Delving into the life and legacy of the beloved fantasy author, Marc Burrows presents his beautiful show ‘The Magic of Terry Pratchett’ at this years’ Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Offering a blend of humour, storytelling a heartfelt homage, you can join Marc as he explores the profound and whimsical impact of Pratchett’s work. Marc shared with us the insights he gained from exhaustive research and his personal journey to bringing Terry’s magic to the stage. Whether you’re a die-hard Discworld fan or new to the universe, this show is a delightful and enlightening experience for all. We caught up with Marc to find out more.
Can you tell us about the research process behind writing the book version of ‘The Magic of Terry Pratchett’?
Intense, in-depth and exhausting! Obviously by this point Terry wasn’t around to be interviewed, so I had to rely on the wealth of stuff that he left behind. I basically read every interview he ever gave — Terry’s agent, Colin Smythe, had donated his entire archive of material to the Senate House Library at the University of London, which meant that I had access to the entire history of Pratchett press clippings, going right back to the 70s. Every review, every interview and every news story. It was a hell of a job going through all of them, but it meant I was able to piece together a pretty good timeline of Terry’s life and career. Of course there were drawbacks — Terry, as a former journalist, prepared ruthlessly for press campaigns and would write pithy one-liners he knew would become pull quotes. He knew what he was likely to be asked, so he had all of his answers pretty much rehearsed, which meant any given run of interviews for a particular book are often very nearly identical. Every third or fourth one, however, someone would get a question under the radar about his life, his past, his working methods, his views, anything. It became about finding those tiny nuggets of gold. There’s a huge archive of video interviews and speeches online as well. After that it became a matter of chasing down the details and separating fact from fictions — I spent days in the British Library reading through newspapers Terry worked for in the 60s and 70s, I interviewed old work colleagues and friends … it was a very intense process. Intense but satisfying.
In your opinion, what sets Terry Pratchett apart from other fantasy authors?
You can never define Terry as just one thing. He was absolutely a fantasy author, and proudly so … he’d be the very first to admit it (which immediately separates him from certain other best-selling authors who deny that they write fantasy despite very definitely writing fantasy), but his books have so many layers. He may have been writing about talking rats and wizards and walking skeletons and dwarves, but ultimately all of those characters are absolutely human. He understood humanity so well … his books are about the human experience. The human experiment. They’re funny and profound and stupid and clever and joyous and angry because life is all of those things. Fantasy, for Terry, was a perfect way of holding a mirror up to the universe we’ve created and investigating the power of storytelling. Find me another fantasy author that has a condom factory in their principal city? Find me another comic author who can write a treatise on the nature of faith vs religious fundamentalism by means of a talking tortoise. No-one else does what Terry did.
Did you have the opportunity to meet or correspond with Terry Pratchett? If so, what was that experience like?
I never met Terry, and the only correspondence I ever had with him was a reply to a question on a message board, long ago, about the difference between writing for adults and children (he said, basically, “bigger words”). I once had an opportunity to meet him, at a radio recording a friend of mine was producing, but I decided not to go as I was feeling ill and sorry for myself. They ended up drinking with him in the pub until closing. I’d have been there too, and I decided not to go. I’ve never forgiven myself. For me, the book I wrote was a way of meeting him and, to be honest, a way of corresponding with him. I feel like the whole book, and of course the live show, is in dialogue with Terry.
What future projects are you working on? Will you continue to explore the works and lives of other authors?
I’m going to be touring the stand-up version of Magic of Terry Pratchett for the rest of the year. I also have a book coming out about Nirvana, who to me are the perfect band. I’m toying with developing that as a stand-up show, too. I’m also working on a project with the Pratchett estate which I’m keeping quiet about! Elsewhere, there’s a sequel coming to my book The London Boys, which was about David Bowie and Marc Bolan’s 60s-wannabe era, where I take the story into the 70s and both men at their pomp and peak. The first book was an examination of ambition and a sort of hidden social history of 60s London; this one will be about stardom and artistry and what it takes to stay relevant. Sex, drugs and music with rocks in. Outside of that I’m working on my first novel, throwing ideas around for a new stand up show and writing a new album for my music project, Before Victoria. I’m not especially interested in writing about other authors, unless someone’s story really jumps out at me. Terry is a special case.
The Magic of Terry Pratchett is not a book tour…right? – what can audiences expect from your show?
It’s absolutely not a book tour … though it’s linked to the book, obviously. But really the book just gave me the research I needed to write the show. They’re not really the same thing. The first version of the show I tried was straight biography and followed the book, and it just didn’t work. It felt like I was just doing a reading. I wanted this to be a true stand-up comedy show. It had to have robust jokes and a really tight form. I broke it down to the themes … if you take Terry out of it completely, it’s really a show about the power of storytelling and the way it impacts how we see ourselves and the universe. Once I realised that I was able to start draping Terry’s story back over that frame, and then adding jokes like baubles. I’m really proud of how it’s ended up. I also think that’s why it works so well for such different audiences … I’ve had lots of feedback from people who’ve never read a Pratchett book who loved the show, and lots of feedback from Pratchett obsessives who loved it too. That’s the sweet spot I was looking for. It’s somewhere between a funny lecture and a moving one-man show. Funny and serious. Stupid and profound. That’s very, very Terry.
The Magic of Terry Pratchett will be performed at 5.10pm in Assembly George Square Studios (Studio Two) from 5th – 18th August
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