Review - Potted Potter - The Unauthorized Harry Experience - A Parody by Dan and Jeff

When I first heard the title Potted Potter - The Unauthorized Harry Experience - A Parody by Dan and Jeff, my American mind immediately thought of the slang term we use for inebriated and figured Jefferson Turner and Daniel Clarkson's two-person, 70-minute presentation would be some kind of irreverent adult spoof of J.K. Rowling's septet of Harry Potter novels. But no, "potted," to our Brit friends, merely means abridged, and the show, which actually doesn't involve much parody, is really more of a wholesome family entertainment; not that there's anything wrong with that, as we say on the Upper West Side.

I haven't read any of the books nor seen any of their film adaptations, but despite the insistence of the show's promotional material that you need not know the difference between a horcrux and a Hufflepuff to find yourself roaring with laughter, as insurance I invited a Harry Potter enthusiast who was very excited to see the show to be my guest, figuring she could fill me in on any insider references I wouldn't get and to give me her perspective as a fan. However, her educated reaction seemed to mirror my novice one and the biggest compliment she could muster was that the boys were certainly "energetic." But we both did notice that the children in the audience seemed to be very much into the show.

The evening begins with Turner, wearing those familiar round specs, sitting in a corner of the stage quietly reading while Clarkson glad-hands his way through the audience. It seems straight man Jeff claims to be the world's foremost authority on all things Potter and plans an extravagant presentation summarizing the entire literary series, averaging ten minutes per book. However Dan, assigned as the goofy one, has foolishly wasted the budged on some less-than-appropriate set pieces and a costly dragon. The crux of the attempts at humor primarily stem from Turner's frustration in Clarkson's ignorance of the source material ("Dumbledore... Is he important?"), rather than deriving humor from the books themselves. Instead of cleverness, there's a lot of frantic silliness as Clarkson plows his way through a multitude of characters, using makeshift props and costumes, while Turner remains the title wizard, a role that he concludes "is so boring!"

The marquee moment comes when a pair of young volunteers is plucked from the audience to assist in a game of Quidditch, which consists of a large inflatable ball being smacked across the auditorium by audience members while Clarkson complains about how poorly we're playing. And while I did detect some mild enjoyment being had by my fellow viewers, Potted Potter had me wishing I'd stayed home with seven good books.

Photo of Jefferson Turner and Daniel Clarkson by Carol Rosegg.

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