’t know if he’s going to be focusing on love.
Aubrey: Well, of course Voldemort is going to go after Ginny if he finds out that – when Sirius died he did it because Harry really liked – loved Sirius because he was his Godfather. If he finds out that Ginny is his girlfriend then he’s definitely going to go after Ginny again.
Nora: I think Harry just has other things on his mind.
Georgia: Yeah, Harry is not going to be with Ginny and that’s flat out right because Ginny’s just annoying in my opinion.
Catherine: Yeah, the other team had some pretty good arguments, I don’t know if we can beat them.
Jamie: One minute.
Catherine: I guess that’s it.
Andrew: Okay, very good.
Jamie: Round of applause for them.
Andrew: I was looking at Harry Potter’s facebook profile the other day and under relationship status…
Jamie: The actual Harry Potter?
Andrew: No, the real one, and under relationship status is said it’s complicated with Ginny Weasley. So, I think this is going to – we’re going to go for a mixed answer here, but anyways.
Jamie: Okay.
Andrew: Okay, not as funny as I thought it would be.
Ben: I thought it was funny, Andrew.
Andrew: Thank you.
The Vote
Jamie: Should we put it to an audience vote then?
Ben: Okay how about – should we do this by raise of hands or how about getting really loud?
Andrew: We should do it by raise of hands.
Ben: That would be cool.
Andrew: No, no do it by raise of hands because the second one is always louder. Always.
Jamie: What, have you done research in this?
Andrew: No, no.
Emerson: Actually, Jamie, Jamie…
Ben: We are going to prove Andrew wrong here. I’m going to prove Andrew wrong here. Okay, if you think this side won scream as loud as you can right now.
Jamie: Scream.
[Audience screams]
Ben: Now, now, if you think this side won, scream.
[Audience screams slightly quieter]
Andrew: Oh, well. Unless there’s a big split then it’s harder to tell.
Jamie: You win this charming microphone stand.
Emerson: I couldn’t tell.
Andrew: You win our empty bottles of water. No, we’ll take you out to lunch sometime. McDonald’s sound good? Dollar menu?
Jamie: Thank you very much.
Participant: Yes.
Andrew: Okay, cool. Give them a round of applause.
[Audience applauds]
Jamie: Do you guys want to do one more or do you want to move on?
Audience Debate: Hogwarts To Re-open?
Ben: Okay, we need three people who believe that Hogwarts will re-open next year. You in the front row, you in the Pickle Pack shirt.
Jamie: Nice shirt.
Ben: And you sir.
Andrew: Wait, wait. Discrepancy, there’s two of them.
Ben: The one in the second row, I’m sorry.
Andrew: Yeah, no offence. Next time, next time.
Ben: You. You, sir. The guy that’s standing up, now walking across.
Jamie: And then three people for that Hogwarts will not…
Andrew: Yeah, yeah, come up here. There’s three that I’ve chosen: red, Pickle and yellow.
Ben: Hogwarts should, I repeat, Hogwarts should not open, so when you make your arguments here be very careful and put them in a should context, as in why should Hogwarts be open rather than it will because Jo’s going to do it that way.
Jamie: Ben takes debate, you can tell can’t you?
Ben: Okay, so, three people who believe that Hogwarts should not be open.
Jamie: What about the – yeah?
Ben: Tie in the very far back, you look enthusiastic. Yeah.
Andrew: Yeah, you.
Ben: Okay, and you in the far back. Are you prepping illegally over there? Before the other team is even assembled?
Jamie: Should we take some points off, Ben?
Ben: Yeah.
Andrew: One, two, do we have a third?
Ben: What happened?
Andrew: Yeah, everyone is pointing to her, so.
Ben: Emily, come on. I think that’s her name. That’s her name, yeah. I met her today.
Jamie: Guys, so should we have a minute prep time?
Andrew: So, we’ll let these two go first since they’ve – these three since they’ve been talking. You guys ready? First say your names and where you’re from.
Michael: Michael from Baltimore.
Eleanor: Eleanor from Chicago.
Emerson: Yeah!
Madeline: Madeline from Philadelphia.
Jamie: Okay, in five, four…
Ben: One sec, one sec, I just wanted to let you know I had a stopwatch. No, no go ahead.
Jamie: …three, two, one, go.
Michael: Well, I think Hogwarts will re-open because of this; J.K. Rowling isn’t going to get rid of all the Death Eaters right? I mean, there’s still going to be some out there. There’ll be some out there still, so they still need to learn how to protect themselves.
Eleanor: We saw in Book 5 with Dumbledore’s Army that the kids at school can learn a lot and that they really do better when they are together and we know that Hogwarts has a ton of protective spells on it and it takes a lot of effort to break into there, so Hogwarts is obviously going to be a lot safer than people’s homes, so it’s a lot safer for students to be there than at home.
Madeline: Hogwarts is Harry’s home and he’s – the only place he’s really felt safe and comfortable, number one, and number two, she created seven books for seven of Harry’s years at Hogwarts and she wouldn’t just take it out all of a sudden for the seventh book. And he has to go back and see his friends.
Jamie: One minute to go.
Michael: And I think the hunt for the Horcruxes is definitely going to have something to do with Hogwarts.
Eleanor: Yeah, and they definitely need to get information from Hogwarts because there’s a lot of stuff that only the professors there know and no one else really know, so they need to go back.
Michael: And J.K. Rowling said that some of the teachers married, but she said the information about who they married is restricted and we’re going to learn who they married in Book 7 I think, so maybe they knew something about something of Gryffindor’s or Ravenclaw’s to help Harry in the hunt for the Horcruxes.
