Neil Patrick Harris on Halloween, newest book
Neil Patrick Harris knows a thing or two about juggling multiple interests. ❚ The multi-hyphenate actor, singer, writer and magician has released his latest young adult novel, “The Magic Misfits: The Minor Third,” the third book in his young adult fiction series about a group of friends brought together by a love of practical magic on a quest to protect their town from bad guys.
The new installment was interested in tackling shows the main a different kind of characters – Theo, bond: the “chosen Carter, Leila, Ridley, family.” and twins Olly and Izzy, “I think the idea of a collectively referred singular, nuclear family to as the Magic has expanded a lot,” Misfits – growing up Harris said of recent and learning to embrace changes in representation their differences in entertainment. and conflicting interests. “I think everyone is looking for a
“It’s kind of my ‘family.’ They join ‘Empire Strikes Back,’” clubs, they join sports, Harris, 46, tells USA they read books together: TODAY. “This book is I mean, that going to be a little more of a complication. becomes its own family, right?… The Misfits are arguing Family is more finding people that more, they’re not connecting like care about you and that share passions they have in the past. And so it’s sort and interests.” of dealing with where your passions A fun bonus for young readers: lie with the other lives you follow.” Each book is also littered with stepby-step
The Magic Misfits are members instructions on how to execute of a diverse group with differing classic magic tricks, a la Harris’s backgrounds, interests and family favorite kids’ magic books from structures. One character has a his childhood. mom and a dad who are still married; another was adopted by two dads. But with this series, Harris
Inside the Burtka-Harris home: Books and Halloween costumes
Harris’ own family is enjoying the series now: While he was filming Netflix’s “A Series of Unfortunate Events” in Vancouver, Canada, husband David Burtka, 44, read the first “Magic Misfits” story to twins Harper and Gideon, now 8.
“I started to read them the second book, but they wanted Dad to do it and not Papa, which was very, very upsetting, but I get it,” Harris said with a laugh. The Burtka-Harris clan is starting to receive shipments of “The Minor Third,” to which the reading honors will likely again fall to Burtka.
As summer winds down, their family is also looking ahead to another big project: Halloween. Harris and Burtka became well-known a few years back for their adorably coordinated family Halloween costumes. Now that the twins are older, they get input, too.
“We actually had a Halloween costume conversation just today, apropos of nothing,” Harris said. “We were looking at our schedules and realizing that we’re booked in: I’m doing a book tour and the kids are in school, and someone was saying, ‘We have to figure our Halloween costumes out!’ We’re in deep negotiations about what in the world we should do this year and we have to get approval now from four individuals, all very opinionated about things like wigs and beards and too much makeup and costumes. So who knows where it’ll end up.”
What about a ‘How I Met Your Mother’ reboot?
From time to time, Harris gets asked about the possibility of reprising his Barney Stinson portrayal in a “How I Met Your Mother” reboot, given the cultural uptick in revisiting past beloved movies and TV shows. But the show, which ended after nine seasons (he considers the final one a “victory lap,” given that they were initially supposed to end the season prior), seems best left with the 2014 finale.
“I feel like any additional work that we would do on the show would really be gilding the lily, pardon the pun,” Harris says, referencing Alyson Hannigan’s character Lily Aldrin. “So no, I feel like right now my energy is in creating new content with interesting new structures… I like creating content that is unique to the world that we live in right now.
“My brain’s not really in a reboot head space at the moment. It’s just in a ‘boot,’ “he jokes.
About that mustache...
Harris has a slew of projects coming up after a book tour for “The Minor Third.” There’s “Spinning Gold,” a biopic about ’70s music executive Neil Bogart – the reason you might have seen him sporting a Tom Selleck-like mustache the last few months. He also has a project with the BBC, an upcoming non-fiction series, and another series he’s “probably doing but … probably not allowed to talk about it” yet.
“I’m a plate spinner in the circus and I’m loving the spinning,” he says.