Harry Potter & the Funny Fellows

MANILA, Philippines - After playing to various audiences around the world for nine years, Potted Potter, a parody of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter, remains a hit among hardcore Harry fans and non-fans simply because it continues to honor the beloved boy wizard despite making fun of him on the show.

“Fans of Harry Potter understand that Potted Potter comes from a place of love for Harry Potter. If we hate Harry Potter, the fans will be able to read that. But despite making jokes and making fun of Harry Potter, they know that we love Harry Potter and Potted Potter is actually a homage to him and that’s why they come with us on this journey. I think it’s what makes the play click with the audience after all these years,” Jefferson “Jeff” Turner, the co-creator of Potted Potter (with Dan Clarkson), told reporters during a round-table interview at the Early Bird restaurant in Makati last Tuesday.

Jeff breezed into town, together with the new cast of the show, Benjamin Stratton and James Percy, for a limited performance in Manila.

Potted Potter — The Unauthorized Harry Experience, a Parody by Dan and Jeff is currently being staged at the RCBC’s Carlos P. Romulo Theater until Oct. 5.

It’s actually the third time that Potted Potter is being staged in Manila. For the 2014 tour, the new duo of Benjamin and James will take on the challenge of condensing all seven Harry Potter books and a real-life game of Quidditch into 70 hilarious minutes. The show mainly revolves around the relationship of Harry and his chief nemesis Voldemort.

Jeff and Dan created Potted Potter in 2005 for an appearance at a London bookshop, as a five-minute entertainment for fans awaiting the release of the sixth book in the series. The show grew from there into a full-length stage production, which has since played 30 weeks off Broadway across two-sold out seasons, has had five West End runs, has enjoyed extensive UK and international tours and is currently on a 2014 world tour covering Mexico City, Canada, Dubai, Singapore, Hong Kong, Manila and Australia.

Jeff and James,who also graced the interview, related to The STAR how they’ve always been big fans of Harry Potter.

“I have read the books in 2005 and I just fell in love with the series immediately. I don’t think we could do the show if we hate Harry Potter, we’re actually big, big fans and we like Harry Potter a lot and our audience can tell,” Jeff said.

James, on the other hand, said he grew up on the Harry Potter books and films in England. “I’m a couple of years older than Daniel Radcliffe and yes as a kid, I saw the films and read the books and harbored the dream of playing Harry Potter because it seems like the best job in the world. I didn’t play Harry Potter as a kid but as a grown up now, I’m happy to be playing him. The fandom for me takes on a whole lot of meaning because it became a part of my daily life.” 

Through the years, Jeff said the script constantly adapted to match the unique wit and quirk of each new Potted Potter actor.

“We refer to the Harry Potter books as our encyclopedia as time to time, we look at the pages to see what we can still incorporate into our show,” Jeff said.

He explained that when they started Potted Potter, there were only five books and six films.

“When the seventh film came out, we decided to make a joke on the nose of Voldemort or the lack of his nose. The thing is, the show has evolved not only with the things we add or subtract but on the actors playing on the shows. Ben and James now give a different show as well as during my and Dan’s time or the actors of the previous seasons. But audiences can expect fresher takes on the characters from the magical adventures found within the more than 4,000 pages of the Harry Potter seven-book series,” he added.

The bottomline is that Harry Potter is the star of the show, no matter how much the show has evolved.

“We try to make it enjoyable for all. Potted Potter is a show that a six-year-old and a 50-year-old will love. We ensure that Potted Potter’s evolving charm and massive appeal is kept fresh through spontaneity and humor. Each new Potted Potter season guarantees endless reasons to keep coming back for more doses of its unique Hogwarts humor even if you’ve already been part of all the fun and spectacle in the last two seasons,” Jeff said.

A hit with kids, Potted Potter also serves for a primer for the young ones who haven’t read the books or seen the movies. But Jeff prefers that the audience be a mix of 70 percent adults and 30 percent children.

“We feel that children, although they love the show, need permission or encouragement to laugh from their parents. The kids are encouraged if the parents are with them. Potted Potter is not a children’s show, it’s a full family show, it works best with that mix of audience,” he said.

In the show, James said there are plenty of costume changes, wig and headdress transformations and plenty of accent transitions, all done as the two-man cast shifts from major to minor magical characters —  from Dumbledore to Wormtail.

But the toughest and most fun part of the show for them is playing the Quidditch games. In the series, Quidditch is a game for the student wizards of Hogwarts, who are usually hunched on brooms playing softball in the clouds.

“We always have fun doing the Quidditch match, it’s the most important part of the show, it’s always a challenge. There’s flying everywhere, people are being thrown around. It’s spectacular. People are flying all over the place, well if you believe that,” Jeff said, eliciting guffaws from the journalists.

For James, a memorable experience would be meeting hardcore fanatics of Harry Potter.

“In New York, we met a woman who had tattooed all the Hogwarts houses down her back. There were gigantic houses on her back and she was terrifying! Wow, I think this is serious dedication from the fans,” James said.

Jeff, for his part, recalled how a child screamed from the audience and told him “You looked like Michael Jackson.”

“There was another time when a kid shouted ‘That line did not come from the book’ or another child shouted ‘Boring,’ we get different reactions and that makes the show pretty interesting,” Jeff said.

Asked if any of the major characters like Radcliffe, Emma Watson or Rupert Grint ever watched the show since it started, Jeff said they’re not sure.

“They probably did but they could be in disguises and that’s why we didn’t see them, because it would be a pandemonium inside the theater if they actually did,” James and Jeff said.

But what they’ve been truly waiting for is the day when Rowling comes to watch Potted Potter. Although they have been sightings from here and there, nothing was ever confirmed.

“We always have one ticket reserved for her. I remember one time, there was a receptionist who identified Rowling and it was too late when she realized that, and we searched inside the theater but we couldn’t find her, so it’s a mystery to us but yes we’d love to have her on board one day,” Jeff said.

For the Manila tour, they’re pretty excited to play for the Harry Potter fans here. With Potted Potter’s official Philippine Facebook fan page raking in over 30,000 likes, the show has become a veritable phenomenon season in Manila.

The last time they played here, they surprised their Filipino fans when they incorporated trending Manila social hoopla and famous media celebrities into their script, to the delight of the audience.

Despite staying here for a limited time, they do hope to visit a few places in Manila.

For fun’s sake, they were asked what certain magic spell they would cast if they have powers like Harry Potter. James just smiled but Jeff said a handful.

“I want to cast a spell on Benjamin because he’s such a grumpy person in the morning and I’m always excited in the morning. That’s why he’s not here during the interview, I will just cast Ben a cheer-me-up-in-the morning spell and also during tour, we’d always have less time as we have to wake up at 6 a.m. so I would cast a spell and create sleep extenders where I could easily put extra three hours into the night,” Jeff said.