Jamie: Twenty seconds.
Madeline: And Hogwarts is just a whole lot safer. And also it’s not just Harry’s home but it’s Voldemort’s too and I think – Voldemort probably wouldn’t let it close, honestly. I don’t think he would attack the school because he has a strong connection…
Jamie: Five seconds.
Madeline: …with the school, too.
Jamie: Thank you.
Ben: Give them a hand.
[Audience applauds]
Ben: That is going to be tough to beat.
Jamie: Can you do it? In five, four, three, they don’t have a microphone, two, one, go.
Laura: I’m Laura Sanderson from…
[Andrew laughs]
Jamie: Okay. Go on sorry keep going.
Laura: What?
Andrew: Intro your names.
Ben: Go ahead and ntro yourselves. Just tell us who you are.
Jamie: Intro yourselves first.
Laura: Okay, I’m Laura Sanderson from St. Charles Illinois.
Emily: I’m Emily Shear from San Diego, California.
Nicole: I’m Nicole Richmond from Richmond, Virginia.
Jamie: One minute left.
[Audience laughs]
Jamie: Okay in three, two, one, go.
Laura: Well, Dumbledore isn’t there anymore and since Dumbledore was the only person Voldemort ever feared then Hogwarts isn’t safe anymore because Voldemort really only attacked Hogwarts when Dumbledore was gone, so they’re going to be attacked a lot. And McGonagall, she’s not really that scary or threatening, kind of.
Emily: Well, like she said, Dumbledore is now gone and the only reason Voldemort stayed away from Hogwarts for all these years was because Voldemort was there – I’m sorry Dumbledore was there. And in the seventh book he’ll probably be – that he’s ruling Hogwarts within a few days. He’ll probably just turn it into a big school for the Dark Arts.
Ben: One minute.
Nicole: It probably shouldn’t be opened because like she said Voldemort will probably take over and he probably really doesn’t like anybody that’s not in Slytherin and he’ll kill everybody and that’d be kind of unpleasant. And he knows Harry goes to Hogwarts and he really wants to kill Harry and so he’d probably search Hogwarts for Harry or anybody who would be close to Harry so he’d like use them against Harry or just convert it into a school for the Dark Arts.
Emily: Yeah, basically Hogwarts is what Harry has cared about a lot and since Voldemort basically destroys everything that Harry cares about then basically Hogwarts is kind of doomed.
Ben: Twenty seconds.
Laura: Well, I think that’s pretty much about it.
[Audience laughs]
Ben: Great job.
Emily: But also – personally I think that Hogwarts will re-open after Hogwarts gets vanquished.
Andrew: Okay.
Jamie: Thank you very much.
The Vote
Ben: Now this – this is going to be tough. Now remember, reserve your shout. You only get one shout. If I catch you shouting twice…
Jamie: Double shouting is ahhh out.
Ben: …you will be punished. Emerson is watching out for double shouts. You better be careful.
Andrew: Banned from Irvin.
Ben: Yeah, anyways remember please save your one shout for the side that you think should win, who presented the best argument. Not necessarily the side that you agree with, remember that, whoever – which side presented the best argument is the side you should vote for. Now Hogwarts should be opened or shouldn’t?
Andrew: Shouldn’t.
Ben: Was it should or shouldn’t? I forgot already. Hogwarts should be opened. Give me a scream.
[Audience screams]
Andrew: Oh boy.
Ben: Hogwarts shouldn’t be opened.
[Audience screams]
Andrew: See, see that’s why it’s hard to tell.
Ben: I think that the first one was a few decibels louder.
Andrew: Can we get that replayed?
Jamie: [laughs] Decibels.
Ben: But no, that was – both sides – I was actually very impressed with the arguments that both sides presented, I don’t know about the rest of you.
Jamie: That’s very good. One last round of applause. Thank you very much.
Should Hogwarts Remain Open?
Ben: Now, something that – I’m kind of torn over whether or not Hogwarts should or should not be opened because I like to compare it to the real world and even after 9/11 happened we didn’t get paralyzed. Not everyone just stayed inside their homes and some people believe that you let evil win by folding. By closing down Hogwarts, to me, essentially would be allowing evil to win. However at the same time, this side presented – or this side presented a valuable argument where Dumbledore is gone and Voldemort – the only reason that – the only time – the only thing that kept him from taking Hogwarts before that was Dumbledore being there so to me it’s almost – it’s a big dilemma. Do you really want to round up all of your kids and put them in one place? But at the same time, do you really want to let fear have that big of an effect on you?
Emerson: I mean, what is accomplished by closing down the school? Seven books, seven years at Hogwarts. Now where do you think you’ll be – where do you think your going to be safer at though? Sending your kids off to be with 1,000 witches and wizards or at home by themselves playing X-Box 360?
[Audience laughs]
Emerson: I don’t think you’re making any safer by pulling your kids out of school. You’re depriving them of their education…
Ben: Whoa, whoa. Hold on, though.
Emerson: …of their social lives. And I don’t – I think that she – I don’t think that’s something Dumbledore would want.
Jamie: Yeah, I agree on that. He’d want – he wouldn’t want people to live in fear and think, “Well, we can’t do anything now that he’s gone and Voldemort’s back.” I think he’d still want people to go to the school, but just because Harry doesn’t go to the school it doesn’t mean it can’t remain open because they wouldn’t just close it just because Harry isn’t going back, so he could like – someone just talked to me the other day and they said that they can see it being set in Hogwarts but then Harry would go off just like Dumbledore went off during Book 6 to go deal with the Horcruxes, so it would be set in two places basically.
