Question Time with the Hosts

Andrew: Those are also brought to you by Alivans. Okay, who's got a question? Just a general question, or... What's up, David? Just wanted to say hi? [laughs] Go ahead. Anyone - anyone raising their hand. That girl, right there, who just won the prize.

Audience Member: This is kind of cheeky, but where's my Pickle Pack shirt?

Matt: Ooh...

Andrew: It's in the mail!

Audience Member: Is it still in the mail?

Andrew: I'll get it to you! Give me your address after the show.

[Audience laughs]

Audience Member: Okay.

Andrew: Geez.

Jamie: We should have brought some Pickle Pack shirts.

Andrew: I know, we should have been prepared for this! Okay, how about someone else? This guy in the blue? What's your question?

Audience Member: Do you think this'll be a book that really little kids read, like parents read to toddlers, or whatever?

Jamie: It doesn't really seem like it.

Andrew: I don't know. I don't think so.

Jamie: I don't think it is, like, I don't know if adults think it's going to be part of Harry Potter or if it's more like a fan book, or...

Matt: Well, it's got a huge Harry Potter thing on top, I mean, it's kind of Harry Potter.

Jamie: Yeah, but it's not Harry Potter and the Tales of Beedle the Bard, it's more of a companion book. I don't know, though.

Elysa: It can stand on its own, though, so I would imagine that people would. I mean, I would.

Jamie: They probably love it, like, after Order of the Phoenix, which is that thick, when they can read the child a book that is a lot thinner.

Elysa: Yeah.

Jamie: They're gonna love it.

[Audience laughs]

Matt: They would rather read that than read Harry Potter.

Andrew: Do we have any little kids here - I don't know, ten, eleven, twelve...

Matt: Two!

Andrew: How old are you?

Audience Member: Eleven!

Andrew: Eleven. Are you really excited for Beedle?

Audience Member: Mmm.

Andrew: Yeah, see, there you go. Question answered.

[Audience laughs]

Andrew: No, I think that - I think - I mean, let's be honest, it's not going to sell as many copies as Harry Potter did. And I mean, this has been totally expected. I was reading an article today comparing - Book 7 had twelve million copies in the initial print run just for the U.S., and so, I mean, you know, it's still going to be a great book, but all I'm saying is, that I don't think it'll appeal too much.

Jamie: It's still quite a big print run though, compared to Book 7.

Andrew: How old are you? You look young. This kid right here.

Audience Member: He's twelve.

Andrew: Twelve? You don't look a day over ten.

[Audience laughs]

Andrew: I don't mean that in a bad way, though. I really don't. I didn't mean that in a bad way. But you're excited to read it right?

Audience Member: Yeah.

Andrew: Yeah, of course. All right next question.

Matt: Okay.

Andrew: How about this girl right here.

Audience Member: How do you feel about the way that Harry is portrayed in the trailer? Like he's a bit cocky.

Jamie: Yeah, he is cocky.

Audience Member: He says, “I am the chosen one." Whack.

[Audience laughs]

Andrew: I think that was a really funny line, though. It was some comic relief and it was...

Jamie: I don't know, I still stick by this thing where I just don't think he has the personality for that. I don't think Harry Potter's that kind of thing.

Audience Member: Yeah, that's true.

Jamie: Can I say that?

Matt: Yeah, I guess.

Andrew: You're just a hater, man. You're talking with face paint. What are you saying?

[Audience laughs]

Andrew: Looks good.

Audience Member: It's a Gryffindor lion.

Andrew: Yeah, well. I think it was really funny. Dan's been really - his acting's really good. It's because of Equus. That's what everyone says.

Jamie: It's probably because of that.

Matt: If you get naked in front of a full audience, I think your acting had better get real good.

[Audience laughs]

Jamie: You have to be good, yeah. Who here saw Equus?

Audience Member: Me! [laughs]

[Audience laughs]

Andrew: "Me! Woo!"

Jamie: This is a stupid question, but did you enjoy it?

