Listen on Apple Podcasts Spotify Overcast Pocket Casts Any app
Escape the chains of everyday drudgery and enjoy this examination into the life of the temp we hired to portray the Great Houdini.
Much love and many thanks to announcer Moira Quirk.
Your hosts are Danno Sullivan and Clare Sera.
Love the show? Leave a review on Apple Podcasts. Every episode, with transcripts, lives at experteasespelledwrong.com.
Scary dark arts music with the twist of entertainment. I'm Clare Sera and I am here to welcome you to our enchanting guest tonight, Danno Sullivan. We are excited to speak with you, an expert on Harry Houdini. You're listening to Expertise, spelled wrong, the podcast where the world's most expert experts discuss their areas of expertise expertly. Each podcasode of Expertise brings you the recognized expert in the field, whatever the field happens to be, and whether or not that expert actually knows anything about it. Danno, everybody in the world knows who Harry Houdini was. The world's greatest escape artist and magician and hang on, it says here illusionist and debunker of spirituals. No, not spirituals. Spiritualists. Spiritualists. He did not like lists of any kind, but especially spiritualists. So Clare, I would just like to thank you for sending over these points before the recording began. Yeah. I don't know if Danno told you, but he's out sick today.
Oh. So I'm here from the Kelly Girl Temporary Services. So you can just address me as Danno. I will be addressing you as Danno Sullivan. But please, it's important for you to just stick with things that were on the list because I don't know that much. You got the brief that we sent over to Danno. Don't get me wrong. If you want to ask me questions about macros and Microsoft Word or payroll, I can handle that. But no, today we are speaking on Harry Houdini, the great Hungarian escape artist, who is the father of modern magic to many, many people. Wonderful. He just sounds like a fascinating person, Clare.
No. Well, Harry Houdini had a storied career. Oh, he was an author. No, he was a magician. A magician named Arthur. I see. Okay. Oh, you know, can I speak with your boss? Kelly Girl Enterprises. Hi, this is Clare Sarah over at Expertise. Expertise Podcast. Oh, I think you've got one of our temps there with you today, right? Juliana Hensforth. Juliana Hensforth is filling in for Danno Sullivan today. She's one of our best. Is she there for payroll or Microsoft Word? See, that's part of the problem. We don't need a temp for any of the usual things. She was hired to be a guest on our podcast to take the place of our actual guest, and she knows nothing about the topic.
Why don't you tell me about the topic? I'll pass it along to Juliana, and then I'm sure she'll be fine. She's one of our brightest and most flexible temps. Okay. Well, you know, that might not be too bad because, to be honest, sometimes our experts don't always know everything about the topic that's thrown out in the moment. What's a podcast? I'm sorry. It is a recorded interview. So hang on just a second, please. Juliana, are you there? Hello? Juliana? Yes. Yes, this is Juliana Hensforth. Listen, Juliana, I've got Claire Sarah from Expertise Podcast on the other line.
Yes, I'm there now. I'm at the offices now. It sounds to me like you have been taken over by perhaps a spirit from another realm, Juliana. Are you okay? I'm absolutely 100% out of here! Juliana, hang on just a second, please. Hello, Ms. Sarah? Yes. It's Roger at Kelly Services again. I was talking with Juliana on the other line. Great. Is she ready to go? No, no. I think there's been a horrible mishap. Apparently, with all the talk of Houdini magic and spiritualism, Juliana has been taken over by, it sounds to me like an evil spirit. And I don't know if you're able to talk her down, talk her out, what has to happen here, but at $7.50 an hour, Claire, we can't really send our folks out for this kind of work.
So you're telling me that the attempt that we hired to replace Dano as the expert on Harry Houdini has been taken over by a spirit, like at a seance, that he would clearly be faking in order to gin up some audience for one of his shows? As far as I can tell, that's what's happened, Claire. Look, we mostly specialize in office services, so this is really a little bit out of our wheelhouse. If you can talk her down or talk her through it- Well, put her on. Let me speak with her. Claire, listen, she's 18. She must not die. I mean, everybody dies. I'm not going to take responsibility for a person's life who has ventured into the other nether realm.
Hold, please. Hello? Juliana? Yeah. This is Dano Sullivan, your podcast guest. Okay, Juliana, listen to me. I know that you are in there. I do not want to speak to the spirit of Dano Sullivan. I want- Juliana, knock on the desk three times. Very good. Do you see, Juliana? You are in control of the body that you are possessing. Now, before you ask the spirit to leave, I do want to ask the spirit one thing. Did you or do you know Harry Houdini? Well, as you know, Harry Houdini was born in Hungary in 1871 and traveled with his Jewish rabbi father and his Catholic mother across the sea.
Very deep spiritual background. Excuse me. I'm so sorry. One moment, Mr. Spirit. I see that Juliana is starting to turn a very disturbing color. Would you mind just stepping back a little bit, letting her breathe? Kelly Services. May I help you? Oh, I'm not sure how you got in on this call. Everything is fine. Oh, good. We just like to check in on our employees every once in a while, make sure that they're living up to your expectations. If there's anything that you would suggest for future improvements, we'd love to implement those. I'll let you know those later. Also, I'm not really sure that I'm comfortable with you being able to click into any of my personal phone calls to check in on your temps. Also, I really do need to get back to Juliana. It's not an emergency or anything. I just do need to check in with her, so if you don't mind. Juliana? Okay.
This is Dan O'Sullivan, your podcast guest for the day. Oh, Juliana looks like she's breathing right now, so if I could just ask you one or two more questions before you leave us. Did Houdini have a love of his life? Harry Houdini was born in 1871, according to- No, you've already said that. Wait, wait a second. He traveled across the sea. Those are the notes that I provided Juliana with. Are you just reading Juliana's notes? What kind of a spirit are you? Did you know Harry Houdini? Ladies and gentlemen, I'm just going to have to apologize on behalf of the expertise podcast today. Not only did you not get the expert Dan O'Sullivan on Harry Houdini, his temporary Juliana henceforth knew nothing about Harry Houdini, but she was summarily taken over by a spirit that, look, I'm not going to lie, I hoped for a moment to take advantage of the situation and get a little behind-the-scenes knowledge from somebody who personally knew Harry Houdini.
Oh, excuse me one moment, listeners. Yes, hello? Hi, this is Dan O'Sullivan, your podcast guest. Dan O. I just wanted to say thanks for having me on the show today. The Expertise Spelled Wrong podcast is free and, like the Amish, all are welcome. Be sure to sign up for our email announcements at funnypodcast.com and follow us in your favorite podcast app, like the expert podcast listener we know you are.