Ben: Right. And Emerson, I don’t think Hogwarts is as safe as sitting at home playing X-Box 360 because if you think of it at a parent’s perspective, which is where your child is most likely to be killed? Is Voldemort going to be more likely to raid your house and kill your child or is he going to be more likely to raid Hogwarts and kill a bunch of children? I think he’d definitely be more likely to kill all the kids.
Andrew: Since this is a family-oriented Harry Potter convention, I think it’s a good question to ask the parents in the audience, say you lived in the wizarding world and you just heard of all the events that happened in Half-Blood Prince, would you let your child go back to Hogwarts for seventh year? Show of hands. Or just any year, the following year. Show of hands? All right, a few. Now, who wouldn’t let their kids go back? That’s about – that’s about even.
Ben: It’s pretty split there.
Andrew: Yeah.
Ben: Because I think it’s the same train of thought, I don’t want my kid there but at the same time, I’m not going to let them scare me into it.
Andrew: Right. Interesting.
Ben: It’s interesting because both sides have validity to it.
MuggleCast 99 Transcript (continued)
Audience Questions
Andrew: Yeah. Let’s move on, now, to take some of your questions because it’s always – whenever we do these live podcasts we love hearing your thoughts whether it’s about the book, it’s about the movie, it’s about the podcast, anything. How do we want this to work?
Ben: Now to this week’s voicemails.
Emerson: I just wanted to say something first…
Andrew: Yeah, just voicemails, basically.
Emerson: Real quick Andrew, about Harry going back to school, I personally am a very strong believer that Harry has to go back his seventh year. You can’t go six years at Hogwarts – you can’t be that close to graduating – Hogwarts is his home. He has to go back. He has to graduate. Again, seven books, seven years of Hogwarts. Not – J.K. Rowling didn’t say six books or six years at Hogwarts and one year when he’d just seeing the sights.
Andrew: Yeah.
Emerson: I guess he does – he does have a lot in store for him. He has a lot of Horcruxes to track down, he’s got a lot of work to do, but Hogwarts is his home. If he doesn’t go back to Hogwarts, where is he going to go?
Ben: I’m sure he’ll find somewhere.
Andrew: [laughs] Okay, let’s take some questions now. This lovely woman – well – here, can you come up here? Just real quick because we need to get – this is going to be – by the way this is MuggleCast Episode 99.
[Andience cheers]
Andrew: All right. The next episode is going to be Episode 100, Jamie.
Jamie: Yeah, that we’re doing from Waterstones in London.
Question: Percy In OOTP
Andrew: What’s your name and where are you from?
Tammy: My name is Tammy Gould, and I’m from Waterville, Maine.
Andrew: What is your question?
Tammy: My question deals with the movie and something I didn’t hear you gentlemen talk about earlier. What was Percy Weasley doing there with no lines? They brought the character back but then didn’t give him any lines. Are we pulling Percy back in because Percy has a role later on and we don’t want the movie audience to forget him? It was sort of like Kreacher had served no purpose, but Kreacher was there, sort of populating the movie for future reference, like in Book 7.
Jamie: I would say that Jo is – is sort of a big believer in putting messages – moral messages in her books, moral messages and one of the things she’s always talked about is people who do wrong can repent, you know, and sort of come back to the good side. So Percy Weasley is one of those characters, along with Draco Malfoy who has the potential to, you know, think “What have I been doing? Oh no. I’m going to go help the good side now.” So perhaps he was put in the film just as a, sort of, like, reminder that he’s still there. He’s still – he hasn’t seen the error of his ways, but perhaps in Book 7, he will do.
Andrew: Yeah. I think – I think you brought up a – a good point. There was that big debate over Kreacher. Where she’d go now? Oh, there you are! Okay. [laughs] There was that big debate about Kreacher. Jo specifically said, “If you want the movies to make sense later on, keep Kreacher in.” They said they thought about it for five seconds and then he was in. So, yeah. I think Percy – something’s going on with Percy. Granted, though, I would have liked to see a couple lines from him, acting like that meanie head that he is in the – in the book.
[Audience member says something incomprehensible]
Andrew: What’s that? He’s a git! Yes. That’s a good way to put it.
Jamie: And a meanie-head.
[Everyone laughs]
Jamie: How old are you, Andrew? Five?
Andrew: A poopy-head.
Question: Why Does Everyone Hate Voldemort?
Andrew: Okay. So, let’s see. This one right here. Yeah, yeah, come on up. What’s your name and where’re you from?
Lisa: Hi, I’m Lisa Renasala. I’m from Houston, Texas.
Andrew: Awesome. Did you come here just for Enlightening?
Lisa: Yes.
Andrew: Awesome!
Lisa: I know Lord Voldy’s evil. He was born evil. Right? But why’s everybody hating on him? [Audience laughs] Because if you get past his face, that’s Ralph Fiennes under there, and he’s hot!
[Audience cheers]
Jamie: What was that? Could you repeat it?
Andrew: Ralph Fiennes is hot, basically. That’s what she’s saying.
Jamie: Oh, all right. Okay.
Andrew: No, no, no. Why – why is everyone hating on – hating on Voldemort?
Jamie: Well, it’s sort of the thousands of people he’s killed that does it for most people, I think…
[Audience laughs]
Jamie: …you know? I mean, I’m all for forgiving and forgetting, but that’s just taking it a bit far.