[Audience laughs]

Andrew: She's crying. She - just had a flashback.

Jamie: The memories that have been brought back now.

[Andrew laughs]

Jamie: Wow.

Audience Member: It was really good.

Andrew: It was really good, yeah. It was really good, I think just for the acting. I really believe that.

Jamie: Richard Griffiths is so cool as well.

Andrew: We'll go right back here, down the aisle. Oh. Hold on, we got a second – got a second microphone.

Jamie: MuggleCast shirt, too.

Andrew: Oh, yeah. Awesome.

Matt: Oh, nice.

Andrew: What's your name?

Audience Member: Jemma.

Andrew: Jemma.

Audience Member: I was wondering whether you think they are going to make Ron into the comic relief again, in this film.

Andrew: I think he really is.

Matt: Yeah.

Jamie: We saw in the trailer. Didn't we? Like with Romilda Vane.

Andrew: Yeah.

Jamie: I don't know.

Matt: I don't like him when he does comic relief so much.

Jamie: I don't either.

Matt: They do it all the time. I liked him in Order of the Phoenix because he didn't have much comic relief.

Andrew: Well, he's sort of Harry's wingman so he can do stuff with that.

Matt: Yeah, but...

Andrew: I don't know. Elysa, do you like it?

Elysa: Yeah, it's sort of his character, too, in the books in a way.

Andrew: Yeah.

Matt: Yeah but he's a little cooler in the books.

Elysa: Okay, well. Maybe you should just be cast as Ron then. [laughs]

Matt: I should have!

Andrew: All right, next question.

Audience Member: Hi, I'm going to break a little bit of taboo...

Andrew: Okay.

Audience Member: And ask a question about another podcast

Andrew: Okay.

Audience Member: That has to do with Potter.

Andrew: Uh-oh.

Audience Member: Oh my goodness. Did you guys read Melissa Anelli's Harry, A History?

Andrew: I started reading it.

[Audience laughs]

Andrew: It's good!

Audience Member: What did you think?

Andrew: It's good! It's a good book, Harry, A History. Is it on sale here?

Audience: Yeah.

Andrew: Okay, yeah. It's a good book! I don't think anyone else has read it though.

Elysa: No, I haven't. I want to.

Matt: No, no I haven't, sorry.

Andrew: No, we burned it!

[Audience laughs]

Andrew: No. Read it, guys, read it. This girl right here. Yeah, Jamie?

Jamie: I was kind of annoyed though, because Andrew and Ben are mentioned. I was getting excited.

Andrew: [laughs] Go ahead, what's your name?

Audience Member: Hi, I just had a quick question. You know the covers for all the Harry Potter books? I'll put you on the spot. Which one - individually, actually - do you prefer the American ones or the British ones?

Audience Member: Ooh!

Andrew: I like the English ones because of how colorful they are, I think the artwork's really good.

Jamie: I think the American ones are pretty shocking to be honest.

[Audience laughs]

Jamie: I really like the English ones. I think they're kind of childish, the American ones.

Andrew: No - I think the U.K. ones are more childish! They just look - it's just because of the way they were sketched, you know.

Jamie: Andrew, when you come to London, you're in our country.

[Audience laughs]

Andrew: Oh right, I'll get chucked out the window, stuck on the - what's that street there? Piccadilly. Piccadilly, yeah. It's a one-way. How about you guys?

Elysa: Hmm...

Matt: Hmm...

Elysa: I don't know, I like them both.

Matt: You skipped me!

[Audience laughs]

Elysa: I did skip you! Because you didn't get on it. I like them both. I think if I had to choose, I'd probably say American just because I like how their color schemes match with the tone of the book.

Andrew: Yeah.

Jamie: Yeah. But the images are just - oh sorry, Matt.

Matt: Yeah, let me talk, Jamie!

[Audience laughs]

Jamie: Sorry, Matt.

