Puffs: Third or Nothing

A few years back I was in New York City with some friends and someone bought tickets for us to see this off-Broadway Harry Potter parody play. I was thinking I’d rather check ticket prices on Wicked or Les Mis. Harry Potter fan material is really hit or miss (I mean, Cursed Child is basically fan fiction). But when I saw Puffs, everything changed. 

Puffs is a parody play that makes fun of the Hufflepuff house, but in the best way. Hufflepuffs will enjoy it because they can relate. Every other house will enjoy it because they make light of Hufflepuffs. In short, any Harry Potter fan would enjoy it. 

That being said, its humor is not exactly kid friendly. If you’re worried about appropriateness for children, I’d say the play was PG-13. Definitely some obvious innuendo and use of language (including one f-bomb) but if you’re comfortable with Friends or The Office, you should be fine. 

The show follows the Hufflepuff cohort of Harry’s year, featuring familiar names like J Finch, Ernie Mac, Susie Bones, and more. Our main trio for this story includes Wayne, Megan, and Oliver. They were not labeled Hufflepuff in the books but they were names of students in Harry’s year from JK’s notes on Pottermore.

While our Puff trio has their own drama and challenges, we get to relive our favorite moments from the Harry Potter series, while making light of some of the aspects of the Harry Potter franchise that don’t make sense or that we unanimously struggle with. 

What would a good story be without a good moral? In the end, the moral of Puffs is to not look down on yourself just because you’re not who you thought you’d be. It’s easy to compare yourself to someone else whose story seems grander. But the world wouldn’t be the same without you in it. 

“Why did I have to be so unimportant?”

“It’s easy to feel like a secondary character in someone else’s grand story. But that does not mean however that there’s not another story out there that’s all about you.”

Sadly, Puffs has left New York. No more live performances there. However, a live recording was created and released. It’s well worth watching. I’ve shown it to probably a dozen friends at this point and it was loved by them all. It can be found on iTunes, Amazon Video, BroadwayHD, Vudu and more. Rent it. Buy it. And show it some love. 

In the meantime, I’m Spencer and I’m a Puff! Hi!

My J Finch cosplay from FanX 2019!