Andrew: Yeah. [laughs]
Ben: Well, you see people associate the movie characters, often times, with the books – the star in the movies with the books. You have all these girls like “Oh my god. Jo can’t kill Draco. She can’t kill him!” But in reality, it’s Jo can’t kill Tom Felton because…
[Andrew laughs]
Ben: [imitates Tom’s fangirls] …he’s just so dreamy.
[Audience laughs and cheers]
Jamie: That is true, and Jo said on…
[Audience chuckles]
Jamie: Oh, no! I didn’t mean that that was true! I meant that you couldn’t do that. Okay. After that, I was going to say that Voldemort was the one character that Jo said could not get a reprieve. He is evil to the bone and…
Ben: He is a psychopath.
Jamie: He is a psychopath, yeah. So, you know?
Ben: We have a question from my buddy, Kyle. We go way back.
Andrew: Go back to last summer.
Ben: Yup.
Andrew: I guess I’ll just – go ahead, Emerson.
Jamie: For the record though, Tom Felton is not dreamy at all.
[Audience laughs and a few disagree]
Question: Harry’s Necklace On U.S. Cover
Kyle: I just have sort of a rebuttal from – for you guys. In – on the cover of the U.S. edition for the new Harry Potter book, you said that Harry has, like, a Horcrux in this little pouch that he has around his neck…
Andrew: Perhaps.
Kyle: Yeah. I don’t think that’s anything. I just think it’s like a picture, like, on maybe a sweater or something because it looks like a stag if you look at it because you can see, like, a foot on the bottom. And you can see where the drawstring is, it just stops and that’s probably the antler.
Andrew: Could that just be the way that Mary GrandPre illustrated it?
[Audience laughs]
Kyle: Well…
Andrew: I’m saying because you said it looks like a – what did you say it looks like again?
Kyle: A stag, like…
Andrew: A stag.
Kyle: Yeah.
Andrew: The actual locket?
Ben: We’re talking about a pouch.
Andrew: Yeah, the pouch. Oh! Oh, the reason I said a locket is because on the show we sort of discussed that perhaps it’s the locket.
Kyle: Yeah, well, no. You said that it’s inside of it, you said it’s like a little pouch.
Andrew: Well, yeah, on the inside, you know. I don’t know.
Kyle. Yeah, but I disagree because, yeah. And if you look you can see there’s, like, an eye on it where the head would be and everything.
Andrew: Right.
Ben: Am I missing something? There’s a pouch? He has a pouch?
[Audience laughs]
Kyle: Well, that’s what you guys said.
Andrew: It’s a pouch on the cover. It looks like a pouch.
Jamie: Did we call it a pouch?
Ben: Well, if it’s a pouch, I bet the two-way mirror’s inside. I guarantee it.
Jamie: Harry wouldn’t carry a pouch. [laughs]
Ben: Actually, I saw a fanny pack. Yeah.
[Audience laughs]
Andrew: Fanny pack?
Jamie: Yeah, where he keeps his wand in there and just brings it out when he needs it. Voldemort would die laughing. That’s how – that’s how it’s going to happen.
Andrew: That’s it!
Jamie: That’s how he’s going to die!
[Audience laughs]
Jamie: We’ve solved it, finally.
[Audience laughs]
Kyle: Do you have the Pickle Pack wristbands?
Andrew: Yes, I do. [laughs]
Jamie: Yeah, we do.
Andrew: We can discuss that after the show. [laughs]
Kyle: Okay.
Andrew: Okay.
Kyle: All right. Thanks.
Andrew: Yeah. No problem.
Question: Thestrals
Ben: So does anybody have a question? I mean, anybody?
Jamie: What about just on the end there? Yeah.
Andrew: Yeah.
Jamie: Sorry, you can both do one.
Andrew: What’s your name and where’re you from?
Christa: I’m Christa. I’m from outside Philadelphia and my question has two parts. What did you guys think of the thestrals in the movie? And then do you think the Muggles can see the thestrals if they’ve, like, seen death like Harry has and Luna has?
Andrew: I thought the thestrals were pretty groovy.
Jamie: They were awesome, but they reminded me of the Ring Wraith horses from Lord of the Rings. So, what I want to see now, and it would make my lifetime, if a dementor came floating down and rode a thestral off into the wilderness.
[Audience laughs]
Emerson: See, I think – I think – I don’t think Muggles can see the thestrals for the same reason that Muggles can’t see dementors either. I think – I feel you have to have magic running through your blood to be able to see them. But yeah, I thought they looked cool too.
Andrew: What was the second part of the question?
Christa: What do you think of them and then do you think Muggles can see them?
Andrew: Oh. Didn’t someone ask us this question the other day?
Jamie: I’m not sure.
Andrew: Yeah. I swear someone did because…
Jamie: But, but…
Andrew: …I remember we said no because it’s like – it’s like wizards can’t – it’s like saying could they cast spells? It’s just a magical trait of theirs, I think.
Jamie: Yeah.
Question: Grindelwald In Book 7
Andrew: Okay, next caller. Let’s get someone in the back here. All the way, this guy. Yeah, yeah, you. We haven’t had a guy come up here yet. That’d be pretty sweet, considering, like, 78% of the listeners are girls. Ewww.
[Audience laughs]
Andrew: So what’s your name and where’re you from? Probably not even a listener.
Kyle: I am. I’m Kyle from Fairfax.
[Audience cheers]
Kyle: What role do you think Grindelwald will have in the seventh book, like…
Jamie: Oooh, oooh! Sorry.