Matt: I like - I guess I like the American ones better just for the way the people are drawn. I like how the trio's drawn in the American versions better than the U.K. Although, I like the scenes they draw in the U.K. ones better.

Elysa: Yeah, I was going to say I like the scenes better.

Matt: I like the Deathly Hallows one much better, though, than the American version.

Andrew: Sort of related to this, there was the press unveiling of the Arthur Levine's copy of Beedle the Bard in New York City today. Did anyone see pictures from that yet? Okay, they just came out a few hours ago because, you know, the time difference, but it's really weird. They have a - they have the Beedle the Bard, the actual thing and it's in glass and they have a poster behind it. And the order of the books is really weird, and I feel like the printer screwed it up, because it goes: Sorcerer's Stone, Order of the Phoenix, Chamber of Secrets, Prisoner of Azkaban, Goblet of Fire, Half-Blood Prince, Deathly Hallows. And it's like, why are they - why is that? I don't know. I just noticed that and I was really interested.

[Audience laughs]

Andrew: I think it's interesting. Why would they do that? Anyway, next question. So you guys are all going to go home and look at it and wonder the same thing.

[Audience laughs]

Audience Member: Which story are you looking forward to the most in Beedle the Bard?

Andrew: Ah, that's a good question. I've read that - when reading - did anyone read Amazon's summaries of the...

Matt: Yeah.

Andrew: The one story - I think they said - the one that they said was the craziest was my favorite, and I think it was The Fountain of Fair Fortune...

Matt: Yeah, that's right.

Andrew: ...that they said was the craziest one? Or it is, like, the most purest of the fairy tales. I don't know. What is everyone else looking forward to? Are there any that really stand out specifically?

Audience Member: Babbity Rabbity.

Andrew: Babbity Rabbity. That looks really cool.

Matt: Yeah what is that?

Andrew: I just love the names.

Audience Member: A rabbit with no legs.

Andrew: Yeah.

[Audience laughs]

Andrew: And a stump that cackles.

Matt: Isn't it - wouldn't it be more like - Rollaby - Stump...

Andrew: Mm-mm.

[Audience laughs]

Andrew: How about you guys? Elysa? Jamie?

Elysa: Oh yeah.

Jamie: I agree with that one.

Elysa: Yeah, I was going to say Babbity Rabbity too, just because I read in a quote that she sort of put herself in a bind because she had come up with the name, and then now she had to form a story around it. So I'm interested to see...

Andrew: Oh yeah! Yeah!

Elysa: ...how she does that, yeah. How she pulls that off.

Andrew: That's true, I forgot about that.

Jamie: I don't know. I don't think that sounds very PG.

[Audience and Elysa laughs]

Andrew: "Babbity Rabbity"? You never know. It sounds like an actress's name, you're trying to say?

Jamie: No I'm not saying anything.

Andrew: Okay.

[Audience and Matt laugh]

Andrew: All right, another - how about this guy back here.

Audience Member: Just what Jamie's saying about the other books that have been released before not feeling like Harry Potter books, do you think a Harry Potter book can feel like a true one without Harry? I mean like...

Andrew: Yeah.

Audience Member: Obviously it wouldn't be a Harry Potter book, but it's in the - same type of story.

Andrew: Right. Well, like Matt said earlier, at the top it says, "A wizarding classic from the tales of Harry Potter" - "from the world of Harry Potter."

Jamie: I think it depends on the storyline as well. Like we started off in Philosopher's Stone we went through to Deathly Hallows and each one continued that saga. I think a book like this has to be a companion book more than - like, it doesn't really feel like a Harry Potter book because we found out everything that we can find out. Although obviously it's going to give some extra tid bits of information it's not going to continue the story.

Andrew: Yeah.

Matt: Well actually, I hope that she writes more books.

Andrew: Yeah.

Matt: I mean she created that huge Wizarding World and everything, and she's just going to focus on just one character.

Andrew: Well yeah, I mean...

Matt: I kind of wish she adds on.

Andrew: She has the potential now to write stories about Harry's children - everyone's children.

