PotterCast 97: Viva Las Vegas! Transcript

Part 1 (0:00 - 13:44)

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Melissa Anelli (MA): So, thank you to the Sunrise Auditorium at the Las Vegas Public Library for having us here. Thank you, Julie. Thank you, Harry and the Potters.

Sue Upton (SU): Yay! (audience cheers) (JN laughs)

MA: This is now our fourth.

SU: Yeah.

John Noe (JN): Mm. Counting what exactly? Counting Chicago?

MA: Counting Chicago.

JN: Counting Disneyland?

MA: Chicago, Disney, who knows?

JN: Counting Albuquerque, Tucson, and Phoenix.

MA: Albuquerque, Tucson, Chandler, Phoenix.

JN: Albuquerque.

MA: Albuquerque.

JN: Tucson.

MA: Tucson.

JN: Chandler, Phoenix.

MA: Phoenix.

MA: This is six?

SU: This is six! Wow.

MA: Oh, wow. Tour is just flying by guys. It's easier for it to fly by with these schmoes in the car. (audience laughs)

SU: Who, us? No!

MA: You'll see the videos. July 11th, I'll be going to the Clark County Library; I'll be back here in Vegas. These guys will be here, but we won't be doing a PotterCast. I'm going to be talking about the book that I'm writing about the Harry Potter fandom. (audience cheers) So, really excited about that and honored. I told Julie from the library when she asked me to do it, I said, "You know I'm not an author, yet? It's not out." She's all, "It's fine. We'll fake it." I said, "Okay." (laughs) All right. So, we have been starting every show, so we've got to do it for Vegas. We have to figure out which city on our tour knows the most about Harry Potter. (audience cheers)

JN: Hmm.

SU: Pressure's on, pressure's on. (JN laughs)

MA: We've been quizzing you, been giving you some predictions and once that book comes out we'll be able to tell which city knew it, which city didn't, which city looks real stupid. (JN and audience laugh) But you guys are in Vegas, you're used to betting.

SU: Yeah, that's true.

MA: No, you're not. You're all under twenty-one. (audience laughs) (SU: Right.) So, we have a five-question test which we've given to everybody. We've gotten not one identical set of answers and we're hoping this continues so that we actually have a winner and not a tie.

JN: Oh, no.

SU: Oh, no. Run away sign. Oh, no.

MA: See, his arm is still up. It means he's going to live. I'll fix it. You do the first question. I'll fix it.

SU: All right.

JN: Okay, well the first question that we usually ask is one of the biggest questions, of course, is will Harry live or die at the end of Deathly Hallows?

Audience: (shouting) Live! Die!

SU: Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.

JN: So for the sake of our tally here, I'm going to say if you think Harry's going to live, make your noise now. (audience cheers)

JN: And if you think- if there's anyone left (audience laughs) who thinks he's going to die, make your noise here. (audience cheers)

SU: Boo!

JN: Wow.

MA: Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. (JN: That was...) There's no way half of you each made a noise that large. (SU laughs) Did some of you vote for both? Be honest. She did! You did! You did! How could you vote for both?

JN: It's fun to make noise!

MA: It's fun to make noise. (SU laughs) So which, who won that?

JN: I don't know.

SU: I think the "lives." Come on. (audience cheers) That's right!

JN: Well, at least we'll know that Vegas was indecisive on this question.

SU: Yeah, that's it.

JN: A lot of other cities were quite certain (SU: Yeah.) one way or the other.

MA: Vegas can't get any points for this question then.

SU: Oh, my. (audience laughs)

JN: Aw. Sad pandas.

MA: Harry has to live or die. It's not going to end like Harry sort of lived. (audience laughs)

JN: Yeah.

SU: Sort of. Sorta.

MA: Okay, everybody make up your minds now. We're going to do it again. You ready? If Harry will live. (audience cheers)

SU: See, there you go. They stood up and everything. Geeky!

MA: Okay, okay. If Harry will die. (audience cheers)

SU: Oh, come on, no question.

JN: Yeah.

MA: Harry Potter in the back, what do you think? Who won?

Audience member: Oh, it was Harry Potter live all the way!

SU: That's right.

MA: Well, that's question one.