Kyle: …his legacy or whatever. Because I have this theory that he was the one who helped Regulus across Voldemort’s lake thing and the reason he could go in the lake is because he wasn’t in full power because of what Dumbledore had – because of how Dumbledore had defeated him. And then by drinking the potion, that’s what killed him. And it’s like to make sure that – because Voldemort’s, like, stealing his thunder or whatever.
Jamie: That’s very interesting because I read on a message board a while back that Voldemort was merely a puppet for a higher power and that Jo was – very specifically worded her – the writing that she put on the back of the Chocolate Frog card, you know, when she was like “Dumbledore defeated Grindelwald.” He didn’t kill Voldemort – he didn’t, you know? So, there’s a theory I read that Grindelwald is actually the higher power and Voldemort is just someone who’s working for him. And – but away from that, because that is quite far-fetched, Grindelwald,I think, she wouldn’t mention him, I don’t think, and she wouldn’t specifically use the word defeated if we weren’t going to see him again. Well, maybe not see him, but hear from him again, you know?
Kyle: She did say he was dead, but she didn’t say that Dumbledore killed him.
Jamie: Oh. Ooops.
[Audience laughs]
Andrew: All right. Thank you, Kyle.
Question: Lily Potter In Book 7
Jamie: Andrew! Andrew! Over there.
Andrew: Go ahead. Call someone up. Oh geez, yeah, yeah. I wonder why. “I love Jamie” shirt.
[Audience laughs]
Audience member: Okay, J.K. Rowling said that she was going to introduce – reveal something about Lily Potter in the books and I don’t think she’s really revealed anything big so do you guys have any theories about what she was going to reveal or if she already did reveal something?
Ben: See, that’s really interesting because I remember prior to book 5 there was all this speculation about how we’re going to learn something about Lily Potter in the fifth film – I mean, the fifth book, excuse me.
Andrew: And then nothing was.
Ben: Does anybody know what it is? I mean, she hated James, I guess. I mean, I thought it was something…
Andrew: That’s not big though.
Ben: I thought it was going to be obviously significant.
Jamie: It’s brilliant. I bet it is that. I bet it was that.
Andrew: No.
Micah: I know we talked on one of our shows saying she was probably of some sort of use to Voldemort and that’s why Voldemort sort of spared her or gave her the option to live and one of the things we talked about was her being an alchemist and possibly knowing how to work with the Sorcerer’s Stone or work with something that would provide him immortality. So, I think that that might be her secret, possibly.
Jamie: Just over there.
Andrew: Could it have something to do with the “Remember my last?”
Jamie: Sorry?
Andrew: With “Remember my last.”
Ben: What about it?
Andrew: “Petunia. Remember my last.” I mean, it’s not directly Lily, but it could have something – the last could have had to do something with Lily.
Mothers Against Murdering Molly and Question: Pettigrew’s Silver Hand
Andrew: So, okay. Group – okay, do you want to explain? There was this little group that was formed here at Enlightening. MAMM. You want to explain what this group MAMM is all about? Any MAMM members in here?
[Audience members cheer]
Andrew: One, two, three, four, five, six, quite a few. Quite a few. Quickly, explain…
Ben: Jamie is a future MAMM member, just so you know.
[Audience laughs]
Jamie: In a few years, hopefully.
Hanukah: I was approached to join the Mothers Against Murdering Molly group. [laughs] And this is based on the assumption in the MuggleNet book that Molly and Arthur Weasley are two of the characters that have high probability of dying in Book 7. So, we just think that because she’s the one constant mothering figure in the whole series that she should be one of the last to go so that’s what that is. My name is Hanakuh Ricks. I’m from Atlanta, Georgia and my question is this. Two of the Marauders are gone. There are two left. Do you think there is any significance to the fact that Remus Lupin is a werewolf and Peter Pettigrew now is in possession of a silver hand?
Ben: I – you would think so, but J.K. Rowling said on her website that he will not use his silver hand…
Jamie: Yeah.
Ben: …to kill him.
Jamie: But it was a very good theory.
Emerson: There was – we had so many theories about that hand, too and then in one fell swoop…
Jamie: She also shot down the James…
Emerson: …she shot down everything.
Jamie: …switching places with Sirius.
Andrew: Yeah. Yeah.
Emerson: Yeah.
Ben: With Lupin, you mean. The switching thing?
Jamie: Yeah, yeah, there was this theory that just before James died he switched places with Lupin and that’s why Lupin has always been so close to Harry. He’s sort of treated him like more of a son than just a student, but I thought it was awesome and then she shot it down from the skies.
Ben: Yeah, that was a really good theory. Yeah.
Question: How Has MuggleNet Affected Your Lives?
Andrew: Okay, okay, next question. We got a younger person here. Oh, gosh. Everyone’s pointing at her so – peer pressure. I’m a sucker for it. I’m always a sucker for the e-mails that go “ANDREW PLEASE READ THIS!” in all CAPS and I always click them. If it’s just like – if the email just says “A new theory” I’m like, “psshhh.”
[Audience laughs]
Andrew: I’m just kidding. I read all of them.
Leah: Hi! I’m Leah Whitenburg. I’m from Fairview, New Jersey and my question actually doesn’t really have to do with Harry Potter, so much as you guys. And I was just wondering how MuggleNet has affected your life, and how much time it really takes up because I know a bunch of you guys are going to college next year so what you plan on doing with that.
Andrew: Start with Emerson since he created it. How did it affect your life, Emerson?