Matt: Yeah.

Elysa: Yeah.

Andrew: And I think it would be really interesting, and everyone - that would sell like crazy.

Jamie: We have to hope that she's feeling the credit crunch...

[Andrew and Audience laugh]

Jamie: ...so she has to write to make more money.

Andrew: After that VAT drop, I doubt - I think she'll be fine.

Jamie: That's true, yeah.

Andrew: See how I knew that? The signs are everywhere.

[Audience laughs]

Andrew: How about this girl right here. Hi, what's your name?

Audience Member: Emma.

Andrew: Hi Emma.

Audience Member: I'm just kind of going off what you were just saying, do you think that J.K. can't really let go of Harry Potter?

[Andrew laughs]

Audience Member: She's like, interview, finish...

Andrew: That's a good question.

Audience Member: The encyclopedia. Maybe she should go on and do more things?

Jamie: I don't know. I think she kind of has though, because you know she - the epilogue of Book 7 kind of ended it. Kind of said, how can she really write more after she said what's going to happen to them. She can write past that point, but I don't really think she can go back and write before that point.

Andrew: Yeah.

Jamie: I think she kind of let go with that, but I don't know. Again, if she's - feeling the pinch...

Andrew: I mean, after you're doing that for what, ten years, you've got to feel like...

Jamie: Yeah.

Andrew: You can't let go of it, really. Right?

Elysa: Yeah, I mean, I haven't let go of it.

Andrew: Yeah. [laughs] Nobody has.

Elysa: So I'm hoping she...

Andrew: Well yeah, that's thing too. I mean, I think as long as J.K. Rowling keeps seeing this huge fandom surrounding it - because, you know, the big question around Book 7 was, "Oh, what's going to happen to the fandom after..." And here we are, almost a year and half later, and nothing's happened.

Matt: Well, a lot of authors tend to disconnect from their material more than the fans do. Like Tolkien, he actually got upset because he seemed like, he was the only person in the entire, you know, Lord of the Rings...

Andrew: Fandom?

Matt: Story that could, that could - not disconnect from the world, except him.

Jamie: You can get exhausted with a character as well as exhausted with a story. I think she probably does want to move on and write something new. Start from the beginning, and also...

Matt: Doesn't she want to do a crime drama or something? Suspense novel?

Elysa: Yeah, I read that.

Andrew: Suspense?

Matt: Something like that right?

Andrew: Yeah.

Jamie: That's going to be awesome.

Andrew: Yeah. Well anything she does now is going to be - it's going get huge hype around it. Because how could it not? Imagine starting another suspense novel or whatever, and starting this whole trilogy all over again. It won't be as fun as Harry Potter, but...

Elysa: Didn't she say though that if she published anything else outside of Harry Potter she was considering...

Andrew: [laughs] A pen name.

Elysa: ...using a pseudonym?

Andrew: A what?

Elysa: A pseudonym, like changing her name.

Andrew: Oh.

Matt: To like, Joanne Rowling?

Andrew: Wasn't she just joking though? I mean.

Elysa: I mean, I couldn't tell.

Jamie: It would get leaked as well. We're going to find out.

Andrew: Yeah.

Elysa: Yeah, oh no, I mean, we definitely would.

Andrew: [laughs] Oh yeah, I mean that would be really hard to keep it a secret.

Elysa: Yeah.

Andrew: Yeah. Stephenie Meyer is actually Stephenie Meyer, for those wondering.

[Audience laughs]

Andrew: Hi.

Audience Member: Just - this is something a friend of mine and I were talking about. It's kind of going back to the fandom thing. There's the Harry Potter books, the literary part of it and how great they are and well written, and then the fandom of it, that you guys are a part of, you know, with the MuggleCast and everything like that. With - keeping all that in mind, how do you guys feel about the theme park coming out?

Matt: I kind of want to see it.

Andrew: What? You can almost see it?

Matt: I want to see it.

Andrew: Oh, yeah, well I think...

