While Universal Studio's Wizarding World of Harry Potter still hasn't set an official date for the opening of their hugely anticipated Diagon Alley section of the Orlando park, promotions for the park have been popping up here and there to remind us that it's coming. Earlier this month, it came in the form of three Weasleys previewing Diagon Alley and Instagramming their adventure. And this week on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy and Steve Higgins visited Ollivanders for a sketch that turned wand shopping into a series of barely veiled jokes about penises and um, wand-handling...
The sketch has Jimmy and Higgins heading into Ollivanders to be fitted for wands. While Higgins is mostly a righty when it comes to how he handles his wand, he sometimes switches to left to change it up. Jimmy's wand, as it turns out, is only 3 1/2 inches. But hey, Phoenix feather core! That's not bad! Both Harry Potter and Lord Voldemort's wands had phoenix feather cores. They were both advised by the wand keeper not to store their wands in their back pockets, to which Higgins inquired about his "Chamber of Secrets" or his "Azkaban."
Heh.
Oh, ok the jokes are silly and childish but let's face it, "wand" humor's going to be running rampant in Ollivanders.
While Jimmy and Higgins visit to Ollivanders seems like an effort to spotlight Diagon Alley, in anticipation of its grand opening, for those of us who actually do want to get to Ollivanders and be fitted for our own wand, it's an effective sketch... because now I kind of want to go there and get my own wand. (Ok, I already wanted to go there.)
As mentioned, earlier this month, three stars from the Harry Potter films -- Bonnie Wright (Ginny Weasley) and James & Oliver Phelps (Fred and George Weasley) -- visited Diagon Alley at Universal Studios Orlando's Wizarding World of Harry Potter to check out the attractions, which include the Weasley's joke shop Weasley's Wizard Wheezes, Florean Fortescue's and Flourish and Blotts, among other famous Diagon Alley shops that Universal guests will be able to visit and presumably spend lots of money buying up official Harry Potter merchandise. (No judgment).
Because it appears Fallon is in the Orlando area, and Universal just happens to be NBC's territory (or NBC is Universal's territory), I'm hopeful that this trip to Ollivanders is one of numerous Diagon Alley segments to be featured on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. In addition to getting to see more of the park, I'd love to see what kind of jokes and segments Fallon might come up with at other areas of Diagon Alley. Whether or not this turns out to be a recurring segment this week remains to be seen.
The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon airs weeknights at 11:35 p.m. ET on NBC. As for Diagon Alley, based on Universal Studios' website, there's no official open date set yet, but it's coming sometime this summer. In the meantime, if it's Harry Potter trivia you crave, check out this video.