[Audience laughs]
Emerson: Not that much, really, you know. It’s a full-time job. I’ve been doing this for eight and a half years now. I’ve heard – god, I’ve heard every theory any Harry Potter fan’s ever thought of and it’s just been – it’s been really interesting just watching the thought – watching the evolution of the fandom, how much more sophisticated it’s gotten and how much more intel- how much bigger it’s gotten! There’s just Harry Potter fans everywhere. Three different times today when I was walking around the campus, or whatever, people would say “Oh, are you a Harry Potter fan?” They’d see my MuggleNet shirt and I’d say “Yeah, I like it a bit, you know?”
[Audience laughs]
Andrew: Micah. Micah, you weren’t a staff member on MuggleNet until MuggleCast came along and then you IMed us and you were like “Do you guys need help with the shows, you need help transcribing?” You just sort of worked your way in. How did you get away with that?
Micah: I wormed my way in?
Andrew: Worked. Worked.
Micah: Oh, worked.
Andrew: Not wormed. That’s creepy.
[Audience laughs]
Micah: Yeah, no, it does take up a tremendous amount of time every week. I think particularly with the transcripts aside from just recording the show and doing the news and all that kind of stuff.
Andrew: Right.
Micah: So, yeah. I mean, it is very time consuming, but it’s definitely a great thing to be a part of.
Andrew: Jamie?
Jamie: I would agree with what both of them have said and also say that it’s been awesome, the best, sort of, few years of my life.
Andrew: Yeah.
Jamie: Ever. Ever. And I’ve met some wonderful people. Awww. Come on.
[Andrew leads crowd in awww-ing]
Jamie: And I’ve met some great fans, everyone here, and it’s just been absolutely amazing and I’m going to be really sad for it to end. And in some ways, I mean, Harry Potter is, you know, one of the – I feel like the spotlight has just come down on me and I’m opening up for the first time in years, but no.
[Audience laughs]
Jamie: Harry Potter has been, you know – the book series has been amazing and I’ve really enjoyed every minute of it, but I’m grateful to it sort of more for bringing me, you know, all the stuff it’s brought me and all the people I’ve met and that kind of thing. [chokes up] Oh my god!
[Audience laughs]
Andrew: Ben.
Emerson: Just continuing on that for just very briefly, I would say just the thing I’m going to miss more than anything is the moment that you get when – I know Ben has had a few of these moments, too, and we visited a lot of bookstores. We met lots and lots of fans, lots of fans and we heard – I mean, every once and a while you just hear – somebody’ll make an observation and you’ll sit there and you’ll go… [pauses] “Wow. How did we miss that?” And you have one of those “A-ha! moments” where you realize that J.K. Rowling’s really smart.
[Audience laughs]
Jamie: And that happens a lot, doesn’t it? Like, somebody’ll just say something, which they think is just, you know, a small point and we’ll think “Wow, that’s just changed everything I’ve ever thought about one book or everything I’ve ever thought about the series as a whole.”
Andrew: Yeah.
Jamie: And it really is unbelievable how sort of, like, the world – worldwide power of everyone’s theorizing can come together on the internet and that’s why the internet’s so, you know, so good for that kind of thing ’cause everyone contributes.
Andrew: Yeah.
Ben: I’ll just put it this way. I came from a wheat field in Kansas…
[Audience laughs]
Ben: …and now I consider myself to be a pretty seasoned traveler. I mean, we’ve been all over the place lately. I mean, this summer has been – it’s been hectic. I mean, the travelling has been grueling, but I’m having the time of my life and I don’t want it to end. I mean, Book 7 is kind of sad and I don’t know. Over the past few years, it’s just – things have evolved so incredibly. I mean, without the podcast, like, all of you wouldn’t be here and I mean, it’s just – it was all luck – it was just – everything’s luck, everything’s chance, but I’m just grateful for, like Jamie, for what it’s given me and am I as great a Harry Potter fan as I was when I started out? I’m not as into it, but at the same time, I enjoyed it a different way because of the people that I’ve met through it and all that, so.
Andrew: Awww.
Ben: Awww.
Andrew: No, I agree with all you guys.
Jamie: We should hold, like, a group crying session after this when everybody feels the same way.
Andrew: Backstage, where it’s dark.
Jamie: Yeah, yeah, come back there afterwards.
Andrew: We’ll cry with you. No, it really has changed my life too. I started… When… Before I was on MuggleNet – and Ben still makes fun of me to this day – I had a website. It was first called “Harry’s” – oh, it’s so embarrassing. “HarryPotter’sHouse.com.”
Ben: So, here’s what happens. I meet Andrew…
Jamie: It was hosted on GeoCities if anyone remembers that.
Ben: …this guy – this guy messages me asking me to work for MuggleNet and his screen name is HPsHouse. And I’m thinking “HPsHouse?” and finally I was like – I gave in just like Emerson gave in for me when I bugged him for a job and…
Emerson: Every day for four months. “Emerson, can I have a job?”
Ben: I’m persistent. What can I say?
Emerson: “No.” “Please.” “No.” “How ’bout today?” “No.”
Andrew: I actually spent more time on the computer waiting for Ben to respond to me because I was so paranoid I was going to – he was going to IM me when I wasn’t there. So, I would just sit there. Seriously, I would sit there just waiting for you to respond to me.
Jamie: I’ve never heard this before.
[Audience awww’s]
Andrew: It got aggravating. And then – and then…
Ben: And you don’t do that anymore, Andrew? I’m disappointed.