Audience Member: Well I think they have some plans...

Andrew: Yeah, yeah yeah.

Matt: Oh. Nice.

Andrew: I'm excited! But like, when this theme park was just a rumor, people were like, "Oh, well that's sort of really, that's kind of selling out," that's what some people were sort of saying. Because whoever thought Harry Potter would ever be a theme park? And then the theme park was the biggest hint that Harry wouldn't die, because everyone was saying that, "Oh, well if Harry dies, then nobody would want to go to..." well, people would go, but it'll be a sad mood if Harry's dead, and...

[Audience laughs]

Andrew: Everyone's like, "Whee! I'm riding Harry Potter's Firebolt! And he died."

[Audience laughs]

Matt: I think it'd be really cool, though. I mean, you could actually go in to the Three Broomsticks or something and actually order a drink.

Andrew: Yeah, that's pretty sweet.

Matt: That'd be sweet.

Andrew: Now, as U.K. people, do you hesitate with the trip? Because it's going to be a good...

Audience: No.

Audience Member: Yes!

Andrew: No? Okay.

Matt: No.

Andrew: "Yes"? I heard one "yes."

Matt: They've got time to save up.

Audience Member: Why isn't in the U.K., though?

Andrew: Because - no offense, but we've got Disneyland, we've got Disney World...

[Audience Member starts to argue her point]

Andrew: Personally - I think it would have been a lot cooler to do an entire Harry Potter theme park rather than putting it in Universal. Because Universal's limited.

Jamie: Yeah, but that's a big deal, doing an entire thing for Harry Potter.

Andrew: Yeah, I know. But think about how many Disney fans, and then think about how many Harry Potter fans there are. Think about how many Universal fans of all those movies that are there, like - what's there? Dr. Seuss I think, Jurassic Park - I've never been there - The Hulk. Yeah, all Univeral movies and stuff like that.

Matt: Yeah.

Andrew: The Harry Potter thing would reach out.

Matt: It's a good thing Harry Potter's a Universal movie, too.

Andrew: Yeah, that doesn't make sense, but...

[Audience laughs]

Andrew: I think we have time for a couple more questions. How about this girl over here. [Starts singing] Dead air. Okay, go ahead. What's your question?

Audience Member: As David Heyman is directing the next films, do you think it will suck as much as Order of the Phoenix did?

Andrew: Yates, you mean.

Audience Member: Compared to the books? Yates.

Andrew: You don't like it?

Audience Member: No. It was terrible.

[Andrew and Audience laugh]

Andrew: Does everyone think David Yates is going to be good - be able to carry it through? I do. I mean, here's why I'm excited about Half-Blood Prince: I think that - this is the second time we're seeing a director direct two Harry Potters. And I think Chamber of Secrets did definitely get better after Sorcerer's Stone. And now David Yates has a lot to look back on, and be like, "Okay, here's what I can do differently."

Jamie: Yeah, but he wants them to bring their own style to it. Like, Heyman said, didn't he, that he wanted every director to not look back? Didn't he say that? And he wanted everyone to treat their - like, one Harry Potter film as their project and stuff, and not look back to previous films?

Andrew: Yeah.

Matt: Yeah, but then - that's why the movies don't really connect to each other.

Jamie: Well no, yeah, that's true. They don't at all. But do you think Half-Blood Prince is going to be good, or do you...

Audience Member: I hope so. The trailer looks good.

Elysa: Yeah.

Andrew: Yeah, the trailer looks good.

Matt: The trailers always look good, though.

Andrew: Yeah, they do. They really do. Yes?

Audience Member: I just wanted to add a comment to that, because I sensed from all the extras on the DVDs that all the actors really love working with him compared to the director before.

Andrew: Yeah.

Audience Member: And as the movies get more intense, the acting needs to get more intense, so I'm really excited about the nuances for the new movies.

Andrew: Yeah.

Matt: I think David Yates is - as we've seen him - is probably more passionate, and more - wants the fans to like the movie more. Because...

