In 2005 Dan Clarkson was asked by a friend to come up with a short show to entertain people in a bookstore waiting for the midnight release of Harry Potter and The Half Blood Prince. As he walked through the streets thinking of ideas he caught Jeff Turner's street performance. Turner's storytelling style of performance matched Dan's style perfectly and as an added bonus Jeff bore a resemblance to the "boy that lived." The result of that meeting was an abridged version of the first five books and a brilliant comedy team.
As the series grew so did the show and in 2007, ten days after its release, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was added to the show and Potted Potter became all seven books in 70 hilarious minutes. I was given tickets to the show, which is currently playing off Broadway in New York City. The show was, in a word, brilliant. The comedy team of Dan and Jeff worked like a well-oiled machine. Their timing was reminiscent of Abbot and Costello and their take on the Harry Potter series was both an homage and an irreverent parody with puppets, songs, and possibly the scariest coconut I have ever seen.
Taking kids to a live performance can sometimes be a tricky thing. The show can be over their heads or it's just right for them and the adults are off in a corner checking e-mail on their phones. Potted Potter was written with the whole family in mind. The show is 70 minutes long with no intermission and everyone is kept entertained. The kids and the adults will enjoy the humor and the excitement that Dan and Jeff bring to the stage. Audience participation is part of the show and no one knows what will happen when two kids are picked to play seekers in a Quidditch game that involves the whole audience. Dan put it perfectly in an interview "kids have these little brain farts, they have a thought and they say it and you have to roll with it." Roll with it they did and with hilarious results.
Potted Potter is running through August 12th at The Little Shubert Theater in New York City. They also plan on more tour dates later in 2012 and early 2013. The best way to keep up to date on shows in your area is the Potted Potter Web page, Facebook or follow them on Twitter. Check out the clip below for a 70 second glimpse into the 70 minutes of Potted Potter
Potted Potter