JN: Question number two about your favorite character here Mr. Snape. Will Mr. Severus Snap survive in Deathly Hallows?

SU: Snap?

JN: Make your noise. Not survive. I'm sorry. Is Mr. Snape trustworthy, trust Snape? (audience yells)

JN: Or is he a very bad man who will betray? (audience yells)

JN: Looks like we trust.

MA: I love that. She is all willing to go out by herself, but I don't that nobody agrees with me. Go for it!

SU: Yeah!

JN: I think Vegas trusts Snape.

MA: Sin City likes Snape, interesting.

SU: Interesting. (audience laughs)

MA: Interesting, interesting.

SU: Very interesting, very appropriate.

MA: Surprising? Not.

SU: Okay, this is a biggie and I know what I think about this one, but do you think that Harry is a Horcrux? If you think that he is, whoop it up. (audience yells)

JN: Very little whoop.

SU: Yeah, very little whoop. Okay, and if you think that he is not a Horcrux really whoop it up. (audience yells)

JN: That's a little bit more whoop.

SU: It's a little bit more whoopee. I like that.

JN: All right, Vegas does not think that Harry is a Horcrux. Mark it down.

MA: It is marked down.

SU: Okay.

MA: Okay, we also have the big question in Book Seven whether Harry will return to go to school at Hogwarts. If you think he will go to school at Hogwarts, go for it. (audience yells)

JN: If you think he will transfer to Beaubaxtons. (audience laughs)

JN: No?

SU: Beaubaxtons? He would have to be into butterflies and all that thing.

JN: Do you think he will not be going to school? Make your noise here. (audience yells)

JN: I think...

MA: I'm going to say that's a no.

SU: I'd say no.

JN: It looks like no school. Drop out Harry.

MA: What did we say yesterday about drop out Harry? Magic school drop out, Snape's going to come down in the silver lamé and sing?

JN: Yeah.

MA: You know, the girls with wands in their hair.

SU: Right. (MA sings)

MA: Okay, our last question. Do you think we will go behind the veil? (audience yells)

MA: Hang on, hang on. Wow, psyched on that one. Okay, if he will go behind the veil. (audience yells)

MA: We will not go behind the veil? (one audience member yells)

MA: You are just...

SU: Yay! I like her!

JN: I agree with you. I agree with you. We will not go behind the veil, in my opinion.

MA: We've met her before. Her name is Contrary Mary.

JN: Aww.

MA: No, that's good. Good, stick to your opinions.

JN: I agree with her, but Vegas does not agree with me. Vegas thinks he will go behind the veil. I think we are done with the veil, personally.

SU: So, we are never going to learn what it is all about? It's just going to be like that thing?

MA: Hm.

JN: I don't think that after all of the years that they have studied that veil for us to finally. Because Sirius went through it, that will be the year we figure out what the veil is. I don't know, I think that is a little too much. (SU laughs)

SU: Too much?

JN: Yeah, I think it's too big of an "oh, Sirius went through it so all of the centuries we have been studying it, now we will know what it is all about because Sirius Black went through it."

SU: That's right. He has got that handy-dandy little mirror.

MA: Actually, yes. Oh, Voldemort has been evil for fifty years, now we will kill him because Harry Potter is around. Yeah!

JN: No.

MA: It's part of the story.

JN: I don't know.

MA: It's part of the story right? (audience agrees)

MA: Thank you. Yeah, John doesn't believe in stories, he thinks they are sort of silly.

SU: Silly stories.

MA: I'm sorry? (audience member says something inaudible)

MA: Percy can go behind the veil and stay there as far as I am concerned. (audience yells in agreement)

JN: Oh.

SU: Aww, no! Percy will be redeemed. He will come back to them.

MA: By dying.

SU: Well, okay.

Audience member: Percival means "pierce the veil."

MA: I'm sorry. What? Percival means "pierce the veil"? Can we get Grawp to throw him? (audience laughs)

SU: And then Grawp can follow him. That would be good.

MA: (laughing) Yeah, yeah, yeah. He can go. He's gone.

SU: It's interesting, Grawp has athletic skills to throw things. That would be kind of a good use for him.

JN: Hm.

MA: I really don't want Grawp anywhere near that veil.