Andrew: No, I still do that. Now I have a laptop, but – and then the day you told me, you were like “Oh, by the way, you’re hired.” He’s like, “I meant to – didn’t I tell you a few days ago?” You said something, and I’m like “No, you didn’t! I’ve been sitting here waiting.”
Ben: Yeah. [laughs] I remember his parents – his parents happen to be here tonight. Give them a round of applause, please.
[Audience cheers]
Ben: And – and not just his parents, but the love of my life, my Facebook wife, Becca Sims is here.
[Andrew laughs]
Ben: And so is Ryan Sims. Join his Facebook fan club. It has a lot of members.
Andrew: Someone made that for him.
Ben: But I remember when they told me. They were like “Yeah, Andrew’s coming down here when you hired him telling us he was interviewing for a job at MuggleNet,” and they thought it was so cute or whatever and then look at him now.
Andrew: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.
Ben: Look at him now.
Emerson: I think one of the weirdest things is that even though we come from all around the world and all different walks of life and we’re all different ages – I mean, just think about it. Andrew’s from New Jersey. I’m from Chicago area. Jamie’s from England. Ben’s from Kansas and yet we’re all – and Micah’s from…
Andrew: Micah’s from New York!
Emerson: Micah’s from New York!
[Audience laughs]
Ben: Sorry, Micah.
Emerson: Sorry, Micah.
Micah: That’s all right.
Emerson: And we’re all, like, basically like best friends now. And, you know, sometimes people’ll ask me “Who runs the website with you?” and I say, you know, “Some of my friends,” and they’re like “Oh, you’re buddies from school?” “No, actually, from thousands of miles away.”
[Audience laughs]
Emerson: And they look at me a little weird like I – like something’s wrong with me socially, but…
[Audience laughs]
Jamie: Yeah. That was so nice.
Andrew: It’s weird when you’re going through customs, when you’re coming back or going to and they always grill you on questions. They’re like “What’s your reason for going?” And I’m not going to say “Oh, to go to a ‘Harry Potter’ premiere and interview actors,” because that’s, like, not necessary. So I just go “Visiting friends.” “Well, how do you know these friends?” I don’t want to be a dork and say “Over the internet.”
[Audience laughs]
Andrew: So…
Jamie: Andrew, I did that.
Andrew: [mock dork voice] I’m meeting my online girlfriend.
[Audience laughs]
Andrew: Yahoo! Personals and MySpace.
Jamie: Andrew, I did that once. When I went – we did a convention last year, Lumos, in Las Vegas, Nevada, and this was my first time on my own going through U.S. immigration and for an outsider it’s – they grill you about everything. And I was standing there and I sort of – they want my fingerprint, so I put my fingerprint down there, then I put my second fingerprint down, and then I had this camera and I was expecting them to, sort of, take my clothes off for a search, you know, and stuff like that. So, they said “What’s your business here?” and I said – I sort of froze because you feel nervous, you know, even though you’ve done nothing wrong. Just being there makes you feel nervous…
Ben: Riiight.
Jamie: …so… [laughs]
Ben: Who knows what you’re smuggling?
Jamie: So, I was like “I’m attending a Harry Potter convention in Las Vegas, Nevada,” and, I mean, this person had obviously worked there a long time and I don’t think in the sort of years that they’d worked there they’d ever heard anything like that so I hope I made their day with that.
[Audience laughs]
Ben: As I was saying in the – today in our little podcast discussions that we did, it’s amazing that this is all – all of this, these million – multi-million movies – all of this is because of one woman on a train over 10 years ago. And it’s incredible to think just how everything came together – how much chance there had to be, you know? If she would’ve, you know – how many of you would have stuck through it when Jo kept getting rejected and rejected and rejected and finally one last time, you know, try it one last time and you know, it took off. So…
Andrew: Yeah.
Emerson: She’s so cool.
[Andrew laughs]
Emerson: She’s so cool.
Jamie: So after that sort of emotional sort of trip down memory lane, should we take another question?
Andrew: Well, one last question for today.
Jamie: What about…
Emerson’s Feelings On Jo
Emerson: I have a really random observation here. Honestly, when – some of you know I got to interview J.K. Rowling a couple years ago and it was obviously one of the high points in my life, but I remember – I remember thinking that she has this way about her. It’s the same way that you would kind of imagine if you were sitting across the table from Dumbledore. The person you’re talking to is in control. It’s cool.
[Audience laughs]
Emerson: She rocks! You just feel like everything she says, she’s going to say it perfectly because she’s J.K. Rowling. She can’t go wrong.
Question: The Death Of The Marauders
Jamie: One last question?
Audience member: Before I ask my question, I have a request.
Andrew: Oh no, this is going to be bad.
Audience member: It’s about how you answer. I wanted to know if Micah could do the chipmunk voice when he answers.
Andrew: Yes!
Ben: Yes. Yes, he can.
Micah: Do I have a choice?
Audience member: The Marauders are listed off in the order that they – is it reverse order?
Another audience member: Yeah. It’s reverse order.
Ben: Moony, Padfoot…
Audience members: [in unison] Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs.
Ben: Yeah, that’s what I meant.
Audience member: The Marauders have so far been killed in the opposite order and do you think that’s going to continue?
Ben: Maybe not necessarily in that order. I think – I think Wormtail’s definitely a goner because he’s just one of those people.
Jamie: Yeah.
[Audience laughs]
Ben: He’s going to get it. But I think – I hope Remus – oh, sorry, Micah. Micah, go ahead.
Jamie: Micah. Go ahead, Micah.
