From page to stage: Marc Burrows honours Terry Pratchett

Comedian Mark Burrows wrote a best-selling biography of author Terry Pratchett. He has since written and performed a live show all about the literary pioneer. Here, he speaks to British Comedy Guide about the creative process of writing about someone else's legacy and how he hopes The Magic Of Terry Pratchett inspires people.

The Magic Of Terry Pratchett is a multimedia lecture-come-comedy show. What was the creative process of putting that together like?

Fascinating, but a lot of work. Originally the plan was to adapt the biography I'd written of Terry in a fairly straight way, but I quickly realised that I couldn't tell that story in a fringe hour. You could barely fit in Chapter 1 and still do justice to it.

A book and live show are very different things. Instead, I was really influenced by Brett Morgen's David Bowie documentary, Moonage Daydream - if you watch that, you don't come away knowing Bowie's favourite colour, or his mother's maiden name, or the name of the school he went to, but you come away absolutely knowing who Bowie was. It's an almost impressionistic kind of storytelling. I realised I had to do it in a similar way - I had to decide what the show was about, and work outwards from there.

Once I'd identified the themes it became a matter of using them as pillars to support the jokes and the trivia. It's the hardest show I've ever had to write because I really wanted it to be funny; it had to be funny because Terry's work, no matter how profound, was always funny. But it also had to say something. It couldn't just be a biography of a writer. And it had to work for the biggest Pratchett fans, they couldn't just be sat nodding along, going "I know that, yeah", while also working for their husband who'd been dragged along to the show despite never having picked up a Pratchett book. That was the hardest challenge.

Lastly, it had to feel like it had my voice in, not just Terry's. I had to be able to stand by it. That's a lot to balance. Luckily I'd been studying the master - most of Terry's books balance dozens of levels and themes and tones. I was able to look at how he did it. I had to keep digging to find the layer beneath the surface I was working on. If you take Terry out of the show, you'd see the pillars of it are about the power of storytelling, about the importance of stories we tell each other in defining ourselves and the universe. Once I'd realised that, I could start building those layers back in.

Then it's just a matter of adding the jokes. The best feedback I get is from people who tell me they've never read Pratchett but loved the show. That's when I knew I'd cracked it.

What is the one specific thing you would like audiences to remember about your show, or about Big Terry P? Can we call him that?

You can call him that if you like, but I can imagine the withering look you'd get from him in response. I want audiences to go away desperate to read a Pratchett book, whether they've never read one before or they've read them all a hundred times. I want them to feel absolutely inspired to dig further.

What's the very last thing you do before you step out on stage?

Re-tie my shoes, check my fly isn't gaping open and make sure my stomach isn't bulging out of my shirt.

If you were put in charge of making the world a better place, what one thing would you hope to achieve above anything else?

That everyone watched Bill & Ted and realised that "be excellent to each other" is the most important rule you can follow in life. Unless you're Batman, in which case the most important rule is "don't kill people". Although thinking about it, that amounts to the same thing.

What is the best thing about doing a live show at the Edinburgh Fringe?

The entire time you're there, the only thing that's important is performing. The rest of reality melts away. It's a holiday from yourself - also the best falafel in the entire country.