SU: Putting on a Grawp face.

MA: The whole veil comes down.

SU: Yeah, yeah.

MA: All right, we have a lot of other stuff in store for you, but we just signed up with a charity company who give very important messages to Harry Potter fans. And I think it's time to hear the first word from one of our sponsors.

Harry and the Potters: Hi, I'm Harry Potter from the band Harry and the Potters with a public service announcement for PotterCast listeners. If your letter doesn't make it to Santa Claus this year, you can give it to Dumbledore. I'm pretty sure their friends. (audience laughs)

MA: There you go. You learn something everyday. (SU laughs) (audience cheers)

SU: They're friends.

JN: That's nice.

SU: I think so. They're both happy people.

JN: It makes sense to me. (audience laughs)

SU: Yeah. They've got the same white beard.

MA: How's Fred doing, John?

SU: Who?

MA: Fred.

JN: My friend, Mr. Fred here is enjoying the breeze of the weather here in Vegas. A lot more than the dry heat that was Phoenix. This is his first time out of Phoenix, actually.

SU: That's right. He's a traveling friend.

JN: He did travel. He got to see the Hoover Dam a little bit ago. (MA laughs) That was a lot of fun.

MA: The Hoover Dam, Sue's mothership.

SU: It is! It is!

MA: It's a big dam.

SU: It's Mother Earth being held at bay.

JN: We turned him into a portkey, and he actually got us the rest of the way here.

MA: Yeah, there's a video. Seriously.

JN: You have to watch that video later.

SU: Yeah, wait 'til you see.

JN: He did good. It was good work. (SU laughs)

MA: Well, we- in every city we're going to, we're also picking one giant Canon Conundrum. Who knows what a Canon Conundrum is? Or can guess? (audience and JN cheer) Yay for the PotterCast listeners! It's one relevant question that we've yet to figure out in the books. And we want to get your input on them. So, we found a really great one in the car.

SU: This is a good one.

MA: Thanks to one of our readers, whose name will be inserted into the show notes because I forgot to write it down. (audience laughs) When Voldemort comes back in Book Four, he says something very interesting. Now, we all- when J.K Rowling asked us to figure out what Voldemort might have done to make himself immortal, that answer was Horcruxes, right? Oh, right. Horcruxes. Okay, done, we know. Here's the quote from Goblet of Fire, when I find it. Right there. "What I was, even I do not know." Now this is Voldemort, by the way. "I who have gone further than anyone along the path that leads to immortality, you know my goal to conquer death. And now, I was tested. It appeared that one or more of my experiments had worked." One or more. It's an odd question.

SU: Not just a Horcrux, but what else did Voldemort do?

MA: What else has Voldemort done to try to achieve immortality? Well, well, it was an experiment.

JN: Was each Horcrux an experiment?

MA: Isn't it the same experiment? Wouldn't he not continue unless he was pretty sure that one of them had worked. (SU: Right.) The degeneration in his face was pretty good proof.

SU: Because see, he tried once to obtain the stone. So, that's his attempt on a stone. (JN: Yeah.) And I would think he would- well, yeah, but then the Horcruxes would be another attempt. But what I think he's talking about is something else. What else could he have done though? That's the question.

MA: We're asking you because we have no idea.

JN: That's why it's a conundrum.

MA: Who's got a theory?

Audience member: The diary?

MA: The diary was a Horcrux.

SU: That's right.

JN: It's true.

MA: I'm sorry? It was also a memory. (SU: Right.) But that was a Horcrux with a lot of other junk added to it.

SU: I mean, I guess you could say it was a testament to himself because he's got his own little Death Eater party, happy band and group, followers. But what else? He doesn't have a shrine to himself. So, I don't know what else he would do.

MA: I bet he has a shrine to himself.

SU: You think? (audience laughs) He's got a big (MA: Come on.) little Voldy shrine. You know?

MA: All of his pictures in the mirror. Dresses up in his former evil going costumes.

SU: Yeah, what else?

MA: What do you think, John?

JN: I'm stumped on this one. I'm trying to figure out what else he could have done and, if he did do other things, when we'd find out about them. And if it would be too much too late in the series to learn about something else. But I don't know.

SU: Hmm.