Andrew: You know, I heard that - sorry.

Matt: Sorry. No, go ahead.

Andrew: I heard that too, that Mike Newell didn't really connect with the kids very well, if that's who you're talking about.

Audience Member: He actually yells a lot.

Andrew: Yeah, I heard that somewhere.

Audience Member: I think it was somewhere on the DVD clips.

Andrew: "I yell at the kids! It makes them good! I hate them! Grr! But it makes good acting." Okay. And we'll do one final question, and then we'll start wrapping it up, and then we've got Beedle the Bard in 45 minutes. You look like you want to say something. Do you? She's like, "I don't know!"

Audience Member: Well, I'm not sure if everyone will agree, but I'm not particularly a big fan of Emma Watson's Hermione. I feel like the cheeks sometimes are over dramatic. And I just...

Matt: And her eyebrows constantly move.

Audience: Yeah!

[Audience cheers]

Matt: I mean, every time she opens her mouth, they go up.

[Audience laughs]

Andrew: I wish we just had a mic on the whole audience, because you just heard all these little, [whispers] "Yes! Yes! Yes!"

[Audience laughs]

Andrew: [laughs] "Finally, somebody said it!" I think she's good, but I think in the Half-Blood Prince trailer, that crying was a little "eh." As we said on the live show, people were very excited about her bushy hair. But I think that just came from being electrocuted or something. Because if you look at...

Elysa: It didn't look that way in the rest of it.

Matt: Yeah.

Andrew: What?

Elysa: It didn't look that way in the rest of it. It was just that one part. I saw the same frame.

Matt: But that one part was heavenly.

[Audience and Elysa laughs]

Andrew: If you look at Seamus standing next to him, I think he looks a little dirtied up.

Elysa: He did.

Andrew: So that's why...

Matt: His face blew up, that's why.

[Audience laughs]

Andrew: Again!

Elysa: His face always blows up.

Matt: Oh, all right, okay. Sorry.

Andrew: Okay, one last - you were - you already went! This is not fair!

Audience Member: I think I know why Hermione's hair is bushy in that particular scene.

Andrew: Why?

Audience Member: In the book, there's the description when Harry's sort of cheating by using the Half-Blood Prince's potion book. Hermione's getting more and more frustrated.

Andrew: Oh, right.

Matt: Yeah, yeah! That's exactly what I said, see?

Audience Member: At one point, she actually pulls out a bit of her own hair to put in the potion. And I might have knew Seamus has been blowing up probably in potions.

Andrew: Cool. That's a good point. Yep.

Jamie: Very good point.

Andrew: Definitely. All right guys, unfortunately we do have to start wrapping it up. Of course we're going to hang around and hang out with everyone...

Matt: Yeah.

Andrew: ...until Beedle the Bard in 45 minutes. We can all have our personal MuggleCasts once we stop recording.

[Audience cheers]

Andrew: [quietly] We're doing another show, but Waterstone's doesn't know!

[Audience laughs]

Andrew: Anyway, thank you everyone for coming out tonight. Is everyone so excited for Beedle?

[Audience cheers]

Andrew: Real quick, is everyone - I mean, you know, we all stayed up for Book 7, so everyone's going to stay up all night reading the...

[Audience laughs]

Andrew: I hope it's substantial.

Matt: Yeah, it will only take you two or three hours.

Andrew: It's going to be handed to us, and we're going to be like, "Awww." [makes fart noise] No, we're just kidding. We're very excited. Thank you so much to Waterstone's. Thank you to the crew who's been doing this for us, everyone back there. Jill James especially, she's been coordinating this whole event with us, so thank you very much to her.

[Show music starts]

Matt: Thank you, Jill.

Andrew: And thank you guys for coming. We've got lots of t-shirts up here, they're free. So come on up.

[Audience cheers]

Andrew: Thanks again to Alivans.com, too. All right, thanks everybody.


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Written by: The Transcribers