The Sticky Egg happily takes topic requests. Today we answer the following email from J. in Boston: “Tell the hostage story!”
It is a defining moment in Sticky Egg history.
It’s the reason I will always wear bangs.
It’s probably why I always cry if hit on the head.
And it explains why the “Harry Potter” saga speaks to me on a very personal level.
I was in the third grade, the youngest child, scorned by my siblings. On that particular Sunday, my sister — three years older and the coolest person I knew — offered to play with me.
This was a BIG DEAL.
She found a length of rope in the small building behind our house and suggested, “Let’s play hostage!” She then hog tied me, wrists to ankles.
(You’re probably wondering why I went along with this. She was playing with me. This was a BIG DEAL.)
After she secured the rope, and I was awkwardly squatting, she told me to try to walk. On the count of three, she pulled her end, and I fell forward, flat on my face.
That might not have been such a BIG DEAL…except I had been sitting on a cement sidewalk, and my forehead hit the edge. Hard.
I rolled over onto the grass and started to cry, my nose already swelling. My sister stood over me, blocking the sun.
“Get up, you big baby” she said. The truce had ended.
As I quickly sat up, a curtain of bright, red blood cascaded — seemingly in slow motion — across the yard. I went silent, then began to scream.
The rest is a blur of my brothers and my mother and the rush to the hospital. I do remember Dr. Stone, my pediatrician, had a pillow mark on his face, like he had been woken up from a nap. He was especially grouchy in the ER, even for him.
In the end, I had to have 12 stitches in my forehead and was monitored for a possible skull fracture. (I didn’t have one.)
But I was left with a slightly crooked scar on my forehead…
And a special power — even today — over She-Who-Will-Not-Be-Named.
Pottermore? Pottermore?? JK Rowling is going to write a new Harry Potter book, we immediately surmised.
But knowingly dangling the possibility of more Potter books in front of a rabid public? You should be ashamed of yourself. I demand an apology — a written one, in fact.
Broadway Harry
Potted Potter, the parody of the seven Harry Potter books now on Broadway, was tailor-made for kids.
It’s only 70-minutes long, is super high energy, and even features a quidditch match with audience participation.
No wonder I liked it so much.
Brits Dan Clarkson and Jeff Turner, who also wrote the show, bring all the characters to life with minimal props, costumes and staging. The humor is decidedly British as well, but Potter lovers — and the family and friends who they drag along — will find it easy to translate.
Obviously some plot points are skipped in such a short synopsis, but the ones that made the cut are treated with high hilarity. Favorites include Lord Voldemort, the dragons from book four, and the bigger-than-life quidditch snitch.
Dan and Jeff cracked up a few times during the show, but the reason was pretty obvious –
They are as wild about Harry as the audience.
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Posted in Books, Broadway, Comedy, Commentary, Entertainment, Humor, Life
Tagged audience participation, books, British humor, Broadway, comedy, commentary, costume, Dan Clarkson, dragons, entertainment, golden snitch, Harry Potter books, Humor, Jeff Turner, life, Lord Voldemort, Manhattan, New York City, parody, Potted Potter, props, quidditch, staging, two-man show, wild about Harry