Ben: Take it away.
Micah: You want the whole thing in the chipmunk voice?
Audience member: Just a little something.
Jamie: Five thousand words. Go.
[Audience laughs]
Ben: Oh, he’s prepping! You guys won’t be able to handle this.
Micah: I don’t know. There’s so much pressure now.
[Audience laughs]
Micah: [in high voice] Well, I guess that… [laughs]
[Audience laughs]
Micah: That’s all that I’m doing.
[Andrew laughs]
Micah: I hope that was enough.
Andrew: It takes a lot of concentration, yeah.
Micah: It does.
Jamie: The mind control.
Micah: Yeah.
Andrew: Okay.
Question: Finite Incantatum In Book 7
Jamie: Should we take another question?
Micah: We need to answer.
Andrew: One more. It is episode 99, after all.
Ben: This is the last one before Book 7!
Andrew: Yay! Come on up.
Jamie: Who?
Andrew: This girl right here.
Ben: Where?
Andrew: Come on up.
Abby: I’m Abby from Indiana.
Emerson: Yeah!
[Audience laughs]
Emerson: This is going to be good.
Ben: Jamie, one question. What would you do if someone was like, “I’m from Ipswich, Suffolk.”
Jamie: I’d die of shock.
[Audience laughs]
Jamie: But the thing is I don’t understand this cheering thing when someone’s from the place you’re in because America’s a big country, so there’s quite a big chance that someone’s from your state, isn’t there? So, like, when you’re like…
Emerson: There’s 50 states, Jamie.
Jamie: Yeah…
Andrew: That’s pretty big. That’s a lot of people.
Jamie: …and 300 million people that could…
Ben: It’s because we have pride in our country.
Andrew: Yeah, exactly.
[Audience laughs]
Ben: U.S.A!
[Ben, Andrew, and Emerson chant “U.S.A!”]
Ben: [sings] And I’m proud to be an American!
Jamie: I feel so welcome when I come here and sing that. You make me feel right at home.
Andrew: All right, what’s your question?
Abby: What are you thoughts on Finite Incantatum recurring in the last book?
Jamie: Well, this is kind of the thing. They can’t battle – I never thought that they could battle each other using their wands which is why Harry has to have a power that the Voldemort knows not. Love. I don’t know how he can kill him using love, but I always thought they can’t battle. Then someone told me the other day that they thought the reason Ollivander was captured from Diagon Alley was so that he could make Voldemort one last special wand that he could use to battle against Harry, but I don’t know.
Andrew: Fair enough.
Ben: If love is the power the Dark Lord knows not, then perhaps, maybe just perhaps, Harry will mail Voldemort a valentine.
[Audience laughs]
Ben: With few sweethearts in there. Like “Be mine,” and “I Heart You,” “ILU,” like those type of things and then Voldemort will just be so overcome. He’s never gotten a valentine before.
Jamie: Ben, have you noticed…
Ben: That’s the big secret.
[Andrew laughs]
Jamie: Ben, have you noticed with those sweets – they used to be, sort of, ten years ago it was “I love you,” you know, “Talk to me,” stuff like that. And now with the internet it’s turned into “Text me,” and “Call me,” and “Get me on AIM, Instant Messenger.”
Andrew: Yeah, yeah.
Ben: Yeah. It’s like that commercial. “TTYL BYBDW.” It’s all letters.
Andrew: Oh, that sounds like my sister.
Ben: Great question. Great question.
Jamie: That was a good question. Thank you very much.
Emerson: Keep it real, fellow Hoosier.
Show Close
Andrew: What? Well, on that note, we have been going for an hour and 45 minutes here.
Ben: Thank you all.
Andrew: Thank you, everyone, for coming out here today.
[Audience cheers]
Andrew: Episode 99 of MuggleCast. Our friend Keith Hawk has one quick announcement, but as he comes up here we do want to thank a few people right now, of course. Victoria Breedent, who is the Ministry of Magic, so she’s called here. She had to get going, but round of applause for her. She organized this entire event. Unbelievable.
[Audience cheers]
Andrew: We have been working with her on this podcast and the podcast workshop since, I think, February, so it’s been a while. It’s been a long time. So a special thanks to her. Diane Bitman, of course. And also Keith Hawk.
[Audience cheers]
Andrew: Of course, Kristen, right down there. She’s been our personal assistant.
Ben: She took care of us.
Andrew: This water is here because of us – because of her!
[Audience cheers]
Ben: Rachel, too. Rachel helped out, too. Rachel went clear to Wawa to get the water. Give her a round of applause also.
[Audience cheers]
Andrew: And, of course, to everyone else who’s put on this. Really this has been a fantastic event. I would have – we were very surprised that the turnout would be so good for a family oriented convention because there really hasn’t been one of these before. Anyway, Keith. Nice shirt.
Keith: I like my shirt. One more time, give them a hand, please.
[Audience cheers]
Keith: It’s because of you the success that we’ve had for Enlightening, so thank you very much, guys.
Andrew: Thank you.
Keith: This is for the Teen Social. Everybody who’s attending the Teen Social, we are meeting in the vestibule out here. The Prefects will meet you out here and you’ll all go to your Teen Social dorm. So, please meet out here. Okay?
Andrew: Party! All right, well, thank you everyone. We hope you have a good night.
Jamie: Thank you, everyone!
Andrew:We’ll see you next week for Episode 100! Wooo!
[Audience cheers]
Andrew and Emerson: Another MuggleCast is in the can.
[Andrew and Emerson laugh]
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